Custom and Planted Tank Setup – My Journey

[Rupert]

Custom and Planted Tank Setup – My Journey

I have documented my experiences, challenges and approach to getting a custom tank and setting it up. I started with a blank slate, an open mind and decided to document the process, considerations in a manner I hope the next new enthusiast embarking on the same journey would benefit from.

Here is the link, there are quite a few pages & pictures:
http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=25

In this link I have only documented up to the point that the tank was planted-out and first filled or Day 0. But it covers the list below.

1. The end game – what do you want?
2. Size & Type of tank
3. The Aquascape – Rocks & Wood [PART II]
4. The Aquascape – Layout and plant selection
5. Planting & Substrate [PART III]
6. Cabinet design [PART IV]
7. Tank arrival day
8. Lighting
9. Power, timers and plugs [PART V]
10. Chiller
11. Filtration
12. Water Changes
13. Dosing / Fertilisation
14. CO2,
15. The Forums - Patience & Maintenance
16. LFS Support
17. Appendices [PART VI]
18. Day 0 completed [PART VII]

There are parts were I covered the topic lightly and am happy to clarify / expand on them where I can. I will probably follow up this Day 0 piece and document day 1 to day 30 as well.

[Walter]

great efforts! :D very well detailed :)

[Robert]

Hi Rupert,
thanks for these well written articles! Please do show us pictures of your tank when it finished cycling!

BTW, can you please explain the swanzon-iwagumi technique for me in short and easy words? Didn't understand it really. So there are just 3 stones which are in a triangular position but how should I choose the stones? Can I plant them with mosses or should they be bare? I saw you used these light grey granite stones, why didn't you covered them with some nice mosses, so that they look more natural or do you want this effect? In such a large tank can you use also five stones or should it always be three? Sorry for these questions but I never saw a japanese garden myself. We don't have that many of them here in Germany or Europe :)

best regards

Robert

[Rupert]

Hello Robert,

Good questions, very briefly swanson [3 Buddhist deities] - iwagumi [rocks] is a particular triangular style of rock formation that has a very long and old history dating back more than a 1000 yeas ago. The largest of the 3 rocks would be in the middle to at the front, with the other to rocks often call “attendant” rock positioned to emphasize and give importance to the center piece. Nature and historically important people were represented by the landscape formation with the rock symbols seen as having a soul/presence and therefore character that needs to be expressed.

There are variations on a theme in which more rocks are used and have particular style names, or the order of the rock was changed as part of the period influences. Ishigumi = rock arrangement [iwa = boulder, Ishi = rock, gumi = arrangement. But since I don’t know Japanese it would be welcome if someone could verify this of this?

The Japanese typically took little to chance and formalized much of the design activities, each style would be a discipline with Masters teaching disciples to perpetuate and maintain their thinking. I also wanted a multi side layout, so endeavored to attempt this using more stones in combination with the wood to do this, hence my own reservations that I was trying to do too much. One caveat is that I would expect that multi sided layouts are probably more engaging in real life, but might it also might be harder to capture this in one photo. I don’t own a camera

How to choose the stones? In Japanese gardens almost everything is an expression of nature around them. In the aquatic environment the setup would also be an expression of the likeness of nature. In my case I found some rocks when I was out with the family at the beach, they seemed to have character, if fact they were attractive by themselves and were nice to touch. I could have gone and bought some rocks and tried to copy what others had done. Copying is not a bad practice; the Japanese masters would say it is a necessity to acquire the prerequisite skills. So I found some local rocks and wanted to use them. The rocks themselves may look white, gray, but actually there are white with black and pink specks through them. Here are some mountain pictures that I had which give you an inclination of what I had in mind.

http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/9/canmore3sisters2.jpg
http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/9/Three_Peaks_4713.jpg
http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/9/The_Three_Sisters_JPG.jpg

Should the rocks be bare or covered with some mosses? I am not sure, I found the rocks how they are now in the tank, I have tried to soften the outline with a fine leaved plant, and hope the Wallichi would give the red sky look and feel. If green spot algae appears on the rocks, my inclination is to leave it.

