Yeah thats a big ouch. They look so good though. Its sad I could almost buy 2 week aqua p series 90s for the price of 2 mediums
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Journal Many Lessons || 150x60x60cm, 140gal, Horizontal Reactor High-energy Aquascape Journal
- Thread starter Naturescapes_Rocco
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Guarantee it will not be $680
- Thread starter
- #43
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(fingers crossed!)- Thread starter
- #44
Day 146: The Last of the Hydrocotyle! Overgrown, time for a trim
Guys... I will NEVER grow this plant in a tank like this again. The H. verticillata went WILD. It began sending runners into the stem plants, into the carpet, under the large driftwood, into the s. repens... I know they look cool, but this was the single most invasive plant I've ever grown. It took WEEKS of removal, in which I also had no choice but to uproot the DHG carpet, uproot stem plants, release dust... I will never ever grow this plant again. Such a shame, because it looks amazing!
Two things I wish I paid attention to in this photo: The curling and algae on the AR, and the bladder snails......
Before:
After:
Notice the trimmed bushes, the uprooted carpet (so damn ugly and sad now!), and the freshly replaced chunk of MC on the driftwood.
Goodbye, Hydrocotyle! I will NOT miss you!
- Thread starter
- #46
Day 187: Looking good, but some issues starting to show.
Guys...
At this point, I had already been quarantining some new inhabitants for about a week with PraziPro, IchX, and tons of snails for food...
Notes:
Notice the AR Mini starting to curl and twist? The S repens was beginning to follow suit. I assumed deficiencies of some kind, but couldn't nail it down. This would be a problem later.
Also, the dwarf hairgrass finally filled every inch of the foreground, and began to lengthen.
I got the Photone app and bought the cosine diffuser, and found that I had about 180+ PAR at substrate level and over 300 PAR near the surface, sometimes more. That's with these lights on 80% power and hung a good distance above the surface. Crazy powerful!
- Thread starter
- #47
Day 200: The Great Snail War: Pea Puffers Win
The snails aren't eating the S repens. They're eating the dying/dead/unhealthy leaves that are the result of this bizarre stunting/chlorosis issue plaguing the tank at this point. I thought it could be a Mg deficiency, but I remineralize all incoming water to 6+ppm Mg every week so it seemed unlikely. Ca is between 25-30ppm, so what gives?! (I would later figure that out).
24 Hours Later, after adding 5 pea puffers:
Round bellies, bright eyes. No stringy parasite poop. Treated, cared for, and only aggressive towards each other in the tank!
Thank you for your service, soldier. The snails never stood a chance.
The Monte Carlo on the right is approx 16" wide by 12" long, draped over the driftwood. To trim/remove it, just pull the whole thing out. Cut a "plug" out of the center, and use Gel Superglue to reattach the new plug back onto the driftwood. Easy!
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We should ought keep a little forum flotilla of pea puffers, and just pass them around as needed
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- Thread starter
- #49
Then I was out of town and unavailable for many weeks on end...
Missing Water Changes, missing fertilizer dosing, and all the while my CSM+B Micros were being auto-dosed into the aquarium.I had enough time for 1 water change before a 10-day trip out of the country, and suddenly I realized...
I had completely run out of CO2, probably 3-4 days ago... and was about to leave on another 10-day trip.
Imagine a high-tech tank like this, that has 40+ppm CO2 injected starting at 5am until 3pm with high lighting, suddenly running out of CO2.The biological shock was horrible. I didn't even take a picture.
Algae formed on every surface. All the plants immediately stunted or looked poorly. I had no chance to get a new CO2 canister, so I had only one path to take:
- I did a huge trim.
- I did my new standard 70% water change,
- Added a 50% dose of my macro ferts.
- I turned the lights down to only 10% strength
- and hoped for the best!
Day 225 update, what I came home to after ~14 days with no CO2, and 10 days of lights at 10% strength:
Ok, I expected way worse. The plants' don't look great, but there is VERY little algae anywhere. In fact, this really inspired me to try reducing my light levels. No one needs almost 200PAR at the substrate level...
The AR Mini started looking WAY less stunted, with smoother leaves and little algae. Really surprised!
However, the newest leaves were still super dark, twisted/curling, and somewhat stunted as well. Finally I realized the daily Micros dosing was still occurring, at 0.25ppm Fe per day via CSM+B. That's 1.75ppm Fe per week of CSM+B. I now realize just how concentrated of Micros I was dosing... holy S**t! Not good!
The buces didn't seem too affected.
The monte carlo doesn't look great, but it's alive. I think it'll recover, but I should just remove 95% of it like usual and let it grow out with the new environment of CO2 and fresh ferts again.
