# Aquascape- "Beautiful BC" (28 days old & Maintenance Day)



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Hi all,

Finally got some free time to do a complete overhaul of my tank. The original scape died off as I caught a bad case of BBA and was too busy work-wise (6-day weeks) to do anything about it.

With 2 weeks vacation owed to me and family coming to visit, an ugly tank just wouldn't do .

I bought my gf a Canon Rebel 2ti for her birthday and since then we've been touristing BC like we never grew up here.

Inspired, I went to work and started fresh.

My influences:

Our beautiful province :bigsmile:.
The iwagumi concept.
Good lines of sight within the tank to properly enjoy all fauna. (My previous scape had too much going on)

Equipment:

13 Gallon Rimless Bow 24L/9.5D/11.5H inches.
2 X T5HO 24 Watt 6700K and 10,000K.
Co2 injection via in-line diffuser.
Eheim Ecco 2232 w/ surface skimmer attachment.

Current usage:

Photoperiod- 8 Hours, 2 x 24 watt on.
Co2 injection during daylight.
EI dry dosing.

Substrate:

ADA Amazonia
Fine natural white sand
Petrified wood

Flora:

Myriophyllum Mattogrossense
Rotala Rotundifolia
Hemianthus Micranthemoides
Ammania sp. Bonsai
Lilaeopsis Mauritiana
Riccia Fluitans
Flame moss
Fissidens moss
Christmas moss
Taiwan moss

Fauna:

Featherfin rainbow
Red zebra danio
White cloud mountain minnow (Removed)
Otocinclus
Amano shrimp
Crystal red shrimp (Removed)
Crystal black shrimp (Removed)
Electric Blue Balloon Rams (Added)

Day 2:

Water params check out okay as I used an establiashed filter. Added new livestock that I've never owned before!










Top shot:










Random shot:


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Day 28 Summary

Flora & Fauna:
- Added Rotala Rotundifolia for a splash of color and variety.
- Added Myriophyllum Mattogrosense to accent corners.
- Removed CRS and CBS. 4 of 8 berried up shortly after adding them so it was a good enough indication for me that water parameters are where I want them at.
- Removed remaining White clouds and trasferred them into a better suited tank.
- Added pair of EBBR's from my GF as she wants to rescape their tank.

Equipment:
- Changed bulbs from 2 X 6700K to 1 X 10,000K and 1 X 6,700K to acheive better color blend of 8,000K to 8,800. Attended Joesph's seminar at AW and learned that 8,000-8,800 is a far better spectrum for plants and overall viewing.
- Temporarily moved intake and skimmer to allow for better light exposure in the background.
- CO2 injection started at Day 14 with drop checker monitoring.

Algae:
- Encountering GSA growth on rocks and glass. Reduced EI dosage slightly.
- Encountered very slight traces of BBA. Trimmed areas and up'd Co2 slightly.

Please pardon the fuzziness of the pics. I'm injefcting Co2 via inline diffuser so the tank can look like a Sprite bottle at times. 

Before maintenenace. Lots of grow out, time for a trim!









After trim and planting.









Profile.









Aerial.


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Updates go here.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

The petrified wood is so beautiful.
Love how it contrasts with the white sand. What a nice concept!
Will the sand look dirty easily from fish waste and is it easy to vacuum?


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Fish rookie said:


> The petrified wood is so beautiful.
> Love how it contrasts with the white sand. What a nice concept!
> Will the sand look dirty easily from fish waste and is it easy to vacuum?


Thanks! The sand is really fine, almost the same consistency as table salt, so the fish poop just sits there and is easy enough to vaccuum . When I have time I'm planning to take out some sand and slope the bed to add more depth. I'm quietly hoping that will make the poop roll down to make for an easier cleanup job.:bigsmile:


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## Captured Moments (Apr 22, 2010)

Nice layout. It is going to look very nice once the moss grows in and the back fills in with the plants. In my opinion maybe watch out for the beginning stages especially with the amount of light you have and the shallower dept of your tank vs. the amount of plants you have to start with. Good luck.


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Captured Moments said:


> Nice layout. It is going to look very nice once the moss grows in and the back fills in with the plants. In my opinion maybe watch out for the beginning stages especially with the amount of light you have and the shallower dept of your tank vs. the amount of plants you have to start with. Good luck.


Thank you and great point! Impossible to see from the pics but I'm only running one HO 24W bulb at the moment. Haven't started co2 injection but just keeping a simple excel and fertz regimen until grow out kicks off. Will jump to co2 and add the extra bulb after the first prune. I decided this way is much safer for the fish and plants to adjust.

May not even add the extra bulb if things go well with co2. This tank is in the bedroom and the glare from 2 bulbs refracting off that sand is ridiculous.


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## Tiwaz (May 5, 2011)

The layout is very clean. What did you use to divide the ADA soil from the sand?


