gjcarew
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Posts posted by gjcarew
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Not really journal related but it was pretty cool to see my aquarium in Amazonas magazine!
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I use the "journals" section of this website (in the past I've used other sites). That way I can see exactly what I was doing to get certain results, with pictures. Plus, if I run in to trouble it lets other people chime in with suggestions.
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On 3/22/2022 at 5:36 PM, SkaleyAquatics said:
@gjcarew I'll start by trimming the monte carlo back this weekend with the water change.
I had been considering dropping the kh originally but was worried about having too little K. I didn't add up the total from my dosing of APT to see were I was at. If the plan is to lower/eliminate kh will I need to do this over time or should I just stop reminerializing with K2CO3?
For some perspective, you are currently dosing classic EI levels of K, while APT complete is about 1/3 EI (this is an oversimplification, but roughly accurate.) I wouldn't worry about a potassium deficiency until you start to see concrete signs of it.
Fluctuating KH can be hard on fish. It might be better to halve the amount of K2CO3 you're adding this week, then eliminate it the following week. That should allow for a pretty gradual decrease of KH in the tank.
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After raising lighting levels and dialing in CO2 everything usually needs a while to settle in. It's too soon to start worrying about anything. If it isn't looking better in a few days here are my ideas:
Looks like your monte carlo is pretty dense, if you give it a good trim to the substrate it can stimulate new growth.
I don't know why you're adding K2CO3, but that is a lot of K. Between the K2CO3 and the APT Complete you're adding about 30 ppm K per week while the rest of your ferts are very lean. Per Mulder's chart, this could be causing issues with uptake of other nutrients, particularly nitrogen which is already very lean in APT Complete. Plant nutrition is all about ratios, and by adding extra K you're throwing off the ratios built in to APT complete. In the same vein, with such lean dosing I would try decreasing GH as well. You could try out remineralizing your RO water to 15/5 ppm Ca/Mg, respectively. Ca is a potent nutrient uptake antagonist. To quote classic fishkeeping advice, "you need to balance your tank."
A side effect of cutting back/ eliminating K2CO3 dosing would be to drop your KH, which soft water plants should love. It looks like fundulopanchax gardneri should not have an issue with soft water.
I think of APT complete as being something more for traditional Amano-style aquascaping, where a decent amount of space is taken up by hardscape. Since you have an all-plant layout and very low fish load, you should probably be dosing a little more than recommended and see if that helps. Maybe try 3 mL per dose rather than 2, and see how your plants respond.
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I added a baby nepenthes because I can't help myself, I just love carnivorous plants. Unfortunately they tend not to grow pitchers in fish tank water but it's still a nice little pop of foliage.
The moss is looking a little more green because i've been attaching spare aquatic grown and terrarium grown moss. It's not exactly "growing" a moss wall, but I'm more of a results oriented guy and the moss that I add is surviving and staying green.
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On 3/17/2022 at 5:24 PM, tolstoy21 said:
@gjcarew You might also want to shop around for pond/waterfall pumps. These have a good deal of power and head pressure.
Yeah, this was the problem with the first sump pump I used. Not oil free and I could smell it in my water.
I just bought an oi-free sump pump. It was $60 vs. $240 for the aquarium/pond versions. Hopefully I won't regret it!
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Got some fish! Melanotaenia trifasciata Habgood River and notropis chromosis. I want to try the rainbow shiners outside this summer.
I'm gonna probably get some cories down the line when I know this tank can handle a bigger bioload.
The rainbows are fairly small but already have a nice blue sheen. I'm looking forward to watching them grow out.
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On 3/15/2022 at 9:23 PM, anewbie said:
I'm actually going to do this and my intention is to use a well pump - so when the faucet goes on pressure drop and the well pump goes on - when i 'turn the water off' i close the valve - pressure goes up and the well pump goes off.
ro -> storage tank -> well pump -> pipe -> faucet -> hose -> tank.
This is the well pump i've been looking at: aquatec 5513-1e12-J256
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Also I'm looking at spectrapure which has a 1:1 ro unit.
Yikes, that spectrapure is $800 on their website! I was hoping to go a bit more budget. I'm also probably going to run hose from the storage tank pump to the aquarium rather than hard-plumbing in a pipe.
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On 3/15/2022 at 6:10 PM, Wrencher_Scott said:
I don't think I would trust a smart plug if flooding was at all possible.
