My Jewel 25 gallon

[morgan]

This will be my first attempt at keeping live plants . All other tanks were hardscaped only .
After a few good hours of reading im ready to give it ago ....

My tank is a 114 liter with a inch of 3mm dorset pea gravel and capped with a nice layer of 1-2 mm fine pea gravel.
filtration is a Jewel bioflow 400

Substrate is dosed with 4 x TNC plugs . Water is dosed with TNC complete @ 5ml every 3 days . Every 3 days i do a 25% water change .

Lights - 4pm -12. Scrapped the standard lights and went DIY . With a bit of squareline gutter, heat reflective tape and some ceramic bayonets im able to run 75w of compact spiral cfl @6500 kelvin. I choose to run just 50 w at the mo, equivalent to 250 watts of light , but thats a irrelivant 2wpg.

CO2 is provided by simple DIY yeast with a jelly fuel which gives me 1 bubble per sec for 5-6 weeks constant.
Diffused by a wooden air block which is then directly sucked up by a 600l/h circulator and spat out round the tank.
I have to unscrew the cap off evry night to keep my dropchecker a nice green .

day 1 -

after cycling the tank for 2 weeks i added 20 ramshorns ,4 neons and 4 guppies

Wood is Redmoor and plants i will try to list on another post .

That was 7 weeks ago , Co2 bottle has been changed and everything is running ok

 

[pariahrob]

That's one lovely looking scape! That bit of red moor is near perfect too. Bet you are pleased with it.

What are your plans for it all?

 

[morgan]

Thanks pariahrob , yeah im happy with the wood. but it may be blending in too much with the scape . I may have to clip the moss off to keep the side branching in view still

Fish - Albino Bristlenose, 10x Cherry shrimp , 10x mt snails, 20 x ramshorn , 6 neon tetra and 6 guppies and 4 guppy fry around 3 weeks old .
Tank is prob reaching full because of my bio flow 400 , may upgrade to the 600. I have another tank in my bedroom which is my overflow tank for my fry and shrimp for my kids to "pretend to look after"

shrimp was just added in pic so his colour isnt so hot

Plants - Still trying to remember the names, but im struggling lol .
java moss, riccia, Anubias barteri "marbled nana" , Bacopa monnieri , Blyxa aubertii or Blyxa japonica , Cabomba caroliniana, Cabomba furcata, Cladophora aegagropila, Egeria densa, mini water lettuce , Eriocaulon sp. 'cinereum', Hemianthus callitrichoides, Hygrophila polysperma, Sagittaria subulata, corkscrew val and amazon swords

Prob half wrong but its as good as i can identify them

Trying to hold off as long as possible for the first real trim , tring to settle plants in as much as possible with only gravel as my substrate. The Cabomba is the only plant to be trimmed as of yet , its growth is putting all the other plants to shame , i also have Red Cabomba in my other tank which is growing just as fast

 

[spyder]

It looks like your tank is thriving there, nice and green and fresh. The HC will test your Co2 for sure.

Would you like to share any information on your DIY Co2? The "jelly fuel" sounds interesting.

 

[morgan]

Hi Spyder , Thanks yes its been a real joy to sit back and watch with no probs .... yet
Im keeping to a strict 25 liter water change every 3 days and dosing ferts with fresh treated water .

Got a few of theese lying about and its only 6 quid to get them filled, but i refuse to pay the money for regs,tubing, solenoid etc when a 2 quid set up will last me along time and is more than capable of getting a bright yellow on my drop checker

So this is what im using ..

and this is what u need ...

I can give a detailed recipe, but in a nutshell the jelly acts as the fuel for the yeast keeping a food source for 1/2 teaspoon of yeast for up to 6 weeks .

Even using silicone tubing , the pressure would run a ceramic diffuser , and for bigger tanks you would just add extra 2ltr bottles on to the set up for a higher bpm .

Edit -I will be changing to vynil tubing soon @ 35p per meter .

