[Yo-han]

As on request I'll start a journal of my 400L (almost 100 gallon I believe) planted tank. After coming from Tanganyika cichlids I started this aquarium almost 2 years ago. Faced some serious challenges but think I got it figured out more or less now (mostly learning it the hard way).

Let's start chronological with the first scape. This started out as a planted iwagumi with manacapuru angelfish in it. The rocks were not made for a planted tank and my KH was sky high although I did 50% waterchanges 2 times a week with pure R/O water:

Growth:

After this algae strikes and the rocks were replaced with wood:

Some detail pics:
Glass lily pipes (after two broken inlets I replaced them with custom made stainless steel):

Young angelfish, the heavy feeding to raise them up nice was also a factor in the algae growth:

 

[blue thumb]

Nice tank. Angels look kinda like mine. My Angels keep pulling up plants so I fed them alot yesterday so they would not keep hunting for food. I overfed them so much this morning they were so bloated they could not swim upright! LOL But sad thing is I had 2 of them die from over eating

 

[Yo-han]

Haha, I see what you mean!

Here a little update with pictures from after I made the aquarium more angelfish friendly. Rocks are replaced with wood

Tannins everywhere:

Glass lily pipe (RIP) with plactic mesh around it temporarily:

Everything growing in, including the angelfish:

Pictures from above:

With 4 female angelfish and 2 male angelfish I had eggs every week (I also ended up with more otocinclus than I bought):

Unclear foto but lots of freshly hatched fry:

Found this beautiful plant during a canoe trip in Holland:

It had beautiful flowers reaching 3 feet above the tank and 1,5 feet wide! (Can't find a picture...)

More pictures for the angelfish lovers:

The angelfish were sold after this picture. I thought the aquarium was too small for these fish and a well know breeder in the Netherlands is now breeding with them. I also ripped apart the whole aquuscape and made a new one (pictures will follow!!)

 

[mudboots]

Very beautiful; I look forward to the new scape. What was the water movement like in this set up, as far as gph of filtration and overall flow?

 

[Yo-han]

I've a Eheim 2080 with 400 gph but seriously reduces flow because of an external heater, co2 reactor and UV unit. So in the last setup I used a 800 gph streamer during the time I've over 2wpg.

 

[Yo-han]

Here are some pictures from my most recent setup, I started selling most of the plants already and after my holiday I'll do a complete makeover:

Sunset on my aquarium:

New fish added (Paracheirodon simulans, Trigonostigma espei and not visible on the photo Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi):

This shrimp was between the japonica shrimps I bought, not sure which specie it is:

HC grows all over the sand, attaches better than on the substrate (don't look at all the substrate on the sand):

After a clean up:

If there are people with a 3D monitor, I've got 3D pictures and movies as well

 

[Yo-han]

Forgot to post a picture of the matured layout:

Hope you like it...

 

[Michael]

Beautiful!

 

[MsNeoShrimp]

Wow. I enjoyed looking at how many different ways you have changed it around. Lots of effort I can imagine for tank this size. Looks beautiful everytime

 

[Yo-han]

Thanks for the nice comments, Im redoing the tank'again after my holiday next week. Already tried some setups with the wood and stones and collected all but two plants for the new setup. Also I already sold more than half of my plants to make room for the new plants. I'll see if I can upload a drawing of what it is going to be like (hopefully)...

 

[Yo-han]

Been creative with wood and stones and also made some drawings for when I redo my tank after my holiday.

Front:

Map/ from above:

I want it to be more maintenance friendly, especially the carpet plants. I think Staurogyne and Lilaeopsis are... For the rest, mainly the slower growing green plants and 2 red plants: Cryptocoryne 'Flamingo' and Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'. Also the P. stellatus will give a red accent considering my amount of light I guess. And in the front, maybe some Rotala mexicana 'Goias' if I can get it.

Names of the plants:
1a Staurogyne repens
1b Staurogyne 'Porto Velho'
2 Cryptocoryne nevelli
3 Blyxa japonica
4 Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
5 Cryptocoryne 'Flamingo'
6 Rotala 'Green'
7 Anubias nana
8 Anubias nana 'petit'
9 Bucephalandra 1
10 Didiplis diandra
11 Anubias minima
12 Bucephalandra 2
13 Bucephalandra 3
14 Hemianthus glomeratus
15 Microsorium pteropus 'Narrow'
16 Microsorium pteropus 'Windolov'
17 Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'
18 Blyxa vietii
19 Pogostemon erectus
20 Pogostemon stellatus
21 Pogostemon helferi
22 Rotala mexicana 'Goias'
23 Fissidens (on different spots on the wood)

I've three species of Bucephalandra (Bucephalandra cf. motleyana 'Sekadau 1', Bucephalandra cf. motleyana 'Melawi' and Bucephalandra motleyana 'Pancuraji') and not yet sure which one to put where.