All my plumbing has manual valves to stop water flow in case of emergency.
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On 3/15/2022 at 5:39 PM, Fish Folk said:
Just imagining… would you run a cord up the pipe to toggle the sump on / off?
Nah just put it on a smart plug. Al my aquarium stuff is on smart plugs
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I have about 4 KH water out of the tap and I want to get that down to zero for keeping carnivorous plants and sensitive aquatic plants, so I'm looking at installing an RO system. It needs to provide water to my 75 gallon aquarium on the main floor of my house, and I usually do 50 gallon water changes per week. My wife is not going to be OK with having a huge garbage bin/drum to mix water in on the main floor where the tank is, so I need to mix it in the basement.
With the situation established, my first question is about RO systems. @Mmiller2001 recommended the BRS 4 stage system in something more powerful than 75 gpd (which he has). I was looking at the specs and it looks like the waste water: clean water ratio is 3:1 for the 75 and 100 GPD systems and 1.5:1 for the 150 GPD system. Is it worth it to for for the 150 GPD system? I figure it's gotta pay off in the long run, right?
Second question: I'll need to lift the water about 16 feet from the basement to the tank. Any suggestions for pumps I should use? A sump pump seems like the obvious choice, they are less than 1/3 the cost of an aquarium pump with the same lift. Any downsides to using a sump pump for this application?
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On 3/13/2022 at 12:06 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
Where does the water enter? And how would that work with a moss wall?
From the left side. I'm just gonna put the moss wall below the spray bar then remove the spray bar and move the moss up for pictures.
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That's actually the one that comes with the Oase Biomaster filter.
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I got ahold of the club par meter and finally did some testing with some different bulb combos. I only tested par at one spot on the substrate to get even comparisons. Overall I found that as long as the sensor wasn't shaded, the PAR levels were remarkably even across the length and width of the tank.
For the pictures, I used a tripod and the same settings for every photo (1/125 shutter speed, ISO 400). I'm going to post all the pics at the end so they are easier to compare.
Combo 1: ATI purple, Geisemann Flora, AgroLED Bloom, Geisemann Tropic, Geisemann Flora, Geisemann Super Purple
96 PAR. This is the combo I've been using for the past month or so. It looks pretty good in person, but looks too cool and unnatural in photos. I'm pretty much just using all my expensive bulbs here.
Combo 2: 6500K, ATI purple, Geisemann Flora, AgroLED Bloom, Geisemann Tropic, Geisemann Flora, Geisemann Super Purple, 6500K
115 PAR. I like the look of this combo, maybe the best, but I'm not trying to blast this much PAR into the tank right now. I've done higher light than this before, but you start to lose color definition between different green plants. I'm assuming this is due to higher anthocyanin and carotenoid production to protect the leaves from high light-- many plants will tend towards yellow and pink hues at the tips. For a Dutch-style aquarium a slightly lower par is better. Growth is more manageable and the entire system is more forgiving.
Combo 3: Geisemann Flora, Agroled Bloom, Geisemann Tropic, ATI Purple
64 PAR. This is what I was running for the first month the aquarium was running. It does not photograph well on a phone camera, but overall a nice bulb combo. I was seeing some plants reaching (longer internode distance) at this PAR level.
Combo 4: 6500K, Geisemann Flora, Feisemann Super Purple, 6500K
46 PAR. I didn't care for this one. Everything looked kind of washed out.
Combo 5: 6500K, Geisemann Flora, AgroLED Bloom, Geisemann Tropic, Geisemann Flora, Geisemann Super Purple
94 PAR. I replaced one of the purple lights with a 6500K from my usual setup to try to get a warmer color temp. I really like this combo. It's lucky I like it because while setting my ATI purple bulb down I accidentally smashed it...
Combo 6: Geisemann Flora, AgroLED Bloom, Geisemann Tropic, Geisemann Flora, Geisemann Super Purple
80 PAR. This is just from removing the generic 6500K. It's essentially one less purple bulb from where I started. 80 PAR at substrate should be high enough to grow just about any plant while still being very manageable.
I'm strongly considering getting a 3000K bulb. The old Dutch tanks tend to have a yellowish tone that makes them feel warm and nostalgic, and I'm thinking a 3000K bulb (warm white, like an incandescent light) might help achieve that look.
