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Journal 1000 Gallon High Tech Planted Tank

  • Thread starter Thread starter RickyV
  • Start date Start date
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Hey @RickyV, any updates? Been missing this tank!
Sorry for the delayed response. But will do a short update here. The past few months I've neglected the tank a little more than I would have liked but I am working on getting it back into good shape.
Right?

@RickyV time to move the live feed camera, your fans can't see a thing!
Sorry! I will be starting to take better care of the camera view aquascape too!

I've been focused on some on other projects but all indirectly related to this tank. Just to name a few, Pseudomugil Mellis breeding Amaya Pencilfish quarantine/breeding
And breeding a few other fish for this tank and others such as panda corydoras and CPDs, I was getting 50+ eggs a day from 10 pandas! Lol

But then also working on mastering live food cultivation for these breeding projects and to provide more enrichment to the fish in this tank, I've been learning to culture vinegar eels, micro worms, grindal worms, dero worms, blackworms, daphnia, moina, euplotes, rotifers, fruit flies, phorid flies, springtails, drain flies, ostracods, copepods, etc.
And recently learning to culture algae using CO2 injection, culture on the left is the CO2 algae culture, you can see how dark green it is. Being grown under the lights of this tank.
20250823_164353.webp

But I have some exciting news for this tank! One common comment was that this tank was just off to the side, hidden in the restroom/resting area. Well the space it is in is being converted into a main exhibit space! The space will be converted into an art gallery, showcasing Andy Warhols: Endangered Species + my tank lol. I felt very flattered that the owner thought my tank was worthy enough to be part of his art gallery. I will try to share the space when it's completed, it should be done within a few weeks. Very excited!

So ive been working on getting the tank back into its best shape and keeping it there. I always tried my best but now I feel more pressure with it being in an art gallery.
Here is the tank a few months ago when I just let it go wild.
20250517_091515.webp
Here's the tank right before its latest trimming session.20250822_073624.webp
As you can see the ludwigia super red bush shifted it self a little too much to the left.

After some maintenance.20250823_163259.webp
Shifted the ludwigia super red bush some to the right and had to trim it down. Now I just need to wait for a little regrowing and I think the tank will be ready for the art gallery opening. It's difficult finding balance making the aquqscape look neat but not too neat, if that makes sense.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the aquqsoil on the left side. It was not intentional, i just did not do a good job with the barriers there so I've been trying to make this look work. I could maybe fix it but I'd probably have to get a diver to go in there. The area maybe just needs more shade.
The ferns growing on the middle of the right rock structure actually adhered themselves on their own, they've been growing in very well if you look at the last full tank shot. There are a couple of other plants here and there that just moved and established themselves somewhere else on their own which I think is very cool. I will try getting some video of the tank soon.
 
Beautiful tank! @RickyV I'm not sure if this is on-topic, but from a previous comment you talked about someone reaching out for you to setup a planted tank for them since their local stores were inexperienced with that. How did you originally get started doing setups for businesses and individuals? I only ask as I am trying to get more reps in with new aquascape setups to practice for competitions like Aquashella. I'm not entirely sure advertising my service on Facebook marketplace is the ideal method.

I've already reached a threshold of 6 tanks in the house, and the Mrs may kick me to the streets if I even think about setting up a 7th planted tank.
 
Beautiful tank! @RickyV I'm not sure if this is on-topic, but from a previous comment you talked about someone reaching out for you to setup a planted tank for them since their local stores were inexperienced with that. How did you originally get started doing setups for businesses and individuals? I only ask as I am trying to get more reps in with new aquascape setups to practice for competitions like Aquashella. I'm not entirely sure advertising my service on Facebook marketplace is the ideal method.

I've already reached a threshold of 6 tanks in the house, and the Mrs may kick me to the streets if I even think about setting up a 7th planted tank.
Doesnt hurt to toss it on fb.

Back in college i advertised tank cleaning on CL and had like 5 clients a month.
 
Hey Ricky, sorry if I missed this, but how are you dosing Fe/Micros, and at what ppm per week and dose?
Thank you in advance!
Oh yes, I have experimented with this a lot and currently at 0.15 Fe from CSM+B mix per week. This dose is split into 7 dosed daily.
This is your job right? So cool man! Do you have a YouTube channel?
Yep! I do, but you're right I need upload more! Im just still in college while working this job, but im almost done with school!
Beautiful tank! @RickyV I'm not sure if this is on-topic, but from a previous comment you talked about someone reaching out for you to setup a planted tank for them since their local stores were inexperienced with that. How did you originally get started doing setups for businesses and individuals? I only ask as I am trying to get more reps in with new aquascape setups to practice for competitions like Aquashella. I'm not entirely sure advertising my service on Facebook marketplace is the ideal method.

I've already reached a threshold of 6 tanks in the house, and the Mrs may kick me to the streets if I even think about setting up a 7th planted tank.
So this tank I got to do because I've worked at this aquarium for a long time, and showed my supervisors my planted tank at home and they were impressed and wanted me to do the same for them. The person who reached out to me found out about me through this video MJ made . I havent had more clients since this, but its because I havent done much advertising of myself. That would be how I would get clients, post on all the available social medias, you really need to show yourself off.
 
Oh yes, I have experimented with this a lot and currently at 0.15 Fe from CSM+B mix per week. This dose is split into 7 dosed daily.
Did you ever come to any conclusions as to the chlorosis you were experiencing with some of your Anubias? It seems you had tried many different levels of Fe dosing, but I don't recall reading what you concluded. Do you still have any issuing with yellow leaves in the Anubias?

The tank still looks amazing! Hope to see it in person some day.
 
Did you ever come to any conclusions as to the chlorosis you were experiencing with some of your Anubias? It seems you had tried many different levels of Fe dosing, but I don't recall reading what you concluded. Do you still have any issuing with yellow leaves in the Anubias?

The tank still looks amazing! Hope to see it in person some day.
This post here goes into some more details of my "experiments" Frogbit web pattern damage Its still hard to come to a strong conclusion, but what I kept seeing is increasing iron from other sources on top of the CSM+B caused problems. My theory was some sort of interaction between Mn and Fe. And these problems on the frogbit became worse once I added aquasoil to my tank. I belive the aquasoil dropped the pH/KH low enough that it increased the availability of iron, which may have started competing too much with Mn. So I removed extra iron and kept only the CSM+B and my plants started looking much better, no more web/burnt patterns on the frogbit. But its also possible the aquasoil was doing some other things with the water chemistry. But the timing of the improvement and worsening with the dosing changes was very on point.

Though the past few weeks I've noticed some of my plants aren't growing as aggressively, especially the H. Pinnatifida. Which is interesting because I actually increased my nitrate dosing (though maybe thats it 🤔). It used to be to be my fastest growing plant and now I rarely touch it. Not sure if its CO2 connected as I reduced my CO2 injection a small amount, also light. I just havent had a chance to tinker too much to figure out what's off. But I will update when I do!
 
How did you quantify this? Needle valve adjustments can vary significantly, and messing with injection period can throw off the concentration.
Yeah it was just a needle valve adjustment enough to reduce my pH drop by I think 0.1 - 0.2. But I cannot remember, I need to get better about recording things. I will be checking my total pH drop soon to see what that is. Though the reduced growth rate on plants has been nice lol
 

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