Can't wait to rescape!

 

[MsNeoShrimp]

Wow. You are just so creative and imaginative. I'm jealous! HEHE

Been creative with wood and stones and also made some drawings for when I redo my tank after my holiday.

Front:

Map/ from above:

I want it to be more maintenance friendly, especially the carpet plants. I think Staurogyne and Lilaeopsis are... For the rest, mainly the slower growing green plants and 2 red plants: Cryptocoryne 'Flamingo' and Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'. Also the P. stellatus will give a red accent considering my amount of light I guess. And in the front, maybe some Rotala mexicana 'Goias' if I can get it.

Names of the plants:
1a Staurogyne repens
1b Staurogyne 'Porto Velho'
2 Cryptocoryne nevelli
3 Blyxa japonica
4 Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
5 Cryptocoryne 'Flamingo'
6 Rotala 'Green'
7 Anubias nana
8 Anubias nana 'petit'
9 Bucephalandra 1
10 Didiplis diandra
11 Anubias minima
12 Bucephalandra 2
13 Bucephalandra 3
14 Hemianthus glomeratus
15 Microsorium pteropus 'Narrow'
16 Microsorium pteropus 'Windolov'
17 Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'
18 Blyxa vietii
19 Pogostemon erectus
20 Pogostemon stellatus
21 Pogostemon helferi
22 Rotala mexicana 'Goias'
23 Fissidens (on different spots on the wood)

I've three species of Bucephalandra (Bucephalandra cf. motleyana 'Sekadau 1', Bucephalandra cf. motleyana 'Melawi' and Bucephalandra motleyana 'Pancuraji') and not yet sure which one to put where.

Can't wait to rescape!

 

[Aquat]

Very beautiful!! I love how you plan everything so diligently.

Just curious but where is there a picture of a girl? Is she apart of the layout? lol.

 

[tapscrew]

What a fabulous set up- beautiful

 

[xenxes]

Very clean scape. Digging the scape design.. lol I never prepare, just plug stems in

 

[Yo-han]

Very beautiful!! I love how you plan everything so diligently.

Just curious but where is there a picture of a girl? Is she apart of the layout? lol.

Didn't understood your post about a girl, so I looked through all my messages and suddenly saw her. Never seen the person or picture before, and there was definitely another picture there the last few time I looked. Guess it is a fault of the upload server, sorry! Will redo when I'm at my computer Thanks for noting, otherwise this thread looks silly (but maybe does get extra views, haha!)

Very clean scape. Digging the scape design.. lol I never prepare, just plug stems in :sad:

About the planning, I only planned the last one and this one. I worked at a logistic company for a while and also made extra shifts on the phone, contacting clients and drivers. This became routine and so I started drawing during these phone calls I've a few dozen drawing, from Iwagumi, to biotope, to mixed planted

 

[Yo-han]

Last week I finally redid my tank, here some pictures of the process. Preparing plants:

Emptying the tank:

Temporary basin for my fish:

Cleaned the aquarium and inserted the glass plate with wood glued on:

At the bottom lava rocks, nitrate (to prevent BGA) CSM+B and Dutch osmocoat:

Aqua soil, this time fluval statum, and sand separated by rocks:

The hardscape:

Planting the foreground and epiphytes:

And the back:

Filling up:

Filter on and after two hours the fish went back in:

The next morning:

I'm quite happy myself, the lilaeopsis needs to be trimmed after it rooted (2-3 weeks) as does the Staurogyne in the left.

Suggestions are welkom!

 

[chrislewistx]

Nice looking scape. It looks like you are heading down the road to another fine scape.

Can you explain how you prepare the tank before placing the substrate? You added text to one of the pictures that says:
"At the bottom lava rocks, nitrate (to prevent BGA) CSM+B and Dutch osmocoat"
I take it this means you pre-load the substrate with the lava rocks as a place for beneficial bacteria to colonize. Then add the dry macro and trace ferts to give the plants a boost of nutrients to help prevent blue green algae while the tank matures?

Are those T5 lights you are using?

 

[Yo-han]

You guessed it all right! Lava for bacteria, ferts for a start and anti BGA and those are t5 6x54W.

And thanks for the nice comment, I'll try to update this thread a little more regular for this scape

 

[mudboots]

That looks GREAT Yo-han! Does the osmocote you use contain copper? If so, do you house shrimp in there? I tried something similar to Osmocote that had copper once and my shrimp slowly stopped breeding and then eventually died. I wasn't sure what the tolerance level was...