54L UK Aquarium

Discussion in 'Planted Tanks' started by Rainstorm, Feb 11, 2022.

  1. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    Decided that the bogwood and ferns needed to come out, lefts the ferns in a bucket for a week. one of the fish were just hiding out of sight and I did not want that.

    I then had a brainwave - got my partner to break up one rock into smaller pieces and dismantled the fern off the bog wood. Split the ferns up and glued them to the smaller pieces. I was also cleaning some of the plants to remove hair algae - I think it came with the fissdens fontanus and some other plants had it too.

    Accidentally dislodged a bit of fissidens so glued that to a tiny rock, wanted to see how it would turn out when it grows out.

    Now I have a forest in the tank and I’m happy with it finally. Now we can plan to go get neon tetras as the tank is ready and I still have all my glowlight tetras.

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    Apologies for the rubbish photos, blinds were open and the sun is shining in the UK today. Lovely weather @Reedfish, innit?

    Oh BTW, the glowlight tetras now know who I am every time I come to the glass. Once the lights are on and I'm about to feed them, all 5 follow my hand up to the top and grab as fast as they can once I drop the flakes.

    I thought they were only top feeders, I've caught a few of them nibbling the fallen flakes from the gravel. Weirdos.
     
    Kendrick, HugBug and A new day like this.
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  3. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    Fast forward to now…

    Some of you know how fiddly I am with landscape perfection. I am battling hair algae, think it came with the fissidens fontanus so I got rid of it as I couldn’t eradicate it and was getting fed up with it.

    Removed all the wood and glued all the Java fern to the rocks and tied the anubias to a tiny rock.

    Then reduced my lighting time to 5 hours a day and build a feeding hoop so contain the flakes for feeding time. The fish learnt quickly and they’re always waiting for me to feed them in it.

    What it looks like now after some minor tweaks.

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  4. Reedfish

    Reedfish Moderator

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    @Rainstorm
    Just my opinion, but I think it looked nicer with that wood. Even if it had a bit of algae on it :rolleyes:
     
  5. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    Yeah even so, the hair algae was getting out of hand. I tried H202 and it did not work. I still have the wood so I'll just bleach it and leave it outside for a while then maybe I'll add it back to the tank. It's not a big tank so I need to fit it all and still have some space. The fish seem to like the empty space and every time I have my hand in to do some maintenance, they play with my fingers and I'm trying to do some stuff in there.

    I need to make sure I have the algae under control then I'll see how I can fit all the wood back in there.

    I'm still a fan of flame moss so I'm gonna try and get some for the tree at some point - it's really hard to find some at the moment. By the way, the fissidens actually did not do well, I'm not sure what light came with the tank's hood but it's fine for the java ferns and anubias. The rest of the plants did not do well overall, which is why I removed them.
     
  6. Nirvashen

    Nirvashen

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    I had a similar issue with string algae, i tried everything, what worked for me was a increase in fertilizer (scape complete similar to tropica ) and i added amano shrimp about 7 in a 60 lt, in a few weeks all the string algae was gone
     
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  7. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    Thanks for the advice, I'm currently not adding ferts so maybe I should do that and get some shrimp if I can find any. I've not had hair algae before and I also found a detitris worm too - not sure where it came from but I think it could have been brought with plants I bought off a seller online.
     
  8. Shabir

    Shabir

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    @Lord Vader see where I went wrong
     
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  9. Nirvashen

    Nirvashen

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    I tried everything from APT fix to Excel hydrogen, peroxide, then I followed George Farmers how to feed your plants method (simple ei thinking), i suspect that i had a nutrient deficiency so i kept increasing the fertz every two weeks until i started noticing the algae starting to disappear, which gave me a indication i was fertilizing enough for the plants to out compete the algae

     
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  10. Shabir

    Shabir

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    I became scared of dosing so I cut back on it. been dosing better this week so let's see in a few weeks if it subsides
     
  11. Nirvashen

    Nirvashen

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    I realized not to be scared of increased dosing as long as you keep up with your water changes, if you using the all in one fertz they are relatively weak
     
  12. Shabir

    Shabir

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    I'm using apt complete. Plant mass is relatively heavy
     
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  13. Nirvashen

    Nirvashen

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    not going to hi jack this thread any more the larger the plant mass the better, i am dosing 5ml daily in a 60p of scape complete with a large plant mass
     
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  14. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    Not hijacking, it’s good to share and learn from others experience…

    now I’m convinced to restart EI but APSA is dead and that’s where I learnt my basics of EI from.
     
  15. Shabir

    Shabir

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    There's plenty of knowledge on this forum. Ask away and you will get assistance from the members
     
  16. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    Thanks, I need to start from a guide to mixing and using EI again. It's been over 4 years since I did it so completely forgotten now.
     
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  17. Shabir

    Shabir

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    You can get the all in one already to start with and as you feel more comfortable then you can graduate to the self mixed per item. I'm using apt complete and it's really hard for me to say anything bad about it. I also can't give a decent review of my experience using it because I have been pretty irregular with my dosing. I can confirm though that I see a tad difference this week in terms of colour but it could well be my imagination
     
  18. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    Fair enough, I'm in the UK and I see that you've set your location to the UAE so I suppose things are a bit different here except you can still pretty much get Seachem products which are pricier in my opinion. I'll have a look around and see if I can get something similar.
     
  19. Shabir

    Shabir

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    In the UK @Reedfish can advise you. Pretty sure Amazon is your best bet though. Here there was also barely anything 2 years ago but worked with some shops and finally some good stuff has come in
     
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  20. OP
    Rainstorm

    Rainstorm

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    I’ve just had a look at tropica and API and they seem more ideal if I want to get shrimp as seachem flourish contains 0.001% of copper. Not sure how that would affect shrimp though
     
  21. Shabir

    Shabir

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    I'm using flourish in my shrimp tank with no effect to the shrimp
     
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