Search results for query: *

Here’s a few pic of the plants during tonight’s water change. I’m certain something is wrong but I’m a bit confused as to what. Wondering if it might be flow related as I noticed that the skimmer is barely pulling any surface water which indicates a reduced flow for some reason. Any thoughts...

Week two gone and i've done many water changes with RO to get the DTS level to around 100. Thats down from around 400 at the start. I've been doing EI so far but plan to change to a DIY all in one solution so i can move to an auto doser. Growth seems slow but there are signs of life. No major...

Hi folks, I wanted to start a journal given i've just spend a decent amount of cash on a fully new setup... the first one i've ever been able to do without being on a serious budget. You may have seen my threads asking for advice previously, so here goes.... Tank: Juwel Rio 240 in Grey (Filter...

how do you keep your rocks so pristine? mine end up getting covered in black stuff over time... not sure its diatoms but can't be totally sure. Plants are fine though.

Hi Tim, Thats a shame. Some of your other scapes have been spot on so i expected you'd be able to recover this. Just noticed you are in Leicester. Do you use any of the local places for anything plant related?

Hi all, Quick photo update. I've added a skimmer Inlet which looks much better than the green Eheim jobbies. Added some Rotala as well as moving the C. Helferi to behind the Java Fern. You can see from the pictures that the Rotala has changed form form how it was in its previous tank. When...

Redone the calculation sand it seems I'm still OK even though I forgot to calculate the additional Potassium. A 40ml dose gives the following: Potassium Nitrate 93g = 8ppm Potassium, 12.67ppm Nitrate Potassium Phosphate 13g = 0.83ppm Potassium, 2.02ppm Phosphate Magnesium Sulphate 100g = 2.2ppm...

I think I'll have to look at reducing the dose somehow and balancing it out.

Oh bugger..... yes I did!

I've just made a new patch of EI macros but with a different formula from what I have been using previously. I've gone with the following all based on calculations from James Planted Tank EI Calculator: Disolved in 1000ml water 40ml dose Potassium Nitrate 93g = 12.67ppm Nitrate Potassium...

I'm guessing that's not good then and that it is no longer available to the plants at this point? Is there a way around it at all? I did dose a full 20ml in a dingle dose so wondered if dosing this at the same time as my micro solution might be a better approach? I did buy this on the...

Hi All, Yesterday I had some more plants turn up to fill in the gaps and I'm really pleased with how it looks and can see how I want it to look as it fills in. I ordered the following from aquarium Gardens: - Staurogyne rubescens - Hydrocotyle tripartita Japan - Pogostemon Erectus -...

Considering that you are not injecting Co2, that's quite incredible!

HI all, Today I finished the planting of my old plants (lots of monte carlo going in the for sale section). I still need some more which I'll be looking to buy in the coming days but I'm not sure what. The area specifically is the back right of tank in front of the C.Helferi. There's quite a...

As promised here is a couple of pictures albeit teaser pictures :D This is certainly the most intricate rock work I have ever done and I'm actually quite pleased with how the 'scape is looking. I've added a lot c more sand and built up towards the back right hand corner using cat litter...

Hi all, Yesterday was the day. The old tank was ripped down and a new 'scape was started. Its been very slow work as I don't have a place to relocate the fish to so I left them in situ and tried to be as careful as I could not to spook them too much. Its been a challenge to come up with a new...

Hi all, This 'scape has run its course and I'm planning to tear it down in the coming days. There's a number of lessons I have learnt from this attempt which I plan to take into the next and I plan on reusing most of the plants currently in there but with some additions. What those additions...

Hi @George Farmer , I'm interested in your use of the Tropica fertiliser. You mentioned at the start of the journal that you planned to use 10-20ml PER DAY however the Tropica website states that the dosage is 6ml per 50L of water PER WEEK. I'm curious as to why you went for this amount of...

I don't think the cat litter affected growth in any way however it was so light that i found it hard to keep plants in the substrate, especially when taking into account the high flow rates I had.

