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I meant to get this journal started sooner, but there wasn't much to report on while doing a dark start, and then I had a small mishap with some of my plants getting partially frozen while getting driven around timbucktoo in a FedEx truck. Now that I got my plant replacements in and some of my fish in the tank, I figured now is a great time to start since I have some nice photos.
Here's the sparks notes as to what I got going on so far:
Equipment:
Landen 100p (52 gal with a shallow footprint, roughly 47 gallons factoring in water displacement)
Two Week Aqua T90 Pros
UNS Controsoil Supplemented with APT 1 Dosed Daily
Oase Biomaster Thermo 600
5 LB co2 tank with inline diffuser
Flora:
Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Staurogyne Repens
Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini'
Ranunculus Inundatus (to be added to midground pending delivery)
Rotala Ramosior 'Florida'
Bacopa Salzmannii 'Purple'
Rotala 'Blood Red' SG
Bacopa Colorata
Limnophila 'Belem'
Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'
Nymphoides Taiwan
Cabomba Furcata
Fauna:
20x Cenepa Red Pencilfish
2x Wild Type Honey Gourami
A Few pink Ramshorn snails I plucked from my low techs
To be added once tank stabilizes:
20-30 Hastatus Corydora (I have a group of 20 in their own 20g long breeding project, my wallet broke with the Pencils and Hastatus aren't cheap either) 25 Blood Orange Neocaridina
What's happened so far:
The tank was filled and dark started on 1/17 using some Fritz Turbostart and seeded ceramic from one of my established tanks. I got impatient and planted on 1/30, after the ammonia dropped. The tank cycled on 2/4, so 18 days from fill.
Last night I moved the Pencilfish and Gourami out of QT since I don't work on the weekends and am able to monitor them with the co2. I had my co2 dialed in quite well, at 45ppm. Today was day 1 with the fish in and about halfway through the photo period my plants started lightly pearling for the first time, but unfortunately I could tell the fish were not feeling well. I backed off the co2 a bit, but one Pencilfish in particular started acting drunk. They were $30 a piece so any loss would be a huge disappointment, so I cut the co2 early and slammed some extra oxygen into the tank and all was well. The Gourami were totally unfazed as expected. I turned the flow up on my WaveMaker, turned the co2 down some more, so tomorrow will be ground 0 again with dialing in the co2. Other than that, things are going very well with the plants. It's only been 8 days but the hairgrass is spreading very quickly, the cabomba and bacopa colorata are throwing some very nice colors at the tops despite being low to the substrate, since I've been aggressively propagating everything to fill in what I can. The slower ones to transition and grow are the Ramisior (expected), Limnophila, and Persicaria.
I'm currently running the T90 Pros at 50% on the "Red" preset, which averages about 120 PAR at the substrate. I took about a hundred data points with my rented PAR meter of all of my preferred color settings, including increments of intensity so that I have the data on hand should I need to adjust later. These lights are very impressive. The spread is in line with what I'd expect with a pendant style, but I favor the Kessil-like shimmer effect which is why I chose Pendants. On my 17.71" high tank, they could easily put out 300+ PAR at the substrate and 500+ at the surface.
What's next?
I'm waiting on my Ranunculus Inundatus to arrive and will be planting that scattered throughout the tank like the AR mini to give a nice transition from the hairgrass carpet to the stem plants, I also have two pieces of cut glass coming to make a two piece lid to help prevent evaporation and preserve my boyfriends deer mount. I'm going to start doing larger water changes on the cory QT tank with water a few degrees colder than the tank to stimulate breeding, I'm hoping they will breed themselves into a larger colony, as my main vision for the tank is a massive school of these little cuties. It's my first time keeping them but I find their appearance far more attractive than regular Pygmy Cories, and their mid-level tight schooling behavior will be quite the spectacle if I'm successful. I feel the tank is stable enough to add my shrimp, so I'll be getting those shipped in at the end of the week. I'm hoping once I gain some more plant mass to output more oxygen, I can turn the co2 back up past 35ppm. I can't get any more surface agitation and flow than I already have, without turning the tank into a Kitchenaid mixer. The Pencilfish have been very forgiving with my harder, more alkaline tap water when in the QT tank, so I was hoping they'd be more tolerant of high co2, but apparently not. Long term plans are to add some Jazz caps in a few weeks to feed the stems, but I anticipate sticking with APT 1 since my tap contains both nitrate and phosphate, and I'll have a moderate bioload. I also have had a 5 stage BRS RODI system for a few years that I never bothered to hook up, so I'll be making plans to get the tank switched over to RO water once my soils buffering capacity is about kicked.
