jassar

A really big WOW! nothing else to say (^_^)

Freemann

Very nice tank indeed .
Can you please tell us a bit more about the tank?
How old is this setup?
How long did it take to stabilize?
What algae issues did the tank had initially (if it had any) and how you remedy them?
Do you use RO water or just tap (is your water hard?)?
Do you find that adding more from some of the ADA ferts helps to remedy any problems you may have and what are this problems and the additional ADA ferts if any?
Do you plant heavily from the beggining (as much as we see grown now)?
Is there a chance to measure and give us some nutrient readings (NO3, PO4, K e.t.c)?
Is this tank supposed to be long lasting or for demonstration purposes only and sort lived?
Plus anything else you feel attributes to the success of this tank, plant health wise.
When I see impressive tanks like this all I want to know is how someone achieve healthy growth like this. I personally believe (and that maybe different from other peoples opinion) that plant hardscape plus aquascaping can be accomplished fairly easy as long as the plant health part is resolved.
So please give us your lights on your success on the plants health part. Also do you believe this days that such health can be achieved without the use of ADA products?
Thanks in advance
Freemann

nornicle

amazing the the senske brothers never fail to amaze.

Could you give us an idea of the hardscape? my feeling is a very steep rise made of aquasoil at the back?

also how do you guys deal with the initial bout of ammonia and no3 or do you guys plant so heavily that it doesn't come up on your radars?

FelixAvery

lovely, what plants is the foreground please

jsenske

Thanks everyone.

Plant list:
foreground: Eleocharis acicularis, Lilaeopsis novozalindae,
midground: Hygrophila sp., Bolbitis
background: Limnophilia aromatica, "giant" stellata (I forget the name of that main one in the middle), Rotala rotundifolia, Rotala sp. "colorata", Ludwigia arcuata, Micranthemum umbrosum

Freeman:
The tank is about 4 months old.

Very minor algae issues-- just some BBA that was dealt with using SeaChem EXCEL, high dose (about 3 times recommended amount for 5 days), and water change every other day-40%.

Just tap water used-- Houston city supply which is quite hard indeed. We never use RO, and never have before. Every tank we have done is regular (hard) tap water.

This tank was planted heavily from the beginning because of the style desired for the finished layout. We don't necessarily plant heavily though. If we are doing say a simplt iwagumi/rock style tank with just a foreground plant, then we just try to cover as much of the substrate as is practical. We never add temporary stemmed plants or anything like that.

We simply use the ADA liquid ferts on out planted tanks. Mike dosed GREEN GAIN and ECA very heavily on this tank-- ECA was dosed almost daily whenever stemmed plants were sufficiently grown back from trimming. GREEN GAIN was dosed heavily after trimming (after initial water change and for 3-4 days following). New growth was always established in 5-7 days and health was superb/fewer strees symptoms noticed.
There was aperiod when Lilaeopsis was not growing so well and green spot algae was present. I noted this and had Mike add higher doses of Green Brighty SPECIAL LIGHTS (ADA's N and P and additional K), and the problem was quickly remedied. With so much light and so many hungry, fast-growing stemmed plants, these nutrients were being quickly absorbed, and slower matabolism of Lilaeopsis was not able to get its fair share!

Not much chance of testing water parameters. We do not own those test kits. Maybe Luis or someone would want to stop by and do that.

Thsi tank was not intended to be long lasting (for us anyway). While it could be kept going longer, indeed, we are always anxious to try new layout styles with this particular tank. We do long-term layouts often in other tanks.

Diligence of maintenance-- frequent water change, good dosing regimen, frequent trimming of stemmed plants.

Mike and I have not been able to produce these high level results until we started understanding and using ADA products. Can you achieve this health with other products/methods? I am sure you can. Does ADA make it easier? In my opinion, yes. The combination of a rich, active substrate with precise daily dosing of nutrients + following the guidelines of Mr. Amano (creator of the style in the first place) = greater success, simple as that.

jsenske

Mike will have to discuss the hardscape question.

Initial ammonia is not something we really think about too much-- we just do water changes every 2-4 days depending on appearance of the plants/observation of conditions, no matter what. Ammonia always works itself out through the establishment of nitrifying bacteria, and we wait a few weeks before adding shrimps, O-cats, and other fish.

UG Dude!

Simply amazing tank...

Freemann

Thanks you Jeff

jeffboyarrdee

Do you guys find that plants melt a little initially in Amazonia aquasoil? or is that just my bad luck with starting tanks....so far i have this crypt tank and like 50% of the cryptocorine balansae that i planted had melted...and even to this day my crypt tank isnt growing as healthily as i would like it to be...even some leaves here and there melt, but its a drastic improvement over time...is there some trick to keeping healthy crypts?

LindaC

Extraordinary tank, your talent never ceases to amaze me, wish my tanks would look half as appealing as yours; but I am working on it, hopefully some day!