# " A piece of Sintra" - 180L



## FazTeAoMar

Hello!

It has been awhile since I´ve posted my tanks in this forum so here goes my latest project:

Setup:

*Dimensions:* 90*45*45 cm - 180L 
*Lighting:* 4 * 39W T5HO
*CO2:* Pressurized
*Filtration:* Eheim Profissional 2228
*Heating:* Jager 150W
*Substrate:* Thin Akadama 
*Decoration:* Root and basalts
*Fertilization:* K2SO4 and KH2PO4 for now

*Flora:* Rotala sp. " pink"; Ludwigia arcuata; Pogostemon helferi; Eleocharis acicularis; Singapore moss ( true Vesicularia dubyana); Hemianthus callitrichoides " Cuba"

*Fauna:* A. bitaeniata " Kleei"; Otocinclus sp. ; Neocaridina sp. " Red Cherry"; Planorbis sp; Neritinas natalensis

In the first two weeks:



























One month after the algae appeared in full strenght:



























Today, the tank almost algae free due to the maturation of the plants and frequent water changes:










Next update will be a little bit cleaner and 100% algae free. Its just a matter of patience. 

Fell free to comment.

Regards,
André


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## guppy

I like this looking good so far.


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## artemism3

Great start! Can't wait to see it grown in!!


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## niko

Oh very, very beautiful! (I say such things about a tank rarely.)

Please post pictures of the progress any time you care to.

--Nikolay


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## GillMan

Great job! I like the placement of your wood, good use of the golden ratio Very pleasing to look at and will only get better! I nice school of small fishes (smaller than cardinals), would look great once everything fills in.

I would leave out the K2SO4 for now and add KNO3, pehaps in a 1:10 ratio with K2PO4. You should have enough potassium just with these two. I don't even use K2SO4 anymore and get phenomenal growth rates. Don't forget your calcium/magnesium additions. Mg is needed for each chlorophyll molecule.

Is that an ADA tank or did you make it?


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## bigstick120

Very nice! Not sure if I like the Rotala behind the wood. Still great and will look wonderful when it fills in


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## Sudi

Great set-up of the wood! I would rethink the rotala in the back. Great Job!
Where did you get the wood from?

Matt


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## shewey

It looks great!! The wood is beautiful and really well laid out.

Looking forward to watching the progress!

Mark.


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## turbomkt

I've got to agree about the rotala. That, plus the wood, gives a very disorganized look that distracts from the beauty of the tank.

Otherwise, it's a very nice tank and I'm glad the algae is being beaten back!


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## Bert H

Love the woodwork! I agree about the Rotala as well. Beautiful tank!


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## FazTeAoMar

Hello folks and thanks for the feedback.

Let me explain you the use of Rotala pink and Ludwigia arcuata, since the opinion is unanimous: the goal is to create a bush behind the driftwood, exposing the reds and yellows/greens of the Rotala ( in the lower portions). The area of the driftwood in contact with the steam plants will be covered with a soft touch of moss ( don´t want to cover the entires branches) to make the transition between the reds of the steam plants and the red/brown of the wood. So, there will be a portion of green between the two red colours. 

This has to be seen in the long run, as well as the compact bush that the steam plants will create. For now, they are all desorganized since I have only trimmed them once. The tank, in the last pic, is as it is today and the tank made 2 months yesterday. I think it still has much to offer and to mature so I will update frequently.

The wood I got from a friend of mine. You can have the same wood though, in this site: aquaristic.net - Der Aquaristik, Terraristik, Gartenteich Onlineshop

Again, thank you for your kind comments and constructive criticism. If somehow, the steam plants won´t give the effect I expect, I will surelly rethink them and change them for another plant.

Regards,
André


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## MATTHEW MAHLING

Sweet tank looks great as is and can only get better in time.
Love the wood placement (octopusish) to cool. keep it up can't wait to see it in two more months.


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## Steven_Chong

This tank makes me remember jukai, the forests around Mt. Fuji. That was one place that was so over-whelmingly beautiful, really almost too perfect, that I felt just very very small. For me, this lay out brings back a bit of that feeling-- though immature, it's got great potential dude. Good job!


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## FazTeAoMar

Matthew thanks.



greenmiddlefinger said:


> This tank makes me remember jukai, the forests around Mt. Fuji. That was one place that was so over-whelmingly beautiful, really almost too perfect, that I felt just very very small. For me, this lay out brings back a bit of that feeling-- though immature, it's got great potential dude. Good job!


Steven, it´s funny you mention that, the coincidence couldn´t be greater. The title of this project is called " A little piece of Sintra" in wich, Sintra, is a vulcanic mountain surrounded by beautiful forests. Big woods with beautiful glades everywhere, in wich the rays of light penetrate the dense vegetation. In a pedestrian walking through these woods, I found an inspirational scenary with a fallen tree over some big rocks. The smallest rock had at least 2 m high, just so you can picture the enormous view. Big ferns, mushrooms and moss were covering part of the tree. Rocks were also covered by moss. Behind the wood/rock group, dense vegetation was present, a mix of berries bush with big ferns. I had no camera at the momment but the scene has been present in my mind ever since. I tought I should use this as an inspiration for this tank and so, a piece of Sintra was born in my tank. 

Thanks for the inspirational feedback.

Regards,
André


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## fresh_newby

gorgeous wood placement, and with some growth time, the Rotala will make sense with some pruning.


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## Steven_Chong

A forest around a volcanic mountainside??? Really??? I win!!!!  just kidding, but wow, that says something about your scape that it could give me a message that specific. Actually your description also reminds me a lot of jiku-- I guess forests around volcanic mountains must share a lot in atmosphere.

