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120cm - Colours

Thanks all. The music track is something I got from YouTube's royalty free music collection. I think its called Get Out of Here or something. Replying on my phone so can't check it.

I'm better at plants than fish so can never tell sexes or rituals. Thanks for the correction. Will need to change my YouTube title now.

Ady, I've tried reducing lighting before. Since my DIY LEDs are dimmable, I had them producing 30 umols/s at the substrate. No new development of GSA and dead BBA stays dead. But all my stems except the Tonina suffered greatly. Have thrown away a ton of macranda, rotundifolia and countless others. Still trying to find a balance.

Right now GSA developed on Anubias leaves within 3-4 days of unfurling. Kinda frustrating. When the lights come on today I'll tweak them again.
 
alex08 said:
flygja, very nice clips! :)
Also, i think i'm in love with your fish (congo tetras). :D
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Besides discus, Congo tetras were another one of my dream fish when I was a boy. If not for wanting to keep more discus, I'd definitely get more Congo tetras. They spook the discus out.
 
pmgsr said:
Sorry for asking but why are you using an air pump after CO2? Trying to give a better life for your fish?
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Can I say Twin star? LOL. Amano pumps are into his tanks after lights out. And with the seemingly successful experiences from others with Twinstar, I thought I'd try adding air at night too. Can't tell if its helping or not. I only had a JBL pH test kit and can't tell the diff between shades of green LOL.
 
Hey guys, here's an update.

DSC09381_zps8c54fe38.jpg


There have been a few changes.
1. I have decided to try T5HO lights instead of LEDs. Main reason being that with the 6500K Cree LEDs, my red plants just aren't turning red. Since most of the pros still use T5s, I decided to get myself a 6x 54W lighting unit. It's got some China-brand bulbs called Katana. They're about 8500K to my eye. With 2 bulbs on, it makes about 35 umols/s on the subtrate. With 4 bulbs its about 80 umols/s. With all 6 on, its a solar explosive 145 umols/s. I ran it on 2 bulbs only for about 3 weeks to try and control BBA. 35 umols/s isn't enough to grow lush Rotala rotundifolia Green. So now I've switched on 4 bulbs for 7 hours a day.

2. Dug up the ADA Amazonia at the front and added some gravel. This is the feeding spot for when I feed frozen bloodworms. My fish were ripping up the carpet when I was feeding frozen bloodworms and I was getting annoyed.

3. Changed to dual spray bars on the right side of the tank instead of previously using 2 "shepherd's crook" outlets. Circulation looks ok, but not as strong on the bottom right as previously.

4. Changed back to the Up Aqua style Y-shaped inline diffuser. I tried foxfish' high flow diffuser but it just didn't work for me. Perhaps wasn't done right. Tank looks like fizzy pop now. Not ideal for viewing but as long as I can keep algae away!

5. Since there's a drought here, I've reduced water changes from weekly 50% to 20-30% every 2 weeks. I hope it doesn't mess up my tank with its increased lighting.

Comments are welcomed as always.
 
Time for an update, and not a good one. You guys wants warts and all, well here it is. 3 weeks ago I was at an LFS and saw they had a new fish I haven't seen before - Buenos Aires Tetras. They were similar to the Colombian/Argentinian Red Fins I had before, so I assumed their temperaments would be similar. Scooped up 10 of them and brought them home. At first I was really impressed, they were super active and they shoaled wherever they went. The next day though, I caught a few of them nipping my plants! Within a week they have seriously decimated some plants.

Limnophila aromatica stripped of lower leaves. The leaves on top are growth. I plan to let them grow another 2 inches or so, then trim and replant the tops.
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Blyxa aubertii
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Ludwigia repens was completely decimated till there were no leaves left so I had to rip them up. Even Helanthium tennelus was not spared. Must never buy on impulse anymore! Thankfully I managed to give it away to a friend who kept ferns and mosses. He told me they weren't nipping those plants.

My narrow leaf ferns are starting to blacken. I wonder if this is what Amano calls "fern disease"? I trim some leaves at every water change, am afraid to trim them all because 99% of them have black spots like this.
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BBA is rearing its ugly head again. I have reduced lighting to 2x 54W for now. Some pics of badly affected Anubias barteri.
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You can see the root system and stubs left from trimming are badly affected. The roots themselves have turned black. Should I throw them all out? Some of these Anubias have been with me for 6 or 7 years so I'm quite hesistant to throw them out. I can probably salvage the tips of the rhizome with 3-4 leaves each.
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One of the places that gets a lot of BBA are on the root systems of the ferns. Spot dosing with Excel gets rid of them, but they'll be back. Should I trim off all the roots?
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Having a really hard time right now. CO2 is at 6-7 bps through Up-Aqua type inline diffuser, so my tank looks like fizzy lemonade most of the time. Drop checker is yellow. Circulation looks good as I see small bubbles everywhere in the tank. I changed from the dual spraybars back to the two shepherd's crook outlets. I noticed that the spraybars were creating deadspots as the flow "droops" before reaching the opposite pane of glass, thus disturbing the flow on the substrate, which flows from left to right.

