nabokovfan87 Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 On 10/18/2022 at 5:30 PM, Dark River Aquatics said: Making moss rocks tonight, need about 3x as many small rocks plus some larger ones and have several other species of moss to use but this is the progress so far. Tumbled lava rock a la Oliver Knott, with tissue cultured Mini Christmas Moss from Tropica to be grown out emersed for a bit inside a ziplock baggie to get the moss stuck to the rocks. Riccardia will be next Were you able to get rocks like that pretty cheaply or? I need to find about.... a few 1000 of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 (edited) On 1/1/2023 at 5:57 PM, Dark River Aquatics said: Okay so I got a Prizm and the snails immediately burst into flame and I’m now legally blind, please send help Well, your pinks ought to get good color! Edited January 2, 2023 by Odd Duck 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted January 3, 2023 Author Share Posted January 3, 2023 On 1/1/2023 at 8:29 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Were you able to get rocks like that pretty cheaply or? I need to find about.... a few 1000 of them. I got them off Amazon, and they weren’t exactly cheap but weren’t super expensive either. For a few thousand they’d probably be on the more expensive side though… I think it was about $30 for the bag and there are probably 100-200 stones in it maybe? I just searched for “tumbled lava rock” 😄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 On 1/1/2023 at 3:57 PM, Dark River Aquatics said: Okay so I got a Prizm and the snails immediately burst into flame and I’m now legally blind, please send help Are you using it on that tank???? If you can I'd love to see a comparison of its color rendition with your other lights 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 On 1/2/2023 at 6:28 PM, Dark River Aquatics said: I think it was about $30 for the bag and there are probably 100-200 stones in it maybe? I just searched for “tumbled lava rock” 😄 Yeah, I am thinking of getting 2-3 different sizes for a type of project. Don't need a ton, but I really like what you did and I use that type of thing for my fish with moss so they easily have cover. Would be a great little thing for fry tanks and stuff in addition to other uses just to hold moss in place. Very cool thing now that I know it exists! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted January 4, 2023 Author Share Posted January 4, 2023 On 1/3/2023 at 1:27 PM, gjcarew said: Are you using it on that tank???? If you can I'd love to see a comparison of its color rendition with your other lights It won’t stay on this tank, I originally got it (lightly used from a friend for dirt cheap) to put over my Green Dragon tank which is now also farm space for Crypt Jacobseni. This is the 16” though and the light spread just isn’t enough for that tank which is unfortunate. I don’t have any comparison pics between the Prizm and Chihiros/other lights but that’s a great idea and I’ll try to get some to post later this week! I do have some pics saved in my phone comparing a Finnex Stingray 2 and the Prizm though. First this is a comparison on the 40g Green Dragon tank with a 36” Nicrew SkyLED Plus Even suspended right against the ceiling it didn’t have enough spread to reach the sides, which to be fair isn’t the fault of a 16” light on a 3 foot tank. The color rendition is certainly better (this is at full blast with no tweaks for color), so I’m bummed it won’t work here. These next pics are the best comparison shots I have saved comparing the Prizm (at roughly 30% power on each of the dials) with a Finnex Stingray 2 Forget what this buce is but it’s more blueyer with the Prizm Can’t remember this ID for sure either. Helena maybe? Last pic is with the colors adjusted slightly for glow up but not full blurple Top down shots were hard because of the reflection but these next pics also show the different types of diodes used and I love that it has independent yellow diodes. From what I can tell there’s one dial that adjusts blue & white and a second dial that controls all the others. The friend I got this from said that he found most of the raw power comes from the blue & white diodes and the other is more to tweak color rendition The photos here don’t quite do it justice in terms of how it actually appears to the naked eye, first impression is that it’s a great light and produces very vibrant colors and has WAY more power than most other lights outside of the Chihiros/Week Aqua/ADA/etc higher end range. But I think I prefer the WRGB2 at least until I play around more. A WRGB2 just has more finesse with the controls and the Prizm seems like a battering ram designed for much larger or very high energy tanks, and I’m sure it rocks in that application but like… for most of my setups it’s like trying to drive a rocket ship to the grocery store 😅 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjcarew Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 Cool, thanks for the review! It's been on my radar since it seems like an inexpensive powerhouse but it's tough to find people who have actually used one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted February 12, 2023 Author Share Posted February 12, 2023 Sorry all I kinda forgot this place existed for a while and haven’t updated or done that lighting comparison, my bad 🥴 Been puttering around in my basement recently and have been making slow improvements to the space. The Prizm is now suspended over some emersed plant experiments and I just gutted the 14g cube because I’d let some cladophora algae creep in from neglect, plus the substrate