rockpaper
New Member
Dry-start Date: 10 April, 2024
Flood Date: 20 April, 2024
Cycle-complete Date: 20 May, 2024 (2 ppm NH4 in 24 hrs)
So, I hope it's okay to make my first post a tank journal instead of an introduction? If not... well, I guess it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission
I'm a molecular biologist living in California, USA. My previous experience with hobby aquariums consists entirely of a single, cringe-worthy 37 L tank I had when I was 12 years old. I don't remember much about it except I definitely didn't understand the nitrogen cycle, and there were no plants. I remember I had some gouramis...
A lot has changed! I've worked in labs doing research on Danio rerio and Xenopus laevis, both of which required enough aquarium knowledge to get the species reproducing, although there was, uhm, "high turn-over" in stocking these tanks, so long term welfare was not a hugely pressing concern. I have also worked in botany laboratories, but mostly in situations where we focused on growing common model plants like Arabidopsis thaliana, not decorative plants. I do keep terrestrial plants as a hobby, including several finicky species such as dwarf Vanda orchids.
In fact, this aquarium was originally born out of an idea where I would use the process of perfecting the water quality in my aquarium so that I could use the water taken from the tank during water changes and use it to water my more fickle, sensitive, and demanding terrestrial plants. I figured, hey! that sounds more fun than treating water in a barrel! Last words of the utterly deranged.
Hundreds of dollars and months later, here I am with my first planted tank. My goals have shifted somewhat, although I do use the water changes as fuel for my terrestrial plants.
Let's get started with the setup details:
Tank: Weird, brandless 56 L my LFS said they bought off of Alibaba. It has bent corners at the front, dimensions in cm of 50 W x 32 L x 35 H. I have been keeping it lidless. I like it, and it was half the cost of every other tank of similar size in the store.
Filter: Finnex PX-150, I know it's a weird one. I have a spin-type lily pipe to baffle the outward flow. Also, a 75 L capacity sponge filter that I will eventually move to a fry/hospital/quarantine tank.
Hardscape: Rocks I found on the beach a few minutes away from where I live. I do think they have some calcium bicarbonate component but oh well, they're pretty, and my water is already super hard.
Substrate: UNS Controsoil Black, very fine
Light: Fluval Plant Spectrum 3.0 (my first-day splurge.. there were many more)
Heater: Weird 150W heater I found online, idk the brand. It works alright.
CO2: 5 lb tank and GLA GRO regulator (& set), CO2 Art in-line atomizer
Aeration: Bubbles from both the sponge filter and an air stone are caught in a small glass bell to avoid surface agitation that would harm the floating plants. I am open to suggestions as to whether this is a good or bad thing.
Plants:
Azolla caroliniana (meant to get mexicana...)
Barclaya longifolia
Echinodorus aflame
Eleocharis vivipara
Helanthium tenellum
Hemianthus callitrichoides (do we say var. Cuba? We'll see how this does...)
Littorella uniflora
Phyllanthus fluitans
Rotala macrandra var. Mini Butterfly (another "give it a try" plant)
Current Animal Stocking (added 20 May, 2024):
7 x Amano Shrimps
1 x Nerite Snail
Future Stocking Plans:
15+ x Celestial Pearl Danios (holy crap am I in love with these fish)
Maybe 3 x Otocinculus? If I mess up and get a bunch of algae that the nerite and shrimps can’t handle?
Water Parameters:
Photoperiod:
CO2 period: 8 am to 4 pm, ~1 bps
Journal of Events:
Day -10
Dry-started tank with L. uniflora and H. tenellum. Used citric acid and baking soda under the cling wrap to really fog out the plants with CO2. Probably unnecessary, and everything was way too wet anyway.
Day -3
I had fixed the moisture level and things were... fine... (and no mold at all!) but I did more research on the species I was keeping and I found out that H. tenellum maybe grows in its submerged form while TC'd, so I was just kind of making it suffer by doing a dry start. You can see some of it kind of melting in the foreground. I resolved to flood the tank ASAP.
