Okay, it has been about four years since last time i was running my 100L juwel containing a Crypt, som Vallisneria and a bunch of Javamoss in a rockscape with a bare, pretty sterile sand substrate (except for sand snails and fecies). It had a nice little stock of Corydoras, Tetras, Ancistrus and a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides. The tank worked really nice, no algae issues at all wich must have been due to my really careful feeding schedual and low, stock lighting. The plants grew steady and nice, but slow.
Anyhow, here's the deal. I want to start up again. This time with a heavily planted nano, with a HC carpet, some Fissidens Fontanus and Hairgrass. I've been reading a lot the last month or two. I am aiming for a medium-high light. My mother runs a lamp-store and i found a really suiting lamp with a good reflector and an e14 bulb mount. I just need to find a bulb wich fits and has around 6500k. A bit harder than i thought, initially, but i will find it somehow.
I am trying to keep this project on a budget, so i found a 16L nano with a plastic frame in the garage. I was thinking about runing yeast Co2 with an airstone into the bottom of the HOB filter container, ADA AS powder as substrate and using Tropica Plant Nutrition+ (read the "plus" as it contains nitrates and phosphates aswell) as fertilizer.
Over to the fun part, the scape.
This is what I am starting out with:
View attachment 3360
I think i have to take out some of the gravel before adding AS, but i want to use the gravel to add hight in the back. Note, the tank is about 25cm across and 30cm high.
Here is where i want to end up:
View attachment 3361
Hemianthus Callithrichoides as the carpet with E. Parvula just in front of the rocks, E, Parvula or maybe, E. Acicularis in the back and to finnish it of, some nice pillows of Fissidens Fontanus on all the flat parts of the big rocks.
Here is where i am at now:
Four weeks ago i ordered all the plants from England to where i live in Norway. I live in a remote area without a LFS within two-three hours driving so i thought getting the plants and all the supplies by mail would be convenient. First big bump in the road came by mail a few days delayed after a week in transport. The three pots of HC were reduced to just brown lumps of organic matter, and the E. Acicularis was scaringly brown all the way down. The E. Parvula and Fissidens though, where both still looking pretty nice! Although i got a bit less Fissidens than what i was hoping for. (really thin layer smeared across a mesh piece) Those where both from Tropica so i guess those guys know what they are doing! I was hoping to get all the plants back to life, but the HC had already passed, I had to admit, after watching over it for two weeks in my improvised 5L "plant first-aid" aquarium. The E. Acicularis I cut everything all the way down to the roots, put them in the AS and hoped for the best. It is coming back slooowly. The E. Parvula though... Well it is nothing like i imagined! It is so fast! It had shot roots and runners in multiple directions just after the first week! When i saw the mesh piece of Fissidens I got an idea. What if i just bendt it a little so it would lie nicely in the waterfall from the HOB? I had a good feeling about it, since it would get tons of light and flow. I knew it is was a slow grower and i thought it had to adapt to my water for maybe three-four weeks before i would notice any growth. Turned out it got thicker in just the first week! Yeppi!
To sum up this part:
The 5L first-aid tank has now been running for a bit more than three weeks with all the plants except the HC wich got thrown out.
The old leaves on the E. Parvula have brown tips, but i decided to keep them until they got really strong and tied down, wich is about now, really. Fresh grass is popping up everywhere and they look great(seriosly, I am a bit intimidated by this growth rate. i think i have to reconsider my carpet. It's going to be hard keeping this stuff away from an eventual HC carpet).
The Fissidens is pretty thick now and i think i have enough to cover the parts of the rocks that i want to. The. E. Acicularis is still really slow. I guess they were in a really weak state and it will take some time for them to recover.
The maintenance on this thing is 40-50% water change every day (I am doing what i can to avoid algae issues since i don't know for sure what I am doing really) and 9-12 hours of medium+ light i would think. It's the old 11W light from the 16L tank. Occasionally i cut and remove trash Parvula leaves.
I have a slow creeping attack of Green Thread algae coming in. I am a bit unsure about what i should do about it, but I am playing with the idea to start adding some yeast Co2. And/or Tropica Plant Nutrition+
And this is what it looks like in the 5L first aid-tank now:
View attachment 3362
View attachment 3363
The Fissidens strains that are hanging down from the waterfall have had a LOT of flow and i think therefore they have really long and thin, weird looking leaves.
Oh and by the way. I think the Ph is a little bit above 7 and the softness a bit on the hard side. My old tests went out of date about two years ago so i am not sure if they are to be trusted.
Sooo, here comes my plan to try and achieve this thing. I am not at all an experienced grower, so this is the part I am really unsure about.
I want to dry-start it. Mostly becouse i want to smear the Fissidens onto the rocks and give it time in dry (read, humid) air to attach to the rocks. I was thinking one-two weeks in humid environment. Maybe i'll chop it up with a knife first, if that helps. Then i read i could just aswell dry start the HC and Parvula! What a great idea! What do you guys think, should i skip the HC? Or maybe the haigrass and keep stemplants in the back instead? Is it even possible to keep the hairgrass close to the rocks, surounded by HC without it all mixing up and getting all ugly and weird?
My goal except for the scape itself is that i want it to be a high maintenance project in the beginning, to fill it in and make it look nice. And then gradually going down on the light/Co2/fertilization to end up on something medium-ish, maintenance wise.
I am sure i forgot a bunch of things, and I am struggling to understand all the chemical terms and compounds (like Po4, Fe3 and whatnot), but i hope I am keeping this little project inside the ballpark, somewhat atleast.
Edit: Oh! Almost forgot. Can you use a ceramic diffuser with a Diy bottle of yeast Co2?
