180 Gal rimless

[Plantbrain]

Look how big my "HC" has become
Tropica 049 Starougyne sp.

If you look close, you can see the RCS and the royals on the wood. I must have 300 RCS in here, I pull out the bland looking ones for selection for bloody reds.

Cards are big and fat, light is 2 w/gal, no HQI, nice not having those one really. I have a bunch of P stellata I'll let fill out in the rear, was mostly L aromatica. Might try some other easy to care for weed that likes current.
Not sure yet.

The Starou is a nice plant as you can see. Much easier than those damn weeds like HC/Gloss etc. Unlike smaller weeds, this one roots well and as you can see, those royals are good at munching and removing fine rooted delicate plants. Also makes a good place for the RSC to hide and make a go of it before getting eaten initially. There's a goldy toe pleco, and 3 big Chocolate emperor plecos, a P spinuosus, a pair of checkerboard cichlids, vampire pleco, and a dozen of so royal long fins farowellas (L filamentosa).

Regards,
Tom Barr

Lamontichthys filamentosus

[ben loh]

bro, wat kind of lighting u using.. Ur setup is Great.... SWEE....

[Larry Waughon]

Nice tank! Tell us what you used please. Lights, filter, under tank pics.

[Plantbrain]

Need to whack the Blyxa back even further, uproot and replant to keep it lower. The back is still in the grow in phase as is the left side in general. Lots of current and the wood blocks a lot of light. Back ground will be mostly P stellata eventually, it'll tkae another 1-2 months worth of trim, grow out for it to look somewhat where I like.
I may switch back to Tonina. Both do well in current. The Starougyne responds well to pruning. I puinch off the tops, about 1-2" down, leave the rest still rooted. On higher clumps, I'll thin and take most of the larger dominate stems. Then the other stem tips fill in. This was less than a week after I removed about 70 plants. So it looks fairly good not long afterwards. Nothing is worse than a foreground trim/plant etc that looks bad for a long time after wards. I tend to try and hack the plant in the front more aggressively, trying to keep it a safe distance from the front glass. The plants will fill back in those spots in the front in about 2-3 weeks.
Cardinals and other critters are happy, frisky, well feed, eat most anything.

Sorry for the point and shoot photos, I may actually do a real photo shoot someday. This tank is admittedly a long way away from any of that.

Light is about 2w/gal of PC, but it's 90cm from the tops of the Starougyne.
Tank is 60cm deep. So it's pretty ,low light, 1.3-1.5w/gal of good T5 lighting.

I use a Little giant external pump with 2x OC canister filters with pleated cartridges, 2 x 300W hydor in line heaters, a Vor Tech MP40 for current and a Rio 1100 with a needle wheel modified impeller for CO2.

ADA AS about 3 years old now.

Regards,
Tom Barr


Regards,
Tom Barr

[neverwalkalone]

Wow! Great looking tank! As always, learning alot from you. Thanks for sharing Tom.

Interesting you're still getting such lush growth from ADA AS that's already 3years old. What's your fertilization regime?

[feide]

What a BEAUTY! Thanks for sharing Tom.
You just showcased even a low light tank can be as stunning
Looks like Starougyne will be flying off in the shelves after your post

[Plantbrain]

Wow! Great looking tank! As always, learning alot from you. Thanks for sharing Tom.

Interesting you're still getting such lush growth from ADA AS that's already 3years old. What's your fertilization regime?

EI.......nothing special, but aquatic plants will draw less from sediments if they also have water column ferts as well, so that will extend the usable time for any sediment. It's a back up for the sediment as it changes through time.

Likewise, as sediment age, they mostly lose Nitrogen.
ADA and delta soils do this. So there's hardly any NH4/NO3 left after about a year or a little more.

So aquarist should add more KNO3 to make up for that as their ADA As ages.
Many are BS'ed into thinking that nutrients in the water column are bad, risky, not part of ADA's "system", leads to algae and all falsehoods and myths.

So they replace the ADA AS, even though test clearly show over time that there is plenty of nutrients left, just not much Nitrogen.

So let me see my choices here:

1. Replace the ADA AS and tear tank down completely, find a place to keep the fish for 2 months, buy 10 Bags of 9 liter ADA AS, at 40$ per bag, 400$.
Do this every year or two.

2. Or add KNO3 3 x a week about 10-15ppm per dose.
Last indefinitely, cost next to nothing.

Pretty simple to me, but if you listen to the baloney some of the ADa faithful insist upon and tell others, you might take option 1

Why would they suggest this?
Increased use of ADA products, blind faith in the myth about KNO3 and NO3 dosing to the water column? I can tell you it's not from testing or analyzing the soil over time or seeing if there is actually any risk with dosing the water column richer.

