• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Paul's 200L, "Punishment of Luxury"

It's really interesting. I ran out of ferts this morning - I've been dosing 75ml of homebrewed all-in-one daily - today I only had 50ml to put in. Came home this evening to evidence of plants starting to complain - limnophila looking decidedly unhappy and a telltale oily scum with bubbles on the surface. This is exactly what I had when Saintly suggested I upped my ferts, which I did to good effect. I find it extraordinary that the plants can react so fast - if that is actually what's happening.

I've just sat down and carefully recalculated my EI dosing, and I reckon I was indeed dosing a bit lean anyway. So today's new batch will be revised upwards, and we'll see what happens.

Never mind AndyH being hooked when his first tank is so spectacularly successful - I'm hooked even though mine keeps on going wrong! :lol:
 
paul.in.kendal said:
This is exactly what I had when Saintly suggested I upped my ferts, which I did to good effect. I find it extraordinary that the plants can react so fast - if that is actually what's happening.

I 'read' my tanks, rather than looking at the science, and testing.Of course, we need to know the basics of the science side of things, but for me, i'm not into that too much.

By looking at our/my tanks, I can instantly tell something is wrong! even if the uneducated (my wife etc) cant see a difference. i look for the 'tell tale' plants to let me know if something is wrong. Plants such as HC, HM umbrosum, in my tanks are give away plants. If there showing signs of poor growth, i do something about it.

I'm glad the additional dosing helped. Usually, over night, plants will respond to an increase in ferts. Your next step is to adjust co2 to match the fert increase.

I'm finding it rather strange your HC and grass aren't growing. It's responding badly to something, maybe, the more it dies, the more ammonia it leaches thus killing the surrounding HC?

What's your W/C regime?
 
I change 50% every week. I still reckon my CO2 is high enough - the fish tend to congregate in the vallis at peak times, presumably because that's giving out most oxygen. My biggest problem is lack of general fishkeeping experience. It means, for example, that I don't know whether I'm overfeeding, which would increase the ammonia.

Still, I'm learning. I can certainly now see that the key to good husbandry is close, frequent observation - the limnobium certainly seems to work as an excellent indicator plant for me.
 
feeding is simple.

turn off filters and koralias (so no flow)

put a small pinch of food on the surface, wait for fish to eat it all, then add another small pinch. keep doing this until they stop the frenzy and become less interested. that way you arent placing a hugle lump in in one go. stopping the flow means its not blasted around the tank and hidden in all the plants where it rots.

lastly, it normally takes the fish a few seconds to realise there is food (in a large tank anyway) so by only putting a little bit in, its not a problem if some sinks. if you put a huge load in, most of it has sunk or got caught somewhere before it can be consumed becuase most fish will go for food thats on the surface not nearing the bottom.

BUT: another advantage of having top feeding fish like livebearers, middle feeding ones like barbs and harlequins and some lower feeding fish that like to 'snoop' around the bottom of the tank.
 
Fine, fine, ta very much! I split it into tiny clumps and seeded the desired area last weekend - it all seems fine and there's some initial growth evident. I'll post up a picture in a while. I've one remaining clump of HC in the left hand corner of the tank, the one place it seemed to be doing fine in partnership with some hydrocotyle.

Apart from that, my very nice local friendly CO2 merchant loaned me a 2kg FE (free of charge!) when I forgot to get either of my two 3kgs refilled in good time :rolleyes: . The resulting hiatus in CO2 dosing caused a bit of die-back of the limnobium, but everything's back in order now. And I've just done a second trim of the rotala.

Photos later over the weekend.
 
OK, so I failed to post those promised pics, but with good reason. My filter (Eheim 2180 Thermo) started leaking again- badly last weekend. After much flapping (and a lot of water on the carpet), I got it working again, sat in a big bucket. The problem seemed to be the hose connector leaking into the head. The bummer was that this was invisible for 36 hours or so, until the head had filled up and it started overflowing into the cabinet. My missus spotted it, casually pointing to the dark patch expanding under the cabinet!

Of course, I should have recognised something was wrong in that the head always had a fair bit of water in it everytime I did a clean. But my total lack of experience meant the penny didn't really drop that it isn't meant to do this - doh! :rolleyes: :oops: :oops:

A call to John Allan Aquariums, then a call to The Green Machine, and a replacement head and hose connector was on its way. These arrived this morning and it's up and running (leak-free at the moment!) as I type. It's also sitting in a bucket until I'm totally sure it's 100% OK.

The new head is a bit different from the old one - I'll post pictures soon (promise!). And the hose connector seems watertight too, thank goodness.

So - I've learned a bit more. I did a second trim of the rotala last week, and the filter-related disruption has resulted in major leaf-loss from the staurogyne - but the glosso is going great guns! :thumbup: :thumbup: Fish are fine too ;) .

Major thanks to TGM for their brilliant after-sales service - Jim, Mark and co couldn't do enough to help sort this - their no quibble attitude, and recognition that this sort of stuff really messes with our peace of mind is just one of the reasons they're such a special outfit. Thanks guys. :clap:
 
Hi Paul

Sorry to hear of your eheim woes, but am pleased you seem to have it sorted out.