I have a new shipment of plants (mostly stems) coming in next week to replace those I've lost. I hope I fare better.
 
Hey Edvet. I don't have a pH pen, only a JBL test kit. To my eye, and my dynamic range isn't that great, I get about 0.5 to 1 drop between CO2 on and lights on. CO2 is about as far as it goes without gassing my fish. I think it can take a little more. The bubble rate keeps changing as the cylinder looses pressure.
 
Hey Edvet. Assuming that the amount of CO2 is already as high as it goes without gassing the fish, does it matter that the difference is +1 at the start of CO2 on? Meaning that its also important to gas off the CO2 that much during lights off?
 
The plants seem to need the CO2 the most at lights on, so you want optimal values then, at the end of the lighting period CO2 seems to be a bit less critical, so diminishing amounts don't seem to have a lot of influence. At night the plants produce CO2, if you have CO2 still on this might put the fish in danger. So you''ll need good surface agitation at night, or have your CO2 off . I used to have it on 24/7, but i aways have lots of surface movement. (now i have a solenoid and start CO2 2 hours before full blast, on till 2 hours before end)
 
So all is still not well with my tank. Below is a hastily shot video to explain. I still can't shake the BBA off. It keeps coming back after a few weeks. Plants are still melting and getting covered by BBA. I'm currently running 2x 54W, about 20cm above the water surface. I've recently gotten myself a cheap dealextreme pH pen and took a pH profile yesterday.

1230 7.01
1400 6.23 (CO2 comes on at 1300, but I wasn't home to take a reading)
1500 5.95 (Lights come on)
1700 5.92
1800 5.85
1900 5.60 (Reduced CO2 bubble rate slightly after taking this reading)
2000 5.71
2100 5.84 (CO2 turns off)
2200 5.83 (Lights turn off)
2300 5.90

So it looks like I'm getting my 1 point pH drop. I've also been messing around with distribution and am now trying 2 gooseneck outlets, one on the back right facing the front glass at about 45 degrees. The other on the front left, facing backwards at about 45 degrees. I get better flow on the right side of my tank right now. But you can still see in the video that there's a ton of BBA where the flow is strong.



The only upshot of all this misery is that the Barclaya longifolia "red" has decided that these are the perfect conditions and have grown like its never grown before in my tank.
 
Hey edvet. Anymore CO2 and fish will be gasping at the surface. Should I be trying to add surface agitation to balance the CO2 and O2 levels?

I got myself and API KH test kit my KH is about 2-3dKH. Is that too low? Should I add coral chips to my filters?
 
At those KH levels you probably should even get a bigger drop (maybe even 2 points).You'll need more CO2 and more O2 probably, when are they gasping?
If you absolutely can't get more CO2 in, make sure circulation/distrubution is very good (you still habve the spraybars on one side?, maybe try a large one over the entire backside). The last option is to lower the PAR, looks like a lot of light.
 
Hey Edvet, if I increase the CO2 by any tiny bit more, some fish (not all) will start gasping. I'm afraid of adding more in. I've changed the orientation of the outlets. The spray bar on one side was causing lack of flow directly below the spray bar. Right now I have one gooseneck back right, pointing at the mid-way point of the front glass (about 45 degrees) and another gooseneck front left, pointing at the mid-way point of the back glass. All plants are moving in the current now.

I'll try adding coral chips to my filters, see if higher KH leads to more stable pH readings and drop.

REDSTEVEO, the cooling fans are for the water. I live in the tropics so air temps can reach 34'C in the afternoon.
 
flygja said:
REDSTEVEO, the cooling fans are for the water. I live in the tropics so air temps can reach 34'C in the afternoon.
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Does a chiller help since it reduces the need for co2 and increases solubility? But didn't I read from somewhere that warmer temperature doesn't matter at all.

I have considered a chiller before since I'm living in the tropics except not in Malaysia but Singapore. The exhaust heat and electricity bill is a turn off.
 
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