Rescape of RED EARTH to Mysterious Trail Part 1/2

The status of my main tank..RED EARTH... pathetic hor~~ die die need to rescape... haha all moss overgrown and some browning off due to the current hot weather..

First, special thanks to VSGenesis of AQ for contributing these used GEX soil, although the online review for this soil is not very good, but i am running low on budget and I am setting up low tech tank anyway so gex soil is better than no soil...:)

The soil are very damp as he just decommissioned them, so i spend a whole 2 days just to flush them with water and dry them off naturally under the sun... spend a lot of time shifting them from corridor to inside of the house as it suddenly rain... weird weather...:( 

Special tanks to Eric of AQ for selling me these nice Lapis sand as i think my current lapis sand is not sufficient to make a slope... hehe a bucket full of lapis... washed for 2 hours as they are dirty and soak with boiling water to kill off any unwanted bacteria/virus/parasite...

introducing a very GOOD tool for cleaning sand and stuff.... the Sieve... i grab the biggest size i can find and look for the smallest hole available...cheap..less than 3 bucks.. can sieve off dust from sand and soil... highly recommended as it saves me a lot of trouble... btw, you can use your fish net but i find this easier as it has 2 hooks to hook on pail... 

Welcome to my PAILRIUM(patent pending)... lol .. all my fish n shrimps are in there...

removed my plants and keep them constantly wet by spraying water

Sucked out the excess water and cleaned the "Red Clay"  Soil/pallets.. the white pipe is a gravel cleaner, most hobbyist will know it is very useful tool

This is JBL kugeln balls, right is used for 5 months, left is new... still retain its shape inside my sand...:) not bad...

back pain.... all sand removed... clean glass and stuffs... see my slender and sexy leg reflection? lol... wait till you see the real legs... haha..just joking,i am already taken and i love my wife...:)

after a back breaking cleaning of sand using sieve, i put the "red clay sand(CS)" into a cloth bag for washing machine i bought from DAISO.... why pink colour? BRO, white colour ones out of stock and i can't find black colour ones.. i don't like the colour too but nobody is gonna see it anyway

Why i use this bag? it has a ZIP where i can open and close it properly... hehe you may be asking why i put them in this bag?? stay tuned boys and girls..

Pink CS pillow... anyone wanted to lie down on it?? hehe

Ok, here is the CS and a bag of CR i bought from seaview... 

tah dah !!!  slope in making... i am using them as a foundation for slope, for aeration of soil, for BB to grow and strive.... hehe 3 benefits in this trick...:) 

left is a new DW from OTF, very NICE, right is the old DW from RED EARTH tank... hehe i reused the stuff as not to waste anything...:) Agak agak place the DW... hehe i only use my imagination and agak agak... agak agak means trial and error 

As the Gex soil is old, i used UP Initial Fertilizer sticks as base for nutrient...:)

Here are the size of the fert in case you guys never use it before... 1 bag is enough for 2 feet tank.. so i just pour them everywhere. The black colour stuff is a divider to prevent sand and soil to be mixed together and to create a boundary feel.

initial stage of pouring the sand and soil... try to create a slope and slightly slanted trail alike feel

hehe, nice? 

Added plants, rocks, needle fern, use back some of the plants from my RED EARTH tank...:)

In case you are wondering, the ammonia for first day is 2, quite high as i thought the GEX soil is already depleted of nutrients... but after 1 day, the ammonia dropped to 0...haha my old BB in the soil and filter wool is very very powerful....:)

close up shots on day 2 of adding fish...

close up shots... hehe planted my microswords sparingly to create the grassy feel...

my tank still suffers from bacteria bloom as you can see the smokey feel....

close up of part of the tank...

another close up.... hehe

Stay tuned for more updates..... follow my updates by subscribing or become a follower...:)

Part 2 of the scape : http://theplantedtankblog.blogspot.sg/2012/06/rescape-of-red-earth-to-mysterious.html

Nitrogen Cycle / Cycling of tank

This is a famous Newbie question, what is cycling of tank? i got this question uncountable times and its really a big headache for me to explain from start to end as most newbie to planted tank /Shrimp tank does not seem to like googling and researching... well, I will try to simplify in common english/singlish/manglish.

Cycling of tank does not mean phyiscally cycling using a bike in an aquarium...duh... its trying to create a bunch/colony of Beneficial Bacteria(BB) to eat up any possible ammonia,no2 and this process is called nitrogen cycle. 

