"Dutch something or the other" 120 Gal

[Edvet]

If it's no ta huge trouble could you show a picture of such a setup?

 

[flygja]

I dose 30ppm a week NO3, but I do this for most tanks, then about 10 ppm of PO4, then 2-3 ppm of Fe as CMS+DTPA Fe mix. K+ is likely in the 40+ PPM ranges.

That's quite a lot of PO4. I'll probably try it out for a few weeks and see if it helps. No issues with fish at 50ppm CO2?

 

[plantbrain]

If it's no ta huge trouble could you show a picture of such a setup?

I will in a day or two, need to put it together now I have all the parts finally.

 

[plantbrain]

That's quite a lot of PO4. I'll probably try it out for a few weeks and see if it helps. No issues with fish at 50ppm CO2?

I keep double trunk elephant nose, they are hyper CO2 sensitive. So they are fine, same with my 180, it's sitting about 65-70ppm CO2.
Realize I have good flow and wet/dry filters and higher O2 than anyone with a canister filter.

This gives me more buffered room for CO2 dosing. I also am patinet, so I adjust very slowly and watch the tanks before adjusting further.

Adding to that, I use the best CO2 regulator set ups possible, these make ADA stuff look like cheap plastic crap.

 

[bridgey_c]

Hi Tom,

have you experimented with diffusing Co2 at a lower rate but on for 24 hrs a day? I know you have lots of surface movement so your Co2 gasses off quickly, but is there no way that large fluctuations in Co2 are actually worse for inverts and your elephant nose than them acclimatising to more steady levels? I am complete novice in fish biology so I sort of know im wrong but it seems to make more sense to me. Or does the longer time at lower levels of Co2 more than make up for the daylight hours when they are hurting a bit?

The reason I ask is that I diffuse Co2 in the normal, 2 hours before lights on, routine. If I get near 40ppm my shrimp decide to lay on their backs and try and tan their bellies. I am getting a bit of a softy in my old age and feel pretty guilty so I refrain from trying to get my co2 levels higher these days but I still get plagued by filamentous algae in the hairgrass.

fantastic thread too!

 

[plantbrain]

I see no good reason to ever add CO2 24/7.
ADA and myself are in agreement about a number of things, this is one of them.
Amano says it is "taboo"(his words, not mine).

It does not help nor helps fish in anyway.

Poor delivery while the CO2 is being added it much more the issue or, too much degassing.
CO2 is not a salt and does not involve osmoregulation in fish like changing the pH with say baking soda(which is a salt).

Hair algae is a good sign of lots of light and not quite enough CO2.
If you added even less CO2, then BBA and other algae species would appear.

 

[plantbrain]

I am okay with the green plants, but I'll need to add more color like the Right side to balance things.
I might bring back the Ludwigia red, remove the Pink Ovalis.
I might try it in the rear and move the Rotala mini butter fly to the spot where the A reineckii mini is now. I like that plant, but it's just not as contrasting as the other species.
It's nice also because it is a very easy plant to manage.
Need more color and contrast on the left side now.
I'll add the H, sibthorpides in the right corner again. That will balance the right side well.
The Red Ludwigia which has been in the middle red section for sometime will return.
The A reneckii mini is the only one I'm really wondering about.

 

[plantbrain]

So it's coming, I'll redo the hardscape in the next couple of months on this tank and do something a bit more appropriate for the scale and shape of this tank. It's just too shallow to do what I really would like.

So I can buy a new tank or redo it.

I'll move sometime in the next year or so anyway, so I'll buy a new 180 etc, but the 70 Gallon's I'll keep and I might get a 48x 30x 24" size for this system instead, 18" is just too short.

 

[plantbrain]

Removed the tennellus and the pink ovalis. Added the pennywort and the Red ludwigia from before.

See where this goes now.

 

[plantbrain]

Colors match pretty good now, added the final plant groups.
I'll trim the Red Pantanal in a couple of days since it's so weedy anyway.

 

[Edvet]

Which hang-on filter it is that i see ?

 

[plantbrain]

Which hang-on filter it is that i see ?

It is a wet/dry prefilter, CPR.

I use wet/dry sumps on all my tanks, even the little tanks.

 

[aliclarke86]

Sorry to be completely naive but how does such a filter work?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4

 

[plantbrain]

See wet/dry filter sumps how they work on Youtube fro many versions of the same topic.


Wet/dry filters how they work - YouTube

 

[aliclarke86]

Cheers mate I did that as soon as I posted. Silly me

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4

 

[plantbrain]

I think most of us ask, then think, "hey, I google here.........." I'm no different.

 

[plantbrain]

You will note that one of the Erio's is yellowing from the base, started about 2 weeks ago, not sure why either. None of the others have done this either.
Not replanted, moved, flowering or anything else I can figure.
Right rear corner is coming along, but slower than hoped.
UG you can clearly see it's about ti life off, I'll add some ADA AS on top and semi bury the section.
This will prevent it for another 2-3 weeks. At some point, I'll need to pull it and replant some new plugs, then wait 8 weeks or so to get a nice looking thick rug. Monte Carlo looks decent now, took longer than the I thought.
Even with massive pruning, the R. macrandra has performed better than I expected. Note,: you can uproot and replant tops, or trim from the top and wait for new growth. I feel it's best to uproot and trim the tops and replant those, than simply trim the top and allow new growth to come back.
If you want a nice hedge like appearance, it's easier/better for most stem plants to trim like a hedge and top only, not uproot.
But some plants respond better/well to the two main types of pruning methods.
I'm not certain they are universal either, some hobbyist under some conditions might find it much better to use method versus another.
Or where you need to clean up the ratty lower stems and uproot for a couple of times, then once the nice healthy growth is there, then only top the plants.

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[Ady34]

Looking really nice now Tom.
The last end shot could be a scape all on its own

 

[plantbrain]

Well, that's the challenge I like and enjoy, making the tank look good from each angle.

Dutch style is the FTS only. Contest shots, FTS only.

But aquariums are not FTS only, we can enjoy them from many angles and we are not static 2 dimensional people.
I find the rational for FTS views only to be poor and lacking supportable logic.
Enjoying as many views as possible would be something more interesting to the viewer.
Amano seems to share this aesthetic and I know why based on Japanese gardening.
It's to place such elements at the human scale in your living environment.
His tank at home can be viewed from every angle except from below.
Most tanks butt up against a wall, but this is not required.

I prefer one end up against the wall, typically the side.

But even if the view is specific to the FTS, such tanks can still look awesome from other angles if done well.

 

[plantbrain]

I'll likely redo/scape the tank in the next month or two.
Don't worry, it'll still have most of the same plants/colors etc.

I redid a few things and trimmed about 1-2 hours ago, so there's some haze, but used a different camera.