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I insist on photos, you cannot let us hang here



Glad to hear that it is up and running, and ship me about 100lbs of that rock, while you are at it. Small pieces of course,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I insist on photos, you cannot let us hang here

Glad to hear that it is up and running, and ship me about 100lbs of that rock, while you are at it. Small pieces of course

I'll see what I can do on both counts.

Anyway I just noticed I have some fauna in the tank already. I believe they are Red Ramshorn Snails. Hitchhikers from the plant order.

My Scapes

Tetra , Yes Photos , Photos, photos Please
Garry

You know I have heard talk about this tank but I finally went looking for a thread. Like magic there was one! I also look forward to seeing a picture or two or three....

So far it sounds like you are off to a good start.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Well about a month or so in here's a teaser shot of my HC foreground with my new best friend.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/files/1/8/9/5/IMG_0713_original.jpg

As you can see I'm having no problems keeping the HC low and spreading.

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At least your friend has plenty of green algae to munch on that rock, it seems

Otherwise the HC looks great so far. Spreading quite well. LF will be jealous

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Back in the saddle!

At least your friend has plenty of green algae to munch on that rock, it seems

Nice try Nowhere, but there is really no algae to speak of. Every rock in aqua gets darker and aged looking. Technically there probably is a dusting of something protist LOL on that rock, but nothing you would classify as a nusiance algae.



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Teaser as in mystery - secret ... you really don't make it easy for us!

The ramshorn is very pretty, though and the HC looks nice. How common is this color variant? My hitchhikers are usually the dull brown ones.

When can we expect the first installment of the 46 Bow mystery series?

Only just found this tank now. I'll be very interested to watch how a C02 & Aquasoil tank go together. I also worried about how you can tell how much C02 there is, when ADA keeps the pH low all by itself - never mind the C02. Did you go with Amazonia?

Below is an extract for the ADA Lily Pipe from the only place in AUS I know that stocks ADA products. I would like it, but I don't think I could ever justify the price (even though it is currently on sale for $306.36AUD) That's just for the "inflow", so you need to outlay more for the "outflow"

ADA Lily Pipe Inflow V-7 20mm

'New' style inflow Lily Pipe made for 20mm diameter filter tubing. Same height as V-7 17mm, but 3mm greater diameter. Low profile design for clean, sleek appearance in the aquarium

Was: $382.95 AUD
Now: $306.36 AUD

Looking forward to watching this tank mature.

Cheers
TW

Well the AS will definitely lower PH and KH. I believe you can still test accurately for co2, but to be honest I haven't tested anything in the new tank and probably never will.

Actually I did not buy ADA lily pipes but from this company instead:

http://www.calaqualabs.com/

There are no several other companys producing these pipes for anywhere from half to 1/3 of what the ADA pipes costs. Mine were $90USD shipped. Of course you don't need them although some will say if positioned corrected they break up surface scum, but the glass definitely looks great.




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To my best knowledge, there are no other glass lily pipes here in Aus. That might change soon, as not long ago you couldn't get any glass diffusers for C02 either. Then the ADA ones only became available & now, although hard to find, other brands are around.

At the prices ADA sell the lily pipes, I can't see them taking off too quickly here. On another forum here, there is one Aussie who has used them - but I don't know of any other. I also can't see the justification for such a great price difference between the US cost and the AUD cost. Someone seems to be pocketing a fair bit of money.

How often do you think you are going to have to remove them for cleaning Jeff?

Cheers
TW

Nice try Nowhere, but there is really no algae to speak of. Every rock in aqua gets darker and aged looking.

I know, I'm just joking around. Like a fine wine, rocks get better looking with age, they take on a more natural feel.

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Back in the saddle!

Those calaqua inline diffusers look pretty sweet, but cost about 3-4x what I made my reactor for.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Those calaqua inline diffusers look pretty sweet, but cost about 3-4x what I made my reactor for.

Yeah I was thinking about those too, but I'm not sure how convienent they will be to clean etc. I don't know if I posted this already, but I actually broke my outflow lily pipe. You have to be really careful with it. Not sure if the ADA stuff is stronger.

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I don't even have one runner on my HC like you have hundreds of, that is just evil.

Very nice tetratech, where is that full shot again?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I don't even have one runner on my HC like you have hundreds of, that is just evil

Don't feel to bad, I planted some HC in my 72g as well and that is not growing nearly as fast the 46g. Now there are two possiblilites.

