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Well...let's spend more money! I had thought about attending Aquashella - Chicago a few months ago but decided to pass this year. When I was thinking about it, they still didn't have the specific VIP guest list posted. Out of curiosity, I checked today and to my surprise, the man himself, Yusuke Homma, will be presenting the masterclass on Saturday. I can't pass that up when it's only an 8 hour drive. Ticket purchased, room booked. Anyone else attending?

Well I’m done talking about it, it’s time to get this journal started.

I have been really out of it the last year or so in terms of maintaining my own tank, mainly out of frustration with time constraints and inconsistency with dosing etc. However, I have now acquired a dream tank, rimless and with low iron glass like I’ve always wanted. While I loved having a sump and prided myself on putting it together, I’m past that desire. The AIO allows the same benefits with hiding equipment, and overall easier maintenance without climbing in and out of cabinets. Now onto the details of this build.

Tank: Planet Aquariums Tideline 62 Gallon AIO Lagoon

Filtration: (2) 250gph pumps on either side of the tank with center overflow into socks (I’m going to punch holes in the socks for now and stuff with polyfill, reviews state the socks clog way too quickly and there is no replacement sock as the insert is not the common round style). The baffles will be stuffed with the poret foam I have already from my sump for extra mechanical/biological.

Substrate: The bottom layer will comprise of bagged pond soil/peat/earthworm castings/ STS. This will be a thin layer and will mainly act as filler to raise up the cap of APT Feast. This is similar to a substrate setup I did when I first started back up in 2020, And that tank did very well. While capping with sand and relying on the dirt to feed the stems worked well, it did require a little more effort on my end with dosing. I don’t trust myself to be as diligent as some members on here are with their inert subs, so I’m taking the mulligan and using aquasoil as a cap, hence, “dirty soil.” This will be another island style layout, and the surrounding substrate will be comprised of Caribsea Carolina Creek Sand.

Hardscape: River rock (local hardscape center sourced) and malaysian driftwood. I have recently acquired another large piece of wood and I’m sourcing new stone this week, as what I have just isn’t meshing with my current vision for the tank.

Plants: …. I have not solidified my vision of what this scape will look like just yet as I haven’t been able to setup the hardscape to outline the island. The plan is to use a good amount of colorful stems, epiphytes, and potentially moss.

Lighting: I will be ordering the Week Aqua Z400 this week and am excited to test it out.

That’s all for now, more pictures and details to come. I should hopefully have the hardscape setup by the end of this coming week after acquiring more stone and wood.

CO2: Almost forgot, for Co2 injection I have made a DIY Yugang with a locking food storage container. It will be stored in the cabinet and the hook will feed into the return pump chamber on the right. I initially was bummed that I had to sacrifice storage to fit a 5lb CO2 tank under the stand, which also meant getting rid of of the 20lb tank I’ve only been having to fill twice a year. @GreggZ Will appreciate this, my awesome father in law suggested that I hide the co2 tank in the pantry closet which is directly behind that wall and just drill a hole for the co2 line. Since my father in laws word is pure gold in my wife’s eyes, that suggestion was approved! He’s just as much my dad too so I appreciated him supporting the project

The theme for this month's contest is: Algae Patina


This one is going to be tough but I hope some of you take up the challenge. There is a fine line between algae on an object that makes it look natural and old (patina) and algae on an object that simply makes it look unkept and dirty.

Who can strike that balance best??

Please take a picture of algae patina in your aquarium. Be as artistic and creative as you like.

The rules:

• Submissions are allowed between September 11 and September 23.
• Voting will start on September 23 at 12:01 am Eastern time.
• Voting will end on September 30 at 11:30 pm Eastern time.

The prize:

A $25 store credit from BurrAqua thanks to @Burr740!

Good luck!

Hi guys!

I'm new here, but not entirely new to planted tanks though I've been out of the hobby for the better part of the last decade between kids and moving a couple of times - but finally in a spot where I can do something again. I'm mostly going to be making things up as I go along, but plan on a lot of automation (I want to integrate everything into home assistant) and a lot of DIY as I love the challenge of building things out myself.

The starting point:

I picked up a 90P rimless, low-iron tank on a great deal.



I have a rough idea in my head for a stand to be built from plywood - just have a couple other house projects to finish off before starting that built.

Wife says I can only have one aquarium, so for this tank, I want to go all out with a sump to allow for auto top off, and auto water changes, auto fertilizer dosing etc. etc. I have half a plan in my mind.