 

[morgan]

apart from tropica flakes and algea wafers this is all i use .. keeping things simple .

 

[spyder]

So are you using the jelly and the sugar? This is interesting. I've tried yeast+sugar in the past in smaller tanks, no bicarb though.

If you would like to share your recipe then I would love to try it out, upto 6 weeks sounds cool.

 

[morgan]

Make the jelly as packet says , but add 2 cups of sugar when dissolving jelly cubes . Let it sit in fridge to set.
Once set the hard part is to get the jelly into the 2 ltr bottle. My kids do this for me , but gloves would be a good idea lol .
Get a cup of warm/hot not boiling water add a tspn of sugar , dissolve add 1/4 tspn of yeast , mix. Let it sit 5- 10 just to check if your yeast is active .

add to bottle and add 1/2 tspn of bicarb , this stops the yeast from getting too lively , then fill up with warm/hot but not boiling water to within 2 inch of top of bottle, add a further 1/4 tspn of yeast . A light shake once and you are done.

Edit - The first run i did with this lasted 6 full weeks . I used fresh bakers yeast and cane sugar . This run now ive used sugar beet and dried instant yeast so i will record the progress with the new mix ....

 

[spyder]

Awesome, bookmarked, will try this out soon.

Cheers.

 

[morgan]

This weekend i have had a quick mess with tank , introduced some Fissidens Fontanus and flame moss with some glosso to fill in some gaps. Ive kept the glosso in 1 bunch as if its anything like hc its not going to do great (yet). Trimmed the Cabomba caroliniana back and added a Red Cabomba at the back of the bunch .

found a berried shrimp so shes gone upstairs into my other 25 gallon , 0% survival of any babies with my guppies in this tank.

Gave the java moss and riccia on the redmoor a good thinning out also , no pics .

got a co2 reg,needle valve and solenoid , co2 clear tubing and a nice ceramic diffuser with built in bubble counter on its way to me in a few days .

as my plants are growing , there needs are changing,i think. some of my leaves look a bit worse for wear and the co2 is struggling now to get any were near yellow , there getting hungry , so every 3 days im now changing 1/3 of the water and dosing 7ml of tnc complete . thats 4ml over there usual weekly dose .

 

[Broomy]

Gorgeous scape, really like that! Subscribed.

 

[morgan]

Thanks
Today I have took the carbon sponge out of the bio flow and modded it slightly using a home made pre filter and a bag of ceramic rings .
My filtration is 400 ltrs/hr , so ive just ordered a new part which will give me 600 ltrs/hr , hopefully eliminating the need for my little unsightly circulator shoved at the back of the tank . I was using this for my co2 dispersal , again hoping the new ceramic defuser will eliminate the need for it..when it all arrives.

while i have had some spare cash ive used aquarium plant food uk for some E.I starter kits, 4dkh and some indicator solution .

I feel im lacking the ability to control my trace nutes with my current liquid fert .

 

[sr20det]

Make the jelly as packet says , but add 2 cups of sugar when dissolving jelly cubes . Let it sit in fridge to set.
Once set the hard part is to get the jelly into the 2 ltr bottle. My kids do this for me , but gloves would be a good idea lol .
Get a cup of warm/hot not boiling water add a tspn of sugar , dissolve add 1/4 tspn of yeast , mix. Let it sit 5- 10 just to check if your yeast is active .

add to bottle and add 1/2 tspn of bicarb , this stops the yeast from getting too lively , then fill up with warm/hot but not boiling water to within 2 inch of top of bottle, add a further 1/4 tspn of yeast . A light shake once and you are done.

Edit - The first run i did with this lasted 6 full weeks . I used fresh bakers yeast and cane sugar . This run now ive used sugar beet and dried instant yeast so i will record the progress with the new mix ....

Hmmm, 6 wks you say, in a Nano, I would assume this would genarate the required co2, and could be provide enough to keep aquarium going I would have thought maybe a tad longer even?

