Hi guys, I dont know if you saw my little pico called solitude? Well, I moved house and left it sitting on the windowsill at the old house for 4 weeks with no electricity, so no filter running, just 14 hours direct daylight everyday lol. I was expecting it to just have the ivy brance the tree was made from sitting in a sandy bottomed tank with a layer of green algae over the glass. How wrong was I, the moss which was growing on the tree was nearly dead when I left and when I returned it had grown beautifully and created this amazing lush looking tree. I moved the tank to the new house (not difficult as its 1 litre),brought over my pico external filter and left it sitting on the garden table so it gets some light still.
Part one of the plan is to rebuild the pico external filter with the filter that came with the ARC 35 I recently planted to get a good 100 x turnover lol. I know its a lot but you'll see the reason for that soon, it will have a lily style inlet and a spray bar and may even be built into the lid of the lighting unit if I decide not too hang it over the top (let me know if you'd like an updated write up Ian?).
Part two is too build my own hanging pico LED lighting (let me know if you'd like a write up for the lighting Ian?). It may sit right on top of the tank but probably not as its a 1 litre tank and will have 2 x 3watt LED's over the top so a bit of space between lighting an tank may be a good idea.
Hardscape will still incorporate my miniature tree as I think its a very natural looking tree and it took me hours to make from old dried ivy branches. It will also have some mini landscape rock which I have crushed to tiny size.
Substrate will be a mix of Florabase crushed and mixed with some sand to give me a substrate I can sculpt, it will be capped with some very very fine gravel or sand as I'm going to be planting HC in there.
Plants will be HC, Java Moss and some Fissidens Fontanus.
Stock will be a Cherry Shrimp or two.
No heater needed as its dinky lol.
Dosing will be 0.05ml TPN+ and 0.02ml Excel daily.
Now for my worry, this little tank will be going in between my two other tanks in the front room and I'm worried the lighting from this will also shine into the other tanks as the unit will be hanging. This makes me worry about the balance in the other two a little but hopefully will be ok.
Anyway here's a pic or two of whats going on at the moment, I started building the hanging lighting frame from some solid oak flooring I had left over after the house move and playing around with ideas of how to mount the LED's and keep them cool. I bought 2 x 3watt high power LED's in cool white, 2 x 12v drivers, 2 x heatsinks and 2 x 45 degree lens'. Well here's a few pic's to start with, very much in the early stages.
Please excuse the garden ash tray.
Not bad considering I only had a shoddy handsaw with a 90 and 45 degree angle on the handle and some chisels lol.
Part one of the plan is to rebuild the pico external filter with the filter that came with the ARC 35 I recently planted to get a good 100 x turnover lol. I know its a lot but you'll see the reason for that soon, it will have a lily style inlet and a spray bar and may even be built into the lid of the lighting unit if I decide not too hang it over the top (let me know if you'd like an updated write up Ian?).
Part two is too build my own hanging pico LED lighting (let me know if you'd like a write up for the lighting Ian?). It may sit right on top of the tank but probably not as its a 1 litre tank and will have 2 x 3watt LED's over the top so a bit of space between lighting an tank may be a good idea.
Hardscape will still incorporate my miniature tree as I think its a very natural looking tree and it took me hours to make from old dried ivy branches. It will also have some mini landscape rock which I have crushed to tiny size.
Substrate will be a mix of Florabase crushed and mixed with some sand to give me a substrate I can sculpt, it will be capped with some very very fine gravel or sand as I'm going to be planting HC in there.
Plants will be HC, Java Moss and some Fissidens Fontanus.
Stock will be a Cherry Shrimp or two.
No heater needed as its dinky lol.
Dosing will be 0.05ml TPN+ and 0.02ml Excel daily.
Now for my worry, this little tank will be going in between my two other tanks in the front room and I'm worried the lighting from this will also shine into the other tanks as the unit will be hanging. This makes me worry about the balance in the other two a little but hopefully will be ok.
Anyway here's a pic or two of whats going on at the moment, I started building the hanging lighting frame from some solid oak flooring I had left over after the house move and playing around with ideas of how to mount the LED's and keep them cool. I bought 2 x 3watt high power LED's in cool white, 2 x 12v drivers, 2 x heatsinks and 2 x 45 degree lens'. Well here's a few pic's to start with, very much in the early stages.
Please excuse the garden ash tray.
Not bad considering I only had a shoddy handsaw with a 90 and 45 degree angle on the handle and some chisels lol.