I've also started on the light fixture which I've modeled up in CAD, and plan on making out of an 8020 extrusion, and some 3D printed bits.

I'm using bridgelux gen 3 thrive CW (3000k) and WW (5000k) LED strips which have super high CRI at 98+ along with some specific XPE2 wavelengths that I'll solder onto some starboards. Far Red (730nm), Red (654nm), Cyan (495nm), Blue (455nm), Visible UV (415nm). Each segment of the white channels will be on its own driver so I can adjust left to right brightness in thirds, and each colour channel on its own driver so I can vary each channel on a time-based approach.

These will be run from a custom PCB board with Meanwell N-LDD drivers, and will run ESPHome on an ESP32 so it can link up with my Home Assistant installation.


That's it for now, this will probably be a very slow build so be warned if you follow along!

How long does it take for this plant to convert from emersed to submerged? I've had these for a month and this is what it looks like. A bit of new growth, but I don't know if it's normal to wait that long or if it's stunting. The emersed stems were tiny also.

Another general query is what is your general experience with the plant?

I wasn't quite sure what to do with this tank after it was damaged, as I have been a little concerned with the corner chip that it may leak. My initial thought was to just propagate some mosses in it, or turn it into a small paludarium, as that would not require me to fill it all the way with water. Well, I couldn't help myself. Found some lovely pieces of sturdy Manzanita that worked well together, and the next thing you know, 45lbs of Manten Stone shows up on the door step. Before hitting Aquashella in New Jersey, it was almost through the dark start.

Hardware:

• ADA Cube Garden 60F (60 x 30 x 25 cm)
• Chihiros WRGB II Slim 60
• Oase Filtosmart 100
• Jardli Lily Pipes (12/16mm)
• GLA Cartridge CO2 Kit

Hardscape & Subtrate:

• Ancient Manten Stone (ARC) - 45lbs
• Manzanita (sand blasted) - 4 pieces
• UNS Controsoil Black (normal & fine)
• ADA La Plata Sand

Finished hardscape:



This tank is intended to be slow, and low maintenance. Inspired by Jeff Senske's 'greening' method, this is principally an epiphyte tank, and there are no stems. However, it was a fun challenge to work in a relatively tight space, especially front-to-back, and play with scale.

I drained the tank yesterday, and started planting.

Foreground:

• Bucephalandra Kedagang Japan
• Anubias nana 'Petite'
• Fissidens nobilis

Midground:

• Bucephalandra Lamandau Mini Purple
• Bucephalandra Kedagang 'Round Mini'
• Anubias minima 'Dragon Claw'
• Anubias barteri var. nana 'Mini Coin'
• Fissidens fontanus (Manzanita)
• Fissidens crispulus

Background:

• Bucephalandra 'Petite Blue Chili'
• Bucephalandra 'Petite Galaxy'
• Anubias barteri var. nana 'Pangolino'
• Fissidens Miroshaki

As the tank was in a dark start when the mosses arrived, I tied them to rocks, and dropped them in a tank with CO2 until I was ready to plant. Worked quite well, and was easy to just snip the Terra Line off and transfer the moss to the driftwood when planting. Kept it healthy, and growing. Of course, if I was smart, I would NOT have glued the wood down prior to the dark start. That made tying Fissidens to the wood a bit challenging yesterday, but finally got it done.

Fissidens fontanus wasn't too bad, as the main arch is elevated a bit more



Fissidens crispulus was a bit more tricky on the secondary arch, as that rock was squarely in the way. I noticed that crispulus was already pushing new green tips, as was the notoriously slow growing Miroshaki.



I am not a huge fan of gluing moss or epiphytes, if I can avoid it, mostly because it messes up the hardscape. The majority of the buce and anubias species were simply wedged into crevices in the rocks.

As there was a little exposed aquasoil on the left and right rear flanks, I grabbed the pot of Marsilea minuta I picked up at Aquashella, and stuffed a few in high back corners. I was going to put some HC Cuba back there, and still might, but will be using most of it in the Sensei Stone tank, so didn't want to open the TC just yet. Once I plant that tank, I might sneak a little Cuba into this tank.



I am not sure that a plant can really be adorable, but seriously, Bucephalandra 'Petite Galaxy', next to Anubias Pangolino? This buce is truly teeny tiny, and IF it survives, might be my new favorite detailing plant.



