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180L Dry Start Adventure

NOOBSCHOOLBUS

Seedling
Joined
30 Jul 2015
Messages
15
This is my first adventure into a large planted tank, having tested the waters for 6 months with a 35L.

Been dry starting this for about a month now.

Tank stats:

Substrate:
ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia
ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia Powder

Light:
ADA Solar I

Plants:
Hemianthus callitrichoides
Hemianthus micranthemoides
Pogostemon Helferi

Day 01:
v4LR12D.jpg


Day 21
iIinlGx.jpg


Day 38
fG13iXo.jpg
 
Time to fill it up and blast it with CO2 so it would transition easily! Very nice!
 
I'm thinking of filling it this weekend or next depends when I manage to put the finishing touches on the cabinet. Does anyone have any advice on how high to have the co2 turned up? I have a bubble counter and a co2 indicator that. Do I dose my ferts as usual? I'm probly going to do a long fishless cycle and start adding fish 6 weeks or so after I fill, is this enough time for the bacteria to build up?

Here is a slightly better angle of the aquarium:
1VZ7guA.jpg
 
Things aren't going so well...
KGhexG9.jpg


Most of the plants in the tank now have a yellow tinge to them. I've been dosing with EI salts and have co2 going, I suspect that I had the light too far away so have moved it down about 2 inches.
If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate the help.
 
I've had it on super high, my dropchecker is yellow :( My cannister has run out in only 18 days maybe I had it on too high?
 
Well one of the problems with a dry start is the plants going from 400ppm to 30ppm (and 30ppm is only if you are spot on with C02 & flow) however the roots should be well established so if you are sure you have max C02 they should recover.
Do you have a PH pen? I find checking the PH drop far more reliable than a drop checker.
 
Ahhh dry start...what a joke! Glad I didn't try this 'method'....good luck with your plants, I hope it's just an transition phase.
 
Some dry starts seem to do very well with minimal transition issues, others seem to suffer more ...

I'm curious as to water change routine after tank was flooded?
Also any algae crew? shrimp are superior at removing beginning to melt leafs ;)

I really like the rock formations :)
& admire your restraint with plant species ... I keep saying I'll limit myself to 4 -5 but always end up with way too much chaos :oops:
 
It seems that most of the leaves died off in the transition, but the plants are now putting out new growth. I'm debating giving them a really heavy trim or letting them recover a bit first?
 
You can always begin by trimming a few "test" areas about the tank & watch response over a few days - plants should be well rooted & should withstand trimming just fine

Shrimp etc will clear out much of the leaf melt, also frequent water changes with careful attention to syphoning out debris
 
I have yet to add any shrimp, my cherries had babies a couple of weeks ago so I have about 30 of them to add into the tank, just waiting for them to get a little bit bigger. I also need to get some amanos next time I go to my lfs. Thanks for the idea about a test patch, diddn't think of that!
 
Really nice scape! I like it!

How far above the tank is the light and for how many hours are you running it daily?
My HC also went yellow a few weeks ago, I dropped my light from about 40cm above the water level to only 10cm above the water and I could see the difference within 2 days.
 
Great work!

I would consider adding rotala rotundofolia (or colorata) to the background and let it grow taller than your HM. This will add more depth and colour to complete the scape.
 
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