journal 22L Ocean Free Nano

[JacksonL]

Yeah, Cherries of some sort. Leaning towards Red Rilis at the moment but will see what is available when the time comes to stock it.

[Astro]

Hi JacksonL, hi to you to raukem86

I just found your journal tonight, great reading posts by plant enthusiasts. I agree with Diciples comment that it's refreshing to here store names that I can relate to.

Ive got a lot to learn so it's great reading through your posts. The DSM is a brilliant idea. I'm going to have a go at this method of aquascaping my 60L nano when I get it. 

Looking forward to seeing how yours progresses :)

[JacksonL]

Week 3 update:

not a lot to update, but starting to see some growth, hopefully everything is about to take off!

Lileopsis is starting to put out new shoots and the root growth visible through the side growth is very encouraging.

Pogostemon continues to grow at a good rate, new leaves are coming out every week.

HC seems to have some good root growth and is putting out a few new leaves, but hasn't done a lot yet.

photos:

[Disciple]

So much patience! I couldnt do it. I just want flood my tanks, cycle them and thats why mine wont look as good as this one will lol

Good work man!

[JacksonL]

I'm super busy at the moment so not having to do anything except for mist it with water in the morning is nice. Once work quietens down a bit and I have some free time it may be hard not to fill it full of water!

[neo-2FX]

This is going to look fantastic once flooded!

I admire your patience.

[NoGi]

Nice work, love the pogo

[Astro]

Looking awesome! 

Because it's a DSM planting will it take the plants a while to adjust once you do flood the tank?

[JacksonL]

Looking awesome! 

Because it's a DSM planting will it take the plants a while to adjust once you do flood the tank?

I think so, but this is a new method to me so I will be learning as I journal this. The Lileopsis I got was from a submersed tank and it has lost some of the leaves as it adapted to being emmersed, but has grown a heap of roots and is putting out some new shoots. I imagine when I flood the same happens again with some leaf loss and new submersed growth will come through. The main advantage is getting the plants established, especially the HC which is such a pain to plant in a flooded tank without it being constantly disturbed or troubled by Algae. Just gives them a head start.

Also as I won't have livestock in it when I flood it, I will be cranking the CO2 for the first week or so to make the adaption a bit easier on the plants then slowly dialling it back ready for the Shrimp.

[Astro]

;) Awesome confirmation. I attemp the DSM I wa thinking exactly that re High amount of Co2 at the beggining and diakl it down to a balanced safe level before I add the shrimp. 

When are you planning on filling it ? "looking forward to seeing this tank once you have it cranking" What is the plant with the crinkled leaves? I love that one! 

Edited September 2, 2015 by Astro

[JacksonL]

Pogostemom Helferi is the crinkled plant.

hopefully the tank will be flooded in about 6 weeks!

[JacksonL]

Well I think I may have to finally get around to flooding this thing, just waiting on a few bits and pieces for the co2 setup to arrive.

Some rocks have been removed, some added in and some rearranged. The Pogostemon Helferi has been removed as it just didn't fit in with the look I was going for.

Apologies for the blurry picture, quick phone snap and the glass is filthy.

A reminder of what it looked like 2 months ago

Edited October 17, 2015 by JacksonL

[GotCrabs]

Coming a long very nicely! That HC has boomed, lookin' good!

[JacksonL]

It's Happening!!

Edited November 7, 2015 by JacksonL

[Shrimpscaper]

Good luck with the flood..?

[JacksonL]

And it's finally an aquarium!

Now the hard part, getting everything balanced, setup and the filter cycled ready for some shrimp!

 

[neo-2FX]

And it's finally an aquarium!

Now the hard part, getting everything balanced, setup and the filter cycled ready for some shrimp!

 

Damn!! Looking great dude!

[Disciple]

Congrats man,

The patience has really paid off. Looks great!

[Shrimpmaster]

Greate scape!

Awesome, I'm doing about the same dry start and behind your schedule for about 6 weeks. HC is just about to start growing. Any tips I should absolutely do or not do, please let me know :).

[JacksonL]

24 minutes ago, Shrimpmaster said:

Greate scape!

Awesome, I'm doing about the same dry start and behind your schedule for about 6 weeks. HC is just about to start growing. Any tips I should absolutely do or not do, please let me know :).

I really didn't do a lot, I put a cheap analog humidity meter from eBay in the tank and just gave the tank a good misting whenever it dropped to about 75% which would get it back up to 85% or so, just tried to keep it at that level for the journey. I had a bit of stringy fungus stuff at the start because I was using gladwrap over the top, I assume it was either too humid or not getting enough fresh air. After that I just used the loose fitting glass lid that came with the tank instead. It took a week or two for the HC to start noticeably growing but about the 3rd or 4th week everything started to kick into overdrive and grow rapidly.

oh and in a few places where the HC wasn't growing very dense I just trimmed the tops off the HC and left the trimmings where it fell next to the original plant and they took root and filled in the spaces nicely.

Edited November 7, 2015 by JacksonL

[shrimpaholich]

very nice setup

[buck]

Now thats how you dry start! 

 

Looks amazing dude! 

 

Edited November 7, 2015 by buck

[JacksonL]

It's been a long wait but this tank is finally a shrimp tank!

20 Red Rilis have been added to the tank last night and seem to have settled in well!

they are of varying quality, there is one showing a lot of blue in the body, a couple with very nice rili markings and a lot of 'cull' grade in there, but it's somewhere to start from!

 

as for the tank itself, it's not looking 100% so I won't put a full tank picture right now. Just after flooding I went away for a week and being a new tank I didn't bother with adding any fertilisers, big mistake as I came back to a cyano infestation. I have since got it under control by getting the fert regime back on track and manual removal, I lost a few chunks of HC in the process and disturbed a lot of the carpet so just waiting for it to get decent coverage again.

I have a couple of questions for the SKF brains trust though:

1) the foods I have for the shrimp are: barley straw pellets, soya husks, shrimp crumble, alfalfa pellets and Hikari Shrimp Cuisine, oh and frozen blood worms I feed the fish in my other tank.

What would be a good feedig schedule using these? And should I get anything different?

and 2) is it a good idea to add an Oto in to help with the glass cleaning? I have always added them in groups of 3 but don't think this tank (22 litres) would be big enough for 3, or even 2?

[JacksonL]

Any input on the above 2 questions?

[Disciple]

With the barley straw and Soya husks I usually just put some in when its all been eaten.

Since you only have 20 rilis in the tank I would say put one of the other foods in once every couple of day and that should be heaps.

You can have otto's but with rilis they will mutliply really fast and they will eat all the algae. Ottos are ok with shrimp I had 6 in a 80 litre tank and they were fine but I noticed there was never any algae so i gave 3 to my bro lol