 

[sr20det]

Make the jelly as packet says , but add 2 cups of sugar when dissolving jelly cubes . Let it sit in fridge to set.
Once set the hard part is to get the jelly into the 2 ltr bottle. My kids do this for me , but gloves would be a good idea lol .
Get a cup of warm/hot not boiling water add a tspn of sugar , dissolve add 1/4 tspn of yeast , mix. Let it sit 5- 10 just to check if your yeast is active .

add to bottle and add 1/2 tspn of bicarb , this stops the yeast from getting too lively , then fill up with warm/hot but not boiling water to within 2 inch of top of bottle, add a further 1/4 tspn of yeast . A light shake once and you are done.

Edit - The first run i did with this lasted 6 full weeks . I used fresh bakers yeast and cane sugar . This run now ive used sugar beet and dried instant yeast so i will record the progress with the new mix ....

Any update on your new yeast sugar mix?

 

[morgan]

Hey sr20det the mix is going great still, 1 bubble per 2 seconds in a 2ltr bottle, no problems
The DIY route should be fine for your "nano" I would recc to any one as there first steps into budget co2
Your lighting is the main decider , more than the size of your tank
I would advise changing bottles every 4 weeks just to be a touch more consistent with the bubble count, as it will eventually slow down to a halt.
Adding a few grains of rice into the mix will also help it go the 6wk distance .
"The rice is a starch. Something about the yeast breaks the starch down and converts it into simple sugars. This in turn is consumed by the yeast as a food source which will then produce CO2"

 

[morgan]

update time

purchased some Cardamine Lyrata, christmas moss, Pogostemon Erectus, Anubias barteri Nana and some Anubias nana 'Petite' Bonsai . prob put some in both of my tanks when they arrive .

Kids have spotted 5 new baby shrimp in my 2nd tank .
Fitted new pump upgrade, trimmed java moss again and gave the riccia a little thinning . Alot of loose java moss all around the tank , a job for sunday by the looks of it.
New plant food has arrived and co2 is now running pressurised and slowly being dialed in .Still looks DIY but not bothered . The glass buble counter bubbles are alot smaller than im used to seeing/counting on my Diy set up, which means a faster bubble count . My drop checker says green so im happy .
50% water change today and the tanks first EI dose of the new macros. I will use the tnc feed on the 2nd tank ignoring the dose guide and going 3ml per day for 5 days .

 

[morgan]

small update--

Had a few issues with my drop checker not going back to blue at lights off , problem now sorted. may upgrade to a ceramic atomizer.
Stopped upping my CO2 and backed off a touch now as i spotted a shrimp sitting there opening and closing his mouth/pinchers ? well it looked like he was gasping a touch on the bottom.

Now finished my 2nd week of my new ei dosing feed. Followed the instructions from the supplier to make my mix.

Macro -4tsp KNO3, 1tsp KH2PO4 and 6tsp MgSO4 in 500ml of water
Micro - 1tsp chelated trace in 500ml water.

Both dosed 3 times a week on separate days at 10ml per day. with a 50% water change on sat .

Ill give it a month and see if i need to alter the ratios any.

Trying to keep the tank scaped , but feeling collectoritis coming on rapidly, i suppose no matter what size your tank is its never big enough

My tank as of 2 days ago...

Apparently the CO" fire extinguishers are not suited for aquarium uses , so ive got this --
£20 bottle £5.90 refills

 

[Ian Holdich]

that really looks nice and healthy. Well done!


just one observation...there appears to be some Mondo grass in there, which isn't a true aquatic plant.

 

[sr20det]

Why is the FE not suited aquarium use?

 

[morgan]

Why is the FE not suited aquarium use?

Hi,im not sure. When i went to bryland i just asked for a 2kg fe . As he was walking off to get it i mentioned it was for an aquarium. He stopped and said ,"its a good job you said or i would of given u a red one. Then he said some thing about the insides of a fe there was a tube and the liquid CO2 being able to kill my fish. I just nodded and took the welding bottle .