was starting to get depleted, and it’s just time to redo it with a fresh scape anyway. Got a custom made regulator today too which I’m excited about, and have been gathering up supplies for the redo of this 14g The regulator is an absolute unit and it’s so heavy it tips over a full 5lb co2 tank, but I’m looking to gas more of the tanks down here and can definitely put it to good use. Have also been dinking around with the emersed stuff and made several more bins / made a dedicated rack for all of it. It’s all mostly crypts/buce/moss so far with some neat aroids and a bin dedicated to Utricularia species but so far I only have U Parthenopipes & U Calycifida “Mrs Marsh” - excited to collect some more and hopefully get them to make happy little flowers Took the final pictures of the shallow tank recently & submitted them for the contest, overall the tank turned out pretty okay and I’m pleased with it 🙂 Here is a photo montage and I’ll copy & paste the materials list / plant list at the end I’ve been looking at it with a more critical eye than my other tanks, the mini Christmas moss grew but never got a lush green like everything else and I’m not sure why, and overall I think I had a few too many species and would’ve benefited from a more definitive focal point. Love the tank in person but learned a lot about photography from this… personal critiques aside and all things considered though it was a great experience. Just waiting for the results now, it’s a pretty small and unimportant contest but it was a blast. I switched from a lean dose of Thrive to APT3 early on in the tanks life and loved the results. I know where we are and maybe it’s heresy to say that here but APT + a rich substrate + gas worked some serious voodoo magic for everything but the dang Christmas moss. This is the list of additional info for the tank. I don’t know how to change the font/size on a mobile browser so hopefully the formatting isn’t too wacky Equipment used: -UNS 45s tank -Chihiros C2 White lamp -Oase Filtosmart Thermo 100 with coarse sponge, Aqua Char, Purigen, and mini lily pipe / surface skimmer intake -GLA DS-Mini co2 Regulator and Aquario Neo Diffuser -Dosed with APT Complete & PNS ProBio Substrate: -Brightwell Laterite & Laterin VF -Aqua Char -ADA Bacter 100 -Landen Soil -Flourite Black Sand Hardscape: -Hakkai Stone -Tumbled lava rock -Black granite river pebbles Plants: -Anubias Pangolino -Anubias Stardust -Bucephalandra sp Black Angel -Callicostella Prabaktiana -Cardamine Lyrata -Echinodorus Opacus sp Iguazu -Eriocaulon sp Vietnam -Fissidens Fontanus -Hookeriaceae sp Distichophyllum -Hydrocotyle Verticillata -Lobelia Cardinalis -Marsilea Minuta -Micranthemum Monte Carlo -Myriophyllum Simulan -Raphidophora Becarii -Rotala Rotundifolia Green -Staurogyne Repens -Susswassertang -Vessicularia sp “Mini Christmas” Emersed: -Heartleaf Philodendron -Monstera Adansonii 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 On 2/11/2023 at 6:14 PM, Dark River Aquatics said: I’ve been looking at it with a more critical eye than my other tanks, the mini Christmas moss grew but never got a lush green like everything else and I’m not sure why, and overall I think I had a few too many species and would’ve benefited from a more definitive focal point. Potentially iron deficiency? Very beautiful tank and seeing it go from start to OH MY GOODNESS in 3 shots was a pretty amazing reveal. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted February 12, 2023 Author Share Posted February 12, 2023 On 2/11/2023 at 11:01 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Potentially iron deficiency? Very beautiful tank and seeing it go from start to OH MY GOODNESS in 3 shots was a pretty amazing reveal. I can’t say for certain that it wasn’t, it’s odd and especially frustrating though because I’ve never had issues with mini Christmas before and all the other mosses/plants in this tank are doing so well in comparison - plus you’d think deficiencies would show in the faster growing plants first! The staurogyne repens was losing old foliage faster than it should have so I upped the dosing from every few days to daily and that solved that issue… but this one species of moss is just strange in here and it doesn’t want to cooperate 🥴 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 Yeah I feel you. I had a tank humming, then one small thing and the moss just vanished on me. Took me a long time to feel confident again with the moss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 I think mosses often like a leaner tank. Some will take off with the ferts that make the plants happy and some kind of like to starve a bit. Beautiful tank, BTW. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted February 14, 2023 Author Share Posted February 14, 2023 On 2/12/2023 at 7:15 PM, Odd Duck said: I think mosses often like a leaner tank. Some will take off with the ferts that make the plants happy and some kind of like to starve a bit. Beautiful tank, BTW. I just can’t figure it out, it’s a weed every other time I’ve kept it and the other assorted mosses in this tank are doing great, but this one just crapped out - I’m hesitant to pinpoint any specific issue or to blame the individual tissue culture itself, it’s just weird that this one specific one is growing but brownish. Ah well though, onward I guess! Viktor from Green Aqua did an edit of one of the photos of this tank and I’m over the moon about it 😄😄😄 the picture was sent via Facebook messenger so it lost a little bit of quality from that but I’m super pleased with the results and just very happy that he was willing to take the time 😁 Finished up the arrangement in the 