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Cliff & Plateau

I am liking that a bit more, perhaps shift the front center stone a bit to the right or left so it isn't so centered, small stones like that you can move around later, in the end as long as your happy with it thats all that matters really! Everyone is going to have an opinion :p
 
Was there another hurricane that left you in a mode of extinction when paired with the updates? Lol, JK

I am only amazed at the patience you have to own all that equipment and not set it up.


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WELL, I finally got it started yesterday.

I had a bunch of plants ordered from a shop in California but the PayPal payment was put on hold because of their account. I had well previously placed orders well above $1,000, call them, and they told be that they won't ship my overnight order until the PayPal payment clears. Needless to say I canceled and that was the last time I ordered with them. Had to find another place and tried my luck with an eBay seller. They responded within hours and took my overnight order in an heartbeat even though they just closed down for renovations in their business.

I set up both the small (bed room) and the mid size (kitchen) tank. The main tank will follow as soon as I have these 2 cycled and some fish in them.

The main tank will now be a 'The Green Machine' style tank, and the kitchen tank is the original Cliff & Plateau theme.

Here the current situation:


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I'll add some drift wood to the bed room tank, just needs to soak in water for a couple weeks. Thing floats like crazy.

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I really like your kitchen tank. Looks pretty modern and simplistic, but once the foreground carpets it’s gonna look 437% better


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SKYE.__.HIGH said:
I really like your kitchen tank. Looks pretty modern and simplistic, but once the foreground carpets it’s gonna look 437% better


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Click to expand...


Thanks. I realized that I was trying to make a compromise between my idea and what most people consider a proper Iwagumi. So I went back to my original idea.

The bed room tank is more my testing and backup setup. Just ordered CO2 tank, regulator and diffusor for it. Should be here by Friday. No GLA this time, this is just a "cheap" tank.

Now I'll have to figure out:

- amount and time of CO2 injection (right now at 12 hours a day 30 BPM)
- LED brightness, colors, kelvin
- how much and how often to add liquid fertilizers
- water parameters (I used RO water, full line of ADA additives in power sand)
- PH
- hardness
- when and how often to change the water

This is where I could use a bunch of pointers.
 
This is what I would do, water change every second day for the first 2 weeks, after this once a week, low light, max 5 hours a day for the first month, could go up to 6-7hrs after a month of decent growth, you want your co2 to drop the ph by 1 point before the lights come on, generally needs to start co2 about 2 hours before lights on, can probably switch co2 of a hr or more before lights out, ferts from day 1 probably at half EI levels looking at your plant mass, perhaps even less, PH hardness etc dont matter so much, personally i never really measure these, when i do its only to gauge if i am getting 30ppm of co2.
 
doylecolmdoyle said:
This is what I would do, water change every second day for the first 2 weeks, after this once a week, low light, max 5 hours a day for the first month, could go up to 6-7hrs after a month of decent growth, you want your co2 to drop the ph by 1 point before the lights come on, generally needs to start co2 about 2 hours before lights on, can probably switch co2 of a hr or more before lights out, ferts from day 1 probably at half EI levels looking at your plant mass, perhaps even less, PH hardness etc dont matter so much, personally i never really measure these, when i do its only to gauge if i am getting 30ppm of co2.
Click to expand...


Now that's something I can work with, thank you mate!

- How much water should I change? 20% or more?
- In average, how many bubbles per minute sounds right for about 10 gal and 5 gal of water?
 
The light is set to more than 5 hours, but it fades in and out slowly. It's max level is set too 55% only and clouds are also simulated a few times a day. I think this won't be too much light. Any objections?


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kadoxu said:
My OCD loves the way you plant your carpets! :lol:

Looking good!
Click to expand...

My OCD immediately focused on the missing plug o_O

Very nice work McCarthy.

Do 50% wc daily for the first week.

With no livestock you can go nuts with co2. 2-4bps is a good start.

I guess you have a ph pen?
 
McCarthy said:
Now that's something I can work with, thank you mate!

- How much water should I change? 20% or more?
- In average, how many bubbles per minute sounds right for about 10 gal and 5 gal of water?
Click to expand...

As Dantrasy said about 50%, I never bother with daily water changes but if you have the time do them daily, basically do as many 50% water change you can for the first 2 weeks, you can slow down over time.

