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

Aquarium: ADA 120P tank
Stand: Leemar custom-built stand

This is exactly the same stand as the ones at Aquatouch…

Equipment:

Filter: Fluval 405 (had one laying around)
Heater: In-line Hydor 300w
UV: 36w Jebo uv-sterilizer
CO2: 5lb cylinder with milwakee regulator/solenoid

Lighting: Tek T5 HO 4x 54w fixture

CO2 equip.: rip-off co2 glassware, cabochon ruby check valve

Glass filter stuff: Cal Aqua lily pipes, glass softenizer

Substrate: ADA aquasoil, powersand, tourmaline bc, clear super, bacter 100

Decor: rocks.

And the fun part:
I had a friend of mine blow glass elbows so I could do this for my lily pipes’ return and intake:

OKAY! I got all my plants, so without any further waiting:

Step 1: Tourmaline BC

2: Powersand, clear super and bacter 100

3: Aquasoil

4: Hardscape

5: Foreground planting

6: Background planting/final outcome!

And here’s how the CO2 glassware turned out:

This is how the glass elbows for my filter intake and outtake looks when finished:

Plants used:
micranthemum micranthemoides, hc, blyxa japonica, eriocaulon cinereum, and didiplis diandra.

Source : Aquatic Plant Central