Minanora Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 I'm going to be pacing the floor waiting for the shallow tanks reveal. Lol. All those lovely plants!!! So amazing! Through leaving the basement tanks alone you got to have those lovely flowers. I think it's really neat. So it's not so bad imo. Beautiful plecos. The 519s are going to be stunning with their adult patterns. If you get zebra Oto babies at some point I will buy up to 15 of them. 😊 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted October 19, 2022 Author Share Posted October 19, 2022 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 🙌🏻 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted October 19, 2022 Share Posted October 19, 2022 Cool little mossy kusa! 😁 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 Made a thing and squished some buces and bits of Riccardia into it, hopefully it doesn’t unalive 😵💫 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 Happy Halloween everyone! Started planting the shallow tank last week - the theme is green 🌱 Still waiting to add more moss rocks and a few more fine details, in the meantime just allowing the majority of the plants to grow in. Co2 is cranking, the lighting is set relatively low, maintaining a schedule of 75% water changes every morning, dosing with a small amount of fertilizer after every WC / inoculating with a lot of PNS ProBio, and so far so good 😊 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Finally putting more effort into my crappy basement rack, adding tanks and sprucing up the ones that’ve been sitting fishless & neglected for a while - as of right now they’re all getting redone to be crypt growouts to make better use of the space Did one up the other day with Jacobseni Pink, some Hooker Moss, and a random Buce. The substrate is a thin base layer of Landen soil mixed with a small amount of raw dirt, Laterite, Bacter 100, a layer of Safe-T-Sorb, and a layer of sand with a simple internal filter for movement. There’s a bit of melt so far but nothing major, with some luck once everything mellows out they’ll be very low maintenance farm tanks with a difference species in each 🙏🏻 It’s funny how distinct of a difference good lighting makes on Jacobseni - this last pic is from the same group that went into the 10g, but lit with a WRGB2 instead of a Finnex light and the difference in color rendition is amazing. No crazy settings on the Chihiros either with an increased high red or purple hue, just the normal day to day settings for that tank 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 7, 2022 Author Share Posted November 7, 2022 Do y’all ever find a piece of hardscape and the immediate reaction is “whelp, there’s other projects to do but now everything is on hold to redo one of the older tanks”?? Went to a local store looking for a specific plant (didn’t find it) and found a neat piece of Eucalyptus root instead. The weekend project then turned into a full tear down/rebuild of the old, run down, overgrown 29g from way back in this thread somewhere. I’d let it go all to heck with jungle Val, duckweed, and algae everywhere and it’s just been long past due for a revamp. Got caught up and forgot to take photo documentation during the destruction but this is a pic with all the hardscape and virtually all of the plants removed, with ancient silty Amazonia and the remains of all the Vals just lookin like…. Yikes Gave everything a good thorough bleaching, cleaned out the filters (surprisingly not that gooky), and got everything as shiny as possible for used equipment Then the fun part, playing with a new layout! Went through several different iterations of hardscape over the course of Saturday and landed on one that looked pretty decent while mentally playing with a plant list - going into it I came up with a few goals: -Use primarily plants I grew myself -Utilize it as a plant growout as much as possible -Make it very low maintenance -Apistos need to like it This is what I landed on for hardscape - wood heavy, lots of overhanging roots that don’t take away too much substrate real estate but still provide a load of space for epiphytes, and a good amount of complexity for the fish. Was pretty pleased with it and used thermoplastic to stick everything together and to adhere hidden chunks of granite to the bottom of the wood to anchor it all from floating & to build height. The substrate is Laterite & Bacter 100 & a small amount of Safe-T-Sorb at the base, a thick layer of Landen soil, and a cap of Black Diamond blasting sand. Then came the planting! Went digging in some of my other tanks and was surprised at how much the anubias in the green dragon tank has grown, and started to wax nostalgic about doing a really simple plant list - crypts, anubias, a bit of moss, etc - sort of a throwback old school style nature scape. Ended up reminiscing about reading Nature Aquarium World as a teenager and while I’m absolutely no Takashi Amano it was fun trying to pull inspiration from that sense of awe young me felt at seeing his work. Also pulled a bunch of crypts, primarily Jacobseni Pink and Nurii Rosen Maiden with some Lutea & Green Gecko for the edges, plus some moss I got from a friend recently. I think it’s Taiwan Moss? No idea. Ran out of spare Anubias so I ordered a bit more and still need to finish planting out the wood. Game plan is to fill up the sides with more greenery and to leave the wood in the center bare, but calling it done for today. Co2 will get hooked up tomorrow and it already needs a water change to reduce turbidity but it was a fun weekend project and I’m happy the tank got a facelift 🥳 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 On 11/7/2022 at 6:21 AM, Dark River Aquatics said: Do y’all ever find a piece of hardscape and the immediate reaction is “whelp, there’s other projects to do but now everything is on hold to redo one of the older tanks”?? Went to a local store