Melbourne

ranmasatone - yes I like the green aged patina also but the hair algae is growing on the rock. I have some cherry shrimp will they eat it if I put them in there? I already put in an otto but the hair algae is still there. Other than the hair algae I don't have much anywhere else thats why I thought somehow the rocks needed to be sterilized due to the prior use.

donaldmboyer - I agree it looks a bit flat, I tried to do a steep gradient using aquasoil but beyond putting up a stone terrace I don't think I'll get much height to the back. Also the angle I took the photograph makes it appear flatter than it actually is. The stem in the back is temporary its a hygro to help with nutrient uptake while I wait for my stems to arrive. If you look back at the older pics you will see how the soil slopes.

ranmasatome

Cherry shrimp will surely help..but on a personal preference, nothing beats yamato shrimps when it comes to getting rid of hair algae... The Oto is also a good thing to put in there.. helps control some of the brown diatoms that may appear.
The tank is truckin along quite well... congrats... more pics when stem plants come..

Melbourne

Tank Update: My Aquaspotworld order arrived I basically pulled all the rocks and gave them a thorough cleaning using a bleach solution, plenty of water changes and prime over the period of a week or so. Hopefully the rocks are clean and safe for the tank.

About my Aquaspotworld order - everything was well packed and labeled. Out of all the plants I ordered only one batch was melted and may not recover. Everything else looks good.

Here is what I ordered - some of this will go in my 60-P once I get around the building the stand.
I have a lot of extras that I'm storing in 2.5g buckets of water next to one of my reef grow out tubs, 150 HQI Lumenmax system spillover light should be enough to keep them for a few weeks or more.

Bacopa Myriophylloides (not in the cube tank)
Cladophora Aegagropila (not in the cube tank - very nice size BTW)
Hemianthus callitrichoides (decent portions - a bit dry, I only used a small portion to plant the bare spots in the front)
Hydrotriche hottoniiflora (looks like all the leaves melted, stems still there - may pull through) - not in tank.
Myriophyllum mattogrossense (planted a small grouping in the bank right)
Myriophyllum tuberculatum (not in tank)
Rotala sp 'Nanjenshan' (planted a good 8-10 stems on the left side of tank)
Rotala rotundifolia 'Green' (planted 2-3 stems on right side)
Rotala wallichii (planted right side of tank 6-8 stems)

Basically I pulled all the dwarf hairgrass and the glosso since it was just there to grow out. I still have bits of gloss around the edges and some that grew into the HC mat that will be hard to remove. I leveled out the soil a bit and redid the rock formation to give a more standard layout as well as increasing the foreground a bit.

On to the pics

Tank was prepped for the stem order shipment for sometime. Basically a huge grouping of floaters for nutrient uptake. Rocks
removed to be bleached. Here is the tank before I started the replant.



Tank after dwarf hair grass and glosso and other misc. plants removed



Aquaspotworld order - everything well packed and labeled



Bleached rocks


New rock layout






Replanted front


Corner shot


I'm a bit concerned I did not have enough stems in this tank due to the large HC lawn. So I left in a few floaters and I'll see how things progress.

Genin

great rescape job you did. i'm going to watch and see how it progresses for you. i think it will look great with those stems in the back and thick HC carpet in the front..... nice contrast.

Melbourne

Genin, thanks - the HC is starting to get nice and thick now. Pearls quite a bit which is nice.

Tank Update: Not much to report. I need to find some Amano shrimp, I have some clado growing in my HC bed. I think it came in with some of the stems I had planted earlier. Beyond manually cleaning up the HC bed and filter intake every few days I'm just waiting for things to fill in a bit more. I stopped dosing Brighty K step 1 as it seems the clado grew faster when I added that. I'm doing a bit of Excel in addition to the CO2 to help keep the clado under control until I get the shrimp.

I started on building my 60-P stand, same style as the cube stand.



60-P stand cut out waiting to be screwed together / bondo'ed / primed / painted.

Melbourne

Tank update: Not much to report - haven't finished 60-P stand yet. Placed some Cherry shrimp in the tank.

UG Dude!

Filling out nicely...

nevada

Nice setup!!! Good Luck with the planting ...

Melbourne

UGDude,Nevada, Thanks - I'm going to try and get the 60-P stand done soon. I have to putty / sand / prime / paint it still. But the main structure is all screwed together now.

Thomas, here are the measurements and directions on building the DIY stand that I made. Please bear in mind I have very little handyman skills so you will want to measure three times before you cut. I tried to simulate the look of the ADA stand without spending a lot of money. I bought the MDF 3/4" at Home Depot, they sell it precut into 36" lengths for shelving. The larger pieces like the door are bonded together to make the larger size. The rest are simple cuts off the stock size using a regular saw or a if you have it a table saw or circular saw. I did buy a small palm sander since you will be sanding a good amount. All the boards are screwed together using wood screws. I bought a countersink attachment for my cordless drill so the screw heads are below the surface of the MDF.

Items you will need and rough prices
8 or 9 of the precut MDF 3/4" shelving boards from Home Depot, they are around $3.60 each.
a box of 1 1/4" screws (1 lb of screws should be enough to build many many stands) $3
countersink bit $7 (optional)
bondo or wood putty $5
grey wood primer $7
black matte spray paint (two cans) $10
aquamat (from ADGShop or AquaForest)

Tools used
Cordless drill
Saw
palm sander
Tape Measure
Clamps
Wood Glue

MDF Cuts
23 3/4" long x 12" deep (top / bottom) (two pieces - one top and bottom of stand)
11 5/16" deep x 36" height (sides) (two pieces - sides of stand)
22 2/16" long x 13" height (two pieces - back braces for stand - top and bottom, top sits directly under the top board and inside the side boards)
23 3/4" long x 9 6/16" height (one piece - front sits directly under top in front of the side boards)
23 3/4" long x 26 12/16" height (door - two pieces bonded with glue + backing scrap MDF and screws)

assemble the pieces for a dry fit - you can use tape to hold it together on the floor to mark where you will want to drill your pilot holes (see picture I posted earlier). I used about 3 screws per attachment point and I used the countersink bit so the screws would not stick out at all. After you screw together the structure you will sand it so that all the bits are flush - you will want to do this outside since MDF generates a lot of dust. Fill in the screw holes and imperfections with bondo or wood putty. Once the putty has dried sand again.

Once the stand has been rough finished you can apply the primer. I just bought a grey wood primer and used a brush to apply. I did two coats and sanded between coats. After which you can apply the spray paint. I waited a day between coats, I did two I believe on the smaller cube stand.

If you want you can buy european hinges for the door or just have it a snug fit using a smaller MDF strip in the back of the front door that is roughly the width of the opening (22 2/16") the door will fit in nice and flush and whenever you need access to the interior just pull the front door off. This is what I did.

Once last item - you will need to trim the Aquamat slightly since it is a little too long and wide for this stand bit it fits the 60-P perfectly. Label all your pieces with a marker so its easy to put together.

Hope that helps Not a fancy stand but it looks ok and won't break the bank.

One other thing, I added an additional MDF 3/4" board on the bottom of the stand, to give the stand a larger base for stability. You may not need to do this but simply cut to size and attach it to the bottom of the stand with the same screws. See earlier pics of my cube stand for how this looks on the smaller stand.

Haeun

Looks stunnin! The HC is growing in very nicely!

Wow perfect. I'm planning to try to make an ADA stand myself this summer and I'm going to need all the help I can get cause I'm not incredibly handy with wood! Do you think you can perhaps post the scopes on the stand for the 30-C as well? It looks so sleek and sexy. *insert drooling face here*

Looking forward to pictures of the 60-P stand!