Garlic & Peas for better fish health

Hello again,

fish health is a very important factor in a beautiful aquarium, whether there are plants or not. The immune system of our fish will sometimes deteriorate under certain conditions, mostly due to neglect and inadequate maintenance. There are plenty of commercialized products out there that provide the fish with essential vitamins and nutrients like Seachem's Nourish, but apart from the ones we can find in pet stores, we can also make a homemade simple recipe.

All you need is a clove of garlic and some peas. Boil the peas and the garlic, then mush them together and just feed them to your fish. Simple but effective. Even better it would be if you could wrap the garlic clove into aluminium foil and place it in the over for a few minutes. This way all of the vitamins will be kept with the garlic instead of some being lost in the boiling water. Most omnivorous fish will love this and it has all the positive effects for very healthy fish. One important effect of garlic is that it fights against certain parasites. However, this is more  of a preventative measure rather than a cure.

In general, try to feed your fish a diversity of food including Daphnia, blood worms, flake food and if you are into the homemade thing, then there are plenty of recipes online regarding fish food, with this garlic & pea one being one of the most popular.

Thanks

Beach Cliff aquascape by Pedro Rosa

Hello,

Pedro Rosa is a renowned aquascaper from Portugal. He is famous for many aquascapes, one of them being "Beach Cliff". The following video is a step by step guide of the setup. He used an ADA 60cm tank, maple leaf stones and plenty of ADA products including Bacter B, Amazonia soil and Power Sand. The plants used are Cardamine Lyrata; Juncus Repens; Echinodorus Tenellus; Eleocharis sp. mini.

Products ADA (Aquarium and Fertilisers)
Eheim Ecco 2234 Filter
Heater Jagger 75w
CO2 TMC 567g Pressurized, Solenoid Valve
Lights Aquaeden - Ramirezzi Solstar 4x24w (only two are used)
Substrate Ada Penac-W, Ada Power Sand S, Ada Amazonia Aqua Soil
Hardscape Maple Leaf Stone



Description by Pedro Rosa:On June 30, 2012 i made this aquarium that was planned for some time. I still have Valley Roots of 320L (which can be seen here). I decided to invest in an ADA Cube Garden Aquarium 60x30x36, extra-clear glass with a ratio of 1.6 vision. Very expensive stuff but with exceptional quality. In the video I have some pictures of the details of the tank. The idea I had for this assembly was: "A sort of Iwagumi". A "sort" because I do not want to restrict to the rules but do something similar.It has the usual rock, carpet and plants. I used sand "La Plata Sand" from ADA in the front to form a "kind" beach wrapped in a cliff formed by the rocks. Behind, i used Aqua Soil-Amazonia and plants: Eleocharis sp. Mini for the "carpet" and behind Juncus Repens (right and middle) and Cardamine lyrata (left). After 7/8 months i replaced Cardamine lyrata by Pogostemon stellata and Juncus Repens by Rotala Macandra Japan. The stones are Maple Leaf Stones. It is a beautiful stone. By min. 41:54 Video can be seen in close-up detail some aquarium rocks and the beautiful Maple Leaf Stone. They are extremely lightweight and breaks very easily. They must be thoroughly washed to remove the "dust" orange.


Enjoy the video!

Thanks!

Aquarium Lighting

Hello and welcome back,

lighting is a very important aspect in the planted aquarium. It is not that light alone can play a catalytic role by itself, but more that light and in consequence light intensity, will define the levels of the other pillars of a healthy planted aquarium. Low light intensity means low CO2, less distribution, less fertilisers, less water changes and everything is required in lesser amounts in that sense.

This subject is what most people make mistakes without even knowing. Some people get it right, but most get it wrong because they use more light than needed, causing a myriad of problems. At this point I would like to offer my advice through my little experience. First and above all, do not flood your aquarium with light. It is better to have less light rather than more. More light means everything happens faster and gives you less time to react. Secondly, it is better to find someone that had success with a specific light and emulate him to get similar results. This also means that it is better to find more common light fixtures rather than one off the internet that nobody has heard of.

At the moment. the most common lighting fixtures used for aquariums are the following:

1. LED: I have seen many people succeed with such lights and I have used one myself and I must say they have 2 big advantages. The first one is that if you buy a controller, you can manage the intensity of the light through this controller and adjust the light to your aquariums needs. Starting low and moving upwards is a suggested method and at some point you will hit the sweet spot. Just allow a week to ten days for each intensity increase to take effect on the plants. The second one, which is very important for us living in the hot climate of Cyprus, is that LEDs do not emit heat. This helps with keeping the water temperature at tolerable levels during the summer. Two disadvantages that LEDs have is that they are very expensive and at the moment not that common, which will restrict you in finding others to emulate. Apart from that though, they are sleek, minimalistic and very easy to handle.

