Dutch/ plant farm 75 gallon (and other projects)

[anewbie]

On 8/26/2022 at 10:15 AM, Minanora said:

Several reputable online retailers have the super red but it's likely not converted.

I love that sword. Everything is looking very lush and beautiful!

There is a sword plant with the name 'super red' ? Sounds more like a trade name than a species.

[Minanora]

On 8/26/2022 at 11:01 AM, anewbie said:

There is a sword plant with the name 'super red' ? Sounds more like a trade name than a species.

I meant the ludwigia! 🤣

[gjcarew]

I finally found some Ludwigia Natans 'Super Red'.

I don't really care for the H'ra in the back right, but I'm unsure what to plant there instead. It's a bit late to try anything new.

There is overall too much back wall showing, but it is too late to do much about it at this point. I'm just doing some minor adjustments making sure the trimming is on point. At this point every snip of the scissors is consequential so I don't want to mess it up 

[SkaleyAquatics]

It's looking good! Good luck with your entry!

[anewbie]

On 8/29/2022 at 1:24 AM, gjcarew said:

I finally found some Ludwigia Natans 'Super Red'.

I don't really care for the H'ra in the back right, but I'm unsure what to plant there instead. It's a bit late to try anything new.

There is overall too much back wall showing, but it is too late to do much about it at this point. I'm just doing some minor adjustments making sure the trimming is on point. At this point every snip of the scissors is consequential so I don't want to mess it up 

ha'ra really needs a lot of light to go red; when i float it all of it is red. When i grow it planted only the top turns red. There are rotala that are more red - i think rotala blood red sg might be more to your liking.

[Minanora]

I have a red rotala that grows in my son's lie tech tank beautifully... I wish I could remember the name. It's growing very red without added phosphates, no co2 and 20ppm nitrates.

[Minanora]

Anyway! I forgot to add that your tank is looking great! I love the Lily. Which one is that again? A dwarf red?

[gjcarew]

On 8/30/2022 at 7:40 AM, Minanora said:

Anyway! I forgot to add that your tank is looking great! I love the Lily. Which one is that again? A dwarf red?

Thank you! I think this one is the tiger lotus. 

Funnily enough, in this case I don't really want a really red rotala. I'm looking for more green so it will stand out against the yellow myriophyllum and not compete visually with the lotus right next to it. For whatever reason there is just a lack of mature plants available around here right now.

[gjcarew]

Welp, this is about the best I can get it in the current timeframe. One of the things that makes Dutch-style tanks so tricky is that everything has to be perfect at the same time, and I didn't quite nail it here. But I'm pretty happy with this given what the tank looked like a month ago. I'm gonna give it a final spruce-up and take some pictures with the fancy camera tomorrow evening.

I'm excited to bring in all my rhads that have been growing and breeding outside for the past year. I'm also excited to stuff this tank with as many plants as can possibly fit 😈

[gjcarew]

Well it took about two weeks to get wildly overgrown.

I cleared out a some plants for the GSAS auction tomorrow, and added some more substrate as it has gradually dwindled as I pull out plants. I'm trying out some Monterey Sand as a cheaper alternative to Peace River gravel, and so far I really like it. It's less red so the red plants really pop against it.

This was taken post-rescape and pre-water change, hence the cloudy water. I felt really rushed to finish the tank for the AGA competition and now I'm really happy to be able to try out some new plants and new arrangements!

I also brought in the rhadinocentrus ornatus from outside and they are looking great. The males have really colored up with a red tail and bright blue sparkly scales. Unfortunately I still suck at fish photos 😔

I found out the hard way that the existing inhabitants are unkind to rhad fry so I'm cycling another tank right now to grow them out over the winter. More on that later 😁

[gjcarew]

No big changes this week, I didn't get any plants from the GSAS auction so there's just a hole in the scape right now. All I have are some dirty-glass plant and fish pics to share.

Myriophyllum mattogrossense "Golden" with a fishy photobomb

Ludwigia natans. I've grown a few of the "super red" Ludwigias and this might be my favorite. It is almost as red as Ludwigia palustris, but has a slightly slower growth rate and grows vertically rather than all over the place like palustris. It's very hard to make a "neat" bush with Ludwigia palustris.

Ludwigia inclinata 'Pantanal', you can see where I had it in the 75, then it moved to the pond outside (small leaves) then the new growth now that it's back inside.

[gjcarew]

Tank is looking jungly this week! It needs a big trim.

The aponogeton crispus is flowering with a 3+ foot stalk.

What's that piece of styrofoam? I didn't want to tell anyone until I knew they would survive, but that's the fry from a batch of Chilatherina fasciata "Kali Biru" eggs I got from Gary Lange at the last meeting. I've been feeeding them golden pearls and changing their water twice a day since they are in a fully-sealed half quart container, but other than a few failed hatches they seem to be doing well. I need to get them a real fry container though!

[gjcarew]

Gonna try to limit growth by lowering macros: 

7.2 ppm NO3/ 3.33 g

2.8 ppm PO4/ 1.5 g

15.2 ppm K2SO4/ 5.19 g

This is almost halving the nitrate content added per week, so hopefully I'll also see some better reds.