Anyways, that's it for now. I'll update back tomorrow with how day 2 went with the Cenepas' tolerance for co2. I've been practicing my cellphone photography skills so enjoy my photo dump below, the Cenepa are absolutely spectacular to watch, and between my toddler, Kaiseri Newts, and these guys, I'm going to have to invest in some external storage for my camera roll. Also, honorable mention for those who replied to my "Center or not" thread regarding my driftwood. It's placed slightly off to the right and it should look very nice once I'm done propagating and can let my stems get some real height. The fish love all of the holes, tunnels, and caves that this piece of wood has.
Here's the sparks notes as to what I got going on so far:
Equipment:
Landen 100p (52 gal with a shallow footprint, roughly 47 gallons factoring in water displacement)
Two Week Aqua T90 Pros
UNS Controsoil Supplemented with APT 1 Dosed Daily
Oase Biomaster Thermo 600
5 LB co2 tank with inline diffuser
Flora:
Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Staurogyne Repens
Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini'
Ranunculus Inundatus (to be added to midground pending delivery)
Rotala Ramosior 'Florida'
Bacopa Salzmannii 'Purple'
Rotala 'Blood Red' SG
Bacopa Colorata
Limnophila 'Belem'
Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'
Nymphoides Taiwan
Cabomba Furcata
Fauna:
20x Cenepa Red Pencilfish
2x Wild Type Honey Gourami
A Few pink Ramshorn snails I plucked from my low techs
To be added once tank stabilizes:
20-30 Hastatus Corydora (I have a group of 20 in their own 20g long breeding project, my wallet broke with the Pencils and Hastatus aren't cheap either) 25 Blood Orange Neocaridina
What's happened so far:
The tank was filled and dark started on 1/17 using some Fritz Turbostart and seeded ceramic from one of my established tanks. I got impatient and planted on 1/30, after the ammonia dropped. The tank cycled on 2/4, so 18 days from fill.
Last night I moved the Pencilfish and Gourami out of QT since I don't work on the weekends and am able to monitor them with the co2. I had my co2 dialed in quite well, at 45ppm. Today was day 1 with the fish in and about halfway through the photo period my plants started lightly pearling for the first time, but unfortunately I could tell the fish were not feeling well. I backed off the co2 a bit, but one Pencilfish in particular started acting drunk. They were $30 a piece so any loss would be a huge disappointment, so I cut the co2 early and slammed some extra oxygen into the tank and all was well. The Gourami were totally unfazed as expected. I turned the flow up on my WaveMaker, turned the co2 down some more, so tomorrow will be ground 0 again with dialing in the co2. Other than that, things are going very well with the plants. It's only been 8 days but the hairgrass is spreading very quickly, the cabomba and bacopa colorata are throwing some very nice colors at the tops despite being low to the substrate, since I've been aggressively propagating everything to fill in what I can. The slower ones to transition and grow are the Ramisior (expected), Limnophila, and Persicaria.
I'm currently running the T90 Pros at 50% on the "Red" preset, which averages about 120 PAR at the substrate. I took about a hundred data points with my rented PAR meter of all of my preferred color settings, including increments of intensity so that I have the data on hand should I need to adjust later. These lights are very impressive. The spread is in line with what I'd expect with a pendant style, but I favor the Kessil-like shimmer effect which is why I chose Pendants. On my 17.71" high tank, they could easily put out 300+ PAR at the substrate and 500+ at the surface.
What's next?
