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my snow white

It was nice and needed to grow indeed, but just Wood and Fissidens Fox was to simple for me. I only have one aquascape tank and just starting, so this was the first test. Now I want to learn more about growing a green carpet and all kind of plants that should fit in a nano. But when I would have more tanks in a row, one like this would be cool too. Urbanaquaria has some very nice clean aquascapes. I also was inspired by this one: This is also a nice clean example form someone else:

I did it a few months ago. It was very nice, but also kinda boring. So now I started over with rocks and plants. This was just the beginning phase. At this moment I have a lot more plants already.

All set up!

yeah it really gives that island feel, thats one of the other styles i really like atm island style scapes

yeah the floaters kill it for me. but tother then that it looks amazing! I really like the minimalistic approach. Its defs up there in my top 5 favourite scape styles atm

Love it too. The floating plants are probably there to control nutrient build up and help reduce nitrates. With so little plants to achieve the minimal look, those floating plants are really needed.

I can't help stuffing my tanks with different plants.... But I really like the zen of this tank. Looks wicked on the sand to. I'd even ditch the floating plants.

That's exciting! One step closer. Know what you mean about costs adding up ;)

Looks awesome. Love your plumbing work and attention to detail.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. It doesn't work on Neocaridina, that is, Cherry shrimps. Only works on Caridina, as it was designed that way.

woohoo good news :-)

if you put a t piece with tap just above the pump you can bleed off there back to sump to adjust flow going to tanks. check out my rack biuld cherry lane

you have done a very good job, congrat's, however i would suggest changing the elbows for t pieces on the overflows from tanks, you get a much better flow

It has been a couple of days so I thought I would post a quick update. I'll start with the bad news. On Friday I found a second shrimp that has become opaque and has shortened antennas. Here is a shot of him. As for the good news, I don't think I have lost any shrimp. The two sick shrimp both are behaving normal and are eating. Perhaps they will pull through this. Other positive news, the rest of the shrimp all seem fine. My one berried female is doing well too.

Hahahaha!! You forget, this is me your are referring to! Mr impulsive spender!! Any sales I have made are just funding more and more stock, products and general nonsense! But yeah, that tank has more than paid for itself. And has helped the next stage begin.... But that will be another thread!! :)

Installed a sun sun 55 watt uv steriliser..... Cheap will see how it goes. Bottom row has benibachi soil.... I really like the look of this substrate it just has a nice look about it Top row has Mr Aqua . Only because I had it laying around. Feel like it might be a mistake to use it as to date it's only lasted 12 months. Next step is the sponge filters and airlines( on order). And lighting also on order. In the mean time I have already started cycling.

It's a shame I don't have anything competition worthy at the moment...... I'm definitely in next year! Hopefully someone from here represents..... I'll pay your entry fee ;)

Thats a great spraybar mod JayC. They should be like that out of the box.

A mate and I just returned from East Gippsland after a couple of days running around hunting various things. As is normal for us we left Melbourne about 10pm thursday and drove until about 4am - that way we maximise our time out there and don't spend a potentially good day sitting in the car. We had a few objectives for the trip and as normal only fulfilled some of those. Our primary goal to check the last possible location in Victoria for a generally NSW Utricularia species (uniflora) had to be aborted for the second time, this time due to track closures and an approaching severe thunderstorm. The site is so remote it's no wonder that nobody gets out there. Next time we'll need a chainsaw in the car to get through. BTW I intend to bore you all with this non-aquarium stuff before moving on. Deal with it! A secondary goal was to photograph an orchid species in the same general area, which we did achieve: Dipodium variegatum, near Mallacoota Another secondary goal was to see a couple of tree frog species in the rainforest pockets out there. Litora citropa (Blue Mountains Tree Frog) is known from Victoria these days but we couldn't find any adult frogs, a shame as neither of us has seen this species in the wild. Litoria nudidigita was the other target and we found them in abundance. I have seen these before when they were still called L. phyllochroa but my mate had never seen them. Hunting frogs around rivers at night is not something I carry my camera for, so fortunately we also found one during the day: Litoria nudidigita, near Cann River We saw some interesting things walking around the rainforests. Unfortunately it was very dark and I discovered the tripod mount had fallen off my camera somewhere (doh), so the shots are all handheld and pretty average. For the flowers below (and frog above) I was standing on tip toes and just couldn't set the focal plane where I wanted. Asclepiad species (something like a Hoya) another nice tiny flower Thurra river tributary - typical sandy bottom and tannic water Forest floor We bumped into a young German bloke traveling alone and for his benefit I grabbed a nice male Water Dragon for him to photograph. That made his day, so a minute later my mate saw a White-lipped snake and I grabbed it too as it raced off the path. As I picked it up I saw the Tiger stripes on it and realised the mistake. We all got an uneasy laugh out of that but I think the young tourist will remember that walk for some time. Sorry but my hands were too full to get photos. Something I've only seen a couple of times before is the larvae of a butterfly - Jalmenus evagoras, the Imperial Blue Hairstreak, with its attendant ants. In the same way that terrestrial orchids fascinate me because of their reliance on a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungus, the butterfly family Lycaenidae (blues) fascinate me due to their symbiotic relationships with ants. The ants protect the caterpillars and pupae and are rewarded with a sugary secretion from the butterfly larvae. Nature is wonderful. At another site I was able to photograph a pretty amazing dragonfly, despite having the wrong lens on the camera. Eventually he allowed me to sneak close enough to get this heavily cropped pic: I'll wind up "part 1" here because of time constraints and prepare myself for part 2, which will mainly cover mosses, shrimp and their habitats.

Some of the materials,