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Learning on the job

M

Monty

Seedling
Joined
17 Mar 2018
Messages
14
Location
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Hi everyone thought I'd share what I'm up to in the hope of getting good advise.
Ok so many years ago I got a degree in marine and freshwater biology, which although interesting hasn't really helped in setting up a planted tank.
I have kept fish, tropical and koi most of my life but this is my first proper attempt at growing plants.
After a brief period of keeping and getting bored of a reed tank I am using repurposed equipment for this build. Also I'm saving for a mortgage so I have given myself a weekly budget of £30.

The equipment:
Aquaone 300 litre reef ready aquarium (open topped).
70 litre sump.
TMC V2 iLumenAir programmable LED light.
3000lph wavemaker.
Return pump from sump which does 3-4x turnover per hour.
Bio filtration, filter sock, heaters etc.

So to begin I was given a java fern on wood which I watched deteriorate into a brown mess covered in hair algae (Photo attached). Not a good start but a great push to research. Then i found this site and read all about EI dosing and capped dirt substrates. I also learned that the algae was a result of too much light.

Stage 2 - I budget consiously repurposed two of my better halves ceramic baking trays and filled them with John Innes number 3 compost (£5) capped with crushed granite (£3) as a cap and buried them into the fine sand substrate either side of the overflow weir. Then to help to bank the sand and to create a transition from the planted areas to the beach i placed Scottish river cobbles (£4).

I went ahead and ordered the dry salts, measuring spoons and dosing bottles and began to dose the recommended dose:

The macro mix - 500ml water, 1 tsp potassium phosphate, 6 tsp Magnesium Phosphate. I omitted the 4 tsp potassium nitrate because my tap water is already high in nitrates.

The micro mix - 500ml water, 1 tsp chelated Trace Elements.

My schedule is to do a 25% water change on Saturday, followed by dosing 60ml of the macro mix. Then 60ml of the micro on Sunday. I have dimmed my light to perhaps 30-40 watts and run a 10 hour photoperiod to suit my viewing pleasure and added a half an hour sunrise and sunset to avoid startling my fish. I also have a moolight function that I do use, mainly because I can.

Stage 3 - I went to my LFS and bought a selection of plants to put in, what I have since found out, our best baking tray plant pots and planted them loosely as foreground, midground, and background. They are (from front to back) :
Lilaeopsis brasilliensis
Lobelia cardinalis
Ludwigia sp. Super red
Hygrophila corymbosa and corymbosa ''thailand''
Echinodorus grisebachii

I also got some Anubias that I superglued to the cobbles. (photo)

Currently - I seem to have to light dialled in, 99% of the algae has gone, the glass, weir and plastics are virtually spotless. The anubias had a few holes in the leaves when I got them (co2 issues in the shop?). One of the Echinodorus leaves is browning at the tip (too much light?). The Lobelia looks a little limp (grown emmersed?). But fingers crossed it will all recover.

Thank you if you managed to get this far, now I have some questions that I would love to get answers to:
Am i dosing fertilisers somewhere in the right ball park for a low tech tank?
Might my mistreated java fern survive?
Do you have any ideas to make my build better?

Thanks again and I hope to hear from you.
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I would add plant material, more plants make a tank more stable, if on a budget, just easy pond plants will do to to keep you over. ALso some floating plants can help. It looks you are not using CO2, that's fine, just don't get your lights to intense.
 
You cant dose micros after macros as the iron in the micro will react with the phosphate in the macro. Maybe dose 3-4 days afterwards.
 
Ok cool, Macros on a Saturday, Micros on a tuesday it is.
I will add more plants also, I actually went to buy Val. but they didn't have any in so I will be getting more soon anyway. The light i will be playing with but not sure if i should turn it down because of the single burnt leaf, what would you do?
 
Monty said:
The light i will be playing with but not sure if i should turn it down because of the single burnt leaf, what would you do?
Click to expand...

Plus you have some pin holes in a few leaves too, I would turn it down

Which TMC V2 iLumenAir programmable LED light model do you have
 
The pin holes were already in the leaves when I got them and they haven't gotten any worse. Its the 900 so its 165w total but its turned down a lot
 
Hello there; I don't know how to put this, so I'm gonna be blunt ; generally in planted tanks the plants are removed from their pots to let them " stretch their legs " , I mean roots, let them spread, you know; and some, when removed from their pots, need to be separated in several portions to cover as much as possible of the desired surface ; like lilaeopsis which won't grow without pressurized CO2
secondly you need to add more hardscape - stones, roots, both maybe to make more pleasant , more alive ; or maybe you don't want to; anyway you need more plants , like a lot more ; like covering almost all of your substrate
Here is the example of my RIO 300 at day 1 ; a total failure as hardscape goes, but not bad in terms of bio mass

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about 18 months later it has evolved into this ; nothing groundbreaking, especially since I've lost Pogostemon helferi in the front right corner ( poor soil choice and no substrate fertilizer )

p1100010.jpg


I strongly suggest to have a very good look at Tropica website ; it's a "life changer "
 
Thank you Edward I certainly will take a look at the Tropica website. Those pots are just a couple of anubias in the before photo that I had just thrown in to keep them wet while I was making the planters.
 
Potentially, but I would be worried about overflowing the tank. I was thinking that I could make a floating blockade from a floating polyethylene rod but i certainly will give the course foam a try.
 
ian_m said:
You cant dose micros after macros as the iron in the micro will react with the phosphate in the macro. Maybe dose 3-4 days afterwards.
Click to expand...

OK so I believe that you were spot here, I came home from work to find a bit of yellowing on some of the leaves. When i removed the worst affected it was becoming translucent from the edges.

Am I right in thinking that this is iron deficiency? And that i should dose macros and micros on alternate days throughout the week?

Also I have reduced my light intensity to reduce the plants' required nutrient uptake rates. Is this also advisable?

I will be implementing your ideas on Saturday Edvet when I have time to go to the LFS.

Thank you for any help that you can give.
 

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Edvet said:
I believe that point's more in the direction of to low CO2/ to much light, Fe deficiency gives more light colored veins and leafs,
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Ah ok well I'll turn my lights down even more and see how the plants respond, it seems like it would be useful to use the duckweed index so I'll get to work on that.
 
Monty said:
OK so I believe that you were spot here, I came home from work to find a bit of yellowing on some of the leaves
Click to expand...
Could be Mg deficiency. You are dosing proper EI ? Including Magnesium Sulphate ?
 
Hmm you might be right, I ordered a EI starter kit from a supplier that doesnt sponsor this website and they dont list Mg. See photo. Am I allowed to say there name?
 

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