January 2007 Tank of the Month: Roy Deki - Library

January 2007 Tank of the Month: Roy Deki

Introduction and background:

I am 46 years old and live a suburb of PhoenixArizona. My wife, Beth and I have 1 beautiful daughter named Emma. I started this hobby a little over 4 years ago. My first tank was an Eclipse 6 with Tiger barbs and a lot of plastic plants. While surfing the web for more information on responsible fish keeping, I was cordially invited to join The Tropical Resources Family of Sites, by its owner Cindy Williams. This soon became my home on the web and there I discovered the world of planted tanks. From that moment on I have been addicted to this wonderful hobby.

I spent 12 years in the landscaping business in MontereyCalifornia in the early 80’s. At that time my father was heavily involved in the Monterey Bonsai Club and was an instructor as well. I guess you can say aquascaping is in my blood.

This past year (2006) has been a very fruitful time for me and my passion. Along with 2 other fellow hobbyists (Bryan Lafollette and Mike Talley) here in the Phoenix area we managed to form Arizona Aquatic Plant Enthusiast, AAPE for short. We started with about 8 attendees to our first meeting back in December 2005. We have now grown to consistently have 20+ attendees at every monthly meeting. Along with the club I started to work part time at my favorite LFS, Pet’s Inc in Tempe. I have been given free reign with the display tank and the retail plant isle. This consists of 10 40 gallon breeders, 4 of which have high light and co2 injection.

Aquascaping:

My inspiration is one that is quite common, Takashi Amano. While doing research on aquascaping I came upon his first book. I have since fallen into my own style, I really don’t know what it would be classified as, but I feel it is a combination of Amano’s nature aquariums and Dutch style. I try to incorporate natural hardscape placements along with manicured plants. The best example of this style would have to be my AGA 2006 entry called “Mizu Ikebana” Which literally means “Water Flower Arrangement” (2006 AGA Aquascaping Contest).

The Tank:

In this aquascape I was obviously attempting to create my first Iwagumi style tank. My thoughts before creating this tank, was to have a very low maintenance tank but also one with a very serene and minimalist aquascape. I chose to use Seriyu-seki stones because of the textures and the color contrast it has with Hemianthus callitrichoides. I chose to use Coralife NO T-5 28watt fixture over the back portion because I had notice in the past its effect on Blyxa japonica. Under these lights B. japonica seems to grow compact and has a very nice bronze hue to the leaves. The color of the Seriyu-seki stone, in combination with the lime green color of the HC sloping from front to back and with the bronze color of the B. japonica in the background gave this tank the visual depth, given its small dimensions.

Tank Specifications:

Dimensions: 24”x12”x12”
Volume: 15 gallons
Light: Coralife 65 watts power compact (6700k) in the front, Coralife NO T-5 28watt (6700k/10000k over back…10 hours per day.
Filtration: Aqua clear 50 H.O.B.
Co2: Pressurized system with ceramic diffuser.
Substrate: ADA Aqua soil with Power Sand Special, TourmalineBC added at start-up.
Fauna: 11 Neon Green tetras, 7 SAE’s, 7 Amano shrimp.
Flora: Blyxa japonica and Hemianthus callitrichoides.

Challenges with this tank:

Algae, algae, and more algae…I knew going into this project that this would be an issue. I had all the healthy B. japonica I needed and I purchased some very healthy HC from a fellow member here at APC. Once the contour of the substrate was established and another fellow member sent me the Seriyu-seki stones. I planted the B. japonica and the HC, cranked up the co2 and let the tank do its thing. I only dosed with Flourish at 1ml per day and Flourish Excel 3ml per day, with weekly 50%water changes. I managed to grow every type of algae that exist. After about a month I did a 3 day blackout. The Blyxa survived better than the HC, but I didn’t have to replace any of it. Another month passes, more algae. This time I over dose with H2o2 I managed to kill off all of the algae and the HC. Continuing my dosing and water change regiment and replacing all of the HC, another month passes and the tank is “balanced”. Now the only trimming needed will be mowing down the HC to keep it tight and low.

Final words:

This tank has been set up for about 5 months now and has become my favorite tank. It is now so low maintenance that I get to enjoy it more that work on it.

sanjay edit