I'm waiting on my Ranunculus Inundatus to arrive and will be planting that scattered throughout the tank like the AR mini to give a nice transition from the hairgrass carpet to the stem plants, I also have two pieces of cut glass coming to make a two piece lid to help prevent evaporation and preserve my boyfriends deer mount. I'm going to start doing larger water changes on the cory QT tank with water a few degrees colder than the tank to stimulate breeding, I'm hoping they will breed themselves into a larger colony, as my main vision for the tank is a massive school of these little cuties. It's my first time keeping them but I find their appearance far more attractive than regular Pygmy Cories, and their mid-level tight schooling behavior will be quite the spectacle if I'm successful. I feel the tank is stable enough to add my shrimp, so I'll be getting those shipped in at the end of the week. I'm hoping once I gain some more plant mass to output more oxygen, I can turn the co2 back up past 35ppm. I can't get any more surface agitation and flow than I already have, without turning the tank into a Kitchenaid mixer. The Pencilfish have been very forgiving with my harder, more alkaline tap water when in the QT tank, so I was hoping they'd be more tolerant of high co2, but apparently not. Long term plans are to add some Jazz caps in a few weeks to feed the stems, but I anticipate sticking with APT 1 since my tap contains both nitrate and phosphate, and I'll have a moderate bioload. I also have had a 5 stage BRS RODI system for a few years that I never bothered to hook up, so I'll be making plans to get the tank switched over to RO water once my soils buffering capacity is about kicked.
Anyways, that's it for now. I'll update back tomorrow with how day 2 went with the Cenepas' tolerance for co2. I've been practicing my cellphone photography skills so enjoy my photo dump below, the Cenepa are absolutely spectacular to watch, and between my toddler, Kaiseri Newts, and these guys, I'm going to have to invest in some external storage for my camera roll. Also, honorable mention for those who replied to my "Center or not" thread regarding my driftwood. It's placed slightly off to the right and it should look very nice once I'm done propagating and can let my stems get some real height. The fish love all of the holes, tunnels, and caves that this piece of wood has.
94 Replies
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8529 views
Rockstar
Journal Desktop nano paludarium.
I’ve had this idea in my head for a couple of years now and it’s finally taken shape. The inspiration came from a local conservation area/regional park. I wanted a tall nano scape with stone/wood hardscape with a pump/filter in the rear plumbed so the outflows exited at the top and trickled down the face of the scape. Primarily a moss scape dotted with some native accent plants.
Tank: 15cm x 15cm x 25cm ultra clea low iron nano tall with floating bottom.
Light: random plant light from local store.
Substrate: random top fin black pebble gravel that came in a bag with a marketplace tank setup.
Pump: random pump from my dad’s garage from one of my brothers super old tanks.
Plumbing: extra black RO 1/4” tubing and quick connect fittings from a reptile mist kit (for another project).
I started by building the frame with divider panels. There are two ledges that propped up the hardscape, and the whole frame was draped and buffered with 3d spacer mesh (Epiweb) to retain moisture and humidity near the top of the scape without needing a lid. The mesh also helps keep the wood in contact with water, and aids establishing moss.
3d spacer mesh:
Back filter installed:
And the dry fitment test. Had to file down the rock on both sides so it fit without being forced in there. I constructed it this way so the whole scape could be pulled out at once if I needed to reset it, or just the pump if it needed to be serviced. More 3d spacer mesh was wedged in all the crevices for additional wicking.
Topped up and testing:
Additional hardscape up top to help hide all the outflows, and provide space for the finishing flora (maybe some air plants and/or orchids).
Tank: 15cm x 15cm x 25cm ultra clea low iron nano tall with floating bottom.
Light: random plant light from local store.
Substrate: random top fin black pebble gravel that came in a bag with a marketplace tank setup.
Pump: random pump from my dad’s garage from one of my brothers super old tanks.
Plumbing: extra black RO 1/4” tubing and quick connect fittings from a reptile mist kit (for another project).
I started by building the frame with divider panels. There are two ledges that propped up the hardscape, and the whole frame was draped and buffered with 3d spacer mesh (Epiweb) to retain moisture and humidity near the top of the scape without needing a lid. The mesh also helps keep the wood in contact with water, and aids establishing moss.
3d spacer mesh:
Back filter installed:
And the dry fitment test. Had to file down the rock on both sides so it fit without being forced in there. I constructed it this way so the whole scape could be pulled out at once if I needed to reset it, or just the pump if it needed to be serviced. More 3d spacer mesh was wedged in all the crevices for additional wicking.
Topped up and testing:
Additional hardscape up top to help hide all the outflows, and provide space for the finishing flora (maybe some air plants and/or orchids).
