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Crystal River Shore

Very nice, love that bubble counter


Thanks Dean
 
really well done mate , look extremely promising and best of luck with it
cheers
 
Hi everyone ,

I've got hold of a PAR reader and this are the readings that I performed before setting up the tank

Our light fixture is a Aquart 4x54w T5 HO with VOSSLOH-SCHWABE electronic ballasts,
single reflector, assembled by Rui Alves in Aquaeden my LFS.

The lamps are:
2x Dennerle Trocal Amazon Day 54w T5 HO 6000k
2x Dennerle Trocal Special Plant 54w T5 HO 3000k

I've taken the readings according all i read here and at The Planted Tank articles by Hoppy

The measures are the result of the distance from the sensor to the lamps, taken just under the middle of light fixture and right at the center of my tank .

There was a difference of around 5 to 10 PAR going all around to the corners, front and back of the tank.

When the measures were taken with only 2 lamps I used the ones from the sides as in this way I had higher PAR values than with the ones in the center because of my reflector is the same for all the lamps

PAR___4x54w__2x54w
35____________82cm
40____105cm___80cm
45____________77cm_____Readings with no water in the tank
50____92cm____73cm
55____________68cm
60 ____83cm___65cm


35____________98cm
40____115cm___91cm
45____________87cm_____Readings with water in the tank
50____102,5cm__83cm
55_____________79cm
60_____93,5cm__76cm​

According to Hoppy statements:
Low light - 15-30 micromols of PAR - CO2 is not needed, but is helpful to the plants
Medium light - 35-50 micromols of PAR - CO2 may be needed to avoid too many nuisance algae problems
High light - more than 50 micromols of PAR - pressurized CO2 is essential to avoid major algae problems

And Plantbrain ''Tom Barr'' stated:
20-25 are the lower limits for many species.
40-50 is optimal for most

With this I've started with a 6h light time with only 2 lamps at a time and with the lamps at 91cm from the sediment giving me 40 PAR ...

I'm planing on raising this to 8h after 21 days and to 10h after 41 days ... according to Tropica's App

I would like to have some opinions from you all, based on my values, is this a good way to go ?

Today is the eleventh day of this layout and so far so good, good growth rate and no signs of algae anywhere ...
 
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Your plants will guide the way....
What I would say is keep lighting on the lower side to start. Max the c02 while there is no livestock, your plants will then have the best conditions to adapt to underwater life quickly and have the strength and structure to adapt more readily to future changes in lighting and co2.
All sounds well so far, just keep watching and adjust if necessary.
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Your plants will guide the way....
What I would say is keep lighting on the lower side to start. Max the c02 while there is no livestock, your plants will then have the best conditions to adapt to underwater life quickly and have the strength and structure to adapt more readily to future changes in lighting and co2.
All sounds well so far, just keep watching and adjust if necessary.
Cheerio,
Ady.


Hi there Ady,

Thank you for your advice, I'll go really slow, as for livestock I have already put some as they wore in plastic cases ...
The filters were already cycled and I've put the cleaning team to it's task, some amano shrimps, ottos, and sae ...

The pterophyllum scalare will wait a little more till the carpet is closed ...

As I said good growth rate so far I think that with 40PAR at the sediment things are more under control, just wanted to have some feedback on this ...

I'll post some pics from today in just a few minutes ;)
 
I agree the growth is fantastic. The hydrocotle creeping down the centre most rock looks great

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
 
Hi everyone,

Came for an update on tank status :D

So everything looking real good we've made changes on the light, now with 2x54w at the the start and at the end of light period and 8h full power in between with 4x54w Total 10h...

We've also both a TwinStar Nano working since the start of the week when we programmed the light output . ..

The stones have been maturing with a lot of GSA, result of light period of 10h only with 2x54w T5 HO, we will see if the TwinStar makes any kind of effect on them,
also with the extra light let's see what will be happen from here on ....

So here's a couple of pictures from the 44 day ;)

13767630513_4d8ba53418_b.jpg


13767988894_869413be16_b.jpg


13767628663_3f737fa408_b.jpg


13767614565_1d200e076c_b.jpg


13767985974_b57f0c5e01_b.jpg


13768801954_c1c74e8ed5_b.jpg


13768434735_e9a4943280_b.jpg


And this is all for today ...

Hope you like it :)
 
Nuno, really good.
Great shots.
Stones are looking good, more mature.
Is Twistart really needed at this stage?

Pedro.

Hi Pedro,

As you can see things are going real good ...

Regarding the stones we prefer them a little cleaner/GSA free ...

About the twinstar we will see what kind of benefit it will bring , not really expecting a miracle, the only algae present till today is GSA on the rocks and glass ... No signs of any other ...

You can read on my last post that the GSA started to appear when we passed the light period to 10h a day only with 2x54w lamps...

And now with the twinstar we are giving 8h on the middle of the light period with 4x54w, this kind of change often results on thread algae, so we will see in the coming weeks if the twinstar is up to it's task

I've been reading and following Viktor Lantos experience with it, he says it has broth some benefical effect even in matured tanks ... I had the chance to get hold of it ... And now we can see for our self's ...

We will be reporting our experience with it, and if you are curious about it just keep following our thread :)










Enviado do meu iPhone usando o Tapatalk
 
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I really like a small amount of gsa on rocks especially a more yellow colour rock, i think it adds character.

This looks fab Nuno congratulations

:)

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
 
I really like a small amount of gsa on rocks especially a more yellow colour rock, i think it adds character.

This looks fab Nuno congratulations

:)

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Hi aliclarke86,

Thank you for your input,

We also like the looks of the matured hardscape but it's becoming to much green and the contrast between the rocks and sand is loosing some of it's initial beauty ...

For now we won't do nothing about it to see if the TwinStar has any kind of effect on them :wacky:
 
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