Serenity Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Hello! I've been meaning to post pics of my latest adventure but I'm getting married soon so time has been short! I had a 40gal tank with some swords, grass and other plants and played around with DIY CO2 and had some great success so I wanted to take things to the next level. After looking online at some of the amazing aquascapes out there I got really excited and wanted to give it a go. I tried to find some inspiration that I thought would be easy to model my tank after and found 2 that I loved. I left the decision up to the availability of hardscape materials. Thanks to this forum and the advice of some members I found the perfect stone in a landscape company in Edmonton. Also reading the article for doing a DSM planted tank I got excited and I figured I'd try my hand at that as well It has been just over a month of growth but the tank it really starting to take off and I'm excited to see what the next month holds. Here is a shot of just the hardscape I'm getting a little worried as the HC is growing faster then everything else and I don't want to trim until it's flooded but it's starting to get out of hand haha Here is some photo's of the HC comparing the 1st day it was planted and 30 days of growth. I'll post more later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Complete list of flora/fauna stocking plans/ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riverpirate Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Looking good man! Ive been tempted to do a DSM on the next tank. But thta will be quite some time as Ive been instructed to work on the rest of the house before my tanks....Guess Ill have to enjoy your tanks through continued uploads!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperGuppyGirl Posted June 19, 2012 Report Share Posted June 19, 2012 Gorgeous :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenity Posted June 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 (edited) Complete list of flora/fauna stocking plans/ideas? Currently my plans are to carpet with the Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis parvula) as I was going for the natural nature type look. For the rocks I'm using HC cuba (Hemianthus callitrichoides) and Weeping moss (Vesicularia ferriei) Set up is almost complete, I'd like a little more moss in some places but the moss I got in from my supplier took 3 weeks and when it got here it was almost black and mostly dead and in rough condition. I've slowly been able to nurture it back to some semblance of health but it is far from what it can look like. I'll give it another 30-45 days depending on the progress of the carpet of the grass then I'll flood the tank and the real challenge comes. I'm extremely nervous about the balance with light/ferts/co2. I just battled a bad breakout of BBA in my other tank and had to sacrifice a lot of grass/growth. I'll snap some perspective shots soon and post them. Something I have been thinking a lot about lately is using my waterproof GoPro camera in the tank once flooded and travel through the tank from a fishes viewpoint. Haha seems silly but it has got me curious and would make an interesting video I think I'm torn between leaving it just as an aquascape which makes it easier in regards to the balance of water parameters or if I should put some type of tetra in there with some oto's and amano shrimp. I recently got some beautiful amano shrimp from Aquarium Central in Edmonton and they are doing a beautiful job in my Fluval cube at work. Thanks for the compliments everyone!! Edited June 20, 2012 by Serenity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenity Posted June 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2012 Snapped some shots but didn't have a background up yet so they are not the greatest. Hope you like them! On that note does anyone have suggestions on getting the best possible photos of the whole tank? I've heard of putting up black construction paper or lighter blue paper to help contrast works well. I've also heard of using a blow dryer on the surface of the water to create the rippling effect. Any other suggestions? In that last shot is a little mini humidifier I bought that runs off a water bottle I have it plugged into a timer that kicks in for 30 minutes every 2 hours to hydrate everything. For lighting I have a 4 bulb T5HO fixture that I run 14 hours a day. I also use a spray bottle to mist ferts on all the plants. I started with a 25% diluted flourish comprehensive mix but after 2 weeks I jumped it up to 50%. I found that keeping the tank as air tight as possible works best so far but I do open it up for 15 mins in the evening just to let it breathe and cycle out the air Today when I was about to take the pics my fiance pointed out several locations where my HC is growing in completely random places that I never intended it to! The odd thing is that some of the places where in a dark shadowed location and would be hard to get to had I not put them there. I was very careful when planting the tank as I don't want everything to grow and mix to much and yet I keep finding these little shoots growing happily all over the place! I'd hate to say it but it's almost starting to act like a weed lol. A lot were mixed in with my grass even though I bought all my plants in a sealed container from a supplied that guaranteed no snails or other plant mixing. In the end I'm just grateful at how well it's doing. My first attempt at buying and planting it didn't work out to well, my angels enjoyed a nice $30 salad. :cry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenity Posted July 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Quick update. Another 30 days roughly and the HC has really taken off. Had to do a fair bit of trimming tonight. I'm starting to see a good push from the grass but I'm almost starting to wonder if they would do better if I flood the tank? Any suggestions? They have really great roots and are super bushy but it doesn't seem that they are sending many runners imho. I have to go and buy my CO2 tank and get everything rigged. Other then that I have all the equipment I need so I might just flood when I get some time to do it properly this weekend. