Mark Webb
Member
- Joined
- 27 Nov 2008
- Messages
- 365
nrus70 said:Mark
Lighting has been reduced, previously the 2 x 150 w halides were on for 4 -5 hours which I felt was too much, plus the 2 x T x 5 were on for 10 hours. I really only bought the halide /T 5 combo beacuse my local shop gave me a good deal on it and i have too admit when they are on the ripple effect is really nice. The halide bulbs are 2 x 8000k from a company called Watergrass in Hong Kong, they now just come for a couple of hours in the evening when Im home, the rest of the time its just 2 x T5 whic are Geismann and also are pleasent to look at but probably no better for plant growth than some cheap ones!!!
Ferts are just powdered NPK added two or three time a week , I mix my own chelated trace elements with a mix I bought from a hydroponics shop. I add 10 gm to 500 ml of distilled water and just squirt some in every day, no fussing around with drops or xxxx amount of millimeters.
Alage has never really been an issue, bit of BBA and some green spot here and there, but I just let them run their course and once everything stabilised and I tweaked the dry ferts they went. I get some green algae in the sand but i just turn it over and every now and then.
The ferns love their water column ferts and get plenty of flow over them plus a blast of 300 w of halide everyday and they are thriving, I will giving more away agian soon!!
Cheers Nick
Cheers Nick
I find this most interesting Nick, as I am planning a new large low maintenence tank using all of the plants on your list, plus a few others. You clearly have things right to keep algae under control from the off. How densely did you plant initially?