55l medium tech

[Matthias]

I’ve had various different tanks for about 30 years now, mostly quite low-key planted tanks and a bit of tanganyika. My last tank was a low tech overgrown Fluval Nano which ran for about 10 years with an ever expanding population of Endlers and cherry shrimp. This time around it’s time for something a bit more high end - which means I’m getting to grips with Aquasoil, CO2, more state of the art ferts etc and wanted to post this by way of asking a few questions I’ve had along the way.

My ideal tank would be something from the first Amano book that I recently rediscovered in my parent’s house - I love the look of this, so effortless and natural.

Anyway this is the tank:

• Dennerle Scapers Tank 55l - 45 x 36 x 34 cm. I love the rounded corners on this tank and the glass lid (I have a 3 year old so an open tank seemed like a bad idea)
• 2 Stage CO2 system with in line diffuser from CO2 Supermarket, starts 2 hours before the light and an extra hour in the morning (the tank gets a lot of morning sunshine), about 1 bubble/sec
• Twinstar LED V3 with dimmer set to step 5 of 7, on from 2pm - 10pm
• 50% water change every weekend with London Tap water - pretty hard presumably with lots of NO3 (I don’t test water parameters)
• Fertiliser 5ml of TNC complete with the weekly water change
• Oase Filtosmart Thermo 100 set to 21

Just after setup

After replacing the sagitaria few weeks ago

And right now

I’m only keeping about 10x red cherry shrimps, 2x Amanos and 5x Nerite snails for now. The original plan was to add some Tanichthys micagemmae, but I haven’t been able to find any in London and am half considering keeping it algae-eater only, let’s see…

In terms of plants you’ll probably recognise most of the plants in the pictures. I’m keeping Ludwigia Glandulosa, Limnophila aromatica and Lagenandra meeboldii for the first time and love them. Everything seems to be growing well so far apart from Micranthemum Cuba which collapsed so quickly I almost took it personal. The last strands are hanging in there in between the Elocharis, not sure if there’s any way to revive them.

I’ve got a mix of floaters: Salvinia, Limnobium and Phyllantus all growing vigorously and looking happy and green.

The tank is about 2.5 metres from a large east facing window and gets quite a lot of natural light. This means it’s dimly lit with daylight for the first half of the day. With the longer days I’m sure this is adding to my algae problem.

I’ve set the tank up in early January after about 3 weeks dark start. For the first 1.5 months I could hardly spot any algae and was starting to feel smug.All that changed around the time I removed a carpet of saggitaria which was starting to obscure the foreground. Ever since then I’m getting lots of Diatomes gradually turning to fuzzy green algae. I’ve added shrimps and most recently Nerite snails - it’s really satisfying watching them cut through the algae fuzz but wonder if I can reduce the algae any other way?? Would adding fertiliser over the course of the week rather than at water change give me more or less stability? Or add another top-up dose mid week?

I could reduce the light (had taken it up one notch along the way) or let the floaters grow out more, but don’t want to overshadow my stem plants.

Any thougths and advice is much appreciated!

 

[Matthias]

I decided to take the lighting down a notch to 4/7 - I think on reflection it did fare better at lower light. The algae situation definitely needs addressing. One thing I’m less clear on is if it would help to spread out the tnc complete doses over the week. Right now I’m adding the recommended 1ml/10l with the weekly water change. Looking at the floaters today I’m less confident I’ve got the dosing right - do they look deficient to you?

 

[Rasborakel]

Hi, it just so happens I have recently acquired the same Dennerle tank as you. I am into the first week of my Dark start so your experiences are going to be very helpful to me. Can I ask where you bought your cabinet, it looks just what I, err and the wife of course, would love.

 

[Mike Singh]

Welcome and nice tank. You seem to have most bases covered. The M Cuba are difficult to grow. They need high light and CO2 blowing directly on it. Your hard water may be as issue as well. Good that you replaced the foreground with something more resilient.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Looking at the floaters today I’m less confident I’ve got the dosing right - do they look deficient to you?

Possibly a little bit nitrogen (N) deficient?

cheers Darrel

 

[Matthias]

Hi, it just so happens I have recently acquired the same Dennerle tank as you. I am into the first week of my Dark start so your experiences are going to be very helpful to me. Can I ask where you bought your cabinet, it looks just what I, err and the wife of course, would love.

I don’t have a direct comparison but I did think the dark start helped. I didn’t have any algae issues (at least not for the first few weeks) and no melting. Only downside was that it occupied a windowless bathroom for a few weeks to make sure it’s actually dark as the final location gets a lot of daylight.

I actually built the cabinet myself - pretty simple construction with edge banded plywood, all cut to size at my local timber merchant (which really took the hard work out of it), joined with screws and finished with osmo top oil. I’d recommend giving it a go if you enjoy DIY’ing.

 

[Rasborakel]

Thanks Mathias, you did a really good job by the look of it.