Thanks Dave. It's a little more chunky than I'd have like but I wanted to use the Eheim installation set attachments as its more flexible than the standard shepherds crook.

Here's a quick video as well for those interested.

Hi all. I've been pretty busy on this tank over the last week after ordering some maintenance accessories. I've gotten myself a couple of different sized wire brushes so i could give the rocks a good scrub and I've also made myself a DIY acrylic spray bar. I'm quite pleased with the results...

So today I'm going to be making a couple of changes in the hope I can increase flow to the Tripartita. I've ordered myself some acrylic tube so I'm going to make a full length spray bar so will be having a go at making one of them over the coming days. Secondly, I've gotten my hands on some...

I decided to remove it because it essentially kept the stems growing at diagonals which didn't look great. No doubt about it though, the flow certainly helped growth.

Hi Jack. Yes, that's a crypt Wendtii Brown.

Thanks guys. Its not perfect and I'll tak esome close up's to prove it shortly :)

Hi all. I haven't updated this since March but everything has been going OK. My growth issues of the past have gone away and the tank has filled in to the point I have removed a number of the plants because they didn't match what I had in my head. Now I'm comfortable with how things are going...

So you're going to stick around 100 Amano shrimp in there? By my calculations of my local shop, that's £400 worth of shrimp!

Hi Chris. Thanks for the comment. I am slowly upping the lighting an dam confident that the algae issues are not really light related. I have had some fluctuating CO2 to and I'm still trying to get the CO2 as high as possible without distress to the fish. As I now have more plant mass I'm seeing...

I've done a short video showing how the tanks looking, the flow and the issues:

Hi Guys, Heres a few more photos of the progress. I'm getting a small amount of algae which I think is BBA however its only on the slow growers. Can anyone confirm this? I'm not sure how this has come about as the CO2 seems pretty stable so I've started dosing double the amount of DIY easy...

Hi Matus. It's Unipac Limpopo sand.

Wow. Not cheap are they!!

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not familiar with those plants. Do you know where I can get them? I'm running at 40% at the moment but I intend to try and up it somewhat in the coming weeks to see what effect that has on the plants. I find it really odd that I started at 40% when I first...

Hi All, Time for a new picture update with the progress. The last pic i posted was some time back and having gotten to grips more with the plant growing aspects with these LED lights, I feel I can can concentrate a little more on the look of the tank now. I have a couple of questions along the...

Hi Michel, I dropped the intensity as my plants were melting when I had it on 40%. This was when I first set up the tank so I dropped the intensity to lower the demand for CO2 and nutrients. I assume that i am now getting growth because the plants have settled in and adapted to under water life.

I think you are right. To the naked eye they look very bright but I don't think they are as bright form the plants perspective. I also think they are far more directional than what tubes are which makes the brightness deceiving.

WE HAVE PROGRESS!!!! I'm glad to report that I have noticeable growth since upping the lighting. I had a couple of strands of hairgrass in there which sat doing nothing for months but during yesterdays water change I notice it had put runners out. I'm now running all lights at 40%. I find it...

Hi Aaron. How many of the strips do you have over your tank? Is it just 2?

So 2 weeks on, I'm even more confused than what I was before. I've not noticed any growth really other than some new roots form the Blyxa. That said, the Blyxa is shedding leafs but not melting at the stem. My CO2 level is such that fish gasp at the surface and I've had a casualty which was...

Before I forget, I should also add that I am dosing DIY EasyCarbo (glutaraldehyde) as well on top of the injected CO2.

Just when I think I've turned a corner it seems I hit a problem again! Today I've hit the first sign things are still not right. After coming home from a weekend away my Blyxa has shed a lot of leafs. I'm not sure if this is a reaction to being transported or not though however it has made me...

It's been a long time since this was updated and that's because it has taken until now to get somewhere with my growth. Essentially I believe the problem was down to too little light so that the plants were almost dormant. So contrary to my post previously, the 15% lighting stopped the plants...