The AS is just far better than the Eco for straightout growth. Afterall with the AS I haven't even really dosed macros yet, just some K and micro. It is a known fact that the AS leaches Ammonia, etc so it's obviously packed with the stuff or it's the lights. The 46g has 2 x 96cf while the 72g as 4 x 65cf. So it could be the lights on the 72g simply don't have the penerating abilities to do the job 20"+ down while the the larger bulbs on the 46g are able to do the job 18" below.

Ingo, full shot coming soon, I'm still not happy with my rocks, just not a great selection and believe it or not I've actually moved things around since the setup (a no-no with aquasoil) as well added more AS to the tank after it was already up and running several weeks. The 3 things you have to have when doing a scape is vision, plant knowledge and "inventory" the more rocks, branches, etc the easier it is to find the one that fits especially in an Iwagumi where you simply can't hide any flaws. It's as naked a setup as you can get.

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I don't know if I posted this already, but I actually broke my outflow lily pipe. You have to be really careful with it. Not sure if the ADA stuff is stronger.

Broke it already? Thats not a good sign. Though, they do look pretty nice in tanks I don't think I would want one. I am able to break most things without much help.

Those calaqua inline diffusers look pretty sweet, but cost about 3-4x what I made my reactor for.

Yeah I was thinking about those too, but I'm not sure how convenient they will be to clean etc.

I bet if you kept them out of the light you wouldn't have the same problems we have with the in tank ones.

Nice looking growth with the HC too! Some day I might try growing it.


55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

bet if you kept them out of the light you wouldn't have the same problems we have with the in tank ones.

That's a good point, but if you've ever looked at clear outflow/inflow tubing it get'quite dirty even out of the light. The organics in the water column are constantly flowing.



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I was interested to see that http://www.calaqualabs.com/ appear to provide to Aus. Depending on how you find your outflow/inflow glass, I might consider these, as they look pretty sweet. How do you think you'll go about cleaning them? Can you slip a cleaning brush through them, without taking it all apart? If you have to take it apart & bleach regularly to keep it looking nice - I can see that being a pain - not to mention having to deal with hoses filled with water. I liked the in line C02 diffuser - but only seem to have 13mm hose. Are you using the in line glass diffuser as well - if so, how hard will cleaning be?

Do you gravel vac your aquasoil. Nothing was mentioned on the AS pack about this, but LFS here (who is the only stockist) says you don't gravel vac it - just swish your gravel vac around above the surface of substrate. Were you told that too, or will you gravel vac as normal (if there is even a patch of vacant gravel without a plant in your tank)?

Thanks for your earlier advice about pH & C02 dosing in the aquasoil tank - but here's another question. Aqasoil makes your water soft (good for apisto breeding). LFS says unless water is hard enough, having AS & C02 creates possibility of pH crash, so it is necessary to increase the hardness, to keep pH stable. LFS states that increasing hardness will allow higher CO2 saturation, without causing pH to drop unacceptably low.

Interested on your thoughts & experience so far.

Looking forward to the full tank shot.



Cheers
TW

I was interested to see that http://www.calaqualabs.com/ appear to provide to Aus. Depending on how you find your outflow/inflow glass, I might consider these, as they look pretty sweet. How do you think you'll go about cleaning them? Can you slip a cleaning brush through them, without taking it all apart? If you have to take it apart & bleach regularly to keep it looking nice - I can see that being a pain - not to mention having to deal with hoses filled with water. I liked the in line C02 diffuser - but only seem to have 13mm hose. Are you using the in line glass diffuser as well - if so, how hard will cleaning be?

Hey Robyn. Actually I just cleaned them today with a brush after about a monthh and they cleaned quite easily. I was going to buy the inline diffusor, but decided to use a Rhinox 5000 (bought on Ebay - another ADA knockoff of the beetle diffusor)

Do you gravel vac your aquasoil. Nothing was mentioned on the AS pack about this, but LFS here (who is the only stockist) says you don't gravel vac it - just swish your gravel vac around above the surface of substrate. Were you told that too, or will you gravel vac as normal (if there is even a patch of vacant gravel without a plant in your tank)?

The LFS is right. You don't gravel wash it. It sends up a hugh cloud of dust that will make the water cloudy for some time. My take on aquasoil and others have said this as well is it's not a good substrate if you plan on playing around with the setup. An Ingo style makeover would not be tolerated. You pretty much have to have a layout in mind and stick with it. I have played around in mine, but I followed it with massive water changes. So if you don't have the time to do that forget it. So far my tank is doing fine a month later and all I've dosed is K and micros. The AS is providing everything else.

Thanks for your earlier advice about pH & C02 dosing in the aquasoil tank - but here's another question. Aqasoil makes your water soft (good for apisto breeding). LFS says unless water is hard enough, having AS & C02 creates possibility of pH crash, so it is necessary to increase the hardness, to keep pH stable. LFS states that increasing hardness will allow higher CO2 saturation, without causing pH to drop uacceptably low.

