Takashi Amano Workshop in Malaysia

For more details click on the poster above

A once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Takashi Amano aka King of Nature Aquarium in Malaysia.

This workshop is held in conjunction with Aquafair Malaysia 2010. Here's the particular...

Date	26 November 2010
Time	2:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Venue	Exhibition Hall 4, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Kuala Lumpur
Fee	RM 150.00 / USD 50.00 per participant
Speaker	Mr Takashi Amano – King of Nature Aquarium

*For more information about this event, please visit here

*Alternatively you can also download the registration form here 
 
I'll be attending this workshop so if any of you guys attending, then I'll see you there :D

And by the way, I heard rumors that the date of the workshop was brought forward to the 27th November 2010 by popular request because it falls on Saturday which I think is much convenient to the local hobbyist.

If in any case it is true, then for those flying down to Kuala Lumpur, please make sure you are staying here extra longer, coz you don't want to be flying home on the 27th. Just to be safe, be there till the end of the aquafair event which is till the 28th November 2010.

So I guess that's about all, and for your info I'll be flying down on the 25th November, so till then see you there and see me live in real person too....haha :D

---Blog post ends here---

Announcement!
This post was re-edited on 16 April 2011

I had to remove the link to Aquafair Malaysia due to some technical glitch. Contact me if you want the link to the website.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
Thanks :D

Java moss carpet

Quite sometime ago I created a foreground carpet using moss I collected from the wild. I guess it's java moss, because of it's form. The pic below shows the wild moss I collected a while back.

wild moss, I'm certain it's java moss because of the structure of it's strand...I can be wrong though :(

Check out the links below, you can read more about my moss collecting trip in my older blogpost:

http://borneosucker.blogspot.com/2009/11/left-my-camera-battery-at-home.html

http://borneosucker.blogspot.com/2009/06/collecting-moss.html

So back to the moss carpet story...this is the result of using the above moss to make moss carpet...check out the pics...and pardon me, pics are blurry because I capture using a handphone camera :(

Java moss carpet, they grow in the form of individual strand like dwarf hairgrass :D This was taken on 2nd July 2010

Pic taken on 29th July 2010, just within few weeks, it became so dense :D...time for some trimming though

And if you ever wonder how I started growing this moss, how I tie it....here it is...

Yeap, this is how I started growing the moss. Just tie on some pebbles or small rocks. And arrange it where you want the carpet to be :D

There you have it, my simple technique to creating a java moss carpet :D

~Cheers! 

P.S Feel free to share this blogspot :D 

Super red Blyxa japonica

Never seen my aquarium for almost a week, and this is what happen, my Blyxa japonica turn to red colour. So red, that I describe it as Super red Blyxa japonica...lolz :D

Just take a look at the pic and be the judge! Sorry for the blur pic, I don't have a camera, so took it with my handphone camera :(

Super red Blyxa japonica side view

Super red Blyxa japonica, top view...so red

...try compare those that are green growing on the right side

Damn! Really wish I have a camera....anyway enjoy and cheers!

Rotala wallichii emersed form and flowering

This is an unexpected discovery for me :D

I did some trimming on my Rotala wallichii quite some time ago, didn't discard the whole plant, but instead just place them in a bucket of water. I don't remember how long I left them there, and today I check, I saw the emersed form.

Check out the pics...

Rotala wallichii emersed form and flowering

They even bear flowers in the emersed form, tiny purple colour flowers...nice and cute :D

If you can see from the picture, the plant is just kept floating in the bucket.....and still it grows, amazing!

To view more of the Rotala pic, click here to go to my photo album....cheers!

Here's the same plant, different angle

Sleeping Beauty - Rotala wallichii

This plant, Rotala wallichii...is a Sleeping Beauty :D....okay, this is not the only aquatic plant that obviously display the circadian rhythm (biological clock), there's many more. But this is the only one that I have in my tank now :D

The Rotalla walichii is quite an interesting plant, it will fold it's leaves, mostly towards the tip during the night, and will bloom with it's leaves wide open during the day...very interesting to observe :D

Having this plant in a tank, is like having 2 different scape, though it doesn't alter the scape, but the folding and unfolding of the leaves makes the tank looks different :D

This was taken at night...

...And this is during the day

Here's some behavior of the plant in my tank...it starts to bloom in the morning, and sleep at around 2 hours after sunset. They are pretty fast grower, trimming about every 2 weeks, but sometime I will let it grow longer to form an overhanging red canopy. Given enough light, the tip of the plant will turn red, otherwise it will not exhibit it's potential colour in poor lighting. I will say it's a moderate to high lighting plant. And yes, this is more suitable as a background plant.

So I guess that's a bout it, for what I have to say about this plant :D....The Sleeping Beauty, Rotala wallichi :D

Glosso can grow on gravel

Here's how I do it, in the tank I'm working with now...check out the pic...
...errr...pics looks a little blur because I took it using a handphone camera :)...anyway enjoy :D

Glossostigma elatinoides growing using gravel as substrate


Glossostigma elatinoides starting to fill up forming carpet


Formation of Glossostigma elatinoides carpet


Look at the roots...