Yes crank the co2 while no fish / shrimp, water agitation will effect co2 / o2 levels, you want a decent balance. Look into using a ph pen /kh test and read a co2 chart. When you have livestock plan to drop back on the co2 over a week or so before you add the fish etc then move to running co2 at a level that get you 1 ph drop before lights come on.

RE the lighting I am not sure if that will be to much light, probably safe, I guess it depends how powerful the light is. Just watch the plants for good growth and hopefully minimal algae.
 
kadoxu said:
My OCD loves the way you plant your carpets! :lol:

Looking good!
Click to expand...

Thanks. My OCD probably was the driving reason why this entire project took me so long. :D


Dantrasy said:
My OCD immediately focused on the missing plug o_O

Very nice work McCarthy.

Do 50% wc daily for the first week.

With no livestock you can go nuts with co2. 2-4bps is a good start.

I guess you have a ph pen?
Click to expand...


I saw that missing plug when editing the photo. Drove me nuts and I had to fix that right away. Go figure.

I have this pen on order, supposed to arrive today.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ENFOHN8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Comes with calibration solution and has halfway decent reviews. If it's crap I'll get a commercial grade meter.


doylecolmdoyle said:
As Dantrasy said about 50%, I never bother with daily water changes but if you have the time do them daily, basically do as many 50% water change you can for the first 2 weeks, you can slow down over time.

Yes crank the co2 while no fish / shrimp, water agitation will effect co2 / o2 levels, you want a decent balance. Look into using a ph pen /kh test and read a co2 chart. When you have livestock plan to drop back on the co2 over a week or so before you add the fish etc then move to running co2 at a level that get you 1 ph drop before lights come on.

RE the lighting I am not sure if that will be to much light, probably safe, I guess it depends how powerful the light is. Just watch the plants for good growth and hopefully minimal algae.
Click to expand...


Thank you, will go along those suggested lines and report back.
 
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Now I have to find out where I can purchase ADA Sado-Akadama Stone. The Green Machine only has small stones in stock.

I really want this stone for the main tank.
 
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The first one with the huge rock is awesome. It just needs a shrimp perched on the edge looking over.
 
Looking Good :D

Slight criticism
I would of planted the carpet in as pattern of 5 so they wasnt in rows. supposed to fill in quicker


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McCarthy said:
In average, how many bubbles per minute sounds right for about 10 gal and 5 gal of water?
Click to expand...

Not that many but more than you think, hard to estimate as depends on your flow and surface aggitaion, I would invest in a cheap pH pen and do a CO2 profile. Best time to do it when no livestock

The full pH drop needs to done for lights on then stable for rest of photoperiod, CO2 off 2hrs before lights. less light intensity for first 30mins of photoperiod as the plants 'warm' up for full photosynthesis.
CO2 on 2hrs per lights is what most folk do but I have my 50L tank CO2 on 3hrs before as big pH drop - light yellow on Drop Checker
 

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Here the first set of water parameters.


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The EcoTech LED in the kitchen tank heats up the water a bit. I have my AC set to 75F year round. With a few exception in Florida ""winter"" this is my standard temp. When it gets colder for a few weeks, it might go down to 71F.

The kitchen tank was at 78.4F at 4 PM, about 3.8F higher.

The fish I'm planning to use is Rummynose Rasbora. They prefer 18 – 22 °C which is 64 to 72F. How will they do when the water is 6F (3C) warmer? Will I need a chiller?

Is 78F (25 C an issue for my plants?

Does pH look good, considering that I'm still running CO2 24h a day? I'm waiting for the timers in the mail to operate the solenoids on the CO2 regulators.
 
Looking good, I live in Australia and would say our temps are similar to Florida, plants should be fine and I would assume the fish would be fine also, you may find a ph level of 5.9 is a bit low, but running co2 24/7 probably has reduced it a bit, if you can measure your kh you can work out how much ppm of co2 you have in each tank.
 
I have bought more stuff for easier water changes (pump and hoses) and other items for water testing.

Here the current water parameters:


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Since I have adjusted lighting and CO2 the pH seems to have settled nicely.

And while we are all waiting for the carpet to further close in, here some new photos:


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