Journal 1000 Gallon High Tech Planted Tank

[RickyV]

Hats off to you. It’s just so awesome. I want a selfie myself

Thanks! If you're ever in Texas feel free to come see it!

 

[Count Krunk]

The tank is looking amazing!

 

[RickyV]

The tank is looking amazing!

Thank you!

 

[RickyV]

The tank has been doing pretty good. The plants have been doing much better ever since reducing micros. I also tried supplementing some additional Mn and I think I saw a little improvement. The Amazon sword is the only plant that has paler new leaves, but its not too bad. Overall the plant is growing well. Ive also been dropping the pH by 1.4 per suggestion from Tom Barr. Now the the pH is always below 6.5 during the photoperiod so I think that may have also helped with Fe.

The amazon sword also had a lot of babies.

I began dosing a little bit of calcium to help the sword as it's leaves were growing a bit twisted before and it seems to have helped. I'm also hoping it helps the baby shrimps as I wasn't seeing a lot of them in the shrimp breeding tank. Recently I started feeding that tank daily and it is full of babies. They've been growing well.

Unfortunately I've noticed quite a bit of planaria in there which makes me wonder if I could be seeing a lot more babies if it wasn't for them. I'd prefer to steer away from meds because it'd be impossible te remove all the snails. Has anyone here had success with managing planaria using planaria traps?

One thing I've noticed is an increase in green spot algae in the past few months. I think it's been coming down? I'll have to wait some more. I feel like in the first month or two I didn't see any green spot algae which makes me wonder what the reason could be for that.

As you can see above in the first two months the nitrates and phosphates ran lower, I also had elevated calcium. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. Also does anyone know why my nitrates could be reading way lower than what I actually dose? I dose 12 ppm NO3 from KNO3 after every water change. Could it be poor quality KNO3? Its from NilocG. Not mixing it well? Or inaccurate testing? I use a Hach spectrophotometer. Regardless though the plants have been happy with all the levels above.

I added a little bit of rotala blood red.

Hygrophilla pinnatifida has been getting massive. It is 60 cm tall with 30 cm long leaves.

More plant pics.

I also found 3 baby fish in the tank. Not sure what they are, but they've been doing well. I'm just glad the fish are happy enough to be breeding. Same with the shrimps.

Otoclinclus fat and happy.

I've been growing some red root floaters in here. I was reading on 2 hr aquarist they are another way to measure nitrate levels. I'm gonna start using them and frogbit for my duckweed index.

Here's some fish footage for those interested. Bubbles in the beggining from H2O2 .


Full tank shot.

 

[Count Krunk]

Looking amazing!

 

[RickyV]

Looking amazing!

Thank you!

 

[FrankZ]

Amazing work

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

The video was great watching the SAE swim together, never saw that behavior before since I’ve never seen that many in a tank at once!

 

[RickyV]

Amazing work

Thanks!

The video was great watching the SAE swim together, never saw that behavior before since I’ve never seen that many in a tank at once!

Glad you enjoyed! I agree it's awesome behavior to see. The otos try to school with them too lol.

 

[Count Krunk]

are you doing 500g wc every week?

 

[RickyV]

are you doing 500g wc every week?

Well when accounting for the thickness of the acrylic, all the substrate, and hardscape, it's probably closer to 700g. So I probably do about 350g weekly WC.

 

[RickyV]

Did some trimming today and wanted to share these massive pinnatifidas I cut. They were close to 3 ft. Unfortunately don't have a good spot in the scape to let them keep growing to their full potential.

Also do you guys think green spot algae on anubias/glass is just something to accept? I have 4-5 ppm phosphates, stable 1.4 pH drop with good circulation. Reading on forums here it could be high iron rather than low phosphates that cause GSA. I currently do 0.20 ppm Fe weekly divided evenly between gluconate, DTPA and EDTA.

These anubias are 5 ft below the lights so I can't imagine excess light being a problem but I could be wrong. I may have to shade that section. My sword as you can see below also gets a bit of GSA, though this one plant has never been in perfect health.

I also have some more fish and shrimps on the way! Fish will be added after a few weeks quarantine.

I took a picture next to the tank because some people on other sites sometimes think I mean to write 100 gallon tank instead of 1000 gallon lol.

 

[Count Krunk]

Looking good per usual! Sorry no comment on your algae question.

What fish n shrimp?

 

[RickyV]

What fish n shrimp?

A big school of Harlequin rasboras, a lot more CPD's, some threadfin rainbows, school of juli corydoras, 100 more bloody mary shrimps, and a few bamboo shrimps.

 

[Count Krunk]

Big school... 75??

 

[RickyV]

Big school... 75??

About 100. Kinda wish I requested 200 instead but should still look pretty cool with all the other fish.

 

[Count Krunk]

Where do you source from?

 

[RickyV]

Where do you source from?

Segrest Farms

 

[Burr740]

The word jungle gets thrown around a lot in this hobby but thats what I think every time I see this tank. Like a cross section view deep inside a colorful and mysterious tropical jungle. I can only imagine the impression it gives in person.

You really nailed the layout too. TBH I didnt think much of the rock walls in front when you first started but they friggin work now and help give it the amazing depth that it has. The way everything flows towards and leads the eye to the low point of the horizon, which is in the perfect focal position, is nothing short of amazing. Seriously

 

[RickyV]

The word jungle gets thrown around a lot in this hobby but thats what I think every time I see this tank. Like a cross section view deep inside a colorful and mysterious tropical jungle. I can only imagine the impression it gives in person.

You really nailed the layout too. TBH I didnt think much of the rock walls in front when you first started but they friggin work now and help give it the amazing depth that it has. The way everything flows towards and leads the eye to the low point of the horizon, which is in the perfect focal position, is nothing short of amazing. Seriously

Thanks a lot for the comments Burr! I am still relatively new to aquascaping and this was probably the first scape I really put a lot of planning and thought into how it would look and I am really happy to hear I am doing some things right!