Journal UNS 45T Nature Style-Inspired High Tech Build

[JacksonL]

Maybe because "aquascaping" still means hardscape-heavy nature dioramas to most people, not the gorgeous plants Dennis grows. I mean, how much stability does moss really need

I think that will change

I hope so.
It is quite out of touch with what the majority of people want out of a planted tank. They are stunning scapes, for sure. But, I think most planted tank keepers want to grow plants! More gardening, less pure art. I consume a lot of aquarium content, but very little of it is scapers on YouTube. I can grow moss, I want to know how to grow real plants better!

 

[JayP]

I hope so.
It is quite out of touch with what the majority of people want out of a planted tank. They are stunning scapes, for sure. But, I think most planted tank keepers want to grow plants! More gardening, less pure art. I consume a lot of aquarium content, but very little of it is scapers on YouTube. I can grow moss, I want to know how to grow real plants better!

I'm greedy. I want both.

 

[ample]

That is a lot of money for one sword. I would think Houston has some stores that are good sources of plants.

You’re not wrong. Unfortunately I’m one of the only people here who has a short commute so I’m spoiled and hate driving more than 30 minutes if I don’t have to. The really nice big stores are all kind of in the boonies relative to where I am. I don’t usually like LFS plants either because it’s all basic emersed stems or epiphytes in poor condition and feels expensive for what it is.

 

[ample]

I'm greedy. I want both.

Agreed.

 

[BranchScape]

Will take pictures of all swords today and share, 1 month submerged for Rose, Aflame, St Elmo's Fire and Fantastic Color.

 

[BranchScape]

You’re not wrong. Unfortunately I’m one of the only people here who has a short commute so I’m spoiled and hate driving more than 30 minutes if I don’t have to. The really nice big stores are all kind of in the boonies relative to where I am. I don’t usually like LFS plants either because it’s all basic emersed stems or epiphytes in poor condition and feels expensive for what it is.

I want to go see some place called 360 which looks huge and just tour ADG and pre order hardscape.

 

[ample]

I want to go see some place called 360 which looks huge and just tour ADG and pre order hardscape.

I’ve been going to 360 for all my livestock. Very cool store, very crowded. Does ADG sell hardscape still? They closed down their retail permanently which I figured would include hardscape.

 

[BranchScape]

I’ve been going to 360 for all my livestock. Very cool store, very crowded. Does ADG sell hardscape still? They closed down their retail permanently which I figured would include hardscape.

You have to call ahead, its more an option for those looking to buy enough to scape a full tank.

 

[ample]

ARC Premium Dual Stage CO2 Regulator

Premium dual stage CO2 regulator for planted aquariums. Prevents end-of-tank dumps, built-in solenoid, precision needle valve. Professional CO2 system for aquascaping.

aquarockscolorado.com

How do we feel about this regulator? Normally $230 but on sale for $160.

 

[Koan]

I don't know that anyone has talked about using that one yet. It's likely a rebrand but I don't have any information on of what

GLA is my go-to buy once / cry once off the shelf regulator, for best in class lifetime support / needle valve /expandability, etc.

GLA PRO-DS-1 Dual Stage CO2 Regulator (Modular Manifold)

Dual stage CO2 regulator with modular manifold. Stable pressure, no end-of-tank dump, and expandable for multiple aquariums.

greenleafaquariums.com

 

[ample]

3 months in! Nothing too significant lately, just been slowly growing in.

• Staghorn algae is long gone and the scape is more or less coasting. There’s some fine algae on the glass that’s slowly growing less over time, a little bit of BBA on some of the tiny gravel, a few strands of filamentous algae here and there, and some spots of cladophora. All pretty slow growing and manageable week to week.
• Finally got Ludwigia arcuata for my background plant. It’s growing well, but I have a lot less space behind the driftwood than I envisioned, so I’m not sure how dense the final result will be.
• Java fern has finally established and started to put out lush new growth. It’s starting to fill out the spider wood the way I imagined, although it’ll still be a while before it turns into those lush cascading ADA style bushes.