The plants hit hardest were the S. Repens:
In those 14 days, they dropped nearly every lower leaf. The uppermost leaves were still attached, and actually had some fresh new small growth appearing on many stems. Not sure if I should rip them out and replant the tops, or trim the stems in place. I've found over the years that they have a very robust stem and root network, and can survive many trimmings, so I'm leaning towards cutting them and letting them grow back in place! But where did their leaves all go?
Oh, there they are. All the S repens leaves lol.
After a maintenance session and standard 70% water change, and new CO2. A few days later:
upgraded to a 20lb CO2 cylinder, so I'll have even fewer chances to run out:
Because that sucked not injecting for that long.
I didn't have enough pictures of this, either. About 1 month ago I planted $200 worth of Cyperus helferi in the back-left corner of the scape where the old L. aromatica was. I want to start transitioning from SO many stem plants, and this was a great option. I've used it in the past, and I love that it doesn't send any runners out! Anyway, it showed lots of new growth. Yay!
The blyxa monster in the back right corner actually had SO much new growth from the time at 10% light and no CO2. What a plant, man. I don't understand why everyone doesn't grow this plant. So awesome, so easy to use, great midground plant! The photo does not do it justice, the new green growth was beautiful.
You can see the new shoots off the old trimmed Rotala Green starting to come in completely algae-free.
Pea puffer update:
It's been almost 2 months since I got these pea puffers and treated them and added them to the tank. I haven't fed them anything other than the snails in the tank (though they do catch some frozen foods that the other fish don't eat every now and then). The snails are basically gone, except... they're not. I still see them in the grass near the substrate, and HUNDREDS of them are in the background stem plants.It seems like they will reproduce just fine, providing infinite food for the puffers. In return, the puffers viciously hunt every visible snail on plants and hardscape. I haven't seen a snail on any driftwood in weeks! There's a youtube channel that kept a school of puffers for over 2 years without direct feeding, thanks to a self-sustaining snail population. Maybe mine will be the same.
Round bellies, tons of energy, ignored by the other fish and the other fish ignore them. They chase each other a bit, but there is just so much cover and structure in this tank for them to hide in and break line of sight. I LOVE them!
Also, shoutout to Tom Barr for his old posts convincing me to get 3 Green Dragon bristlenose plecos. They've been indispensable in keeping the driftwood and plant leaves completely free of algae. Total powerhouses, also seem very healthy!
"Recovery" pic after the no-CO2-no-Maintenance incident:
Notes:
Keeping up with the nutrient demand has been so brutal these last few months. If my testing is correct, there are times where this tank is consuming between 3-4ppm NO3 per day alone, if not more. Keeping up with the background stems is getting tedious, so I want to transition to a more sustainable way.
I currently fertilize my weekly totals at approx 28-8-40, though it can vary a bit. That's dosing for the full volume of tank water each week after water change. Micros were being dosed WAY too high. This thread from 2020 really helped me, especially with people directly referencing AR Mini (make sure to expand comment/post #3). The I now know how to use the AR Mini growth as an indicator for too-high micros of some kind. I'll be testing a period of very lean micro dosing. It's about time I just roll/make my own, anyway!
Using the Netlea Prefilter setup (see my previous posts for pics/info) has been amazing. In a densely planted tank, I'll never run a canister filter again. I'm going to explore wrapping some filter floss pads in side the prefilter as a replacement for the foam for a denser, more filtration-focused media to absolutely SCRUB particles from my water.
The Horizontal reactor continues to be the best new equipment I've ever used. Just incredible. So effortless, so few things can go wrong with it. Highly recommend!
Please ask any questions you have, I'll try to answer everything in my usual overly-thorough way! Thanks for reading!
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Awesome update! I'm adding that blyxa to my list for sure.
Your situation with the hydrocotyle is my exact same situation with E. Tenellus… if you have any advice, let me know!
You just have to pluck the runners when you see them. It makes a nice forest but it needs room.
- Thread starter
- #53
Either stay on top of it with serious weekly maintenance, or if it isn't working for your preferences, dedicate a few hours to gently removing every scrap you can find.
Unless you get paid for it, these tanks shouldn't be a job more than they have to be! Experimenting with plants and discovering what you prefer is important. Turns out I don't mind bushy stems getting overgrown, since I like trimming and replanting. But I absolutely loathe chasing runners around the tank and trying to cut, pinch, or stop them from getting overgrown. My V1 riverscape had Valisnerias... another plant I will NEVER grow. I just hate runners!
So now I know, for me and my preferences for maintenance/types of maintenance, I'll only ever grow:
- Stems plants I know how to grow/shape (rotalas, pogostemons, ludwigias, S. repens, etc.)
