3 tank

Annoyingly, after the maintenance on Friday, all but 1 shrimp kicked the bucket. Green hair algae is starting to creep in on the hardscape, substrate, older leaves of the limnophila and s repens, some parts of the pearl weed and all over the anubias.

I've also spotted really large bubbles coming out of the substrate at the back occasionally. When i checked it out, the old langa capping the dirt is festooned with algae and little bubbles are everywhere. I have no clue what is hiding in those little bubbles, but it definitely seems suspicious.

So either the bubbles are O2 bubbles from the algae, and the shrimp deaths were not related to the soil/bubbles issue in which case i can get more to control the hair algae and leave the tank be. Their deaths might have been due to a bigger waterchange than the usual 50%.
OR
The bubbles are something nasty like hydrogen sulfide, the shrimp deaths are definitely related, and i'll need to redo the tank and get some fresh aquasoil.

Thoughts? Do i need to provide more info? All things going as expected, i will hopefully be able to get a CO2 system next month. I also have a plant hitchhiking ramshorn snail with the betta currently who i'm definitely wanting to add to this tank

 

No rotten egg smell, so maybe not H2S. The smaller bubbles are all at about 1-3cm from the top of the substrate, so i don't think it is denitrification. The larger bubbles that sometimes happen might be from that though.

I think i need to do some more maintenance and get some replacement amanos and see how it goes from there.

 

Today has been a dumpster fire of a day for this tank. I had a bit of a late start, so only walked in to my home office at about 10am. The tank had clouds of algae all over, specifically on the side that gets the most sun (big surprise). I did my best to scrub algae from the glass, driftwood and some plants but to no avail. I then decided i needed to do a full restart, meaning new substrate, new layout for hardscape, scrub the tank and lily pipes etc. In my haste/enthusiasm to get going on cleaning everything, i broke the tip off the intake lily pipe, meaning i need to try and fix that or get a new one. To top it all off the polystyrene sheet under the tank is starting to collapse on 1 side, so that needs to be replaced.

Joy

I'm going to see about getting some stones, soil and a spring brush from my LFS, and a yoga mat from a sporting store for under the tank. Keeping the plants with the betta gives me some time to sit and refine the hardscape, so it doesn't need to be rushed.

So, safe to say that the "topsoil underneath old aquasoil with lots of natural sunlight" experiment is a failure, and now officially over

 

Such is life I think i need to stop experimenting with my main tank and just go with a tried and tested method. I have a smaller tank sitting empty just waiting to get used for something, so i'll probably use that for fiddling ideas in future

 

Sorry about this. Here I am sending you pics of my tank and I didn't even know that this happened to you.

Keep to see what you do with it this time.

 

So, the tank has been repositioned and restarted. I stopped off at my favourite LFS and got the following:
9kg bag of Prodibio soil with included bacteria and nutrient vials
1kg of decorative sand
6kg of Manten stone
Scape Liquid Carbon
Scape Complete
500ml Seachem Matrix
Seachem Flourish root tabs
Filter floss
Curved scissors
Curved tip pinsettes
Spring brush

So the process began. I took inspiration/blatantly copied the non-co2/low tech aquascape from Aquarium Gardens for my layout. It's a triangular scape with a patch of decorative sand at the front right corner. I also topped up the top tray of the Dophin C1000 with the extra Matrix, so filtration is now pretty much maxed out. 2 of the 3 trays are dedicated to mechanical filtration with foams of increasing density in each layer, and the 3rd tray is now brimming with Matrix.

I stored all my plants in the betta tank while deciding what i wanted and gathering supplies:


I then set about getting the hardscape ready. Stone layout took a while, but i think i eventually got it sorted. I used filter wool to plug the gaps in the stones to stop the aquasoil from falling into the decorative sand "beach":


After some time of fiddling with stone and driftwood layout, i finally got to a shape that i'm happy with:



The driftwood has been secured together with superglue and cotton pads in a few hidden spots, and thoroughly wedged in the rock formations. It feels a lot more solid than it did in the previous scape, which gives me some more confidence in it.