5 Replies
·
809 views
Supporting
I Donated 2026
Rockstar
I hadn't seen it mentioned by others that attended Aquashella, but if you hadn't already heard about it or seen it in Aquashella videos, ADA has come out with Amazonia Pro. It's not a replacement for Version 2, but an addition. It is essentially Version 2 on steroids with higher nutrients and of course the negative side effect of potentially higher initial ammonia leaching and, if your not prepared and skilled, more chance of algae. That's even from the mouth of Homma-san himself. The scaping competitors were using it in the competition and AFA was selling 9l bags at the show. They said it would be available on the website within the next couple weeks.
25 Replies
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428 views
Supporting
I Donated 2026
It’s time to take down the 20 gallon long tank that was my first “ high tech planted” aquarium and upgrade to a tank with on an appropriate size/depth.
I’ll order a Landen (90 x 50 x 50) tank on Amazon for this. Free overnight delivery. Preposterous!
I’ve studied the thread TRyan posted on 3/4” plywood stands and will be building a stand for this - thank you TRyan!
For filtration, I’ve been studying JayP’s thread. I had a biomaster thermo 350 on the 20L which I’m thinking of reusing. And I also have a netlea prefilter sitting around and an ARC small acrylic yugang reactor I can steal from a tank. I’m thinking of buying an Oase 800 or other pump and chaining these pieces together to provide a second filtration/carbonizing path? Not sure on the pump manufacturer & size?
I’ll be putting this together in the style of the ADA nature aquarium. Aquasoil in the back, some hardscape (rock, wood) in the midground and a decorative sand foreground. Very simple. Primarily a guppy, Endler, Cory, pleco, neocaridina tank.
Soliciting the scapecrunch community for feedback, advice, suggestions, etc.
Thank you as always. You all are the best!
I’ll order a Landen (90 x 50 x 50) tank on Amazon for this. Free overnight delivery. Preposterous!
I’ve studied the thread TRyan posted on 3/4” plywood stands and will be building a stand for this - thank you TRyan!
For filtration, I’ve been studying JayP’s thread. I had a biomaster thermo 350 on the 20L which I’m thinking of reusing. And I also have a netlea prefilter sitting around and an ARC small acrylic yugang reactor I can steal from a tank. I’m thinking of buying an Oase 800 or other pump and chaining these pieces together to provide a second filtration/carbonizing path? Not sure on the pump manufacturer & size?
I’ll be putting this together in the style of the ADA nature aquarium. Aquasoil in the back, some hardscape (rock, wood) in the midground and a decorative sand foreground. Very simple. Primarily a guppy, Endler, Cory, pleco, neocaridina tank.
Soliciting the scapecrunch community for feedback, advice, suggestions, etc.
Thank you as always. You all are the best!
28 Replies
·
1571 views
Rockstar
Journal 22 gallon long bookshelf
Time to start a new thread.
I’ll fill in some details later, but I’m working on the hardscape now. Any and all criticism is appreciated. The vision is nothing more, and nothing less, than something appealing to the eye.
90cm x 30cm x 30cm Lifegard Aquatics ultra clear bookshelf tank. Buce and anubias on the hardscape, stems towards the back and center, mid to front carpet with some changes in shade and texture down to a flat grade on the right side of the tank.
Lily pipe inlet and skimmer will be in the back left corner with the outflow in the front left to hopefully achieve circular flow. I’ll be running an in-line diffuser. Light will be the P600 Pro that I regrettably did not upside to 900. Oh well. I’ll mount it high and hopefully it’ll have enough spread.
I have some dragon stone and red lava rock rubble I’ll use at the base to blend into the substrate, as well as some stratum I may or may not cap with.
I’ll fill in some details later, but I’m working on the hardscape now. Any and all criticism is appreciated. The vision is nothing more, and nothing less, than something appealing to the eye.
90cm x 30cm x 30cm Lifegard Aquatics ultra clear bookshelf tank. Buce and anubias on the hardscape, stems towards the back and center, mid to front carpet with some changes in shade and texture down to a flat grade on the right side of the tank.
