Blue Aquarium

I have been away for about 3 years from the aquarium hobby, due to military service and work. Now I’m back and have started on a new tank. The name of the design is “Kokou”, meaning austere, worn and weathered. It is a Iwagumi (Rock Arrangement) layout with Seiryu Rocks and Eleocharis Acicularis.

Water Parameters at DAY 2

Tank Dimensions: W120xD45xH45 cm
Lighting: 4×54W T5 (7000K)
Illumination Time: 10 hours a day
Filtration: Atman CF-1000 external filter, ceramic rings, activated carbon, filter wool and small amount of coral chips
Substrate: ADA Aquasoil Amazonia + Powersand Special (contains Bacter 100 + Clear Super)
Fertilizers: Potassium Sulphate + trace elements mix every 2 days.
CO2: Pressurized system with external reactor, 4 bubbles per second.
O2: 10 hours every night with air pump.
Temperature: 26 deg.C
pH: 6.3
kH: 2

Project Log

ADA Powersand Special (containing Bacter 100 and Clear Super) on the bottommost layer.

ADA Lily Pipe knock-off from AquaticMagic, recommend by tcampbell of AquaticQuotient.com.

IIITools, including a long tweezer, bent long scissors and a sand flattener, also from AquaticMagic.

Atmn CF-1000 Canister Filter (with hose-adapters to fit the Lily Pipes) and 5L CO2 setup.

ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor with glass bubble-counter and MUJI push-rack on castors with my equipment.

1st layer of ADA Aquasoil Amazonia.

All 4 9L bags of ADA Aquasoil Amazonia are in and creating a slope.

Planning the layout.

Iwagumi (Rock Arrangement) Planning.

From paper to tank. Shortage of rocks to really fill the tank. Left some gaps for later addition of rocks.

Spent 2 hours untangling, separating and planting the Hairgrass in about 4cm intervals.

Flo Lily Pipes in action.

Fan to cool the tank water to 26 deg.C.

UPDATES: 02 Aug, 07

The hair/staghorn algae has died down. I added Yamato Shrimps too early, 10 of the 30 perished probably from CO2 and Ammonia overdose. The remaining ones are doing well and cleaning the tank well.

Otocinclus all survived, even though I added them within 1 week of cycling. I guess Activated carbon didn’t absorb enough Ammonia and it was still too much for the other shrimps.

No signs of algae except for Green Dust growing on the white parts of my rocks. Looks good so I don’t plan to remove them. Had the same kind of green algae in the past. CO2 is kept high.

I’m testing the water every other day closely monitoring NO3 and PO4 levels. The Redfield Ratio is kept around 10. pH has stabilized a little at average 6.4 in the day. kH at 2 (some coral chips in the filter) or 4 baking soda.

Hairgrass putting out runners and new leaves. Immersed leaves almost half melted. Didn’t cut away as I want the some PO4 from the decaying matter.

Today is 2nd water change, water becoming clearer. White water reduced.

A very low plant mass tank but somehow I don’t see any signs of algae. Let’s hope it continues to be algae free after I add fishes.

UPDATES: 03 Aug, 07

Tested for Nitrates today. Dosed to 10ppm the previous morning and this morning it dropped to 0. Could it be my plant growth is accelerating and it’s taking in more?

It has been about 10+ days of cycling. I saw some Celestial Pearl Danios in my LFS and I couldn’t resist the temptation and bought all of them (about 46, 1 for $1). 1 was out of water for a few minutes during catching, didn’t noticed it jumped out. It didn’t survived and died after a few hours in the tank.

I will take some photos when the Galaxies have settled and showing their colors.

Source : Aquatic Plant Central