Neven's Planted Addiction - Feb 13th - DiY Sump, mame overflow and light stand

[neven]

JUMP TO LAST PICTURE UPDATES:
DiY Sump, mame overflow and light stand

---------------

Ever since i rehomed my wifes beta, i've been attracted to planted tanks. Because of this pretty much every tank i've owned has become a planted tank. Since all my tank journals have this similar theme, i figured i might aswell combine my 3 tank journals into 1 single journal. So here is the start to my new Tank Journal, Neven's Planted Addiction.

A long while back i posted a thread that gave a quick reference to pictures of my start into this hobby, unfortunately the pic links went dead. I decided to rehost the pictures just for those who want to see the old thread: My old scapes

Now to the journal

Common through all tanks:
EI dosed
Kent RO right + Kent PH Stable
Metricide 3xWeek dosing 3x recommended.

Flora:
Red Tiger Lotus
Anubias barteri 'nanas'
Anubias barteri 'Coffeefolia'
Bolbitis heudelotii
Flame moss
Glossostigma elatinoides
Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf'
Microsorum pteropus v. 'phillipine'
Microsorum pteropus v. 'windelov'
Cryptocoryne beckettii 'petchii'
Cryptocoryne undulata
??? type of fern

Fauna
11 black phantoms (half juveniles)
9 Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki
1 calico Bristlenose
Several Dwarf Otocs
Crossocheilus reticulatus

9.8 gallons
Substrate: Black Flourite Capped with Tahitian moon sand
Lighting: 4ft t5ho w/ daylight bulb
Filtration: Maxijet 400 w/ prefilter on each tank
Decor: pebbles, granite, manzanita and malaysian driftwood
Co2: pressurized via ceramic discs
tanks: custom made acrylic by Gklaw

Flora - Left:
Anubias barteri 'Petite'
Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Singapore moss
flame moss
Ranunculus Inundatus
Ammania gracilis
Proserpinaca palustris (Mermaid Weed)
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Ludwigia inclinata var verticillata 'Cuba'
Pogostemon erectus
Echinodorus vesuvius

Flora - Right:
Cryptocoryne Lucens
Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf'
Alternanthera reineckii 'roseafolia'
Singapore moss
Fissidens
Lobelia cardinalis 'Small Form'
eleocharis parvula (Dwarf Hairgrass)
staurogyne repens (starting to grow!)
blyxa japonica
subwassertang
Red Tiger Lotus
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Didiplis diandra (Blood Stargrass)
Tonina sp 'Manaus'
Tonina sp. 'Goias'
Pogostemon helferi (Downoi)
Eriocaulon sp 'Goias

Fauna - Left:
5 Male Guppies
1 Dwarf ottos
3 Amano Shrimp
2 assassin snails
Fauna - Right:
Painted Fire Red Shrimp
4 zebra Nerite snails

2.5 gallon
Substrate: River gravel mixed with crushed coral
Lighting: Sideways twister CFL, 13W
Filtration: n/a
Decor: diy rock wall
Co2: n/a

Flora:
Cryptocoryne Lucens
Anubias barteri 'nanas'
Anubias barteri 'Petite'

Fauna:
n/a

[neven]

To kick off the journal, heres a pic of my 29 gallon



a little has changed. The crypt in the middle foreground was swapped out with another form, i think its an crypt undulata, definately can be wrong though. In the left side foreground theres a plant thats melted a bit atm, im not sure what that is, it grew great before i hooked up co2 again. Oh and i added 6 juvie black phantoms

[Bien Lim]

I like it a lot. looks very clean and healthy

[crazy72]

What a beautiful tank. The plants look amazing. Fish paradise, surely.

[JohnnyAppleSnail]

Very Nice Setup. I don't know much about the care or needs of the Red Tiger Lotus but is a favorite Plant of Mine,any secrets on growing a Healthy one such as Yours?

[neven]

10 gallon update:

This tank had a major outbreak of clado in my willow moss, so i had to remove the moss from the wood and give it a heavy metricide regime on its own. The clado left on the wood itself has pretty much died, as did the remnants of whatever willow moss was left on the wood thanks to dropping the water level down and dosing metricide directly on the spot. During tank maintnence, i removed pogostemon stellatus and replaced it with heteranthera zosterifolia for now. The reason for the removal was it simply needs a much larger tank to be able to space it out to do the plant justice.



eventually i'll get more manzanita wood for the tank, and give it a much nicer scape, but for now it'll do. Lastly, theres 1 new inhabitant, a Red Rose Guppy from IPU a few weeks back

[Rastapus]

Looking good!!!!

[CRS Fan]

I've always liked all your tanks, Rob (especially the 29 gallon ). Where did you find all those amazing plants? LOL. Most of them I no longer keep . One day I'll make it out to your place !

Best regards,

Stuart

[neven]

2.5 Gallon Added!

Since my betta died not to long ago i sat waiting wondering what to do with the tank for a few days. First i wanted to eliminate the heater death issue since i got hit with it twice now, second i wanted something different from my other tanks. The solution, a hardscaped background. I've been wanting to do this for a while, so i got started on one last week. I picked up a chunk of styrofoam from the scrap pile at work, grabbed my box cutter and went to town on it several nights throughout the week. Anywho, heres the progress on it:

the piece i started with


Cut it down to size


The filter and heater to be hidden, the styrofoams depth wasn't enough to cover these, so i cut the piece into a wedge shaped and added a spacer behind it.


the result of the first two carving nights, i added pieces of styrofoam to give more depth, siliconed them together. The intake is the bottom, i will use mesh over it when im done the coatings


the behind view where the heater and filter sit, the hole on the right is the outtake


front view of the outtake


To silicone the multiple layers easily i outlined them in pen and numbered the pieces by topography. This part is the entrance to a tunnel that exits on the right side.


Finsihed the carving up, the only work i did to the carving after this was to texture the flat areas a bit more


the background in place, view of the hidden equipment


front view


top view, the spout will be trimmed down once the coating is done


veiw from the other side

[monkE]

Wow that looks great Neven, (as do your other two planted tanks)

I would like to try a DIY 3d backgrownd and seeing how you created that rocky look is really giving me some ideas.

What are you going to do for paint? Is there some aquarium safe paints or stains out there that will work on styrofoam?

Please keep some updates coming on this project! Well done so far!