Dutch/ plant farm 75 gallon (and other projects)

[Katherine]

That's so cool! And the tank looks great.

[SkaleyAquatics]

That is awesome!

[gjcarew]

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

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by gjcarew
Accidentally called it a full tank s***

[SkaleyAquatics]

I like how the chihiros looks in this tank. I am surprised by the amount of ight bleed from the T5

[gjcarew]

On 3/27/2022 at 10:23 AM, SkaleyAquatics said:

I like how the chihiros looks in this tank. I am surprised by the amount of ight bleed from the T5

I wanted to make a hood to cut down on the light bleed. But given the aforementioned trouble with this fixture I don't know if it's worthwhile

[SkaleyAquatics]

On 3/27/2022 at 1:26 PM, gjcarew said:

I wanted to make a hood to cut down on the light bleed. But given the aforementioned trouble with this fixture I don't know if it's worthwhile

If you are not keeping it I wouldnt go through the trouble. Do you know what led's you would get? 

[Mmiller2001]

My vote is for 2xUNS Titans 😁

[gjcarew]

On 3/27/2022 at 10:29 AM, SkaleyAquatics said:

If you are not keeping it I wouldnt go through the trouble. Do you know what led's you would get? 

 

On 3/27/2022 at 11:15 AM, Mmiller2001 said:

My vote is for 2xUNS Titans 😁

Titans or Chihiros Vivid 2 would be great but that's a super pricy setup. I was thinking maybe something like the Week Aqua P1200. As you know I'm a Dennis Wong fanboy and that's what he has on his farm tank. Plus they come with shades to prevent light spill.

[SkaleyAquatics]

On 3/27/2022 at 3:07 PM, gjcarew said:

 

Titans or Chihiros Vivid 2 would be great but that's a super pricy setup. I was thinking maybe something like the Week Aqua P1200. As you know I'm a Dennis Wong fanboy and that's what he has on his farm tank. Plus they come with shades to prevent light spill.

I did like the look of his week aqua's they are also a bit pricey when i looked at aquarockscolorado. 

[gjcarew]

I got rid of a bunch of plants over the week. I didn't like how the bacopa looked in the background. The ludwigia repens was pretty but it has too strong of a red look that was drawing away from the alternanthera reineckii.

I like blyxa japonica and was hoping to use it but it is not growing very well in this tank. It might go to the chopping block next if it doesn't start growing better in the next couple weeks. For that matter the buce isn't great either. I can't find a place for it and I don't really have enough to make an attractive bush. The entire foreground on that side could potentially be replaced with a carpet like monte carlo. Low foregrounds offer the best height contrast in a tank, IMO.

The blyxa "red" is nice but it feels a little too symmetrical with the alternanthera reineckii. An alternative could be either crypt wendtii "tropica" or a sword plant specimen like echinodorus ozelot "green." I had the latter last year and it's a really beautiful plant with interesting leaf patterns. Something unique like an aponogeton could also work there.

Otherwise I just need to keep growing out plants. It's impossible to make decisions until a group is full grown.

This was the first water change with RO, so now tank KH is around 2. It will be interesting to see the effect it has on plants.

 

 

[gjcarew]

It finally arrived! Took like 2 months, which feels ridiculous in this day and age.

I have noticed extensive pinholing and dying lower leaves in my Hygrophila "53B" for a couple months now, and I'm seeing the same in some other plants as well. I've also had constant green hair algae that I've been manually removing. Both of these situations could be due to either low potassium levels or low CO2. I have resolved to solve both this weekend.

I think I'm going to overall increase macro levels just to get things dialed. It seems PO4 is good, but nitrates might also be a bit low as some plants like Staurogyne spatulata have shown yellowing leaves while the rotala is unaffected (rotala is notorious for doing well sans NO3 in my experience). 

I have been nervous about increasing CO2 since the disaster where I gassed all my fish. With a bubble counter the bubbles are a blur, so I never know how much I'm increasing CO2 injection when I turn my needle valve. I'm hoping the flow meter will give me a much clearer picture of how much I'm injecting and will allow me to confidently and incrementally increase CO2. I should be able to tell if I'm increasing it 10% and not accidentally increasing it 50%. 

