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Acclimation period?

James Burcham

Member
Joined
5 Jun 2019
Messages
100
Location
Fargo, nd USA
I know that I am supposed to perform an acclimation period regarding the light intensity and photo period. But, I am unsure of the process for example.
:bookworm:
What intensity do I start with?
How often do I increase intensity and by how much?
Same questions regarding photo period.

Thank you in advance :wave:
 
It depends on various factors, such as the plant species. And the majority of the plants we buy in the shop are emersed form bog plants that need a transition time to its submersed form. In most of the cases both forms are completely different. Than if a emersed form all of a sudden is put submersed it will die off all it's foilage and come back from it's rootsystem with its new submersed form. In this periode the plant highly depends on the initial health of its rootsystem and CO² contents in the water. Mainly for all plants that root into substrate are also sensitive to a sudden change of substrate, when taken out the rockwool suffering root damage that needs to be repaired and get used to a completely different medium. This is known as transplant shock, after it is recovered from this shock it will start growing it's roots first than new foilage. This can take weeks.

There are relative very few true aqautics, but obviously the true aqautics do not require this transition and maybe only suffer a bit transplant shock to recover from. But this usualy goes pretty fast in matter of days.

All this makes it hard to determine the proper periode and intensity and it mainly commes down to best results with ones personal experience. Intensity is a very dynamic topic, because lumens and wattage doesn't say much about it. Intensity depends also on how tall is the tank, a 30cm tall tank recieves more light at substrate level compaired to a 50cm tall tank both having the same intensity light. Water depth and clarity has drastic effects on light intensity.

But you have to start somewhere and monitor the effects it has on the plants and the invironment and addapt you scheme accordingly. For example do you yet see little plant growth but algae start to appear it could be wise to either shorten the periode or lower intensity and or take other proper actions.

In general consensus, we mainly grow tropical plant sp. with some exeption left a side. But the tropical light cycle is about 12 hours a day all year round. Taking this and the above into consideration 12 hours is about the max periode you could do. You could go even with a longer periode, natural water bodies in the northern hemisphere grow aqautic plants with over 16 hours light periode during the summer. Nature shows us it's not an exact sience and it can work either way or not. You also could go with a much shorter periode, i red from people having great succes with a 6 hour light cycle only. Thus somehwere in between this you can try.. Starting with 6 hours and gradualy over a periode of weeks make this longer according what the plants tell you.

Anyway, since it is hard to say something conclusive about best periode vs. intensity.. You might want to give us a bit more information. About the aqaurium dimensions, the plants involved, what light do you have installed (Brand, type, etc.), is it high tech or low tech setup.

Than certainly someone comes allong that probably has experience with providing simmular or comparable conditions and can tell you what worked the best for them during their startup. :)
 
Anyway, since it is hard to say something conclusive about best periode vs. intensity.. You might want to give us a bit more information. About the aqaurium dimensions, the plants involved, what light do you have installed (Brand, type, etc.), is it high tech or low tech setup.

High tech setup.
2 kessil a160we
Tank 36 L x 18 T x 15 W in inches
Excuse any misspelling.
Plant list and hard scape in pics.
20190624_152328.jpg 20190624_152358.jpg 20190626_001428.jpg
 
If you have the kessil controller for the lights it does have an acclimation feature on it ;) never used it on mine
I do. I figured there was a better option than going with a factory setting.
How do you acclimate your plants @Zeus?
 
Looking at your plantlist you have a few labeled with Medium and Advanced difficulty.. Which means it requires ample CO² injection and medium to high light intensity to grow submersed.

See the Tropica Data Base for more information on difficulty labels and what they stand for.

https://tropica.com/en/plants/

For the rest most plants are relatively easy, but the more demanding plants are your weakest link.. What is tricky in your case are the relative slow growing low light demanding plants such as the Lagenandra, Anubias and Bucephalandra, these are relatively prone to develop algae issues in higher light conditions if misplaced in the scape.

And if you want to get the more light demanding plants to grow healthy you need to come up with the proper lighting conditon for them in the end.. Not that it is impossible to grow plants from the easy end to the advanced end next to eachother. In this case ample and steady CO² is more important to make it work than a long periode with high light intensity.

But from experience i can only tel you, you are in for a treat and you are not making it easy on yourself. To find the proper mid way with such a wide variety of plants prefering different conditions. You need quite some experience in proper placement over the available surface. And put the less light demanding slow growers in the proper spots that recieve less light, due to shading by the hardscape and or other overhanging plants. And put the higher light demanding plants in the non shaded areas.

Fisrt things first in to get your CO² injection and turnover spot on.. Than i personaly would go with a short (6 hour) periode and medium intensity to get the plants trough the initial transition. How long that takes is something the plants will tell you.. After that is succefully behind you,than slowly encreasy the periode and intensity over a periode of weeks. Do this in small steps for example an hour per week, wait a week see results and so on. Same for intensity, add 10% per week, wait a week and see. If it seems to go south, drop back the 10% intensity and wait a week longer. Something along that way, going slow on it is a good approach and gives you time to act.

Regarding intensity i can not realy help you determin the best, i have zip experience with Kessil, all i know from this forum they are pretty good high end lights.

But i bet the George Farmer youtube channel can help you along the way. He made quite a lot intersting videos also used kessil lights quite a lot.


