Journal Art's tank(s)

Well, I'm tankless at the moment due to circumstances so will post a few of my last ones. Nothing near the masterpieces of others but I try.

Had a Dutch-inspired a few years ago when I was trying different techniques. This one had a sump and I ran carbon to minimize water changes.


Then I moved to an apartment so I changed it up with a more fitting UNS 90 with more traditional equipment. I first wanted to go traditional aquascape with stone.


Then I said, forget it. I like the stems too much! Ended up with a Dutch-inspired, wabi sabi combination.


Thinking about what's next for me.

 

[Pepere]

Hmm, 3 months, no updates… someone must be having a busy life…. I hate it when life intrudes on a hobby….

 

[Art]

Me too! It’s been a busy time at work. Hoping for some slower time to catch up.

I’m currently returning home from a week long conference in New York. Somewhere over Philly at the moment.

I’ll post some pictures and updates when I get home. The tank is maturing and settling in. Slower growth was a good idea for me.

 

[Art]

The "Middle Earth" approach seems to be working for me. Above you can see what my aquarium looks like today after more than a week away. No visible algae and the plants seem happy for the most part.

In the past, when I was doing high energy, I would normally come back to green algae and GDA. I'm much happier now as maintenance fits my current lifestyle.

By the way, this is the look I am going for. A wild, free, wispy look to an island design. It gives me a mid-summer field feel.

Front-loading macros, daily micros, weekly 50% water change.

 

[Phish Tank]

Very nice! What level of fert dosing do you use? Did you adjust it down when you went middle earth?

 

[Art]

So, in my quest to simplify my husbandry, I decided to just use the Low-light EI/Weekly calculator at Rotalabutterfly. I front-load macros using what it tells me.

CO2 is pumping without a change. However, I did adjust light down, slowly, until I found the balance between plant health and no visible green algae.

At the moment, the tank is humming along with just the amount I can realistically devote to it.

The take aways for me are:

1. Being realistic as to the amount of time I have for husbandry;
2. Tank energy is mostly driven by light levels and not CO2 or fertilization;
3. Fertilization must be adjusted to match light levels; and
4. It's surprising how little light low-light plants actually need.

 

[Phish Tank]

Low-light EI/Weekly

Makes sense.

I did adjust light down, slowly, until I found the balance between plant health and no visible green algae.

I'm playing with this a bit too. I've been blocking some of the light over the area where most of of my anubias are. Still working on the balancing act.

Thanks for the details

 

[Tim Harrison]

Looking great, love the natural look @Art

There's something about dense plant growth that algae doesn't like. Whether it's allelopathy, being outcompeted for nutrients, mutual shading or a combination of synergistic factors, who knows? But if you find that sweet spot, the tank becomes incredibly stable and biologically robust, giving you a massive amount of wriggle room.

 

[Art]

Thanks @Tim Harrison! I appreciate the kind words.

Wiggle room is what I was after. Some buffer in case my life interferes with the routine of husbandry.

One thing I will add for people reading this, is how important it is to take things one step at a time. I thought about my tank differently during the first three months than I do now. The plants needed to grow and the ecosystem was unstable initially. I also needed to find the right balance of light for the system.

This process usually means living through (or with) various types of algae waves. The last wave was mostly green algae, which is an indicator to me that I’m on the right track. Plants were growing well and looked healthy but green hair algae was also hanging in there, especially on the moss.

Once I had dialed in the CO2, light, fertilization, I hit the tank with a week of Excel and @Dennis Wong’s AlgaeFix. That took out the green hair algae that was hanging on. Tank has been clean ever since.

Sometimes you just need to deliver the knock out punch when all else is dialed in.

 

[Count Krunk]

tank looks nice. a chill routine is always what Im after with my tanks.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Once I had dialed in the CO2, light, fertilization, I hit the tank with a week of Excel and @Dennis Wong’s AlgaeFix. That took out the green hair algae that was hanging on. Tank has been clean ever since.

Sometimes you just need to deliver the knock out punch when all else is dialed in.

That's definitely key Art. There's often little point blasting algae with Excel etc, if the underlying problem hasn't been dealt with first. It'll just return otherwise.

 

[Art]

It's been a while so I think I should post an update, especially since I want to try something out.

My plan is to remove the white (now yellow greenish) cosmetic sand that I have around the island scape. I am going to try to ride bare bottom in that area because I'm wild and crazy like that.

Does anyone have a smart way to remove cosmetic sand from an aquarium while not disturbing the inhabitants? Currently, it's about 1/2 to 3/4 inches around the perimeter of the island.

 

[Uncle_R]

I had a black sand substrate that I was having problems with plants rooting. I siphoned it out with 16/22 tubing.

 

[Art]

Hey thanks. Did you replace the substrate?

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Was gonna say, tubing is the easiest way to siphon. You have some little pebbles etc in there looks like so I’d get tubing big enough that they won’t get stuck and clog the tube.

 

[Uncle_R]

Hey thanks. Did you replace the substrate?

Yes, with black flourite. No problems getting plants to root now.

 

[Count Krunk]

I had a black sand substrate that I was having problems with plants rooting. I siphoned it out with 16/22 tubing.

I have black diamond blasting sand in my wife's shrimp tank and things are rooting very nicely. It looks quite sharp. It's very cheap, i recommend it for sure.

 

[Uncle_R]

I have black diamond blasting sand in my wife's shrimp tank and things are rooting very nicely. It looks quite sharp. It's very cheap, i recommend it for sure.

It wasn’t black diamond blasting sand. I don’t remember the brand but there were other people reporting the same issue.

 

[Art]

Art's crazy idea​

In keeping with my inability to leave well-enough alone, I am thinking about making a change to my tank. Please hear me out before you cast judgement.

I've missed growing different plants... My tank is, well... kinda boring at the moment.

I hate saying that because it's doing absolutely fine and I should be happy with it just humming along, mostly green with little algae. It's what many people would be very happy with. I guess I'm just a tinkerer.

My objectives​

1. I want to grow light-loving plants that may include stems.
2. I do not want to maintain substrate.
3. I want to be able to re-scape as often as I want without a complete tear-down.
4. I want to keep the tank as clean as possible within the parameters of my setup.

So this is an initial impression of what I'm going to do

 

[Asher E.]

Art's crazy idea​

In keeping with my inability to leave well-enough alone, I am thinking about making a change to my tank. Please hear me out before you cast judgement.

I've missed growing different plants... My tank is, well... kinda boring at the moment.

I hate saying that because it's doing absolutely fine and I should be happy with it just humming along, mostly green with little algae. It's what many people would be very happy with. I guess I'm just a tinkerer.

My objectives​

1. I want to grow light-loving plants that may include stems.
2. I do not want to maintain substrate.
3. I want to be able to re-scape as often as I want without a complete tear-down.
4. I want to keep the tank as clean as possible within the parameters of my setup.

So this is an initial impression of what I'm going to do

View attachment 8534

That would be interesting. It reminds me of the tanks at aquarium stores that hold all the potted plants that are for sale.
I would like to try doing something like that sometime so I could pull plants out to sell more easily.

Something else you could do would be stainless steel mesh with a carpet plant growing on it, like Monte Carlo. I haven’t ever tried that, but I know you can buy it like that from some places.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Whatever makes ya happy sir, I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all. Not every tank needs to be “scaped.”