Some Inital Questions With New Scape - Cycling, Glossostigma, CO2

[Gordon Hawkes]

Hi everyone,

Started setting up a nano tank the other day, here it is this evening: http://s14.postimg.org/ea832sooh/12421737_1011697872204903_1848457715_n.jpg

You can see video which documents setup here:

- Since the video I've perfected the lily pipe positioning and it's generally a little more 'tidy' looking.

Basically, I did all my research into 'aquascaping' and left no expense spared buying the ADA stuff, I'm generally happy now with it, assuming the plants don't all die, and feel the time and effort over the last few days was worthwhile, however before I'm ready to relax and leave it, I have a few questions regarding various things:

First, cycling. I have a 125L community tank but forgot how I set that up a long time ago, I'm familiar with the science behind the process. I have a hell of a lot of ammonia and not much else, the external filter is about a fifth established filter media from my big tank, I read the soil leaches ammonia for about a month, I'd like to know if anyone can tell me, how long the process take in my situation with old media and use of 'prodbio start-up' which came with my filter. Also, should I or should I not do water changes until the cycle is over, there are no inhabitants over than plants to worry about.

Next, CO2, I'm running it at about 6 bubbles per minute, I thought this is sufficient, considering my glossostigma and that I can't afford to use too much too quickly. Will my plants thrive at this rate? I read conflicting opinions - should it be left to run at night or switched off?

Glossostigma growth - shortly after planting it seemed like I could actually see the growth happening, there were a fair few bubbles on the leaves and it seemed 'fresh', now these seem few. I'm not sure if it is actually growing and spreading across the surface and I just can't remember what it was like the other day or if it's the same but I do notice a few leaves and runners seem to have grown beneath the soil granules so growth is not so obviously noticeable, but perhaps still occurring - is this normal with newly planted plants?

Here it is:
http://s28.postimg.org/7t7glc9il/12431500_1011697972204893_1610915766_n.jpg
http://s29.postimg.org/ud822lxfb/12431351_1011697965538227_2113118563_n.jpg

I realize it must be hard to tell from those pictures, but is it healthy? I would like a dense carpet to grow there.

I also read that to avoid displacing my injected CO2, the surface agitation should be 'mild'. However, I'm not at all sure what my tank's movement is classed as. It would be good if someone could give me some sort of idea of what it should be, mine is rather noticeable, but if reduced, I get a protein film forming, so I'm slightly unsure about this.

Many Thanks for your time!

 

[john dory]

Hi gordon.
I'm no expert,but i'm pretty sure your gonna need more flow and co2.
While you have no livestock,you can be bold in your tinkerings.

 

[EnderUK]

You're lilly pipe is out of the water, you're wasting a lot of co2 here as it will be degassing. If you want to you can lift it after lights off and put it back down in the morning to avoid the surface scum.
Take that bottle of ammonia and pour it down the drain, it might unblock your sinks a bit. Now concentrate on growing health plants and not bacteria, bacteria will grow on it's own your plants are doing all the work.
Don't worry about pearling, turn your lights down and let the plants root and adapt. Once you have everything right and the plants are health then you can think about turning them up.
If you have money to throw down on ADA that's fine but don't think you need to. At least get a basic EI salts kit and dose to the levels recommened to the tutorials on this forum.

Best of luck

 

[RossMartin]

Is your drop checker green when the lights go on? It looks blue in the video...but i am colour blind!!

It would be a good idea to get a PH profile so you can actually see what your CO2 is doing. To give you an idea, on a 80l tank i'm doing about 6 bubbles a second. This gets me a ph drop of 1.0 before the lights turn on.

 

[Gordon Hawkes]

Is your drop checker green when the lights go on? It looks blue in the video...but i am colour blind!!

It would be a good idea to get a PH profile so you can actually see what your CO2 is doing. To give you an idea, on a 80l tank i'm doing about 6 bubbles a second. This gets me a ph drop of 1.0 before the lights turn on.

Went green today! Must have been.

 

[Gordon Hawkes]

Is your drop checker green when the lights go on? It looks blue in the video...but i am colour blind!!

It would be a good idea to get a PH profile so you can actually see what your CO2 is doing. To give you an idea, on a 80l tank i'm doing about 6 bubbles a second. This gets me a ph drop of 1.0 before the lights turn on.

By 'PH Profile', does that mean a pH test? It makes my water acidic. Shrimp are quite sensitive so presumably I'm forced to leave it running as they can't handle chnages so dramatic?

