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240l Dutch/Nature Aquarium

Just a quick update to how things are getting on! Everything's growing well and the new bylaxa has started to finally take off. The ammania bonsai has slowly started to creep over the wendetti crypts.

Changed back to my old trace mix combined with the aqua rebel flow grow because I started to note a slight deficiency in one of the trace elements. This was proberbly due to the weak chealeters init combined with my fairly hard water,

Also changed the n supply to magnesium nitrate instead of the special n because I found somewhere to get it and will work out cheaper in the long run ,
 
Beautiful. It seems you just need to make ludwigia arcuata and ludwigia palustris(?) at the back more reddish, to create contrast to green and brown.
 
Update.
Been a while since last the post. Had a lot going on redecorating the house for when the 2nd baby arrives.

So back to the tank it is what has been on standby for the last few months.

First things first,
The cabinet got a remake to match the new white cupboards,coffee table etc in the living room.

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As you can see the doors got replaced with full length and in white, and also the trim got modded with white vinyl, same as the sides which cannot be seen.
 
So like I said tank got a bit of a remake, due to having a bit more time and also that the I was getting bored at staring the same thing.

So the large wood with java fern and anabus got removed. Will have to take a pic of the size, it was absolutely huge!! It took so much space up and I am really happy to see it removed.

Once removed I changed the flow of the tank to go from back to front glass down and back.
And I must say I am so glad I did, finally the plants do not lean on a 45 degree angle but sway gently in the flow, with even better surface agitation.

So a few pics to show what's going on

1st with all 4 lights on
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2nd is sunset in the evening with only 2 lights on
LlNULd.jpg


once the new plants on the right have grown out I will post another pic

All in all I am really happy with the left side.
 
Can I ask how you go about CO2. Do you measure pH?, just the dropchecker? Do you add extra aeration at night?
 
Co2 ist fed from a aquamedic reactor connected to a sun sun 304 filter pushing through a spray bar the length of the tank (back to front).
Ever since I've had the reactor I've had only minor problems with co2. And I've tried lots of different methods.

As for the ph, I have been using a ph meter permanently in the water so giving me a constant reading and aiming for a 1.1 to a 1.2 drop. This has been working very good for the last year, but unfortunately I broke the probe cleaning a couple of months back.

So I have just been relying on the drop checker to get me in the ball park. But mostly looking out for plants stunting , algae etc.

I also have quite a bit of water movement to keep the co2 stable and provide enough oxygen day and night.
 
At the start I had the same problem. I had very little surface movement, which in turn caused my co2 to rise throughout the photo period. This was a major cause for stunting algae etc for me.

Since then I have read a lot and improved massively.
I now have the co2 come on 2 hours before lights at a higher injection rate but with more surface movement ( I'm talking the whole surface moving)

This in turn gives me a 1.2 rise before lights on and stays constant throughout the photoperiod, (0.05_0.08 rise) so still 1.2.
Since I applied that I have little stunting, no algae etc.

And flow is defo a must, I have very good flow throughout the whole tank, I find without it plants stunt in certain (stagnant) places. Due to lack of co2 nutrients etc.
I'm using 3 filters and 3 power heads to create a even flow throughout the tank.
Hope that helps you out.
 
PLANTASTIC said:
At the start I had the same problem. I had very little surface movement, which in turn caused my co2 to rise throughout the photo period. This was a major cause for stunting algae etc for me.
Since then I have read a lot and improved massively.
I now have the co2 come on 2 hours before lights at a higher injection rate but with more surface movement ( I'm talking the whole surface moving)
This in turn gives me a 1.2 rise before lights on and stays constant throughout the photoperiod, (0.05_0.08 rise) so still 1.2.
Since I applied that I have little stunting, no algae etc.
And flow is defo a must, I have very good flow throughout the whole tank, I find without it plants stunt in certain (stagnant) places. Due to lack of co2 nutrients etc.
I'm using 3 filters and 3 power heads to create a even flow throughout the tank.
Hope that helps you out.
Click to expand...


Great help. Thanks again.
 
Oh wow,...your plants' health are next to none :wideyed:...I love the way you had your riccia cascading down the right forefront of the tank during its earlier days:)
 
So finally got round to taking a pic and a little update. With my wife having a another baby the tank was sort of on tick over mode. Also I bust my ph probe,and bubble counter within a couple of weeks of each other so was just judging co2 with plant growth. Worked at first but wen the baby arrived didn't have much time or money spare to replace the parts. So just plodded on.
But now the little one is almost 6 weeks and money is picking up I've finally got a bit of time on my hands to get things bac on track.

I replaced the two small eheim filters with two sun sun 303 filters rated at 1400 lph each, so I could remove the 2 power heads and still keep up the flow. And to provide a little bit more filtration.
Also got a ph pen so I could see what was going on with the co2.
When I received it and checked how the co2 was doing i seen that that definitely wasn't stable, not suprising really as I was just pumping co2 into the reactor without really knowing how much is going in.
The aquamedic was put into retirement and replaced with a diy replacement,same dimensions just 10cm longer. But the only downful it wasn't transparent so I count even count the gas going into the reactor. More fool me. But it does seem to drop the ph very low so is definitely a bit more efficient then the aquamedic.

So this pic below is from today 5days since I've sorted the co2 out.
The stunted ludwiga brevipes is finally perking up after being stunted for a fair few weeks same for the lobelia cardinalis on the far right.
Funnily enough the ludwiga repens and the pogostemon erects did ok during the ordeal.



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