The Island

[buck]

I've had a bit of time to clean up and start work on my 6ft tank. I'm going for an amazonianish island scape lay out. A few things are still up for input, I'm not 100% set on the 3rd species of fish and a few plants I'm 50/50 on. 

Discus and Corydoras are the only locked in fish, the exact species of Cory is still up in the air ill probably just get 10 or so of what ever is easy to get at the time. Ill also be adding a small schooling fish like cardinal tetra's but I'm debating a native/PNG Blue eyes (red neon/ neon blue) or rhads. seeing as the tank is going to be discus focused i think they should do OK with the higher temp.

Plant layout will be a dwarf hair grass lawn with some Hydrocotyle Tripatita Japan mini on the edges back left and rights of the island will have Blxya Japonica and further in will have Blxya Aubertii. Thats the only hard and fast Im thinking of placing crypts though out the lawn and some smaller swards around the base of the front of the roots weeping moss and Bucephalandra or Anubias Nana on the log pointing out and fissidens scattered across the other roots to add that aged effect.     

 

HARD SCAPE:

Mangrove roots

Black basalt 

River sand 

ADA Amazonia

Equipment:

FX6

ocean free surfclear surface skimmer

6.5 kg keg king co2

2ft green elements LED

4ft pet worx led

will need to get a heater but thats ages away 

Ideas for FLORA:

Eleocharis belem
Hydrocotyle tripatita jap mini
Blxya japonica
Blyxa aubertii
Cypt wendtii "brown"
Echinodorus tropica
Weeping moss
Fissidens
Bucephalandra sp. or anubias nana

FORNA:

Discus

Corydoras

Shrimp culls

 

pics to follow

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Edited July 19, 2016 by buck

[NoGi]

Sounds interesting can't wait for the pictures

[zn30]

I think your choice of fish are perfect for what your putting together, we wait with bated breath, looking forward to the pics.

[buck]

Of Course the sand will be smoothed out and ill add a little more aquasoil in spots but this is basicly the hard scape 

[NoGi]

Looking sharp mate. I likes it.

[buck]

today was d day! got my hair grass plugs and some hydrocotyle jap mini in. so don't expect this to get to exciting to quickly, im in for the long hall with this dry start I'm got going to flood it prematurely haha 

[NoGi]

Nice work, I remember the days of planting hair grass in my 4'. So painfully slow lol

[KeenShrimp]

@buck, your forest/island looks awesome?

[jc12]

Are you planning to hook up that 'little' 6ft tall CO2 bottle to this tank? ?

[buck]

Oh this little thing? Yeah it should be enough i think @jc12

19 hours ago, NoGi said:

Nice work, I remember the days of planting hair grass in my 4'. So painfully slow lol

Luckly i only have 2ftx1ftish of actual planted area! Breaking down the 8 pots in to plugs was the only painfull part. Planting the plugs was a breeze! 

18 hours ago, KeenShrimp said:

@buck, your forest/island looks awesome?

Thanks dude?

[buck]

[Munroco]

I admire your patience. I think this is gonna look pretty special

[buck]

[buck]

So i couldn't help buy bid on an auction for 100 stems and i won. So i loaded the animals in to the ark and so began the flood! 

new additions to plants are Eriocaulon lividum, Syngonanthus sp 'Belem', Tonina fluviatilis and 2 others i still need to double check but i think Rotala sp "Green" and Mayaca fluviatilis.  

Im cranking that CO2 to try and get them kicked off, the hair grass is taking its sweet time to carpet and the clover is making heaps ground so i guess it will be my carpet? Shoulda just got 2 pots of it and left the hair grass out haha ?? lol 

ill keep posting even if they all melt and it goes to poo so stay tuned! In a month or so ill add some live stock when im 100% sure the tanks eco system has established. 

Edited August 19, 2016 by buck

[jayc]

Love the clovers. It makes a tank look so ... natural.

 

How are you going to keep the ADA substrate from invading the sand areas? 

It's already creeping onto the sand.

 

Oh, as a suggestion for a feature fish for your tank ... I have a pair of Aphyosemion Bitaeniatum Lagos strain for sale if you are interested. PM me for a price. 

 

Edited August 19, 2016 by jayc

[jc12]

Looking good. Will be keen to come around in a month's time and check it out... especially when you are ready to add live stock. ;)

[buck]

6 hours ago, jayc said:

Love the clovers. It makes a tank look so ... natural.

 

How are you going to keep the ADA substrate from invading the sand areas? 

It's already creeping onto the sand.

 

Oh, as a suggestion for a feature fish for your tank ... I have a pair of Aphyosemion Bitaeniatum Lagos strain for sale if you are interested. PM me for a price. 

 

im not to stressed about the ada rolling on to the sand, it i was more diligent in the set up that probably wouldn't be there but once the hair grass and hydrocotyle really take hold ill have a crack at cleaning the stray ada up. 

As for stock im going to be leaning towards a discus tank so the temp might be a little high for Aphyosemion?

 

3 hours ago, jc12 said:

Looking good. Will be keen to come around in a month's time and check it out... especially when you are ready to add live stock. ;)

for sure dude! fingers crossed not to much melts haha   

[jayc]

Yes, it might be too hot for killis

[buck]

[DemonCat]

Very awesome! 

[buck]

So from a full tank every thing looks peachy but up close, fml, small issues every where! *pulls tank down and moves forum* 

nah just the expected teething issues of a first big high tech tank. Im sure im lacking some nutriants as im only dosing dino pee and some lovely old trace stuff i had laying around. 

As you might be able to make out from the blurry potato camera pics ive got old growth dieing off, and some of the new stuff on the belem is yellowing too. 

[neo-2FX]

Looks fantastic @buck!

Great choice of plants.

[buck]

The tank now has 8 discus and 2 rams (from @jc12! they look amazing!). I've picked up a Aqua Illumination AI PRIME HD (big thanks to Age Of Aquariums!) to see if that fixes the growth issues, i feel like there just isn't enough light getting to the plants that are having issues. so ill see how this improves the situation, I'll be putting in on tonight so I'll update with pics of how it looks. I've also ordered 10 Adolfi Corydoras and 30 cardinal tetras so soon it should really look like a fish tank rather then just a plant tank.  

Edited September 26, 2016 by buck

[buck]

New light isn't what i hoped it would be as far as bright goes but ill see how the plants respond. Ill run the other light as well as this and hopefully it makes the difference 

[buck]

So at the end of the day with the new lights im starting to feel like ive underestimated the prime. The ludwigia mini's new growth, there is heaps because it grows so damn fast! Is looking nice and red. 

The tank needs a trim again so tomorrow ill be mowing the lawn thining the hydrocotyle, topping and replanting the super red. Im going to trim back the ratty belem and see if the new light fixes its fugly growth issues.