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Re: The green green grass my first try

Quite a few things to update so here goes,

Plants are on the increase, I now have;
Java fern and moss
Taiwan moss
Vallisneria gigantea var rubra ( growing :) )
Crypts
Nymphaea rubra
Glossostigma elatinoides ( initially almost all melted but new growth coming through :) )
Aponogeton natans ( growing like crazy :) )
Phyllanthus fluitans ( starting to grow :) )
Miniature water lettuce
Amazon frog bit
Salvinia natans
Riccia fluitans


The Nitrite has gone up and is now on its way back down in both the main tank and shrimp tank, both are at the same level of approx .4ppm and I hope will be clear for fish by the weekend :)

A few updated pics for you of both tanks,

Both tanks
1.jpg

main tank surface
DSCF5761.jpg

main tank
front1.jpg

3.jpg

rightclose1.jpg

leftside.jpg

leftclose2.jpg

leftclose1.jpg


Shrimp tank with Taiwan moss and something else
shrimpfront.jpg

shrimpleft.jpg

shrimpright.jpg

moss1.jpg



Think that is it up to date :)
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Hey Danny, the scapes are coming on nicely mate... That's a nice piece of wood in the shrimp tank.
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

I agree with Harry, that's a lot of light..... I've had great results on just 6 hours a day of 2 x 54 watt bulbs a day, recently increased to 7 once the scapes stabilised and has been established. As Harry said, keep it simple and get the scape established, you can tinker and increase lighting later.... But final decision is yours.
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Cheers B7, it is 3 pieces :)

I know it sounds like and maybe a lot of light but so far the plants have loved it especially the Ap. natans lol Because of how deep the tank is I think it will be ok with that much, I had a look about at the sunrise and sunset of the majority of plants and they are between 10-12hrs.

I know it may make algae but I don't mind cleaning it every couple of days :thumbup:
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Agree with others, lot of light bud, certain algae is a mare to clean in some cases a complete strip down is the only method, prevention is better then cure. You will regret it, if bba or the likes kick in. I had 9hrs a day, which triggered bba, I am now down to 6hrs which seems the most algae free approach.

Will be a great tank once things settle.
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

sr20det said:
Agree with others, lot of light bud, certain algae is a mare to clean in some cases a complete strip down is the only method, prevention is better then cure. You will regret it, if bba or the likes kick in. I had 9hrs a day, which triggered bba, I am now down to 6hrs which seems the most algae free approach.

Will be a great tank once things settle.


+1 :thumbup:
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Does light have a different effect in a planted tank to a Cichlid tank? I had my Malawi's lights on for avg 15hrs a day ( I work from home ) and never really suffered with much algae, some rust here and there but nothing serious and never BBA........ Was I just lucky lol
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Danny said:
Does light have a different effect in a planted tank to a Cichlid tank? I had my Malawi's lights on for avg 15hrs a day ( I work from home ) and never really suffered with much algae, some rust here and there but nothing serious and never BBA........ Was I just lucky lol
I never got bba in my non planted tank only diatoms, but in my planted I have got bba. So there must be a difference. Plants weaknesses can trigger algae.
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Not happy but getting there, decided the compost under the sand was doing my head in and leaching into the water and prefer the look of cat litter in my shrimp tank so replacing it lol, about half way through it now.......all compost gone and almost got clear water again but still needs a couple more drains and fills ( only about quarter of the tank ).

Not to happy I think I sucked out my red RH snails not thinking I should of taken them out before hand lol hopefully one or two are still there somewhere.

Will post pics once the cat litter has been put it and a possible re scape is done which I am thinking about............. In for a long night lol
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Well was up until 5am doing it and everything is drained, sand and rocks re-done. Will get the cat litter in a couple of hours and get that in then re plant.
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Plants all sorted and cleaned, got the cat litter also happy to say I found the two Red RH snails so will now start getting the cat litter rinsed and in the tank :)
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

5 am? That is crazy talk!
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Had to get it finished hate leaving things half done lol


All done, also added a diy spray bar to the sump inlet, not entirely settled on how the cat litter is now but have 2 more bags if I decide to slope it at all, pics taken about 10 mins after being filled so hazy.

frontview.jpg

center.jpg

leftside-1.jpg

rightside-1.jpg

spraybar.jpg
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

More equal water distribution over the sponges and better flow through them, with it coming straight out of the 2" pipe the force was focusing it on one part of the sponges which could clog up in no time with that much water pushing into them and in my mind not being as effective as a spray bar evenly distributing flow and matter onto the sponges. :thumbup:


PS the tank is now as clear as clear can be to the point of looking like it has no water in it, problem I think I have now caused is washing out the bacteria that had built up by replacing almost the entire volume of water. Although I kept the sponges and media in tank water with the hope of not washing them out I think replacing almost 550L of water has done it anyway lol we will see n a day or two if there is any Ammonia or Nitrite.....
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

First fish added to the main tank, 9 ( bought 8 lol ) Rasboras Hengeli and 8 Neons, long week for me this week so will get some pics over the weekend to show a few changes.
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Spray bar in the sump is going to gas off your CO2 if you inject some.

Other than that looking good, hate when you get the rescape bug.. Sometimes you just have to let it grow out. :)
 
Re: The green green grass my first try

Nice set up apart from sumps & highlight will BURN c02 at an incredible rate!
There are few successful sump driven tanks around, not least Tom Barr's but, you can at least double the amount of gas required that would be used from an enclosed system.
 
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