My pH meter appears to be broken. I tried calibrating it and it's still saying the rainwater I have outside is 7.8 pH when it should be below 7. I ordered a new pH meter which should be here tomorrow. 

Onwards and upwards. It's been a hell of a time getting this tank to a good place. I definitely find aquasoil more forgiving as a substrate, but in truth I just haven't given this tank the time it deserves to really whip it in to shape. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by gjcarew

[gjcarew]

After checking with the Aquarium Co-op test strips, NO3 appeared to be below 10 ppm before a water change so I increased my dosage 4 ppm. I also increased K because of the pinholing. All numbers below are for 50 gallons of water change volume, and the water is R/O.

15 ppm Ca, 12.2 g  CaSO4,2H2O
5 ppm Mg, 9.6 g MgSO4,7H2O
20 ppm NO3, 6.2 g KNO3
6 ppm PO4, 1.6 g KH2PO4
20 ppm K (35 ppm total), 8.5 g K2SO4

The GSAS auction was this weekend. It was financially a loss when I consider how little some of the stuff I brought sold for. The way I look, at it I've also bought things at auction way below market value, and the things I sold were not paying rent to live in my house anyways. They are better off with someone who will love them.

The good news is I picked up everything I wanted and more. I bought a hardy aponogeton for the pond, myriophyllum roraima, eriocaulon Vietnam, and one of the people I lost a bidding war gifted me almost half their bag of Blyxa japonica. Best of all, I managed to buy a school of eight rhadinocentrus ornatus for $34! Way better than I could get elsewhere.

The current plants are (roughly L-R): Vallisneria spiralis Tiger, Hygrophila siamensis "53B", Crypt nurii "Luminous Green", crypt wendtii "tropica", Rotala rotundifolia, Alternanthera reineckii, Acmella repens, Blyxa japonica, Microsorum pteropus "India", Lobelia Cardinalis, Ludwigia ovalis "Pink", Pogostemon erectus, Bucephalandra "Kedagang", Eriocaulon Vietnam, Limnophila aromatica "Red", Myriophyllum roraima, and callicostella prabaktiana on the back wall. I removed the big log as it just wasn't doing it for me. I also mounted the java fern on needlepoint mesh since it was just awkward on the little stick it was mounted on 

I did a water change on the tub ponds to clear out extra schmutz that accumulated over the winter. They already have some scuds and chironomid larvae growing in there, and I just seeded them with a copepod culture I bought at the auction. Eventually the rhadinocentrus ornatus will go in my carnivorous plant tub and the rainbow shiners will go in the backyard urn that has some crushed coral in the bottom. The water was 54 degrees when I checked today, which I think is technically warm enough for both those species, but I would prefer to wait another week or two just to be safe. 

In the meantime, it's great having 30+ fish in this tank! They are all peaceful but still attack food like a pack of piranhas. 

 

[Mmiller2001]

Have you kept that Myrio before? I had to get rid of it. It became so much work do to the speed it grows. Beautiful though!

[gjcarew]

On 4/24/2022 at 10:49 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Have you kept that Myrio before? I had to get rid of it. It became so much work do to the speed it grows. Beautiful though!

Yeah, I've kept it for quite a while in the 22 gallon a little over a year ago. One of those plants that needs weekly trimming for sure. As a curtain plant it's really just two stems so hopefully it won't be too bad.

[SkaleyAquatics]

So you are front loading macros?

Also what a steal on those rhads, did they have a collection location with them?

[gjcarew]

On 4/25/2022 at 3:45 AM, SkaleyAquatics said:

So you are front loading macros?

Also what a steal on those rhads, did they have a collection location with them?

Yeah, I've been front loading macros. Also kinda front loading micros too, if only because of how often I forget to add them throughout the week. I know that I shouldn't since they are really only available for a few hours after you dose them.

Yup, they're from Seary's Creek. 

Edited April 25, 2022 by gjcarew

[SkaleyAquatics]

On 4/25/2022 at 10:28 AM, gjcarew said:

Yeah, I've been front loading macros. Also kinda front loading micros too, if only because of how often I forget to add them throughout the week. I know that I shouldn't since they are really only available for a few hours after you dose them.

