180 gallon rimless Starfire wood scape thus far

C

CL_

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nipat;52853 said:
I meant if he had replaced the soil :)
Because it's 2.5 years now but the pellets still look good, clean, etc.

Oh. He says that every once in a while he does a deep vacuuming followed by "top offs" of fresh AS. No idea if he has done thise recently or not, I'll leave that for him to answer :)
 

Tom Barr

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Nope, not much on the vacuuming.
I've done it 1-2 x is all.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

Gerryd

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You can thin the plant groups individually by trimming out the tallest plants and letting the others fill in the gaps also, this works better than this method shown above.
Regards,
Tom Barr

I have found that a variation of the 'fluffing' method works fairly well here too when using the above method.

The stems I find are very brittle and easy to break, so I now use scissors to snip leaves, as I tend to break the plant at the leaf I am yanking off :)

Not saying it is fragile, but note that it snaps easily...actually makes it easy to harvest...

So, I just gently run my fingers through the thicker parts..this dislodges some..I gently pull the larger ones out close to the substrate, and 'snip' it with my fingers...many times this pulls a more complex structure out that has several tops...

I was very quickly able to 'spread' my stauro carpet from what Tom sent, end to end in this manner w/o the pruned area visibly affected :)

I will soon have way more than I could ever use... I am currently stuffing the extra in my 45g no c02 no ei tank to see what happens..lfs will also get some, but doubt they will realize what they have even if I tell them....

As Tom states, the gaps quickly fill in. Many times immediately as the smaller ones are smushed by the bigger ones, and just snap into place :)

I haven't mown mine yet, as I am using the method Tom describes above..as it doesn't grow tall this method has worked well so far for me..
 
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Tom Barr

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Sometimes ya got a do what ya got a do:

2f5a789f.gif


Regards,
Tom Barr
 
C

CL_

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Did you just get that for the manzy that you're selling, or did you cut something for this tank as well?
 

Tom Barr

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topof180jan1.jpg

resized180Jan1st.jpg


Some day I need to do a good photo shoot.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
C

CL_

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Very nice, Tom. So it looks like you did remove some wood from the back left of the tank (or it could be my eyes playing tricks on me), because the tank does look much cleaner and more open now (my eye was always drawn a bit to the extra mass of wood on the left)

Oh, and I love the emersed plants you have going on. I've always found the emersed growth of hc very attractive. Happy New Year!
 

Tom Barr

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It looks nicer in person, most of my tanks are very hard to take "picture pretty pictures".
I do not design my tanks that way, ever.

Many do.

But then again, I'm not like many folks there.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

Tom Barr

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Likely HC you think is the moss, the only moss in this tank is some Xmas moss below the HC.

Thr Sturisoma also bred again, but the Goldie pleco ate the eggs this time 2 days after laying.
 

Tom Barr

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A few months it'll cover most things even with a small amount.
Grows on moss, wood etc.
 

Tom Barr

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I do not have a 38 gallon anymore.

Long gone actually.

A simple thing really, bulk head had a hose going to the Rena 3, then a Hydor heater and return going to the bulkhead on the other side.
I had a MH ballast for the HQI and a 5 lb CO2 tank in line venturi fed as well.

Pretty simple.
 

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I placed the new wet/dry overflow on the 180 Gallon tank.
I need to cut out a nice hole on the side for the overflow still.
Then build the clear PCV return so it mixes well with the Vortech.
The wet/dry will add the discrete overflow on the top Left.

But, I have no surface scum, no internal sponge prefilter and never again shall I need to clear the Ocean clear canister filters! O2 will be higher, prefilter much easier to clean, heater out of the tank(I have 2 x 300 W hydors, but they cannot keep the temp up during the winter alone) and also get the needlewheel CO2 out of the tank and some Loc line fittings under the left side.

No evaporation hassle either.

I am replacing each of my tanks with high grade starfire and ADA like stands/tanks, and also all wet/drys. Suspension lighting with the light bars.

At some point, I dunno when........I'll replace the lighting with nice high tech LED styled fixtures.

But the 180 Gal will be the last of the tanks I shall update.

Maybe when we move next and I'm done with the degree.
 

Tom Barr

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I also removed the Starougyne from the emergent growth, it outcompeted the HC. I removed it and added some more HC and Bolbitus instead, this looks nicer and gives me a nice source of HC anytime I chose.
Got plenty of Starougyne as it is.