Cats Amazonia

[Andy Vox]

Flick to page 3 to see the start of cats Amazonia, prior to this I was just fiddling.
Name came from, cat litter substrate and the 3 amazon swords in the centre of the scape.

Currently as of 29/7/12:

The learning curve has been steep and from starting with this January, a lot of algae, an underpowered internal filter, DIY CO2 and two T8 lights I have moved to the following set-up.

Tank: Juwel Rio 300
Filter: Fluval 405 and Eheim 2213 externals (supplemented with a Koralia 2600
Heater: Hydor 300w inline
CO2: Fire Extinguisher with glass/ceramic diffuser
Ferts: APS all in one 15ml per 50 litres daily
Substrate: Pro-complete two bags with gravel on top.
Lighting: 4 x 4ft T5, 1 Daylight, 1 plant grow, 2 14000k marine (to achieve an attractive colour within the tank that looks better to the human eye)

Apologies in advance for the IPhone quality photos.

This is how it looked in January:

Now I have been keeping fish for a few years, I'd never had any luck with plants and had sort of lost interest in keeping aquariums in general.
So I jumped in listening to my LFS, big mistake, after lots of research realised I'd gone about things all wrong (hence the lack of growth) and slowly bought the things I needed. After a big change around a few weeks back and getting all the right equipment I have been seeing much more encouraging growth to the point that I can notice it daily, very little algae bar a few dots on the glass and generally very healthy leaves throughout the tank.
It looked like this as of yesterday.

Pearling on the newly planted HC.

Plec Party


My biggest question at the moment would be in regards to flow around the tank. At the moment I have the spray bar on the left hand side of the tank from the external filter, another spray bar underneath that on the same wall powered by a 1000lph powerhead, on the right i have at the back the filter intake and at the front the koralia pointing down onto the HC which seems to do a good job of putting co2 around most of the tank.
Is there a more effective way / better way to setup the spray bars / koralia to increase flow around the tank?

My intention is; having seen a good piece of bogwood, to rip the tank apart and start over. Again, what would be the best filter / powerhead layout / tank layout to best compliment the tank?

Any questions, advice or opinions are welcomed.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Nice looking tank there, Id say put your inlets and outlets in the same end of the tanks so the flow circulates the whole tank before being drawn back into the filter and use the koralia to compliment it, so filter inlet and outlet on the left, koralia on the right, mid way up the tank facing the substrate. that way the whole flow goes in the same circular direction.

P.S. Is that Stellata in the rear right corner?

 

[Andy Vox]

Nice looking tank there, Id say put your inlets and outlets in the same end of the tanks so the flow circulates the whole tank before being drawn back into the filter and use the koralia to compliment it, so filter inlet and outlet on the left, koralia on the right, mid way up the tank facing the substrate. that way the whole flow goes in the same circular direction.

P.S. Is that Stellata in the rear right corner?

Thank you!

See I tried that, but the flow across the top wasn't as strong, it was like it lost momentum half way across the tank whereas I feel the way it is it's also pulling the water slowly. I imagine that would work nicely in a smaller tank, or if I had more power from my external filter, but the current gives up before it reaches the other end, hence me supplementing it with a powerhead through a spray bar directly beneath it, but this still doesn't seem to allow it to reach the other end. I can see where your coming from and in theory it should work, but there just isn't enough power. I ideally want to hide my koralia too. The huge mass of vallis is only adding to the issue I imagine. I might try your layout when I empty the tank to start over then selectively position plants to ensure I'm not reducing flow.

I've read a lot about using a spray bar across the back at the top with an inline CO2 diffuser but then where to put the koralia without disrupting the flow pattern. Maybe I just need to buy another external and run them together...

I thought it was Limnophila sp. 'Mini' I could well be wrong I bought it from the LFS.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Strange that it does that, my tank has that layout with the filter and its a jungle but doesn't have flow slowing probs, oh well if it works and you have good flow all round the tank you should be ok, just watch out for dead spots bottom left is all. Saying that tho my filter is 800lph running a 60Litre lol so prob why it doesn't happen, you could do away with the koralia if you bought a stronger filter one day anyway, something like an FX5 if your one ever packed up.