I have two such lighting fixtures in mind. One is from TMC, where we have the GroBeam Ultima Lighting Strip and the GroBeam Ultima Lighting Tile. The second one is more powerful but all the information you need can be found in the catalog they have online. The controller is also a neat piece of equipment because not only it changes the intensity but it has a timer where you can set when the lights come on and off. On top of this, the controller can simulate morning and night by switching on and off the light with a ramping function where intensity is increased and decreased to the wanted levels gradually. All of this lights have different mounting options and can be fixed on top of the tank in any way needed. Aquaessentials usually have them in stock.

The other very popular LEDs are the ADA Aquasky. I have never used one of those but most people have great success with them. LED comes fixed on mounting bracket and they look quite bright on top of aquariums. There are different sizes for different aquariums but they are quite expensive. The Green Machine usually has them in stock.

2. T5HO: can be found everywhere. Any respectable pet shop will sell T5HO in different lengths for different tanks and usually you can find the ballast  mechanism separately if you wish to make your own DIY project which is fairly easy. Do not use alot of tubes over your tank. Use tubes the length of your tank but stick to one tube if low tech or two if high tech. You can take it from there. Much cheaper than LEDs but do emit alot of heat. Very common in many aquascapes and with a shot search you can find plenty of beautiful aquascapes that use T5HOs you can emulate. Please have in mind that certain experienced aquascapers sometimes use a large number of T5HOs on top of their tanks. Do not follow their example. It is difficult to handle so much light. Less is always better. Some aquascapers like Tom Barr use different colours of tubes that emit different kelvin. If this is done correctly a nice effect is achieved that makes the colours of plants and fish pop.

Thanks for reading!

First European Aquascaping Journal

Hello,

If anyone is interested in reading through this first issue of the european aquascaping journal then you can follow the link here and download it. It contains an interview with the late Takashi Amano, an introduction to aquascaping and a sort interview with Gregoire Wolinski, the French aquascaper that came first in last years International Aquarium Plants Layout Contest.

Thanks

CO2 Diffusion Methods

Hello and welcome back,

Anyone that is in this hobby for the pants will already know that CO2 is a very essential part of growing healthy plants. The diffusion and distribution of CO2 to plants can be carried out in many ways.

One has to firstly decide which path to follow. Gas CO2 or liquid CO2. I have seen planted aquariums equally beautiful with both CO2 sources, however, it should be said that the first is more costly but the second is slower. Liquid CO2 is rarely used alone and it is mostly used to complement the pressurized CO2 already added to the aquarium. Liquid CO2 will also inhibit growth in certain plant species like Vallisnerias.  

1. Glass Diffuser: this is the most common diffusion method. There are different quality glass diffusers with the main difference being the ceramic disc which defines the size and number of the CO2 bubbles. ADA diffusers are among the best, but cheaper one like Rhinox found on eBay are also very efficient and taking into account the price difference, more value for money. Different sizes, different shapes, even different materials define the price. Some even have a bubble counter incorporated.

2. Inline Diffuser: an inline diffuser is a small accessory that you connect to the inline/outline tube of your external filter and produces finite bubbles just like a glass diffuser without having any equipment in the tank. If it is connected on the outflow of your filter, then the bubbles are pushed out of and are visible. However, if you connect it on the inflow of the filter, the bubbles get sucked into the propeller of the filter and are dissolved completely, so no visible bubbles coming out, just like a reactor. Sometimes there is CO2 buildup in the filter and every now and then some CO2 is blown out the filter outflow. Personally I prefer using an inline atomizer on the inflow of the filter, I have done so for quite some time now without any problems at all. Less equipment in the tank and no bubbles.

3. Reactor: just like an inline diffuser connected to the inflow of a filter, a reactor is a compartment on the inflow or outflow of the filter that will dissolve the CO2 completely. No bubbles are visible and it is said to be the most effective method of CO2 dissolution, even though it will inhibit flow sometimes. There are ready made ones and if you are a DIY person there are simple instructions you can follow to build one yourself. Rex Grigg has a nice setup guide you can follow.

