My new Aquanano 40 Iwagumi Style Tank

[aclofty887]

I didn't notice any wear on the sealing rings with the first swap out, when I detach the bottle tonight I will inspect the ring, I did use a spanner to tighten everything up. I have just ordered some new sealing rings as a precaution.

 

[aclofty887]

Thinking about it something odd may be happening when I connect it up. With the solenoid stopping the flow the working pressure is about 60PSI as soon as the solenoid starts the working pressure plummets to pretty much 0 then I have to use the blue knob to adjust the working pressure so that when I get 4BPS I have a stable 50PSI, this seems odd to me as if the system is initially pressurised then when the solenoid opens it should maintain the same pressure. Could this point to a dodgy needle valve or bubble counter? I didn't put 2 and 2 together since it was my first CO2 setup. I might ask CO2 art that as well.

 

[aclofty887]

I will post photos tomorrow of 2 weeks worth of growth without CO2 but I did a water check last night and Ammonia and Nitrite are down to 0 finally, I'm going to setup an air pump for evening to be safe and I'm going to buy a couple of Cherry Shrimp along with a few CPD I think this weekend. I'm probably going to go for 10 Cherry Microrasbora, probably off ebay in a few weeks time. I did think about embers but everywhere has them and I think the Cherrys could look awesome. I don't know if they easily breed, it would be interesting if they did though I'm not fussed either way.

Only issue I am unhappy with apart from the CO2 is the height of the grass, thought it would get to 5cm max but it appears to be getting to 10cm with ease. I don't want to bring out the remaining 15W light as I think 35W is overkill but if needs must.

 

[aclofty887]

Latest set of photos. Just over 2 weeks since the last set.

As you can see it filled out nicely and a fair amount and that's without CO2! There is green slime algae which i'm hoping to get under control soon. As you might have noticed I decided to up my flow yet again. I used the pump from an old Arcadia filter which only does 200lph and added it to my other lily tube. Now I have 700lph and being spread throughout the tank without it disturbing the bottom. I also upgraded the CO2 diffuser to the nano Bazooka which helps make the bubbles finer in the tank. I have used a new sealing ring and checked for leaks twice now and can't see any, lets hope, the old sealing ring was half the thickness dues to me screwing the bottle on and off a lot when I was setting up.

 

[Paks]

Any update? im planning to use eleocharis sp but it seems its very tall . Probably HC is the best foreground, whatdya think ?

 

[aclofty887]

Sorry for lack of updates guys. My CO2 unit was taken back and checked, whilst this happened I had no CO2 and the dreaded green slime algae visited while I was away. For the last few months I have been fighting a battle but slowly winning. My Bazooka had clogged up so I have CO2 running but without the diffuser and just have the bubbles being churned up by the pumps which works but not brilliantly.

Paks - After running it in for a while now and losing a fair chunk from the alage it is starting to grow shorter. I would have loved HC but I decided it would have been too much work to keep it neat, with the issues I've had I made the right decision the Eleocharis mini is bouncing back quite nicely.

I forgot I now have 5 Embers swimming around, I will be ordering some Chilli Rasbora in the new year.

 

[aclofty887]

Well that was a pain. I woke up the other morning with no power on most stuff. I had had a trip in the fuse box. Switched everything on and discovered by light unit had gone bye bye. Luckily being in the business for a while I had built up a pile of "crap" as my wife would say so i managed to swap it out with an 11w Arcadia Arc unit, I am going to add another and leave it at that for now, they are running the original Tropical Arcadia lamp which in my view is the best fluorescent bulb for plants. so I will see.