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Paul's 200L, "Punishment of Luxury"

Tank is finally taking shape Paul, glad you got things back on track, I always increase the CO2 and ferts when I see problems, and also dose the EC to avoid carbon deficiencies and kill that dreaded algae, once you have everything in track and your CO2 is high enough you can ease off on the EC.
 
"Back on track"? I hope so, Paulo, but I'm sure I'll have a few lurches in the wrong direction before this is all properly grown in. But I learn more from stuff going wrong and having to correct it, rather than things going fine.
 
andyh said:
How's it going? :?:

You have been quiet?
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Yes, I have been, haven't I? ;)

I'm still plugging away at this. I've taken out a fair bit of the hairgrass, and added some Anubias nana 'Bonsai'. The original clumps of hairgrass I planted were badly algaed, and didn't show any signs of recovery. When I pulled them out, of course a necklace of new plantlets came up with them, which I could have separated and replanted. But to be honest, the hairgrass did seem a bit lost in such a relatively large tank. The Anubias has been pegged down to the substrate with garden wire, plus a few clumps inserted into crevices in the rocks, using garden wire as sprung chocks. It seems to be fine, although a few damaged leaves are dying back. The rotala is starting to romp away again after the first prune a week or two back. The vallis is growing strongly, despite my soft water and Easycarbo use. The pogostemon helferi is healthy too, with transplanted rosettes taking and growing away readily.

My HC, which was rallying strongly, has taken a turn for the worse again. I'm keeping CO2 as high as I dare, I've raised the luminaire a bit more, and I'm keeping the fertiliser dosing high. Not sure why the HC went off the boil, but could it be over-enthusiastic fish-feeding? I've the double challenge of keeping fish for the first time, as well as the plants, so I've been trying to sort out a workable feeding routine for the fish, as well as getting my head round plant husbandry.

In experimenting with different fish-feeds, I've used an automated in-tank brine shrimp hatchery, which seems to work fine, although it's ugly and noisy. I'll use it occasionally, when I know there's no-one likely to see the tank for a day or two (apart from me and the missus, that is!)

And I've added some Purigen to the filter, to see if it clarifies the water further - only just gone in, so the jury's out on this one for now.

That's it for now, everything is adding to my knowledge and understanding - I'm sure I'll reap the rewards in time, whether on this tank or a future one.

Thanks for asking, BTW! :thumbup:
 
Hey Paul

Sounds like you have been busy!

One question, you say you have raised your luminaire a bit more, whats your reason for doing that? HC loves two things in my experience light and CO2.

With feeding fish everybody has there own method, and own brand they use. Cheap foods tend to add oily scum to the water and i would rather feed on the lighter side. Rather than big feeds.

We need more pics!

Andy
 
I raised the luminaire to try to slow down the algal growth - the HC had already stalled a bit, so I knew it wasn't suffering from lack of light beforehand. I've got 198 watts over this. It's now raised to 40cms above the water surface, making it 85cms from luminaire to the HC itself.

Oily scum? Check! I've had it before, from plant breakdown, but I can see I'm getting it a bit off the fishfood now. The culprit seems to be the Tetramin flake - is that a cheapie? Maybe I just need to be a bit less generous with it.

I've just noticed that one of the clumps of anubias is breaking down badly, so I might have to lift and chuck that. The remainder looks good, with new growth showing already, backing up Saintly's advice that, given good conditions, it's not such a slow grower.

I've got my CO2 right on the limit. The fish sit quietly in what I guess is the least carbon-concentrated part of the tank about three hours after the solenoid swiches it on - they don't gulp any more, but they're clearly not as active as at other times. I don't really know if they're in discomfort, but I find it hard to reduce the CO2 flow fractionally - it seems to be a bit 'all or nothing'. The regulator pressure is quite high (2.2 bar). I'm wondering if it'd be more controllable if I dropped this a bit. I've got an Aqua Medic reg, which is described as fixed pressiure, so I guess it's not adjustable. Just got to develop sensitive fingers, I suppose.

I'll put some more pics up soon. Thanks for the interest!
 
