40 gallon planted journal

[Emika_B]

Hi all,

 

Finally got around to set up the newest version of my tank.  I'm calling it 40 gallons, though by dimension it's 45 (36 inches long, 12 inches deep, 24 inches high).

 

Hardware:

• 4-fan chiller (Petzilla)

• 100 W Heater (Aqueon)

• Air pump (AQQA)

• Fluidized moving filter (AQQA), 2

• Heat/Cool controller (Inkbird)

• Planted+ 24/7 LED light (Finnex)

 

Scape:

• Cholla wood (NApremium), 1 piece

• Mopani wood (Zoomed), 4 pieces

• Plant and shrimp Stratum (Fluval), 8.8 lb bag x 2 (more like 1.5 bags plus from established tank)

• Shrimp cave (Aquarium Co-op), 3

 

Plants (except for anubias and moss balls, all from Aquarium Co-op):

• Anubias nana (petite?) from established tank

• Cryptocoryne wendtii, 5 pots

• Cryptocoryne wendtii green, 5 pots

• Java fern wendelov, 5 pots

• Java moss, 1 mat

• Micro chain sword, 5 pots

• Moss ball, 10

• Valisneria, 7 pots

• Water sprite, 2 pots

 

Treatments:

• Fritz Complete water conditioner

• Easy Green fertilizer

 

Parameters (Tetra EasyStrips):

1/15/21

• Temp: 77.2

• Ammonia: 0

• Nitrates: 20

• Nitrites: 0

• pH: 7.2

• KH: 0

• GH: 300

 

I didn’t test the water on the first two days because I wasn’t sure how much the ‘dirt’ in the water column would affect the readings.

[Emika_B]

Here are photos of the hardware:

 

[Emika_B]

Here are photos of the scape materials:

 

[Emika_B]

Here are photos of the tank and day 1.  Lots of substrate dust but mostly because I didn't rinse really hard and the substrate from my other tank was very 'mulmy.'

 

[Emika_B]

Here's day 2.  The dust settled out nicely overnight.  I'd left an Aquarium Co-op sponge filter in overnight but ended up changing it to the fluidized filters.  It's dusty again because I tried to get the dirt off of the plant leaves.  The little white bags have filter media from my other established tank.  I was going to decommission that tank but for the moment it's my plant overflow until this one settles out.

[Emika_B]

Here's day 3.  It's settled nicely.  A number of the moss balls are still floating and landing wherever and I think a few of the crypts need to be tucked in better.  Otherwise, I'm very happy with the results.

Now it's letting everything settle and season.  And keeping an eye on the temperature.  Yesterday the tank got up to 79 and the fans kicked in.  Of course, that was when I was deciding I was pretty much done with planting and finished filling the tank, so that cooled the water a bit and the fans turned off.  Don't know if the heater ever kicked in overnight.

[FrozenFins]

very nice setup! The plants seem to be doing awesome!

[Emika_B]

James Black - thanks!  I'm debating on getting more valisneria, though I know it'll sprout new ones soon enough.  Patience 🙂

[Emika_B]

It's day 5 and most of the particulate matter has settled, though still a bit hazy.  And I'm sure the tannins are high, even after about 1 1/2 weeks of soaking.  I might pick up a small hang on back and Purigen to soak up the particulates and tannin.  Not sold on it yet, though.

Today's readings:

Temp: 75.8

Ammonia: 0

Nitrates: 20 ppm

Nitrites: 0

pH: 7.2

KH: 0 ppm (though I'm not sure on that one)

GH: 300 ppm

There's still a while to go getting this tank settled.  I knew I had hard water and that'll affect the fish I go with.  I've pretty much nixed the goldfish - just too warm and the water's a bit harder than they like.  Still, that leaves open livebearers and they're fun, too.  I need to find the water quality report for my area to see if my GH is more calcium or magnesium.  I want to do shrimp and if it's high calcium then I should be in the clear.  Any thoughts?

Here are some photos of my plants (all but the moss balls and anubias are from Aquarium Co-op).  I'm happy with the crypts - no melt yet.  I may pick up more val and add the rest of my plants (in a holding tank at the moment).

[Emika_B]

It's day 9 and the water parameters haven't changed:

Temp: 75.3

Ammonia: 0

Nitrates: 20 ppm

Nitrites: 0

pH: 7.2

KH: 0 ppm

GH: 300 ppm

I added one of the smallest Wonder Shells in an attempt to increase my KH on day 7, no change, so added the other 2.  I'll be keeping an eye on it.  I do have larger Wonder Shells on order and if those don't do anything for the KH, I'll move on to Seachem's Equilibrium.

Here's a link to a video of my tank's inhabitants - snails and tiny critters:

 

[kammaroon]

It's a nice looking tank.

56 minutes ago, Emika_B said:

pH: 7.2

KH: 0 ppm

GH: 300 ppm

The 0 KH seems a bit strange. Having low KH and high GH is unusual but not impossible. 0 KH means that you have no pH buffering and could be subject to wild pH swing. However, all your previous pH tests show a stable 7.2. Maybe you could try another KH test kit to make sure of the result is correct.

If you add wonder shell that would likely to increase your GH even more.

