Oni's 12x12x12 Sanctuary. Chapter 2 (56k warning)

[oni_XL]

1st chapter/ attempt pretty much failed. I quit my 1st tank after months of struggling with glossostigma and way too much light and too little experience.

For a long time, the tank was just standing in the corner, gathering dust on still water and growing algae on the glasswares and tubes, what a pity...

Well, almost half a year now, my enthusiasm came back. Spent a weekend cleaning the glasswares, and clearing the tank. This time, I just did a simple moss arrangements with moss tied to pebbles (with my wife's help), some new plants from LFS and trimmings my wife's low-tech tank. I have to say, the simple and the somewhat unplanned arrangement begin to grow on me. When I included the fancy guppies, the tank seemed to get a second life.

So here it is, a chapter 2 to an (almost) abandoned hobby.

p.s Looks like I will be going to Tokyo and Singapore in February, so if you know any LFS or places that's a must visit please do post up, thanks!


Happy Holidays!

By fearmonger, shot with DSC-T100 at 2007-12-10

By fearmonger, shot with DSC-T100 at 2007-12-10


By fearmonger, shot with DSC-T100 at 2007-12-10

[Shadow]

.... from the photo, your substrate/gravel seem to be very thin. I'm not sure if the plant is able to grow on such thin layer.

Like the arrangement though, look like wabi-kusa but underwater

[oni_XL]

Yeah, the soil is actually potted to the bottom of the tank. It's actually 1.5" overall in soil depth. I have always liked the look of wabi-kusa and sand as foreground, so this time I just went with it. Good point though, I will observe the plants and if need be, make the soil mound up as necessary, the mossballs seemed to be great retaining walls so far.

[wks]

Hi, I notice you keep guppies. My understanding is that guppies thrive in hard water while most aquatic plants prefer soft water. So if you want to keep the plants, its better to switch other small fish.

[equidorz]

very nice tank and powerful equipments. wasted to just leave it simple. add more plants if i were you..

[zyblack]

Very nice clean look. Like the crystal clear water. The guppies almost seem to be flying. Great work.

[soulfinder78]

wow...it's a pure ADA only tank...good job..

A suggestion from me.

How about adding more sand to partially cover those moss? It will look more natural.

but then again that's just me.

[Jungle-mania]

Sorry if I sound rude, but IMHO, I think your plants do not match, you should focus on 2 types of plants for such a scape or add more plants if you want to keep the same variety.

[zQ.]

Simply nice !
I want one like this too,but still cant do it
BTW what is the light ?

[oni_XL]

Thanks for the comments! wks, I saw many guppies in planted tank, so I guess it's ok, not sure though, worth reseraching more into. Jungle-mania & equidorz, There are probably 6 species in that little patch of soil. I still have glosso, HC, mossball, rotala, and the two other stem plants which names I forgot...

Thanks zyblack, soulfinder78, actually, I wanted to raise the mossball up from the sand even more, because I wanted to have a vertical wall where the moss will grow layered horizontally and create some dark overhangs over the sand.

zQ, the light is a 70w MH, with 3 layers of steel mesh to curb the intensity abit as I was having too much light problem which made the glosso required mad amount of CO2 and nutrients or they die next day kinda ordeal....

[JetisonE]

Wow!

Very ADA. Very Zen, I like the less is more, approach.
I've taken a similar path with my 4 footer.

[StanChung]

This is actually harder to maintain because of the lack of plants. Looks nice but a bit too sparse for my taste.

[the_r0ck]

I agree that it looks too much like a fully submerged wabi-kusa.

I actually thought that it might look better with a little more plant but we'll have to see how it matures in time.

Great concept.

[zQ.]

Why dont you change it to a densely plant scape Oni ?
And could i have a picture of that 70W fixture ?

[naresh666]

hi

can i know what is the stem plant?

i really like the style.

[oni_XL]

zQ, the light is Aqua Medic MH 70w with 7k bulb. Here is the pic of the overall set up (scape in this pic is old) but you can see the MH suspended)

By fearmonger at 2007-12-15

About making it more planted and less sparse, we have a 3 nanos in the house and the other two are very densely planted jungle-type. Here is a recent pic of the Mini-S (my wife's) after a lot of trimming.


By fearmonger, shot with DSC-T100 at 2007-12-15

Naresh, I need to find out the name of that red stem plant, it starts with a "p" I think, can't remember at this moment.

So far they are growing fine, one guppy jumped however and we couldn't save it so I ordered a glass cover. The mossballs are growing very well, water is slightly murky now, don't know why, hope it's not algae bloom.......

One thing about this set up, the sand is now littered with fish poop, which is quite visible since the poop is dark, and the one glass shrimp I have in there seemed not to clean up the poop very well. What's good for eating fish poop? Snails? more glass shrimps?

Happy Holidays!!!

[zQ.]

Wow,i like that old version than the new one,and the Mh fixture is nice,where did you buy that ?

[Shadow]

probably ADA

[bryan]

The fine sand looks pretty compact. You will probably get algae on it soon. Some algae eating shrimp may help.

[ranmasatome]

That red plant is a Polygonum sp.
Probably Polygonum sp "sao paolo" or Polygonum sp. 'Kawagoneum'
But if it is so east to grow then it is probably Polygonum sp. 'Kawagoneum'. Also its leaves look almost too slender to be the "sao paolo"