# Tag-team aquascaping (need help clearing the cloud)



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

My partner-in-crime and I love this hobby but have very polar tastes when it comes to aquascaping. She prefers the tall, layered, rocky look with big leafy plants whereas I prefer the flatter, zen-ish nature aquarium look. After a year and half into the hobby, we thought it might be fun to clash the two likes.

Here's a run-down of the specs:

14 Gallon Rimless
24W T5HO fixture (running 10K daylight bulb ATM)
5 LB Pressurized CO2 (will be running at 0.5 bps during photoperiod)
Pfertz line N/P/K/micros dosing regimen.
ADA amazonia capped with fluval stratum ebi (ran out of ADA powder type d'oh )
Angel Rock and random base rocks.

Flora: HC, dwarf trumpet, parrot's feather, flame moss, fissidens moss, subwassertang, blyxa jap. Will be adding to this list gradually.

Fauna: CBS / CRS / Yellow Shrimp / Amano Shrimp / Otos Duo of Galaxy rasboras and eventually a trio of scarlet badis when Pat brings these in to complete my stocking plans. 

*Special Credits (I really hope this trend catches on):

Mykiss (Canadian Aquatics)
MananaP
Jiang604
Kirkdgxp (Fraser Valley Tropicals)
Rogers Aquatic (Roger's Aquatic & Pet Supplies)
Rastapus (Island Pets Unlimited)

We got a piece of this particular tank setup (plants/livestock/ all equipment) from each of you and I might have incessantly picked your brain... Sorry about that ... But thank you! You're awesome beyond description .

Aaron & Sherry*

A rocky start - Sherry finds her feature rocks









Softscaping? (hopefully the beginning of another new trend )









Layers... check. Layout... double check!









Hardscaping it in FTW









Yeee boiii









FTS top view









Houston... we have a hardscape!


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

30 min later and ready to plant









Get in there, silly plants..

















Palette cleanser. Yellow tail pretending to be a betta 









Kk back to work. Lights off and time to flood.


















FTS flooded.


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Reserved for update 2....


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Reserved for update 3...


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Reserved for update 4...


----------



## noisetherapy (Jul 25, 2011)

cant wait to see how this looks. neat idea!


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

After 2 days all is looking well in the tank. All plants pearling, no losses in livestock except for an amano that crawled out up the intake as I keep my tank topped up around 2mm from the rim.

Quick question. Has anyone seen ADA seep out haze like this? 









I didn't rinse it before entry. It's capped with ebi stratum that was rinsed lightly. I've now turned up my eheim can filter to almost max flow and it's agitating the surface more, has full media and fully cycled from other tank. Have not started dosing or pressurized. Hanging a bag of carbon and put carbon foam pad in the can to reduce the brown tint.

How do I get rid of the haze without doing mass water changes? Have CBS/CRS lower grade in the tank so I'm trying to avoid unnecessary deaths. Don't have a temporary tank for these guys as I thinned out all my other tanks.

My only thoughts are: wait it out / get a nice person to baby sit my shrimp.

Anybody know of good water clarifiers that are shrimp safe? I've planted 3 tanks with ADA with the same filter and they all cleared up within 3 days. This tank hasn't shown any signs of clearing up at all yet.


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

martialid10t said:


> After 2 days all is looking well in the tank. All plants pearling, no losses in livestock except for an amano that crawled out up the intake as I keep my tank topped up around 2mm from the rim.
> 
> Quick question. Has anyone seen ADA seep out haze like this?
> 
> ...


Yes I have seen ADA haze before, if you read through this thread you can read up on the challenges I had with ADA before. I hope this give you some insights.

Best Regards,

Stuart


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

CRS Fan said:


> Yes I have seen ADA haze before, if you read through this thread you can read up on the challenges I had with ADA before. I hope this give you some insights.
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Stuart


Thanks Stuart! Had me going for a sec there though. Thought I was getting a bacterial bloom like yours so I took a siphon to it and it is definitely just liquid haze. It looked cool for awhile, almost like low lying mist. After 2 days though it's just getting irritating. Can barely see my yellows in the back.

