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Blackwater Bayou

Bit like Christmas tonight.
Picked up both tanks, and when I got home had three more packages.

Tanks are set up but water is still cold.
Started with 4Kg of Fluval shrimp stratum in each which keeps the base dark and should help soften the water a bit.
Have added several pieces of bog wood, the ceramic caves, and a good handful of beech leaves to start the leaf litter going.

Tomorrow when the temp is up, I plan to transfer in some of the many microsorums from my other tanks, and hopefully should get my delivery of Indian Fern to act as floating cover.

Not much to see yet, but here's a pic of the work in progress.
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Tim, few days holiday on the sly and see how long until she notices, its worked for me in the past :D

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Planted - first try

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While I'm waiting on my Paros, I decided to work on a regular supply of soft water.
The Ph from my tap is quite low at 7.2, and I've managed to get the tanks at 6.8 through the use of bog wood, leaf litter, and blackwater tonic, which to my mind is expensive.
So here's my solution.
Step 1: Buy and install an RO / DI unit.
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Step 2: Buy some sphagnum peat moss.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sycamore-Trading-IRISH-MOSS-litres/dp/B00GJSZP2U/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1395586797&sr=8-13&keywords=sphagnum moss

Step 3: Fill two "pop socks" with 1 1/2 Litres of peat moss and boil in 5L of distilled water, simmering for one hour.
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Result: 3 1/2L of black water with a Ph of 4.5
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Next step is to work out the required ratio of RO/DI water to black water "tea".
details to follow


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Great job dtl, I'm keeping an eye on this one:)
 
Found this formula for calculating the resultant Ph of combining two liquids with different Ph values.
Thought some of you might find this useful
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Inputs are volume and Ph of liquid to be treated, and dosage and Ph of the treatment solution.
Of course you will need to make up the spreadsheet with the indicated formulas to use this.

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Last edited:
Few new pics.
New tanks are set up and ready to go.
Unfortunately there was a hitch in the shipment of Paros we were hoping for, so nothing to do but wait for now!

I also moved my two shrimp tanks onto the rack last weekend. Always fun to move tanks no matter how small!

Here's some pics of how things are looking.

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Here you can see phase two, four 25L tanks of which two are in the middle of setting up.
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Wow, that is turning into a proper fish room!

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Wow, that is turning into a proper fish room!

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Thanks, it's coming along. Can't wait till I get some Paros to stock up the tanks.

The aquariums look very well established already. Nice work.
Thank you. About half the plants came from existing aquariums, and good old Tropica "plants on wood" help for a quick set up.

That's a lot of plugs!!

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Sure is, but thankfully not pulling a lot of power since heaters are of course switched thermostatically, majority of lighting is LED, and the two power filters on the cubes are ECO low wattage models. Rest are for air pump, dosing pumps and solenoid, etc.
 
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