Nitogen Cycle

Ammonia(NH3) is considered poisonous to fish and livestock even in low amount. However, it is commonly introduced into tank via aquasoil, fertilizer, decomposed stuffs, tap water etc sources. Thus having a colony of Beneficial Bacteria(BB) is very important to quickly eliminate NH3

BB will convert Ammonia(NH3) in the tank, thus reducing/eliminating it and producing Nitrites(NO2). So now, we have lesser ammonia in the tank, but we now have another chemical to deal with - N02. If you have a test kit, you should be able to see the nitrite levels rise around the end of the first or second week.

BB will convert the NO2 into nitrates(NO3). NO3 are not as harmful as NH3 or NO2, but NO3 is still harmful in large amounts. The quickest way to lower NO3 is to perform partial water changes or add water conditioner.

Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate although are toxic and poisonous, they are considered as plant fertilizer/nutrient therefore having them means its good for plants. However, having more than required may cause death to livestock or invite algae....

Update: NH3 only exists in high PH area, and it will be converted to ammonium (NH4) which is harmless in low PH area. this information was shared by ada website... great infomation as most of us are keeping livestock in low PH water..thus risk of NH3 poisoning is lower

Simplest explanation I can think off:-
NH3 convert into No2 convert into No3 with help of BB with sufficient oxygen

Recommended levels for planted tank with hardy livestock 

ammonia;- 0-0.5 ppm

nitrite;- 0-10 ppm

nitrate;- 0-40 ppm

The above parameters are from my own observation for keeping hardy fish and shrimps, for advance shrimps, its best to keep all NH3,NO2,NO3 at 0 at all times but its quite hard for planted tank as the fertilizer we dose contains ammonia most of the time. So the choice is yours Nice Shrimps or Nice Planted tank.

So is it essential to cycle the tank?? the answer is:- YES if you are keeping any livestock. 
How long does i need to cycle the tank?? the answer is;- to reach 0 for NH3, its norm for ADA soil user to cycle for 1-2 months

So what is the consequences of not cycling the tank properly? The answer is;- death of livestock such as less hardy fish or shrimps.

Ways of reducing cycling time

• Use of commercial BB in a bottle
• Use of commercial water treatment like seachem prime
• Use Aged tank water/filter media to introduce BB faster rather than building BB colony from scratch
• Use of commercial shrimp soil (less fertile for plants though)

IMPORTANT

Notes:- You need oxygen for the nitrogen cycle to work, Do remember to add anti chlorine into water aged the water prior Water Change. Chlorine is poisonous and will kill any BB or livestock...that is why chlorine are added into tap water.

Easy-Aqua Co2 Atomizer Review (updated 27/5/2012)

Ladies and Gentlemen... let me introduce to you the infamous Easy-aqua Co2 Atomizer....

Bought from seaview yesterday...hehe not too expensive but nice addition to the tank

Atomizer in action... my shrimp looking at it curiously...hehe

The video of the atomizer in Action... hehe do you need anymore explanation?? looks great and misting in my tank

I notice the atomizer gotten a lot of bad reviews in the net due to 

• Need of high pressure to work
• Poor silicon quality,less durable
• More expensive than common airstone/normal glass ceramic diffusor

From my observation,

• It really need around 25 kg/cm2 of pressure to work properly, so DIY co2 fans might have trouble using this
• It takes time for it to charge up for around 15-20 minutes prior the first misting/bubble
• The mist looks great and able to recreate the 7up effect... all plants pearls great...
• It really works better than normal glass ceramic diffusor as i can see the bubbles are much finer
• For workmanship, i have nothing to complain about as i just started using it for 2 days...
• Pricing around SGD 9-10 at local LFS not too expensive as there are more expensive glasswares

UPDATES on 27-5-2012

The workmanship of this product is very questionable, it stop producing fine bubbles, and big bubbles starts to leak out from the Brown transparent end. I DO NOT recommend this product.

IAPLC 2012

Finally, my tank is ready for IAPLC photo shoot.... hehe... 

Actually, i just agak-agak take some pictures of the front view of my tank... no photoshop, just natural look... hope i can make it into top 1000 of IAPLC as there are really a lot of good aquascapers around... my entry will be My simple Driftwood Scape of course.... lol

Btw, to those who don't know, IAPLC stands for The International Aquatic Plant Layout Contest organised by ADA, the official website is  http://en.iaplc.com/

To those who are new in aquascaping, most of the videos you seen on youtube are contestants of IAPLC. There are few others aquascaping contest around, but for SEA, i think IAPLC is most famous as its organised by ADA which was headed by Mr Amano...

I just submitted my latest picture of my tank, hope it can make it...:) all fellow scapers to ARMS!! quickly submit your pictures as the end date is end of May 2012...