# 90cm/150litre - "Patience"



## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

I've spent the weekend before last stripping down my tank which had gotten very neglected for various reasons. I then spent last weekend playing with hardscape and getting it sorted out. I was having real problems with gaining a sense of height and depth, but I think I've cracked it now. Before I had a line of rocks which looked quite nice, but was quite flat. After more playing with substrate and rocks I came up with this:










So heres how it lines up:

*Planting:*


Hemianthus callitrichoides "Cuba"
Pogostemon helferi
Eleocharis acicularis
Blyxa Japonica
Staurogyne Sp.

*Tech Specs:*


Dimensions - 90x35x45cm (ish)
Substrate - 18L ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia + Unipac Zambezi sand (padding under rocks)
Filtration - 2x Tetratec EX1200
Light - Arcadia 4x24w T5 Luminaire
CO2 - 5kg Fire extinquisher with solenoid. Glass diffuser(s).
Heater - Hydor ETH300 external

Anyhow. Finally finished planting this afternoon. Been fidling with my photo editing software on an old laptop, so the following pics might not look so hot! Looong post alert 

The essentials (UKAPS branded of course!):









I got the HC and P. Helferi planted first. The HC is planted stem-by-stem mostly, with some larger clumps here and there. I think I developed my own style - break it into individual stem groups, similar to how you do with moss (only shorter):









If breaking HC down into individual stems wasn't bad enough, untangling a mass of E. Acicularis continued to test my patience (such an apt name for the scape :lol The first of 3 trays worth:









You can just make out the E. Acicularis in the back ground. Just Staurogyne and Blyxa to go...









Staurogyne I pilfered from my little shrimp tank. Just about enough:









And then I was done. I started Friday evening, dissassembling HC and then planting it, a tray at a time. Not sure how many trays loads I got through, but I think about 6 or 8 (about 2 or 3 trays per pot of HC). I used 3 pots of HC in the end! Still fot 3 left  The one thing I wish I had is another 4 or 5 stems of is Blyxa, but hopefully it will fill out, the small gap in the corner is below where I plant to have one or two of my filter inlets.

And so to the fully planted shots:

Top angle:









Right side looking left (kinda how I see it sitting on my sofa):









And the full frontal:









I got the filters installed and running, just need to transplant my CO2 kit in the next few days, but I'll be dosing Easy Carbo too 

Whew. Long post


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## anhtu402 (Jan 11, 2009)

That is awesome. That is some patience you have for yourself! I was wondering, I will be getting my first HC sometime Monday or Tuesday and plan on planting it. Can I ask you how you planted it? How did you cut it? Just individual 'stems'? Or a few bunched HC for each spot? A picture would be nice if you have them- THanks!

The reason I ask is because I only bought a small amount of HC for my 55 gallon. I have grown glosso where I cut to individual leaflets ~approximately 200-300 of them! So I guess I do have some patience. lol. Thanks!


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

Thanks 

I planted it almost stem by stem. In some places though I planed small clumps. It's quite fiddlely to separate up, but I did it with my fingers, gently teasing it into small clumps, and then into individual groups of stems. I was under the impression that it should spread easier this way, but I've been told that planting it in clumps is fine. Apparently Oliver Knott claims that clumps/single stems makes no difference.

I'll be interested to see oh the clumps I planted do versus the individual stems


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

Did a 70% water change last night with a bucket  Mind, I syphoned using some 16/22mm hose instead of my usual syphon thing with the squeezy end that gets the syphon action going... Much quicker to fill a bucket 

I have 10 metres of silicone hose on it's way to me at the moment. I plan to use an old Fluval 204 to pump water out for water changes in future!

I also just seeded one of the EX1200's with media and sponges from a "live" EX1200 on another tank. I was going to do the other one too, but it was such a hassle doing one I figured I'd do it another day! It was 12.30am after all!

Whilst seeding the filter I "smooshed" the two bags of activated carbon in the filter... Unfortunately that means the water has gone a little cloudy now :| Thankfully it didn't look too bad. Hopefully when I get home tonight it'll be totally clear again 

I also destroyed another little tank whilst trying to do a water change. The ADA AS just mixed with the ADA forest sand and everything went cloudy. I got fed up then and left it (new setup, nothing alive in it!) I'll tackle that tonight I guess. Good excuse to re-think it again!