I bought weekly pillboxes and put my salts in there for each day. Saves me time and reminds me to throw it in.

On 4/25/2022 at 10:28 AM, gjcarew said:

Yup, they're from Seary's Creek

Awesome! Can't wait to see these grow out. I have Carland Creek, in my low tech 40. 

[gjcarew]

The biggest change is I no longer have the hygrophila 53b and replaced it with pogostemon erectus. String algae is still around. New growth is looking better with the increased K and N and more regular micros. I also added a couple root tabs under the crypts and limnophila aromatics.

Speaking of which, I'm undecided on the limnophila aromatica. It's super slow growing, but the leaves look healthy. The big question is whether I can propagate enough to make a Dutch-style bush before the next AGA competition.

In other layout changes I need to adjust the bucephalandra bush shape as it's super awkward right now. I also want to put some Monte Carlo in front of the crypt nurii. As I've mentioned before, I like the dramatic changes in height you get from low carpeting plants but the dwarf baby tears just didn't thrive in this setup. Monte Carlo is pretty bulletproof, so hopefully it will work out.

Overall I like the direction this is heading. It needs some serious refining but it has good bones. It probably looks underwhelming to most people, but that's the way it goes. It takes months from getting the layout down to growing the plants to maturity.

[nabokovfan87]

I really love dutch style aquascaping. I am looking forward to seeing this continue to grow out.

[Torrey]

On 5/5/2022 at 1:15 AM, gjcarew said:

but the dwarf baby tears just didn't thrive

That's frustrating. Do you have any pearlweed for similar texture and presentation?

For your  limnophila aromatica. it looks gorgeous. I wonder if you can take a few cuttings and put in a tank and try utilizing the CO2 you are already running, and combine with a light siesta (I don't know if this is even an option) so the plant is growing w/ CO2 on a 4 hour on/4 hour off schedule around the clock? I am wondering if part of the growth success I am seeing isn't necessarily due to the CO2 being passively repleted during the "lights out", but is in fact due to the balance of light/dark times in shorter periods?

Only way to know is for enough people to use CO2 in both setups (standard photoperiod used with CO2 and a siesta period)... of course that also requires sufficient resources🤷🏼‍♂️

[gjcarew]

On 5/5/2022 at 8:58 PM, Torrey said:

That's frustrating. Do you have any pearlweed for similar texture and presentation?

For your  limnophila aromatica. it looks gorgeous. I wonder if you can take a few cuttings and put in a tank and try utilizing the CO2 you are already running, and combine with a light siesta (I don't know if this is even an option) so the plant is growing w/ CO2 on a 4 hour on/4 hour off schedule around the clock? I am wondering if part of the growth success I am seeing isn't necessarily due to the CO2 being passively repleted during the "lights out", but is in fact due to the balance of light/dark times in shorter periods?

Only way to know is for enough people to use CO2 in both setups (standard photoperiod used with CO2 and a siesta period)... of course that also requires sufficient resources🤷🏼‍♂️

You may be looking at the Rotala rotundifolia on the left hand side, that is doing great. The limnophila aromatica is on the right behind the eriocaulon vietnam. While not unhealthy, it has very long internodes and little color to it. Can you tell me more about the setup where you're growing it successfully? What substrate/fertilization are you using? Do you know your GH/KH?

Edited May 6, 2022 by gjcarew

[Torrey]

On 5/6/2022 at 3:54 PM, gjcarew said:

You may be looking at the Rotala rotundifolia on the left hand side, that is doing great. The limnophila aromatica is on the right behind the eriocaulon vietnam. While not unhealthy, it has very long internodes and little color to it. Can you tell me more about the setup where you're growing it successfully? What substrate/fertilization are you using? Do you know your GH/KH?

I do not have limnophila aromatica, I realized my wording wasn't very clear.

Ever since I set up the Walstad inspired tank last year I have played more with lighting siestas. I have discovered that tanks I have on 3 photoperiods are growing plants faster, and with more vibrant colors, than only 2 photoperiods that are longer (ie: my bedroom has 2 photoperiods of 4.5 hours and then 5 hours, with a 4 hour block in between) versus the living room on a 4 hour on/4 hour off/ 4 hour on/ 3 hour off/ 3 hour on/6 hour off cycle which reduced algae growth and is yielding enough plant growth to necessitate daily ferts. (Weekly, and even biweekly ferts seem to irritate the shrimp and snails, so I broke it down to daily dosing).

