setting up the 3ft tank

[fish_r]

in the process of setting up a 3ft tank, saw a thread about growing the HC emersed then filling with water after it has covered the substrate. here's my attempt. i'm hoping that by the time i get the new T5 lighting and Co2 splitter so can pump Co2 into it. the tank will be covered in HC and i'll be off to a good start. currently only running 3 x T8 30w tubes @ approx 16hrs a day but soon to get 4 x T5 39watters "hopefully it will be enough" approx 3.1 wpg
will also be making a moss wall for the back of the tank and eventually it will be a dedicated dwarfs/CRS tank...

10-10-07
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/HCEmersed10-10-07-2.jpg

20-10-07
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/HCEmersed20-10-07-6.jpg

29-10-07
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/HCEmersed29-10-07-9.jpg

9 -11-07
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/DSCF2901.jpg

[ILLUSN]

hang in there Rob, looks like its going to start taking off now.

[Erk]

I agree with ILLUSN...looks like the HC is starting to take off!

I cant wait to see what you do with a 3fter! Thats what my tank is!

How tall is your 3fter??

Thanks....keep up the great work! 8-)
Eric

[fish_r]

the 3ft is a 3ft x 18x18 Eric "sorry i missed ur post"
this tanks only going to have the HC and hairgrass and some twiggy branches of wood with weeping moss attached. fish will be 20-30 cardinals and approx a dozen cheery shrimps and a few otto's

tanks been filled with water for approx 2 weeks now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/HC5-1-08.jpg

[Merrilyn]

Wow, that's really taken off, hasn't it.

Keep us updated:P

[iro11a]

Thats awesome man

[Matt15]

That does look awesome....!!!!

[fish_r]

cheers guys. will put more pics up when the wood etc goes in...

[Mr Discus]

Looks fantastic...

Have you managed to get the 4 x T5's to run on it yet? Or are you still using the 3 x T8's?

[Erk]

wow....looks great rob!

nice work

[fish_r]

since the water has been in iv'e had 2 x T5's and 2 x T8's but picked up the other set of T5's this arvo after work so running 4 x 39w T5's now...

thx Eric, got lots of weeping moss delivered today too and about 50 shrimps too so it's all happening now :)

[TW]

Looks great.
saw a thread about growing the HC emersed then filling with water after it has covered the substrate I read that post too & I'm experimenting with the same method now. Glad to see it worked well for you.

[fish_r]

cheers TW
good luck with ur's

[Erk]

Im going to be switching over to two 39watt t5s very shortly!

I cant wait to see updated pics of this tank!

keep up the nice work! :D

[fish_r]

just another update on the tank.
had the wood soaking for about a mth and boiled it for about 10hrs or more today and dressed it with some weeping moss i got a few days ago.
also got 30 small Pristella tetras on Saturday to go in the tank temporarily till i get the cardinals then the Pristella will go into the 4ft.. the tank also has about 30-40 shrimp too + some more to be born shortly as i found out tonight when i took the pics 8-)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/3ft13-1-08.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/3ft13-1-082.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/3ft13-1-083.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/Shrimpwitheggs.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/Shrimpwitheggs2.jpg

[Erk]

Lookin really good Rob!!

Excellent driftwood for that moss! I cant wait to see it in a lil bit!

:thumb

[Matt15]

The wood and weeping moss combo looks great.

Sounds like you'll be cooking shrimp on the BBQ too...!!!!!!!

*jks :lol:

[benkk]

just wonder what kind of the substrate are you using to plan HC ??

thanks

[axl]

What sort of diffusor are using on the tank, is it 1 of those glass diffusor, lo0oking at getting a diffusor for my 280ltr tank and dont no what to get.

[fish_r]

thx guys.

would need a fair few shrimps for a feed Matt, there pretty small :lol:

Benkk : the substrate is Red Sea Flora Base with 2 pkts of seachem plant tabs in there too.

Axl : the diffuser is a Dupla atomiser, but only recommended for tanks up to 200ltr. it's a great little diffuser with a built in check valve and bubble counter. the tank pearls like crazy with this method :)
will send u a PM with a link to a good cheap glass diffuser for ur tank...

[goldenpigeon]

can you post the link about the HC?
that looks excellent mate =]

[fish_r]

thx GP
i think this was the link i saw first
http://www.barrreport.com/articles/3361-new-methoid-make-nice-rug-hc-before-you-add-water.html?highlight=HC+emersed

but just found this good one too when searching for it
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/general-aquarium-plants-discussions/16642-hemianthus-callitrichoides-cuba-inflorescence.html

the thing i liked about this method was "no algae" and ur tank is cycled by the time u want to add water.