14g cube last night too, it’s very basic and will get dark started for a bit due to using a bag and a half of fresh Landen soil. Love the rich front-loaded soils but man do they run hot at first, so using an established filter and letting it run dark for a week or two in order to mellow out has yielded great results in the past. Game plan for this tank is to plant it out with mostly propagations from other tanks, namely a bunch of Eriocaulon Vietnam with Echinodorus Opacus Verde, mosses, Marsilea Crenata, and eventually some buces & other epiphytes. Thinking about running this one with no heater as well, and possibly even no livestock. About half my tanks these days have little to no livestock and don’t have heaters, and the ease of maintenance just makes them so enjoyable - rich substrate, lean column dosing, heavy planting, cool water, regular water changes, and very low levels of waste organics has become very appealing for the stability it produces 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted February 18, 2023 Author Share Posted February 18, 2023 Made thing, and it’s gonna have other things in it but not a lot of water - namely ferny things, bucey things, and cool little isopody things 🙂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 How’s the aqua scape competition going? Has the trophy come home yet? 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted February 19, 2023 Author Share Posted February 19, 2023 (edited) On 2/19/2023 at 1:37 AM, TheSwissAquarist said: How’s the aqua scape competition going? Has the trophy come home yet? 😁 No final results yet but I’ve been cheating a little, a friend of mine is involved in the running of the contest so I’ve had sneak peaks at some of the results so far 😂 There was a popular vote that’s worth about 25% of the overall score and I tied for first in that which I’m sooo stoked about! The remainder of the scoring is made up of a combined number of points awarded from a handful of judges and we’re still waiting for them to finish up. I’m very, very happy about all of it so far and given that it’s a community contest and I know most of the other entrants (and am actually rooting for a friend to win because I think his finished photo is hands down the best of the bunch) I’m just really happy for all of us and have really enjoyed the process! Edited February 19, 2023 by Dark River Aquatics 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 Tied for third overall in the contest 😄 Very, very, very pleased with the results and had a great experience overall - learned a whole lot, got to experience what it’s like building a tank towards different goals than what I usually do, and got a whole lot of valuable feedback to complement the new experience and just had a blast with this whole thing 🥳 And somehow accidentally grew this Black Angel to have obscenely striking colors which may be my favorite result of babying this tank so much 💙 Have still been dinking around in this growing little basement fish room, and it’s been a lot of fun building minimalist little terrarium jars for aquatics now that I have a bit more confidence keeping things alive. Put together two more little containers recently; both just have aquatic mosses ringed around buce, and they’re fun little experiments to learn more about care requirements & husbandry And in the last pic… my UG is growing! Have never had great results with UG in the past but this time things seem to be going better and I’m thrilled about it so far Also thrilled about adding another collection piece plant to the grow out tanks, finally crossed Echinodorus Opacus Goncalo off my bucket list and that brings me up to four total types - Rataj, Goncalo, Iguazu, and Verde! The water is super cloudy from planting it, had to dig up & move a bunch of Val Nana to make a spot but it was worth it 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 Congratulations! Those jars are really cool. Very nice thing to have and they all seem to be doing well for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 On 2/28/2023 at 12:14 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Congratulations! Those jars are really cool. Very nice thing to have and they all seem to be doing well for you. The jars are a blast! Didn’t think I’d like them as much as I do, they’re super easy to care for and have the added bonus that all the plants / mosses I added (except for a few of the utricularias, sphagnum, and sundews) can swim, so it’s a neat bonus to have emersed-grown plants kicking around ready to throw into new tanks. And it’s a lot of fun to make them! Highly recommend playing around with it if you’re ever curious 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 On 2/28/2023 at 11:48 AM, Dark River Aquatics said: And it’s a lot of fun to make them! Highly recommend playing around with it if you’re ever curious 🙂 I've got a table being setup and a light I am likely going to mount. We'll see how much space is available. I tried it with just a normal mason jar and the light at 30%, too narrow of an opening and definitely not bright enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted March 1, 2023 Share Posted March 1, 2023 Congrats on coming third ! 🥳 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 Gonna need a trim soon but I don’t want to 🫠 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 Man, that dark Buce surrounded by that gorgeous green is straight up fire! Fantastic! There’s nothing like a sharp color contrast to make something stand out and make the tank come alive. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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