| Aquascaping Discuss aquascaping designs and techniques as well as get critiques on your aquascaping pictures. Find out how to use aquatic plants, reefs, and wood to design a planted aquarium. |
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10-07-2006, 09:29 PM
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#1 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Herkimer, NY
Posts: 141
iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 11245 |  55 gallon rescape
I recently found out how bad marble/limestone gravel can be when injecting CO2... After several fish fatalities I found out why it was occuring, and that was ever-increasing TDS levels. So I was once again forced to do a makeover on the tank. This time I went with a piece of an old, failed substrate. It's called Black Beauty. It's a synthetic slag sandblasting grit, completely inert (and I think it is actually what CaribSea Tahitian Moon sand is...). I got some rocks from a local lake, bleached and scrubbed them. Here's the result as of now... 
I'm going to add a glosso and e. tenellus foreground, and have some L. Repens in the mail. It looks really nice, and sand substrates are just so nice to plant in (compared to gravels). | 
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10-07-2006, 11:47 PM
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#2 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Schenectady, Upstate NY iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 18381 |
Quote: |
After several fish fatalities I found out why it was occuring, and that was ever-increasing TDS levels.
| What is TDS?
Total Dissolved Solids? So that would be minerals or chemicals or dry ferts in the water?
So, which of the total dissolved solids killed the fish?
Last edited by Jimbo205 : 10-08-2006 at 04:03 PM.
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10-08-2006, 01:25 AM
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#3 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Valby, Denmark
Posts: 171
Plant Points: 17955 |
Total Disolved Solids | |
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10-08-2006, 02:17 PM
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#4 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Herkimer, NY
Posts: 141
iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 11245 |
C02 + H2O = H2CO3 (Carbonic Acid)
The Carbonic acid dissolves limestone and marble, composed primarily of CaCO3. | |
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10-08-2006, 05:20 PM
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#5 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: North Carolina
Posts: 7,463
iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 179973 |
Your tank looks really nice  ... The black sand and rocks make it!
When you get the other plants planted post some updated pics. | |
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10-08-2006, 09:05 PM
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#6 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Herkimer, NY
Posts: 141
iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 11245 |
I did a spot of rearranging, something a little more dutchy (in my opinion anyway). I'm thinking of a bit of lobelia "dwarf" to the right of the wisteria, and the L. repens to the rear, between the C. Carolina and the H. Polysperma "Rosenverig." I like dutch scapes so much more than ADA style scapes, and I think this goes a little more to that side of the hybrid theory that scaping seems to be taking in competition. 
I think I'll forego the E. Tenellus and G. Elatinoides and go for H. Micranthemoides as my foreground. It's not used very frequently, and it has a bit of surreal look about it, far from the ADA style of looking natural. | |
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10-17-2006, 10:32 PM
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#7 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Schenectady, Upstate NY iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 18381 |
Probably my imagination, but that looks like a lot of fish. But I look forward to seeing your aquarium grow in! | |
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10-18-2006, 09:48 AM
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#8 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Herkimer, NY
Posts: 141
iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 11245 |
About 20 fish of varioud species, all relatively small. Here's an update, a bit of rearranging and upgrading my second strip to ODNO w/ 4100K Cool White Phillips.  | |
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10-18-2006, 10:27 AM
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#9 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salem, OR iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 55 |
Your tank is really coming along nicely. I like this arrangement, it has a nice flow to it.
I thought it seemed like a lot of fish too and then I realized that they aren't being hidden by plants as is common in most tanks. | |
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10-18-2006, 11:21 AM
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#10 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Jordan
Posts: 174
Plant Points: 10820 |
Looking good so far, keep us posted with updates!
I personally like ADA scaping more than dutch style. But however, I enjoy a nicely scaped tank regardless of it's style.
Cheers! | |
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