Lonely Tree In A Summer Meadow

aibcarpentry

Member
Sep 23, 2017
49
15
8
40
Banbury, Oxfordshire
Here's my latest attempt at a planted aquarium; started to plant on 28/11/18

Tank:
Aquascaper 900

Lighting:
Twinstar 900S

Filtration:
2x Oase biomaster thermo 600

Co2:
Fire extinguisher to an inline diffuser

Fertiliser:
All in one EI

Hardscape:
Manzanita fixed to a piece of slate

Substrate:
JBL Volcano mineral
JBL Volcano powder
ADA Amazonia

Planting:
Hemianthus Callitrichoides Cuba
Eleocharis mini
Bucephalandra

The idea is to try a dry start with just the HC and Eleocharis, see firstly how it looks and how the 2 plants grow together. Hopefully the HC will take over most of the tank and I can just have a bit of Eleocharis appearing here and there with certain areas having more than others and end up with an almost 'one chop' carpet. Depending on how this goes will help me decide what, if anything else will be added into the carpet.
Just before flooding I plan to add some Buces to the tree.

How it looks as of 28/11/18 just after planting, undecided whether to add anymore Eleocharis or not.

20181128_144248.jpg
20181128_144303.jpg
 

aibcarpentry

Member
Sep 23, 2017
49
15
8
40
Banbury, Oxfordshire
Is it flooded?
No, I am looking to try a dry start.

I very foolishly forgot to soak my Manzanita before I scaped the aquarium and as a result have started to have problems with fungus appearing on the wood and now started to creep its way towards the soil. After scraping it off the last couple of days I knew I would need to do something else and after I considered a few options I've decided to try using cinnamon after a suggestion as a first step and see if/how that helps. I couldn't get to the overhanging pieces from above so have mixed myself some with water to try and get at with a pipette if I need to. Also after suggestion my soil is too wet I've left things open this morning and I've also added a thermo-hygrometer to keep track of humidity which is obviously lower than I would normally expect due to the top being open.

As always I welcome opinions, suggestions and ideas. :)

20181210_083201.jpg
20181210_105115.jpg
20181210_105642.jpg
20181210_111023.jpg
 

aibcarpentry

Member
Sep 23, 2017
49
15
8
40
Banbury, Oxfordshire
Well the cinnamon method was a failure so I decided to remove the wood; give it a scrub then just fill the tank....................

A bit of shuttering to try and stop it all completely falling in
20181214_114011.jpg

Scrubbed, volcano mineral back on top
20181214_114805.jpg

Soil added and roughly back how it was before
20181214_115455.jpg

Very slowly started to add water; I had a great fear it was all going to go everywhere. I added some tape to the glass so I could keep a rough eye on where the soil moved
20181214_122000.jpg

Just after filling; surprisingly the soil stayed in place
20181214_150803.jpg

A week later and a few more plants added back in the soil has stayed in place so far.
20181221_172001.jpg
20181223_122329.jpg