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

Well, some more blyxa arrived yesterday from a UKAPS member, in great shape considering our postal system, so naturally I had to rip out all of the blyxa I already had and re-plant :lol:










And from the front:










I'm thinking I need to re-plant a little more, and spread it out a little, and I think I need to bring it left a bit more, to about where the CO2 diffuser is at the moment.

Interestingly I've been playing with flow to get good CO2 distribution. I have 2 diffusers running at the moment, in a temporary configuration. As it stands I have one EX1200 outlet flowing from left rear to right rear and the other EX1200 outlet sort of right middle flowing to left front corner (slight angle). This seems to catch most of the Co2 and send it in a loop around the tank, and I can see CO2 bubbles floating about near substrate level. Most plants show a little movement which is good 

My eventual plan is to keep the inlets where they are, more or less, and have the two outlets on the right side wall flowing straight down the tank length ways. I also want to aquire 2x 17mm glassware sets 

Annnyway. Everything growing as it should do will do for me at the moment!


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## rountreesj (Aug 14, 2007)

nicely done! I agree, the blyxa could come to the left some. It would look better, and more balanced. I love the hadscape and placement!


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

Just a little update. I've just done a second water change. I'm noticing some patches of HC are dying back, and I assume (hope!) it's because it's emmersed growth transforming into submersed. I've noticed some detritus build up on the e. acicularis. A bit of a swoosh over with my tweezers sorts that out. I'm assuming it's from the HC die off. Also a little P. helferi die back, but I think the plants weren't in the best of condition from storage for 2 weeks.

Anyhow, during the water change I decided to tinker with the Blyxa and I think I did good. Basically I've just moved some of the shorter plants further forward on the right edge and spaced some of the plants out. It looks a little less compact and just generally sits better on the eye 

I'll post some pics tomorrow hopefully!


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

Quick pic I took last night, showing the tweaked blyxa:


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## Knotty Bitz (Mar 11, 2009)

I really like the way you designed your hardscape as well as all the plants.


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## Skyfish (Jun 8, 2004)

Fantastic work!!:clap2:


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## CraigThor (Aug 5, 2007)

you guys get all the cool plants. love that staurygone sp.

Great looking tank.

Craig


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## Fabac (Jul 2, 2006)

Love the hardscape!


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## NowMed (Feb 10, 2009)

very well planted!! your tank is going to look killer !!


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

I had been put onto the idea of Ruby tetra for this tank. I was going to go that route but my friend at the fish store says she can't get them  I think I'll stick with embers in that case.

I've noticed the HC is definately growing a little. Stems seemed to be getting longer but I can see tiny leaves sprouting now  I'm going give it a bit of a trim and re-plant after next water change (tonight or tomorrow). Theres a fair amount of die off from emersed growth I think. The Staurogyne is growing well too. 

Seems to be a fair bit of debris settling on the stone, so I need to look at my flow pattern. I want to arrange it so both filter outlets are on the right side pushing water to the left. Both inlets will stay in the back right for now. I'm going to save up for 2x Cal Aqua 17mm lily sets (£90 each!) It's my 30th birthday in May, so I'll see if I can guilt trip family members into giving me money towards them 

Anyhow, hopefully post some new pics in the next few days... Still setting up a little opt-white (star fire glass) nano on the side!


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

I think the blyxa is suffering a little, I'm getting a lot of melt. Other than this, and some die off on the HC (emerged growth dying off I think, new growth comming through now) every thing else seems more or less OK. The downoi is growing slowly, with some new shoots appearing. It's recovering just about. HC runners are growing in parts, and newer tiny leaves are on a lot of it. I need to ideally spend some time trimming and re-planting.

One change to the hardscape made today. I was in the back garden earlier and found two chunks of seiryu stone I'd fogotten I had :lol: One was a good upgrade for the peak of my "mountain". It's larger but not overpowering I don't think...










Apologies for the shoddy pic, taken with my iPhone...


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## DevUK (Sep 10, 2007)

Added about 55 Ember tetra on Saturday


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## king oz (Jun 27, 2007)

looking real good cant wait to see it fill in.


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