A view from above:


I suspect the rocks close to the driftwood will become lost in time, but i'm ok with that. They are mostly there for structural support.

Next stop was prep and planting. I decided that, rather than planting clumps of crypts, i should split them up and spread them out more to get the density going. I did not realise what i was getting myself into.

I started with the crypt wendtii 'green'. Originally i had 6 plants - it is now closer to 60. Some of the babies were too small to plant, so i discarded those. I spread them out around the driftwood, leaving the background and a small patch in the middle of the foreground entirely empty. I did the same thing for the crypt axelrodi, which hadn't reproduced quite as prolifically, but still managed about 30 plants from 6 originals. The axelrodi was randomly mixed in with the wendtii. Next was the crypt undulatus 'red', which i placed in the middle of the background section. Hopefully this does similarly to the others and makes tons of babies. It's definitely a much sturdier plant than the other 2 crypt species, with thicker stems and roots, so hopefully that correlates to being larger and filling in that chunk of background nicely.

I then moved onto stems. The limnophila aromatica was placed in the back left corner, spread out. Established stems grew a little, but it had sent out quite a few new stems which is good news. The rotala rotundifolia was placed behind the driftwood. This has made new stems like crazy, but no hint of the famous red. It probably won't happen without CO2 and some stronger light, but we shall see. The hemianthus micranthemoides was then planted in the back right corner, just under the lily pipes. I trimmed it down to about 4 cm pieces and spread them out to fill in gaps. The AR mini i placed right in the foreground, in the gap left by all the crypts. My plan is to keep this plant trimmed fairly short, so it doesn't take up too much space.

Epiphytes were last. Anubias was dotted around, with bolbitis and hygrophila pinnatifida wedged into the central lump of the driftwood. There is a pocket of aquasoil there that i'm hoping the pinnatifida finds and capitalises on.

Then, i added the decorative sand in the front corner and started filling up with water. The bag came included with the BacteriKit Soil product, which is some bacteria and nutrients for those bacteria in little glass vials that are broken and added to the soil. Filling up took a long time, as i didn't want to use a hosepipe and disrupt all my careful planting. Only plants that floated were the rotala, so a success.

Here's the tank:


I had to turn down the filter as it was blowing decorative sand everywhere. I'm going to be doing a 50% change every 2 days for the first 2 weeks, then change that to every 4 days for another 2 weeks, then back to the once a week change. The light is currently at about 30% as i'm trying to avoid the algae explosion while everything cycles and gets going. I'm also not going to be putting a heater in this tank yet, due to the lack of livestock. Once the shrimp are added i might include a heater just for temperature stability. I'm still thinking through some lighting changes, as the spread on the Zetlight isn't fantastic. It might end up being a new light, or i might see about lifting this light somehow. That will definitely have to wait though, as my aquarium budget is thoroughly done for a while.

One thing i can say is - pinsettes make SUCH a difference. I think if i had to plant all those crypts and stems with my fingers i would have made a royal mess of everything.

So, now we wait and see

 

Looks awesome!

 

I think the restart did you good. Scape looks amazing

 

Thanks all. I'm definitely going to be babying this one along, as i really REALLY don't want to have to restart again I'm going to dig up some cardboard to block off the bit of sunlight that still gets to the tank, just in case. The betta tank hasn't been getting any algae at all, and i think it's due to a very light bioload, just the right amount of light and some fast growing plants. If i can mimic the same success here, then i'm happy

 

At the moment it does get a bit of morning light but only up to the edge of the aquasoil, so no plants are getting direct light. I'll see how the light moves today while i work, so i can get a better idea of what's happening

 

Yup. Being close to the Tropic of Capricorn, at least in comparison to CT, means the sun is almost exactly overhead in summer. No sunlight should hit the tank then

