Journal: 273L Europe-Wave-100 - update - 1.5 years

[Zezmo]

This tank has been set up for about six months now. At first there were at least 40 or more species of plants. Each month as I redu and maintain the scape I have reduced the number of species. Perhaps I am getting over collectoritis..heh.
This last weekend the SVAS had it's mega Auction. For this tank, I picked up a nice piece of driftwood, some Emerald Cories, a B-Nose pleco, and some C. lutea. Sunday the tank got the new inhabitants and scaping. Here are a few shots that I took of the tank on Monday. The in-tank equipment is removed for these, that is the first time I have done that for pictures. that only added about 20 minutes to the photo shoot.

Whole Tank 10-10-06:

high res shot

Left End:

I rarely show from this end, because it is where the equipment hides:

high res shot

Here is the right end view:

and the right half of the tank:

This is 3 pieces of driftwood together, including the new one from the mega auction:

Here is the center, in particular I like how the Echinodorus Tennelus "Red" is starting to fill in:

A close up of the Eriocaulon species "Guang Zhou". The original plant I was given has split 3 times already.

One last shot from the left showing the whole tank:

 

[GlitcH]

Lookin fantastic Zez..........were those taken after a PWC or do the plants pearl like that regularly?

collectoritis.........ya mine comes out of remission from time to time, so watch yourself.........just when you think you've got it licked, ya find yourself returning home from the LFS with something else you really don't need.

 

[Vmax911]

I think your tank looks great now. I may be the minority, but I like to see some open water, like in your current setup.

 

[mr funktastic]

your tank was pretty good before but now i really like it. before it didnt really look "scaped" to me. it was healthy and growing and good but just seemed cluttered. now it is more organized and u can really appreciate theplants u have in there. is that limpholia aromatica on the left hand side? i tried that plant and it melted on me. it will looks awesome once it grows taller. u should try layering it. the back row leave tall then slowly decend the other stems. might looks cool. love the tank. oh and how many bags of powersand did u use for that tank? how many litres were each bag? i want to try it but it just seems outragiously expensive after shipping(gotta love canada )

 

[krap101]

do you have a dojo loach? thought i saw a tail somewhere earlier.

 

[Glenc]

Very nice. Looks very elegant now, real classy. I like it now as it really highlights the species you have in there, but I liked it before as well.
You never do a poor job

 

[Zezmo]

Thank you all, I appreciate the feedback. It is funny, it is so "hard" to let go of all the plant types I like.
The loaches you spotted are either YoYo loaches (4) and/or Angelicus loaches (3)(Botia kubotai). They mix freely. These guys like to hide in every little nook and crack in the driftwood. They also dig little caves under the wood.

The plant on the left back is Hygrophila polysperma ''Ceylon''. This plant gets a really nice red color, much like L aromatica.

 

[czcz]

Those species look great all tidy and grouped up. The lack of an L. "Guinea" or "Cuba" or something is almost refreshing -- I love the green -- but I can't help but imagine a grouping in the gap left center. FWIW of course.

 

[Zezmo]

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Note: This is a respost from a separate thread "a year in the life"
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It's not quite a year since I set up my 72. It is a year since I first saw the tank in the store, and decided that I just "had" to have it.

I reinstalled my photo editing software today (new hard drive) and was looking back over some of the picture of that tank. It is kinda cool to see how your tank evolves. Different ideas, new skills, even different plants that are available. They all shape the look of a tank.

Here are a few "whole tank" shots. These are basically one per month since I set the tank up last March.

March 2006: ready for water

here it is all set up:

Next month... in April things began to fill in. coughcolectoritiscough

By May it was a Jungle:

In June my summer algae woes began. I did not take many pictures, no full tank shots. Look at the BBA all over my driftwood. The cause was poor CO2 diffusion, at some point in the summer I switched to mist method and upped my fert levels. It took until September for the algae to be totally back under control.

Here is a July 06 full tank shot. At this point, I was still using my canister filter for diffusion, not mist. I had risen my EI dosing routing, and was trying to be much disciplined about maintenance. I also did not big pruning. The only algae still hanging out was BBA. Things were back on track though. Look at the crypts on the right...they quickly become monsters.

I was busy having fun in the summer, so no major tank changes into August. Algae is still under control, and somewhere in this time frame i switched to a full mist CO2 method in this tank.

Also, my sons have varying degrees of partial colorblindness. In talking with my oldest, I realized that all the reds in my tank looked brown to him. He thought my tanks were full of dead and dieing plants. He said he always wondered why folks said it looked so good. He figured they were just being polite. In an attempt to let him see what the rest of us saw, I over saturated the color in this pic.

In September I took my scape in a new direction. I had dreams of creating an Iwagumi style tank...they stayed a dream. Algae are a memory by this time, and you can see the PH from my mist CO2.