I'm off to find a river nearby.....

That is a stunning tank! How do you keep your rocks so clean when you are planted up like that?

Hi All. Its been a long time since I provided an update. Essentially its taken me a while to get to grips with the right levels of light from the LED fixtures but I think I've now settled on each light running at 15%. Unfortunatly I pretty much cooed all of the plants and had very few survivors...

Isn't that Apple Keynote? I've not heard of Adobe Keynote before!

Thats a stunning tank and you have such confidence to put that tank together knowing its going to work. If I'd have done that it would be a guaranteed disaster :D What video editing software are you using there? I love the text breaking up at the start. I'd like to get that for myself!

Blue Army!

Hi Edvet, That's what I thought. I've only recently done this so I'll see how things progress. I've also doubled the EI dosage as well to be sure I'm getting enough in there.

Hi Aaron, How far form the surface did you have them? I'm running them balanced on the centre brace on a Juwel Rio 180. When I started running the tank I ran all 4 at 30%. Because of them being close to the surface there was some light overlap but not a lot, particularly at the front and back...

Hi Edvet. Yes, that was what I thought as well. Particularly as the CO2 is also dissolved in the water column. The tank has been set up for over 4 weeks now and there has been steady degradation in the plant, some have already not survived. Does this not indicate that there is an issue? I'm...

Hi All, I've finally gotten round to adding new pics and they are not pretty. While I'm only having a little diatom trouble, the plants are deteriorating massively. I've had a good clear out today of all the ones I thought were beyond saving. Can anyone tell me what the hell to do now? I'm...

Hi All, I'm afraid things are getting worse to an extent. I'm having some issues with plans still melting and I have no idea why. Its clearly down to lighting so I've dropped the intensity to 10%. Having read a thread by CEG, I am thinking I may have underestimated the intensity of these LED...

I have to say I am dumbfounded as to how you have so much light and are not facing the issues I am. I've got good CO2, good flow yet plants are suffering. Dosing EI as well. I've just dropped my lights to 12% to try and help things out! How do you get such high light on the go from the off...

Thanks Guys. After upping the light duration I'm now seeing signs of growth and I've cleared a lot of the black rot from the stems. I'll monitor what happens with this. The brown stuff which I thought was dust from the cat litter looks like its now Diatoms so I'll be getting some Ottos in...

Thanks for the reply. I've added some already submersed Blyxa Japonica so that can be a true indication of what's actually happening. Are all plants grown emersed then? I got nearly all from Aqua Essentials but I assumed they were kept submersed! Incidentally, I know for sure that the stems...

Thanks for the reply. Yes I was thinking about doing that with the spray bar and having the koralia slightly under it pushing in the same direction. I can direct the flow downwards some more in that case. I thought the ramping time might offer a more natural effect with sunrise and sunset but...

Hi all, A progress update and I'm afraid its a bit mixed. My main issues are a lack of growth and some melting of plants. The P. Helferi didnt last long at all a few weeks after my C. Wendtii brown has melted almost completely. Oddly, the green version is doing fine. I also have 2 lots of H...

I don't know the exact value but I generally have hard water in this area.

Thanks for the reply Alexander. Would you do that with the spray bar pointing forward to the front of the tank as it currently is? As a side-note, I've removed the floss from my filter today and according to the Eheim software, I'm getting an additional 80 LPH throughput by doing so.

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll double dose and see where that gets me! BTW, the sound system sounds insane :D

I'm dosing EI and I'm pretty sure I have 30 PPM in there fiven the drop checker and PH drop. Not sure what else I can do. If I up the CO2 any more then it comes out the diffuser in big bubbles due to how much its getting through it.

Here's the pics I promised then. Can anyone tell me what's going on with the stem plant? DSC_0196-Edited16-7 by Lee Parsons, on Flickr DSC_0201-Edited16-7 by Lee Parsons, on Flickr DSC_0198-Edited16-7 by Lee Parsons, on Flickr

Bit of an update: I've moved a few of the plants round to get a better balance while I hope is maintained. Been keeping up the water changes 3 times a week and onto a twice a week schedule this week. No signs of algae however the P. Helferi has totally melted and gone. The Cyprius Helfer has...

