Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank (update 23-06-11)
Tank Overview so far.
The tank is just over a year old now, and is looking the healthiest i have had it, i have no algae problems, and very healthy plant growth! So a bit like Tom on his journal i thought i would highlight what i am doing.
So initially i went down the EI route and had some success but it never really came as good as i wanted and didn't suit me personally. So ended up using the TPN stuff as it seemed very popular. Not regretted it in the slightest, this in conjunction with the ADA substrate System works very well indeed.
Equipment Spec:
180l tank
Lights 4 x39w T5 (7hrs day)
1 x Eheim 2075
1 x Eheim 2324 thermo filter used as CO2 Reactor (CO2 on 3 hrs before and finishes an hour b4 the lights go off)
1 x Hydor Nano to help with flow at the back
Routine:
Daily
Dosing 3 squirts (3ml) of Easy life Kalium (Potassium)
Pruning and removing dead/damaged leaves
Weekly
50% water change
Dosing weekly dose of TPN or TPN+ alternate weeks (20ml per week)
Dosing Easylife Algexit (18ml)
Dosing Easy life Ferro (18ml)
Clean glass
Monthly to 8 weekly
Clean Both external Filter and replace white floss
Clean Glassware
Running cleaning brush through UP atomizer to maintain CO2 bubble rate.
Comments:
Easylife Algexit - TGM introduced me to this product and i have to admit i was sceptical. I have always had thread algae and fuzz algae in my tanks. I started dosing this weekly and after about 10 days no sign of it whatsoever. So kept it going!
BGA (Blue Green Alage) - i got rid of this by removing as much as i could and the surrounding gravel and performing several water changes over a couple of weeks. Also keeping the the flow good so detritus cant build up is important. I typically found it in dirty low flow areas.
BBA - Early on experienced this, buy keeping to my regime and directly dosing with Easycarbo and removing the worst effected items i seem to have it beat.
EI - never really worked as well for me and that could be down to my mixing skills, but never really saw the results.
You can have too much flow, i went to far and have reduced it back down to a much more sensible level.
Water changes are king! Do them ever week if not more.
I hope this is useful to some of you
Thanks for looking
Andyh