I think I may have to go the full WC route if nothing improves in the next few days.

Anybody up for shrimp sitting?


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Trying to get a better shot of the haze i catch these two playing chicken


----------



## lotus (Apr 22, 2010)

Looks great...keep the photos coming and it will be gorgeous once all the plants fills in! I love the rocks.


----------



## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

I know you didn't have anywhere to put the shrimp but hopefully you don't lose any shrimp because of this. With new ada it leeches and most people let it cycle properly before adding shrimp. Not trying to lecture you as you seem to know what you're doing, I have lost CRS before by being impatient. Anyhow since the shrimp are in the tank it wouldn't be good to do a complete WC. If you can find someone to sit your shrimp, I would do 3-4 100% WC to be safe, I had the hazing on one of the ada tanks I set up before, I don't know what it is but it can't be good. 

Other than that the scape looks great! If I was closer I would sit your shrimps for you but I am sure you can find someone closer!


----------



## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I agree with Chris, get those shrimp out now man!!! I had all my PFR die because of that "haze" I believe it's an ammonia spike if you check your parameters. You'll want to do several full water changes and it will take about a week to die down and cycle.

I'd put them in a bucket with an air stone and heater personally. I wish I had done that, would have saved me quite a bit of money and some gem PFR's. I'm worried because those CRS are even more intolerable to spikes of any kind.

Best of luck my man.

Cheers,
Chris


----------



## Jasonator (Jul 12, 2011)

*tank looks awesome!!!*

what kind of rocks are those....... where can I find them??
thanks


----------



## jm. (May 12, 2010)

Very nice tank man! I've got a lot to learn about this planted tank world


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

Thanks guys (Chris X 2 ). Yea it was a bit of a tight squeeze. I got the shrimp as a partial trade for one of the setups sold. Selling off all those tanks was probably not in good timing either but oh well. 

Moved all the shrimp out to my fluval edge last Saturday. It's medium planted with ADA powder and running cooler now that I swapped out the halos for ebay LEDs. 

Params are all in check, no losses for all 8 CBS/CRS and actually I noticed the littlest CBS is now berried. Kudos to Kirk at Fraser Valley, these shrimp are tanky!

Will be doing my big water changes and starting Pfertz and CO2 on this aquascaped tank now once I find the time. More pics and updates to follow probably on the weekend.

Chris (effox) on a side note, have you ever tested your tap water for phosphates? Think I read somewhere that you've gone reef too. I'm prepping my FOWLR 14G biocube for reefing and was curious since you're in my neck of the woods and our water is probably the same. Anyhow I get a zero read on phosphates, how about you?


----------



## DR1V3N (Apr 22, 2010)

jm. said:


> Very nice tank man! I've got a lot to learn about this planted tank world


Thanks JR, yea there's a bit to learn so try everything IMO . I've got quite a mix of low/med/high requirement plants you can try free or trade so shoot me a PM anytime dude.



Jasonator said:


> what kind of rocks are those....... where can I find them??
> thanks


Will have to ask Sherry where she got them but will keep you posted. All I know is she got them at an LFS and she paid by the pound, so not so cheap  From what I can tell, they're a type of petrified wood but just a different color. The clerk told her it's called Angel Rock but I can't find anything more on Google.



lotus said:


> Looks great...keep the photos coming and it will be gorgeous once all the plants fills in! I love the rocks.


Thanks, responded to your PMs


----------



## 24/7 (Apr 21, 2010)

Looking forward to seeing this fill in

I Like It


----------



## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

martialid10t said:


> Chris (effox) on a side note, have you ever tested your tap water for phosphates? Think I read somewhere that you've gone reef too. I'm prepping my FOWLR 14G biocube for reefing and was curious since you're in my neck of the woods and our water is probably the same. Anyhow I get a zero read on phosphates, how about you?


I tested it at zero, in my tank it was a little higher, so I did a water change and bought some stuff I think is called Phos-Buster from BigAls.


----------