I was using it as a suppliant during the tank start-up in case i was not dosing enough gas CO2.

Thanks Paulo. Today I noticed that a lot of the P.Helferi had mysteriously disappeared. I uprooted what was left and noticed that the stems had started to melt. Looking into that particular issue from previous discussion on here it looks like it's probably a CO2/Light balance issue. To combat...

As promised, here's a few photos with the SLR. All going well so far, no sign of any algae and I'm getting a green drop checker and a full 1 point drop in PH (7.4 down to 6.4 by lights on) DSC_0131-Edited by Lee Parsons, on Flickr DSC_0133-Edited by Lee Parsons, on Flickr DSC_0142-Edited by Lee...

Been playing and this is what I've come up with. The plants on the left are probably going to go at some point later as I couldn't fit them in so they are staying there just for biomass at present. When I have some time over the weekend I'll get the SLR out and take some better pics. Not sure...

I added the Koralia last night, added the second bazooka diffuser and cracked up the CO2. So that's one bazooka under the filter intake and one positioned under the Koralia. When I got home about 9:30PM the drop checker was lime green and the fish looked happy enough. Today I have scaped the...

That look sgreat. Should ie lovely when filled in. where di you get you Blyxa from? I'm after soem but all places I've tried are out of stock!

I'd be interested to see how much of a difference the skimmer makes to your flow. I'm toying with the idea of getting one too.

Hi Paulo, Thanks for the reply. The substrate is baked clay with a sprinkling of root fertiliser underneath. Unfortunately, I'm spent up for the minute so I cant replace it with anything specificity for planted tanks. that said, I've seen a lot of people use this stuff with excellent results...

Hi All, After moving house and losing interest somewhat, I'm back having another go at growing some plants :) I've previously tried a number of approaches to getting a decent aquascape on the go but algae and poor growth has hit me hard almost every time. hopefully, I'm better equipped to make...

Thanks for the input. I'll give them plants a look up! I actually already did that in a glass and it really wasnt bad at all. OK, nothing like the ADA aquasoil but in a glass it cleared after about 4 hours and didn't smell either. Of course, I may eat my own words when I finally stick some...

I've been playing a little and took a few more pics. Nothing major changing but I've lifted the rocks somewhat so they don't get lost when planted. In situ: https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3705/13825129673_24fa80f6c5.jpg https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/13825132903_9d33a3632b.jpg

Thanks for the reply. I had read about the dust however this stuff I have is not excessively dusty, no more than what any other hard substrate I have used has been. Either way, I don't see it being anything some good mechanical filtering won't get rid of. As for plant selection... not given...

Hi all, I've been away for a while and having moved house I've been told that I've got to wait for a few months until I can get my TMC signature :( With that in mind, I've a load of stuff which I'm using for this set-up and I'm using my Juwel Rio 180 which I've re-painted to match the living...

A quick pic from the iPad camera... photo by dj aeropars, on Flickr

Re: Back in the Saddle - New pics 27/03/2012 Hello All, No real progress on this however the HC has started to take off and the Blyxa is recovering well form the previous melt. I'm getting a nice yellow tinged drop checked from the new UP Super Atomizer so I'm pleased with that purchase. One...

Re: Back in the Saddle - UP Super Atomizer Added! The plants have now stopped melting thank god and the co2 is now up high. I don't know what caused the melt but it affected mainly the blyxa and the staurgine. Very odd! I've got some gda setting in so I've dropped the photoperiod by an hour to...

Re: Back in the Saddle - New Pics! Right... back on this now my new UP Super Atomizer has arrived. I ended up going for the small version of the 16/22mm atomizer. Some pics of it are below! I'll get the co2 back up and running and then post some more pics! photo by dj aeropars, on Flickr...