Day 0 -- Tank Flooded
It's wet! You can see the aerator glass bell in the background. At this stage, I didn't have a heater, and although I put some red root floaters in they were getting demolished by the current from my sprayer bar. I also chose to remove the driftwood I had originally put in the background; it wasn't working out aesthetically.
Day 8
Added the Barclaya longifolia and devised a system with fishline and suction cups to keep the red root floaters sequestered away from the current. Added sponge filter and heater. Not much plant growth. At this stage, I was dosing Excel every other day to control algae (not to supplement carbon). Added a black background.
Day 18
I wanted to add a cute shrimp hide (on the right) and it turned into a whole damn thing. I ended up also moving some plants and adding a few more rocks from the sea shore... I think it looked a lot better, but I did have to uproot the delicate growing plants to do it...
Day 23
Got the remainder of the plants as a large order in the mail. I had my CO2 canister at this point and intended to start dosing carbon on this planting day, but the FZONE regulator I had purchased had a broken solenoid. I ordered the GLA GRO and hoped that the delicate plants would be alright until it arrived. Added the glass lily pipes.
Day 27
CO2 Day! Mostly I put this picture in because it is amazing how the change from Day 23 - 27 (4 days) is so much less than the change between Day 27 and...
Day 29
Look at all the growth in only two days! CO2 is a helluva drug. I also fit the sponge filter under the glass dome of the bubbler bell, so the bubbles that reach the surface are contained in the glass bell. I'll try and explain better later.
Today, 21 May, 2024 (Day 31, or 1 Month)
I was able to complete a cycle yesterday, as measured by twice successfully clearing 2 ppm ammonia in a 24 hour period. Confident that I had a good base of biological filtration, I got my first animal stocks in the form of Amanos and my nerite snail.
Livestock:
Full Setup Shot:
Flood Date: 20 April, 2024
Cycle-complete Date: 20 May, 2024 (2 ppm NH4 in 24 hrs)
So, I hope it's okay to make my first post a tank journal instead of an introduction? If not... well, I guess it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission
I'm a molecular biologist living in California, USA. My previous experience with hobby aquariums consists entirely of a single, cringe-worthy 37 L tank I had when I was 12 years old. I don't remember much about it except I definitely didn't understand the nitrogen cycle, and there were no plants. I remember I had some gouramis...
A lot has changed! I've worked in labs doing research on Danio rerio and Xenopus laevis, both of which required enough aquarium knowledge to get the species reproducing, although there was, uhm, "high turn-over" in stocking these tanks, so long term welfare was not a hugely pressing concern. I have also worked in botany laboratories, but mostly in situations where we focused on growing common model plants like Arabidopsis thaliana, not decorative plants. I do keep terrestrial plants as a hobby, including several finicky species such as dwarf Vanda orchids.
In fact, this aquarium was originally born out of an idea where I would use the process of perfecting the water quality in my aquarium so that I could use the water taken from the tank during water changes and use it to water my more fickle, sensitive, and demanding terrestrial plants. I figured, hey! that sounds more fun than treating water in a barrel! Last words of the utterly deranged.
Hundreds of dollars and months later, here I am with my first planted tank. My goals have shifted somewhat, although I do use the water changes as fuel for my terrestrial plants.
Let's get started with the setup details:
Tank: Weird, brandless 56 L my LFS said they bought off of Alibaba. It has bent corners at the front, dimensions in cm of 50 W x 32 L x 35 H. I have been keeping it lidless. I like it, and it was half the cost of every other tank of similar size in the store.
Filter: Finnex PX-150, I know it's a weird one. I have a spin-type lily pipe to baffle the outward flow. Also, a 75 L capacity sponge filter that I will eventually move to a fry/hospital/quarantine tank.
Hardscape: Rocks I found on the beach a few minutes away from where I live. I do think they have some calcium bicarbonate component but oh well, they're pretty, and my water is already super hard.
