Itchy Fingers again..:)

[God of tank]

wow, look very nice like in the forest, cool, pressur drop 50% liao, seeing this nice set up.

[torque6]

Great setup Ranma!

[ranmasatome]

Thanks Guys!

Sorry for the long lag in updating. Currently in vietnam and cannot get to computer so easily. Going to the fish street in Hanoi on the 8th sept! Hang Dau i think its called, happen to drive past it the other day. It doesn't look like it has much prospects but with many things in vietnam, looks can be deceiving.

Oh, By the way... my fishes are in!! i'm seeing if they are of appropriate size now. About 35 of them. Once common on these shores, nowadays, can't really see them anymore.

Hyphessobrycon Vilmae!! Commonly known as the Chocolate neon tetra!
Photo Taken From RVA website.
Thanks Joe for the transportation!

I'm starting to think they are tooooo small!! haiz.... sourcing again now..haha..

[diazman]

ah bro. your tank makes my fingers itch!

[|squee|]

Wow I haven't heard of the chocolate neon tetra before. Are they smaller than the typical neons?

[ranmasatome]

The chocolate neon tetra is also commonly known as Vilma's Tetra.
I think it comes from the Tapajós River Basin in Brazil but i'm not too sure.
Heard that it is quite a good schooler so trying them out in the quarantine tank first to see if they exhibit that behaviour in normal conditions.
If i'm not wrong the max size should be around 4cm? so perhaps about the same size as neon tetra.

[ranmasatome]

So this week actually covers for 2 weeks of absence from the tank.

During Week Five, i trimmed the tank and dosed it well before i went off to vietnam for 10days of holidays... hoping that nothing will go wrong when i come back...
Now that i'm back.... what do i find?
GSA!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! so tonight i immediately did a 50% or more water change. Cleaned the glass, sucked out water while cleaning so i get the most spores and Put some phyton Git into the water!!

But at 6 weeks... the growth is getting a little too much to handle! So i also trimmed it again tonight and its starting to look a little more natural. Also placed some "fungus" to grow on the front "trees" but those can't be seen yet as its still too early and just a thin film.
Heres what it looks like at week 6!


Been Shifting some growth and repropogating some HC that melted.

Funny thing is all my shrimps keep dying!! i dont know if it is the CO2 that is too high..but it seems likely.
During high light periods, this tank looks like it is boiling... kekeke

[bighermie]

looks like walking thru a forest. looks surreal.

[ranmasatome]

Wow..This was a week of incredible Growth!! everything just exploded after a good trim.
I think the tank is near to its formative trimming state. Will be planning how to trim it correctly.

As for the wood i mentioned previously....... i got some and replaced it tonight. I think it looks better, albeit a little distracting.. but i feel that once i'm done with the ENTIRE naturalisation phase for this tank... it'll definitely tone down. The new wood dimentions definitely increased the depth!!

As for now.. this is what it looks like. Week 8. i call it "The extremely messy state before the nice state" haha..



Still no back ground.... still no fish yet...but its taking shape. Still have many plans for this tank..kekekeke..
Stay Tuned!

[charonstix]

Swee... looking at your setup makes me want to start planted again... can't wait to see the final results! Do post more pictures!

[skyblader]

Very interesting landscape.

Can I just ask, what is the ideal dramatisation of this set-up? I mean, is the beaten path symbolic, just like what's mentioned in Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken"?

Or more like a dirt trail in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve? Someone even mentioned a river earlier too.

Either way, the whole idea is splendid. I'll be tuning in. You have a fan

Regards,
Randy

[Bster]

Wow! That really is impressive growth after the trim! I really need to get off my lazy bum and trim my tank... lol

[ranmasatome]

Thanks Charonstix and Bster. Will update when i can. Doing some minor works on it now as we speak.

Very interesting landscape.

Can I just ask, what is the ideal dramatisation of this set-up? I mean, is the beaten path symbolic, just like what's mentioned in Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken"?

Or more like a dirt trail in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve? Someone even mentioned a river earlier too.

Either way, the whole idea is splendid. I'll be tuning in. You have a fan

Regards,
Randy

Thanks Randy. I think the idea came to me as i was looking at many pictures and processing some of my own. Just spent some time surfing and saw a few things i liked and decided to incoporate them all into a scape that i might like.

