I'm back with another new setup! Well, sort of new. I ran out of space in my 20g long farm tank, to the point that I had bucephalandra suction cupped to the tank walls. Not only that, but the buce wasn't as happy as it should have been with inert sand, as I felt it isn't fast enough in regards to nutrient absorption that it was able to take what it needed just from the water column.
The buce that I keep are all rare collectors species as well, which really benefit from a more acidic environment to reach their full color potential. Taking those things into account, I knew my collection would benefit greatly by swapping over to a tank with aquasoil and RO water.
Here's the details of the setup:
Landen 90p (44 gallon)
36"×18"x18"
Netlea AT5
Netlea soil capped with Samurai Soil
Inline co2 diffuser
Oase Biomaster 350
Current water parameters:
76F
pH of 6.5, gH of 7, kH<1
The lights are currently running 8 hours, though I wish I could afford a PAR meter rental right now. For what it's worth, my Netlea app says my custom setting is at 70 watts. I'm aiming to run this tank at about 100 watts eventually, but since the buce is going to need some time to settle, slow and steady wins the race on this one. I did dark start the Netlea soil for about 2 weeks, using cycled filter media. When I break down the old farm tank, I'll be taking my Fluval canister off and adding it to this new tank and running 2 filters, to keep flow on the moderate end. I also made the decision to run my co2 24/7, to keep things as stable and consistent as possible for the buce. The only inhabitants I'll be keeping in this tank will be some ramshorn snails and my CRS colony.
Currently I have a little over 40 rare to incredibly rare species in the tank, though I do have more on the way
as you can see, I'm already running low on floor space.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ID stakes I made, truthfully I'm able to ID them by leaf shape and size, but I thought it may make things look more organized. That being said, they're itching my brain in a bad way, so I may end up removing them.
Here's some photos of species that managed to maintain some good color even in a more alkaline setup, so it can only get better from here! I've spent countless hours translating articles and posts in Chinese to figure out what kind of parameters the Chinese collectors use to get their crazy colors and leaf forms, so this will be a very interesting experiment for me!
The buce that I keep are all rare collectors species as well, which really benefit from a more acidic environment to reach their full color potential. Taking those things into account, I knew my collection would benefit greatly by swapping over to a tank with aquasoil and RO water.
Here's the details of the setup:
Landen 90p (44 gallon)
36"×18"x18"
Netlea AT5
Netlea soil capped with Samurai Soil
Inline co2 diffuser
Oase Biomaster 350
Current water parameters:
76F
pH of 6.5, gH of 7, kH<1
The lights are currently running 8 hours, though I wish I could afford a PAR meter rental right now. For what it's worth, my Netlea app says my custom setting is at 70 watts. I'm aiming to run this tank at about 100 watts eventually, but since the buce is going to need some time to settle, slow and steady wins the race on this one. I did dark start the Netlea soil for about 2 weeks, using cycled filter media. When I break down the old farm tank, I'll be taking my Fluval canister off and adding it to this new tank and running 2 filters, to keep flow on the moderate end. I also made the decision to run my co2 24/7, to keep things as stable and consistent as possible for the buce. The only inhabitants I'll be keeping in this tank will be some ramshorn snails and my CRS colony.
Currently I have a little over 40 rare to incredibly rare species in the tank, though I do have more on the way
as you can see, I'm already running low on floor space.I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the ID stakes I made, truthfully I'm able to ID them by leaf shape and size, but I thought it may make things look more organized. That being said, they're itching my brain in a bad way, so I may end up removing them.
Here's some photos of species that managed to maintain some good color even in a more alkaline setup, so it can only get better from here! I've spent countless hours translating articles and posts in Chinese to figure out what kind of parameters the Chinese collectors use to get their crazy colors and leaf forms, so this will be a very interesting experiment for me!