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I don't believe in the whold PH crash thing. One thing I do know about AS is that if your water is hard than the plants will probably melt some do to the drastic drop in ph and kh, but if your water is already soft then your probably won't experience much of a problem with melting. Either way you must do water changes, but you'll need to do more in the hard water tank if you want to save your plants. If you had fish quickly than you'll definitely have to do alot of water change because of the NH3 released from the stuff. I added 10 Cherry Shrimp and 9 Otos in the second week and I only lost one Oto. The tank is completely infested with shrimp now. They are literally everywhere.

My 72g has a low 6 ph with eco so this tank has to be lower than that with the AS and I'm not having any issues.

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Here's an updated shot of the HC.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/files/1/8/9/5/IMG_0758_original.jpg

After around 5/6 weeks I almost have a complete carpet. Also at this phase the tank is pretty much infested with Cherry Shrimp. (If you look closely you could see some in the pic) Anway I'm still playing around with my limited supply of rocks and will post full tank when I decided placement. You could also see some other plants in the pic as well.


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Very nice tetratech, much much better than mine. But I will work on it sometime.

I clearly can see the runners of the HC, there is only one such runner in all of mine.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Very nice tetratech, much much better than mine. But I will work on it sometime.

LF,
Don't compare my HC in my 46 with your's. As I mentioned I'm growing it in my 72g and it doesn't compare to my 46g.
So it's either the Aquasoil or it's the light difference. The stuff in my AS is only getting K and micros once a week.

EDIT: Just thought of something. I have leftover AS, I'm going to scoop out some Eco and put AS in a small area of my 72g and plant more HC. This should solve the mystery

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Excellent idea, good thinking tetratech

With the speed you saw the growth in this tank we should see results rather shortly.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

EDIT: Just thought of something. I have leftover AS, I'm going to scoop out some Eco and put AS in a small area of my 72g and plant more HC. This should solve the mystery

Doesn't AC effect the whole tanks conditions. Which could be what the HC likes. I can't imagine that just a little bit would give the same response as a full tank of AC.

Good idea but I think there are issues with the test.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Good idea but I think there are issues with the test.

In spite of an official protest from Wingdlc the test will go on.

Well that is true, but I'm really testing the difference between the HC getting all it's goodies through it's root system versus dosing EI in the water column. The AS leaches NH3 and lowers ph/kh, which people try to minmize the effects by doing frequent water changes until it stops.



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Look forward to seeing what happens.

Edit: Come see pictures posted on my log...

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

The HC continues to spread very well. In certain areas of the tank I already need to trim. The tank is also completely invested with RCS. I've counted at least 100 all ready.

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2774182140048205226LFHVXU

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Wow, that looks real nice. Nice shrimpies!

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Nice shrimps Jeff - it's good to see a picture. How about another full shot???

Can I ask you again about the Cal Aqua pipes. I've been emailing them & it seems they ship free to Aus & the price is far better than the ADA ones. I asked them about cleaning the pipes & here's a quote from his reply:-

1) you have to remove the hose tubing to clean the pipes
2) The outflux pipe can be cleaned by using a filter hose brush or soaking the item in bleach. You can also fill it with wet sand (pure silica sand only) and gently agitate the sand inside the tube.
3) The influx can be cleaned the same way. The best way is to use a brush with what you can get, then soak in concentrated bleach to remove the rest.
4) Cleaning the diffuser can be done by soaking it in bleach. That's the recommended way to clean all ceramic diffusers

If you have to remove the tubing from the pipes - sounds like a good opportunity to have lots of accidents will water spilling on the carpet. How do you find it.

I think you said you are able to clean them with filter hose brush in situ, without removing tubing?? On the pipe that sucks water out of the tank & into the filter - how is that managed - it looks like it is a solid piece of glass (with appropriate holes) or is the end removable, so you can insert the brush.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers
TW

The interesting thing about the clear hoses and the lily pipes is that it actually shows you what's going on in your hoses. Let's face it most of us don't clean the hose tubing and it's possibly an indicator of how much organic waste is in the water column. So I guess that's a good thing to be able to see it, otherwise it's out of sight out of mind. But anyway I'm pretty sure I did in fact remove the hoses when I cleaned the pipes. I think I last cleaned them about 2 weeks ago and so far they are still perfectly clean (again probably will vary based on one's individual tank maintenance and stocking/feeding levels). There is a small hole on the bottom of the intake that looks like it's big enough for a small brush so if your just concerned about cleaning the pipes, you probably could do it from inside the tank without removing the hoses. Actually I did once clean the return this way, by inserting a brush into the large mouth and cleaning it, I put a fine mesh net over the mouth and had my wife turn on the filter cause I know the gunk would come back into the tank.