[RAZORFISH]

Hey Rob

Are you sure you haven't got Takashi Amano droping around on the weekends to help you with this tank :thumb Lol

[fish_r]

haha, i wish :P

[fish_r]

been fighting some pretty major algae issues which i think stemmed from the wood i put in the tank. it had developed a really horrible slime on the wood and ended upded up giving me some really bad algae on the weeping moss too and all over the HC.
i did a cpl of 50% water changes and didnt run any light for a cpl of days and took the wood out and put the moss in a bucket for about a week and a half.
then slowly upped the light in the tank. a few days ago i found some driftwood i had lying around boiled it for a few hrs and re-mounted the moss to that and put it back in the tank for another go.
also took the Pristella tetras out and replaced them with 30 small Cardinals.
i'm liking this look a bit better than the other, what do u think ?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/3fttank01-02-08.jpg

[Barry N]

Looking awesome. :D Great job - very nice tank.

[fish_r]

thx Barry http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/thumb.gif

added another bit of wood last night and fitted a spray bar to the internal filter so the hair grass stands up now instead of being flattened

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/3ft2-2-08.jpg

and a pic of one of the inhabitants

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/DavoShrimp2-2-08.jpg

[DiscusEden]

Very nice! I love the piece on the left. The carpet is pooking great!

How are the shrimp going in there? Are the cardinals (or neons?) bothering them at all?

[wobbles]

Sorry if youve answered this question before, but where did you get the HC? Ive been looking for ages! Love the scape by the way

[fish_r]

thx DE, i'm pretty happy with how the wood looks now "finally" the shrimps are going great and breeding like rabbits hehe, the one in the above pic is full of eggs too :wink: the cardinals dont bother them at all, but they are very small cardinals, there's 30 in there and adding another 20 this week hopefully

no probs Wobbles, i got the HC from one of the sponsers here called "Fish rock aquariums Sydney" ask for Ron. great service :)

[fish_r]

here's another update as of tonight for those interested.
there's 50 cardinals in there and 60+ shrimps too...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/3ft17-3-08.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/3ft17-3-081.jpg

[Barry N]

Love it - just superb :thumb Looking just fantastic - you have planned and implemented a gorgeous tank.

[DiscusEden]

That looks fantastic fish_r - excellent job!

What types of shrimp do you have in there now?

[fish_r]

thx guys.

the shrimp in there are :
Caridina longistrostris.
Caridina serratirostris "Spiny Beaked Caridina or Ninja Shrimp"
Caridina sp "Blackmore River Caridina.
and crystal red shrimp.

[Matt15]

That looks awesome... i love it..!!!

[dandaman352]

Wow that looks sick.

[fish_r]

here's another update as of last night. getting a bigger tank soon and will be pulling this one down in the near future and putting the bigger one in placement of this one with some new nice wood i got a hold of...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/HC21-5-08.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/HC121-5-08.jpg

[TW]

Looking good. How tall is the HC & have you ever trimmed it. If you do trim it, do you do it in tank?

Cheers, Robyn.

[fish_r]

thx TW.
HC is approx 6cm tall, havn't trimmed it yet as it's going
to go everywhere if and when i do. it has to be done while in the tank. i have shrimps with eggs in there atm too so going to let them lay first b4 i do anything. then probably pull the tank down and use some of the HC for replanting and sell off the rest.

[MFG]

Hi,

nice carpet. what is HC? where can i getr some in SA?

cheers
Scott MFG

[TW]

HC is approx 6cm tall, havn't trimmed it yet as it's going
to go everywhere if and when i do. it has to be done while in the tank. i have shrimps with eggs in there atm too so going to let them lay first b4 i do anything. then probably pull the tank down and use some of the HC for replanting and sell off the rest. Thanks for the HC info. Mine came from the same source as you. I'm doing the waterless method in a tank right now & planted the HC on 18th May. I'm disappointed to hear HC grows that tall. I asked about your trimming method, as another person I know trims his as per stems (he removes the HC, trims is & replants). I have nowhere near enough energy & am way too lazy to do that. But I dread the mess trimming in the tank will cause.

HC looks so great, but I wonder if I will regret it when first comes time to trim. I'd love to hear your feed back, when you eventually trim - or did I read you were shutting this tank down to re-start with a larger tank? Maybe I'm mixed up with someone else's tank though?

Earlier, when I read through your whole thread here, it seemed to take longer than Tom Barr says on his thread, for the HC to thread & for you to fill with water. Was that right - did you find it a longer process than you expected?

Anyway, you've done a great job & I enjoyed learning of your progress.

