# Elos Project - 112L



## FazTeAoMar (Jan 2, 2005)

Hello!

Long time I´ve posted in this forum so I want to present you my last setup.

Setup:

*Setup day:* 18-07-2007
*Tank:* 70*40*40 ; 112L; around 30G
*Lighting:* DiY Light fixture 4 X 18W T8: 2 X 6500K Philips TLD 965; 2 X 8000K Osram Skywhite 880
*Filter:* Eheim 2213
*CO2:* Pressurized with diffusor Elos ATO-10 
*Substracte:* granuled peat, Elos TerraZero, Elos Bottom Mineral, Elos Terra small grain
*Decoration:* river sand, driftwood, basalts

*Flora:* Proserpinaca palustris " Cuba"; Micranthemum umbrosum; Rotala sp. " green"; Bolbitis heudeloti; Anubia nana " petite"; Hydrocotyle verticillata; Cryptocoryne wendtii " brown";Cryptocoryne parva; Fissidens fontanus; Fissidens sp. ; Riccardia chamaedryfolia; Utricularia graminifolia

*Fauna:* Boraras maculatus; Otocinclus sp. ; LDA-25 Parotocinclus jumbo; Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis var. blue; Caridina cf. cantonensis 'Tiger'

Playing with the driftwood:









Hardscape and covering it with moss




































Tank with 54 days



































































































Tank with 89 days ( pictures taken last week)



























That´s all for now. Plants have been trimmed today but I had no time to take pictures. I will take some during this week. As always, comments/critiques are welcome.

Regards,
André


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## Anti-Pjerrot (Mar 12, 2006)

Nice setup with excelent hardscape and good plant selection. Your defenitly made the tank look twice as big with the plant choice. Only plant not fitting is the H. verticillata due to the big leaf sice. Looking forward to some grown in pics.

Elos terra is a sweet substrate, stays nice and clean. But wery expensive...

How is your fert routine? 
And about CO2, is the ATO-10 good/big enough? Looks like you got a little BBA/GSA issue.


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## Steven_Chong (Mar 17, 2005)

Fantastic Faz-- this one really touched me. Love it!


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## XRTech (Jul 15, 2007)

Beautiful tank! How do you keep the moss so clean?


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## Blue_Dolphinvn (Nov 12, 2006)

What kind of moss did you use? is it F. fontanus? will you add some background plants for this layout?


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## Jessie (Apr 23, 2007)

You know... I truly believe that driftwood in a glass box is art in itself 

This is beautiful though. I love your choices in fauna and the Hydrocotyle is such a whimsical touch.


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## chester (Feb 22, 2005)

Great scape. Full of natural feeling, the hardscape is perfect. I think you should definitely plant the back corners.


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## Paul Higashikawa (Mar 18, 2004)

Very nice and clean; refreshing to look at. The whole set up including the hardwares simply match each other. Definitely a great classic mound shape example with some brown 'twist'(pun intended )


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## harsh (Jan 22, 2006)

The best tank i've seen till date.. braavo 

Excellent plant selection, beautiful fish and shrimps, very clean an neat scape.


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## Chuppy (Aug 5, 2007)

Great tank... very good use of moss and how the heck do you keep em so healthy~! lol 
i have not much luck with those moss lol

All the best
Drew


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## Norbert Sabat (Jun 26, 2004)

Nice project =D>

I only don't like moss on wood


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## FazTeAoMar (Jan 2, 2005)

Hello.

Thank you all for the kind comments. 

*Anti-Pjerrot:* Hidrocotyle verticillata only has big leaves when is exposed to direct light. That´s what happend in the right side of the tank. I already trimmed it and confined it to the front side of the driftwood. Leaves are smaller and shorter. I really like ElosTerra. Plants are growing/rooting very nice. Regarding ferts, I dose, daily, Fase 1 ( micros and Iron), K40 ( potassium, calcium and magnesium) and Extra 1 ( extra dose of Iron). Fase 2 ( macros) are dosed twice a week. Yes, ATO-10 is sufficient for this tank. Tanks bigger than 150L should use the ATO-20 for better CO2 diffusion. I have small samples of BBA in the driftwood and stones that are now controlled with the increasing of CO2 and will be taken care of as soon as I get Seachem Excel.

*Steven_Chong:* Steven, thank you! It means a lot coming from a deep aquascape analyst like yourself.

*XRTech and Chuppy:* The reason why moss is so clean is because the filter system is doing a nice job keeping the water without floating sediments. I also vaccue the white sand where sediments are deposited at the surface and are susceptible of floating to the plants. But, the major reason why moss is so clean is because it is growing healthy and healthy plants stay clean and beautiful.

*Blue_Dolphinvn:* The background plants are there, if you take a closer look.

*Jessie:* Jessie, thanks! Indeed, you are right. It was the first time I worked with Hidrocotyle and surely it won´t be my last. Its sense of wilderness is unique.

*chester:* Chester thanks! Back corners are going to be covered with Utricularia graminifolia. If you notice, UG is slowly spreading towards to the back of the tank. The idea is to let the corners free of tall plants, leaving only the UG to cover the substracte, giving more sense of space and depth. Lets see how it goes...

*Paul Higashikawa:* Paul, many thanks! Some classics are still my inspiration.