The lily pipes are great I think if you want that "look" but you'll really only appreciate it IMO your able to have them on side and don't have a background on the tank. It's only this way that you get that "not there" look if you know what I mean. I must admit, I do get nervous when I handle the pipes thinking I'm going to break one. As I mentioned I did break the intake when I first got them, but Cal-Aqua did send me a replacement minus the shipping to me, which was very fair.

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Thanks for the extra info Jeff. I think I must be a little thick headed. I get it all, except for how you avoid water accidents when you remove the hose to clean these glass pipes.

My tanks will definitely have a background - but I still thought they would reduce the ugliness of seeing my current pipes. I have managed to find a sort of greyish alternative intake & outake pipe to replace the bright eheim green - but you can still see them. The thought of using these is to eliminate all sight of them - but is it just a waste of money, since you say the benefit is only if you have no background ???

Thanks again.

Cheers
TW

As far as removing the hoses Let's see, on the Eheim 2213 that is connected to this tank I shut and disconnect the valves near the cansister, stick the ends in a bucket and then open the valves. Most of the water will poor harmlessly into the bucket. Then I remove the actual lily pipe with the hose end still in the bucket and let the rest of the water drop in.

I didn't mean to say the lily pipes wouldn't look nice on a tank with a background. They would look 1000 times better than that horrible green that eheim puts out, but I think you get the maximum inpact when it's all clear glass all around. Also the lily pipe shipped is designed for either the side or the corner of the aquarium.

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When can we see a full shot, it has been quite a while. How is the HC going now?

Not only would I like to see your plants, but how you have the info lily pipe fitted. Do you have it under the water surface, or level with it.

Hope to see your tank soon, Jeff.

Cheers
TW

Robyn,

Here's a current shot. Pretty simple Iwagumi. I just wanted to see how it would be to run a tank like this.
The plants are doing very well. The only issue is alittle green dust on the rocks and glass.

I'm probably going to create something different with it in the near future. The only occupants are the surviving otos and about 50 Cherry Shrimps. I will be putting a large school of very small fish to occupy all the space.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/files/1/8/9/5/46G_original.jpg

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Thanks for posting the pic. Your growth looks really great & in the pics, at least, no evidence of the green dust is to be seen anywhere.

I couldn't tell how you have your intake pipe. Does it skim the surface, or do you have it underneath?

Cheers
TW

Oh sorry Robyn, Here's another pic showing the whole setup.
You could see the Rhinox 5000 is right below the lily pipe return which is submersed. One benefit with the lily pipe is evaporation. Since the water runs through the bottom part of the big opening. Even with the head of the pipe partialy emersed you don't have any problems with filter noise or loss of co2.

You could also see the tank sits up high on an amoire so I have to stand on a step stool to maintenance.

To answer your earlier question. I have been removing and separting the pipes and tubing completely to clean. It's just easier that way. I don't know if your Eheim has the double disconnects at the filter, but with the Classics you just shut the valve and disconnect and I can remove the entire piece of tubing leading up to the tank with all the water intact.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquarium-pictures/files/1/8/9/5/IMG_2004_original.jpg

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Hey Tetra, thanks for posting a full shot finally! I'll have to drop into APC more often

You did a tremendous job with that tank, everything is nice and clean. But I can see why you'd want a change. In a show tank two thirds of it is empty space. I know the value of negative space in a scape, but that's a little much...

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Back in the saddle!

Thanks for the comments. Yeah other's have mentioned the space, but again I already had the tank and lights and really just wanted to doa an iwagumi. It would probably look less "spacious" if there was big school of fish in the upper third. Getting the fish I want is a big pain in the  . I'll eventually buy a seamless shorter tank, but at least I know what to expect with this type of setup. I think I need to completely take out the HC and replant. It's getting way to thick. I don't know if trimming it is feasible.

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I think I need to completely take out the HC and replant. It's getting way to thick. I don't know if trimming it is feasible.

Somewhere out there, LF stares at his brave little tuft of HC and a single tear rolls down his cheek....


Well, once again, very impressive. You keep raising the bar on us before we can catch up! Are you going to keep this tank and just redesign, and add a smaller ADA later on? Or ditch this one for the ADA?

Also, what kind of fish are you looking for? If it's P. simulans I can't help you, I've been barking up that tree for a year now. Thinking of just buying some small neons and calling it a day...

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Back in the saddle!