[TW]

:oops: sorry fish_r. I am a dope & didn't fully read your post. I see that you are going to let little your cute little shrimpsters have their wicked way, before you pull the tank down, save some HC for yourself, & sell the rest :oops:

MFG - looks like a good chance for you to buy some from fish_r. HC is short for "Hemianthus callitrichoides". Here is a link to Tropica. It's meant to take you to the actual description of HC, but I sometimes find Tropica links take you to the home page instead. If it does, just search for Hemianthus callitrichoides on the tropica site.

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

If you're too impatient to wait for fish_r's sale - check with Ron from Fish Rock Aquariums (a sponsor). That's where mine came from & I think Ron's too - but Ron will tell you for sure where his came from.

If anyone else has ever trimmed HC, I'd love to hear how they did it, and how it went.

Cheers, Robyn

[MFG]

Thanks TW,

I will post it in classified to see if i am able to get any responses.

regards
MFG Scott

[fish_r]

dont be too dissapointed TW :P it has taken about 6mths to grow that tall and only cause i havn't trimmed it at all in that time. the stronger the lighting u have the lower it will keep. if u dont have strong light it will grow much more leggy.
as for the time it took to grow emersed it took me longer cause i only had limited T8 lights on it. i'm sure some others used intense T5 lighting or halides. i grew mine with T8's and then when i added water i added my 4 x 54w T5's.

if and when i do trim it i will just turn the filter off trim it then scoop out with a net, not too hard really it's just i have a few tanks on the go atm and little time.

i have also seen another method of putting a power head in the tank with a coke bottle with the butt cut off attached to the intake of the power head and a sponge in the neck of the bottle, turn the P/head on and it automatically collects all the trimmings in the bottle. sort of works like a large surface skimmer.
i will try find the link for u and put it up here as it looks like a very effective and easy method.
there's more info on my tank on aquariumlife if u want to have a look.
http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showthread.php?t=3741


"i have sent u a PM Scott"

[TW]

Thanks for all the great info :)
the stronger the lighting u have the lower it will keep. if u dont have strong light it will grow much more leggy. I'm growing it under compact pc's, with split capacity. So I either have 2.77wpg with both banks on or 1.3wpg when only 1 bank is on. During the waterless stage, I am doing 12hrs at 2.77wpg. When tank is filled, I will come up with a split lighting pattern - I'll start bugging everyone here for advice when the time's right.

But in regards to 2.77wpg while waterless - how does that relate to the level of lighting you had during your "waterless" stage?

BTW, now you have water - what is your current wpg?

I'm still at work at the moment, but will check out your tank of aquariumlife later, for sure. Thanks for the link.
have also seen another method of putting a power head in the tank with a coke bottle with the butt cut off attached to the intake of the power head and a sponge in the neck of the bottle, turn the P/head on and it automatically collects all the trimmings in the bottle. sort of works like a large surface skimmer. i will try find the link for u and put it up here as it looks like a very effective and easy method. that sounds a great idea. That would be a help with riccia trimming too. If you do find the link, I'd appreciate that.

There are lots of helpful people here - you're one of them :D

[fish_r]

the initial lighting i used when waterless was 3 x 30w T8 tubes over 190ltrs so approx 1.8 wpg @ 16hrs a day.
but then not long before i added water i got 2 x twin 54w T5 setups giving me approx 4.3 wpg and thats what i have been using since @ 8hrs a day any longer and i get major algae issues.

i also put lots of seachem root tabs in the substrate and dose with a dry micros mix about 2 times a week and use ADA Green Brighty Special lights on the off days around 2-3 times a week. i found using the ADA stuff a lot easier cause it covers NPK all in one bottle.

i'll go searching for the powerhead setup now and see what i can come up with.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/KharmaKazi/thumb.gif

[fish_r]

ooops the lighting is 4 x 39w T5's not " 4 x 54w T5's"
so total of approx 3.1 wpg.

[fish_r]

well i finally found the link to the power head surface skimmer. here u go :)
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/do-yourself-aquarium-projects/49226-diy-post-trim-turbo-surface-skimmer.html

[TW]

Hi fish_r

Just checked out your other post & learnt all about how yogi went missing LOL. It was a good to read the more complete progress of your tank. Seems a shame to shut it down, when it's looking so great, but the lure of a bigger tank will make up for loss pretty quick. Look forward to seeing that one.

The skimmer link is great. Most DIY's are a bit much for me :oops: , but I think even I could manage that one.

Well, you have more wgp than me - so I expect my HC will be growing tall when I add water. Oh well. Hopefully the skimmer link will sort out the mess.


Thanks once again.