Lily pipe inlet and skimmer will be in the back left corner with the outflow in the front left to hopefully achieve circular flow. I’ll be running an in-line diffuser. Light will be the P600 Pro that I regrettably did not upside to 900. Oh well. I’ll mount it high and hopefully it’ll have enough spread.
I have some dragon stone and red lava rock rubble I’ll use at the base to blend into the substrate, as well as some stratum I may or may not cap with.
288 Replies
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32502 views
Staff member
I Donated 2026
Founding Member
Hello Welcome, Rachel Smith
Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Rachel Smith!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
3 Replies
·
89 views
I Donated 2026
Expert in Residence
MOTM Winner
I have always liked Rotala florida as plant due to its strongly colored leaves, but realized that I haven't actually aquascaped much with it - meaning to integrate it as part of a layout and not just growing a bunch of it in farm/collector style tank. Using plants in a layout in tighter bunches, and in competition with surrounding plants/hardscape is much harder than growing it farm style in a single patch - it also means be able to shape/trim the bushes to match the overall curves of the layout.
Back in 2016 or so when I first received Rotala florida samples from north america, I could only grow it in sparser bunches. It looked nice in macro photographs but I could not envision using it an bush that would show off well as part of a layout unless I can grow it much denser. In the recent years, there were two main discoveries that I found in my experimentation, the first is that it grows better in moderate GH (5 dGH+) compared to super soft water (say <3dGH), and that it grew better in certain soil mixes (I experimented with different garden soil mixes when engineering the composition of APT Feast). Eventually I integrated some of the soil data into APT Feast's composition, and paired with the higher power lights readily available today, I find that I could finally grow the plant the way I envisioned as part of overall layout. I could prune it dense, as the base stems were healthy enough to sprout dense side shoots after trimming - and the secondary/tertiary shoot tips were as fully colored and sized similar to a primary shoot tip that hasn't been subjected to topping yet.
As a midground stem, it works very well due to its slower growth rate vs other colored stem plants.
Against the deep purple of Rotala florida, I found that Golden white clouds worked quite well. So now they are the main inhabitants of the tank.
Tank this week (25/6/2025)
Tank started out like this:
A week or 2 after initial planting (5/5/2025). I reused old aquasoil from the previous scape, so I planted all plants up front rather than waiting more time for the tank to stabilize, with the idea that I could out-grow any algae issues. Initially wanted to add H. Chai but it really didn't fit the overall color scheme, and the bushes by the side were too invasive to be compatible with having a chai patch I think.
Since it was going to contain Rotala florida, I thought I might as well throw in other high demand troublesome species such as the Red Eriocaulon quinguangulare, blood vomit. I settled on Rotala tulunadensis for the background as I wanted something dense and shapeable.
Tank specs:
60x36x36cm
Filter: Oase biomaster 250, all sponge media
CO2 injected through inline atomizer
Substrate: APT Feast
Water column: APT Sky to raise GH to 5dGH, 2ml of APTe per day.
Light distance. Interestingly, not crazy high PAR - just around 200-250 umols PAR at the substrate level.
Trimming and shaping: Most bushes were shaped by cutting individual outlier shoots one by one. Only Rotala blood red and the Rotala tulunadensis was straight trimmed across the entire top once.
This is how the Rotala tulunadensis looked like after a straight trim on 29/5/2025. About 3 weeks from when the top picture at top of this page was taken. It took the plant a whole week + to show new shoots. It seems straight trimming slows down the plant quite a bit, but allows for a very dense & neat canopy afterwards.
There are some interesting plants stuffed here and there. Some Eriocaulon caulescens? bolivia? that local hobbyists passed on to me. Carved out a patch for Syngonanthus vichada - slow grower, but the couple of babies that came have doubled in size so I think they should be alright. I think I will move them to a larger tank with more space.
Only discovered the color combination with the Golden white clouds when the tank matured, but its one of my favourite fish-plant combinations now. I think that while some of the species are a bit picky about growth conditions, one thing I really like about this tank is that most things have moderate/slow growth rates, which makes maintenance with regards to removing excess growth less tedious.
Elatine triandra is used as a low growing green filler plant - it does this role well. As it does not root very deeply, I can easily cut and pull off excess growth easily. Its the fasting growing plant in the layout that requires frequent removal of excess growth.
Some more close-ups.
I'm trying to replicate concepts of this layout (slowing growing bushes) into my 4ft tank.
