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Tuesday 9 September 2014

27 Litre "Moss Garden" Outdoor Tank

I decided to change my outdoor tank setup... again.

This time round i'm preparing plant decor in advance for an upcoming aquascape project, so the tank was converted into a simple moss grow-out tank.

Thin layers of christmas moss were tied onto lava rocks and just placed into the tank, then left on their own to grow (i forgot to take the initial setup photos, but it was just mostly bare lava rocks with bits of moss).

This tank still gets indirect sunlight, but since the moss are not fast growers, i added various floating plants to help soak up any excess nutrients that will invariably build up in the tank. No additional fertilizers dosed, just regular weekly 30% water changes and a mini algae wafer every alternate day for the resident group of hardworking cherry shrimps. :)

Current moss growth (around a month after setup)...


There are still some patches of moss yet to fill in, but the growth rate so far has been quite encouraging. The ones on the right side of the tank get more light and flow than the left side, so they are growing noticeably faster... i'll have to start swapping their positions periodically to balance out their growth rates.


Hopefully the tank can maintain this way until the moss fully grow out. :)

Friday 5 September 2014

A Look Inside The Cabinet

Most of the time its mainly the planted tanks that get highlighted in journals and write-ups... but the humble tank cabinet rarely gets much attention, especially on ideas and ways to maximize space usage. Perhaps its time to have a look inside them too.

Just to share, here is my display 2ft tank cabinet and its current layout...
 
 

Most of the equipment i have are quite standard in most cabinet setups... ie. canister filter, Co2 tank system, in-line reactor, water top-up flask, maintenance tools, power strip, timers etc.

Along the way, i managed to allocate enough space to place a small 10 Liter nano tank (L20cm x W20cm x H25cm) with its own hang-on filter and clip-on LED lights in the cabinet. It's a narrow fit, but with abit of arrangement, there is still sufficient clearance to allow easy access to the other equipment.

Due to the limited floor space in the cabinet, i had to look into vertical storage methods to keep the rest of the items. A simple solution was found by just using a combination of mesh grate and mesh baskets from Daiso. The whole vertical structure on the left side is modular and held up by heavy duty 3M command hooks.

Hopefully this layout inspires some useful ideas on maximizing space in your tank cabinets too. :)

Thursday 4 September 2014

64 Litre "Forest Edge" Tank - Week 56 Update

This tank has crossed its 1 year mark and still chugging along.

I got really lazy after the last tank update and started to neglect plant trimming, which resulted in the fast growing background stem plants constantly looking wild and unruly. It became a real chore to keep up with pruning and maintenance every week... so 2 months ago, i pulled out all the stem plants and replace them with a few bunches of Cyperus Helferi.


So far so good, this background plant's growth rate is slower and much easier to maintain. The original few bunches have since grown into a nice thicket of tall leaf blades that are starting to curve at the water surface... the tank has officially become a "grass" scape. :)


Yeah, the whole tank looks very green now... luckily there is still a resident colony of cherry shrimps to help add a little bit of red accent to the tank. :)