Livestock deaths ☹
Unfortunately things haven’t been going as well on the fish side.
Neocaridina population has absolutely exploded, but fish population has essentially halved in the span of a few weeks.

• I’m still not entirely sure why the honey gourami died. Was fine until he started to pale and stop eating, but didn't see any external injuries or signs of illness
• The habrosus cories which seemed to be thriving from the beginning started to drop one by one in the past month, again with no outward behavior changes or signs of illness. I’m down to 3 or 4 cories.
• Lost a couple of pseudomugil as well. One male to a random injury where he got his jaw stuck open, and two more to jumping. I think in such a small tank, the small group wasn’t ideal for sorting out a pecking order. There is now one male and four females, and they seem pretty content.

I’m not decided yet on what direction to go with stocking. I’ve been reading and it may be that the habrosus were wild caught and despite being quarantined by the LFS may have had some internal parasite that eventually caught up to them after a couple of months. The gourami, which feeds and picks at the substrate, may have picked it up as well, while the pseudomugil feed exclusively in the upper third and remain unaffected. However, I don’t want to blindly medicate my display tank without definitive evidence of a parasite. I’m going to wait a month or so before I consider restocking, and I may also pivot to a species better suited for this tank size and layout. Looking at chili or strawberry rasboras provided theyre tank raised and easy to feed.

 

[Kwyet]

It’s a shame about the fish, but the tank looks great!

 

[ample]

This tank fared quite well unattended during my 2 week vacation. For both of my tanks, I had my pet sitter just top off the water and feed the fish twice during the entire time I was gone.

There was some hair algae in the tank, but I had been dealing with that weekly for the past month anyway. There’s also some pretty stubborn BBA on the right side near the substrate, mostly attacking some anubias and growing on hardscape. I have also been doing some more substantial maintenance lately, uprooting overgrown plants and doing bigger trims to keep things from getting too overcrowded.

Now for the sad news. This tank (and by association, all of my tanks) has Java fern gall disease.

I saw some evidence of it maybe 1-2 months back, but now it’s apparent that most of my ferns have galls. It’s progressing slowly but surely. This scape is almost entirely ferns, so eventually I will have to do a complete tear down, and from what I understand, the virus will persist in my tank even after a full reset. How long will I be able to enjoy this scape? It doesn’t need to go on for more than a year, as I’ll probably be moving out of this apartment next summer. Hopefully at my next place I’ll be able to upgrade to a larger tank. If anyone has experience with java fern galls, I’d love to start a discussion on it.

 

[Capraquaria]

If anyone has experience with java fern galls, I’d love to start a discussion on it.

I don't have experience with it, and actually had not heard about it until your post, but Dennis does have a short article regarding the disease. Looks like Java Fern Gall Disease is actually a fungus, which explains why it can be persistent. The spores of many fungal pathogens can be notoriously difficult to kill. If the spores are dormant in the rhizomes, even removing all of the leaves of a new java fern, and planting the rhizome, can still spread the disease.

For restarting a tank, after tearing it down, there are products out there that would be effective saniziters, like some of the triple-phenolic disinfectants we use in hospitals, but unfortunately they would not be safe for sanitizing aquarium equipment with because those compounds can readily penetrate silicones and plastics, and leave residues that would be harmful to aquatic life. Although they would be good for sanitizing things like stainless aquascaping tools between uses/tanks, providing they are very well rinsed and dried.

Chlorine may require higher concentration, and contact time, but has the advantage in our hobby that it can be neutralized effectively.

I do wonder how many hobbists that have torn down infected tanks and had the disease return, accidentally cross-contaminated a restarted tank. Using the same pinsettes, or water change hoses between tanks. I think you would have to assume that if any equipment, hoses, media (when cycling a new tank) etc are shared between tanks, that they are all potentially contaminated. Because this fungus has a motile zoospore phase, cross-contamination is highly likely. Dedicated maintenance equipment for a new/restarted tank would be the best practice to try to prevent reinfection.

