My 2008 ADA competition tank journal (setup stage)

[hsiehlung]

yo all

just like to give an update on the aquarium

First of all the blackout (3 days) has done some good to the tank the plants havent taken a toll and the other stuff are looking fine.

I removed all the plants from the nano into the display tank and wow did the hc grow in the nano. Just hope it does as well as it did in the nano

The hair grass is send alot of runners and should take over the back soon

[StanChung]

Hi Hsieh Lung,

Jump start you have on us, congrats on your fine setup. Have you thought of growing everything emersed in your tank then flood it later?
HC grows much faster emersed. It converts well later as it's rooted. Just a thought, if you're battling algae.

[hsiehlung]

back on track after a green water bloom and baterica bloom from a dead sae

[blackBRUSHalgae]

Your plant mass is way too low to begin with. I'm sorry but it looks more like an algae tank from your latest picture. But don't worry, you can easily turn it around by planting heavily. So if you want to have a HC lawn, instead of planting sparsely and waiting for the plant to spread, you should plant as much HC as you could find or afford, preferbly 70% of the space intended for HC. This applies to the rest of your scape. Basically having your plants command the tank right from the the start and leaving the algae with no chance. Prevention is better than cure. But of course your CO2, Ferts and lighting must be in good harmony too. Good luck!

[hsiehlung]

i wish i could get more hc but as if you read before its kinda impossible to get hc in australia and i was even lucky to get the amount i have.
the plants are doing fine and hc is really starting to take off i leave for singapore in 6 days for a wedding and fish shopping
i take a picture of how the tank is before i leave so i hopeful see some huge growth when i come back

i also finding my hairgrass might be the wrong one i want as its to short i might add some taller sp of hairgrass to help with the back look

[Maazo]

i leave for singapore in 6 days for a wedding and fish shopping

And you're planning to get these fish back into the country how? Unless you plan to eat them before you come back.

[hsiehlung]

mmm fried bettas :P

haha na just going to visit some of my suppliers and might bring back some stuff for my marine tanks gotta find good lighting sigh wish i could get japanese spotlights

[hsiehlung]

just an update of my tank love to get some comments on it at the moment

[zenscape]

Really pleased to see that you had overcome algae issues after a month plus and your HC is really spreading nicely. Well done.

Care to share your experience in the victory over algae?

[hsiehlung]

i like to thank to marine tank. i left for china roughly 11 days ago i came back yesterday about 3 days into my trip my marine tank pipe came off shorting my power upstairs so my light was out for maybe 7 days .... this cause the green water to mostly die and now that my plant load is much bigger than before i can feed the fish well without getting green water. it has gone long way since the start and the 250w mh is still on. i think the hair grass really helped this tank to remove the excess nutrients. after next year comp i changing the scaping to something i was inspired when i was up in the china mountains.

[ranmasatome]

The rock looks almost too clean..but its awesoome to see your tank progress.. great work

[planted86]

what's in the floating container??

[hsiehlung]

there a female betta waiting for its owner to pick it up.

[Graeme]

Very Nice mate

You must be very happy with it.HC is going great.
Gope it brings you lots of pleasure, what fish or shrimp are in there?

Graeme

[tcy81]

good to see you overcome algae and now your plants are growing great.

[eeeeemo]

hey isit possible to have hc growing on the small pile of rocks on the left in front of the main rock.. i think itl look more natural tht way.

[hsiehlung]

the rock are clean from the BN and sae in there plus shrimps....
there a few minnows in there but my main batched died in the early stages or jumping out of the tank.... thinking if i should keep with minnows or change a different fish...
i hope to get some CRS soon too i love the little shrimps....
the hc on the bottom right has already grow on the piles of small rocks so i think i let the hc run wild while i need to gave the hair grass a bit of trimming

[hsiehlung]

almost finished :P

[marle]

hey there, very nice growth of plants, one thing is that it looks too neat, too parallel in structure.

Your focal point is the big rock, how about some more plants on that rock or at the base of the rock.

[cwtan12]

your rock looks obscene