looking for a specific plant (didn’t find it) and found a neat piece of Eucalyptus root instead. The weekend project then turned into a full tear down/rebuild of the old, run down, overgrown 29g from way back in this thread somewhere. I’d let it go all to heck with jungle Val, duckweed, and algae everywhere and it’s just been long past due for a revamp. Got caught up and forgot to take photo documentation during the destruction but this is a pic with all the hardscape and virtually all of the plants removed, with ancient silty Amazonia and the remains of all the Vals just lookin like…. Yikes Gave everything a good thorough bleaching, cleaned out the filters (surprisingly not that gooky), and got everything as shiny as possible for used equipment Then the fun part, playing with a new layout! Went through several different iterations of hardscape over the course of Saturday and landed on one that looked pretty decent while mentally playing with a plant list - going into it I came up with a few goals: -Use primarily plants I grew myself -Utilize it as a plant growout as much as possible -Make it very low maintenance -Apistos need to like it This is what I landed on for hardscape - wood heavy, lots of overhanging roots that don’t take away too much substrate real estate but still provide a load of space for epiphytes, and a good amount of complexity for the fish. Was pretty pleased with it and used thermoplastic to stick everything together and to adhere hidden chunks of granite to the bottom of the wood to anchor it all from floating & to build height. The substrate is Laterite & Bacter 100 & a small amount of Safe-T-Sorb at the base, a thick layer of Landen soil, and a cap of Black Diamond blasting sand. Then came the planting! Went digging in some of my other tanks and was surprised at how much the anubias in the green dragon tank has grown, and started to wax nostalgic about doing a really simple plant list - crypts, anubias, a bit of moss, etc - sort of a throwback old school style nature scape. Ended up reminiscing about reading Nature Aquarium World as a teenager and while I’m absolutely no Takashi Amano it was fun trying to pull inspiration from that sense of awe young me felt at seeing his work. Also pulled a bunch of crypts, primarily Jacobseni Pink and Nurii Rosen Maiden with some Lutea & Green Gecko for the edges, plus some moss I got from a friend recently. I think it’s Taiwan Moss? No idea. Ran out of spare Anubias so I ordered a bit more and still need to finish planting out the wood. Game plan is to fill up the sides with more greenery and to leave the wood in the center bare, but calling it done for today. Co2 will get hooked up tomorrow and it already needs a water change to reduce turbidity but it was a fun weekend project and I’m happy the tank got a facelift 🥳 Now that's what you call a weekend project! Wow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minanora Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 Awesome! Looking like a brand new setup. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 Looking fantastic! Nice work right there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 9, 2022 Author Share Posted November 9, 2022 Apistogramma Alto Tapiche hiding in the weeds, and the slight saturation filter this forum seems to add to uploaded pics makes it look so green 💚 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 11, 2022 Author Share Posted November 11, 2022 (edited) Still adding stuff, sprinkling in more green here & there. Unsure about the Eriocaulon, tossed them in right before the picture was taken may swap them out something else. Might add some Val sp Nana Yabba? Maybe some Buce sp Red Dagger, and maybe some more mosses? Idk, taking it slow and just playing with details now but thinking that more greenery at substrate level would look better. The light shades should arrive tomorrow as well as an additional manifold to run a co2 line, and then it’ll be just about done! Can’t wait to get some apistos in here, and the dither school may be a group of red coral pencils Edited November 11, 2022 by Dark River Aquatics 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 The water in the 29g is testing at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and a hint of nitrate and I’m still in the daily water change phase so got a little ambitious and added some mixed pencilfish from another tank, so far they’ve colored up again quickly and are exploring the new space. Really liking them in this tank! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 15, 2022 Author Share Posted November 15, 2022 Got new friends in the mail today that I’m excited about, Vallisneria Nana “Yabba” - nothing too rare or special but they’re so dang tiny and cute! Planted out another of the 10g farm tanks today with the new midget Val and some Crypt Nurii Pink Line, the crappy basement rack of 10g’s is now almost fully done up as mostly crypt grow outs. There’s a tank of Jacobseni Pink, one of Affinis Metallic Red, one of Nurii Maiden, one of Nurii Pink Line, and then there’s a smattering of Purpurea and midget Val and a few other species mixed in. In other news, scaped a friend’s tank for him over the weekend and had a blast. Didn’t bring enough plants with me so we need to add more, but it was a lot of fun and he’s very happy with it so it was a win 😄 And! My collection of tiny jars is growing. Another friend finally convinced me to try carnivorous plants so one of them now has Sundews and Utrics - hopefully they don’t unalive. Some of the buces in the Iota aren’t that happy so I started applying a foliar fertilizer and hopefully those don’t unalive either. They might just be sitting too high above the water line, idk, but trying small changes to try to fix it and hoping for the best. The mosses seem to be doing quite well though! 