2x feet Aquatic planted tank setup 2009 1.0

After many of nights planning and running permutations on the golden mean rule in my head, I've decided today'd be the day we be aplanting! Over the months since SLS, I've been parts shopping and researching that I've got everything require to setup my next planted tank. Hoping for a sunlight tank ala Diana L. Walstad (not all the way though), I didn't spent too much on lights as I was planning to place this tank outside in my yard (Seeing as you can't really baby-proof a pressurized CO2 canister along with a 15Gallon aquarium filled tank!). The first time i setup this tank, I had an old 2feet aquarium from my old apartment which i was planning to use; it was temporarily hosting a 6inch tortoise my old man found from around our neighbourhood! Alas in my ambitious plan to provide it more creature comfort i cracked it placing in a ceramic pot!! Would have chunked the entire project if it wasn't for all the work and purchases made already :) And wifey being her ever-supportive self, said i could purchase a new tank (this is after hours or trying to self-repair and dragging her to 3 LFS consequtively asking if they'd repair a cracked tank...)

After our Klang Panmee session I dropped by Xian Leng to purchase 2 pieces of driftwood for my tank, spending approximately rm15 on them

Below is the first layer that went in. It's pure laterite; which i use pure for most of my water-potted plants, ie. water-pennywort, water-poppy and mosaic plants. It's supposedly virgin soil, purchase at this nursery in Dengkil. According to the nursery-owner, the soil is actually dug from uncharted hills around the area, so it's supposedly pure of any "bad stuffs"! Well, it works wonders for tulips and water-lilies which is what they're specialized at :)

The second layer is a blend of planting soil from a friend. I've left it behind in my "cabbage-patch" for a past few months to leech away the bad-stuffs :P. The recipe for the second layer comes from Jim Kelly, he wrote an article entitled "Aquarium Technology for the Very, Very Budget Minded". Thank a bunch Jim :) So the second layer is potting soil mixed with vermiculite. 

So, here are the three bags of stuffs that went into the substrate. Potting soil is RM4, Vermiculite is RM7.60 from Ace Hardware and the Laterite virgin soil is RM3. Coincidentally, i went back to the nursery in Dengkil and was told that they've stopped digging for it! Wonder if anyone out there knows of any other nursery carrying these rich-laterite type soils? 

And lastly, the third layer of holland sand purchased from SLS the last trip there! 

Here are the plants i've purchased! A bunch of java-ferns going for RM10, there were nearly 5 saplings making the entire group here. Hopefully they'd all survive :)

I can't seem to figure out what plant this is! Anyone's got any ideas? Cousin's of hornworth maybe? Going for RM2 per bunch

Glossostigma at RM5Sword plants for RM2! My mistake on this guy, YY :P I totally forgotten my plant dictionary. Someone should come out with a definitive guide of 'em plants :) lol! Three more plants which I already had were thrown into the mix, water pennywort (Hydrocotyle spp.) some mosaic plant (Ludwigia sediode) and water poppy(hydrocleys nymphoides) . I may have the genus wrong, so guys if u spot the right plant, do tell me! 

Sideview of the tank

Frontview shot...

Glosso on the substrates... I was told later to have waited a while, to cycle the tank before putting glossos in (Thnk YY!), and am paying the price now, as i'm seeing them getting covered by algaes! Aiyak...lesson to learn i guess :P

Here's the tank filling up with water. Tips from Siang to place a piece of plastic so that the water pressure doesn't end up stirring up all your hardwork! 

Oh yeah, by the way... I run a china brand canister filter with a CO2 tank plus diffuser purchased from Galaxy Pet Links in Damansara Uptown, total approx RM400! As for lights fixture i DIY-ed a down-light fixture with Philip's latest BrightLight 23W CPL (6500K, 1600lumens with 82CRI, good measurements for photosynthesis i hope). Forgot to take a picture of it, will post in part 2! Oh as for the frame, it's a 2feet tank frame, purchase from Irene's nearly 6 years back!! It's so old that i don't even remember how much i paid for it :P lol! 

So here's how the tank looks on the first night! Eveything's in a dis-array! Last but not least is the budget spent thus far running a bill of RM175 on new stuff! I convince myself that most of these things are recyclable... i hope! Oh and those who have an idea of where i went wrong, please help!! Last update, the plants seems to be dieing... !! Shall cover that in the next update

1 . Light fixture RM 16 2 . Philips 23W 6500K CFL RM 18 
3 . 2xfeet tank RM 20  
4 . 2xSilicone sticks RM 16  
5 . Vermiculite RM 7.1  
6 . Trio Potting soil RM 4  
7 . Laterite virgin soil RM 3  
8 . Plant purchased RM 23  
9 . Tarp RM 6 
10. 2xdriftwood RM15 
11. Holland Sand RM 18  
12. 2xtank rm25
13 . Old CO2 tank RM 140  
14 . Old Canister filter RM 130  
15 . Old CO2 diffuser RM 20  
16 . Old bubble counter RM 8  
17 . Old check valves RM 3 