4. Atomizer: an atomizer is very similar to a glass difusser in the sense that it is situated in the tank and expels tiny bubbles just like mist. This is a lot more efficient than an average glass diffuser and maybe better than the expensive ADA ones. It is not as beautiful as an ADA glass diffuser but it will do the job.

Online shops you can get such equipment:
1. CO2 Art-based in UK you can find almost anything ralated to CO2 apart from ADA
2. Aquarium HK-based in Hong Kong, this is where you find reactors, Rhinox diffusers & atomizers
3. The Green Machine-if you are interested in the ADA products here is where you can find them
4. Aquaessentials-based in UK there are always a few CO2 diffusers and atomizers
5. eBay

Thank you for reading. For any questiosn please leave a comment.

The World’s Largest Nature Aquarium by Takashi Amano

Hello,

I have stumbled upon this very interesting video, the last big thing of the late Takashi Amano, the biggest planted aquarium in the world. He named it "Forests Underwater".

In this video, the famous aquascaper Filipe Oliveira, gives us a short tour of the aquarium in Portugal.

Thanks for watching.

Choosing a substrate for your planted aquarium

Hello and welcome back,

today we will touch the subject of substrate in the aquarium. I have used many types of substrates for many years now and I have seen other people use other substrates. I have come to the conclusion that the more successful planted tanks always use nutritious substrates.

The substrates that are at our disposal on the island of Cyprus are the following:

1. JBL Manado (~€20): this substrate has no nutrients at all. It is plain and simple but it has a

characteristics that aquascapers believe it is very helpful when growing plants. It has a high cation exchange capacity (CEC). In simple words this means that when we dose fertilizers in the water column or when the waste of fish are broken down, cations of Potassium, Nitrogen, Phosphorus are attracted and stored in the substrate. These cations come from Ammonia and Nitrates contained in fish waste or from our fertilizers that contain KNO3, KH2PO4 etc. Now the substrate holds these ions that plants use as fertilizers to grow. Plants utilize them though their root system or the substrate releases them in the water column if there is an unbalance of ions between substrate and water column.

How does this help? Well it ensures that there are fertilizers available to the plants even if we forget to dose for a day or if we conduct a water change. It is our storage room for fertilizers in our planted aquarium!  


2. Inert substrate: any kind of sand or gravel that does not have CEC. It is purely used to anchor

plants and for decorative reasons. I have never managed to grow any plants in good health in such a substrate before. However, I have seen plenty of people succeed with just inert substrate. They use it in either low maintenance tanks or they add a nutritious substrate under the inert one which makes wonders to plants. Having experienced it with a nutritious under-substrate, plants grow like crazy. My advice, never use inert substrate by itself, always use a nutritious under-substrate and your problems will be far less. However, always have in mind that under-substrate tends to mix and come on top of your top layer substrate.


3. ADA Amazonia (~€40): without a doubt the most successful and nutritious substrate in the

market, used by thousands of aquascapers around the world. Designed and manufactured by the late Takashi Amano, ADA Amazonia contains all the nutrients plants require and it can be used as a standalone substrate or even better used with ADA Power Sand which is an under-substrate and even more nutritious. Having nutritious substrates seems to make carpeting plants spread easier. All plants grow healthy and luxuriously with bright green colors. This of course depends on other factors but substrate is a major one.

Further to the nutritious elements, this substrate lowers the kH and pH of the water. It makes water softer that plants tend to like more rather than harder water and water here in Cyprus has a really high kH/gH.

Unfortunately, we do not have any pet shops that I know off that sell ADA Amazonia or ADA products in general. Fortunately we have internet and the Germans. Aquasabi is an online German retailer that ships to Cyprus for around €8 or if the total is over €150 then shipping is FREE.


4. JBL Aquabasis: manufactured by the same company as Manado, this is an under-substrate that

can be used with plain, non-nutritious substrate. Highly advisable when using JBL Manado, gravel or sand, this nutritious under-substrate will promote healthy growth and a good anchoring media for plant roots.










5. Tropica Plant Growth: again an under-substrate that can be purchased online from Aquasabi or IDAGREX LTD in Limassol, this is highly nutritious and probably a bit better than Aquabasis.

Tropica are a leading pioneer in aquatic plants and all we can do is trust them when it comes to their products!










Here is an example of two tanks. The one above has JBL Manado alone and the one bellow has JBL Manado and Tropica Plant Growth. Look at the difference in health, the vibrant colors and the growth was much much faster in the bottom tank.

Thank for reading through. For any questions just drop a comment!