The tank was also way overgrown so I removed the lobelia cardinalis and the vallisneria spiralis "Tiger". I want to sign up for the local club home show and I've never done so with a Dutch tank, so the plan for the next few months is to get it looking good for that.

Edited October 10, 2022 by gjcarew

[anewbie]

Wish i could find some nice fertlizes without nitrates; I know apt has one but it is $$$$$$$$$; and api is said to have a bit lower nitrate content. Plants might like nitrate but it is not healthy for fishes.

[Mmiller2001]

On 10/10/2022 at 11:19 AM, anewbie said:

Wish i could find some nice fertlizes without nitrates; I know apt has one but it is $$$$$$$$$; and api is said to have a bit lower nitrate content. Plants might like nitrate but it is not healthy for fishes.

Use dry fertilizer.

[Patrick_G]

On 10/10/2022 at 10:19 AM, anewbie said:

Wish i could find some nice fertlizes without nitrates; I know apt has one but it is $$$$$$$$$; and api is said to have a bit lower nitrate content. Plants might like nitrate but it is not healthy for fishes.

I use APT Zero/1 and it is somewhat pricey.
A combination of Leaf Zone plus Seachem Flourish might be a good option if your looking for a low N pre-mixed formula on a budget. 
If you’re at that level of sophistication in your hobby it probably makes sense to go ahead and use cheap dry ferts. 

 

[anewbie]

On 10/10/2022 at 1:49 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Use dry fertilizer.

My problem is finding a table of what i need and how much; a lot of the tables i see is in ppm but converting ppm to teaspoon isn't very straight forward to a simple minded dimwit like myself. 

 

I have used apt zero that is the pricey stuff i referenced. I do put in a little phosphate (dry) but i always forget just how much i'm suppose to put in which make might dosing kind of random.

[Mmiller2001]

The calculator used will tell you how many teaspoons to use to reach a certain ppm. 

You can also create your own liquid fertilizer from dry fertilizer.

[anewbie]

Which calculator? Link? Link to how much of each nutrient ? pretty please ?

[Mmiller2001]

On 10/11/2022 at 12:07 PM, anewbie said:

Which calculator? Link? Link to how much of each nutrient ? pretty please ?

https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php

I would look here for dosing information.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/beginners-planted-tank-101/how-much-to-dose?_pos=2&_sid=e9a763897&_ss=r

You can also clone your favorite liquid fertilizer bottles.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/fertilize-planted-tank/mixing-dry-aquarium-fertilisers?_pos=1&_sid=ec276c53a&_ss=r

This also explains how to use the calculator.

[gjcarew]

Preliminary results of lower dosing are good. Growth is a lot slower, and plants like the H'ra are showing better color.

The Ludwigias have not taken it well. The Ludwigia 'Pantanal' completely died, though in truth it never recovered from its stint in the pond. Ludwigia natans also has shown weaker stems, smaller leaves, and lower density. If it doesn't look like it's adjusting to the new regime by next week I'm gonna hit it with some root tabs. 

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by gjcarew

[anewbie]

On 10/20/2022 at 12:29 AM, gjcarew said:

Preliminary results of lower dosing are good. Growth is a lot slower, and plants like the H'ra are showing better color.

The Ludwigias have not taken it well. The Ludwigia 'Pantanal' completely died, though in truth it never recovered from its stint in the pond. Ludwigia natans also has shown weaker stems, smaller leaves, and lower density. If it doesn't look like it's adjusting to the new regime by next week I'm gonna hit it with some root tabs. 

 

I've had that problem with plants that normally grow well in low-tech tank; if i put them in a high-tech tank and then move them to a low-tech tank they never seem to recover and eventually die. PSO is a good example; a plant that normally grows quite readily in low-tech environment.

[gjcarew]

On 10/20/2022 at 5:43 AM, anewbie said:

I've had that problem with plants that normally grow well in low-tech tank; if i put them in a high-tech tank and then move them to a low-tech tank they never seem to recover and eventually die. PSO is a good example; a plant that normally grows quite readily in low-tech environment.

I'm not familiar with the abbreviation (initialism?) PSO but it depends on the conditions, not all CO2-injected tanks are the same. I've run my tank in the past with high light, strong water column fertilization, and rich aquasoil, and any shred of plant material I put in there would survive.

Keeping your foot on the gas pedal like that is pretty unsustainable unless you're willing to devote an hour every week just to trimming. So now when I'm not closing in on *Dutch Aquascape Photo Time* I generally try to limit growth in some manner, which inevitably means that some of the plants are going to suffer. As long as most of the plants are doing well, I don't chase specific water parameters for just one or two dying plants.

It just so happens that I don't have a powerful enough light for "high" light on this tank either, so I do what I can with what I have. 

[Mr Gumby]

PSO - pogostemon stellatus octopus I assume??

[anewbie]

On 10/20/2022 at 10:21 AM, Mr Gumby said:

PSO - pogostemon stellatus octopus I assume??

Yea... that is it but i've had problems with other plants transitioning. Think in terms of 8 to 12 months to transition from hi-tech to low tech but a few weeks to transition from low tech to hi-tech.

-

For my hi-tech tanks I use inert substrate; one of them run with about .8  ph drop; the other around .5; after all the fishes come first and i have found some species have problems with 1.0 ph drop (my base ph is around 7-7.1).

Edited October 20, 2022 by anewbie