- True Rosette plants or "close enough" rosette-like plants (Crypts, C. helferi, Althernantheras, Blyxa, Crypts, swords, lagenandras, etc)
- Epiphytes/Rheophytes (Java fern, anubias, buces, or monte carlo/hc cuba grown epiphytically)
- Carpeting plants (Monte Carlo in a smaller tank, or Dwarf Hairgrass because it rarely needs a trim and is easily kept in check)
):- Mosses (I love the look, hate the speed/algae/trimming/spreading)
- Non-DHG Plants that spread via horizontal runners (All hydrocotyles, valisnerias, helanthiums, dwarf sag)
- Hyperfast stem plants (pearlweed, hornwort, limnophilas... Rotala BloodRed is all I can handle!)
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Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Cyperus helferi creates runners too. Ask me how I know, lol!Either stay on top of it with serious weekly maintenance, or if it isn't working for your preferences, dedicate a few hours to gently removing every scrap you can find.
Unless you get paid for it, these tanks shouldn't be a job more than they have to be! Experimenting with plants and discovering what you prefer is important. Turns out I don't mind bushy stems getting overgrown, since I like trimming and replanting. But I absolutely loathe chasing runners around the tank and trying to cut, pinch, or stop them from getting overgrown. My V1 riverscape had Valisnerias... another plant I will NEVER grow. I just hate runners!
So now I know, for me and my preferences for maintenance/types of maintenance, I'll only ever grow:
Plants I will never grow again (can change over time! Current as of Sept '25
- Stems plants I know how to grow/shape (rotalas, pogostemons, ludwigias, S. repens, etc.)
- True Rosette plants or "close enough" rosette-like plants (Crypts, C. helferi, Althernantheras, Blyxa, Crypts, swords, lagenandras, etc)
- Epiphytes/Rheophytes (Java fern, anubias, buces, or monte carlo/hc cuba grown epiphytically)
- Carpeting plants (Monte Carlo in a smaller tank, or Dwarf Hairgrass because it rarely needs a trim and is easily kept in check)
Just my $0.02 that helps me from developing resentment towards this hobby I love so much.
- Mosses (I love the look, hate the speed/algae/trimming/spreading)
- Non-DHG Plants that spread via horizontal runners (All hydrocotyles, valisnerias, helanthiums, dwarf sag)
- Hyperfast stem plants (pearlweed, hornwort, limnophilas... Rotala BloodRed is all I can handle!)
Just curious, you mentioned in this journal you would never do 11 bags of Amazonia again. What substrate would you go with if you started over?
- Thread starter
- #56
Are you sure?? I'd definitely want to know.
I've grown it in the past, and after 9-10 months it never once sent out runners:
Here's after ~2.5 months in the current tank, no runners:
Tropica calls it a rosette that stays bushy, and Aqua Forest Aquarium says "It only gets bushier in the same area and does not send runners that go all over the place, thus becomes easy to maintain."
Not saying you didn't have an experience with runners, but are you sure you grew C. helferi and not a similar grass plant like val or such? Any photos of the runners?
I want to know in case I need to consider removing it ASAP.
- Thread starter
- #57
I still haven't figured that out yet. In my Experiment tank I'm trying cheap, inert sand as an alternative (just to see if I can get similar results to aquasoil). So far so good, but much less forgiving for high-energy tanks if I let nutrients bottom out. Aquasoil can function as a safety reservoir for nutrients in a way that inert sand can't.
I do 100% attribute the DGH carpet success of this tank to the beautifully rich Amazonia aquasoil, there's no doubt of that. If I wanted a carpet I'd always suggest that for sure.
In this post here, @Pepere mixes aquasoil, Safe T Sorb (inert clay substrate) and activated carbon. I'd definitely consider something like that, too, to take up volume and cut down on cost.
The cost of aquasoil is insane, and for a tank this large it surpasses many other entire aquarium budgets alone
So perhaps I'll try a mix of BDBS and aquasoil, or just use pure aquasoil for the carpet and Safe T Sorb/BDBS/Mixtures for the rest of the tank.The aquasoil in my tank is still magnetic, so it still has tons of iron left. It hasn't broken down, and is a great substrate. I only regret the price, but not the results!
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
I don’t have pictures of the runners, but it sent out runners in my shrimp cube and in my high tech farm tank. I just cleared them all out yesterday. Here’s a picture of it from when it was in the Dutch tank. I don’t remember where I bought it, but it was sold as C. Helferi and I just assume that’s correct. The blades aren’t the same as any Val I’ve had.
- Thread starter
- #59
Any chance you could get a close up pic of the leaves? 
Any chance you could get a close up pic of the leaves?
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