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Very nice looking. Where'd you get the petrified wood from? I love how it looks


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks great! I can definitely see your West Coast inspiration. My first thought when I looked at your photos was the Sea to Sky Highway: the sand=ocean, petrified wood=an island & mountains, and of course the plants=forest.


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## trout (Mar 21, 2012)

absolutely stunning! well done, this should look amazing as it fills in!

isnt that tank a 13g bowfront and not a 12g long?


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Great job Aaron! very very nice!


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## discuspaul (Jul 2, 2010)

One of the nicest set-ups I've seen in quite a while. Great work !
It's likely going to be a bit of a challenge keeping it as pristine as it now looks, but it sure would be worthwhile to put in the extra time, effort, and attention in doing so.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice setup. Is that a surface skimmer you have that's grey in the right hand corner? I'm interested in getting one for my 20 gallon as it seems to be constantly scumming over even with a 2213 running in it and an HK powerhead.


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Tiwaz said:


> The layout is very clean. What did you use to divide the ADA soil from the sand?


Thanks Tiwaz. Good eye! I used V-shaped bent acrylic pieces that I had left over from another project. Once the plants root better I may just slide them out. Either that or the moss will eventually cover them. If more people are interested I can post a DIY in future. Great start to your 5 gallon btw, watching with interest as I really like the vintage phonograph stand you used.



target said:


> Very nice looking. Where'd you get the petrified wood from? I love how it looks


Thanks Daniel. Got them last year from PJ's Pets in Richmond, they called it "Angel Rock" at first if that helps (not sure how accurate that name is though). I don't usually go there but happened to pass by when they just got these rocks in so ended up with flukey first dibs . Have about 15-20 pounds of nice mountain looking pieces still, shoot me a PM if you're interested. I'd appreciate any pointers you could give me too, thinking of making a matching bow front stand.



Pamela said:


> Looks great! I can definitely see your West Coast inspiration. My first thought when I looked at your photos was the Sea to Sky Highway: the sand=ocean, petrified wood=an island & mountains, and of course the plants=forest.


Thanks Pamela. You're making this all worth it! :bigsmile: I was hoping I wouldn't have to explain my scape choices and that BCers would interpret it as the scape progressed. You nailed it quick! I'm aiming to combine an island and mountain scape while adding layers of forestry depth with the challenge of putting it in a nano 12G. Our province has so many inspring elements. Ideally, I would've liked to start this in at least a 50G to properly do BC justice but ah well, you work with what you got. Doesn't mean I can't expand in the future so for now, let's call this "Beautiful BC- Part 1" .



trout said:


> absolutely stunning! well done, this should look amazing as it fills in!
> 
> isnt that tank a 13g bowfront and not a 12g long?


Thanks Trout, looking forward to trimming it out and shaping it as I'm sure you are with your ADA setup. You make me want to expand my tanks everytime I see your journal.

Yeah, not sure what to call this guy, it's a very obscure foot print. You're right though, it's a bow and the volume calc comes out to just under 13G but I rounded down to 12G to keep in line with actual water cap. Called it a long as you don't see many tanks under 15G with 24" length and a meager 9.5" depth.



Diztrbd1 said:


> Great job Aaron! very very nice!


Thanks John, long time no see and hope all is well. Maybe catch you at the VAHS meeting in Nov.?


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

discuspaul said:


> One of the nicest set-ups I've seen in quite a while. Great work !
> It's likely going to be a bit of a challenge keeping it as pristine as it now looks, but it sure would be worthwhile to put in the extra time, effort, and attention in doing so.


Thanks for the encouraging words Paul. Yeah, I see it getting tedious down the road. Not too bad right now though. During water change I just use a baster to vaccuum poop from the sand and drop it in the back. Cuts down nitrate dosing a little lol.



2wheelsx2 said:


> Nice setup. Is that a surface skimmer you have that's grey in the right hand corner? I'm interested in getting one for my 20 gallon as it seems to be constantly scumming over even with a 2213 running in it and an HK powerhead.


Thanks, I recommend this one: ISTA Water Surface Oil Protein Skimmer for Aquarium | eBay
I'm sure they all work great though. The black units would be nice and stealthy if you've got a matching background. Weird that you're getting scum even with the powerhead. Are you feeding meaty flakes or big pleco bio load? Unfortunately I have to feed flakes, the rainbowfish have very small throats and only accept crushed flakes. I might try crushed pellets soon to hopefully get off the skimmer. This skimmer is amazing though. Intake is adjustable so you can balance suction from top and bottom and control agitation and ultimately minimize co2 degassing. Water has been pristine since day 1. Only con is it can suck in micro livestock but easy to fix with nylons.

