Iron Aquascaped Tank

[Tony]

Hey guys,

As I mentioned on the Aquafest thread, I was lucky enough to pick up one of the two tanks from GWAPA's Iron Aquascaping competition. Thanks to Cavan, Jen, Kris and the rest of the crew for making it happen. It was a lot of fun to watch and completely awesome to have to opportunity to take one of those bad boys home with me.

Anyway, I currently am growing lots of plants at home, but they are overwhelmingly utilitarian in nature... java moss, anubias, water sprite, val, etc. All easy plants. Something tells me that these are not easy plants though.

So... I guess the first step is to find out exactly what everything is and go from there. I have a CO2 setup at home that I'm not using, so can set it up, but would rather keep it as simple as possible for now. What type of easy fertilizers do people suggest? People still use the Flourish line?

I plan on stocking it Rachel O'Leary style... cherry red shimp, otocinclus, micro rasboras, etc.

Here's a couple of pictures. I have a dirty sponge in there for now to give the biowheel a good start, but hope to remove it in a week or so after the bacteria populaiton gains some traction.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jonclark96]

That really is a cool tank. Hopefully you can get continued growth with the set up you have.

 

[Frank Cowherd]

It does look good.

Will you be dosing it also??

 

[Ading522]

looking good!! very nice tank..

 

[msjinkzd]

i would be the foreground would be the biggest obstacle

one aside, that current usa satellite fixure is not as great for the taller tanks- you may want to either switch out some of the plants or add a second fixture down the line if you are having problems with the growth. Kris said he had best luck with it on tanks 12" and less in height (I had the same mileage, but am not an expert on plants)

 

[chriscoli]

Looks great! I'm so glad you got it!

 

[Andrewtfw]

i would be the foreground would be the biggest obstacle

one aside, that current usa satellite fixure is not as great for the taller tanks- you may want to either switch out some of the plants or add a second fixture down the line if you are having problems with the growth. Kris said he had best luck with it on tanks 12" and less in height (I had the same mileage, but am not an expert on plants)

I am using that fixture on a 40b with co2 and am having good results so far.

 

[Andrewtfw]

Other than the foreground (dwarf HC?), the rest of the plants should be okay without co2 but will require dosing. I use the seachem flourish line.
It looks like besides java fern, you also have cypress helfari and ludwigia repens x arcuata. There is more but the pic size on my phone makes it difficult to id.

 

[JasonC]

I am using that fixture on a 40b with co2 and am having good results so far.

Do you consider it high light or medium light on your tank? Have you bothered measuring it for par ratings down at the bottom? Really excited how this fixture performs as more people are adopting it.

 

[Jay Tessitore]

Tony Congrats on the new tank. I would keep everything the way it is. I would definitely go with co2. It appears you have cypress helfiri, Java fern, HC and a hygro. Sp. My spelling of the plants may be off but I'm petty sure that's what you have. I would purchase some root tabs for the helfiri and stems. Once you get the tank established fish waste will help. Also if you get in contact with gwapa or your closest plant club they maybe able to assist you with ferts. Good luck with the tank

 

[Andrewtfw]

Do you consider it high light or medium light on your tank? Have you bothered measuring it for par ratings down at the bottom? Really excited how this fixture performs as more people are adopting it.

I don't have a par meter. I consider it medium light based on how the leaves on the more light demanding bunch plants are more sparse at the lower 3".

 

[ltrepeter2000]

The foreground as Rachel mentioned will be difficult without CO2. The other plants with minor dosing should continue to grow. Its quite a bit of light for a little fixture so be careful with how many hours you leave it running. Check out the article Kris did on his blog about the light: www.guitarfish.org

 

[Tony]

Thanks for all the encouragement, all. Pretty stoked.

Other than the foreground (dwarf HC?), the rest of the plants should be okay without co2 but will require dosing. I use the seachem flourish line.
It looks like besides java fern, you also have cypress helfari and ludwigia repens x arcuata. There is more but the pic size on my phone makes it difficult to id.

I Googled those plants names and they look right. I'll try to get a better picture at some point to confirm. There's definitely java fern in the back.

Fine to just start out with Flourish and Flourish Iron? Before I got heavy into cichlids, I think I was using those two, plus Excel and Trace...

