Aquascape 60L myaquascaping1.blogspot.co.id I'm new here so first let me introduce myself. I'm a 20 year old male student at the Technical University of Delft, Netherlands.
In this hobby, being a student translates to small space, low budget, little time.
When I was young, my father built me a small aquarium, in which I kept on or two goldfish for a couple of years until the hobby was gone and forgotten.
A while back, I was browsing youtube and I came across Takashi Amano's work, which really inspired me.
I had no idea that a planted aquarium could be taken this far and ever since I've been looking at all kinds of videos from all these amazing aquascapes out there.
I spent a lot of time researching the equipment I need, the costs involved, and I finally decided on what to buy and get. My tank is a Aquascape 60L Jewel Rekord (I guess), with 18W Sera TL lighting.
I use an EHEIM pump which is said to pump about 300L/h. I also made a DIY CO2 supply using yeast and sugar, which seems to work fine; when I gently give the bottle a shake you can see and hear the bubbles emerge.
The layout that I decided upon, uses a rather big center stone. While strawing around my parents garden (they have huge rock-garden) I gathered a bunch of stones from different types and I loved the coloring and shape of this group.
I know that beginners are advised not to use big stones, but I just couldn't resist.I spent about €35 on plants, and another €35 on substrate and a filter starter. The order was placed last week, but I left a message saying I didn't want the until yesterday since my schedule was really tight.
And indeed, they arrived yesterday at 6:30PM, so I spent the entire evening planting and arranging everything.
The plants I used Aquascape 60L :
I ordered them at Aquarium-planten.com and I'm overall quite satisfied. Contact was nice and I got some free dried food.
Most of the planting went really well. The eleocharis was a tedious job, mostly because my tweezers were not really suited for this but of well. While adding water to the tank, I was really afraid everything would come loose, but that was not the case at all.
Only two strains of eleocharis went afloatin' and the rest still seems really snug. Whether I planted them well or I chose really nice substrate, must have done something right!
There are quite a few things that are, in my eye, not so appealing. The right side seems really empty, which might be resolved when the Myriophyllum grows into a thicker bush, but I think some more and mostly higher planting is needed in that corner to take a viewers attention away from the center.
It might be better to actually fill the entire corner with thick bushes of some sort.
Aquascaping nano 60l
Aquascape 60L - Also, the moss which I got wasn't really a bush or something, when I took it out of its package I found it were just hundreds of small loose moss strains.
Attaching them to the rock therefor took a lot of effort and gluing and I'm not yet very satisfied but it might still grow out really nice. Time will tell.
Oh, and planting the Myriophyllum after water was added was a mistake; it's the only plant that keeps coming loose.
For now, I'll be going for an 8H light/day and I'll see how it goes from there. I'm still way to excited not to sit in front of the tank for the next 24H though, haha!
You might want to look at the Citric Acid and Soda DIY Co2 method its so much better, You can control the output of Co2 and also shut it off at night. I found the yeast method doesn't last very long at all. Think about getting this.
Aquascape 60L - First thank you for posting that video its a pity you did not become a member of ASW before you started.
At the moment all I can see is a Central Aquascape 6.54 with one massive rock and a few smaller rocks different types carefully placed around the tank, which you had added plants.
Aquascape 60L - My suggestion now is do nothing to that tank and let it develop and in the mean time learn by asking plenty of questions plus do a lot of research on what you would like to do that is in your skills.
It will not happen over night.
Hello there, I'll update my profile soon, no worries.
I wonder, what does a "6.54" mean? When the three main rocks were not yet emerged, they did seem very much alike, but apparently the left one is of a completely different type. That's too bad because I think it's best to stick with one type of stone. I might still replace the vulcanic stones though, with some stones that are more like the center stone.
Other than that, I'll just have to wait indeed :)
Aquascape 60L - The cylcing process... Well, I thought I had it all figured out, but I'm starting to worry a bit.
I got myself some 100ml of this stuff (edit: I had a link in here, but my newbness does not allow me to... It's called "EasyStart by the company Easy-Life). I'm using that, together with 15% water changes every 3-4 days
One week in, I'll get the water tested at my LFS or maybe I'll buy a bunch of those test strips.
After that, I'll just tune my strategy in to the results.
Seems legit? I thought the EasyStart would fill the place of a cycle-fish but now I'm not sure.
The myriophyllum is starting to unfold; the top branches are looking very green and healthy. Also, in between the roots of the sagittaria subulata I found these little bulbs which I planted here and there throughout the tank. One of them is already sprouting.
It's big sister is still struggling trying to get it's flowers out and about. Should I cut those of? Seems like it's wasting a lot of energy on flowers that will just rot away underwater.