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 17, 2022 Author Share Posted November 17, 2022 The crypt nursery tanks are officially fully planted and alive! The Jacobseni tank already has a bit of algae on the glass so some light diffuser film may be in order, currently just rolling with some old non-adjustable lights that were collecting dust and they may be a bit potent They are alive though! And the 29g seems to be doing ok, still keeping up with heavy frequent water changes and have added a tiny internal filter with a spray bar to increase surface agitation but all seems well. The light is currently at half strength and may not even need to be ramped up, starting to see some new sprouts already so we may be in good shape. And it may be premature and I may kick myself, but added some buces - hopefully it’s not so unstable that they melt 🤞🏻 The Buce in some other setups are popping off at the moment with inflorescences, it’s always one of those things where it’s like “dang hopefully they’re happy and this isn’t just a stress response”, but there are inflorescences for days at the moment both under water and emersed 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minanora Posted November 17, 2022 Share Posted November 17, 2022 My buce did that last year around this time, but it was planted in October of last year. If mine does it again this year, then I'll say it's just an annual thing. That wood in your friends tank is beautiful! Great job 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 18, 2022 Author Share Posted November 18, 2022 On 11/17/2022 at 10:16 AM, Minanora said: My buce did that last year around this time, but it was planted in October of last year. If mine does it again this year, then I'll say it's just an annual thing. That wood in your friends tank is beautiful! Great job They tend to do it when they’re really happy and flourishing, or when they’re a little stressed out like if they’ve just been added to a tank with different conditions than what they’re used to and in those cases it’s a stress response. It’s an “oh crap, something changed and we’re not sure if we like it, better produce an inflorescence and try to procreate just in case this doesn’t work out well” type of thing. It’s not necessarily a bad sign or anything when they do it, it’s just the plant responding to change by trying to ensure its genetics survive and it’s a very common thing to see when you put emersed form buce underwater - it’s better for the species’ survival if the plant puts energy into flowering before it rolls the dice on putting energy into its own new growth in new/unknown/fluctuating conditions 😊 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted November 30, 2022 Author Share Posted November 30, 2022 Black Angel go brrrrrrrr 🙂 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwissAquarist Posted November 30, 2022 Share Posted November 30, 2022 Beautiful!😍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minanora Posted November 30, 2022 Share Posted November 30, 2022 That's some nice contrast. Is that gloss below the buce? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted December 27, 2022 Author Share Posted December 27, 2022 On 11/30/2022 at 9:30 AM, Minanora said: That's some nice contrast. Is that gloss below the buce? I’m sorry I never responded to this, my brains are made out of cheese sometimes - it’s Marsilea Minuta, less of a headache to trim than glosso and the goal of this tank was to have a chill little puddle that doesn’t need a lot of maintenance 😄 I’m ever so slowly revamping some tanks, the Green Dragon tank got a full makeover recently and has been filled with Crypt Jacobseni Pink. A NilocG Prizm is going over it next weekend to up the power and turn them more pink, and the cube tank has had a makeover as well and is destined to have Jade Green Neos soon. A local shrimp breeder buddy is trading me some and that’s where they’ll end up 🙌🏻 Totally removed the Rotala H’ra and added Bacopa Salzmanii Purple, and redid a lot of the other planting as well just to change it up It’s getting a bit of algae on the rocks, and it’s almost exactly one year old now which is a little strange…. The time goes by fast. The row of 10g’s is finally getting over the ugly stage, diatoms are fading and there’s bits of green algae here & there but still doing water changes and most of them only have snails as livestock so hopefully the algae won’t take hold.. The Triple Red Cockatoo Apistos are laying eggs again, and then I impulse purchased a CPO crayfish a couple of weeks ago so she’s in one of the crypt tanks. Really diggin her and had the store order more so I can get a male and see if they breed! The 29g tank is well overdue for some maintenance and hopefully by posting an ugly pic I’ll be motivated to spruce it up in the next couple of days… it’s still experiencing some diatoms and is now getting a bit of green spot algae so I probably need to do more water changes and start dosing it, and the glass needs a good scrub. Got some tiny Panda Garras for it recently, and put a mix of Pencils in with them And the contest shallow tank is doing well 🙂 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 Your tanks are looking great. The new red Bacopa variant looks spectacular so far and so does that pencil fish! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minanora Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 Awesome update. Exciting to see so much change. I can hardly wait to see how everything fills in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudomugil Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 Great looking tanks and projects! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark River Aquatics Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 Okay so I got a Prizm and the snails immediately burst into flame and I’m now legally blind, please send help 1 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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