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HC... what a pain

Mark Evans said:
6987698775_de7124b5f5_b.jpg
Tropica-90-side by saintly's pics, on Flickr

Radik. It really shouldnt matter what lighting your using. Cetrtainly not tubes anyway. It is vital however, to get the co2 enriched water down to substrate level. You'll see a whole new beast then.

Mark, what diffusion and placement methods are you using then? Standard glass diffusers and lilies?

I'm waiting for someone to make some twin-outlet lily pipes - one jet below the surface, the other above the substrate.

Tom
 
Antipofish said:
Oh, lol. nope, first go...

sorry Chris. I thought you had tried before.

Tom said:
Mark, what diffusion and placement methods are you using then? Standard glass diffusers and lilies?

Tom, on this tank I'm using a spray bar, with an 'up' diffuser on the outlet. Flow really is minimal in this tank, but that said, what movement there is does get all around the tank.

6989354987_9d0e580f7d_b.jpg
filter by saintly's pics, on Flickr
 
Mark Evans said:
Antipofish said:
Oh, lol. nope, first go...

sorry Chris. I thought you had tried before.

No Wukkas mate :) I will still be plenty happy to get advice on my first growing with it though :thumbup: Any tips in advance ? I will prepare it the way it shows in the video Ian posted above. Other than that, anything to watch out for ?
 
Antipofish said:
I will still be plenty happy to get advice on my first growing with it though Any tips in advance ? I will prepare it the way it shows in the video Ian posted above. Other than that, anything to watch out for ?

1.Maintain steady flow to low reaching parts of the tank.

2.Stable Co2

3.The addition of easy carbo is a must.

4.Regular water changes whilst HC settles down.

5.Trimming can be carried out after it's settled down.

6.In addition to trimming, use the back of your hand to 'push down' the plant. (This works with all carpeting plants)

The above things should be done for any plant.in any aquarium. So get into the routine of carrying out all of the above, and everything will become second nature.
 
Mark Evans said:
Antipofish said:
I will still be plenty happy to get advice on my first growing with it though Any tips in advance ? I will prepare it the way it shows in the video Ian posted above. Other than that, anything to watch out for ?

1.Maintain steady flow to low reaching parts of the tank.
Managed to achieve this now. Using a spraybar along the back facing forward and its going down the front glass and swirling back nicely :)

2.Stable Co2
That should be achievable once the replacement reg is received, though I am now managing to keep it going with the spare that GF sent me. I am aiming for light green but not lime green at this stage, with a 2x24w T5 photoperiod of 6 hours.

3.The addition of easy carbo is a must.
Am adding 7ml per day for 175L. And 7ml TPN+ per day also. Enough or more would you say mate ?

4.Regular water changes whilst HC settles down.
Still currently doing 2 x 50% per week

5.Trimming can be carried out after it's settled down.

6.In addition to trimming, use the back of your hand to 'push down' the plant. (This works with all carpeting plants)
Only when just planted or do it as a regular maintenance task to compress the plant more ?

The above things should be done for any plant.in any aquarium. So get into the routine of carrying out all of the above, and everything will become second nature.
Trying to :) I want to be able to keep my aquarium pristine, its just learning techniques to do so. The hardest task I find is getting in amongst the roots of my stem plants to remove detritus. It just seems impossible. And the redmoor root gets in the way and traps dirt as it also forms a bit of a cave. Any suggestions on that bit ?

Thanks for all of that Mark, I appreciate your input, especially as I know how busy you are at the moment :thumbup: When will we be seeing the start of your 90cm thread, or will you not do one for that ? Can't wait for the new big scape too :)
 
No worries Chris.

Antipofish said:
.The addition of easy carbo is a must.
Am adding 7ml per day for 175L. And 7ml TPN+ per day also. Enough or more would you say mate ?

That's a good start. Gauge it from there.

Just to go back to lighting...This is HC in my 120cm. Now, it's had no ferts for ages, and many parts reside in shaded areas, but it just keeps growing back.

Don't place too much emphasis on light.