This is probably a bit late, but I found some plastic boxes at the local market, which I use as 'trays' for the filters - they are just big enough to fit the filter in, whilst still fitting inside my cupboards. They're about 8 inches deep, so give you a bit of breathing space in case of filter leaks - I just check they're dry every morning when I dose the ferts.

Look forward to more pics.

Tony
 
OK - first, sincere apologies for promising more pics and not delivering.

Here's the glosso, a few days after planting

dscf0046r.jpg


Here's the new Eheim 2180 head. The cream coloured bit in the middle is soft and rubbery - on my original it was hard grey plastic. Dunno whether that's a crucial difference, but it's working fine, no leaks.

dscf0032a.jpg


This is how it's installed, for now at least:

dscf0037u.jpg


And here are some pics from today:

dscf0069a.jpg


The glosso doing its stuff:
dscf0071f.jpg


The naughty HC, which decided to flourish in a corner (and the hydrocotyle with a fair bit of GSA :shh: ):
dscf0073j.jpg


The rotala looking good about ten days after its second trim:
dscf0072d.jpg


I'm off on hols for ten days on Friday, so I'll switch off the halide (taking lighting down to 48w from 198w), reduce the photoperiod from 6hrs to 4, reduce co2 input and fit an autofeeder for the fishies. No ferts, but I've got good substrate. I expect I'll come back to a right bloody mess!
 
Looking good mate! :D

Have a nice holiday and try not to worry about the tank. You may well be surprised when you return. I'd personally not bother feeding the fish for 10 days. They'll feed on tiny scraps, maybe even algae (most fish rely on algae as a major part of their diet in the wild).
 
Paul

dscf0069a.jpg


How good is that looking now! :thumbup: :thumbup: Considering this is your first attempt (correct me if i am wrong!) it really does look great!

Everything looks very healthy. That Glosso has taken really well, cant believe how much coverage you have already got! :geek:

It will be fine for 10 days, Just give it some extra attention when you get back and it will be cool!

Andy
 
Sweet as a nut!

Looks to me like your over some of your past woes. What a great feeling eh?

andyh said:
Considering this is your first attempt (correct me if i am wrong!) it really does look great!

so true, Much ground covered i think.
 
Thanks so much for all the kind comments, chaps! This is part of what makes UKAPS great - you're all sooo supportive! :angelic:

Thanks Nelson. But where's the successor to jungle plain? In it's last rendition that was looking lush, with some lovely fishies!! I hope your doing something good with it.

Thanks for the advice on fishfeeding, George - I'll definitely leave them to forage, that's much easier - and reassuring to know that I can do that without being cruel to the darlings! :silent: :lol:

Glad you like the Anubias, Frothhelmet - it's future is uncertain, unless it gets its act together and the production of new healthy leaves outstrips the algaefication of older ones!

Ah, Paulo - what I would give for someone living nearby I could trust to keep an eye on it!My mates up here are all dinghy sailors - I'd trust them with my life in a boat, and with my money at the bar, but I wouldn't let them within ten feet of this baby without th4e closest supervision!

You're right, Andy, this is my very first aquarium - to me its condition is a tribute to a certain geeky streak in me ( :geek: ), and a massive dollop of support and sound advice from people like your goodself :thumbup: .

Saintly, as always it's extra special to get kind words from someone of your calibre (not that I don't feel the same about George, Paulo, Andy et al!) - much ground covered indeed! What I'm particularly chuffed about is the water clarity - for quite a few weeks at the beginning it was clear, but not REALLY clear. Now even a week after a water change the water is crystal clear, with barely a hint of build-up on the glass at the waterline. This is a tribute to our fantastic tap water up here, but also to UKAPS advice. I reckon Ed Seeley has a lot to answer for - his hi-tech for beginners tutorial was a brilliant starting point for me.

Steve, I certainly will have a good holiday. I'm off to Les Arcs skiing - I fell hook, line and sinker (not a good expression for a fishlovers forum I guess!) for an April Fool text this morning from a pal telling me there's been 2 metres of snowfall at the resort last night! :lol: Still, I believe the snow is still pretty good, and it's always better than work!!

Right, off to pack my bags - don't eat too much chocolate, chaps!
 
paul.in.kendal said:
Thanks Nelson. But where's the successor to jungle plain? In it's last rendition that was looking lush, with some lovely fishies!! I hope your doing something good with it.
can't show it until after IAPLC ;) .
enjoy the 2 metres of snow :lol: .
 
Well I've been back from skiing a week now, so I'm a bit overdue reporting on my first-ever time away from my scape!

As I guessed, UKAPS advice was spot-on as always. I turned lights and CO2 down, left the fish unfed, and came back to this:

dscf0111lm.jpg


Although this shows it after a post holiday water-change, it is exactly how I returned to it - probably in even BETTER health than when I left it ten days previously! There was less algae than when I went, plants were looking better, and the anubias especially seemed to have benefitted from the less intense regime.

As a result, I've tweaked back the lighting an CO2 from what I was doing before the break, and I'm watching to see how it responds. I do think I've probably been loving my fish too much, with excessive feeding - but it' so hard not to give them a little pinch or two, once too often!

(Sorry about the less-than brilliant picture - I'm seriously thinking about a Canon 450D with an EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens - and I'm hoping I can find someone to borrow some studio lights off, too.)

Thanks for the advice, chaps - George especially :clap:
 
Back
Top