4.5x2x2 Aquarium tank setup in 2005

This was my first tank when we shifted into our apartment nearly 4 years back! It's always great to be able to marry someone who appreciates your hobbies and allows u the breathing space to wallow in the mud once in a while! :) With much faith, wifey gave me the go-ahead to cut a hole in the wall to stick an aquarium in! lol... man, and was it a fun project or what! :) The tank was purchase in Irene's PJ. As it was a custom size tank, they had to fabricate it in IPOH, where all tanks are born :P at 4.5 feet in lenght, 2 by 2 feet width and height, it was priced at RM350! Plus a separate filter tank and filter medium and pump... I spent approx RM600 here. Mind you, the workmanship to cut a hole in the wall plus building a solid concrete table to take the weight of the tank comes to be another RM500. All in all, it wasn't too bad a deal except for the headache of not getting the tank size proper; hey delivered it the first time at 2.2 feet... an extra 2inches over. As they say, you can't negotiate with a brick wall and the tank couldn't fit in at all! Back in went to Irene's where they actually cut the top 2 inches off!! @#$@#$@!!! Well, that's the cost of DIY-ing it yourself...I did shop around in other places like Pet Safari and most shops will charge u around RM600 plus just for the display tank! Ah well, give and take i guess...Pictures are taken with a Canon IXUS compact, so they aren't the greatest, sorry!

As you can see, the tank has no top and if it really overflows (which has happened a few times over) it'd end up wetting your entire place!

Here you can see me potting plants into medical gauze, thick enough to prevent the potting soil from chalking your water, thin enough also for the roots to breathe!

some water wisteria and pennyworts that was purchased from Pet Family Taman Megah! RM2-3 per bunch... Resonably priced plants that should not require too much light and more inportantly not burn a hole in one's pockets!

The substrate are riverstones, purchased at Sg. Buloh, RM12 for a 10KG bag if i'm not mistaken. Even the driftwood was purchased there. RM5-6 per piece, quite resonably priced for aesthetically pleasing "wood" :)

Filling up the tank at this stage. No CO2 induction, normal fluorescent tubes for lights... this was a simple low-tech aquarium which i had hope would survive! :P

Alas... it didn't last long :P lol, i had to redo the entire setup, install a canister filter, plug in a CO2 tank and the works. After a year of tinkering, i had an overgrown indoor garden instead :P

In the end, even that did not survive with insufficient substate, bad lighting...Messy affair!

I did manage to breed some swordtails though... :) Which was the highlight of this tank! None survived, unfortunately... As they're either born deformed and dies after awhile... weak gene pool, i'd guess.Anyone tried planting ngah-koo or arrowheads? This was during CNY 2006. It's rather nice, but lots of work as the leaves dies a messy death! :P

Pork Noodle style Panmee in Taman Berkeley Klang

A trip to Klang to try this famous panmee was long overdue, and last week we decided on a lazy sunday afternoon (bed-side baptist... unfortunately), to take a drive down south into the Klang territory! A friend who's another panmee aficionado, brought us here..professing of it being the best, most smoothest textured panmee ever made! :P

Checking out other blogsites, this shop has been around for a long long time...! Our friend was brought here by his dad when he was a small lil' kid! And here's something to take note of... there's actually a 7-11, two doors away from the restaurant! Sorts of tells u the crowd of people this place pulls, I would think it'd be a good deal for 7-11! (Which is where we went after a big bowl of panmee!! )

The master-chef in action. Erm, so i think! :) Not much have change over the years, looking at the older pictures from other blogsites! :P Except for their name-plaque...

A much needed drink to cool down with! I heard they've got some weird concoctions of barley and cincau! Didn't have to try that though... as lazy me only decided to check it out after the fact! 

You can see the hard-work that goes into the prepartion of your bowls of noodles! Each individual block of noodles is nicely squared off and place into a big huge pot! Upon making your bowl, a  slew of well-trained chef-de-partie pulls, prods and pinches it in bite size morsal. This as they say, is where the art is as you'd have to be quite quick to process these blocks before they over-cook! Note picture below of lady on the left in midst of action... :)

And voila! A hot bowl of pork-style pan mee! And yes, the kung-fu is there alright! The noodles turns up smooth, thin and not over-cooked! Unlike other panmee, which can at times be too hard or thick, or the soup ends up starchy, "Fatty Mee Hoon Kuih" has it down to perfection! We ordered nearly 7 big bowls among us with all turning up perfect. To our surprise, the cooks didn't want to prepare all 7 bowls on one go... deciding that they'd cook 5 bowls for us 5  and upon a go-ahead sign, to cook the other 2! Now, that's what you call good CMMI level of service!

Address is courtesy of Malaysia most wanted Food webiste,  No. 15 Lbh Bangau Kaw 17, Taman Berkerley, 41150 Klang, Selangor. There's also more writeups at the link above. Unfortunately, there really isn't any good maps to Taman Berkeley, so I'm guessing you'd have to be rather good with roads in Klang or what better reason to call upon your friends in Klang but for a bowl of panmee! :) But below's a map nevertheless...