 
Well did a long 3 month DSM for carpet so kessils and T5 on 12hrs day 100% for that, then planted rest of tank then photo period went to 6hrs with kessils at 50% then went though various intensity settings for kessils from 100% plus T5 and some extra LED lighting I had, melted alot of crypts BBA carpet pearling like mad, then down to 20% intensity with T5. Period still at 6hrs. Flow was always an issue retrospectively IMO. Fitted the Maxspect Gyres Xmas just gone and never looked back IMO. Which isn't surprising as flow is KING in a high tech tank. Kessils maxed out for about 6hrs a day with ramp up and down. But did go from inline CO2 diffusers to twin CO2 DIY reactors during the period also.
So I went from fluctuating [CO2] with too much light and flow not the best. To what D Wong would class the perfect senario , fast pH drop stable pH during photo period great flow made all the difference IMO
 
But from experience i can only tel you, you are in for a treat and you are not making it easy on yourself.
I know. I'm a glutton for punishment lol!

Fisrt things first in to get your CO² injection and turnover spot on.. Than i personaly would go with a short (6 hour) periode and medium intensity to get the plants trough the initial transition. How long that takes is something the plants will tell you.. After that is succefully behind you,than slowly encreasy the periode and intensity over a periode of weeks. Do this in small steps for example an hour per week, wait a week see results and so on. Same for intensity, add 10% per week, wait a week and see. If it seems to go south, drop back the 10% intensity and wait a week longer. Something along that way, going slow on it is a good approach and gives you time to act.

Thanks for this! I'll take it slow.
 
Which isn't surprising as flow is KING in a high tech tank. Kessils maxed out for about 6hrs a day with ramp up and down. But did go from inline CO2 diffusers to twin CO2 DIY reactors during the pe
I'm hoping my pump keeps up it says it's rated for about 9.5 x my tank volume per hr.

The gyre looks like a sweet bit of equipment. Any noticable downsides?
 
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Hold off on those expensIve Anubais & Buce variants until tank is established (most Buces prefer more stable water parameters - you don’t want these to melt)

Back corner - I’d use the E hormanii red as the focal plant and emphasize with mostly greens - the B caroliniana will develop “sunset” colors in good light etc so I’d switch it out for a more uniform green plant, the E stellata & C Tropica will also have lots of red etc tones .... maybe C wendtii green, the E stellata (or L hippuridoides) for color tones, plus green stem plant (Rotala green, M umbrosum (as it’s such as “easy” plant to shape & move, fast growing), H polysperma (plain green variant))

Use the Juncus repens in same manner as Filipe Oliveira - interplant among stem plants, rather than as a “bunch”

I suspect E parvula mini will be taller than E acicularis mini (unless you mean Dennerle E pusilla variant) - though recently I planted some E acicularis ‘mini’ that is anything but! (suspect it’s a mislabeled cup)

L meeboldi also seems to prefer an established tank (though it should come back similar to crypt melt as long as nursery grown plant - note that any “pot” plants should have god root structure and actually be grown into the pot, rather than stuffed in shortly before sale)

P helferi may be environmentally sensitive as well - some seem to have melt issues with it

Do you have a local plant source?
 
note that any “pot” plants should have god root structure and actually be grown into the pot, rather than stuffed in shortly before sale)

All plants ar TC

Do you have a local plant source?

Unfortunately no. I live in the middle of nowhere Fargo, nd.

I'll take a detailed look at your notes. I just gave it a quick read. Also the plants are all ordered and arriving tomorrow. o_O

Hold off on those expensIve Anubais & Buce variants until tank is established (most Buces prefer more stable water parameters - you don’t want these to melt)

By stable parameters what do you mean exactly? I have been dosing stability in the tank for about 5 days as of today.
 
Committed then :D

Tropica substrate or ADA - I’ve forgotten which (though I suspect you did mention this)

Do you have a top down view of the aquascape?
 
Re water results
- have you been doing any water changes?
- have you observed the appearance/increase of nitrites?

As you’re adding Stability, check with Seachem as to which nitrogen tests are compatible (I believe it’s similar to Prime plus added bacterias)

Note that Stability has nothing to do with “stable” water parameters
 
I’d set up tank something like this,

Plant substrate plants
Fill - run filter for awhile to test for current release of new plants (note do not run your High Flow device for a couple weeks or until you see good root development, low thorough flow is what plants like)
90% water change (to remove all the whatnot released on the planting - from plant media and substrate)
Refill to a comfortable working depth - so I’m not worried about spraying the substrate plants (all tissue culture I believe you said - where are they from? You can pm )- then place the epiphytes
Carefully finish filling tank - if you accidentally cloud from hitting the substrate etc, just do a running water change (like Filipe Oliveira video)

At this point, everything should be planted and water pretty much same as tap water parameters
I’d not bother with Stability until you add fish (that’s Seachem’s Stability method)
Then water change 50 - 80% every day, or other day, or at least every third day - you can choose depending on work schedule and plant inspections (a Python Clean type system makes this very easy, George Farmer shows using intermediate bins and pumps)

If you see any melt, then water change

Make sure that Buces get decent flow so no debris settles (seller should have particular advice to limit melt on those costly Buce and Anubias)

Frequent large water changes mean tank water should remain fairly stable
Daily fertilizers in small - as usual, I’ve forgotten what fertilizers you’re planning :oops:

Light - it’s a relatively tall tank so I’m not worried about “excess” light (as Kessil 160 not 360)
I’d run the Kessils at 80-100% (I do like to ramp - maybe 30 min - depends on ambient light) for 5-6 h/day

If tank receives significant ambient light, I’ll run CO2 24/7 - low bubble rate outside photoperiod, higher during photoperiod
 
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