Journal "Green Echoes" - 292L aquascape

[Bolbi]

This aquascape is inspired by a river bank where fallen trees, branches and roots are exposed to the flow of water. But despite this, life goes on and various plants come to life growing on driftwood and rocks above and below the water surface.

Dimensions: 130x50x45cm - 292 liters or 77 gallons
Lighting: Chihiros A1201 x2
Filtration: Oase BioMaster Thermo 600, Eheim 2217
CO2: Pressurised 3 bps - DIY CO2 reactor (connected on Eheim 2217)
Substrate: Lava gravel, ADA La Plata sand
Hardscape: Curl wood, Red Moorwood, Talawa wood, Seiryu stones
Flora: Anubias sp. 'Mini Coin', Anubias sp. 'Bonsai', Bolbitis sp. 'Mini' Guinea 2002, Microsorum sp. 'Mini Coral', Marsilea crenata, Marsilea hirsuta
Fauna: /

Hardscape​

Soaking the wood​

Most of the wood is from previous setup but Talawa branches are new so I decide to run the tank for 2 weeks without plants to prime the wood.

Planting (1st stage)​

Planting will take place in 2 phases, first I planted Anubias sp. 'Mini Coin', Anubias sp. 'Bonsai', Bolbitis sp. 'Mini' Guinea 2002, Microsorum sp. 'Mini Coral' and Marsilea hirsuta & crenata. Later I will add moss, Microsorum sp 'Spoon' (I will glue this to the wood) and finally Nymphoides sp. 'Taiwan' - I plan to plant them in terracotta pots (since I didn't use nutrient substrate) and hide them behind the hardscape structure.

 

[SyngAdorErio]

Beautiful! Rock and wood work placement is awesome! I see many places for some contrasting colored Buce on that wood work!

 

[Bolbi]

Beautiful! Rock and wood work placement is awesome! I see many places for some contrasting colored Buce on that wood work!

Thanks! The idea is to use only green plants, hence the name. The fish will add color, I am planning to get denison barbs.

 

[Immortal1]

Thanks! The idea is to use only green plants, hence the name. The fish will add color, I am planning to get denison barbs.

Sounds like a great plan!

 

[GreggZ]

Beautiful artistic presentation! I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

 

[BigWave]

This looks real nice.

 

[Bolbi]

The tank doing great! Had some diatoms but after adding algae eating crew (Ottos, SAE and Clithon snalis) now is completely algae free.
Still need to attach the moss.

 

[Bolbi]

Planting is officially over. All the plants are on their place. Now waiting...

 

[Bolbi]

Some of the plants used here;

Anubias sp. 'Mini Coin'



Eriocaulon sp. 'Japan Needle Leaf' (growing it as an epiphyte - they are glued to the small rocks and placed on lava gravel)



Vesicularia sp. 'Mini Christmas'



Microsorum sp. 'Mini Coral'



Marsilea crenata



Marsilea hirsuta



Bolbitis sp. 'Mini' Guinea 2002



Microsorum sp. 'India'



Microsorum sp. 'Thai' Mini Needle Leaf



Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan'



Riccardia graeffei

 

[yalon140]

Wow!! looking forward to see everything grow, this is a 10/10 aquascape IMO

what about ferts and water changes?

 

[Bolbi]

Wow!! looking forward to see everything grow, this is a 10/10 aquascape IMO

what about ferts and water changes?

Thank you!
I am dosing my own blend of ferts, Plantavit - micro, macro and potassium+. Dosing them daily with dosing pump. Currently adding; 0,84 mg/L NO3, 0,17 mg/L PO4, 1,7 mg/L K, 0,07 mg/L Mg, 0,035 mg/L Fe + trace.
Weekly water changes 40%

 

[gjcarew]

There are a lot of plant varieties there that I've never seen before! I'm always jealous of our European counterparts for how advanced the hobby is over there.

 

[Bolbi]

Here is the full list of plants used here:

Anubias sp. 'Mini Coin'
Anubias sp. 'Bonsai'
Microsorum sp. 'Thai'
Microsorum sp. 'Spoon'
Microsorum sp. 'India'
Microsorum sp. 'Mini Coral'
Bolbitis sp. 'Mini' Guinea 2002
Marsiles hirsuta
Marsilea crenata
Eriocaulon sp. 'Japan Needle Leaf'
Cryptocoryne spiralis
Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan'
Nymphaea gardneriana 'Santarem'
Riccardia graeffei
Eleocharis acicularis
Callicostella prabaktiana
Vesicularia sp. 'Mini Christmas'
Micranthemum tweediei 'Monte Carlo'
Juncus repens

Day 75​

 

[Bolbi]

Day 87​

The fish are introduced - Sahyadria denisonii and Trigonostigma heteromorpha / truncata

 

[Bolbi]

Day 107​

The mosses are trimmed and the old leaves of Microsorum sp. 'Spoon' are cut off.

Had a problem with SAE - they started to eat moss. Interesting thing, only Mini Christmas moss was damaged, Callicostella was not even touched.
3 false SAE are removed and only 2 true ones are left - let's see if they eat moss too.

 

[Art]

Tank is looking wonderful! The plants are really softening the rock and wood making them feel weathered and old. Love the school of rasbora!

I never experienced SAEs eating most but never had mini Christmas in my tanks. Would be interesting to see if it continues.

 

[Bolbi]

I had false SAE before, with same habits. Here I thought if I feed them well they will not attack the moss - obviously wrong.
I fed them spirulina tablets + food they stole from other fish... They are hogs!

Here I found out about true SAE and had a luck to have them. I will observe them now and will post an update about this (hopefully with a good news).

 

[Bolbi]

Day 133​

In absence of algae, SAE (even the true ones) started to eat moss - they are all removed from the tank.
Beside changing the water (40% once a week), cleaning the front glass and feeding fish, this tank is in the "maintenance free" phase.

 

[Unexpected]

It’s been a month, how’s she looking?

 

[Count Krunk]

It looked really good in the above picture. Update needed!