My 2008 ADA competition tank journal (setup stage)

[hsiehlung]

yo all

finally after taking some time off i was able to setup my new tank
i love to get some comments to improve this tank and hopeful get in the top 100 for 2008 (my goal for first time try) dont know why but when i look at my scaping i think china or japan ... as the rocks come from a bonsia store i was thinking using some drift wood to make a mini bonsia in there growing between the rocks (using java moss for the leafs of the bonsia)
but for now i trying just rocks to see how it goes. i going to pick up some smaller rocks of the same time to fill gaps and pull some near the edges to get that crumbling age look.

i stilling waiting for my knock off lilly flo pipes and other stuff but i just realise i had the pricelist for ada stuff :O ..... so might look into the co2 with ada unless i just get co2 from my parent's store (subway)

Dimensions: 78cm x 38cm x 55cm
Substrate: 6 bags of eco complete
Filtration: getting a ehiem 2213 or 2215
Lighting: 250w MH with 20k blub atm getting a 10 or 6500k
Plants: Hairgrass trimmed at the back and hc for the foreground and some long narrow leaf plants for inbetween the plants

[Shadow]

Nice rock

250W for tank that size maybe over kill and i hope you plan to hand your MH light because it is generating lots of heat.

[ah^siao]

250W is a overkill unless your tank is like 3feet depth. otherwise be prepared to get algae boom in the begining.

[hsiehlung]

i guess it is its just a pass me down light from my prop tank (marine) + i forgot to say that cause its a 20k blub usally the par from the blub drops by half compared to 10k blub so hopeful it wont cause that much of an algae bloom.
I was going to downgrade once i get a nice pendant for the tank.
The light is pose to be hanging from the celling but i need to go into the roof and drill to the beams so that just temp so i could plant and see how the scaping was cause my room light is soo crap.

[Aeon]

The rock too weird. A little phallic
I think you need to break of the front part so it doesn't curve and tilt it steeper.

[hsiehlung]

well here my 2nd try using smaller rock to get a crumble effect please excuse the murkyness of the water and still trying to fill this tank up RO/DI takes awhile

[zenscape]

Very encouraging to hear that you are already preparing for ADA 2008 . Yes, aim high is the way..

Your concept is unique and hope you could whip out a stunner. IMHO, the main rock is artistic, capitalise on it and work out your concept. By the way, the layout in the first picture has great potential, depending on choice and layout of plants. Hope to see more of it once your tank matures.

When i think of Bonsai in aquascape, i relate it with HC. Are you trying HC?

[hsiehlung]

thanks for the encouragement

i still have not decided wether going to try minic a bonsia in the aquarium
hopeful today when i pick up the other plants to set a customer's tank i will pick up some hair grass

hc is very rare here but i was able to source trust me it punched a hole in my wallet

right now its my gf's tank and looking good i hope i take some pictures of it later. half of the HC is floating and half is on the gravel any tips to get to grow faster so i have a suitable amount for this tank

[hsiehlung]

i still trying to decided wether to keep that small pile of rock on the right
as i really like open big spaces but then thinking about it it might of been to bare though really hard to tell without plants.

as you can see from my last pics i was up very late trying so might cause i didnt get much sleep .........

[hsiehlung]

pics of my gf tank which just a mess of plants (she scaped)





but as u can see that small patch of hc cost over $50 bucks ! seen even on ebay hc for $80 for a 2cmx2cm square !

good thing is starting to take off with the excel doising plus the diy co2
would it be better for me to plant the ones that are floating or just leave them ?

[Aquaculture]

Your rock looks kindda wierd..sort of like a cannon sticking out. But I guess you like such structure as your dw almost resembles the same shape too.

[hsiehlung]

thanks for comments

here a picture with a 10k blub



i added some hair grass at the back

basicly i think i see how this scaping goes i just scaped a customer tank yesterday with the same type of rock but went with more of a tower look and it was dam nice though the rocks i have atm i cannot do that

the reason for the "cannon" is to get some height into the tank as the rocks are most short except that big piece

i didnt really scaped my dw that my gf tank she does most of the work in it though i would kinda scaped it different as kinda looks weird ... but if i touch it i think she will do something. me =

[Graeme]

I like it so far

Prefer the 10 000k bulb too!

I am jealous of your HC to,still very rare in Perth isnt it!!!

Cant wait to see it planted,I think it will look great.
A large rock surrounded by tiny HC and Hairgrass at the back.

Lovely
( picnic at hanging rock ) ??

Graeme

[hsiehlung]

thanks graeme

didnt know u were on this forum too :O

well might need to have a name comp on the forums for a piece of hc haha or something like that

[Graeme]

Hi hsiehlung,

Ive been coming by this forum for a fair while now.Love seeing and dreaming of the tanks that are on here.Have learnt heaps to.
There are a few aussies on here.

Anyway back to your tank.
Where did you find your rocks? I read your post and you mention a bonsia store ,can you share where it is please?

If your chasing any moss or bolbitus for you scape yell out ,i can share that.( on here or the other place you see me lol)

Keep up the great work, and i hope 250 watts isnt too much light

Graeme

[hsiehlung]

rocks = lee's bonsia store in beford .. they charge around $5 per kg ....
i still looking for a small long narrow leaf plant for the cracks of the rocks ...

i still waiting for the canister ... before i add the fish and waiting for my drop checked and all those equipment so i can see how my co2 and nurients are going ...

[hsiehlung]

ok some updates on the HC and tank
the equipment came today i waiting for the ehiem 2215 to arrive should be tonight to plumb it together before taking some pictures of the big tank ...
i checked the co2 in the tank it was blue which is not enough co2 but today i getting a huge bottle of co2 just waiting for the reg to come tomorrow and that should solve that problem

the hc in the nano is growing well i remove the nurient sucker since the plants were going well i changed the co2 too since that DIY was giving very little co2.

since the last time i posted the hc picture its grow on plant around 4cm+ which i am pround of plus as you can see in the picture it growing as a ground cover not going up wards

[hsiehlung]

here are the updates

had a huge algae bloom due to no co2
i haded the co2 and double dosed seachem excel which kill a huge amount
i added also some small shrimps which been eating the small stuff but also added 4 sae to help remove the hair aglae

my friend dropped 20+ white cloud minnows i might be to much but i be culling some of the deformed ones later but for now i hope they will pick at algae

[Aeon]

The MH light is going to start a lot of green algae on the tip of the rock especially the tank is early stage. But easy to brush off.

[hsiehlung]

yeah very easy to clean but i basicly just left it and let nature work it out and the fish :P

i am in no rush as the ada comp not until next year but the hc is starting to grow more now with the co2 added which is a good sign though i might move some of the nano hc into the display once i notice good growth in the display