Yup, That's the reg, Paul. And no Stu - I'm not at home so I don't know the exact timings, but I have 48w of T5 on from about 5pm to 10.30pm with the 150w MH starting at 6pm and going off at 10pm - roughly. Like you, I'm hooked on the light quality and shimmer the MH gives out.
 
paul.in.kendal said:
Yup, That's the reg, Paul. And no Stu - I'm not at home so I don't know the exact timings, but I have 48w of T5 on from about 5pm to 10.30pm with the 150w MH starting at 6pm and going off at 10pm - roughly. Like you, I'm hooked on the light quality and shimmer the MH gives out.
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Usually the mid burst is a bit shorter than that with a few hours of less light either side of it. it could be that you 198w for the 4 ish hours is too much for the system.

might be worth you lowering your light output if you're getting algae issues and your flow and co2 are maxed out. When i had algage probs on my rio125 i halved the light from 96w to 48w and uppped the co2 which worked a treat. when it was under control i put the lights back up and it was ok. (increased the co2 to cope too)

In your case you could do a few things

Run the 150w for the whole time but higher up on the hanger and turn off t5's (good for the HC)
run the 48w for the whole time with the light close to the surface (still with lots of c02) - not sure on the HC for this.
 
Paul

FYI both my CO2 regs are set at 1.7bar and your seems quite high at 2.2bar working pressure, if you can reduce the working pressure you should find it easier to adjust your bubble rate.

If you can adjust it like Flyfisherman suggests above, it should make it easier.
 
paul.in.kendal said:
Yup, That's the reg, Paul. And no Stu - I'm not at home so I don't know the exact timings, but I have 48w of T5 on from about 5pm to 10.30pm with the 150w MH starting at 6pm and going off at 10pm - roughly. Like you, I'm hooked on the light quality and shimmer the MH gives out.
Click to expand...

hi paul,
like you, i have my main lights running from 5 to 10.30pm. i also have bba, and while its reasonably under control (grow 3 leaves, cut 1 off), its still there and rears its ugly head as soon as i increase the light intensity. however, i was reading a post last night just a page back from zig, who recommends a minimum 8 hour photoperiod for a healthy biotope (especially a mature one), and its left me wondering if i'm using too much light and too short a photoperiod, so i'm going to try running just 2 x 39w t5ho's instead of 3 x 39w and 1 x 24w for an 8 hour period.
thoughts on this anyone?
will let you know my results in a few weeks time!
 
OK, here's some Week Thirteen pictures:

dscf0002y.jpg


Here you can see how the HC still struggles:

dscf0003ze.jpg


Here you can see how I've placed the Anubias Bonsai in nooks and crevices to imitate how vegetation takes advantage of drainage channels in rock:

dscf0006p.jpg


Here's the Limnophila looking healthy and vigorous:

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Hopefully in that first shot you can see how the rotala has grown back strongly after the first trim. I'm really pleased with it. It'll be getting a second trim in a week or two at this rate.
 
Looking good Paul, looks like you got it back on track after all :)
Just seems that HC as seen better days, if it doesn't take off like it never does for me in 4 attempts, try some glosso that would look great as a carpet in that tank, would just mean a few more trims than the HC.
 
Cor, your glosso carpet looks ace, Paulo. I think I'll give it a go. TBH, I'm losing patience with the HC - and my middle name's patience! Some bits have grown strongly only to die off, then other bits have done the same. The only thing bugging me is not knowing why it won't grow properly! Same with the hairgrass - but at least with that I don't think it looks right, so I've got a valid reason to chuck it. Still I suppose with both I can always come back to them and try again - perhaps in a nano...

I'm also going to revisit my EI calculations, to make sure I'm not still dosing a bit lean.
 
go glosso!!! it will fill that area in no time!

In fact if you want i have 1 pot of tropica Glosso which i didnt use in my dragon beach scape, and you can have it for £3 posted!

Let me know!

Andy
 
I don't think so, Steve. I've got a whopping great Eheim and a spraybar along the back wall, as recommended by Clive, and the HC (or what's left of it...) sways gently in the flow. But thanks for the suggestion - I'm stumped!
 
my personal view of HC, based purely on my experience growing it in my tanks is that it likes;
high light, high CO2 and a nutrient rich substrate.

In my tank, the HC that is directly under the lights 'direct spot/beam, grows much better. Than those bits just a few inches away.

What interests me is that you have plenty of light, and good substrate and a pressurized CO2 system.

so why aint it growing? :geek: o_O :?:

Just a thought: I did struggle for a while though as i wasn't actually getting the CO2 flow down to the HC even though i had good flow. Had to play around with my diffuser and powerhead. o_O
 
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