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First Journal - A beginners insight to the south americas! *now with updated pics!*

krazypara3165

krazypara3165

Member
Joined
23 Aug 2012
Messages
591
Location
Warrington, Cheshire
As some of you may have noticed i have been pestering everyone for answers recently and i thought i would update everyone on whats going on!

So last week i had a delivery of my first 'proper' aquarium' i have a fluval edge but do not really consider it to be in the same league and will be closing it down once my new tank is running. the tank i have is to replace a 4ft one i got from ebay which collapsed during testing. instead of repairing i thought i may as well do it properly and get a new tank. the tank i chose is a 4ft 285l beauty from All pond solutions which i will be reviewing at a later date.

.........The tank, i really underestimated how big this was!
IMG_20121113_155413.jpg

once i managed to unpack it and move it inside i have put the substrate in and have been running all the equipment, here is how it looked yesterday....
2012-11-19175247-1.jpg

I would like to thank a few members from here, firstly 'Antipofish' (chris) for the co2 setup
2012-11-20124804.jpg

And 'alanyusupov' (Alan) for the great unusual selection of south american plants which arrived today!
2012-11-20124518-1.jpg
CLINOPODIUM CF. BROWNEI 3 stems
Echinodorus tenellus nice portion
Bacopa sp. 'Sazlmanii' 3 stems
Eriocaulaceae sp. 'type 2 3 stems
Eriocaulon Goias 1 stem
Hyptis lorentiana 1 stem
Hygrophila polysperma 'Tiger' 3 stems
Hygrophila sp. Araguaia 3 stems
Lobelia cardinalis Dwarf
Ludwigia Inclinata
var. Verticillata Cuba 5 stems
Polygonum sp. 'Porto Velho'
Persicaria Sao Paulo 1 stem
Potamogeton gayi
Rotala Mexicana sp.Goias 5 stems
Sagitaria Dwarf
Staurogyne sp. Porto Velho
Staurogyne sp. Repens
Flame Moss


And so it begins!
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

Finally finished planting, its a bit haphazard as its all new to me. im quite pleased with the results and now i cant wait for them to grow in!

Specs,

280l aquarium
2x 2000lph All pond solutions filters,
300w hydor inline heater
500g pressurized co2 fed into filter intakes
4x 52w t5 lights (only 2 on for 6 hours a day whilst the tank matures) i assume this should be enough?

anyway here is the results!
2012-11-20181042-1.jpg

2012-11-20181105.jpg

2012-11-20181056.jpg
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

krazypara3165 said:
4x 52w t5 lights (only 2 on for 6 hours a day whilst the tank matures) i assume this should be enough?
Click to expand...
Hello,
The question you ought to be asking is: Is 500g of CO2 enough for a 300L tank?

Cheers,
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

Hi Krazypara,
looking good and seems like youre doing the right things with c02 on the inlets to redistribute evenly via the spraybars :thumbup:
As others have touched on, id raise your light unit as high as it will go as this will allow you a little room for error on the c02 injection until you get it set at the right levels. Also while you have the opportunity with having no livestock, id ramp the c02 right up (get a yellow drop checker colour for lights on) to give the plants the best possible start.....9 times out of 10 its too much light and not enough c02 availability that kills plants.
Good luck mate, looks to have great potential :thumbup:
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

If your struggling to raise the light, have you thought about taking out a t5 bulb?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

I couldn't say, if your experiencing problems assuming its related to light and can't raise your unit then I guess take a bulb out. Its difficult to say. I guess you can try and see how it does. Its best to have too little light than too much?

Sent from my Nexus 7
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

Hi Krazypara,
I have the same tank and the same lighting setup. I found that running all lights for 6 hours for the first 3 weeks was ok.
I had an outbreak of stag horn algae after about two weeks, but this was entirely co2 based. But then my tank was a bit more heavily planted than yours. Now that all is grown uni run the lights for 8 hours a day with no real issue.

Mike
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

So today I went downstairs to find a white film over some of the plants and the water is a tad cloudy. Im assuming this is the tank settling and I have read several reports as to what it could be with no difinitive answer. Either way I will up my water changes and see what happens.
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

I'd have said it was a bacterial bloom. Should clear in a few weeks. Don't overdo the water changes, keep them small but frequent. Say 20-30% a day if possible.
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

Whitey89 said:
I'd have said it was a bacterial bloom. Should clear in a few weeks. Don't overdo the water changes, keep them small but frequent. Say 20-30% a day if possible.
Click to expand...

That was what i thought, nice to have someone that agrees. started 20% water changes today so i will continue for as long as it takes. ive also got the surface skimmer running just to help out as it was starting to build up on the surface
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

Well i thought i'd post my three week update.

A lot of things have changed from my original concept, now at the moment i have around 15 tetras keeping the tank running, i have now decided to get rid of the tetras and go discus! it will be a lot of hard work, but ive already put a lot into this tank and i feel it will look stunning if i can pull it off. however i will be waiting till after christmas so my tank has a little longer to settle.

So far.......
It appears algae is creeping in, unfortunatly as my co2 is on full whack i cannot boost it higher, which leaves me the only option of reducing the lighting. i have managed to bodge, the lighting to raise it by 15 inches hopefully that will help, i will be continuing dosing as usual. if anyone has any more recommendations im all ears! so far it is only appearing on old leaves but i'd rather catch it now rather than letting it get worse.

apologies for the poor quality pictures as they were taken from my mobile.

i also apologise for the tinsel LOL (girlfriend)

FTS (with the now raised lights)
2012-12-11163652.jpg

Algae creeping in
2012-12-11163824-1.jpg

Lower leaves of Bacopa sp struggling (lack of co2?)
2012-12-11164026-1.jpg

rotala mexicana (getting binned next week if no improvement)
2012-12-11163841.jpg

All is not bad though! most plants are thriving considering the temp is 27 degrees ready for the discus!

some of the good!

echiodorus tennellus is growing fantastic, new runners everyday!
2012-12-11163722.jpg

and the ludwiga cuba is also thriving!
2012-12-11164053.jpg

So..... three weeks down. all in all i am really pleased with the results so far, due to the high temp i did get far more plants than needed as i knew at one point they would need thining out. so far im pleased with the results!
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

Finally found out how to increase the working pressure for co2, came in today to find the drop checker has finally gone lime green! 😀 hopefully this will stop the algae, and by next week ill know if the plants pictured above are struggling with the heat or lack of co2.
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

krazypara3165 said:
Finally found out how to increase the working pressure for co2, came in today to find the drop checker has finally gone lime green! 😀 hopefully this will stop the algae, and by next week ill know if the plants pictured above are struggling with the heat or lack of co2.
Click to expand...

Keep your eye on the DC to make sure that you have not over compensated. Hope the extra CO2 will make all the difference. There is a theory that the addition of liquid carbon can also help.
 
Re: First Journal - A beginners insight to the south america

cheers! ironically i got hold of another co2 setup today fe and hong kong reg, and tested the solenoid on it and it worked! :S but the other one came in the post today and that works on my existing setup so all sorted. ill be keeping my eye on the drop checker and adusting it accordingly over the next few days. im trying to steer clear of liquid carbon as its a bit expensive and ill need a lot for my tank, id rather just pull the plants that dont work as they only equate to less than 5% of the plant mass.
 
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