F's rescaped 4ft

Somewhere in the beginning of the year I invested in a canister, CO2 and found some red jasper that I added to an existing substrate mix.

The time has come to sit back and start pondering its first trim and replanting.

Hopefully I will post more pics as the tank matures. Yes I do run CO2 but low volumes with "medium" light and limited fertiliser, so it is not a high-tech fast growing monster - but I hope a tank that will develop more character as time passes.

Later Ferdie

 

Is that a plastic sheet over the tank?

Sent from my Tablet using Tapatalk

 

Indeed .. since most of my tanks are unhooded I had a big damp issue a few weeks ago .. so I tented all the tanks to reduce evaporation, works like a charm. Nice thing is it also keeps the cold air of the water surface.

Later F

 

Does this not cause oxygen problems?

Sent from my Tablet using Tapatalk

 

Not that I can tell .. all the fish are happy and it is not a 100% seal but draped so that condensation drops back into the tank.

 

Wow nice plant scaping =)

 

Thanks - did a trim over the weekend so it almost looks like nothing has changed - but it has been winter and I only did two WC's since the previous photo - yes the plastic sheet is still doing duty. Have not done much in the line of fertz. Fish survived the winter OK. I have had do tree trims of java moss and a big trim of the java ferns - they are now outside. Rest of the tank is in a slow grow phase with easy maintenance.



Later Ferdie

 

Hey dude, the tank is looking sweet!

 

I like dude keep it up!!:bigsmile:

 

So 2012 was a bad year for this tank, it got no love .. actually 2 wc's all year, had plants removed, CO2 regulator moved to the ADA propagation tank etc .. in short fish and fish food was basically all attention it got (might have done a substrate scrape also) - come to think of it might need to clean the filter only done it once since I installed it - what is that 2 years now ?

Decided to start the CO2 thing on this tank again.

With my virgin reg and CO2 the bits are now all in place. 1 CO2 line connected 5 more to go.
Got some macro aqua kit from loolilocks, I will be using this 10mm 4 in 1 .. it works rather well for now, lets see if it is still pumping in a few months. ... Nice to have the stop valve + bubble counter + diffuser in 1 unit

Why the sudden need for CO2 ...



Simple - I finally procured 2 stems of narrow leaf java fern, I suspect it was from an ADA CO2'ed tank ... I will meet it halfway and add some CO2.
I'll go digging in my other tanks and see If I can find other bits of cool java fern to add ..

Later Ferdie

 

Did some digging in the other tanks (note not my ada propagation tanks but the here is some cuttings lets drop them in here till I have time to do something with them) so the might all be nutrient light deficient growth.



I am hopping that is some sort of anubia petite, nice peace of bolbitis with some Fissidens around its roots, some Java fern what seems like two types but again need some real growth to see.

The one thing they all have in common - they should not be planted in substrate.

Later Ferdie
Anubias
barteri var. nana 'Petite'

 

Looks good. Will look better once the plants start eating up all the C02

 

yeah - I fear I do not even want to take a full tank shot ... I've been pulling most of the stuff out and just resetting them so the tank is trash at the moment

ag let me get the camera and do a FTS even if it is just for the record ..

 

So the tank really is in a state .. but should recover, I need to go and contemplate water column ferts ...

I am doing this small steps at a time .. done the CO2 will wait a few days before I start dosing anything substantial.

 

Hectic dude. You consider that to be a tank in a state. Only 2 WC's? Amazing...

 

lol @Hawk - the sad thing about photo's .. I know it has been in a much better state.

I think WC's are more often than not done for fish health, but if you can find a balance and not think your aquarium is a chemical test tube you will cut back on the WC thing without a problem.

Later Ferdie

 

I have had some issue with the CO2 - two refills later tracked it down to bad assembly of the 6 port manifold.
First did a pressure test:

Remove all plumbing leaving only the bottle, regulator, manifold and needle valves.
Close all needle valves ensure solenoid is open (in my case it always is since I am running CO2 24x7 o I removed the pusher from the solenoid)
Open the bottle gate valve and note the pressure on the two dials. (you really should not hear a hissing at this point)
Close the gate valve and see how long it takes for the dials to drop back to zero (hint they should not, if they do you have a CO2 leak)


After I failed the above test I did a submerge test, i.e. dump the bottle into water keep the dials above the water and see if you see bubbles with the needle valves closed and the gate open. I did, small but present all around the manifold. Funny the normal soap test did not highlights the problem.

I got some pratLOK (it is an anaerobic nut and bolt sealer), dissembled the manifolded reassembled with the pratlok (same stuff as locktite) and for good measure run a few drops around the base also (yes it is still sticky since it will not dry in normal air).

Did the test again this morning - all seems to be holding well.




So lets see if we put this back on the tanks ...


Did WC on this one also this morning

20% water level made for a nice shot

even though the CO2 has been problematic it is starting to SLOWLY fill in - BTW I am getting good moss growth on the ista grow pads

Yes yes more guppies ;-)

Later Ferdie

 

Actually looks quite nice!!

 

Thanks @FishLover, to be honest, I have been taking cuttings from it also .. I am considering going EI on this tank and not just rely on the odd OC+ I added every few months.

Lets see what it does in the next few weeks ... think I have 6-8 more weeks before the tank goes dormant.

Later Ferdie

 

I think you should go EI. IMO @f-fish