Here are a few images that i found quite inspirational and i hope my scape shows, at least, a little similarity to these.







Quite a mish-mash of thoughts, but generally i draw all my inspiration from these 3 photos. Hope you guys are enjoying it as much as i am.

[Wackytpt]

Nice job ... Looking forward to see the full grown scape.

How is your light and fertilization regime like?

Cheers

[ranmasatome]

Hey Nic!

errm... for light, at first i went for 8hours. 2hours of 48watts T5HO, followed by 4hours of MH at 150watts + 48watts T5HO, then finally a cool down of another 48watts.
Since the plants have grown more, i've gone up to 9hours. The additional hour being in the MH portion of the day. This means 2hrs, 5hrs, 2hrs.
Since my house is dark most of the day, i get the lights to come on at 3pm they shut at 12am.

For ferts, i'm dosin lushgrow and running ADA traces.
Regime goes as follows.
Weekly water change 50%
On the day of water change - Dose 30ppm No3, about 20ppm of K (which comes automatically from the Kno3 and the Kh2Po4) and 1.5ppm of Po4.
Traces - ADA Green Gain (abt. 20 drops), ADA ECA (about 76-80 drops)
Algae prevention - ADA Phyton Git - (20drops)

Co2 - About 3.5 to 4bps. As long as i hit my target rate la... its variable but it needs to stay stable!!! Comes on 30mins before lights on and runs 30mins after lights off.

So Far.... small traces of GSA and thats it!!! I hope it last man!!! cross cross and RE-cross fingers!!

Hope that helps!

[Wackytpt]

I just restarted mine.


Having problem with GSA.

[ranmasatome]

Problem or occurance? its different you know?

Start a thread la. i'll post there.

[fotoudavid]

amazing...... thanks for sharing, really thanks.

ever though of backgrounds? i mean now can see back.

[blackBRUSHalgae]

Hey Nic!

errm... for light, at first i went for 8hours. 2hours of 48watts T5HO, followed by 4hours of MH at 150watts + 48watts T5HO, then finally a cool down of another 48watts.
Since the plants have grown more, i've gone up to 9hours. The additional hour being in the MH portion of the day. This means 2hrs, 5hrs, 2hrs.
Since my house is dark most of the day, i get the lights to come on at 3pm they shut at 12am.

For ferts, i'm dosin lushgrow and running ADA traces.
Regime goes as follows.
Weekly water change 50%
On the day of water change - Dose 30ppm No3, about 20ppm of K (which comes automatically from the Kno3 and the Kh2Po4) and 1.5ppm of Po4.
Traces - ADA Green Gain (abt. 20 drops), ADA ECA (about 76-80 drops)
Algae prevention - ADA Phyton Git - (20drops)

Co2 - About 3.5 to 4bps. As long as i hit my target rate la... its variable but it needs to stay stable!!! Comes on 30mins before lights on and runs 30mins after lights off.

So Far.... small traces of GSA and thats it!!! I hope it last man!!! cross cross and RE-cross fingers!!

Hope that helps!

I really like the way you have created depth. Technically wonderful with your scape! Good job! So you only dose on the day of water change?

[tcy81]

Hey Nic!

errm... for light, at first i went for 8hours. 2hours of 48watts T5HO, followed by 4hours of MH at 150watts + 48watts T5HO, then finally a cool down of another 48watts.
Since the plants have grown more, i've gone up to 9hours. The additional hour being in the MH portion of the day. This means 2hrs, 5hrs, 2hrs.
Since my house is dark most of the day, i get the lights to come on at 3pm they shut at 12am.

For ferts, i'm dosin lushgrow and running ADA traces.
Regime goes as follows.
Weekly water change 50%
On the day of water change - Dose 30ppm No3, about 20ppm of K (which comes automatically from the Kno3 and the Kh2Po4) and 1.5ppm of Po4.
Traces - ADA Green Gain (abt. 20 drops), ADA ECA (about 76-80 drops)
Algae prevention - ADA Phyton Git - (20drops)

Co2 - About 3.5 to 4bps. As long as i hit my target rate la... its variable but it needs to stay stable!!! Comes on 30mins before lights on and runs 30mins after lights off.

So Far.... small traces of GSA and thats it!!! I hope it last man!!! cross cross and RE-cross fingers!!

Hope that helps!

Any particular reasons for dosing ADA ECA around 76-80drps weekly ?