Also thinking of getting rice fish (killifish), the species that eats surface film. Think IPU had them in stock recently. Will check with Grant.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

martialid10t said:


> Thanks, I recommend this one: ISTA Water Surface Oil Protein Skimmer for Aquarium | eBay
> I'm sure they all work great though. The black units would be nice and stealthy if you've got a matching background. Weird that you're getting scum even with the powerhead. Are you feeding meaty flakes or big pleco bio load? Unfortunately I have to feed flakes, the rainbowfish have very small throats and only accept crushed flakes. I might try crushed pellets soon to hopefully get off the skimmer. This skimmer is amazing though. Intake is adjustable so you can balance suction from top and bottom and control agitation and ultimately minimize co2 degassing. Only con is it can suck in micro livestock but easy to fix with nylons.


The 2 tanks I have problems with are not CO2 injected. I have massive amounts of surface agitation, but the scum still builds up. And yes, all my tanks, even my little ADA, have plecos in them (otos in the ADA). I feed a lot of pellets and in particular NLS, so I believe that's part of the problem. The issue is that I have not had much success finding food that the fish eat readily and have the amount of protein I want for growouts. If I fed more flakes, the problem will probably go away. I'm currently using an airpump with a wand to solve the problem in the 20 gallon, but sure would like to get rid of it because of the buzzing. Thanks for the tip.

Love your petrified wood by the way. I find it so hard to find nice stones, and being a picky geologist probably doesn't help.


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

wow thats a real display tank, beautiful for sure , you have a knack for it


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> The 2 tanks I have problems with are not CO2 injected. I have massive amounts of surface agitation, but the scum still builds up. And yes, all my tanks, even my little ADA, have plecos in them (otos in the ADA). I feed a lot of pellets and in particular NLS, so I believe that's part of the problem. The issue is that I have not had much success finding food that the fish eat readily and have the amount of protein I want for growouts. If I fed more flakes, the problem will probably go away. I'm currently using an airpump with a wand to solve the problem in the 20 gallon, but sure would like to get rid of it because of the buzzing. Thanks for the tip.
> 
> Love your petrified wood by the way. I find it so hard to find nice stones, and being a picky geologist probably doesn't help.


LOL. Skimming might just be the way to go my friend. My buddy got one for his SW nano. At max setting the agitation is strong enough that it works like a little wave maker. Makes a nice tidal noise but you sometimes hear the bobbing plastic top so you just pretend it's like a bouy at the docks lol. In normal, it's dead quiet like the ecco.

Thanks, the compliments almost make me feel better about the price tag of the rocks. Never thought I'd be paying good money for rocks before this hobby. Wonder what it's like for you? Wouldn't that be like gold miners buying retail gold? 

When I expand this tank I plan to forage the rock deposits around Sea to Sky highway. Wonder if that's legal, if not you didn't read this!



macframalama said:


> wow thats a real display tank, beautiful for sure , you have a knack for it


Thank you very much. Planning to change out the livestock on display soon but still researching FW micro fish native to BC. It's amazing how many franken-jingle-heimer-fish articles are hitting my search.

It's looking like I will need a chiller and a bigger tank for BC livestock. Open to any and all suggestions though.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

martialid10t said:


> LOL. Skimming might just be the way to go my friend. My buddy got one for his SW nano. At max setting the agitation is strong enough that it works like a little wave maker. Makes a nice tidal noise but you sometimes hear the bobbing plastic top so you just pretend it's like a bouy at the docks lol. In normal, it's dead quiet like the ecco.
> 
> Thanks, the compliments almost make me feel better about the price tag of the rocks. Never thought I'd be paying good money for rocks before this hobby. Wonder what it's like for you? Wouldn't that be like gold miners buying retail gold?
> 
> When I expand this tank I plan to forage the rock deposits around Sea to Sky highway. Wonder if that's legal, if not you didn't read this!


It just so happens that what my specialty is....gold exploration. 

Foraging for rocks is legal unless the area is protected like if there are fossils. That won't be a problem on the S2S, but the problem is that there are many areas which are mineralized with iron and copper, so you have to be careful not to bring back rocks which could affect your fish. There are actually some very nice basalt (black lava rock) out that way, but there are also limestone and such which could also cause problems. I used to gather all my rocks myself when I lived up north. No sense in paying when it's free right?  I now mostly get my rocks from landscaping places as they're pretty cheap and I live around the corner from one.

Thanks for the scoop on that skimmer. I wish I had known they had that when I got my CO2 diffusers from the same store on Ebay a month ago. Shipping is very slooooow.


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## trout (Mar 21, 2012)

martialid10t said:


> Thanks Trout, looking forward to trimming it out and shaping it as I'm sure you are with your ADA setup. You make me want to expand my tanks everytime I see your journal.
> 
> Yeah, not sure what to call this guy, it's a very obscure foot print. You're right though, it's a bow and the volume calc comes out to just under 13G but I rounded down to 12G to keep in line with actual water cap. Called it a long as you don't see many tanks under 15G with 24" length and a meager 9.5" depth.


