TimT
Member
- Joined
- 24 Jul 2013
- Messages
- 117
Hi!
I know there are several threads on this subjects but I don't want to high-jack a thread and no two situations are the same. I hope that somebody can still find it in their hearts to help
I have a new tank and after a week with good explosive growth of my HC I trimmed it. After this it have had trouble bouncing back and a few leaves has turned brown and entire patches are showing signs of turning slightly yellowish or at least a more bright green than the more healthy parts. The color balance on my mobile phone is somewhat off. It look more yellow and old in real life. And I know how it should look from other posts in the forum and from the first week in my tank. So think more yellow than in this picture:
I also get a lot of foam in the surface and other tiny specs and patches floating around that either look like tiny bubbles or just matt areas of water. The water column on the other hand is crystal clear with only the tiny bubbles of CO2 visible. I'm not sure if the non-bubble stuff constitute a film (I have seen threads on that) and I wasn't able to take a picture of that (my camera wont focus on that). But here is the bubbles:
The flow is really powerful and carry the CO2 bubbles all around the tank after I had trimmed my background plants and raised the water level a week into the project.
My tank is a 19 liter nano with a Tropica Nano CO2 system running at 20 bubbles per minute. This is the rule of thumb from Tropica with a tank my size and the requirements of the HC. There is a 1 cm of Tropica Plant Growth Substrate in the bottom and I have topped it off with ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia. The tank is 47 cm wide, 15 cm deep and 25 cm high. I have a homemade LED setup with 9 CREE XP-G2 LED's. The first two weeks I had them running at ~700 mA each which according to the data sheet for the LED would give me a total of ~1900 lm. Or 19 watts in LED power (0.7 A x 3 V x 9 LED). I have the lights on for 7 hours in a room that is otherwise totally dark.
From what I can read here on UKAPS there seem to be two possible solutions. One option is adjusting the CO2/lighting ratio and the other adding some fertilizers that might be lacking and giving the yellowish color. The majority vote seems to be on CO2/lighting ratio.
I have now turned the light down to 300mA which according to the data sheet of the LEDs would give me a total of ~1100 lm (8 Watts of LED power). I have been running this new setting for the last 2 days now. (the entire tank is only ~14 days old). For two days I've been adding som Easy-Life ProFito (fertilizer without nitrates or phosphates). I'm a bit weary of turning up the CO2 as I would like to add some more fish later and I don't know what they can handle (7 shrimps, 2 snails and an Oto is the only inhabitants now). I would like to keep the CO2 cost down. So I went for the option with turning down the light to 300 mA. I'm getting a magnetic valve in a few days so I can turn off the CO2 outside the photo period.
I feel like I'm steering a oil super tanker in the dark. I know how to operate the controls but once you turn the rudder several days passes before you can see the result. I have a log of the stats from water analysis so let me know if you need those.
So my questions are:
Thanks!
/Tim
PS: You can find some pictures of the tank when everything was well and exploding in the thread called "How quickly can I start over? (and a few observations and other questions)" in the "General Planted Tank Discussions" but I'm not allowed to link because I don't have any 'like's yet.
I know there are several threads on this subjects but I don't want to high-jack a thread and no two situations are the same. I hope that somebody can still find it in their hearts to help
I have a new tank and after a week with good explosive growth of my HC I trimmed it. After this it have had trouble bouncing back and a few leaves has turned brown and entire patches are showing signs of turning slightly yellowish or at least a more bright green than the more healthy parts. The color balance on my mobile phone is somewhat off. It look more yellow and old in real life. And I know how it should look from other posts in the forum and from the first week in my tank. So think more yellow than in this picture:
I also get a lot of foam in the surface and other tiny specs and patches floating around that either look like tiny bubbles or just matt areas of water. The water column on the other hand is crystal clear with only the tiny bubbles of CO2 visible. I'm not sure if the non-bubble stuff constitute a film (I have seen threads on that) and I wasn't able to take a picture of that (my camera wont focus on that). But here is the bubbles:
The flow is really powerful and carry the CO2 bubbles all around the tank after I had trimmed my background plants and raised the water level a week into the project.
My tank is a 19 liter nano with a Tropica Nano CO2 system running at 20 bubbles per minute. This is the rule of thumb from Tropica with a tank my size and the requirements of the HC. There is a 1 cm of Tropica Plant Growth Substrate in the bottom and I have topped it off with ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia. The tank is 47 cm wide, 15 cm deep and 25 cm high. I have a homemade LED setup with 9 CREE XP-G2 LED's. The first two weeks I had them running at ~700 mA each which according to the data sheet for the LED would give me a total of ~1900 lm. Or 19 watts in LED power (0.7 A x 3 V x 9 LED). I have the lights on for 7 hours in a room that is otherwise totally dark.
From what I can read here on UKAPS there seem to be two possible solutions. One option is adjusting the CO2/lighting ratio and the other adding some fertilizers that might be lacking and giving the yellowish color. The majority vote seems to be on CO2/lighting ratio.
I have now turned the light down to 300mA which according to the data sheet of the LEDs would give me a total of ~1100 lm (8 Watts of LED power). I have been running this new setting for the last 2 days now. (the entire tank is only ~14 days old). For two days I've been adding som Easy-Life ProFito (fertilizer without nitrates or phosphates). I'm a bit weary of turning up the CO2 as I would like to add some more fish later and I don't know what they can handle (7 shrimps, 2 snails and an Oto is the only inhabitants now). I would like to keep the CO2 cost down. So I went for the option with turning down the light to 300 mA. I'm getting a magnetic valve in a few days so I can turn off the CO2 outside the photo period.
I feel like I'm steering a oil super tanker in the dark. I know how to operate the controls but once you turn the rudder several days passes before you can see the result. I have a log of the stats from water analysis so let me know if you need those.
So my questions are:
- Would you recommend more drastic changes? If 'yes', what?
- How long before I can see a change?
- Will the slightly yellow leaves bounce back or should I write them off and focus on the new leaves?
- I get a EI starter kit with nitrates and phosphates delivered shortly. My tank appears to be cycled with NO2 just reaching 0 mg/l today and NO3 on 25 mg/l for the last 3 days. I should still wait with that, right?
Thanks!
/Tim
PS: You can find some pictures of the tank when everything was well and exploding in the thread called "How quickly can I start over? (and a few observations and other questions)" in the "General Planted Tank Discussions" but I'm not allowed to link because I don't have any 'like's yet.
while others grow it no problems.