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Natural Aquarium attempt - 16/06/2015 (pics)

viktorlantos said:
Manado soil..... meanwhile we've seen tons of great tank with this soil this act differently than many clay soil (in general the japanese ones).
Hardening the water. Really muddy and poweder structure so i guess roots can have problems with this.
I do not see you used substrate fertilizers. This is something which is really undervalued and we frequently read EI solve everything.
Many plants took off easier the nutrients from soil than from water column. This is clearly visible when you run multiple tanks.
Manado is without any fertilizers. So this is a problem, and because of this you should not save on substrate fertilizers. Also you need to keep up with regular fertilizers and renew the substrate with bottom sticks after 4-6 months or so when the nutrients run out from the soil.
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I run two tanks, one with Manado and the other one with Aquasoil. The one with Manado is a low tech, thus theoretically a less demanding tank regarding nutrients uptake and consistency. The one with Aquasoil is a carbon enriched tank, therefore more demanding. I agree with Viktor that Manado is nothing but clay and even if I have it in a less demanding setup I really notice it when I am not consistent in my fert dosing... this drove me crazy as I could read everywhere that low tech tanks could be managed "just adding ferts from time to time" but this is only partially true, just if you can rely on a substrate that is able to store nutrients... so good advice IMO, make sure you have enough nutrients because this soil won't be storing anything

Jordi
 
I thought clay had a high CEC and stored some nutrients at least...

parotet said:
I run two tanks, one with Manado and the other one with Aquasoil. The one with Manado is a low tech, thus theoretically a less demanding tank regarding nutrients uptake and consistency. The one with Aquasoil is a carbon enriched tank, therefore more demanding. I agree with Viktor that Manado is nothing but clay and even if I have it in a less demanding setup I really notice it when I am not consistent in my fert dosing... this drove me crazy as I could read everywhere that low tech tanks could be managed "just adding ferts from time to time" but this is only partially true, just if you can rely on a substrate that is able to store nutrients... so good advice IMO, make sure you have enough nutrients because this soil won't be storing anything

Jordi
Click to expand...
 
Day 43!

I have increased the light intensity from 30% to 40% for 5 days and now I have set it to 50%. At the moment there is no melting and I think I see new leaves on the tripartia and the staurogyne repens...only time will show but I am alert for any negative signs!

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Day 47!

A few new leaves sprouting on the tripartia but the rest of the plants remain the same. This is not bad as everything now looks in good health but not growing. Today I have increased the light intensity to 60% and I will wait to see if I get better plant health or plant growth.

Thanks
 
Day 48!

The lights are now on at 60% intensity. My phoenix moss is dark green which as i read is an indication of high chlorophyll to utilise the low light levels so at higher light levels the moss is greener. Lets see how it will grow.

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I have added a few more stayrogyne repens on the left from my emersed collection. More biomass. Did my usual 50% wc and took a picture.

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My ph profile is
11:00 - 8.42
12:00 - 7.19
13:00 - 6.99
14:00 - 6.95 Lights On

And from here onwards its at 6.95 until lights off.

Thanks
 
pepedopolous said:
Looks like some slow but steady improvement. Sorry if I've missed it but what is your KH?

P
Click to expand...
The kh is 9

Yes the improvement is agonisingly slow. It looks like i had very very low light. Now its being increased gradually until good healthy plant growth is achieved.
 
Yeah, I've had similar problems to you but I run my TMC MiniLED400 at 100%. No choice as the controller broke. I do have floating plants to block some of the light though.

P
 
At what distance from the substrate do you have it?
Also is your tank high maintenance?

pepedopolous said:
Yeah, I've had similar problems to you but I run my TMC MiniLED400 at 100%. No choice as the controller broke. I do have floating plants to block some of the light though.

P
Click to expand...
 
At what distance from the substrate do you have it?
Also is your tank high maintenance?
Click to expand...

Well the tank is 43cm tall and the 'Mountaray' bracket is another 20cm. However, the substrate is sloped from front to back as much as 15cm. Let's say at least 30cm from light to substrate.

High maintenance? Yes I inject CO2 like a junkie!

P
 
When will it be wise to put fish or shrimp in the tank? I would like to see a few shrimp in there to help with cleaning the surface of the leaves from debris.
 
I'd put some shrimps as soon as temperature in the tank goes below 28 C degrees, assuming you already runing it for 1.5 months.

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It's easy. They won't die. Start with hardy shrimps like cherry shrimps, try to reduce CO2 initially and then slowly increase the level (I mean during next few days). If the shrimps won't try to escape the tank and not die suddenly - you're OK. That sounds horrible, I know, but you never can be sure you won't kill your livestock without some experience. And anyway, I managed to kill part of my livestock (twice or 3 times) when I suddenly increased CO2 injection without careful control. So, I'd suggest to do experiments at the weekends when you can watch the livestock and their behavior. Do you switch off the injection at night? If not, I'd suggest you use air pump at night, at least until livestock get adapted to CO2.
 
Day 53!

Yesterday I got a Limnophila Sessiliflora and added it on the back left hand corner of the tank. I will provide pictures today.

I have also noticed that the past days as the weather is daily becoming cooler, the pH of my tank at 7:00 am is daily becoming lower. For example on monday I had a pH of 8.45 the next day 8:42 the next 8:40 and today it was 8:35. Have in mind that at 7:00 am the CO2 is off, it switches off the previous night at 21:00 so its off for 10 hours. I believe that Clive and Tom Barr told me this before that the higher the temperature the less gasses are contained in the water so taking that in mind, a drop in the temperature cause less CO2 to escape the tank thus the lower pH. Does that sound logical?

On a different note, since I have seen improvement when the light intensity is increasing gradually and after 6 days of increasing the light from 50% to 60% with good results, I have increased the light intensity to 70%. Lets see how the plants adjust to this intensity and if after 6 days I see positive results and no algae or melting then I might increase it another 10%. I know at some point it will cause a counter-effect and trouble will come my way OR if I reach 100% intensity and plants are healthy then I will not try to lower the lights closer to the substrate unless plants don't look healthy. I am aiming for a lush green color but lets wait and see. Baby steps :)

Thanks
 
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Jaap said:
I have also noticed that the past days as the weather is daily becoming cooler, the pH of my tank at 7:00 am is daily becoming lower. For example on monday I had a pH of 8.45 the next day 8:42 the next 8:40 and today it was 8:35. Have in mind that at 7:00 am the CO2 is off, it switches off the previous night at 21:00 so its off for 10 hours. I believe that Clive and Tom Barr told me this before that the higher the temperature the less gasses are contained in the water so taking that in mind, a drop in the temperature cause less CO2 to escape the tank thus the lower pH. Does that sound logical?
Click to expand...

Yep, that's quite logical for me.
 
My water always looks a bit dirty...its not crystal clear...I don't know how to explain it, maybe there is some dirt particles in water and maybe its a bit cloudy but it doesn't look very clear.....probably its due to the poor plant health?
 
Maybe it's mist from CO2? You can check the water when CO2 is off, if it's crystal clear - then most likely you have very small CO2 bubbles around when CO2 is on. Also, I always put filter wool closer to the output end of my canister to ensure small particles are filtered out.
 
Day 55!

My lights are now at 70% intensity with good results.

This is from 1/9/2014

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This is 20 days later and gradually increasing light intensity

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Thanks!
 
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