October has me farming Eriocaulon sp. type 3, in anticipation of the AGA convention. I was able to provide the ET3 that was used as the "secret ingredient" in the Iron Aquascaper contest. See my baby Angels at the surface...they grow fast. Also the crypts on the right are really filling in.

At the AGA convention I picked up some nice Mopani wood. Actually it was one huge log, which I cut up on the band saw at work. The shapes of the wood inspired me to take the tank in a different direction. I decided I wasn't a Japanese Zen master, and I wasn't a Dutchman. So both of those styles were out. Instead, I decided to try a "theme" for my tank and build around that idea. The theme is "The Haunted Forest". So I am trying to create a dark and spooky look. The mopani wood looked like some old tree trunks, and I am trying to get plants with a haunted theme to them.. Murdiana "murder" spirata, "blood" red Tennelus, etc. I was also trying some carnivorous plants. that has not worked out so well...at least in this tank. My SAE's devoured all the soft and tasty carnivorous plants.

With the holidays and such, I did not take any specific pictures in December. So instead, here are the kids on X-mas morning… oh the joy . The tank is still dark, but you can see all the x-mas lights twinkling off of it.

And finally, here is shot I took in January; some parts are starting to fill in. Overall I am happy with how the tank is doing. Algae is minimal, growth is phenomenal. The Haunted Forest look is not complete IMO, it may never be, but it is still the look I am trying for.

I got this plant from Roland at Greenchapter, there is no info and as far as I know no real taxonomy of it. It was given to me as Hygrophila sp "foreground". It grows like a vine, and gets a purple blush. And, I almost lost it, one small sprig was barely hanging on in my shrimp tank, when I xfered it here and decided I better recover this unusual species. It has bounced back, and is becoming a weed.

Nymphaea micrantha. I looked today, and it is starting to send up a flower stalk... I can't wait

Got to have some bling bling - form over function as they say.

Well, that is it...nearly a year in the life of my main tank. A lot of fun, a lot of learning. we will see what the next year has in store... Is my wife reading this? I wonder if she would notice a new 125g tank....hehe

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Note: This was an update from the "a year in the life" thread.
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Another month has slipped by, here are a few pics from February. This is my main tanks 12th month. So I guess this actually makes it a "year in the life"

Here is the full tank. See how big my Angels are getting The green stem plant in the center is something new... Eriocaulon species, type 2. (I had the type 3 before)

Here is a closer shot of a couple Angels...they sure grow fast. These guys were wigglers last summer. My wife plays with them a lot, so they have developed lots of personality, very tame. There is a school of five, from that I kept from my breeding pair in the garage. They actually, go to the corner of the tank at lights on in the morning, and watch for me to come out of my room (which they can just see from the corner). Then, as I come into the room they move to the front of the tank and wiggle at me until I feed them.

I plucked this plantlet growing in the center of a surface leaf from the Nymphaea micrantha. It is tiny, but colorful.

Finally, my tank has a glass cross support. When the tank is full, it catches oxygen bubbles pearling off the java fern, and other plants below it. Here it is at the end of the light cycle with a big ole bubble of O2.

I wonder if I should bake a cake for the tanks birthday next month...naw... my wife would think I had truly gone off the deep end. heh


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I edited in the two posts above, because it had been nearly a year since this thread had any updated pics.

It will be a few weeks before I plant my new ADA tank. In the mean time I have been playing with my other tanks. After meeting with Luis Navarro, and hearing him talk, I was inspired to completely rescape this tank. I spent the whole next day moving stuff and replanting everything.

For about ten months I had been working on "The Haunted Forest" theme. While it was enjoyable to pursue a "concept" with the tank. It never really got to the look I was going for.

Here it is in June.

The Nymphaea micrantha was blooming like crazy:

So after being inspired by meeting Luis, and seeing Andrew's tanks in person. I went for a more open, and scaped look.

Large Size Image-1
Large Size Image-2

Here are a couple close ups of the left and right sides:

 

[triazole]

loving the inverted bowl of emptiness in the middle! and the fact that its skewed makes it doubly attractive.
the red plant on the right does creep up suddenly and break the steady curve as the eye moves from the left to the right....

 

[smn723]

Very nice tank. I'm envious of you!

 

[Glenc]

Very, very nice. Thanks so much for taking the time to share and document your progress. I am not the most patient person, so seeing that you to battle with algea woes helps to keep me from losing it when my tanks are not looking great. You are a true inspiration

 

[Zezmo]

Thank you very much

You know, I once had a tank with no algae... then I added water to it.

 

[Zagz]

That is impressive. I like all the looks but really did like the look of the haunted forest quite a bit. Just starting to get into planted tanks here and you have certainly given me food for thought.