 

[Gordon Hawkes]

You're lilly pipe is out of the water, you're wasting a lot of co2 here as it will be degassing. If you want to you can lift it after lights off and put it back down in the morning to avoid the surface scum.
Take that bottle of ammonia and pour it down the drain, it might unblock your sinks a bit. Now concentrate on growing health plants and not bacteria, bacteria will grow on it's own your plants are doing all the work.
Don't worry about pearling, turn your lights down and let the plants root and adapt. Once you have everything right and the plants are health then you can think about turning them up.
If you have money to throw down on ADA that's fine but don't think you need to. At least get a basic EI salts kit and dose to the levels recommened to the tutorials on this forum.

Best of luck

Thanks for that, I'm lowering the output pipe.

 

[Mick.Dk]

Your Glossostigma look fine - but a few days is not telling anything about long time growth, unfortunately. Glossostigma need a very good balance of flow, light and ferts (incl. CO2), to perform the perfect carpet..........
The "fast growing" on first day, is due to plants stretching when submerged. Most plants will do this.

 

[Gordon Hawkes]

Your Glossostigma look fine - but a few days is not telling anything about long time growth, unfortunately. Glossostigma need a very good balance of flow, light and ferts (incl. CO2), to perform the perfect carpet..........
The "fast growing" on first day, is due to plants stretching when submerged. Most plants will do this.

Oh right I understand, it seems to be getting taller, though not spreading horizontally much. They have plenty of liquid ferts, and light is pretty bright,could you tell me what sort of 'flow' they're supposed to get? I'm worried this might not be right for them.

 

[Mick.Dk]

The "flow", is the movement of water in your tank. This movement will re-new environment surrounding the plants, by removing waste-products and adding products the plants need - simplified, ofcourse.
In practice it means, you need to ensure a good movement of water everywhere in your tank. A high turn-over (= How much water your pump can pass) does not ensure a good flow, though.
In my own opinion (and experience) securing a good flow is way more important, than the turn-over.
For optimal results, light, flow and ferts must be adjusted to "play together" - info available on this elsewhere on UKAPS.
Some plants are very adaptable, accepting a wide range of combinations of light, flow and ferts - these are generally considered "easy" plants. Glossostigma does not belong to this group, but demands quite perfectly balanced doses of these elements.

 

[Gordon Hawkes]

Mick, thanks. Yes I'm familiar with all of that. Regarding flow, I woke up this morning to find a lot of my glosso melted in the centre of my eventual carpet, a protein film had been forming and there obviously wasn't enough water movement, I've increased it now but it's causing some cryptocorne leaves to sway about a fair bit. Do plants like to be moved about or prefer to be still?

 

[Mick.Dk]

Most submersed plants will tolerate quite much water-movement - weather it pleases the eye, is subjective......

As I said: In my opinion and experience it's not the "strength" of flow in your tank, that is most important, but weather the flow get water to move around all over your tank.......f.ex. mixing surface water into water at substrate level - mixing water inbetwen dense groups of leaves into water in open areas of tank - etc. etc.
So called "dead spots" with none or minimal water-movement will allmost enevitably cause problems of some kind, sooner or later.

Flow, though, is not the only thing to consider, when plants melt. In your case, with newly introduced plants, adaptation-problems are much more likely. And yes; a "bad flow" is not helping adaptation.....

 

[Gordon Hawkes]

Here's some update pictures. Had a thorough cleaning and trimming last night, particularly the stem plant at back that seemed to be too dense and was dying off. Moved in some of my existing Amano shrimp plus a few new ones a few weeks ago. Plan to keep maybe a few crystal shrimp once it's completely grown in. Suggestions on any small fish that may be OK to use too and nothing goes on at the top of the column?

Much of the glossostigma has started to spread out and carpet but I've planted a few more bunches as I lost quite a bit when struggling with poor water quality in the cycle - sorted out before I added the shrimp.

Been upping the Co2 rate gradually and I think I've finally found the sweet spot as my algae is starting to reduce now and plants are pearling too, but i was wondering - though it's too late to do anything about it now - if my tank is perhaps actually in a poor position and it's sunlight that's contributing mainly to the problem. Not a particularly sunny day today, but if you wouldn't mind checking the picture below and telling me if that's the case or not? I don't think the sun is in a position where it comes directly through into the aquarium and I'm keeping the curtain drawn for now.

I purchased some better lily pipes too, and haven't seen protein film since! the surface is looking very clean and it's quite clear to see the water movement all around the aquarium!

hanks for your help everyone!