Substrate: UNS Controsoil Black, very fine
Light: Fluval Plant Spectrum 3.0 (my first-day splurge.. there were many more)
Heater: Weird 150W heater I found online, idk the brand. It works alright.
CO2: 5 lb tank and GLA GRO regulator (& set), CO2 Art in-line atomizer
Aeration: Bubbles from both the sponge filter and an air stone are caught in a small glass bell to avoid surface agitation that would harm the floating plants. I am open to suggestions as to whether this is a good or bad thing.
Plants:
Azolla caroliniana (meant to get mexicana...)
Barclaya longifolia
Echinodorus aflame
Eleocharis vivipara
Helanthium tenellum
Hemianthus callitrichoides (do we say var. Cuba? We'll see how this does...)
Littorella uniflora
Phyllanthus fluitans
Rotala macrandra var. Mini Butterfly (another "give it a try" plant)
Current Animal Stocking (added 20 May, 2024):
7 x Amano Shrimps
1 x Nerite Snail
Future Stocking Plans:
15+ x Celestial Pearl Danios (holy crap am I in love with these fish)
Maybe 3 x Otocinculus? If I mess up and get a bunch of algae that the nerite and shrimps can’t handle?
Water Parameters:
- pH before CO2: 7.8
- pH at peak CO2: 6.8-7.0
- KH: 7
- GH: 23
- 0 / 0 / 20 ppm (“current” NH4, NO2, NO3)
- TDS: 469 ppm (!)
- Temp: 21 - 23 C (no climate control in room, heater usually keeps it at 22 C)
Photoperiod:
CO2 period: 8 am to 4 pm, ~1 bps
Journal of Events:
Day -10
Dry-started tank with L. uniflora and H. tenellum. Used citric acid and baking soda under the cling wrap to really fog out the plants with CO2. Probably unnecessary, and everything was way too wet anyway.
Day -3
I had fixed the moisture level and things were... fine... (and no mold at all!) but I did more research on the species I was keeping and I found out that H. tenellum maybe grows in its submerged form while TC'd, so I was just kind of making it suffer by doing a dry start. You can see some of it kind of melting in the foreground. I resolved to flood the tank ASAP.
Day 0 -- Tank Flooded
It's wet! You can see the aerator glass bell in the background. At this stage, I didn't have a heater, and although I put some red root floaters in they were getting demolished by the current from my sprayer bar. I also chose to remove the driftwood I had originally put in the background; it wasn't working out aesthetically.
Day 8
Added the Barclaya longifolia and devised a system with fishline and suction cups to keep the red root floaters sequestered away from the current. Added sponge filter and heater. Not much plant growth. At this stage, I was dosing Excel every other day to control algae (not to supplement carbon). Added a black background.
Day 18
I wanted to add a cute shrimp hide (on the right) and it turned into a whole damn thing. I ended up also moving some plants and adding a few more rocks from the sea shore... I think it looked a lot better, but I did have to uproot the delicate growing plants to do it...
Day 23
Got the remainder of the plants as a large order in the mail. I had my CO2 canister at this point and intended to start dosing carbon on this planting day, but the FZONE regulator I had purchased had a broken solenoid. I ordered the GLA GRO and hoped that the delicate plants would be alright until it arrived. Added the glass lily pipes.
Day 27
CO2 Day! Mostly I put this picture in because it is amazing how the change from Day 23 - 27 (4 days) is so much less than the change between Day 27 and...
Day 29
Look at all the growth in only two days! CO2 is a helluva drug. I also fit the sponge filter under the glass dome of the bubbler bell, so the bubbles that reach the surface are contained in the glass bell. I'll try and explain better later.
Today, 21 May, 2024 (Day 31, or 1 Month)
I was able to complete a cycle yesterday, as measured by twice successfully clearing 2 ppm ammonia in a 24 hour period. Confident that I had a good base of biological filtration, I got my first animal stocks in the form of Amanos and my nerite snail.
Livestock:
Full Setup Shot:
