Shakes Journal

I had a tank sitting in the garage for close to 10 months doing nothing. Over the past 4 months I have been building my cabinet. Though not a ELOS cabinet, I did take inspiration from their earlier cabinets and made one similar to theirs.

All my equipment has arrived and finally got all my ELOS substrate and fertilisers. They have just arrived in Australia and hopefully will be in shops over the next few months. I believe I might be the first to try some of the ELOS products in Australia.

All the goodies




The cabinet finally in the house.





Also made a white background. Not sure which one I will go with.



Hope to scape it over the next few weekends. Will update then.

I hope to see the water into it as soon as possible ;-)

Finally got the damn thing planted.

Really was looking forward to trying this ELOS substrate system which is now available here in Australia.

A empty tank. :p



I then added ELOS Bottom Mineral.



With the Bottom Mineral

Then I added a layer of Terra Soil - Small (they also have a medium)



I thought it would have been similar to Aquasoil, but it's not. Firstly it is softer. I thought this would have been a problem, especially when I first opened a bag a few weeks ago to have a look. I must say my initial reaction was that I was a little disappointed. I thought I would have had a tank full of mud. How wrong was I. It's a fantastic product. It is a light product though. I planted the plants before any water was added and had no problems planting, but once water was added and any plants with a small root system was a pain to plant if they got dislodged. There should be no issues with plants with a larger root system.



One of the claims by ELOS is it absorbs floating particles and cloudiness from the water, decreases KH and total hardness and neutralises the PH-level.

Well for the cloudiness part, I can say it works. I did stir things up a little re-planting plants that got uprooted, but within 10 minutes the water was crystal clear. Of all the tanks I have set up over the past few years, I have had not one tank that the water was this clear. I am impressed.

I then added some plain gravel at the front of the tank.

I then added my driftwood.

It's 5 pieces that I hot glued together.



Tied my moss and attached Microsorium pteropus "narrow leaf" & "philippine".

Also added rocks and pebbles to the scape.



Sorry for the water droplets on the tank. It was quite warm yesterday, so I was constantly misting the plants so the wouldn't dry out.

This morning I noticed the driftwood had moved a little. After a few months of soaking, it was still a little buoyant. Also wasn't quite happy with the scape. So I emptied all the water and uprooted all the plants. Added some more rocks on the driftwood to secure it and also added some more Terra Soil.

Then the replanting started again.

This is a dodgy shot . I'll take more photos tonight as the battery has gone flat on the camera.



Plants that were used.

Christmas Moss, Anubias barteri var nana, Bolbitis heudelotti, Blyxa japonica, Crinum calamistratum, Crypt. Petchii, Crypt. Walkeri, Crypt. Willisii, Crypt. Wendtii "Green", Cyperus helferi, Echinoddorus tenellus, Ludwigia arcuata, Microsorium pteropus "narrow leaf" & "philippine" and Sagittaria subulata

More photos to come.

Great!!!

:-)

It looks awesome!
Any update of this tank?

I know this is an old thread but here's his journal from AL. http://www.aquariumlife.com.au/showthread.php?6922-Shake-s-new-project

Chippie thanks for the updated link of shake's journal.
The result is stunning, very well done!!!