Playing into people's myths to sell stuff is not good for the hobby, but might be good for business and maintaining ignorance. Harsh? I guess I do not sell the product, but, I do still suggest it widely, but just not quite how ADA vendors might like.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Goondoo]

Pretty simple to me, but if you listen to the baloney some of the ADa faithful insist upon and tell others, you might take option 1

Why would they suggest this?
Increased use of ADA products, blind faith in the myth about KNO3 and NO3 dosing to the water column? I can tell you it's not from testing or analyzing the soil over time or seeing if there is actually any risk with dosing the water column richer.

Playing into people's myths to sell stuff is not good for the hobby, but might be good for business and maintaining ignorance. Harsh? I guess I do not sell the product, but, I do still suggest it widely, but just not quite how ADA vendors might like.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Great minds!

[neverwalkalone]

.... as sediment age, they mostly lose Nitrogen.
ADA and delta soils do this. So there's hardly any NH4/NO3 left after about a year or a little more.

So aquarist should add more KNO3 to make up for that as their ADA As ages.
Many are BS'ed into thinking that nutrients in the water column are bad, risky, not part of ADA's "system", leads to algae and all falsehoods and myths.

Thanks for another great lesson!

[tjchan]

great growth on the Starougyne sp... my 4 miserly stalks are still not spreading after close to 2 months of planting although some new leafs are sprouting at the side.

[goldfish&koi]

wow that looks nice how long you set it up?

[barmby]

Clean and Pristine. Almost like a dutch tank. Don't have the wild "feel" to it.

Btw, the rim less tank looks thick. How big and what glass thickness?

Tank made in the United States ?

Thanks for sharing.

[Fei Miao]

I may switch back to Tonina. Both do well in current.

I like the colours, especially the stellatas, I think they look better than Toninas in this tank.

[Plantbrain]

wow that looks nice how long you set it up?

took about 3-4 months to grow in, the light is low.
I've taken out some of the P stellata and L aromatica and am switching to some other background stems(S belem/Toninia etc). I'll see how it goes.

They did very well prior, I had about 200 plants growing about 3" per week.
Got tired of cutting them.

I think I'll limit the amount in this tank and I have reduced the light, so hopefully 1" per week will be a good /better rate of growth to deal with.

The Starougyne I can remove about 100 -140 plants per month without affecting the coverage. Rebounds in about 1-2 weeks.

Added some Fire shrimp, thought they where nice RCS.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Plantbrain]

Clean and Pristine. Almost like a dutch tank. Don't have the wild "feel" to it.

Btw, the rim less tank looks thick. How big and what glass thickness?

Tank made in the United States ?

Thanks for sharing.

Yes, 3/4" inch thick. It's very solid and over built, ugly seams etc.
I'll upgrade once I finish up at UC Davis and get a nice LeeMar rimless version with nicer edge work.

That and nice ADA style stand, they make them here for about 30% the cost.
I might go with a T5 set up for the lighting later, this light is good, but I do not ever use the HQI's.

Yes, this is much more a garden built around the wood.
I liked the wood so much, so it became the theme.

I would call it open Dutch to some degree, someone commented I typically do not have plants pressing against the front glass or the sides much, I took this aesthetic from the Dutch styles, I like more open feeling tanks even though many like the denser feel of a solid wall of plants. So in that sense, I am old school in my design aesthetics, but I rarely stick with any one rigid school of design.

Why should I?
I make more $$$ maintaining and helping people with planted tank than any competition that is judged by someone else. I judge it and my client's judge it, those are much more important than some group of judges.

I consider myself more an aquarist anyway, not a scaper.
These tanks are aquaculture tanks that fill many roles, I breed fish and shrimp, and raise and sell plants.

This tank sold 800$ USD of plants in the last 6 weeks, 250$ worth of shrimp.
and it looks nice an dhas most of the species I also like, far more than the scant aquascape pictures I typically see.

This tank is packed with life.

So design is secondary, but still important.

Trying to balance the design, the livestock and the community dynamics, the labor issue/factors, filtration, water flow patterns, species that are marketable that I ALSO LIKE, this is not easy, but it's not just about the aquascape for myself, it's much more and beyond that one area of this hobby. It's also photographic skills. Amano I think has everyone beat there,
sort of the Ansel Adams of freshwater aquariums.

Something to ponder.



Regards,
Tom Barr

[jam]

What a BEAUTY! Thanks for sharing Tom.

[|squee|]

I seriously wonder how you keep the driftwood spotless. Haha.

[dwarflala]

I seriously wonder how you keep the driftwood spotless. Haha.

I was wondering the same thing when I first saw the the tank above. Scrolled down and you beat me to the post. *chuckles*

[equidorz]

Very nice tank!!

[jam]

Very lush landscape. Beautifully.