 

Couple of small changes were made:
I shifted the crypt undulatus red further right.
I also pulled the HM as it was getting sucked up by the filter, and wedged it in between the rocks to help keep the soil in place.
Rotala is putting out new growth steadily, so might be time for a trim in a couple of weeks.
Limnophila is definitely growing. Older leaves had a orangy brown colour from the sunlight phase, but new growth is bright green
Crypt wendtii green and axelrodi appear to be doing just fine with no sign of melt, which is good news. Some of them have popped out of the soil a little bit, but not floating completely.
Alternanthera reineckii mini is difficult to tell. It looks to be doing fine, but no real indication of the red yet. Hopefully that will pop a bit once i start upping the light intensity.
Bolbitis is doing surprisingly well, and is putting out new fronds
Hygrophila is also putting out some longer leaves
Algae on the anubias is starting to die off, and i can currently spot 4 new leaves in total across the 7 clumps. Still some BBA on the older leaves, but i'll prune those leaves during the next water change.

There was a little bit of algae building up on the driftwood, but that seems to be receding. I've been adding the Scape Liquid Carbon daily, so that probably helps along with the big water changes and lower amounts of light.

The filter was making a terrible noise on Monday night. I opened it up and found a small piece of matrix had been sucked into the impeller and was rattling around. 1 layer of fine filter sponge over the media sorted that out. I need to make a plan with the lily pipes, as the tension from the pipes is pulling them out of place and doesn't look too tidy.

 

Another week, another few tweaks and small changes.

Brown algae, i think diatoms, has started creeping in on the decorative sand and rocks. I scrub it off every time i do a water change, which is still every 2 days. There's a good amount of biofilm building up on the driftwood, which i think the shrimp are going to love. Sunlight now covers about half the tank in the morning, which is probably the cause of my algae issues.

Crypts are slowly getting taller and leggier, which is good and bad. I'd rather the growth was more dense, but i'm cautious about upping the light levels just yet. The older leaves on the undulatus red are starting to melt, but newer leaves are looking fine.
HM is growing much slower than it used to when it was rooted properly and had much more light, which is fine by me as i don't have to trim too often.
Anubias is covered in green hair algae, except for new leaves. To be expected i guess. Some of the roots also have a small bit of BBA, which isn't really spreading or retreating.
Bolbitis has been pulled and placed with the betta. I was concerned that it would eventually get too large and out-compete the hygrophila and/or block flow from the limnophila and rotala, so i pulled it out.
Java fern has also been put into the betta tank, and is doing much better there. It's put out 3 new leaves so far. It seems to thrive on neglect, so that's something.
Hygrophila pinnatifida seems pretty happy. When pulling the java fern and bolbitis i ended up detaching it from the wood, so i wedged it down into the soil that is at the center of the driftwood lump.
Limnophila is doing well, but could probably do with more light. I spread it out a bit as each stem has put out between 1 and 3 new side shoots, so should fill in by itself.
Rotala is looking a bit odd. The old emersed growth has fairly round leaves, while new submerged growth is sharper and narrower, and a much brighter green. I might need to do that trim sooner than expected, as the 1 stem is eerily close to the surface already. My plan is to trim it all down fairly short then replant the healthier, already transitioned tips. I need to get the planting density up in this tank before i can start increasing the light intensity
AR Mini is starting to get going. Older leaves are covered in green hair algae, but new leaves are displaying more red and with good shape.

I'm hoping to find this mythical (to me so far) balance that is mentioned with tanks where algae growth is minimal, plants are healthy and the algae crew isn't 99% of the inhabitants. Besides the anubias and AR mini, i think i'm getting there. I'll grab some photos again this evening

 

Some photos as promised:

HM:


Anubias:


Rotala:


Mixed Crypts:


AR Mini:


Limnophila:


FTS:

 

That tank looks awesome, great job man...crypts look stunning