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated as I don't want anything to melt or die. I know it's a good idea to really crank the CO2 after flooding to help adjust the plants to the transition. I'm currently running 14hrs with lights a day but once flooded is 8 okay or dial it back a bit more? Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewels Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 I would rather a few spider webs than a house full of bugs :thumbs: That mini humidifier is a right nifty gadget. I like it ! Eight hours a day should be OK for light. Less would still work. As it sits now the plants are CO2 deprived. You could start adding it now and see wild stuff happen'n. Try a open top water bottle with sugar and yeast. You will see more growth in a week than you saw in the last month. Even a wimpy air pump piping in fresh air would yield improvement. Nice scape' Have Fun !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgd Posted July 26, 2012 Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 The hairgrass will go nuts when you flood the tank. Pump the co2 though, for the first week or two, you'll typically get a bit of die back on the hc and hairgrass. After you flood you can trim the hairgrass down short (1/2") just like moving the lawn and the DHG will bounce back with a vengeance. There might be extra die back on the other species. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenity Posted July 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 Flooded this past weekend and the tank was doing great! Did a 50% wc and cranked co2. Everything was pearling and loving life. The moss doesn't seem to know what it wants yet so still waiting on it to jump on board. I have been dosing using the EI approach but need more ferts to get all the levels up properly. 3 days in though I started to notice some BGA in one section and it was frosting the tips of some of the grass. I siphoned out most of it and then treated excel in the target areas. Now I have it wrapped up in some blankets and will do a blackout for a while. I'm really nervous about any type of algae bloom so I'm watching like a hawk. So far everything is doing great though. Next week I will do a trim on the grass to motivate it. Will the clippings float to the surface like the HC or should I follow closely with a siphon to grab it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgd Posted July 26, 2012 Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 It will probably float, but I would turn the filter off and test a little before you go nut to find out it doesn't. I usually follow with a syphon or else it can get everywhere. I have a big tank so it takes forever to pick it out. Is there any dead plant material in the tank? BGA likes organics, but letting the nitrates get low or to 0ppm will also invite it. Low flow lets it find more places to grow a colony, it doesn't grow well in high flow. You want to fix it, because if it's there now, there are conditions that are causing it to flourish. You want to fix those issues before it gets bad. Excel might help. Peroxide works well for hard to get areas after manual removal. Be ruthless and remove as much as you can get every second day or so. Blackouts apparently help, but I don't like to rely on them. I beat it in my 160 gallon after a good four weeks. You can image how much that sucked to deal with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenity Posted August 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 (edited) Update time! Been a while... After flooding I had some great pearls And here are the updated shots. Let me know which background you think looks better. The blue, black, or nothing (beige wall) Please excuse the equipment still in the tank when I do my next big trim and WC I'll snap some shots with it all out. :thumbs: Blue Black Nothing (Beige wall) Had to remove some large chunks of moss that I felt were not adding much to the scape and I have a haunch they were causing some imbalances in the tank as well. After I pulled them I found large chunks of dead rotting debris which is never good. Still not totally happy with the weeping moss and it's look so I think I'll get aggressive with the trimming and see how it bounces back. It's getting a lot more color and coming in but I'm not sure it is having the effect I'm after. Hope you like! Edited August 15, 2012 by Serenity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted August 15, 2012 Report Share Posted August 15, 2012 I vote for Black background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miseria Posted August 16, 2012 Report Share Posted August 16, 2012 That is really beautiful! Nice Job (: Im really digging the blue background, very pretty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted August 23, 2012 Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 It looks even nicer in person I have to say. You really should go for a black background, I'll go with you to pick-up the background (I need one as well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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