The size of the tank isn’t important, rather that they layout is proportional, usually the rocks are positioned in odd numbers, although I have seen some swanson – iwagumi with a very 4th minor rock that introduced the eye to the setting.

The Japanese approach gets quite a bit of attention, but have a look what came out of China. “Penjing” might interest you

http://www.fukubonsai.com/2a2.html

The Chinese culture is extremely rich and it is said that Penjing had many schools of thought and that Japanese Bonsai originated from or was influenced by Penjing in the process. http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/BigPic...eseSchools.html
http://www.bonsainet.com.au/penjing/penjing.htm

I like Penjing, it has different mindset boundaries that can redefine what we call normal in a planted tank.

This post has turned out longer than I expected… I cannot wait until I get some Cherry Shrimp.

Rupert

[gigahertz]

Hi Rupert,

Can you share what those stainless stell cylinders are? I have been trying to find a good CO2 reactor. There are many on the market but I have yet to see one with a stainless steel housing. Is one of those cylinders a CO2 reactor?

If it is then can you share the brand and model so I can check them out? If it happens to be a DIY reactor then may be you can share some information on it's desgin and construction.

Thanks for the very well written article.

F

[Rupert]

Can you share what those stainless stell cylinders are? I have been trying to find a good CO2 reactor. There are many on the market but I have yet to see one with a stainless steel housing. Is one of those cylinders a CO2 reactor?
F

Hello Gigahertz,

The larger stainless steel cylinder is an ADA canister filter and the smaller is an ADA CO2 cylinder. The ADA canister filters have the motors mounted on top of the canister.

The CO2 cylinders cannot be seen, as they are covered up by the stainless steel shell that protects them. I am not sure how this works, a better picture can be found at the following link.
http://www.pbase.com/plantella/image/35433516

The picture in article you can also see the UV sterilizers, but what I like most is the clean design underneath the tanks, no shelves, no chemicals or other equipment. Whereas my setup I need to have everything that supports the tank in the cabinet.

Rupert

[gigahertz]

That is a super clean setup. I finally managed to find the distributor for ADA products here in the US and just as expected they are very expansive!

I first saw ADA products in Hong Kong during my visit and was always amazed by the design and the quality of their product. They are the Bentley of planted aquarium equiptment with price tag to match :D

[ah_siao]

great write up on the process of setting up and planning for your tank. lol

[cairocks]

:2thumbsup :2thumbsup
Very impressive work. Gives lots of inspirations for my next tank.

[Robert]

Hi Rupert,
thank you for this detailed explanation! Now I understand better how you set up your rock arrangement. I hope it will turn out like you planed it and wish you all the best for your tank!

Best regards

Robert

[Rupert]

As promised here is the follow on piece describing my first 30 days. Rather than take a day by day approach, I thought I would go by significant events or activities that stood out, fill in some of the gaps along the way and my thinking at the time.

Here is the link, there are quite a few pages & pictures:
Part 1 http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=35

1 Overview slide of the first 30 Days
2 Attack of the worms
3 Attack of the Snails
4 Changes in approach
5 Cloudy water
6 Dosing Observations

Part 2 http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=36

7 Cabinet & Tank
8 Landscape
9 Chiller
10 Planting
11 Changing water,
12 Glass Cleaning
Part 3 http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=37

13 Algae count
14 Testing & Test kits
15 pH Controller
16 CO2
17 Check List
Part 4 http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=38

18 Guppie’s
19 Shrimp
20 Lighting
21 Maintenance

Part 5 http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=39

22 Power& water bill
23 Things that caused extra work.
24 Mistakes or near misses and good luck
25 Forum usage.
26 Good ideas, Unfinished work, next steps
27 Day 1 versus Day 30

[silane]

Hi Rupert,

What's the ppm of CO2 in your tank?

[Rupert]

Hi Rupert,

What's the ppm of CO2 in your tank?