Back in 2016 or so when I first received Rotala florida samples from north america, I could only grow it in sparser bunches. It looked nice in macro photographs but I could not envision using it an bush that would show off well as part of a layout unless I can grow it much denser. In the recent years, there were two main discoveries that I found in my experimentation, the first is that it grows better in moderate GH (5 dGH+) compared to super soft water (say <3dGH), and that it grew better in certain soil mixes (I experimented with different garden soil mixes when engineering the composition of APT Feast). Eventually I integrated some of the soil data into APT Feast's composition, and paired with the higher power lights readily available today, I find that I could finally grow the plant the way I envisioned as part of overall layout. I could prune it dense, as the base stems were healthy enough to sprout dense side shoots after trimming - and the secondary/tertiary shoot tips were as fully colored and sized similar to a primary shoot tip that hasn't been subjected to topping yet.
As a midground stem, it works very well due to its slower growth rate vs other colored stem plants.
Against the deep purple of Rotala florida, I found that Golden white clouds worked quite well. So now they are the main inhabitants of the tank.
Tank this week (25/6/2025)
Tank started out like this:
A week or 2 after initial planting (5/5/2025). I reused old aquasoil from the previous scape, so I planted all plants up front rather than waiting more time for the tank to stabilize, with the idea that I could out-grow any algae issues. Initially wanted to add H. Chai but it really didn't fit the overall color scheme, and the bushes by the side were too invasive to be compatible with having a chai patch I think.
Since it was going to contain Rotala florida, I thought I might as well throw in other high demand troublesome species such as the Red Eriocaulon quinguangulare, blood vomit. I settled on Rotala tulunadensis for the background as I wanted something dense and shapeable.
Tank specs:
60x36x36cm
Filter: Oase biomaster 250, all sponge media
CO2 injected through inline atomizer
Substrate: APT Feast
Water column: APT Sky to raise GH to 5dGH, 2ml of APTe per day.
Light distance. Interestingly, not crazy high PAR - just around 200-250 umols PAR at the substrate level.
Trimming and shaping: Most bushes were shaped by cutting individual outlier shoots one by one. Only Rotala blood red and the Rotala tulunadensis was straight trimmed across the entire top once.
This is how the Rotala tulunadensis looked like after a straight trim on 29/5/2025. About 3 weeks from when the top picture at top of this page was taken. It took the plant a whole week + to show new shoots. It seems straight trimming slows down the plant quite a bit, but allows for a very dense & neat canopy afterwards.
There are some interesting plants stuffed here and there. Some Eriocaulon caulescens? bolivia? that local hobbyists passed on to me. Carved out a patch for Syngonanthus vichada - slow grower, but the couple of babies that came have doubled in size so I think they should be alright. I think I will move them to a larger tank with more space.
Only discovered the color combination with the Golden white clouds when the tank matured, but its one of my favourite fish-plant combinations now. I think that while some of the species are a bit picky about growth conditions, one thing I really like about this tank is that most things have moderate/slow growth rates, which makes maintenance with regards to removing excess growth less tedious.
Elatine triandra is used as a low growing green filler plant - it does this role well. As it does not root very deeply, I can easily cut and pull off excess growth easily. Its the fasting growing plant in the layout that requires frequent removal of excess growth.
Some more close-ups.
I'm trying to replicate concepts of this layout (slowing growing bushes) into my 4ft tank.
247 Replies
·
36867 views
Supporting
I Donated 2026
AquaGirls
I managed to acquire some Eriocaulon ratnagiricum. It should arrive early next week. I am pulling my 60U out of its extended dark start this weekend, and figured it would be an intriguing addition at the base of the large stones. (Not my image, this was from the seller):
I did read Dennis Wong's 'how to grow' for this species, which was very helpful, and will add some APT Jazz in the areas that I plant it as it seems it wants a fairly rich soil. Tank is 0KH, remineralized RO with APT Sky initially to dGH 6 when I initiated the dark start.
