Medicineman's 150L braceless tank

[Mizu World]

Simple, clean and nice. Should be much better once once you fill it up with more plants soon.

[Jervis]

The tank is coming up very nicely! Any fauna plan yet?

[medicineman]

@Jervis,
Well, if you take a good look, some rasbora maculata will be spotted. Not so clear as they are juvenille ones (adult already very small) and my camera-lens is not so good right now.


*there is a mishaps happened this afternoon. I have lost one of my PL (but not too upset since the PL ran for 1yr already) due to loose securing of the ballast.
The poor lamp bangs to floor and shatter.
Now I seperate the heavy ballast from the PL base and have it sit on top of the lamp hood.

@Mizu World,
Too bad you are not around here for fast and cheap supply, Ben.
I could have got some good, strong character ornamental rocks to complement my tank from your site!

[medicineman]

10 days FTS update.

The plants sure to fluff up and started to spread a bit.
A good news considering it is plain ol silica sand gravel I'm using. Must have been due to good liquid fertilizer regime given from early on.
I moved the dazs diffuser towards the back, directly under main current, hoping for better distribution (and it seems well enough that way).



I haven't decided of any good sized, easily viewable fish for now. I'd stick to tiny boraras for some time, at least until the tank has matured more and stable enough for more fish waste.

[medicineman]

Fast forward...



It seems that HC does not appreciate the condition it lives in. They just do not colonize well enough as expected.
I suspect this is contributed more by how most of the HC failed to anchor properly in the coarser substrate. It is already quite fine, but at 1-2mm the particles are not small enough.

While Hair grass and vallisneria seems to love the condition as they spread and grow relatively clean.
The moss I tied earlier on had taken most vacant space and started to cover up nicely.

Group of riccia (I swear these grow by themselves, I did not plant a single bit of riccia ever) are taking up spots. I feel like ripping off some to tidy the look of the tank. They just grow crazy and I have removed a handful every week. Got to love the pearling effect.

[Jungle-mania]

I think the tank would look better without the HC.

[inque]

lookin gooood ...... trying mine hand at HC but Failed
at 1st i thought the left side "tree" can be "lifted" higher to block the Pipe behind.

but upon a more closer look the background plant if grown thick enough
can have the same effect also.

all in all a very splendid N spiffy looking Tank 2 thumbs up

[doppelbanddwarf]

Nice tank has got a serene feeling to it.

[neon]

The lighting wattage seems too low. HC tends to prefer high light and high CO2.

[medicineman]

@Jungle-mania,
That might be right, though the substrate now is still, I think too coarse for beach, clean look. Would work better on fine sand foreground for sure.

@inque,
The piping right now indeed can be seen, but I'm quite satisfied with how it is partially covered. Cleaner equipments would be nice, but contest-looking tank are only in pictures as in reality they still need to go into the tank.

@neon,
Possibly, but not so likely. With 168W of lighting it seems enough.
I will see about the CO2 first and make myself drop checker or kH4. Diffuser on a single spot might not be good enough, or the BPS could be insufficient (2bps right now).

[amedias]

A very nice, very original aquarium the distribution of the roots, the very healthy plants(floors), congratulation are seen very well.

[uklau]

@inque,
Cleaner equipments would be nice, but contest-looking tank are only in pictures as in reality they still need to go into the tank.

I fully agreed with you on this point. May be that's why I never feel when looking at my tank .

[inque]

ya jus like Amano's tank got snails lol

Kudos to a good and well made tank

[medicineman]

Thanks for the compliments.

For you all who wonders what kind of additional fish I decide to put in :

Rasbora pauciperforata.
There are 6 of them (you can spot 2 in the FTS). Wild caught, a gift from my friend.
Photo from web aquaclopedie.nl :



I havent got the moment to capture a good look of the fish, as they are highly shy and would hide away in my presence. The fish is not too active and would hang around in a school. It seems they appreciate subdued illumination.

[medicineman]

The HC lawn indeed are not doing well that I'm tempted to do drastic measure of pulling them out. So indeed such is what I did.
After several months the substrate sifted and what is left now is mostly those of coarser particles on top, while the finer one sinks to the bottom. Naturally, this is not suitable for small, minute HC.
If one suggest to use finer sand (1mm) or ADA soil, they might be right.

I pulled as much of the weary HC and did deep vaccumming to the foreground. This not only cleans the substrate, but also helps a lot in uncompacting action while stirring the particles, so the finer ones mixed up well to the coarser on top.

As Jungle mania hinted, this works rather... fine. Too bad the substrate is not a bit finer in the first place. Now I have a new view of clean beach look

This has been one of the cleanest high light tank I have. Minimal algae, even on the moss. Combination of far oversized canister filter, low bio load and ample CO2 helps a lot I guess. Not forgetting the use of small amount but quickly refreshed activated carbon.

For sure, pretty soon I need to trim some of the moss. Those lava rocks are getting totally covered up.

[aqua]

beautiful tank... i love it

[medicineman]

Here goes a spoiler pic of the right side after minor surgery... large open space of just gravel by the foreground.

[TKS7011]

Wow, still look very nice after the 'surgery'! What do you intend to plant in this open area?

[Freshman]

That's a very beautiful setup!

[Xianghao]

nice work bro.. howabout fissiden on wire mesh on the front?