So...The Journey Begins.......

[David]

Hi everyone....its four days in since the tank started.....took a heavy gamble to kick start the tank.

1. pumped the tank with 300watts of MH lights hanging exactly 30cm from the waterline.
2. Set the lighting duration to 6 hours.
3. Pushed the KH to 5
4. Set the PH Controller to 6.6 which means the lowest point it goes is 6.5 and the highest point is 6.7. Considering the KH of 5, I am pushing CO2 levels 1 PH level higher than I should.
5. Chiller set temp at 27C so fluctuation level is 27C to 28C
6. Substrate heater set temp at 27.5C so fluctuation substrate temp is 28C to 29C.

The bacteria bloom has cleared, no sign of algae so far...thanks to 20 yamatoes, 3 Ottos and 2 Whiptail Cats.

Its nothing much to look at so far.....cannot wait to remove that HUNK OF ROCK from the wood, tie narrow leafed ferns and put it back behind the E. Marble Queen!!!



Scaping this tank to an Altum Species Tank.... On the left side of the tank is the E. Hormanii Narrow Leaf Red....Hope fully it will look like this...



In the mid ground of the E. Hormanii are the E. Parviflorus.....the concern here is that there are two version the larger and the smaller....hopefully, judging by the emerged leaves...its the larger....



Next to the E. Hormanii is the E. Marble Queen.....hopefully to get it to grow out of tank....reading from sources about the E. Marble Queen, the conditions must be right to get it to grow large...hopefully mine does not remain a midget.....



where the drift wood begins next to the E. Marble Queen is a mix of Crypto Wentii and Lucian should it grow well there will be a mixture of reddish brown with green....the smaller rocks holding down the first wood will be again tied with narrow leaf fern and placed back.

Beside the grouping of Cryptos....the middle section of the two wood to the back right up to where the diffuser is is laced with E. Vesuvius....according to Tropica, it grows up to the max height of 20cm....however the runners I have seen goes straight up....never comes down....so when that happens...cross my fingers that that would increase the height at the rear end.



Lastly to the extreme right is the E. Ozelot Green.....should give some cover to the stuff hanging down the tank as well as the break off where the wood ends....it should have been buried into the gravel to look at root endings.....unfortunately....it floated and now its recovery.



Will update again when its about 2 weeks in ......perhaps ready for peripheral plants to be added.....

[David]

Its 2 weeks in. Thanks to soltari007, I managed to get two good sized Echino Uruguayensis and a bonus find of Echino Bleheri. An impromptu decision to re-visit Mr Teo yield a fresh crop of Crypto Balansae. The need to achieve 90% surface planting, I gotten more Crypto Lucian. There was a fresh harvest of submersed Ludwigia Cuba of which I resisted all temptation to buy them...they were in very good condition.



Finally collected my 9 Altums. Nothing much to do with the tank now but wait for the plants to fully establish and grow.



Finally....I can remove the HUNK OF ROCK.....LOL!

[barmby]

Abit overcrowding David. I think 3 altums are ideal. Believe me. = ) You can get away with so much more

[David]

@barmby....its a species tank and nothing else is going in. Need at least 6 to get them to school properly...they are now averaging about 20cm tall fin to fin....once and if they get to about 25 to 30....they will be moved to my office tank which is twice the size of my current tank....Issue is, how do I get them across the border....LOL!

[barmby]

OK. I was thinking about apistogamma along the line ; ) since shrimp keeping is out of the equation totally confirm plus chop

[David]

@barmby...actually you are not wrong .....the 9 Altums will do fine for now but they will out grow (or rather not grow to full potential) my current tank. The long term plan is to move them across the border as Altums are ridiculously expensive and really hard to come by.....I will be finding a pair of Apisto just to ensure uneaten BWs will be picked off.

Concern right now is the bio load. Got my son to dose FB7 for 5 days....Now out of stock in LFS.....fedup...changed to Seachem version of FB7

PS:.....they are hunting down my Yamatoes....got to go C328 to get larger Yamatoes....

[barmby]

You may want to try glass shrimps..... ; ) definitely eat the uneaten BWs.

In my experience, BWs attract BBA. .. for my case ..no matter eaten or uneaten. once I feed, bba start appearing then I use excel to push them back. once I stop BW, BBA stop

[limz_777]

get ghost shrimps , work wonders and cheap

[David]

Glass shrimps and Ghost shrimps are the same?

[barmby]

Same I think. the common shrimps in the pond!

[limz_777]

yes the ones sold as feeders

[David]

Thanks guys.....will get them this weekend...I am assuming they do not do the same job as yamatoes?

[limz_777]

they do eat algae , but i find adult ghost shrimp are quite brazen , if your hands go in for a trim they will give you free pedicure

[David]

wow...that brazen....LOL!!!! thanks for the heads up.....I know where to ask the wifey to put her hands for a free pedicure....LOL

[kapitan]

ped·i·cure

/ˈpɛdɪˌkyʊər/ Show Spelled [ped-i-kyoor] Show IPA
noun
1. professional care and treatment of the feet, as removal of corns and trimming of toenails.
2. a single treatment of the feet.

man·i·cure

/ˈmænɪˌkyʊər/ Show Spelled [man-i-kyoor] Show IPA noun, verb, man·i·cured, man·i·cur·ing. noun
1. a cosmetic treatment of the hands and fingernails, including trimming and polishing of the nails and removing cuticles.

[David]

ped·i·cure

/ˈpɛdɪˌkyʊər/ Show Spelled [ped-i-kyoor] Show IPA
noun
1. professional care and treatment of the feet, as removal of corns and trimming of toenails.
2. a single treatment of the feet.

man·i·cure

/ˈmænɪˌkyʊər/ Show Spelled [man-i-kyoor] Show IPA noun, verb, man·i·cured, man·i·cur·ing. noun
1. a cosmetic treatment of the hands and fingernails, including trimming and polishing of the nails and removing cuticles.

Then its both manicure and pedicure.....LOL!!!!

[diazman]

sweet thread. Camping here Those altums are sweet looking!

[David]

Thanks...I really love fhose Altums ...wasted my tank in KL is waiting for the one here to be established...someone is selling Peruvian Green Discus....I be so greedy to get them for the other tank....timing is not ideal.

[David]

This week is the critical week where the bioload just jumped due to the Altums. As I am going to be away for the week, water change is not possible. I got my son to dose the tank 50ml of Seachem Stability to seed the tank for the next two weeks. A simple water smell test by my son seems to me that this product is working...I am impressed.

[David]

four weeks in. Growth rate really SUCKS!!! Plants are somehow not growing as fast as it should. 8 hours of lights, a good layer of base fert and substrate, KH of 5 and PH pushed to 6.5. Yet plants look 'pale' of a yellow shade and not bubbling with not a single sign of green algae. This is not how I remembered it years back which led me to feel that the tap water perimeter in terms of trace elements has changed somehow....conclusion, our waters are now sterile.

Time for action. I went to the local LFS and picked up the following items to dose the water column:

Dennerle S7 for weekly water dosing



Dennerle E15 for fortnightly dosing



Dennerle V30 for monthly dosing



For good measure, got the Echino and Crypto starter tabs....



FINALLY...after the startertabs and S7 dosing...plants are bubbling and first signs of green spot algae on glass....now the fight begins...finally....bought the algae scraper from BorneoWild for algae scrapping before water change and this has to happen today....



Of all places the whiptail cat laid her eggs is on the glass 1/3 height below the waterline.......