Moving to "higher" tech

[RobS84]

How about some clear suction cups to hold on your spray bar? I just got rid of my black ones and it lookes much better.

I was actually thinking of going the glass lilly pipe route once it's all grown in, but your suggestion would certainly be cheaper and agree would look better then the black in the interim.

Most plants showing plenty of new growth now and the Aquasoil ammonia leaching/levels have now settled to zero for a few days. I have seen slight growth of algae (green beard / hair - can't quite tell with such little of it) on the tips of the java/christmas moss on the wood in the centre of the scape. With this I've upped CO2 for a few days and knocked back the light (back to only 2T5's for 6hrs). I've also just introduced 3 Siamese algae eater's which after only an hour or so seem much happier than in the bare bottom temporary home. Hopefully they'll put so effort in to keeping the moss algae free.

Yes it's very possible. Either way will work. It's just a matter of preference really.

I'm going to back the HC to cover the rock to make it look more natural, in only 3 weeks it's showing encouraging growth, so we'll see how it goes.

Crypts have also all recovered well, previous was a Rio 125 on 2xJ5's, DIY bio-co2, so I'd guess light was similar with less CO2. Perhaps it was donw to circulation and the CO2 not getting to where the crypts were? Either way the issue was short lived and now behind me!

 

[KeyboardWarrior]

Your tanks really nice, I'm interested to see how you get on with going hi tech for the first time as I'm thinking of doing similar myself over the summer period keep it up and don't forget to update your journal

 

[RobS84]

6 Week Update:

Sorry for the delay, holiday, work and DIY to blame but here's a few shots of how it's looking after 6 weeks...

Krib loving the new home - as of the last few days the pair have just started spawning behaviour

Bad times with green spot algae - now on the mend with a powerhead pointing at it

As you can see things are neither going too badly nor too smoothly, a bit of green spot algae, and the darn fish seem to make games of uprooting my HC, probably shouldn't have been so quick to introduce anything more than shrimp. They also have a tendency to ruin the appearance of the path in the middle

The green spots on the rear plants is now improving with the addition of a power-head since these photos were taken. I've also replaced the CO2 diffuser with a larger one as this seems to make finer bubbles for the same flow (plus I broke the sucker off the one photo'd when moving it hence it's messy installation). The growbeam 600's also finally turned up last week so also have those installed now (would definitely recommend - they give great looking light and seem pretty bright), only running at 70% for 8.5hrs with 2xT5's supplementing them them for 5 hrs in the middle of the photo period. The introduction of LEDs and powehead + larger CO2 diffuser all got implemented at the same time, so I'm guessing it was poor circulation as the main culprit to the green spot algae since it's now improving and all plants are showing better growth - even the HC isn't getting uprooted as often.

As a matter of interest what do people consider normal for the amount of green spot algae to form on the glass in a week? I'm now getting a fine dusting of specks where light can get the the glass directly between water changes, that's removed fairly easily with a magnet cleaner or by cloth and generally not noticeable by the uncritical eye - normal or pointing to too much light?

 

[ceg4048]

As a matter of interest what do people consider normal for the amount of green spot algae to form on the glass in a week?

Hi,
I consider zero to be normal. The more light you use the more difficulty you will have and the more extreme the measures you must take to alleviate the situation.

Cheers,

 

[WetElbow]

Lovely setup.

I like the addition of the wine rack. Almost as important as the CO2.