I decided to get some liquid fertilizer after all. I can spot some melting in some of the plants, and when I look at the moss that's near the soil, it looks really good, while the moss that must feed from the top of the water column seems to be dieing.
The Sagittaria Subulata has grown like crazy. The newest leaves are growing really long though, might this be a sign that they do not receive enough light? It also seems like the new leaves are melting, which gets me concerned.
The Sagittaria bulbs that I planted are doing very well; one of them has grown a stunning 10cm (4 inches)!
Aquascape 60L - The plants, getting quite tall. Some ends were already brown during planting, but those leaves seem the healthiest of them all.
Aquascape 60L - The melting that I've diagnosed. As you can see, it's only happening in the newest leaves.
A Sagittaria bulb sprouting like crazy.
Here you can see the moss on top of the stone. The ends are turning brown, is that a problem or will that eventually grow out? I had expected the moss to be the easiest plant, turns out it's not.
My biggest concern at the moment, though, is the Myriophyllum Scrabatum. One branch has completely decomposed, and others are decomposing in the middle of the stems.
Because it has quite a plant mass, it makes for a lot of waste, and I wonder if this will cause the cycling to go bad.
As seen in the pictures, the top ends look really healthy and are growing quite nicely. Would it be a good idea to cut off the top ends, replant them and throw out the old, damaged branches?
Decomposing pieces of Myriophyllum, caught in some Eleocharis Parvula. This image can be seen throughout the entire tank.
Aquascape 60L - I'll be receiving my water testing kit today, so I'll update with the outcome soon enough.
In the meantime, can anyone tell me whether fertilizers are necessary or not? I still really want to do this without them, because it's just another factor to take into account when something goes wrong and you want to pin down the reason.
Aquascape 60L - Water test results are in!
These tests are really quite helpful, I'm so happy I invested in a testkit! I recommend the JBL Combitest to anyone. I accidently bought the Plus Fe version instead of the NH4, so I had to get that separately but it was a happy little mistake; now I know that my iron levels are WAY too low (which could well explain the melting of the plants).
Aquascape 60L - That means I must start adding fertilizers. I'll also remove the active carbon from the filter.
I'm glad CO2 is good, it's a little bit too high but due to the lack of livestock that's no problem. I'm getting a permanent CO2 measure glass soon.
I am also finding out the KH is too low... More frequent water changes might fix that.
I'm a little bit startled by the NH4/NH3+ levels. Does this mean my tank is cycling pretty quickly?
The Nitrite is at the peak of what my kit can measure, and there is already a good amount of NO3 as well.
Can anyone tell me if this cycle seems to go well?
Aquascape 60L - Post Nitrogen Cycle - my tanks are typically:
What your attempting to achieve with your Nitrogen Cycle is the conversion of ammonia to Nitrite, which in turn must be converted by Bacteria (nitrobacter) to Nitrate.
The combined level of Nitrite and Nitrate form the tanks Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN).
I personally have never used any commercially available aquatic products to "speed" up the natural process of the nitrogen cycle (for me it kind of defeats the object). I simply transfer a filter medium culture and dose my tanks with 100% Pure Ammonia/mg/L.
I would advise anybody coming into this hobby to spend a reasonable amount of time in getting to grips with a little bit of water chemistry.
The Nitrogen Cycle is lifes essence, so understanding how it works will hold you in good stead for successfully maintaining this hobby and more importantly maintaining a healthy environement for your plants and fish.
Aquascape 60L - So today I did some more tests. There's an ammonium increase, right after I added the Easy-Life Filter Starter (according to the manual, a second dose had to be added on day 7), which I think indicates that the filter starter includes some ammonium. All other values were in the same region, except Fe but that is probably due to the addition of fertilizers.
Right now my spirit is kinda down... I am looking at all these beautiful tanks on the internet and I'm far from satisfied with mine.
I did a lot of research and thought about this project a lot, yet I made some big mistakes; the dwarf sag seems really out of place, in my oppinion, the central rock turned out too tricky, and I am not too certain about the dwarf hairgrass in the front; it doesn't look like it is growing at all and I wonder if a carpet will ever be achieved.
I am very much familiar with the nitrite cycle by the way, all I wanted to know was whether the water test results could be interpreted as a sign of progress.
Thanks for the replies, though! Aquascape 60L, Patience... Patience... But when I look at other journals I see people achieving beautiful tanks right after planting, while mine is still quite an eyesore.
In this hobby, being a student translates to small space, low budget, little time.
When I was young, my father built me a small aquarium, in which I kept on or two goldfish for a couple of years until the hobby was gone and forgotten.
A while back, I was browsing youtube and I came across Takashi Amano's work, which really inspired me.
I had no idea that a planted aquarium could be taken this far and ever since I've been looking at all kinds of videos from all these amazing aquascapes out there.