Tony Congrats on the new tank. I would keep everything the way it is. I would definitely go with co2. It appears you have cypress helfiri, Java fern, HC and a hygro. Sp. My spelling of the plants may be off but I'm petty sure that's what you have. I would purchase some root tabs for the helfiri and stems. Once you get the tank established fish waste will help. Also if you get in contact with gwapa or your closest plant club they maybe able to assist you with ferts. Good luck with the tank

Thanks Jay! I have some root tabs at home somewhere.. will try to find them.

The foreground as Rachel mentioned will be difficult without CO2. The other plants with minor dosing should continue to grow. Its quite a bit of light for a little fixture so be careful with how many hours you leave it running. Check out the article Kris did on his blog about the light: www.guitarfish.org

Oh yeah... I remember reading a review on his site at some point. Didn't realize it was the same fixture.

On the CO2, I'll dust off the setup and test it out. It has some issues though - the valve is not very precise, so it's tough to fine-tune the bubble count reliably. In order to overcome that, I had it hooked up to Pinpoint pH controller. Guessing the pH probe is long past replacement time though.

Saw that Christine did some fancy plumbing on her regulator...I'll post up some pics and see if it can be salvaged or not.

Thanks again all.

 

[Becca]

If your light isn't strong enough, your foreground plants will do one of two things - grow taller than you want them to be or die. If either happens, you could try a dwarf crypt or val. Not as adorable as whatever that is (I thought baby tears) but stays short in less light.

I don't know what the grass is, but I got some of it in my low light/easy variety box order a few months ago. It is growing fine in the 150 without much fuss.

I do like flourish and my F-I-L is having great success using it in a 55 that previously used CO2.

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Beautiful tank Tony! Glad you were able to give it a good home. Interested to see how the growth will progress.

 

[chris_todd]

Tony, do you know what kind of substrate they used? If it's ADA Aquasoil, then beware putting fish or shrimp in there until the ammonia levels come down. If it was something else, then you're probably fine, as I think only aquasoil does the high ammonia thing at the start.

Everyone else gave great info, but that was one thing I hadn't seen mentioned.

 

[Tony]

Tony, do you know what kind of substrate they used? If it's ADA Aquasoil, then beware putting fish or shrimp in there until the ammonia levels come down. If it was something else, then you're probably fine, as I think only aquasoil does the high ammonia thing at the start.

Everyone else gave great info, but that was one thing I hadn't seen mentioned.

Thanks Chris. There's certainly something going on in there.

Put in 7 red cherry shrimp yesterday AM and there's 2 left, I think. I have a dirty sponge in there running right now to hopefully get things balanced a bit.

Still not sure what caused it.

Not sure what substrate it is... a black sand of sorts with some larger pieces of the same colored gravel here and there for effect. I remember Kris saying that it was inert at the competition. It isn't rounded like Googled shots of Aquasoil appear.

I thought it may be some of the residual flocculant they used when setting up the tank. Did a really good job at siphoning the tank when I packed it up from the auction, but there's still a bit here and there. Not sure what brand they used, but most I found on Google showed them to be safe for critters. Could the shrimp have ingested it?

There's no heater in the tank (yet), btu the office temp is about 72 or so, so this should be fine for the shrimp. :confused0007:

 

[JasonC]

the substrate was seachem flourite black sand. definitely inert. The flocculant was Clarifi-FW from Brightwell. Where did the shrimp come from? maybe transplant shock?

 

[Tony]

the substrate was seachem flourite black sand. definitely inert. The flocculant was Clarifi-FW from Brightwell. Where did the shrimp come from? maybe transplant shock?

I got them from Rachel, so know that they should be fine. Rebagged them on Sunday with some polyfilter and fresh dechlorinated water. Tossed them in the tank on Monday AM. I'm guessing you are right, Jason. Maybe temperature was the issue. I didn't float them or anything, so may have shocked them.

On closer inspection, I only see two carcasses, so maybe I'm doing better than I thought. I'll see how things go in the next couple of days. Even if the temp is fine now, it'll need a heater sooner or later, so I may as well get on it.

 

[mchambers]

I moved some shrimp Saturday with a drop of about 10 degrees without problem. I doubt the temperature was the issue.