Robjack's Lowtech 50 Litre Journal [growing]

[Themuleous]

Thats a great piece of wood, it has real potentail to be a good focal point I reckon

 

[robjack]

Quick update:

I managed to find some smaller size gravel in a little pet shop (you may have read the thread about it). Got to work redoing the tank earlier, taking almost all the old gravel out, leaving some at the back for depth. I recently read about the "Golden Ratio" and focal points for tanks, so decided to experiment with this. Luckily, the pointy bit of the left hand piece of the wood is pretty much dead on an ideal focal point if i position it to the right of the tank, so that I did, placing the bulb in front of it.

I also shifted the left piece of wood to the extreme left, creating a a sort of gulley in the middle. This I will be filling with the crypts at the back, and as I've said Sprite at the back right. I've shifted all the plants around now pretty much, having read more on the principles of aquascaping. Hopefully, this layout will fill out and have longetivity as a tank.

First pic: changing the substrate must have added a load of oxygen to the tank, as the bulb is pearling .
Definately deserves a picture (with added border for awesomeness )

Next, a closeup of Sam's replanted HM (looking a little distressed, I'm sure it will recover with a little TLC)

And finally, a full tank shot. (For some reason this shot nastily accents the bulbs redder colour (Arcadia Original Tropical).

As I've said, the Crypts and Sprite are on order at the LFS. I think they get deliveries on Wednesdays, so hopefully this one or the next.

Let me know what you think, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob.

 

[Themuleous]

Looks good mate, keep up the good work it'll work great once its had time to fill out

 

[Luke_e]

Cracking layout with the bogwood .

 

[robjack]

Time for an update folks

Got the Crypts and Wisteria today. I've no idea what sort of crypts they are, just that they're "mixed" (cheers LFS ). I also got some Seachem Flourish Excel on monday, which I've been dosing as stated on the bottle since - one thing, on the bottle it says to dose "daily or every other day". Which should I be doing? I'm also dosing Interpet Flora Boost, weekly and in the quantity it states.

They had some Ghost shrimp in the LFS, and so I thought they'd be a nice first addition to the tank (3). They seem to be happy, moving around in the slated Java Moss at the moment.

Anyway, onto the pics. The Caboma/Egeria/Extra Wisteria is only in there to stop any algae blooms - how long would you say to leave them in for? (tank has been setup 2 weeks on friday). Current photoperiod is 3 hours @ 1wpg, 2 hours @ 2wpg, siesta, 5 hours @ 2wpg.

First, the tank:

And two shots of one of the shrimp.

As always, your comments are all greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob.

 

[Themuleous]

Couple of things mate

i) If you can dose excel daily then I would, if it says its ok on the bottle, then the more often you add it the better

ii) Do you have the CO2 running yet?

iii) If this is an EI tank you'll need tons more plants than you've got to keep the algae at bay, George says beteen 50-75% of the substrate covered. However you're jsut at the cut off point light wise (i.e. at 2WPG) so you may be ok, time will tell!

Nice shrimp not sure how they'll do for aglae control but worth a try Are you still suffering from tannins? Looks quite brown the water!

Also, taking the pics, if you have an automatic camera focus on the darkest part of the tank than move the camera so the tank is central, that'll mean it gets the light exposure from the dark part on the tank and the rest should be clearly visable then, well thats the theory anyway!

Like the set up 2, looks like you've got some nice pieces of wood in there

Sam

 

[robjack]

Thanks, I'll dose daily then. As for CO2, I'm not having any in this tank. Hence the Excel as a compromise for carbon.

It's not an EI tank, the only two "ferts" i intend adding are the excel and the flora boost. Nice, easy, low tech B). So does the fast growers thing still apply? I also meant to ask about water changes. I've not done any yet - should I be? How much water?

As for the pics, the reason they were dark was I was playing around with the camera settings. If i use the auto mode, I tend to get the horrible red colour seen in previous pics, so I was trying to let in less light then brighten it in photoshop. Still got some tweaking to do!

Thanks again for the comments,

Rob.

 

[demonmagus]

hmmm, the plants on the left just look like some bunched randomly, maybe if you pick one and bunch that up?

 

[robjack]

The Caboma/Egeria/Extra Wisteria is only in there to stop any algae blooms - how long would you say to leave them in for? (tank has been setup 2 weeks on friday). Current photoperiod is 3 hours @ 1wpg, 2 hours @ 2wpg, siesta, 5 hours @ 2wpg.

I don't intend on leaving it there for long, so i've just rammed them in to soak up some nutrients

Thanks,

Rob.

 

[Themuleous]

The problem here is that you're at 2WPG, for low-tech tanks you really need to be below this and for EI tnak over this. So you're excatly in the middle. That means I haven't the first clue what you should be doing! Its anyones guess what will happen in this tank, you might find its just right and the light is just a little to low for mass algae invasion, in which case the fast growers are not really necessary. If on the other hand this tank is just slightly on the EI side of 2WPG then you'll need lots of fast growers.

As for water chagnes, I would do the 'standard' between 10-25% per week.

Well thats just my thoughts though!

Sam

 

[robjack]

Its anyones guess what will happen in this tank

Oh, a pioneer of planted tanks! Surely this tank will boost me to legendary status in the community?

I performed a ~15% water change yesterday, and today, I seem to have shrimp babies! Loads and loads of little tiny specs of white flying around the tank - at first i thought they were just tank waste, and then saw them making clear movements. I can't believe it!

In terms of keeping them alive, I think I'll just let nature take its course, or maybe add some liquifry, unless anyone else has any advice?

Quite exciting stuff

Rob.

 

[Themuleous]

Have just had a thought, being a relatively small tank 2WPG probably isn't going to be enough for full EI, the whole WPG rule doesn't work for smaller tanks, so suspect you'll be fine having i non-EI.

Sam

 

[Qays]

George told me my tank will be ok if i plant alot, with 2wpg on my 42 litre.

 

[robjack]

Time for a photo-update, everything seems to be doing well, in particular the bulb, which produces a new leaf every two days.

I'm thinking of swaping one of my tubes from a Freshwater to a Tropical one to get rid of the reddish tinge. It might be the other way round, I can't remember .

On Monday I'll be setting off for a big European trip for the next six weeks . For the first 3 weeks, the tank will remain as it is, as I can get someone to daily dose Excel and the weekly dose of Flora Boost. After that, I might be able to get someone to put a dose of both once a week, but no more. Or would it just be better to let them grow without supplements for three weeks? Growth isn't important, survival is.

Shrimps have produced a load more babies, the first batch are now slightly more than just a speck of white .

When I get back, I'm thinking of switching the gravel to a sand substrate with Laterite, as I find it much easier to plant stuff in, and I think it looks nicer. No doubt I'll come up with several ideas on holiday, too .

So any tips on what to do re:dosing would be much appreciated, as would other general comments.

Thanks,

Rob.

 

[Themuleous]

TBH if youre planning a massive re-scape when you get back then I would leave it! As long as the fish get fed then see what happens! You'll be stripping it down to add teh laterite anyway.

Sam