*harsh:* Thank you. I must admit that this tank is giving me much too pleasure to maintain, risking to say, more than any other tank I have setup. Slow to medium growths, easy ferts routine, long periods without trimming and just let nature take its course, slowly.

*Norbert Sabat:* Norbert, thanks. Maybe, as plants grow thick, the branches covered in moss get blend with them. Time will tell...

I will try to take some pics tomorrow, to show how the tank was trimmed.

Regards,
André


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## tha_beeg (Feb 8, 2007)

this is a very beautiful tank. you must put a lot of time into maintaining it!


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## FazTeAoMar (Jan 2, 2005)

Hello all!



tha_beeg said:


> this is a very beautiful tank. you must put a lot of time into maintaining it!


Thanks. No, not really. Maintenance is:

- everyday, 1 minute to fertilize, using the ELOS ferts dispensor
- one day per week, usually at Sunday, to trim the plants and perform a water change

That´s it, that´s all. 

Here´s an update after trimming Bolbitis and green stem plants.























































Regards,
André


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## apistaeasy (Jul 16, 2004)

The tank is maturing nicely.
What kind of algae problems have you had?


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## deepdiver (May 30, 2006)

Incredible tank! The UG in the corners really give the sand foreground a concave impression that draws the eye into the wood and plants. The red plant is perfect in the background too. BTW, what plant is that?


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Excellent aquascape and beautiful presentation. One of the best mound compositions I've seen in a long time.

How do you propose the Proserpinaca palustris "Cuba" will grow? Do you want it to 'fill out'? Does it respond well to pruning? At the moment it looks a little too distracting in its sparseness.

Do you use Tropica plants? They are superb aren't they!?

Can you get Easy-Life EASYCARBO in Portugal? It is cheaper than Seachem Excel, and is the same product - ideal for treating BBA etc.

Finally, what camera etc. are you using, please?

Thanks.


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## FazTeAoMar (Jan 2, 2005)

Hello to all!



apistaeasy said:


> The tank is maturing nicely.
> What kind of algae problems have you had?


Thanks! I´ve had long strands of green algae on the moss, somewhere between the 15th and the 30th day after the setup. That was the time when I went out on vacations and stopped fertilization. When I came back, I started fertilizing with k40 and estabilished the nutrient levels. That was when the tank became algae free. More recently, I had a small case of BBA ( Black Beard Algae) on some small stones and in the end of the driftwood, all in the same area ( in the sand area). I used Seachem Excel directly on the algae, everyday a small dose ( 1ml) and after a week, it was all gone. I then increased the CO2 and NO3 levels to maintain the balance.



deepdiver said:


> Incredible tank! The UG in the corners really give the sand foreground a concave impression that draws the eye into the wood and plants. The red plant is perfect in the background too. BTW, what plant is that?


Thanks! I call that effect " The bay"  The red plant is Proserpinaca palustris " Cuba". Beautiful plant.

George, thanks. Regarding the Proserpinaca, I want it to be sparse, not too compact. The plant does respond well to pruning. When you trim it, two new buds come out of the node next to the cut. If you let it grow, it will send new buds too from the lower nodes. The FTS I presented is an experiment to see how well does the P. palustris fit in the final layout when it comes to trimming. That is why I trimmed the surrounding stem plants. Now that I have an ideia on how she looks as a focal point, I can start working on the surrounding plants.

I only use Tropica plants. Top quality, no doubt. 



> Can you get Easy-Life EASYCARBO in Portugal? It is cheaper than Seachem Excel, and is the same product - ideal for treating BBA etc.


Yes, I can. I had no ideia it was the same product as Seachem Excel. The price is a bargain, compared to Excel. Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try. 

The camera is a Minolta Dimage Z1. It is an old camera but, until I don´t have the money to buy a DSLR, I will be playing around with this one. Do you want to know anything else in particular regarding the camera settings?

Best regards and thanks for the feedback.

André


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Hi Andre

Thanks for the Proserpinaca info. It's a lovely plant that I may try out myself.

The photography is excellent for a compact, enhanced by your good lighting choice.

I can see another Portagese fellow doing will in the ADA/AGA next year...


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## FazTeAoMar (Jan 2, 2005)

Hello again!

George, thanks for the encouragement. Fingers crossed for that one. 

I performed a major maintenance, replacing the sand, trimming some plants and cleaning all the equipment. After that, I took a picture of how the tank looked like. Here it is:










What do you think?

Happy New Year of 2008

Regards,
André


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Happy New Year, Andre!

The aquascape is looking superb. Maybe prune the two big green 'halves' so they aren't so symmetrical?


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## jVIDIA (Jan 9, 2008)

Nice tank André  

So peacefull and clean 

/portuguese=on 
Bom ano de 2008 para ti e qq dia queria falar ctg para saber da disponibilidade de me arranjares uns musguitos :mrgreen:


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## rich311k (Jun 24, 2006)

Beautiful looking tank!


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## reefcrawler (Dec 31, 2007)

Wow, Impressive and so neat, 
nice planning for all the plants fall into the right places.


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## Barbapappa (Jan 4, 2008)

Amazing looking tank! Really inspires me.


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## orlando (Feb 14, 2007)

Amazing job, I take a sip of the finest grape juice to this..


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