 

[Emika_B]

Kammaroon - Yeah, I’m thinking I need to try another test.  I’ve been using the Tetra 6-in-1 strips and I’m questioning the results.  I’ve used the API Master Kit on previous tanks and it’s such a pain to do - different times, different numbers of drops, etc.  Might get one just for the KH/GH.  Provided that a new test brand’s KH test shows 0 to low results, do you have any recommendations to increase KH without affecting GH?  So far I haven’t found anything that does just KH.  I don’t want to add any inhabitants until I can get the KH up to provide a pH buffer.

[Emika_B]

Well, the only other test I could get that had a GH/KH count was API’s test strips.  They don’t get stellar reviews but that aside, I got the same readings as I did with the Tetra strips - 0 KH.  I’ve been scouring the forum for posts about raising only the KH and after a while it got rather confusing.  I know the basics of the pH, GH, KH relationship but it was hard to find a single bit of information that said, ‘to raise only KH use this.’  It was always in tandem with raising GH.  So, though I don’t want to raise my GH I’m going to add crushed coral/aragonite to increase the KH.

What I’ve read is 1 pound of crushed coral per gallon of water.  At about 40 gallons of water, that’s 40 pounds of coral!  I really don’t want to redo my scape - I like the Fluval Stratum and I don’t particularly care for the look of crushed coral.  My current filtration setup is all internal but I do have a PennPlax canister filter available.  If I were to fill that with the crushed coral, would that do the trick?  That being the case, would it make more sense to reduce/remove the fluidized filters and just use the canister?

I won’t be adding any residents to the tank until I can get the KH thing straightened out.  I don’t think the snails care one way or the other as long as I drop some fish food in from time to time.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Emika_B
Clarification

[Colu]

You tank is coming a long great

[Emika_B]

Colu - thanks!  The snails are happy, just tooling around doing their thing.  And I enjoy watching the filters tumbling their media.  I’m hoping to get the KH thing settled soon so I can start adding a few inhabitants.  Probably shrimp to start with then move on to fish.  I had been thinking a few schools of nano fish but now I’m thinking small cories and guppies.  Kuhlis would be fun but I don’t think they like my water.  We’ll see; it’s still early days.

[Ashe]

WOA! Your tank is looking wonderful! Keep up the great works

[Emika_B]

Ashe - thanks!  I’m really enjoying the green of the plants against the brown of the wood and substrate.  Of course, I have a feeling the wood and substrate are the source of some of my frustration with low KH.  Ultimately it’s what’ll make the inhabitants happy, so there may be changes but that’s part of the fun, yeah?

[Colu]

You can add crushed coral sand in a media bag in your filter to raise your GH and KH

[Emika_B]

Colu - My filtration is all internal (you can see them in the Day 3 photos) at the moment.  I’m tempted to take one of the fluidized filters and replace the little plastic media bits and replace it with a media bag filled with crushed coral.  They weren’t expensive filters, so I don’t mind experimenting a bit.

Actually, Colu, thanks!  I wouldn’t have thought of modding (is that a word?) the fluidized filter if you hadn’t sent me off on this path.

[kammaroon]

18 hours ago, Emika_B said:

do you have any recommendations to increase KH without affecting GH?

I don't know of any. Normally, people have issue with both low KH and low GH. You could pose this as a separate question in the forum.

[Emika_B]

Kammaroon - I may end up doing that.  There seems to be so many posts about pH, GH, KH that I hate to muddy the waters.  Still, I’m sure there are others in a similar spot as I am with good readings except for KH.

[Emika_B]

Well, new day, new tests.  Picked up an API liquid KH test kit and it pretty much confirmed the strips - basically no KH.  So, I modified one of the fluidized filters - removed the plastic bead filter media and replaced it with a media bag and maybe 1 cup of Caribsea's Aragonite.  Rinsed like crazy and still ended up with dust smoke in the water.  I did leave the Wonder Shells in the tank since the snails seem to like them.

 

[Emika_B]

Day 15 update:

Water parameters are holding steady.  There's been a negligible increase in KH since I added the aragonite to a modified filter.  This leads me to three options: 1-let the current set up age for another week and see if there's an increase; 2-return the fluidized filter to its old setup and add a canister filter with only aragonite; 3-rescape.

I'm going to up my Easy Green dosing and the food I drop in to feed the bacteria.  I'm willing to bet all will be well, but I'm not quite ready to risk shrimp and fish lives.

Here's a video from a fish's eye view.  Sorry it's a bit unsteady - hands don't make the best steadycams and the last bits were done with the camera free-floating on the surface.

 

[kammaroon]

Someone else posted for help with low KH and high GH:

 

[Emika_B]

Kammaroon - I was just reading that post 🙂. According to the Aquarium Co-op blog, “Typically, freshwater aquariums should be between 4-8 dKH (or 70-140 ppm).”  I’m still only about half way there, which is frustrating.  I’m thinking I’ll add another cup of the aragonite to the modified filter and give it a week to see if there’s any movement on the KH.  If not, I’ll get out the canister filter and fill the media baskets with aragonite/crushed coral (whatever my local fish shop has in stock) and go from there.

I like my scape the way it is, but there is one piece of mopani wood that I could remove (no plants on it).  I know there’s some correlation between wood and GH/KH/pH.  I may be working at crossroads by keeping the wood in and adding the crushed coral.