Oh if you ever wanna sell any cuttings of that Limnophila let me know.

 

[Andy Vox]

Yeah I'd love a FX5, just they are pricey. I'll look into it or possibly another filter of the same size.
The bottom left is being battered by the koralia, I'm more concerned with the back right tbh.. I might try moving the koralia up, and the outlets onto the same side. As you suggested the input and output would be on the same side. Hopefully then the koralia would give it enough umph to reach the otherside. I think it's something I need to be vigilant of when I decide to rescape

Yeah I'd love a FX5, just they are pricey. I'll look into it or possibly another filter of the same size.
The bottom left is being battered by the koralia, I'm more concerned with the back right tbh.. I might try moving the koralia up, and the outlets onto the same side. As you suggested the input and output would be on the same side. Hopefully then the koralia would give it enough umph to reach the otherside. I think it's something I need to be vigilant of when I decide to rescape.

In terms of the koralia pushing onto the HC, it's not doing as well as I'd have hoped, is there a chance that it's pushing nutrients away rather than allowing them to flow onto them? Maybe putting it more towards the glass would help?

It's growing very nicely at the moment into a good sized bush, when I rescape which I imagine will be In the next few weeks I'll let you know. How do they propagate? I take it a few stem cuttings would grow? I haven't trimmed it all yet.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah you just cut the stems off and re plant, hope the re scape goes well, how long has your HC been in, it may need time to settle, most of the time its gorwn emersed and has to change to submerged growth, if its not new then providing your giving a good fert with N&P along side the CO2 and it has flow it should do fine, HC isn't a high light plant as most people think, it will grow under low light so I can only imagine its one of the previously mentioned factors.

 

[Andy Vox]

It's been in 10 days, it's pearling regularly. There is plenty of co2 and I dose ferts daily. 50% water change a week.
I hope it takes hold!

 

[RossC]

Looking awesome

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Should do, got any close up pics of it and we'll be able to tell you if its emersed or submerged growth.

 

[Andy Vox]

Cheers Ross!

Here some close ups. I could grab the decent camera and take some if you can't establish it from these.

Thanks for the help!
As you can see they are bubbling away. I messed with the flow from the spray bars and moved the koralia slightly down and pointing more towards the front and it seems to have helped!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

The larger leaves will be emersed ones but you have submerged growth on there so it looks promising.

 

[Andy Vox]

Hooray!!!
Thank you for all the help. There's definitely more going on since I played with the flow and upped the co2 slightly!

 

[Andy Vox]

Rescape time.

Before:

During:

new bogwood. See where this is going?

After, just waiting for it to go dark and the water to clear then I'll get another.

 

[ian]

nice bit of wood there mate! looks great.

 

[Andy Vox]

Thanks Ian! Bargain buy that piece of wood was.
Another cheeky picture:

Since that photo was taken I've added another external filter to help with A) clearing the water and B) adding some more flow. Only a small Eheim 2213 but every little helps, I also used a stool behind the tank to put the externals on and due to the reduction in height and pipework length it has really helped adding some more flow.
I created a spray bar myself from some waste pipe by drilling some holes in and have put it along the back of the tank facing directly forwards with one external output at each end and the . The koralia is now on the other side along with the co2 which seems to be helping to keep the CO2 in the tank and push it around the entire tank. I'm still not 100% that its as good as it could be, the wood really makes things difficult, its just so big!

Please excuse the horrendous ms paint drawing but this is to explain the current layout.
The CO2 diffuser is below the koralia, there is some conflicting flow. Can anyone help with trying to get this right? The log is really making things challenging.

This is the extent of my art skills.

Oh I also added some Glosso to the front left, im hoping that the HC and glosso will meet in the middle!

Oh yeah ps3steveo, if you read this I think you may have been right, I'm going to try spray bars top right and inlets bottom right and the koralia on the middle left facing the substrate. Hopefully that will get me somewhere, but any other potential configuration ideas would be brilliant.