My CO2 ppm tends to go down during the day as the pH goes up. On the weekend a day after a water change I actually developed a spreadsheet to give me information to the second decimal place. I did this because my pH controller provides this information and thought about keeping a log of pH fluctuations. My KH is about 4.5

http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/9/CO2Chart.jpg

The thought of keeping a pH log lasted for one day, hopefully the chart is clear enough that you can see that the CO2 over 1 day was:

- 33.9 ppm - 8am
- 22.0 ppm - 12.30 [FL lights come on at 11.30 am for 9.5 hours]
- 21.4 ppm – 4.pm [MH’s come on at 1pm for 7 hours]
- 19.0 ppm - 8 pm

The pH controller is set to maintain a reading of 6.6 [+/- 0.1] so the CO2 comes on at when the pH get to 6.76. My critters [Guppies, Cherry Shrimp, Yamoto ] all seem happy, now just waiting for the Cherry Shrimp to breed.

[livionakano]

Hi Rupert,

Beautiful and healthy growing in your first 30 days, uh?

This most recent pic is impressive - reminds me a volcano in eruption!

Best regards,

Livio

[Rupert]

Hi Rupert,

Beautiful and healthy growing in your first 30 days, uh?

This most recent pic is impressive - reminds me a volcano in eruption!

Best regards,

Livio

Livionakano,

you are quite correct, in fact have been using the same description as at present it looks like an erupting volcano!

The red Wallichii has exceeded expectations and grows like a weed, have already begun the process of thinning out the Wallichii so that light can penetrate from behind and so it does not crowd out the Aponogeton Longiplumulosus. I started trimming the front last weekend to give it better form because at present the Wallichii deforms the layout.

The A. Longiplumulosus has leaves must be close to a metre long. Which is a bit longer than the 60 cm I was expecting.

I think that it will take me another couple of months to get the aquascape under my control.

[Rupert]

I couldn’t resist taking some pictures as after about 5 weeks of hiding my two Wood shrimp have lost some of their shyness and venture out during the day to spread their fans.


http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/9/CIMG5986a.jpg

http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/9/CIMG5976a.jpg

http://www.shrimpnow.com/mygallery/files/9/CIMG5975a.jpg

[GunmetalBlue]

Hi Rupert, glad to see your Bamboo shrimps came out of hiding; the setting of the first pic is magical looking! And it's not often Bamboos look graceful due to their size and shape, but you caught him/her at just the right moment. :D

-GunmetalBlue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shrimpkeeping: At last, a hobby in which algae is not my worst enemy...

[Rupert]

Hi Rupert,

What's the ppm of CO2 in your tank?

Useful Spreadsheet

I thought that this attachement would be useful to forum members it has my CO2, PUB, Dosing and Electricity calculations. I cut and pasted from the Singapore PUB web site the water characteristics, link attached in the tab.

Electricity is fairly easy to work out, but having the $$ cost per month is useful counter against the “your tank must be cost a fortune to run” strike

The LushGro [PMDD] tab came from an AQ forum member; his credits are in the properties box. I made some changes to suit my needs and sure he/she wouldn’t mind it being posted again as it is a real gem if you are a LushGro user.

The CO2 [KH/pH] levels is broken down to 2 decimal places because I have pH controller that gives me 2 place decimal readings… Here is the mathematical formula the CO2 charts are based on, I used it more to double check the information found on the internet.

• CO2 (in PPM) = 3 * KH * 10^(7-pH) where KH is Carbonate Hardness in degrees.
• Example 3 * 4 KH * 10^(7-6.6) = 30.14

The Colour shades [Red/Green/Blue] came from Chuck Cadd calculator, I am not sure if this is an infringement of copyright, but no infringement intended.

The ppm level of O2 is an outstanding consideration as I have yet to figure out what are the maximum & minimum levels, so will have to do some research on this, unless some forum member already has the answer?

[GunmetalBlue]

> "There are variations on a theme in which more rocks are used and have particular style names, or the order of the rock was changed as part of the period influences. Ishigumi = rock arrangement [iwa = boulder, Ishi = rock, gumi = arrangement. But since I don’t know Japanese it would be welcome if someone could verify this of this?"

A look at my Japanese-English dictionary and a search on the internet reveals:
Iwa = a rock, a crag
Ishi = a stone, a pebble
Ishigumi = the art/practice of stone arrangement or setting

> "The size of the tank isn’t important, rather that they layout is proportional, usually the rocks are positioned in odd numbers, although I have seen some swanson – iwagumi with a very 4th minor rock that introduced the eye to the setting."