That said, if you restart the tank, and sanitize all hard surface equipment, discarding all media, soils, plants, etc., I would be very tempted to only use Java Fern species from some of the newer tissue cultured java ferns becoming available through vendors like Tropica.

 

[Koan]

there are products out there that would be effective saniziters, like some of the triple-phenolic disinfectants

This is the key point: those fungal spores will have splashed on everything. The legs and underside of your light, your lily pipes and hoses, your entire filter, all nets aquascaping tools, your stand, plus anything that has been on your stand like fertilizer bottles etc etc.

For this to not infect your new upgraded tank, you'll need to heavily disinfect all glass and steel pieces, and all hard surfaces, with super turbo disinfectant.

Everything that has plastic and cannot be disinfected, ie your light, your filter, the plastic skimmer on your Lily pipe etc, has to be either replaced, or tagged with something like colored duct tape and only ever used again in an aquascape that doesn't use ferns.

Ideally a different room from any aquascape that does use ferns because spores are airborne, and essentially immortal

 

[ample]

You guys are bumming me out! This was my first time scaping with java fern and I’ve grown to really love it. I can’t imagine doing a layout without it now.

If I upgraded my tank size, I would also upgrade filtration, so I’m really only attached to my light and possibly the filter inlet/outlet. My aquascaping tools are also junky and ready to be replaced.

Do you think medical grade disinfectant wipes and solution would work on lighting and stainless steel lily pipes? It would be pretty crazy if fungal spores could resist cavicide. We also do use it frequently on plastics.

 

[Koan]

Do you think medical grade disinfectant wipes and solution would work on lighting and stainless steel lily pipes? It would be pretty crazy if fungal spores could resist cavicide. We also do use it frequently on plastics.

Strangely enough, Cavicide was actually less effective against fungal spores than tea tree oil in this study

An Evaluation of Antifungal Agents for the Treatment of Fungal Contamination in Indoor Air Environments - PMC

Fungal contamination in indoor environments has been associated with adverse health effects for the inhabitants. Remediation of fungal contamination requires removal of the fungi present and modifying the indoor environment to become less favourable ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Like with anything you're doing your best to reduce the infective dose

Here's an overview of categories of disinfectant, and what they're effective against :

https://ehs.virginia.edu/Biosafety/Disinfection

You can for sure soak the stainless legs on your light, and depending on them light you might could replace the clear splash guard on it as well

 

[MrJG]

It’s looking lovely! ;(

Condolences on the gall, truly sounds like a no win type situation. Wonder if you can be super aggressive about removing clearly affected leaves to slow it down to keep things going and looking good for the year.
I’d consider isolating everything to this tank and maybe convert it to a crypt, buce, stem only tank moving forward or maybe a cool small sword sp. as a centerpiece.

 

[ample]

Strangely enough, Cavicide was actually less effective against fungal spores than tea tree oil in this study

An Evaluation of Antifungal Agents for the Treatment of Fungal Contamination in Indoor Air Environments - PMC

Fungal contamination in indoor environments has been associated with adverse health effects for the inhabitants. Remediation of fungal contamination requires removal of the fungi present and modifying the indoor environment to become less favourable ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Like with anything you're doing your best to reduce the infective dose

Here's an overview of categories of disinfectant, and what they're effective against :

https://ehs.virginia.edu/Biosafety/Disinfection

You can for sure soak the stainless legs on your light, and depending on them light you might could replace the clear splash guard on it as well

What the hell. How is this not more common if it’s near impossible to decontaminate? Java ferns are one of the most popular plants in the aquarium trade.

I should reach out to my good friend who has a PhD and background in fungal pathology. Will report back

 

[Koan]

@Dennis Wong reports that bleach seems to be effective

Java fern (Microsorum pteropus) galls/disease

The Synchytrium fungus infection causes galls to form on Java fern leaf and rhizome surfaces. This disease is incurable and eventually results in the death of infected plants.

www.2hraquarist.com

How is this not more common

Well it is very common in potatoes it's possible it just hasn't spread as far as it might

Synchytrium endobioticum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org