It is indeed an odd footprint, but a great little tank, you'll have alot of fun with it! I only knew it wasn't 12g long as I have the same 13g bow as yours and the Mr. Aqua 12g long, it's 90x21x24cm. The one and only thing I dislike about these 13g bows, is keeping the front of the glass clean, a normal scraper wont really work unless you go side to side and get your hands wet, had to DIY my own little contraption.

Keep up the good work! It will look stunning when things start to fill in


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

trout said:


> It is indeed an odd footprint, but a great little tank, you'll have alot of fun with it! I only knew it wasn't 12g long as I have the same 13g bow as yours and the Mr. Aqua 12g long, it's 90x21x24cm. The one and only thing I dislike about these 13g bows, is keeping the front of the glass clean, a normal scraper wont really work unless you go side to side and get your hands wet, had to DIY my own little contraption.


Rrrright you are! I saw your tank awhile back and thought it looked familiar, 'cept I guess you pulled off the logo?

Hahahaha I too have DIY'd a contraption. It involves zap straps, a chop stick and a skinny tooth brush! Magnetic algae cleaners are overrated! Oral-B all the way baby! :lol:


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## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

So simple but soooo beautiful, that is one amazing tank. May I ask where you got that sand and how much it was?


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## Foxtail (Mar 14, 2012)

Beautiful tank. One day I want bc native livestock but on a larger scale. A small and nice looking fish is the stickleback. They max out around 3 inches I think. I think everything else gets bigger round these parts... Bullheads? Lol problem is nowhere I know of sells them. 
3 spine stickleback... Dunno if these ones are from around here but you get the idea 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lopTMhAbXoI&feature=youtube_gdata_player 


Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk 2


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

that looks awesome! nice pics also.


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## trout (Mar 21, 2012)

martialid10t said:


> Rrrright you are! I saw your tank awhile back and thought it looked familiar, 'cept I guess you pulled off the logo?
> 
> Hahahaha I too have DIY'd a contraption. It involves zap straps, a chop stick and a skinny tooth brush! Magnetic algae cleaners are overrated! Oral-B all the way baby! :lol:


nope not de-badged  my photos tend to be very dark so it usually cant be seen in my shots.

thats awesome, your scraper contraption sounds almost identical to mine lol!

hows is the tank coming along, any updates?


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Hey, yup things are coming along well! Encountered 2 minor setbacks:

-Had a small ph dip (under 6.0) that killed off most of my (LFS labelled) "feeder" white clouds. Corrected this with aragonite spheres and rocks in the canister. Now my ph sits at a steady 6.7-6.8
-Excel dosing burned my riccia a bit. I'm actually kinda happy as this saved me from trimming some of this weed.

Otherwise growth has been steady. No algae issues to note. Started injection via inline diffuser now that I raised my kh.

Full write up and specifics will be on front page later with DSLR pics. Here's a snapshot from yesterday though:


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

I said it before but have to say it again, I LOVE your tank.


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Fish rookie said:


> I said it before but have to say it again, I LOVE your tank.


Haha thanks again.  Liked how you revamped your 10G btw!


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

really, really stunning. Beautiful tank; you deserve to be proud of it. My only caution would be the shrimp vs danios.


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Thanks Storm, funny enough you mentioned that. A CBS is berried in there and I had to go out and buy a breeder trap while I'm re-doing my breeder tank. I trust them with the adults but not shrimp fry for sure.


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

A very simple,clean,and flowing nano setup! Everything compliments one another, thanks for sharing and keep those updates coming!


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## roadrunner (Apr 25, 2010)

Wow, I love it! I guess I should re-do my tank when I get back from holidays. (cause I'm jealous right now). I'm looking forward to see more pics.
Thanx for the inspiration!


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## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Thanks everyone! Things are going very smoothly as I'm taking a slower approach this time then I regularly do. I've only encountered minor and very managable algae issues at this time.

After attending Joseph's ADA seminar, I was motivated and ready to do some maintenance. A great learning point for me was seeing the aesthetic difference in lighting his new display tank had. The 8,000K spectrum really does make plants look more natural and vivid. It was a wonderful seminar for beginners and experts alike. My gf finally found some inspiration to start her own nature aquarium and picked up a DO! Aqua tank 60-P size as her blank canvas.

I changed my lights back to 1 X 10,000K and 1 X 6,700K to try to blend and mimic the 8,000-8,800K spectrum. I started off like this in my previous scape in this tank, but switched to 2 X 6,700K after getting some bad advice that the 10,000K may lead to algae. It wasn't the 10K bulb at fault, I simply needed to tweak my ferts and co2 regimen.

_Anyway a full Day 28 pictorial summary is located at the first page of this journal. As will be all future major updates._

Very excited about these new additions to my tank though!


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