Judging from the comment that "the smallest rocks is 2m tall" that means that this lay out is pretty "zoomed out" right? I also had the impression looking the tank, that I was looking at say, a large hill or cliff off in the distance in that type of area.


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## nevada

nice and neet tank 
it looks so natural!! Where did you get the wood from?

Edwin


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## FazTeAoMar

Hello!

Sorry for the late reply but I had some minor troubles with this tank regarding algae. In addition, time wasnt in my side so I could not update this thread.

Edwin, I got this driftwood from a friend of mine when he worked at a LFS.

In 29th September, I went out for the weekend and fertilized with enough nutrients for those days. When I came back, the water was like this:




























I never had green water before so this was a bit new to me. I picked up some Pistia stratiotes at a friend of mine and dumped them in the tank. Here are the pics of the following days:










Dia = Day

With the green water, some plants were damaged due to the lack of light such as H.C. and Eleocharis acicularis but the mosses went crazy. Beautiful growth by x-mas moss and Singapore moss. Here´s a pic of the tank taken in 15th November with cristal clear water:










From this day, the tank has been recovering very well. I did some changes in the Flora as, some of you said, R. Pink wasnt working very well with the driftwood.So I removed most of the R. Pink and placed R. green and Valisneria nana. R. green has yet to show herself as the plant is all creeped and compact behind the driftwood. The ideia is to have a little bush of R. Pink, sorrounded by R. green and, behind the vertical branches of the driftwood, V. nana. Anyway, this tank still has a long way to go, tough I am very pleased with the way it turned out after so many misfortunes.

Some singular shots:























































V. nana, very beautiful:



















Overall:





































I have buyed a small school of Pseudomugil gertrudade: 2 males and 4 females. I hope they breed in the tank as this little guys are a bit expensive. Very active and peaceful though and they make a nice choice for small tanks.

Sorry for the big post. After so many pics and text, you guys will want my head in a plate. 

Thanks for watching and Happy New Year,
André


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## ed seeley

Long post when your tank looks that good! You must be kidding! Awesome tank. Thinking about totally ripping my jungle apart and getting serious about aquascaping, but i like my big amazon swords too much to be so restrained!

Great job, well done.


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## mshaeffer

wOW that almost looks too good to be real!! I wish i had the skills to make mine look that good!


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## pyramid

wow...thanks for your experiences. André.
I love Pogostemon helferi and HC in your tank too much. Your series of pics is worthly for me. 
Now your aquarium is ready for New Year Day. 
Congratulation.


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## Intros

Spectacular looking tank, with nice contrasts of colours but natural look. The light pink in the background is so refreshing...
Congratulation for a great job!


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## gf225

Very beautiful aquascape indeed. It reminds of PJAN's 'Old Chinese Garden', that is a good thing!


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## Fabac

Very beautiful tank!


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## Hurriken

I love this tank. I love the idea of taking a small tank and making it look large. I hope I can get my tank looking half as nice as this one. Thanks for posting it.


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## Steven_Chong

Great work man, this tank is so cool.


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## Tankman

Nice, keep up the good work


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## Cliff Hui

what a lovely layout and very nice photography!!

looking forward to view more!! ^^


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## rahamen

¡What a beautiful aquascape! Congratulations.


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## apistaeasy

Steven_Chong said:


> Great work man, this tank is so cool.


x2


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## FazTeAoMar

Happy New Year guys!

Thanks for the kind comments, I´m really happy you liked it. The tank has suffered a major trim in the mosses and in the rotala, H. micranthemoides, etc and is now recovering from it. 

As soon as the plants reach the desired effect, I will update again.

Regards,
André


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## figo

1 question.

I´m from Mexico and as you must know we don't have the variety of plant's that you have.

I've seen that you use rotala sp. pink, could you tell me the scientific name of the plant?

I think that the rotala pink is the Rotala Rotundifolia, but I'm not very sure. I've been looking for at the Tropica's catalog and as I told the most seemed plant is the Rotundifolia.

Thank's a lot.

Excelent Aquascape, excelenet selection of plants.

Congrats.


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## Phaturkey

Amazing tank


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## figo

Any Update?


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## doubleott05

what moss is this? i used to have some stuff htat grew like this but i thoguht it was simple java moss.

thanks
Elliot


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## Rui Pedro Costa

doubleott05 said:


> what moss is this? i used to have some stuff htat grew like this but i thoguht it was simple java moss.
> 
> thanks
> Elliot


This moss is Christmas moss.


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## k00lguy5525

I had green water in one of my tank also.... What I did is complete blackout and 10% water change every other day.... took about 6-8 days to go away. On the 10th day water was crystal clear.... alot of plants kinda turn yellow but it'll bounce back within a week or so. Alot of ppl say to let it ride out but then you will be looking at green water for at least a month.


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## dtsuyuki

Oh wow. I really like the off-center, yet centered, layout here.


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## Briene24

Man this tank is amazing .. very detailed 

FazTeAoMar, I recently setup my 1st planted aquarium, about 5 days ago and now I'm having issue with Green Water as well :-| I don't think we have Pistia stratiotes here in New Zealand as you mentioned in your post, that seems to fix your green water issue. Can water sprite help with this issue as well? Just wondering what other alternative plants that are available here in NZ I can use LOL


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## joshvito

great tank, subscribing for updates


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## doubleott05

dudes use a uv sterilizer your green water will be dying after about 3-5 days. it will look like a volcanic fallout.


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## dabrybry

wow Cliff Hui and Niko complementing it! That would make me feel pretty good lol. This is an awesome tank layout though, Would love to see a step by step photo of the building of the hardscape if you have them


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