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Any help. Planted tank.

J

Justin mccomiskey

Seedling
Joined
18 Nov 2017
Messages
10
Location
Cheshire
hello all,

I have the following bulbs on my tank.

2x40w fluval aqua-glo t8
1x54w colour hi-light t5
1x54w nature hi-light t5
The lights are on from 10-7pm

Also feeding TNC complete 20ml a week and halfway through the week TNC light also at 10ml on third day and dosing co2 for 8 hours at one bubble every second through an in-line diffuser which is made by intense with a lot of co2 if needed but just want it to keep just enough co2 not overload.

Plants are a mix from amazon swords to Indian ferns and a few red and pink plants. These was added only the other day as others seem to had given up on me. Just can not figure out why they are so I’m just wondering if it s the lighting I added.


I got 30 more amazon swords big and small coming and another 120-150 plants on order for this week too.

They are all getting root tabs too.

Just unsure if I’m missing anything as I thought co2 would make things better last year.


Any input would be great as I want to keep around 250 plants in my 240l tank and have more fish as in running two 406 filters in there.

Regards.
 
Hello,
One bubble per second on a 60 gallon tank is puny. With that much light your bubble rate is as nothing.
Have you read the Dropchecker guide in the Tutorial section?
That will explain to you how to get the basics right when injecting CO2.

If I were you, I would disable one of the T5 bulbs and at least one of the T8 bulbs for now as you are headed down the wrong path.

Cheers,
 
Hello and thank you for your reply.

I have been keeping my eye on co2 levels and I was running line green on the co2 checkers I have in the tank which I started to dial the co2 to keep it green. Which with my 1 bubble a second on pressurised co2 if I up it to 3 it turns all checkers to yellow.

I’ll disable the T5 lighting for a couple off weeks to allow the plants time.

All items run on timer so changing things isn’t hard for the tank.
 
I have done the following.

Co2 to 3bpm

T8 tubes on for 7hrs
T5 tubes on for an hour in middle of the 7 hours.

Which feeding the plants I’ll keep to the same times.
 
Hi
3 bpm is almost nothing.Did U mean 3 bps?
I used to run T8 plus T5s when I was starting with planted tanks.It is overkill.I used to run my T5s only for 2 hours about 2 hours after the T8 come on to create a high light zone in my photoperiod as I had HC cuba and in the early days that plant was classed as very high light deppendant It worked but had to trim every week very heavy and finnaly got fed up with it.It was an Ada substrate setup with all the additives and their fert regime.I was ages ago and every one was blasting their tanks with as much light as possible.Things have now evolved and it became clear that too high light is often the biggest mistake unexperienced aquarist can make as will increase the demmand for all else and then it comes why that algae and those plants are not doing well...
.If I were U I will focus on how to grow plants healthy and gain experience about how things are happening correctly in your setup and then If U are still keen U can go for crazy speed growing of aquatic plants as this is what high light is all about.Most plants will bw happy with low medium light and as long as your ferts and CO2 are good will florish.
Regards Konsa
 
Right I have changed the lighting times to the following.

2 aqua glow 11am to 7pm t8’s
Colour and nature t5s to 12pm till 2

Which co2 @ 3bps which gives light green according to the two indicators I have in two places and by 6:30pm it’s back to green as co2 turns off @4:30pm

I think I’m making step towards getting things right.

New plants seem to be fine at the moment. Time will tell.

Any more info welcome.
 
Hi Justin,
I assume you are using 4dKH water in the dropchecker? I would take the pH readings at regular intervals from gas on to lights out, every 30 minutes or every hour. That will tell you more quickly.

Cheers,
 
I will be. I’ve the weekend. I have been waiting a week for my order for ph tester as the co2 4dkh rest does not react fast enough.

Thanks for the help. Once dialed in its in auto mode so nothing should change.
 
Looking good now a lot more co2 going in and shorter hours on the light.
 

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Justin mccomiskey said:
Looking good now a lot more co2 going in and shorter hours on the light.
Click to expand...

Hi Justin,
It looks to me in that photo that you are running an airstone in the center?? If so, then it is a very bad idea.
Aeration will get rid of the CO2 you are trying to dissolve.
When using CO2 you should avoid airstones.
You can put the air pump on a timer so that it comes on after the lights go out.

I see a second set of bubbles on the far right. Is that bubbles coming from your diffuser?
That may work, not saying that it can't, but for that size tank, inline reactors work better.

Cheers,
 
I’ve got inline diffuser/reactor running air pump runs two air stones I can add them to the timer tomorrow. I’ll get it to start half hour before lights out.
 
Last edited:
Just trying to get the tank 100% automated to ease the mistakes off. As that’s now a lot of my time back after it’s setup the way it should be. Just more money on plant food every two months.
 
Justin mccomiskey said:
Just more money on plant food every two months.
Click to expand...
Yes, I see that you are spending 10X more money for plant food than is necessary.
All that product contains is exactly the same powders that you yourself can buy for very cheap. Then they just add water.
You don't even need to add water, just dump a half a teaspoon or so a couple times a week and Bob's your uncle.

Cheers,
 
Ok where do I get the powder to mix up a litre apart from e b a y

I do use root tabs for the 50 large Amazon Swords and for the 30 baby amazon swords
 
Yes, root tabs won't hurt, but Amazon Swords do not really care whether you use root tabs or not as long as you dose the water column. Root tabs are also a bit of a ripoff if you consider what you get for what you pay. That is another item therefore, that I would eliminate from the budget.

Go to the TNC hidden page to purchase the dry powders. These are simple salts:
https://www.thenutrientcompany.com/...uarium-fertiliser-salts-for-estimative-index/

There is a blue box labeled "KNO3". Put that in your Cart. Get the big size. It's cheap
Just to the right of that is a Green(?) box labeled "KH2PO4" Put that one in your cart as well (get the medium size for now)
Next is the brown box labeled "TNC Trace" (get the medium size one for now)

Optionally, budget permitting, you can also get the gray box labeled MgSO4. This is just Epsom Salt. If you can find for cheaper at a druggist then get it. It's the same. Get the big one.
I think Cheshire water is soft, but I'm not sure. Check your water report. Soft water is likely to requires some additional Magnesium, but don't fret.

OK, so here is a simple dosing plan for your size tank. I don't know why everyone has anxiety attacks over this.
I'll use your water change day as the reference day and I'll call it Day1. There are 7 days in a week. :shifty:
3X per week (Day1, Day3 and Day5) toss in 1 teaspoon of the KNO3 +1/2 teaspoon of the KH2PO4 + 2 teaspoons Epsom Salt
2X per week (Day2 & Day4) toss in 1/2 teaspoon TNC Trace.

That's it. When Day1 rolls around again (in 2 days) do a 50% water change and start the dosing cycle all over again.
Make sure when you do the water change to rub the plant leaves between your fingers and wipe of the biofilm. Maybe even shake the stems a bit. You will see clouds of dust and you bash the leaves about. Ensure that you get rid of this dust. It is the waste products from all that food that you are stuffing the plants with. That stuff contributes to algae as it accumulates on the leaves and in your filter. Every couple/3 week clean your filter. It will get very dirty from all this plant poop.

Bob's your Uncle.

Cheers,
 
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