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what to do?

dazzer1975

Member
Joined
29 Aug 2011
Messages
46
Returning to the hobby after a few years hiatus and it seems some of my previous understandings regarding growing plants have shifted somewhat.

I have a juwel vision 180 (appx 40gallons) and when it was previously set up I was running an arcadia t5 luminaire with 4 x 39watt tubes giving me an appx wpg of 4. In conjunction with this I was running EI and injecting pressurised co2, substrate was ada amazonia with power sand underneath.

Now, I am eager to get set up again but I don't want to be driving the tank as hard with the high level of maintenance it required (auto top off's and dosing machines etc are not an option), but, I only have the use of the arcadia luminaire and have recently acquired a new eheim pro3e 2078 to provide the filtration and flow required in addition to some colombo flora base substrate... so despite my concerns, it seems I am drifting toward the high tech high maintenance approach.

I am also looking into pressurised co2 systems again :rolleyes:

The trouble is, I would ideally like a carpet of hc (although never had much success with it in the past) pogostemon helferi and perhaps a bit of dwarf hair grass to break it up a bit. These species I believe require this high light pressurised co2 approach so what am I to do?


I haven’t devised any kind of plan or intended set up yet, only that I have the equipment I have and don’t really want to replace.

As it stands, the set up will be the vision 180, eheim 2078, t5 lighting and perhaps pressursed co2 and maybe a couple of small power heads to increase flow/eliminate dead spots etc.

Ideally I am looking for a long term scape rather than something that needs constant fettling, is this compatible with high lighting and pressurized co2?

I would like to move away from EI so may explore some other options and see whats what.

I plan on housing a couple of bristle noses, plenty of shrimp and a shoal or two of something like tetras and rasboras.

Basically, I think I am suffering from a paralysis of not knowing which way to go and would like your inputs on how you would approach a project of this nature and what you would change (re lighting?)

Any thoughts and suggestions would be gratefully received.

Cheers guys.
 
Hey,

Light is the primary driver of plant growth. If you want to avoid the maintenance required by a high light high tech system simply reduce your lightning levels. I believe you could reduce your light by half and still maintain those species provided that you have CO2.

I have nice and healthy hc in my 10l tank with only 11W of light (lots of CO2 though). It does carpet but it takes longer = less maintenance.

Hope this helps.

GM
 
wait till a mod see's it or, click the ! in the triangle and report them, a mod will see it as soon as they sign on then.
 
ive had no luck carpeting my juwel vision 260 high tech. If you want a carpet i reckon your best bet will be dwarf sag but it isnt really a carpet as it is 4-6". I think the juwels are just a bit too deep without extremely high light, co2 and ferts.
If you want to go with lower light (lower maintenance) you can just remove or cover a couple of bulbs.
 
I have had a lovely dwarf hairgrass lawn in the past but could never get pogostomen helferi or hc to take for some reason, so god knows why but i still want to try hc and helferi, it is typical that the two plants i have had no success with, i absolutely love. I am sure it wouldn't be the case if i had grown them successfully before.

Yer the juwels are high, but they aren't 2 foot high like some tanks are so I dunno, not keen on the dwarf sag maybe try e. tennellus but am unsure yet really. I do recall the dwarf hair grass was a pain to keep tidy so was hoping for a mix of hc and helferi in the hope it ultimately required a bit less tending... but as said, I couldn't keep them successfully before, so I don't know why i think i could this time lol

I was thinking of having the photoperiod of 8-10 hours on two bulbs with a blast in the middle of the period of 4 hours with all 4 bulbs... again, just random ideas at the moment, but I think the comments regarding cutting down on the light will be the key to this set up.

Definitely seems that lower lighting is the order of the day to keep from pushing the tank too hard, never really liked doing that in the past as i tend to stick with my set ups for a few years, but on the whole I could grow most things so i know it works, its just a pita with the maintenence. I'm more of a want something nice to look at and relax with kind of tank keeper lol, but i have an internal tension derived from being a bit of a tech whore so always end up at cross purposes with myself lol
 
Another option would be to kick-off with high light and then, when the plants fill in, slowly reduce light to keep maintenance within reasonable levels.

cheers,

GM
 
I am liking that idea, hit the tank hard from the off, get it established and filled in a bit then take a bit of time to try and scale back on the lighting and co2 and ferts and try a find a balance with a slower growth rate.

If that could be done it definitely sounds like a winning formula that does.

:thumbup: :D

Slightly worried about algae issues but have dealt with those in the past with blackouts, flourish excel and for particularly nasty pea soupers a uv filter, although I have heard people have great success dealing with pea soupers with barley straw and / or willow sticks.
 
I have a carpet of hc in a 30l nano with an 11W light, tank is only 35cm deep tho. My first effort with a planted tank for a long time so maybe just beginners luck!
 
Ooohh I've never heard of that before, many thanks for the suggestion, it is something I will look into further. :thumbup:
 
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