Kind of a repost for any that look on pfk. Tanks been running for 8-9 weeks now Planted a few more bits and bobs today so will update in a week or so
NICE! Is this a low tech? Give us some specifications if you get the chance. Love that surface shot! 8) Cheers,
I will do my best this is my first ever tank so learning all the time. What would you like to know? I have co2 injection and 4 t8 tubes. Only yesterday started to dose FE. Trying to work on getting my plants pearling. That surface shot is co2 unfortunately
Well it's hard to tell just from photos but I wonder if the amount of surface plants might be robbing the lower plants of light a bit. The T8's are not as bright as the T5's. Lower light delivers a lower rate of photosynthesis (but also a lower risk of algae). Are you dosing only Fe? It would be advisable, if you're not already doing so to have a full spectrum dosing including the most important macro nutrients KNO3 and KH2PO4. Check the EI thread and JamesC's PMDD dosing regimen as an alternative. Do you have an enriched substrate or a substrate additive underneath? If not then water column dosing is imperative. How are you measuring your CO2 concentration? Have you check the CO2 Dropchecker thread in our Cookbook forum? What kind of filtration are you using? Flow rate is important in order to deliver the nutrients to the plant surfaces. The importance of flow rate increases as the tank size increases. Cheers,
I have sera substrate underneath the gravel. The floating plant(lillies I always call them ) are trimed regulary. There isnt that many tbh I kep binning loads of it. But I need some as I have marble hachets. I was advised not to dose for the first 6-8 weeks,and then to just use Fe and run the tank lean There is a drop checker yes. I try to keep this just verging on light green. The filter I have is a fluval 305, Its now connected to a spray bar which makes the plants sway a bit, and theres certainly lts of little co2 bubbles whizzing round. I have it set on full with the lever. The Kh is 7 ph hovers between 6.6 and 6.8. I dont know the gh sorry. Hope that helps
Also sounding stupid I didnt know if i had plants that pearl as such ie crinum ,vallis, hair grass and aponogeton ulvaceus . Once when the co2 went loopy one plant (the broad leaf plant behind the small wood on the right) fizzed like crazy when I changed the water,but never seen it since. Some of the moss have had bubbles stuck, but id love to see the plants fizzing. The tubes and gas are on for 12 hours also. Thanks
Cool tank it always amazes my just how long the roots on floating plants can get! You could almost make them part of the scape! Sam
Nice tank. I like the floating plants, looks like a real wild stream/pond. The Amazon Frogbit in one of my apisto tanks has roots that go down into the substrate from the top! It's a 15" deep tank. The apistos like it!
if you think you plants pearled after a water change that may support the suggestion that you need more balanced fertilisation routine if you have hard water the plants after the change may have had a small amount of the things they are missing ...once used up from change water your back to status quo if that makes sense andrew