I spent a lot of time researching the equipment I need, the costs involved, and I finally decided on what to buy and get. My tank is a Aquascape 60L Jewel Rekord (I guess), with 18W Sera TL lighting.
Aquascape 60L
I use an EHEIM pump which is said to pump about 300L/h. I also made a DIY CO2 supply using yeast and sugar, which seems to work fine; when I gently give the bottle a shake you can see and hear the bubbles emerge.
The layout that I decided upon, uses a rather big center stone. While strawing around my parents garden (they have huge rock-garden) I gathered a bunch of stones from different types and I loved the coloring and shape of this group.
I know that beginners are advised not to use big stones, but I just couldn't resist.I spent about €35 on plants, and another €35 on substrate and a filter starter. The order was placed last week, but I left a message saying I didn't want the until yesterday since my schedule was really tight.
And indeed, they arrived yesterday at 6:30PM, so I spent the entire evening planting and arranging everything.
The plants I used Aquascape 60L :
- 1x Myriophyllum Scrabatum
- 1x Microsorum Pteropus Minor (Thin Java Fern)
- 2x Taxiphyllum Sp. (Flame Moss)
- 2x Sagittaria Subulata
- 3x Eleocharis Acicularis (Hairgrass)
- 3x Eleocharis Parvula (Dwarf Hairgrass)
I ordered them at Aquarium-planten.com and I'm overall quite satisfied. Contact was nice and I got some free dried food.
Most of the planting went really well. The eleocharis was a tedious job, mostly because my tweezers were not really suited for this but of well. While adding water to the tank, I was really afraid everything would come loose, but that was not the case at all.
Only two strains of eleocharis went afloatin' and the rest still seems really snug. Whether I planted them well or I chose really nice substrate, must have done something right!
There are quite a few things that are, in my eye, not so appealing. The right side seems really empty, which might be resolved when the Myriophyllum grows into a thicker bush, but I think some more and mostly higher planting is needed in that corner to take a viewers attention away from the center.
It might be better to actually fill the entire corner with thick bushes of some sort.
Aquascaping nano 60l
Aquascape 60L - Also, the moss which I got wasn't really a bush or something, when I took it out of its package I found it were just hundreds of small loose moss strains.
Attaching them to the rock therefor took a lot of effort and gluing and I'm not yet very satisfied but it might still grow out really nice. Time will tell.
Oh, and planting the Myriophyllum after water was added was a mistake; it's the only plant that keeps coming loose.
For now, I'll be going for an 8H light/day and I'll see how it goes from there. I'm still way to excited not to sit in front of the tank for the next 24H though, haha!
You might want to look at the Citric Acid and Soda DIY Co2 method its so much better, You can control the output of Co2 and also shut it off at night. I found the yeast method doesn't last very long at all. Think about getting this.
Aquascape 60L - First thank you for posting that video its a pity you did not become a member of ASW before you started.
At the moment all I can see is a Central Aquascape 6.54 with one massive rock and a few smaller rocks different types carefully placed around the tank, which you had added plants.
Aquascape 60L - My suggestion now is do nothing to that tank and let it develop and in the mean time learn by asking plenty of questions plus do a lot of research on what you would like to do that is in your skills.
It will not happen over night.
Hello there, I'll update my profile soon, no worries.
I wonder, what does a "6.54" mean? When the three main rocks were not yet emerged, they did seem very much alike, but apparently the left one is of a completely different type. That's too bad because I think it's best to stick with one type of stone. I might still replace the vulcanic stones though, with some stones that are more like the center stone.
Other than that, I'll just have to wait indeed :)
Aquascape 60L - The cylcing process... Well, I thought I had it all figured out, but I'm starting to worry a bit.
I got myself some 100ml of this stuff (edit: I had a link in here, but my newbness does not allow me to... It's called "EasyStart by the company Easy-Life). I'm using that, together with 15% water changes every 3-4 days
One week in, I'll get the water tested at my LFS or maybe I'll buy a bunch of those test strips.
After that, I'll just tune my strategy in to the results.
Seems legit? I thought the EasyStart would fill the place of a cycle-fish but now I'm not sure.
The myriophyllum is starting to unfold; the top branches are looking very green and healthy. Also, in between the roots of the sagittaria subulata I found these little bulbs which I planted here and there throughout the tank. One of them is already sprouting.
It's big sister is still struggling trying to get it's flowers out and about. Should I cut those of? Seems like it's wasting a lot of energy on flowers that will just rot away underwater.
I decided to get some liquid fertilizer after all. I can spot some melting in some of the plants, and when I look at the moss that's near the soil, it looks really good, while the moss that must feed from the top of the water column seems to be dieing.