I initially lost about a third of the AR rosaeafolia in the tank on the left, probably due to low nitrates.

Ever since I got the Easy Green, and started daily dosing that includes magnesium, I quit having the same dieback.

These 2 tanks are now growing plants for the rest of my tanks, because the plants here grow faster.

I am wondering if it is the light cycle giving them "3 days" for every "2 days" in the rest of my tanks, even though the *total* amount of light (~11 hours of light every 24 hours) is the same.

So I was wondering if you moved your slower growing limnophila aromatica into another tank to give it more photoperiods would speed up growth?

I thought at first sight it was supposed to be that pale, which is a visually appealing contrast to the other plants. If that is not the case, my lighting solution when the rest of the tank is doing well, is a targeted side light like this:

The tank on the left didn't need an increase in lighting once I fixed the overhead lights, so a piece of aluminum foil prevents light bleed into the left tank.

That leaves the tank on the right with overhead lighting for the emersed growth,  and a sidelight for the plants growing underneath

Even stems I thought had died in other tanks, start putting out new growth with this method, and this is without CO2.

I'm wondering what you can accomplish with CO2, in preparation for your next contest.

The pearlweed (for me) is hardier and easier to grow than the dwarf baby tears, with similar texture. That's why I asked if that would work. 

Even with the "brightness" you can see the longer internodal lengths indicate medium light at best.

Water parameters on the 2 tanks:

Nitrates ~10 ppm (right now. Typically I test after dosing ferts, and ferts get them up to 25 ppm first thing in the morning.)

Nitrites 0 ppm

GH is down to ~75 to 150 on the Co-op strips. I am out of API for a precise drip count

KH between 40 ppm & 80 ppm (shrimp/left) and off the chart for endlers (right tank)

pH 7.2 for shrimp (left tank) & 7.8 Endlers (right tank)

TDS shrimp tank is 180, endlers are still coming down (currently 327)

Left tank is remineralized ZeroWater, the rest of my tanks are a mix of Pur filtered water and ZeroWater, and the plants definitely prefer getting at least 25% of the filtered tap water every water change, as growth explodes after each water change. The shrimp tank (left) doesn't seem to have the same explosive growth after water changes for the plants.

The shrimp?

They seem to love the daily top off with ZeroWater, and the biweekly water change with remineralized water.

I apologize for the confusion on the aromatica!

 

EDITED for autocorrect making up new words, and to add the answer to substrate:

Shrimp are blasting sand on a homemade UGF (left tank), and endlers are on hydroballs mixed with gravel, plus a lot of mulm. Filtration for endlers was originally a Back2the Roots hydroponics system and is now a sponge filter and plants.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Torrey
My phone has a spelling problem to match my cranial flatulence

[gjcarew]

Removed more plants which is just making the corners seem that much more bare. 

It's tough to see from this photo but the AR mini has twisted new growth which generally indicates a Ca deficiency. 

@Mmiller2001 suggested I up my GH to 5 with a 3:1 Ca:Mg ratio. This made me check what I was doing before and it looks like I have been adjusting my RO water to 3 GH, which in hindsight is probably way too soft. I swear I'll get it together eventually 😓 

Edit: New full dosing strategy for my reference:

24 ppm Ca, 19.5 g  CaSO4,2H2O (3.36 dGH)
8 ppm Mg, 15.35 g MgSO4,7H2O (1.85 dGH, total dGH 5.2)
20 ppm NO3, 6.2 g KNO3
6 ppm PO4, 1.6 g KH2PO4
20 ppm K (35 ppm total), 8.5 g K2SO4

Edited May 10, 2022 by gjcarew

[anewbie]

On 3/27/2022 at 3:41 AM, gjcarew said:

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: 

 

What are the metal bars you are using to hang the light; where can they be obtained ? 

[gjcarew]

On 5/10/2022 at 4:51 PM, anewbie said:

What are the metal bars you are using to hang the light; where can they be obtained ? 

It's just electrical conduit I bent and attached to the stand with conduit hangers.