Return of The Shallow

Tim Harrison

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It's taken me longer to get around to flooding the scape than I would have liked, the usual life stuff and holidays getting in the way, meaning I haven't been around to do the daily water changes needed to give a newly flooded tank the best possible start. Consequently, the scape has become a bit overgrown.

Day 61 of the dry start...

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By comparison day 1 of the dry start...

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slipfinger

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Wow! That looks amazing.

I know very little to nothing about dry starts. Are you concerned at all about how the plants will handle the transition being as established as they are?
 
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Tim Harrison

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Thanks @slipfinger, yes very worried...:confused: especially as I'm probably going to have to give the scape a massive trim.
I will need to reduce the light intensity and the duration of the photoperiod and I'm concerned about the lack of flow and distribution of CO2 etc, because of the plant mass.
This means that if I don't trim I'll most likely get a lot of die back and the whole carpet could start to melt :eek:

And thanks @Greggz :)
 
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Tim Harrison

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So...the plants arrived and now it's time to bite the bullet and flood....
I've chosen 3 Rotalas - Rotala sp. Vietnam, Rotala colorata, and Rotala walichii for the background.
I've also lodged a selection of Buces in between the branches of the stump, not to sure what they are, but some are Brownies.
Once flooded I gave the scape a massive trim and gave it its first water change.

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Tim Harrison

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I've just noticed the tank is teaming with ostracods ...literally a population explosion (no fish yet). At first I thought it was detritus being blown around the tank in the current, but detritus can't swim... :rolleyes:

Also I've got a few tufts of what looks like Fissidens growing on the DW...not particularly exciting news, except I didn't put it there o_O

The only explanation I can think of is, it's from Windswept Eternity my previous scape. https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/windswept-eternity.37490/page-19 but it's been several months since it was torn down, and the DW was long since dried and stored in the garage.

I've read stories about the amazing regenerative powers of moss, in particular, tolerance to environmental desiccation...but I find it hard to believe; I must have it wrong somehow :confused:

Finally, the scape is proving high maintenance already I had to give it another trim :meh: the carpet had grown to around 3cm thick in the short time since flooding and it's first trim. I guess that's the advantage of the DSM and an established root system :cool:

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skija

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Very nice tank , i believe the ostracods will disappear when you add fish and shrimps , they will eat them i guess...
 
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Tim Harrison

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I stumbled across this species, Hyphessobrycon cf. loweae, in my LFS and bought the last 10 they had, I'm well pleased, they are super little fish and only grow to about 20mm.
Apparently, they are still fairly new to the hobby; I've never seen them for sale before. I'll post my own pic when they've settled in, but for now here's one off the net...

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Tim Harrison

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Just a quick update. I got a bit fed up waiting for the bald spots in the lawn to disappear so I infilled them with more plants.
I've also added a couple of red stems left of centre foreground for a bit of contrast. And the WK was looking a bit sorry for itself so I've had a bit of a rehash in another glass bowl.
I'm also trying to tempt my new Otos with a bit of broccoli stem, I've never been able to get my Otos to feed on anything except algae...

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Tom Barr

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Trim the sod around that foreground edge. Cut a 2-3 cm strip using a paint scraper, plastic algae scraper etc.
Siphon out some of the soil there and add to the rear of the tank.

I think you will get some algae on those Buces unless you lower the intensity down on that light, shoot for 40 umols, 30 or so around the outer edges near the glass.
You can also move the light a little off center to target those stem plants in the rear corner more. Allow that stem plants to drape over along the surface a week or two before giving a hair cut.

As long as the Buces are above say the bottom 1/4 of the tank, when you do water changes, you can mist with peroxide if they get any algae on them.
Should keep the higher light area clean. AR mini will do fine with lower light also.

Another method to shade the Buce: allow that weedy pennywort to cover it mostly. Trim back here and there.
 
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Tim Harrison

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The Buces are flowering again. They appear to be taking to their new life underwater quite well.
You can see the difference between the old emersed leaves and the new submersed ones.

The old ones also have some GSA but the new ones are looking pretty good.

Hopefully, I've got the balance right between light intensity, flow and distribution of ferts and CO2, and the leaves will stay healthy and algae free.


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Dennis Singh

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Tim you have create quite a piece of work, a masterpiece as i would say...How much timing did you put into the hardscape and then planting and planning?
Give me details please man. What made this, what made you put it together and how much time, etc. Your emotes, maybe private life at the time, and so on....
I'm trying to see if this was built in like 1 or 2 days or perfected through time. Really a good compliment i give you though. One of the bests on here.

My only suggestion wou.d be to get rid of the stems towards center back and left back....those do not blend well.
 
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Coasters13

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Hi Tim,
congratulation for your very nice tank !
I have 2 questions for you on your water parameters
1) could you tell us wath is your GH and your KH in your aquarium please ?
2) do you use tap water or RO water with salt?
and if it's RO water with salt, which salt and wich amount is it ?
thank a lot for your help !
 
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