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60cm NZ

F

fordayzbro

Seedling
Joined
17 Jan 2009
Messages
9
Location
New Zealand
Hi All,

Long time reader, first time poster....

Very inspirational site!

After a five year stint in the UK I have moved back to NZ and with a bit of money I left back home have been able to setup a tank. Only problem is we don't have access to all the plants that are available in the UK. Anyway, I given it a go with what's here. This is my second attempt at aquascaping so still learning as you can see from my lack of Golden Ratio usage....

Equipment
60x30x36cm
2x36w PL - 7 hours
Eheim 2224
Lily pipes
Pressurised CO2 - 2bps

Flora
Glosso
Hairgrass
Java moss
Bolbitis

Fauna
3 otto's
10 emerald eye's

DSC_1593.jpg
 
Hi,
Nice start! Your dropchecker looks too blue though. Is that just an optical illusion? If not an injection rate increase or better distribution methods might be in order.

Cheers,
 
Thanks ceg4048, The photo was taken just after the checker was installed.

The CO2 starts 1.5 hours before lights and the drop checker has turned yellow when the gas switches off. Hope that's correct?

I'm dosing with Flourish comprehensive, trace, Brighty K and Brighty K lights. Would like to try EI but will have to reseach where I can buy dry ferts in NZ.
 
fordayzbro said:
drop checker has turned yellow when the gas switches off. Hope that's correct?
Click to expand...

A bit vague. You mean, when the drop checker is yellow, the gas then switches off?

The co2 should stay on until close to lights out. Drop checker Should be yellow at lights on.

There's a bit iof 'tinckering' to be had with co2, you could switch co2 on 1 hour before lights on and gain a yellow drop checker, but injection could be too high for a lower plant mass, thus increasing to really high levels during the photoperiod.

I switch on 2 hours before, increase slowly, thus giving me a steady input during the photoperiod. As plant mass increases, so should the injection rate. It become almost natural to 'read' what happens within the tank.
 
Sorry,

I meant to say the CO2 switches on 1.5 hour before lights come on and 1.5 hours before lights out. 7 hours in total, the drop checker has turned yellow by the time the CO2 turns off. Is this right?

Also I dose with excel as per instructions.

The substrate is Flourite with JBL Manado on top, we can't order in any form "dirt" in NZ

Cheer,

Steve
 
Steve,
The reason you turn the gas on 1.5 hours before lights on is so that the dropcheker goes yellow by the time the lights go on. If it takes nearly 7 hours to turn yellow then that means your injection rate is too low. That's the point Mark was making.

I can't believe you'd have any trouble finding the common garden fertilizers used in EI. I mean, don't they have golf courses or hydroponics or vegetable gardens down there? Of course they do. I saw all of these in outakes from Lord of The Rings. Lets get real for a moment.

Check this out:

trademe.co.nz - saltpetre

trademe.co.nz - potassium phosphate

There's even a guy selling PMDD mix => trademe.co.nz - PMDD

All I did was search around on trademe.co.nz and found lots of sources for fertilizers. It took 0.032 millisecond to get results. Do a generic search for "trace element mix" to get more hits.

Just avoid anything that's organic and you'll be fine. Get only the inorganic salts. Why pay for name brands when you can buy enough of the basic ingredients for a lifetime? The only thing you don't get is the perfume bottles and the girly-man "pumps" (which I'm pretty sure you can do without).

Cheers,
 
Just remember to change the bubble rate SLOWLY, so as not to gas your fish. If they become distressed then lower the injection rate. You can also turn the gas off earlier as well to control the toxicity issues. Also I should clarify We normally suggest that the dropchecker is a nice lime green at lights on. It doesn't have to be yellow necessarily, depending on the tank. Be careful!

Cheers,
 
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