As the Tank is shallow, and the plants are slow, I am starting out at around 28% light intensity while the plants, mostly TC, settle in. Will dose for the next 7 days with Seachem Flourish Advance, and am starting the tank out with APT1.

Here's hoping the plant melting and algae gods are kind!

Browsed the Sreepadma booth at Aquashella briefly today. I'd not heard of them but they are the largest aquatic plant farm in India and have been selling their TC offerings in the US for about 2 years. I was actually impressed with the qualty I was seeing of their TC cups and wish I had room in a tank for some (and some ADA TC). Has anyone else purchased any of their plants. One of the first that I spotted was Red Tiger Crypt which was a coincidence since we have a thread discussing it.

Anyone familiar with these?

Inspired by @Naturescapes_Rocco ’s no-tech bowl thread, I decided to set up something similar.

With all the highs and lows of running a high-tech planted tank, I was hoping to put together something much simpler—a small bowl with no filter, no CO₂, and minimal equipment.

Bowl​

WGV Large Glass Bowl Vase
12" diameter × 10" height
Approximately 3 gallons

Light​

AREPK Aquarium & Terrarium Full Spectrum LED
5 watts

Substrate / Hardscape​

• APT Feast
• A single lava rock

I’m not actually sure what type of lava rock this is maybe @FreshTides_Neal can comment, since I picked it up from his shop. These rocks have a really interesting shade and texture to them.

Water​

RO water remineralized with APT Sky

Fertilizer​

None so far.

Dark Start​

I did a dark start for about 2 weeks after squeezing some mulm from an established filter into the bowl.

At the end of the two weeks, ammonia remained super high.

I eventually got impatient, did about a 90% water change, and planted the bowl.

Plants​

My initial goal was to use relatively fast-growing plants to help stabilize the system. Some of these may not necessarily remain in the bowl long term.

Current plants include:

• Limnophila heterophylla
• Pearlweed
• Rotala ‘Blood Red’
• Helanthium tenellum
• Trident Java fern
• Mini Bolbitis
• A few assorted stems from my main tank
• Some nice floating plants

I was also happy to get several of the plants locally from FreshTides Aquatics. Great-quality Tropica plants, and I’m glad to finally have access to a local aquascaping store.

Water Changes​

One of the biggest advantages of a bowl this size is how easy maintenance is.

A 75% water change takes less than 10 minutes.

For the last couple of weeks after planting, I’ve been doing water changes approximately every 2–3 days.

Experience So Far​

So far, the water has remained crystal clear.

Maybe it’s the fresh aquasoil, but the pH has been sitting around 6.6. For comparison, my main high-tech tank with APT Feast (about a year old) sits around pH 7 before the CO₂ comes on.

Plant growth has been surprisingly good. I also frequently see the plants pearling, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting from a little no-tech setup like this. The L.heterophylla has been trimmed once.

What has been particularly interesting is how easily plants taken directly from my high-tech tank seem to have transitioned to these very different conditions.

A bladder snail somehow hitchhiked in with the plants. It seems perfectly happy and has already started reproducing.

With the relatively low pH, I suspect much of the measured ammonia is present as the less-toxic ammonium form, which may also explain why the snail seems completely unbothered.

I am starting to see the power of frequent water changes with the lack of algae so far (fingers crossed).

Things I Might Do Differently Next Time​

1. Use a less nutrient-rich substrate or cap the aquasoil.

For such a small volume of water, APT Feast may simply be more nutrient-rich than necessary. I’m curious to see how things evolve once the bowl matures.

2. Choose a different light.

The light itself works fine, but the built-in timer is frustrating.

If I turn the light on at night just to look at the bowl, it interrupts the timer cycle, and I then have to reset it the following day.

I’m not particularly handy with electrical work, but ideally I’d love a simple light that could just be plugged into a Kasa smart plug and controlled externally.

If anyone has recommendations for a good small bowl light that works that way, let me know.

Overall, though, I’m really enjoying the simplicity of this setup so far.

Looking forward to letting it mature a little more and hopefully adding some red cherry shrimp soon.

I have been inspired by everyone’s awesome planted fish bowls. I have been researching and toying around with the idea of setting one up. I was working on building a nano frag tank set up for my saltwater side and got the itch to try something. So I started building the pedestal for a fish bowl. Now down the rabbit hole, I am bending a piece of trim to wrap my 12” platform.