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60-P amazon scape

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In my last post I already noticed some BBA on some of my wood and leaves. In the last week I saw it growing and spreading.. It's only growing in the left side of my aquarium.
Two weeks ago I increased my lighting with one hour (also increased CO2 with one hour)
I also started with running the lights for 3,5 hours on 5% so I could enjoy my aquarium a bit longer with very weak light. (not sure this is a good idea..)

I did some reading and I think the BBA can relate to changing my light scheme and also debris getting piled up at this side of the aquarium (red arrow). I manually removed most of the BBA now including most of the debris. I also increased my CO2 a little bit.

(Still doing a 30% water change every Sunday.
CO2 is running two hours before the lights turn on and stops two hours before the lights go out.
My Twinstar is running this scheme for the last two weeks:
0% 09:30
70% 10:00-16:00
5% 16:30-20:00)

I'm not making any more changes and let everything rest this week and see how things evolve..
 
If the bba comes back, get some excel or glutaraldehyde product and blast it directly (needle and syringe) with the recommended dose. It kills the area directly effected and then the water column does the rest. Managed to rid my tank fully of bba in 2 weeks doing this and has never returned.
 
I'm thinking about growing some emersed plants just above the watersurface of my aquarium.
I have 15cm between my Twinstar and my aquarium. I don't know if the light (70%power) will be too bright for growing emersed plants? The Twinstar doesn't give very much heat because it's LED..

So far I came up with 'Pleurothallis grobyi' and 'Barbosella dusenii' because they are from Brazil,
just as the rest of my aquarium plants and because they stay relatively small. Does anyone have experience with these orchids? Or can you recommand other species that will thrive well with high humidity and bright light (from Brazil..)?

My idea is to add some extra spiderwood on the right side of my aquarium so I have more branches sticking out where I can grow emersed plants on. Then I will secure some 'hygrolon' (or should I use Epiweb?) on top of the spiderwood, partly submersed so it can take up water and stay moist. On top of this I secure the plants above the water surface with some nylon thread??

Maybe add some Tillandsia species from Brazil? I think they won't need any Hygrolon or Epiweb because they only need humidity? Just attach them to the wood with some nylon thread?

@zozo
I allready read some interesting things on glassboxgardeners.com
I was hoping you can help me out on this one :D
 
Shops with nice collections i have very good experience with..

https://www.dutchrana.nl/product-categorie/terrarium-planten/orchideeen/

https://www.dutchrana.nl/product-categorie/terrarium-planten/bromelias-tillandsias/

https://www.araflora.nl/

https://orchideeen-shop.nl/orchideeen.html

Growing orchids long term outside a greenhouse is a challange in my experience.. I also strugle a lot with.. Especialy Orchids need a lot of care and atention as epiphyte above an open top tank. I don't know if i can be of much help. :) Indeed on glassboxgardeners.com the Journal from Jason about the scape he made in memory of his father is a very good guide. There he used a lot of Orchids and tillandsias on epiweb/hygrolon.. Seems to work pretty good.. I have no personal experience with that stuff, never bought it. I actualy wouldn't know where to buy it in the Netherlands, it is hard to find.
 
Edvet said:
Marcel, if you decide to get some and the shippingcosts are high i can take one too and split the costs.
Click to expand...

Good to know Ed.. I'll definitively keep that in mind.. As you know i live a stone throw from the German border.. I happen to have a delivery/pickup address accross, to avoid the international shipping costs. :thumbup: ;):cool:
 
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The first flower of Hydrocleys nymphoides did not make it. This is the second bud. It looks like there is a leaf and a flower in this bud..? Let's hope something beautiful comes out!

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Overall the tank is doing good. Still have some BBA at some places and some leaves still look a bit yellow. Started this week with dosing a bit more fertilizers..

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Still waiting for my insurance to pay out, hopefully I can fix my aquarium cabinet soon and add more fish in the future..

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Did some trimming so Myriophyllum mattogrossense get's more light. I think my tank looks a bit too 'grassy' right now.

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Front view with Staurogyne repens on the left and Sagittaria subulata and Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis on the right.

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Staurogyne repens is a very grateful plant ;)
 
aquacoen said:
Thanks for your reply AndreiD. About a week ago I made an adjustment. Now my co2 runs from 08:00 till 13:30 and my lights at 70% from 10:00 till 15:00.
My dropchecker is green when the light turns on and is light-green when lights turn off. Stauro is making new leaves, so fingers crossed ;)
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May I ask where did you buy the dimmer for the twinstar? Thanks
 
CooKieS said:
Very natural looking tank. Well done with S.Repens, never had success with it
Click to expand...
Thanks! Yes in the beginning I had troubles with it. Since I run my co2 2 hours before my lights turn on it grows very nice.