Combo 1
Combo 2
Combo 3
Combo 4
Combo 5
Combo 6
Conclusions: The two biggest takeaways for me are that you can's tell at all how powerful a light is based on a picture, and that there is not a huge difference between a generic light and a fancy German aquarium T5 when it comes to par. Also, I was using too much purple.
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On 3/10/2022 at 1:46 PM, Mmiller2001 said:
You are going to have to dive into RO/DI, Belem only like 6.0 or below!
I'm going to try out some mineralized topsoil root tabs under them to see if that helps for now. I just don't know what my wife would say about introducing a 55 gallon drum into our basement. It's not out of the question, but it's gonna take some convincing.
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On 3/8/2022 at 7:30 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
Have you been able to get a PAR measure with your new light?
I just picked up the par meter today so I should be able to get some hard numbers this weekend.
I was planning to try to pick up some rainbowfish at the GSAS auction today but prices ended up being pretty outrageous. In preparation, I took some water quality readings which, having not had fish in here for a while, I hadn't done recently. Almost everything was as expected except KH. I moved last fall and I apparently haven't checked it since then, but KH was 4 when the Seattle KH is usually 0-1. So I looked up the water report and turns out that despite being less a quarter mile from the Seattle city limits, we are on a different water source.
Most plants are fine, but this explains why the mayaca "santarem red fireworks," rotala wallichii and ammania gracilis have been struggling. They all prefer soft water. Most aquatic plants prefer soft water, when it comes down to it. So now the question is whether I should dive down the RO/DI rabbit hole, or just limit myself to plants that like the conditions I have.
Edit: I'm being ridiculous, 4 dKH is fine. Especially after I just said in the post above that it's better not to chase parameters.
I'm mostly just sad because I have a sneaking suspicion that I won't be growing syngonanthus any time soon. I'll also have to dial the Ca+Mg dosing waaay back. I was getting what looks like potassium and iron deficiency symptoms, pretty sure that's because calcium is way higher than expected and is an antagonist to the uptake of many other nutrients.
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The pale leaf with darker veins plus the cupped edges make me think it could be a lack of magnesium. What are you using to get a GH of 8? Are you dosing Mg?
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I trimmed some Ludwigia rubin, Alternanthera reineckii "variegated," Lobelia cardinalis, and Bacopa caroliniana to sell at the GSAS auction tomorrow.
I also got rid of some plants that I've had since November that just weren't doing well: Lagenandra meboldii "green," Rotala wallichii "long leaf," and Mayaca sp. "Santarem Red Fireworks." As you can see below, they were far from thriving.
My (poorly kept) secret is that I'm not particularly good at growing plants. I just try a bunch out, and only keep the ones that do well. Different plants want different conditions, and if you try to change parameters to fit one plant you will inevitably throw them off for another. Much better in my opinion to just keep plants that like the soup you're serving.
On the positive side, I'm really happy with the recovery of my Microsorum pteropus sp. India. After a few months in a low tech tank it was looking super rough, and the existing stock is recovered from almost bare rhizomes. It's a variety with somewhat narrow but very short leaves.
The Cryptocoryne nurii "Luminous green" has been looking really good as well, and a third tiny plant is starting to pop up. At the current rate it seems like it makes a new plant every three leaves or so. I love the brown and green stripey pattern on its leaves.
Here is the current dosing. These are given for a 50 gallon water change volume, not based on the whole tank (75 galon) volume:
15 ppm Ca, 12.2 g CaSO4,2H2O
7.5 ppm Mg, 14.4 g MgSO4,7H2O
16 ppm NO3, 5 g KNO3
6 ppm PO4, 1.6 g KH2PO4
16 ppm K (30 ppm total), 6.75 g K2SO4
Overall I'm happy where things are. If things go as planned I should be getting some fish in here soon. I'm still fighting algae more than in a mature tank but the healthy plant mass is reaching that critical point where algae can no longer take hold. Today's maintenance was about three hours due to pulling algae, replacing an empty CO2 tank, and trimming, but I should be able to get that down to about half that time soon enough.
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He just has the 2 hr aquarist account that I know of. I would love Kasselmann's book too but it's like $90 plus shipping. She just has info you can't get anywhere else. I was trying to propagate Isoetes japonica last year and the only practical info (academic sources included) I could find on it was from Aquarienpflanzen.