I'm a little dubious of Japanese rock gardens using 4 rocks. The word/number 4 = shi means death in Japanese and is a word/concept that's usually avoided. Part of the reason for odd as oppposed to even numbers is due to the asymmetry. It better connotes nature by offering a more random and chance effect as opposed to the order and symmetry an even number tends to effect.

> "Another practical consideration was the desire to have a landscape that had no hidden areas if one moved around the tank, so one was drawn into the setting. The traditional top down triangular perspective found in "Sanzon-Iwagumi" gardens wasn’t entirely followed. A photogenic tank was mildly important, but it was a secondary consideration."

I agree, traditionally speaking, one would have used an asymmetrical triangular arrangement that helps to bring attention to the monolithic largest rock. A linear line does not really accomplish that nor does it create the meandering "pleasant journey" to the focal point, which is a hallmark of Japanese garden design. One other traditional concept is one of minimalism. The Japanese traditionally would not add anything distracting too near the focal point, it would stand on its own.

> "My one caveat here is that the rules are validation techniques; use them to provide a framework for thinking, not a recipe for creation. Some thought was given to what happens in nine months time when I want to change the design, [re] move 1 rock or add some more wood. The rocks are expected to stay stationary and would change/add a layer of plants to modify the tank character."

Point taken.

> "The usual caveats have been made, that anything that looks ok was by design and I will take full credit. Anything that looks bad was by accident, the picture lies, doesn’t really look like that, never noticed, not important, you don’t understand, the layout needs time to mature, I didn’t want to be conventional…"

Lol, yes, I would say your tank is an eclectic piece which needs to please you first and meet your needs. Everything else will fall into place. It's the journey and not the end that's important. In my humble opinion, you've accomplished that.

Hope you'll post more pictures of the tank itself as time goes on - I realize many people greatly benefit from the info itself, but there are non-aquascapists (like myself), who greatly enjoy looking at the fruits of people's ideas. After all, that's where one starts first, inspiration leads to perspiration! Thanks for all the time and effort you've put into your articles. You might consider changing the spelling of "Yamoto" shrimp to "Yamato" shrimp. :D

-GB

[Rupert]

Thanks GB,

Thanks for the literal Japanese translation; I wasn’t sure if “boulder” or “rock” terms should be used and used words to denote something larger, something that would be hard to move/pick up... But then it is a mater of perception as coming from New Zealand, what I would call a hill would be a mountain here in Singapore. The dictionary is correct of course.

I have what I planned, but not quite what I want, the difference between the two is experience, the red Wallichii has deformed the focal point, but I will get it back. I trimmed, then dramatically thinned the Wallichii, which made a difference, now I am pausing for the next month to see how it responds, then I will move or remove more to push it back so it peeps up & out behind the largest rock. Then I will pause and ponder on the aquascape and take a picture or two, and post them.

You are absolutely right in that the journey is important; moving from the kitchen table to the tank was satisfying step the last two months have been more so with the shrimp. I like minimalism, which is why only one kind of strain fish, but I have been thinking for quite a while to get another complementary shrimp to the Cherry Shrimp, something that breeds well and complementary in Colour, maybe blue?

Wasn’t sure if anyone was reading the article and just let the “Yamoto” spelling mistakes pass, I will correct them soon.

I collected many tens of megabytes of good tank layout pictures, do want some?

[Robert]

Hi Rupert,
I have a suggestion for one of your last questions: green shrimps. They would be perhaps a nice addition to your tank. If you can get the right species (there are several ones), you will have a hardy, easy to breed shrimp which not cross-breeds with your cherries. Ok, the green coloration is not that obvious but on your rocks and some other places it could look very nice.

Best regards

Robert

[GunmetalBlue]

Hi Rupert, frankly, I don't readily understand the nuance between the words "rock" and "stone," since here in the states most people would use the two words interchangeably - though "rock" would probably be used more often. However, if I were to consider a huge rock outcropping the size of a small house against the side of a hill, I most likely would call it a rock or boulder. Conversely, if I were holding some river pebbles in my hand, I might refer to them as stones. Confusing! But like you say, it's a matter of perception. Also, literal translations might not necessarily have the exact same meaning, though it is the closest match to a particular word in another language. Anyway, since the dictionary made a distinction, thought it was worth mentioning.