CooKieS said:
May I ask where did you buy the dimmer for the twinstar? Thanks
Click to expand...
In this topic you can find more information on how to connect the Twinstar to the TC420/TC421:
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/tc420-421.50781/page-2

I bought it from AliExpress.
 
My emersed plant project is still in the making.. Growing some plants for it on my window sill.. I'll keep you posted.

Next week I want to start with EI dosing.

Now I dose ADA Green Brighty Neutral K and Green Brighty Mineral both 4ml every morning. Plants are growing well, but I find the ADA fertilizers quite expensive. And luckily I find reading about the EI method very interesting the last weeks. I also want to experiment with the amount of Fe (iron). (In the CSM+B trace mix the amount of Fe is quite lean according to the EI method..)

My plan:
  • 50% weekly waterchanges (monday)
  • after waterchange directly dose macro for the whole week
  • the next day micro for the rest of the week (tuesday)
I'm still wondering if dosing once a week is a good idea..

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I bought two laboratory bottles for the macro and micro solutions (500ml) enough for two months stock solution. And I have a 60ml syringe for each of them (the amount needed for the weekly dose).

It's not easy for me to dose every day in a weekly scheme. Is it better to dose everything at once? (macro directly after WC and micro the next day)
Or should I try to dose daily, and when I'm for instance not home for two days, add the remaining amount the next day? So my 60 ml syringe is always empty by the end of the dosing week?

That's the part of the EI-method I find difficult to understand... Why is regularity in dosing important? Is it important? Is it to reset the PPM of each element to the needed amount every day? I would say if there are enough nutrients in the water for the whole week than it would not matter...? (If the amount of nutrients supplied are sufficient for the weekly uptake rates by the plants..)

Macro: (480ml stock solution, 60ml each week)
N KNO3 16 grams
P KH2PO4 1,5 grams
K K2SO4 7 grams (I bought K2SO4 already before reading that increasing the amount of KNO3 is also sufficient to increase K, so I'll just use it? Are there any disadvantages using K2SO4?)

Micro: (480ml stock solution, 60ml each week)
CSM+B 2,5 grams
Fe 1,5 grams
 
I think you can dose it all at once, that's the idea behind EI, have all available in ample amounts. Micro's the day after is fine too. Giving more smaller doses could be beneficial for the fish (arguably, smaller osmotic pressure differences).
 
When i started with dry salts i also made a stocking solution at first.. After the first batch was empty i thought why waste the time and space to do it like that? It much less hassle to dose directly to the tank. than i do not need to store the dry salts and the made solution and store that next to it. All you need is a little 0.01 gram juwelry weight scale and a little scoop. And use a fert calculator like bellow.

http://theaquatools.com/fertilization-calculator/
or
https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php

I use the aqautools calculator and for my tank it looks like this.
aquarium.JPG


I have 4 glass jars with the salts and a little scoop 1/4 Teaspoon /1.25ml filled is +/- 1.7 gram of each salt.. Once i know my scoop, i don't realy need the weight scale anymore. So i do a 50% water change weekly, after that i put 1 scoop KNO3, 2 scoops K2SO4, 2 scoops Magnesium and a pinch KH2PO4. in a litre jar, stir it and slowly add it to the tank. While filling it up again. A day later i add the micros..

Than you can see at the bottom of the above picture what i added in total. :) I dose a bit low at the NO3 side because my tap water comes with a > 20 N. Since this is from an anual report and if this slightly fluctuates i still have more than i need with a > 10 N in the tank. For micro's i dose Profito for now, this also adds a bit K on top. But K never aint a problem you actualy can't realy overdose it, it's harmless.

There are no real dissadvantages.. Other than salt build up at the glass/water surface and some salt build up on the older lily floater leaves. For the glass i take a soft cloth dipped in vinegar and during a water change i clean it off the glass. Salt build up on plant leaves can be prevented to daily spray the leaves with demineralized water. :) And or gently wipe them clean with a soft paint brush.

This is my fert regime for about 2 years now, it works a charme and don't feel the need to change it.. :) I actualy experienced making stock solutions as a disadvantage, rather wasted space and wasted energy..
 
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