Re: Back in the Saddle - New Pics! Just when things were going well, my UP atomizer starts to leak CO2. Came back to the tank after a weekend away to see the first signs of GDA on the class and some of the rocks which I was really hoping to avoid. I've got an old nano diffuser which I might...

Re: Back in the Saddle - New Pics! Here's a new pic after the HC, Balansae and another plant who's name escapes me, has gone in. I'm just about to head off to the football so I'll post some more pics tonight or tomorrow for all you photo geeks out there :D

Re: Back in the Saddle - blyxa starting to melt The Blyxa has been in the tank for about a year however Its been in a bucket for 1 day or so while i did the rescape. It was fine for about a day in the tank then it all went to put. I was only running 2 x T8s at the time so i doubt it could be...

Re: Back in the Saddle - blyxa starting to melt given the Blyxa is melting I've snuck away from the other half and bought a few other plants to add further interest to the tank. I've got the following coming tomorrow! Ranunculus inundatus Cryptocoryne balansae Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'...

Re: Back in the Saddle Heres the pictures of the melt. It was perfectly fine yesterday with no signs of rot so i can only put it down to the liquid carbon.

Re: Back in the Saddle Well I have gotten home today and found that my Blyxa has serverly melted and I don't know what has caused it. I've previously dosed AE liquid carbon without an problems bot today its looking pretty sorry looking. I feat that it might actually die off completely! I'll get...

Re: Back in the Saddle OK, Had a look through some plant catalogs and I'll be going for a couple of pots of C. Balansae but I also think i need something for the foreground. I dont know if carpet plants will suit the low maintenance side of things but i would like something to give some...

Re: Back in the Saddle Hi Ady, Thanks for the input. I was thinking about balensae. Not sure how much this would cost for the amount i might need. Perhaps mixing it out with some other plants might offer better contrast but i have no idea what to stick in there. A nice plant shop near...

Re: Back in the Saddle Hi George, Its good to be back and having some focus on the tank again. I'm determined to get a healthy growth on the tank at last. Its never been quite right! The substrate is my old Seachem Onyx sand with a base layer of Tropica clay based stuff. I forget the name of...

Hello All, Its been a while since i was last here. Totally disgruntled with not being able to get a pristine tank like a lot of you which i think might have been down to fish load. So now only a few fish are left so i am going for it again. Tank: 180l Juwel Rio Lighting: 4 x T8 Ferts: EI + 5kg...

Re: My First Iwagumi - Juwel Rio 125 Hmmm. I cant work mine out. The BPS is nealy off the scale but my drop checkers are still a rak green. I wonder if I have put too much reagent in them. The fish seem fine too and I'm not getting any pearling since moving to the UP atomizer. Do you think I'm...

Re: My First Iwagumi - Juwel Rio 125 Is your mist quite noticable?

Re: My First Iwagumi - Juwel Rio 125 Nice Paulo. What bps are you running here? I am running the same co2 setup pretty much and can't seem to get my drop checkers lime green. I've only just started using the up atomizer so I'm not sure how is should work. It's kicking out lots of bubbles but...

Great job Tony. Can I ask what you are using to get good CO2 distribution? I didnt see a filter listed. Lee

Re: Tonys 'Triassic Hollow' 420L I am in need of SAE's but cant find them anywherein Leicester. I had the exact same problem as you with BBa but cant find a way of killing it off. I cant really use excel due to how much I have!

Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank. (now with ADA Solar 1) Andy, Are you getting any gas build up in the filter though? A sign would be a sudden blurt of bubbles coming out the filter?

Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank. (now with ADA Solar 1) George, Does this not cause filter problems? I did the same thing with a ceramic diffuser and the filter couldnt take the gas bubbles so all of a sudden I'd get an explosion of air being forced out the spray bars. I've just ordered an UP...

Re: Andyh's 190l Lounge tank. (now with ADA Solar 1) Andy, how how you gotten the Staurogyne to creep like that? I've had it in my tank for a while but all it does is grow upwards!