The Sagittaria Subulata has grown like crazy. The newest leaves are growing really long though, might this be a sign that they do not receive enough light? It also seems like the new leaves are melting, which gets me concerned.
The Sagittaria bulbs that I planted are doing very well; one of them has grown a stunning 10cm (4 inches)!
Aquascape 60L - The plants, getting quite tall. Some ends were already brown during planting, but those leaves seem the healthiest of them all.
Aquascape 60L - The melting that I've diagnosed. As you can see, it's only happening in the newest leaves.
A Sagittaria bulb sprouting like crazy.
Here you can see the moss on top of the stone. The ends are turning brown, is that a problem or will that eventually grow out? I had expected the moss to be the easiest plant, turns out it's not.
My biggest concern at the moment, though, is the Myriophyllum Scrabatum. One branch has completely decomposed, and others are decomposing in the middle of the stems.
Because it has quite a plant mass, it makes for a lot of waste, and I wonder if this will cause the cycling to go bad.
As seen in the pictures, the top ends look really healthy and are growing quite nicely. Would it be a good idea to cut off the top ends, replant them and throw out the old, damaged branches?
Decomposing pieces of Myriophyllum, caught in some Eleocharis Parvula. This image can be seen throughout the entire tank.
Aquascape 60L - I'll be receiving my water testing kit today, so I'll update with the outcome soon enough.
In the meantime, can anyone tell me whether fertilizers are necessary or not? I still really want to do this without them, because it's just another factor to take into account when something goes wrong and you want to pin down the reason.
Aquascape 60L - Water test results are in!
- Temperature: 24.5 C*
- Hardness: 4 KH
- Accidity: 6.7 pH
- NH4: 0.5 mg/l
- NH3+: <0.03 mg/l
- NO2: 1.0 mg/l
- NO3: 20 mg/l
- Fe: <0.02 mg/l
- CO2: 30 mg/l
These tests are really quite helpful, I'm so happy I invested in a testkit! I recommend the JBL Combitest to anyone. I accidently bought the Plus Fe version instead of the NH4, so I had to get that separately but it was a happy little mistake; now I know that my iron levels are WAY too low (which could well explain the melting of the plants).
Aquascape 60L - That means I must start adding fertilizers. I'll also remove the active carbon from the filter.
I'm glad CO2 is good, it's a little bit too high but due to the lack of livestock that's no problem. I'm getting a permanent CO2 measure glass soon.
I am also finding out the KH is too low... More frequent water changes might fix that.
I'm a little bit startled by the NH4/NH3+ levels. Does this mean my tank is cycling pretty quickly?
The Nitrite is at the peak of what my kit can measure, and there is already a good amount of NO3 as well.
Can anyone tell me if this cycle seems to go well?
Aquascape 60L - Post Nitrogen Cycle - my tanks are typically:
- Ammonia 0ppm
- Nitrite 0ppm
- Nitrate 10ppm
- pH8.2 (African Malawi Cichlids)
What your attempting to achieve with your Nitrogen Cycle is the conversion of ammonia to Nitrite, which in turn must be converted by Bacteria (nitrobacter) to Nitrate.
The combined level of Nitrite and Nitrate form the tanks Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN).
I personally have never used any commercially available aquatic products to "speed" up the natural process of the nitrogen cycle (for me it kind of defeats the object). I simply transfer a filter medium culture and dose my tanks with 100% Pure Ammonia/mg/L.
I would advise anybody coming into this hobby to spend a reasonable amount of time in getting to grips with a little bit of water chemistry.
The Nitrogen Cycle is lifes essence, so understanding how it works will hold you in good stead for successfully maintaining this hobby and more importantly maintaining a healthy environement for your plants and fish.
Aquascape 60L - Answer In Tutorial Aquascaping Beginner
Aquascape 60L - So today I did some more tests. There's an ammonium increase, right after I added the Easy-Life Filter Starter (according to the manual, a second dose had to be added on day 7), which I think indicates that the filter starter includes some ammonium. All other values were in the same region, except Fe but that is probably due to the addition of fertilizers.
Right now my spirit is kinda down... I am looking at all these beautiful tanks on the internet and I'm far from satisfied with mine.
I did a lot of research and thought about this project a lot, yet I made some big mistakes; the dwarf sag seems really out of place, in my oppinion, the central rock turned out too tricky, and I am not too certain about the dwarf hairgrass in the front; it doesn't look like it is growing at all and I wonder if a carpet will ever be achieved.
I am very much familiar with the nitrite cycle by the way, all I wanted to know was whether the water test results could be interpreted as a sign of progress.
Thanks for the replies, though! Aquascape 60L, Patience... Patience... But when I look at other journals I see people achieving beautiful tanks right after planting, while mine is still quite an eyesore.
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