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Hi Doc,
After viewing your "old" tank, we are all awaiting pictures of the new one as it evolves.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

The tank is about to go into revival mode. I've finished with spray painting the stand and the "wooden parts" (plastic) of the tank. It's now all high gloss white and came out very nice. I've also replaced the styrofoam background with a simple black foil that is stuck on the outside behind the glass.

Two days ago I ordered the new substrate from Germany, despite the high shipping costs it's still a lot cheaper than buying it here locally in Finland. I guess the market here is smaller, but a 50% difference in price seems a bit excessive and although I wouldn't mind supporting my local LFS, I'm not stupid (nor rich) either. Today I got the message it's all shipped, so I expect arrival early next week.

One thing Finland does have a lot of, and free as well, is rock. The whole country is basically granite and whenever new buildings are being built the constructors blow up huge chucks with dynamite. The interesting bit here is that these explosions leave interestingly shaped smaller pieces which normally just get loaded up and get disposed somewhere. I've found a site where I guess the money ran out, and it's been lying bare for quite a long time. A quick walk through left me with 20 kg of rock and after sorting through those, I think I'll go back another time to have a second look.

In any case, I expect to be able to start scaping next week and I'm very much looking forward to it. I think I'll keep it this time mostly to relatively low maintenance plans (i.e. very few stem plants) but right now I'm still not entirely sure. I'll post the updates once they come in.

Hi Doc,
Granite is a plutonic igneous rock that is mostly two types of feldspar, and quartz with two types of mica thrown in. Here, we have some really nice pink granite and it is just laying around all over the place. When it is fractured by the explosions or by smashing it with a hammer it will generally cleave (fracture) at 90 degrees leaving some nice square or rectangular pieces.

Now I'm really getting interested in those pictures!

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Well then,

The tank is back up and running, for the most part anyway. Last week the new substrate arrived and I did the layout during the weekend. I'm still not 100% sold on it as it is, but for a large part I think it's also because it is still so bare. From My office tank I managed to rescue a few, very sorry looking plants and I got a few new pots form the LFS. My guess is that it will take a few weeks/months before it's properly filled in, I just hope I can balance the ferts right so algae won't take control. Right now I'm still missing CO2 (have to refill the tank, which will be done tomorrow) and I have a couple of new lamps waiting for me at the post office. After that it's down to water changes and fert management.

Just to give an idea what happened, here is a photo of quite a few years ago, when the stand was still its original wood color:



This is a week ago, after painting and cleaning. BTW, the silicone on the rear glass has proven extremely difficult to be removed. I'm never going to glue in a background again.


here it is nearly filling time, the basic layout is now done (though I'm seriously considering to get a couple of really big rocks and adjust this layout.
Substrate: first a layer of JBL AquaBasis plus, then a layer of JBL Manado, and finally JBL Sansibar Black on top. The withe isn the middle is JBL Sansibar White.


Here is the first planted version, the morning after the plants went in. It'll be some time before it is anywhere near satisfying.

Hi Doc,
Wonderful, "A river runs through it." This should be an interesting set of pictures as it fills in and you may some changes along the way.
Frank

PS, I think you photo shopped the cat in the picture!



-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I like the name Frank, I may need to keep that.

A short update. I've had the CO2 cylinder refilled and set that up yesterday afternoon. In the evening I replaced three of the old lamps, and I hope this will give the plants a needed boost as the first beginnings of algae are starting to show. Since it's a fresh started tank I expect to be fighting algae for the first month or two, but I hope I can keep it to a minimum, as it always makes everything so unsightly.

About the CO2, I had a near disaster in the evening when I heard a crack during the installation of the new lamps. Pretty soon I saw water on the floor and my heart stopped for a second as I feared the glass had broken somewhere. Luckily it wasn’t anything that bad. As it turned out, the plastic lid of the bubble counter I had installed earlier in the day had cracked. That counter has been running happily for quite a few years, but had been dry since the move, my guess is the plastic got brittle and could not handle the new pressure. Whatever the case, I removed the thing and caught the crack in time. If that had happened during the night, I would probably have ended with 20 odd gallons of water on the floor. So I’m quite happy it went the way it did.

It's been a while.

Life's been busy, we adopted a second child and with all the extra work that comes with that the tank has been given a lot less attention. My CO2 tank ran empty about a year and a half ago and as it then needed to be pressure checked I decided to move to a lower maintenance setup. The new (led) light fixture I bought some time ago has a half light mode, so that only runs half the leds it normally would do, and my grolux T5 I only have on for a couple of hours in the evening.

It did mean that a lot of the plants slowly died off as their light requirements simply weren't met, but the added benefit was that I no longer had to struggle against algae. There are now a couple of species of javafern, cryptocoryne and bolbitus in the tank and I find it looks surprisingly pleasing. It also saves me on energy cost, the bills for CO2 every 3 months or so and the maintenance is super easy.

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Really nice to see an update, tank looks great!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

This site seems to have gone to sleep, so I'll do my part to give it a tiny nudge. Here's my tank as of last night after a little trim. It is still very low tech, as the CO2 cylinder still hasn't been pressure-checked, but the current set of plants don't seem to mind too much.

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