At last i just want to thank you all for this great and informative forum and especially thanks to those who take their time to read this mash-up of thoughts and ideas that has been swirling around in my head for the last month.
The Little Grasshopper
Anyhow, here's the deal. I want to start up again. This time with a heavily planted nano, with a HC carpet, some Fissidens Fontanus and Hairgrass. I've been reading a lot the last month or two. I am aiming for a medium-high light. My mother runs a lamp-store and i found a really suiting lamp with a good reflector and an e14 bulb mount. I just need to find a bulb wich fits and has around 6500k. A bit harder than i thought, initially, but i will find it somehow.
I am trying to keep this project on a budget, so i found a 16L nano with a plastic frame in the garage. I was thinking about runing yeast Co2 with an airstone into the bottom of the HOB filter container, ADA AS powder as substrate and using Tropica Plant Nutrition+ (read the "plus" as it contains nitrates and phosphates aswell) as fertilizer.
Over to the fun part, the scape.
This is what I am starting out with:
View attachment 3360
I think i have to take out some of the gravel before adding AS, but i want to use the gravel to add hight in the back. Note, the tank is about 25cm across and 30cm high.
Here is where i want to end up:
View attachment 3361
Hemianthus Callithrichoides as the carpet with E. Parvula just in front of the rocks, E, Parvula or maybe, E. Acicularis in the back and to finnish it of, some nice pillows of Fissidens Fontanus on all the flat parts of the big rocks.
Here is where i am at now:
Four weeks ago i ordered all the plants from England to where i live in Norway. I live in a remote area without a LFS within two-three hours driving so i thought getting the plants and all the supplies by mail would be convenient. First big bump in the road came by mail a few days delayed after a week in transport. The three pots of HC were reduced to just brown lumps of organic matter, and the E. Acicularis was scaringly brown all the way down. The E. Parvula and Fissidens though, where both still looking pretty nice! Although i got a bit less Fissidens than what i was hoping for. (really thin layer smeared across a mesh piece) Those where both from Tropica so i guess those guys know what they are doing! I was hoping to get all the plants back to life, but the HC had already passed, I had to admit, after watching over it for two weeks in my improvised 5L "plant first-aid" aquarium. The E. Acicularis I cut everything all the way down to the roots, put them in the AS and hoped for the best. It is coming back slooowly. The E. Parvula though... Well it is nothing like i imagined! It is so fast! It had shot roots and runners in multiple directions just after the first week! When i saw the mesh piece of Fissidens I got an idea. What if i just bendt it a little so it would lie nicely in the waterfall from the HOB? I had a good feeling about it, since it would get tons of light and flow. I knew it is was a slow grower and i thought it had to adapt to my water for maybe three-four weeks before i would notice any growth. Turned out it got thicker in just the first week! Yeppi!
To sum up this part:
The 5L first-aid tank has now been running for a bit more than three weeks with all the plants except the HC wich got thrown out.
The old leaves on the E. Parvula have brown tips, but i decided to keep them until they got really strong and tied down, wich is about now, really. Fresh grass is popping up everywhere and they look great(seriosly, I am a bit intimidated by this growth rate. i think i have to reconsider my carpet. It's going to be hard keeping this stuff away from an eventual HC carpet).
The Fissidens is pretty thick now and i think i have enough to cover the parts of the rocks that i want to. The. E. Acicularis is still really slow. I guess they were in a really weak state and it will take some time for them to recover.
The maintenance on this thing is 40-50% water change every day (I am doing what i can to avoid algae issues since i don't know for sure what I am doing really) and 9-12 hours of medium+ light i would think. It's the old 11W light from the 16L tank. Occasionally i cut and remove trash Parvula leaves.
I have a slow creeping attack of Green Thread algae coming in. I am a bit unsure about what i should do about it, but I am playing with the idea to start adding some yeast Co2. And/or Tropica Plant Nutrition+
And this is what it looks like in the 5L first aid-tank now:
View attachment 3362
View attachment 3363
The Fissidens strains that are hanging down from the waterfall have had a LOT of flow and i think therefore they have really long and thin, weird looking leaves.
Oh and by the way. I think the Ph is a little bit above 7 and the softness a bit on the hard side. My old tests went out of date about two years ago so i am not sure if they are to be trusted.
Sooo, here comes my plan to try and achieve this thing. I am not at all an experienced grower, so this is the part I am really unsure about.
I want to dry-start it. Mostly becouse i want to smear the Fissidens onto the rocks and give it time in dry (read, humid) air to attach to the rocks. I was thinking one-two weeks in humid environment. Maybe i'll chop it up with a knife first, if that helps. Then i read i could just aswell dry start the HC and Parvula! What a great idea! What do you guys think, should i skip the HC? Or maybe the haigrass and keep stemplants in the back instead? Is it even possible to keep the hairgrass close to the rocks, surounded by HC without it all mixing up and getting all ugly and weird?
My goal except for the scape itself is that i want it to be a high maintenance project in the beginning, to fill it in and make it look nice. And then gradually going down on the light/Co2/fertilization to end up on something medium-ish, maintenance wise.
I am sure i forgot a bunch of things, and I am struggling to understand all the chemical terms and compounds (like Po4, Fe3 and whatnot), but i hope I am keeping this little project inside the ballpark, somewhat atleast.
Edit: Oh! Almost forgot. Can you use a ceramic diffuser with a Diy bottle of yeast Co2?
At last i just want to thank you all for this great and informative forum and especially thanks to those who take their time to read this mash-up of thoughts and ideas that has been swirling around in my head for the last month.
The Little Grasshopper
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