Artemis' New Kingdom

[BasilBetta87]

The Spec is up and running! Spent last night getting the Spec all set up and now it is running with heat, light and filtration. It has Seachem's Flourite as the substrate and I planted some Dwarf Hairgrass in the front and some Needle Leaf Ludwigia in the back. I'm hoping my light is powerful enough for the Ludwigia, if not I've got an 18 watt Coralife Mini Aqualight that I can mount up on the Spec. Here are the pics. Enjoy!


Rinsing the Flourite. __ Impeller (Modified) ____ Moded Impeller in Pump


Flourite in Spec. _____ Another angle _ Filling!


Filled! _______ Dwarf Hairgrass.

The flow is still pretty strong even with the impeller sanded down so I'll probably either rig up a spray bar to the outlet or sand down the blades of the impeller even more. I can't wait to get Artemis in here!

[bastage]

looks great so far.. I am thinking about getting a spec to replace my 2 gallon hex for my desk here at work. I think my wifh would like the plantlife.

Edit: And fluval says your LED's that come with the spec will support plantlife.

[BasilBetta87]

Bastage, that's good to hear. It is a pretty bright light. And I will have to see how Artemis reacts to the flow. Hopefully I sanded down enough of the blades to make it a comfortable rate.

[BasilBetta87]

Update. So I'm pretty sure I did not plant nearly enough plants. It's cycling but I lost two parts of my Needle Leaf. :/ So now the question is what do I add to the middle of the cycle? I tossed in a Anubias Petite so we will see how it does. Ammonia is 0 but I'm off the charts with Nitrites and Nitrates. So do I go more stems like Cabomba or Wisteria or a bunch of floaters like Frogbit or Anarchis?

Pics:





If you look closely at the right needle leaf you can see some die off at the base of the plant. Top of the plant is still green and growing?

[Gen2387]

I have a question about that tank. I've seen it at my LPS and I've always thought it was really pretty and a good size for a desk as it is 2gallon. But i've seen it up and running and the flow of the filter is terribly strong. How can you baffle it? The filter is integrated in the tank so maybe i just don't have enough imagination but I can't see how to baffle it. Anyone has experience with this tank and filter?

[FuulieQ]

Originally Posted by bastage

so I am fairly new to plants, but MGO is a PITA to keep from stirring up & clouding the water unless you have a good cap. In a tank that small I couldn't see it being anything but a nightmare. I Think I would go with something like Florite or FloraMax so as to not have to worry about that. It will cost you more upfront (bags are 15-20 bucks each for normal sized bags which will be way overkill for your application).

SECONDED.

I tried this, and it was horrible. I probably wouldn't try using MGO on any tank ever again. I could never get all the soil out of the gravel, it's been months and I'm still suctioning it out of there even with my animals having lived in it for all that time and regular 50% water changes. =_=

[FuulieQ]

About the plants dying off at the bottom, I've heard of this happening when there isn't enough light. Plants will drop the bottom leaves which aren't getting light and focus on growing towards the top where there is light. I have a plant that does this and in order to keep it from dropping all its lower leaves, I have to trim the top ones. I don't know if you want to do that, though. I would ask OldFishLady about it, all her tanks are walstad method so she probably knows what's going on.

[BasilBetta87]

Gen, the impeller inside the filter can be modified, though this is a permement modification. As for slowing the flow more you can always poke holes into the outflow tube that moves water back into the display part of the tank. Another idea is to rig up a spray bar which would distribute the return flow over a larger area of the tank.
As for my plants I will trim the still green parts, replant those and then Aquarium Pharmaceuticals GH/KH Test Kit
Helps detect rapid pH shifts stressful to aquarium fish
switch my stock light over to my new Fluval 13 watt lamp. I also added some duckweed and Frogbit to eat up more of the excess nitrites and nitrates.

[BasilBetta87]

Update
Artemis Added, Fluval 13 watt lamp added and Frogbit floating on top.