> "I like minimalism, which is why only one kind of strain fish, but I have been thinking for quite a while to get another complementary shrimp to the Cherry Shrimp, something that breeds well and complementary in Colour, maybe blue?"

I too, like minimalism very much. Minimalism is deceiving in that it looks so simple, yet is probably one of the hardest to achieve. Yes, I recognized what you were doing with the guppies right away! The grouping of the yellow/gold coloring was striking. Perhaps the blue guppy that was pictured can serve in lieu of blue shrimp? For I'm not convinced yet that a blue shrimp that breeds well, as good as it sounds, really exists, at least that I know of. I've followed a few threads concerning shrimp being dyed or being temporarily blue, etc. Not sure what's going on there. :huh:

Something that I don't think you've mentioned is whether your guppies leave the smaller shrimp alone? You may need a separate tank for breeding shrimp, as it seems the guppies would eat any shrimplets it can find.

> "I collected many tens of megabytes of good tank layout pictures, do want some?"

Sure!

-GB

[Rupert]

Hello Robert, Good suggestion, I had a look at some Green shrimp at my LFS, they didn't inspire me with their colour. So I will have to keep looking.

Hello GB, A quick reply ... Yes blue shrimp sound to good to be true, but saw some wonderful pictures and will keep looking. I have sent you a PM... I can’t send email addresses [what a pain!] so just added a few extra c's in .com.

So far my guppies had left the shrimp alone, but expect some mortality as guppies are always hungry even for their own kind.

[Robert]

Hi Rupert,
no, guppys are not always hungry, at least so hungry that they would eat everything. I breed fancy guppys now for several years as well as shrimps, so I also keep them sometimes together to safe some space. A well fed guppy is simply too lazy to catch a shrimplet. They don't even eat their fries, except for albino or lutino ones maybe. Feed them once or twice a day with a protein-rich food e.g.fine pellet food for guppys or cichlids mixed with some algae-rich flake food like spirulina flakes to avoid a too fat diet. You won't loose so many shrimplets due to them. In my show tank I keep guppies and cherry, green, malayan and other shrimps and the guppys didn't eat any shrimplet of them yet (I count them almost every week), although they are used to crustacean as food e.g. live cyclops. So it depends on the way you feed your fishes.

Best regards

Robert

[Rupert]

Hello Robert,

I don’t feed my Guppy’s every day, but most days. They do seem to leave shrimp & their own kind alone, except the other night I saw one male with a fry in its mouth.

My tank has thick Java moss and enough places for almost anything to hid, so shrimplets should be ok.

I just got 100g tin of whole freeze dried Cyclop-eeze so will use that in conjunction with the other food, although I would like the Cherry shrimp to be the main consumers of this, but expect the Yamato’s & Guppy’s get more than their fair share.

I was told to soak the Cyclop-eeze in salty water so that it would sink, not sure why salty water, so will just use normal water and see how it goes.

[Rupert]

Finally got my glass Lillie pipes to put in my tank, I like the ADA emphasis on mechanical cleanliness, but found that their Lillie pipes were too expensive. However after all the effort of finding a glass blower it probably isn’t, providing the ADA designs fit your requirements. In my case I want to be able to do 20% water changes without turning off the filters.


http://img209.echo.cx/img209/16/cimg6076a0tc.jpg

Glass blowers can produce amazing customized equipment, but there are few economies of scale to be had. I have searched high and low to find an injection mould manufacturer to make transparent Lillie pipes but to know avail, so if you know someone, just PM me. My thinking here is that if I like transparent piping others would as well?

I originally thought that it would be rather easy to dispense with the green piping in and around my set-up. However I was wrong, the transparent hosing that I have seen is not of the same elasticity/quality as the green Eheim hoses. So the search continues

[Rupert]

I finally found a shrimp to complement the Yamato, and Cherry Shrimp.