However, despite being sold as 'inert', the Sensei stone I acquired from AFA is most definitely not proving to be entirely inert. I haven't drained the tank yet, but will this weekend when I start planting, but this morning KH is holding at 0, but dGH is currently sitting at 10! There is a vein of quartz-like crystal running through the largest stone, presumably calcite, as it is driving the GH up, and leaving KH unaffected. Calcite reportedly can run in some Magura/Sensei stone. I am already reconsidering the type of shrimp for this tank based on the higher GH level, but I am wondering if anyone has experience with this plant in a tank with higher GH? This Erio is KH sensitive, and the tank is ok there, but I am wondering if the excess calcium in the water column, pushing that higher GH, might be less than ideal for this Eriocaulon?
I did consider sealing the vein of calcite with cyanoacrylate glue, and covering it in riccardia to maybe slow the leaching/rise in GH, but I think most of the rocks have at least some of this material running through them to varying degree, and I am expecting that the leaching could increase once the CO2 is running, and the pH drops. Regardless, if anyone has experience growing this lovely little spiky Erio, please share!
I did read Dennis Wong's 'how to grow' for this species, which was very helpful, and will add some APT Jazz in the areas that I plant it as it seems it wants a fairly rich soil. Tank is 0KH, remineralized RO with APT Sky initially to dGH 6 when I initiated the dark start.
However, despite being sold as 'inert', the Sensei stone I acquired from AFA is most definitely not proving to be entirely inert. I haven't drained the tank yet, but will this weekend when I start planting, but this morning KH is holding at 0, but dGH is currently sitting at 10! There is a vein of quartz-like crystal running through the largest stone, presumably calcite, as it is driving the GH up, and leaving KH unaffected. Calcite reportedly can run in some Magura/Sensei stone. I am already reconsidering the type of shrimp for this tank based on the higher GH level, but I am wondering if anyone has experience with this plant in a tank with higher GH? This Erio is KH sensitive, and the tank is ok there, but I am wondering if the excess calcium in the water column, pushing that higher GH, might be less than ideal for this Eriocaulon?
I did consider sealing the vein of calcite with cyanoacrylate glue, and covering it in riccardia to maybe slow the leaching/rise in GH, but I think most of the rocks have at least some of this material running through them to varying degree, and I am expecting that the leaching could increase once the CO2 is running, and the pH drops. Regardless, if anyone has experience growing this lovely little spiky Erio, please share!
2 Replies
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72 views
I have a wonderful stand of erio feather duster that has been algae free for well over a year.
Wnen I firts got it, tufts of bba would form on it on tips and I would just pull them off…
This summer my display tank has been struggling with simmering algae issues.
Still doing weekly 2/3 water changes, keeping nutrient levels and all stable, trimming away degraded leaves…
My erio is in sad shape…
I have tried spraying peroxide on it when doing water changes, laying the mass on a cafeteria tray and spraying on full strength and letting it set for 10 minutes before refilling to no avail.
I gave the fikters a thorough cleaning out, andremoved and reset plant groupings after thoroughly gravel vaccing the bdbs to remove organics…
Iam starting to think giving the erio a good hair cut way down low and letting it send up all new leaves.
Figure I would poll the audience before taking any such action…
Wnen I firts got it, tufts of bba would form on it on tips and I would just pull them off…
This summer my display tank has been struggling with simmering algae issues.
Still doing weekly 2/3 water changes, keeping nutrient levels and all stable, trimming away degraded leaves…
My erio is in sad shape…
I have tried spraying peroxide on it when doing water changes, laying the mass on a cafeteria tray and spraying on full strength and letting it set for 10 minutes before refilling to no avail.
I gave the fikters a thorough cleaning out, andremoved and reset plant groupings after thoroughly gravel vaccing the bdbs to remove organics…
Iam starting to think giving the erio a good hair cut way down low and letting it send up all new leaves.
Figure I would poll the audience before taking any such action…
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Supporting
I Donated 2026
Rockstar
Well...let's spend more money! I had thought about attending Aquashella - Chicago a few months ago but decided to pass this year. When I was thinking about it, they still didn't have the specific VIP guest list posted. Out of curiosity, I checked today and to my surprise, the man himself, Yusuke Homma, will be presenting the masterclass on Saturday. I can't pass that up when it's only an 8 hour drive. Ticket purchased, room booked. Anyone else attending?
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848 views
Staff member
I Donated 2026
Founding Member
Hello Welcome, drkenadams
Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @drkenadams!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
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