Just another pic...anyway click on any of the pics, it will take you to my photo album :D

If you are askin bout the specs...here it is, the technical specs...

Tank: 24" x 12" x 12" (LWH)

Tank capacity:  approx 15 USgal

Substrate: Potting soil as the bottommost layer and gravel as topmost layer

Lighting: 2 x 55watt PLL 6500K and 1 x 24watt T5 10000K
Filtration: Resun CY-20
Cooling: Cool using pc fans
CO2: Pressurized CO2 at approx 1 bubble per sec

I didn't make any documentation or photo journal of the setup process of this tank, because I've lost my camera, and that explain why I took the pics today using a handphone camera, anyway I use a similar technique in my previouse tank setup. Check it out here...
http://borneosucker.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-glossostigma-elatinoides-and-dwarf.html

Leave me your comments...Cheers :D

DIY CO2

Huh?...I think a search on the term 'DIY CO2' will result in tons of site on info of how to build one. Don't believe me? Try it...you will get lots of infos from designs, to recipes......

Kinda funny to see so many sites about DIY CO2, and yet I publish my own copy here...haha.....WHY? Because, today, I happen to see the DIY CO2 diagram on my sister desktop which I draw few month ago for a friend....so, it just spark like that, and here goes my DIY CO2...enjoy :D

Here's the diagram which I draw for a friend few months back...okay, ignore the Copyright, this one I edited today :D

Okay...here's what you need...
Material:
- 2 plastic bottles (water bottle, soda bottle, etc...your choice)...make sure it comes with their respective cap :D
- 1 extra bottle cap of the same bottle type
- some air tube
- a check valve
- a diffuser

Tools you might need:
- something you can use to make holes on the cap of the bottle, such as drill, nail, etc....something you are comfortable working with :D
- pliers (you may not need this if you have strong fingers :D...hehehe)

Ingredients:
- a pinch of yeast (I use only baker's yeast)
- 2 to 3 table spoon of sugar
- water
- baking soda...(some people suggest, but personally I haven't tested with baking soda)

So that's about it...so lets start building your CO2 factory :D

Step 1. You will want to mark bottle 1 and bottle 2, so you don't get mixed up later on.

Step 2. Make one hole on the cap of bottle 1 and 2 hole on the cap of bottle 2. Make sure the size of the hole is slightly smaller than the air tube. As this will create a snug fit and act as a seal when the tube is insert into the hole.

Step 3. Insert the airtube into the holes. For easy working...cut the end of the air tube diagonally. Now with the pointed air tube, insert the tube from the top of the cap. If you have strong fingers, you can pull the pointed end of the tube, or else use a pliers to do it :D

Step 4. Build your DIY CO2 factory as in the diagram above. Make sure the check valve is in the correct direction, or else you won't get any CO2 into your tank.

Step 5: Mixing the ingredients...first make sugar water and fill it into bottle 1 till half full. Next add 1 pinch of yeast. Cap it with the extra bottle cap, and shake the solution vigorously for few moments. On the other hand, bottle 2 can be fill with plain water 2/3 or 3/4 full.

* the measurement is not quite certain, but rather a gut feeling...the more yeast, the faster the solution will finish...lesser yeast, more sugar, and the solution will last longer.

Step 6: Assemble all the parts together, this is how it looks like in real...

Bottle 1 is the one with the white cap, Bottle 2 with the blue cap


Everything similar as in the diagram I draw...accept for the stop valve (doesn't make much different with it)


View from another angle

Some explanation...
In some sites, you might see some design with a single bottle, which is bottle 1 direct to the diffuser, with check valve in between. Now you might be wondering why I use a second bottle...the reason is simply to serve as a filter. In bottle 1, the bi-product of yeast and sugar are CO2 and alcohol. So that's where the second bottle comes in, to filter the alcohol and prevent it from entering your tank :D

I had experienced before using only a single bottle, my tank smell alcohol....LOLz!!! and my fishes got poisoned by it. So for safety purposes, as a precaution, use a second bottle :D

Now...if you may ask, what bottle size I used, those in the pic are 500ml mineral water bottle. Instead of discarding it into the bin, I recycled it for the DIY CO2 :D

Well any bottle can serve for this purpose. I guess the larger the bottle, the more amount of ingredient you can add, and that might last a little longer :)....anyway my setup last for about 2 weeks....by week 2, the CO2 bubbles beginning to slow down.

So...I guess that's about it on DIY CO2....so enjoy making yours :D

Wild Hairgrass...Eleocharis sp.?

On the 7th January 2010, I found some wild hairgrass. It was an accidental discovery, coz my actual plan was to locate some pond or water body to collect moina to feed my fish fry.

Well fact is, I found few ponds, no moina but some wild hairgrass growing on the bank of the pond.

Check out the pic...

Eleocharis sp. some growing emersed, some submerged...nice lawn :D


Eleocharis sp. growing underwater...

So no moina no problem...I got something else to bring back home to test :D

Pluck some bunch home to grow :D

A little close up of the roots...

Besides the hairgrass...I also discover some wild Bladderwort, Utricularia sp. will spare this on a new blogpost :D

I hope the wild hairgrass will turn out to be some fine plant in my aquarium :D