Mosquito Shrimp, [Caridina gracilirostris de Man, 1892] these were sort of an impulse purchase, I had been looking for another shrimp, to complement the ones that I have now, anyway I was at my local LFS [Biotope] I saw these strange and tempting shrimp and bought ten, liked them so much and went and bought another ten.

These Shrimp sort of hover through the water and are transparent except for their body patterns. Now I just have to figure out how they breed any way here is some pictures of the new arrivals.


http://img25.echo.cx/img25/180/cimg63286bt.jpg
http://img25.echo.cx/img25/6673/cimg63193jw.jpg

[GunmetalBlue]

Hi Rupert, WOW, those are really beautiful additions to your tank! Sounds like they add another interesting dimension too, with the way they are shaped and the way they swim. I don't think I'll ever have a chance to see them at any LFS here.

About their breeding, there is a post here that talks about it, here's the link to Kross's thread. Hockey Shrimp has bred them. :)

http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297

-GB

[Rupert]

Here is my aquascape at 90 days old [young], there is still some work to do give it balance.

http://img98.echo.cx/img98/9738/wz4r8758e3r0bo2xr.jpg

[silane]

Glass blowers can produce amazing customized equipment, but there are few economies of scale to be had. I have searched high and low to find an injection mould manufacturer to make transparent Lillie pipes but to know avail, so if you know someone, just PM me. My thinking here is that if I like transparent piping others would as well?


Hi Rupert,

Translucent/glass pipes look good when it is new, however, when it runs for a few months, algae and black/slimy coat build up in the internal and has to clean very often to maintain the clean look.

Did you remove all the pipes in the latest tank photo taking or they are so well hidden?

[Rupert]

Hi Rupert,

Translucent/glass pipes look good when it is new, however, when it runs for a few months, algae and black/slimy coat build up in the internal and has to clean very often to maintain the clean look.

Did you remove all the pipes in the latest tank photo taking or they are so well hidden?


Yes all pipes get dirty; I clean the pipes & hoses probably on a monthly basis. As I have 2 Ehiem 2028’s I usually alternate by cleaning one during a water change, then the other pipe/hoses during the next water change.

For this photo all the pipes were removed.

[GunmetalBlue]

Hi Rupert, you've got some amazing moss growth on that driftwood on the right. I recall you were trying to get the look of depth there? I also like the height on that and the plants nearby. The foreground grasses are filling in nicely too. Thanks for the update, keep up the good work!

Are there really all those shrimps in there? I don't see any! They must hide really well. :D

[amber2461]

I'm with GunmetalBlue, keep up the good work and thanks for posting!

Cheers

[Robert]

Hi Rupert,
your tank looks really great now! Your hairgrass lawn is amazing :) . There seem to be a bare spot between the stones in the middle of the tank, where the walchii was. Do you think about adding another plant species there to fill this gap?

How many guppies do you still have? This small group looks a bit lost in this large tank. BTW, a group of Rasbora hengeli would look really well in front of this tall dark green background.

Best regards

Robert

[Rupert]

Hello GB, Amber2461 and Robert,

Thanks for the comments

There is a structural problem. I would like it to be more balanced with the viewer’s eye being drawn and resting in the centre gap where the lapis sand is visible or should I say it needs to be more visible. I like this gap, when I am in front of the tank, the view is slightly different, and the lapis sand rises to create an intentional clearing but for certain the Java Moss is now too thick and needs to be thinned, for example the bottom of triangular hole in the wood is disappearing.

There is an unintentional gap in the A. Longiplumulous, it is sort of bunched up and the R. Wallichii isn’t cooperating either. These problems I associate with a lack of maturity of the aquascape and my R. Wallichii trimming ability.

The hard part is not to confuse the “itchy hand syndrome” with making some “meaningful changes”, however when I look at the pictures my eye keeps on getting dragged to the right where the Java Moss green wall is too much almost smothering the small rock there.

I did remove a lot of fish into temporary accommodation before the picture was taken, so only a few males were present. The shrimp decided to hide.

The Hair Grass is meeting expectations however it also needs to be thicker in spots and thinned in others, with control hard to achieve.

So I am going to see if I can combine maintenance, “itchy hand syndrome” & “meaningful changes” into a series of actions that improves the aquascape over the next one month or two.