6843842116_6ac2c520a6_b.jpg
end by saintly's pics, on Flickr
 
Mark,
that is incredible growth, its so tight and compact and yet you refer to no ferts and shading. I can understand the no ferts as AS retains ferts and can feed them to the plants when not dosed into the water column. I can also understand shading as ive learned that underwater, plants are better at managing light and sourcing c02 etc is more important to them, but in this tank you also seem to be using less c02 too....it must be about the balance of them all?
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Mark Evans said:
No worries Chris.

Antipofish said:
.The addition of easy carbo is a must.
Am adding 7ml per day for 175L. And 7ml TPN+ per day also. Enough or more would you say mate ?

That's a good start. Gauge it from there.

Just to go back to lighting...This is HC in my 120cm. Now, it's had no ferts for ages, and many parts reside in shaded areas, but it just keeps growing back.

Don't place too much emphasis on light.

6843842116_6ac2c520a6_b.jpg
end by saintly's pics, on Flickr


Yeah following on from your comments on light recently I am not going to worry about it at all. I do, however want to change my rear bulb for aesthetic reasons, and am going to get some reflectors IF the replacement bulb does not increase illumination. Not for the tanks needs, but for MINE, lol. I just feel its "dim" at the moment. I certainly will not be getting MORE lights though :)
 
Kinda skimmed through this a bit, one quick question though.

Even if you have pressurised CO2 would you recommend using the easy carbo aswell or should the pressurised CO2 be enough on it's own.

I'm a total noob and don't seem to be having luck with HC, my other plants however are going crazy since the pressurised CO2 was added.
 
Hi,
Porksword said:
Even if you have pressurised CO2 would you recommend using the easy carbo aswell or should the pressurised CO2 be enough on it's own.

I'm a total noob and don't seem to be having luck with HC

Mark Evans said:
2.Stable Co2

3.The addition of easy carbo is a must.
Mark is suggesting here the use of both for good growth with hc,
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Porksword said:
I'm a total noob and don't seem to be having luck with HC, my other plants however are going crazy since the pressurised CO2 was added.

Sure. Add both. HC is a sucker for easy carbo. Even just to help it get established, then you can ease off it.

Just to show the difference after trimming.

6985433601_f6ca522d42_b.jpg
HC by saintly's pics, on Flickr

6854620234_5f408d3874_b.jpg
HC-cut by saintly's pics, on Flickr
 
It's about 10 weeks I think Tom. maybe a bit longer.

With my new way of growing plants(much slower) it's taken twice as long as usual, but absolutely hassle free.

It's heavy on co2 and easy carbo, but still quite low on ferts. The 150w MH (solar 1) is over 60cm away from the surface, and a good 100cm away from the substrate.

Lighting is key for me.
 
Hi,
Mark Evans said:
It's heavy on co2 and easy carbo, but still quite low on ferts

Seems you can grow it either way Mark. Your iwawoody journal has excellent HC growth with low c02 and no liquid carbon? These two set ups seem quite different regards c02 yet you still produce the goods, do they grow any differently at all?
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Finally figured out my issue I think. The damned UP atomizer I was using wasn't funtioning correctly, and was spitting out huge bubbles, as it needed cleaning. I didn't realise this until I took a chance and replaced it with a spare I have. Now I have a nice mist again as opposed to something resembling a carbonated drink!
 
omen said:
Finally figured out my issue I think. The damned UP atomizer I was using wasn't funtioning correctly, and was spitting out huge bubbles, as it needed cleaning. I didn't realise this until I took a chance and replaced it with a spare I have. Now I have a nice mist again as opposed to something resembling a carbonated drink!

How did you clean it mate ? I need to do mine I think.
 
Scrubbed it with a pipe brush, then left it overnight in about a 7% solution of H2O2, rinsed and used the pipe crush again. There was some amount of crud out of it! I believe others use a bleach solution. I just used H2O2 as I had some that I use to spot treat algae.

I did this yesterday, and already the finer mist has made a huge difference. HC is pearling nicely! I think before I was relying too heavily on my drop checker, and the larger bubbles were not giving me a genuine reading on dissolved co2 content.
 
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