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I've seen it referred to as Bacopa salzmanii "Sg Purple" as well. I first saw these varieties in Xiaozhuang (Dennis) Wong's tanks, and he's based out of Singapore. I haven't heard that either are particularly difficult, I'm sure you'll have no trouble with them! He and Christel Kasselman are some of my favorite Instagram follows because they are always discovering and testing new aquarium plants!
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On 3/7/2022 at 3:16 PM, SkaleyAquatics said:
While I told myself no more updates until after the algae was cleared it. Here we are again, I added 2 new plants 10 minutes ago. You also may notice some changes, I removed the Mattenfilter in favor of a canister filter, allowing for more planting space. Next will be lily pipes and co2 atomizer, along with finishing the raspberry pi pH monitor.
I wonder if the plant enthusiasts can figure the variants out? @gjcarew and @Mmiller2001
Bacopa salzmanii "Purple" and Rotala rotundifolia "Blood Red." If I win, I think I deserve a prize of being sent some cuttings when they grow out 😋
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On 3/3/2022 at 10:06 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:
Hi @Andy Aqt
@Mmiller2001is correct that you seem to be under-dosing your Easy Green, for medium light tanks 1 pump per 10 gallons twice a week is the recommended dose. Also, your green plants are also suffering, notice how the older leaves are turning brown. I also see "cupping" of the leaves of your Alternanthera reineckii. Alternanthera reineckii is not the easiest plant to grow well to begin with but the older leaves on your green plants shouldn't look that bad with the 'bronzing' (see arrow). Since both older seem to be suffering that would indicate one or more of the mobile nutrients is unavailable. That would include all of the macro-nutrients as well as magnesium and some of the micro-nutrients. I would start by dosing at least the recommended amount (6 pumps 2X per week) and you may need to go higher than that with high light and CO2.
Do you have any water parameter information? pH, dKH. dGH; nitrates (ppm)
Are you doing weekly water changes to replenish the nutrients the plants are utilizing from your water?
I too run CO2 on a split period, 2 hours in the AM and 2.5 hours in the evening but I run my CO2 24 hours a day. What light are you running on that 65 gallon? -Roy
The plant on the left looks like ludwigia palustris (or maybe ludwigia repens), which under most conditions is a deep red plant. My guess is the brownish leaves that @Seattle_Aquarist pointed out were grown under higher light, maybe at the store, and you're seeing green tops due to pretty severe lack of light. That could also lead to all the lower leaves on the scarlet temple dying back.
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Local fish stores (LFS) are a great resource. Petco has started selling packs of seiryu stone and dragon stone, as well as spiderwood and mopani wood. They also sell Fluval Stratum which is a pretty good aquasoil if you want soft water for plants.
There is a store online called Aqua Rocks Colorado that sells aquascaping supplies. It's inefficient to buy online since aquascaping supplies are so heavy and unwieldy that shipping costs an arm and a leg. Much better to check out your local fish stores.
If you're looking for a filter for aquascaping, you probably want either a hang-on-back (HOB) or a canister filter since they don't take up room on the floor of the aquarium. Green Aqua primarily uses canister filters, but HOB's are cheaper and easier to use.
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This made me go back in my emails to check and I dont think they sent me a receipt. I'm pretty sure it was the Dwyer RMA 151 SSV, which has a 5-50 cc/m scale. I'll have to check tomorrow that they are sending my order, because the payment definitely went through!
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Dutch/ plant farm 75 gallon (and other projects)
in Photos, Videos & Journals
Posted · Edited by gjcarew
Accidentally called it a full tank s***
Things are going pretty well, still some algae but the fish are happy and eating voraciously. I got some Venezuelan corydoras that I absolutely love.
The tank went two weeks without a water change as the RO system has taken longer than expected to set up. As I mentioned there was some algae but a lot of the plants are doing well. I'm really liking some of the new specimens, especially ludwigia ovalis "pink", acmella repens, and this crazy huge mystery blyxa species I picked up.
I put my old 36" Chihiros WRGB on the tank, and I gotta say I think I like it more than the T5's. It's just so much easier to dial in a nice spectrum. It also has a lot less light bleed. The pictures below show the difference when the tank is viewed from farther back.
T5:
Chihiros:
One of the receptacles in the T5 fixture stopped working, and this is out of warranty. I'm considering just selling it as is and getting a fancy modern LED. The other advantage of the LED's is that as a point-source light, it shows off the iridescence of the rainbow fish way better. These are seriously stunning fish, they are just so hard to capture.
Full tank shot with the beginnings of a "Dutch street" below