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Red Rock Pass

Floating plants are a great idea when starting out as they soak up the excess nutrients. Lovely scape and tank! It's an awesome step getting it wet right?
 
@MossMan ye I've an assortment of them floating around the top. I was very excited I have to say. Never thought adding water to a glass box would give me such joy. Hah. Then j sat waiting for everything to float to top or substrate all to just fall over and go flat. I came padding down the stairs this s'morning like a puppy to check everything was OK. Then I said hello to my children haha:lol:
 
Thank you Roy. I'm hopeful once things grow in more il be happier with overall look. The hard work starts now.. I'm anxious to get co2 settled early as want as little playing about with it as possible.
 
•Cai• said:
@MossMan ye I've an assortment of them floating around the top. I was very excited I have to say. Never thought adding water to a glass box would give me such joy. Hah. Then j sat waiting for everything to float to top or substrate all to just fall over and go flat. I came padding down the stairs this s'morning like a puppy to check everything was OK. Then I said hello to my children haha:lol:
Click to expand...
Haha! I feel the same, my tank has been running now nearly 4 weeks and each morn I pop my head in the lounge to see if it all ok! Lol.
 
Can somebody please link or give me the equation to translate how many drops of gh it takes to ppm please? I'm getting 23 drops which is over double what they have on the chart supplied. :crazy:
 
I've also just done a test with my Api master kit on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Baring in mind this is my 2nd day of tank starting off. Readings I got were:
Ammonia- 1.5-2ppm
Nitrite- 0.25ppm
Nitrate-40ppm

Why would my nitrate levels be so high at such an early start?? Filter media is all new and I dry started plants off. I expected ammonia and nitrite to be high for obvious reasons but the nitrate has me stumped.
 
Hi Cai, the tank looks great mate, I love that stone and the layout. I'm a bit like yourself and although keeping fish for a number of years I'm only just dipping my toe into having a 'propelry' planted tank for the first time. I use the term properly very loosely as I'm sure when I come to start my journal and post pics there will be loads I've done wrong regarding layout, plant choice and plant positioning etc. even though I've try read up on as much info on here as I can for the last few months. But I like to learn by my mistakes as well, and what ever's wrong can always be put right.
I've found it interesting reading your journal regarding the dry start aproach, I planted mine wet and went down that route, and had the inevitable few floaters do deal with while getting the flow from my filters etc correct. I totally get where your coming from regarding coming down and checking your tank each morning, it's always the first thing I do.
I cant really comment on whats going on with your test results though, as my set up had two very well matured filters from day one. I look forward to seeing how yours develops and seeing plenty more pics.
 
Hi all, 2nd day of cycling and nothing bad to report apart from my earlier test findings. I've changed 75% of water, cleaned floating detritus up and altered co2 at start of day to 3bps. To latter here is my daily report:

3bps approx

2:30- 7.3.----Ph7.0 sol
3.00- 7.3. "
3:30- 7.2. "
4:00- 7.1. "
4:30- 7.1. "
5:00- 6.7 ----Ph4.0 sol
5:30- 6.6-----Lights on. DC-below
4D9F4E32-1412-4807-A0D3-2356B88D01E1_zpsvvdm40m4.jpg
6:00- 6.6. "
6:30- 6.7 "
7:00- 6.7 "
7:30- 6.9.-----Co2 off Ph7.0 sol
8:00- 7.0 "
8:30- 7.0. "
9:00- 7.0 "
9:30- 7.1. "
10:00-7.0
10:30-7.1 Lights off

*Ph pen tolerances within +/- 0.2 *
 
My drop checker as lights went off was towards a yellow rather than green but it looked stabilised for couple hours atleast. I'm going to stick with 3bps even though I didn't reach a full 1.0ph drop. If I add any more il be running with unsuitable levels for when I add livestock I feel. If others feel this is unnecessary than please do add your thoughts. Overall I'm quite happy
 
Hi all, I've been on with my cycling now for a few days and I've been closely watching my co2 in accordance with my drop checker and ph pen. By lights on which is 2hours 30mins after co2 is injected at a rate of 3bps for 5hours altogether. At first I was noticing pearling on plants but now I see nothing. My ph will very rarely drop from 6.8/6.9 at this rate. My normal level of ph is 7.3. This I took before any co2 was introduced.my drop checker is edging towards yellow so there's a lot of co2 within water. My flow is good as I'm using a fluval 305 canister with Lilly pipes. There's visible movement on plants throughout tank but just slight agitation on surface. I'm just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong? I'd of thought I should be seeing pearling with a high amount of co2 added bearing in mind it's only a 60litre tank. Ive checked for any leaks regarding co2 which there isn't. I'm noticing a slight amount of brown diatom starting. I'm doing a 75/80% water change every day as advised my Ada for my substrate choice(Amazonia)
I'd just like to know if I'm missing anything here?
 
Hi Cai. First of all I really like your layout. I think that it really works and your plants seem to be starting to thrive. I'm not so sure about why your not reaching your 1 ph drop by lights on, but could the high nitrate levels your test kit is detecting, be as a result of the EI dosing you are doing? Don't forget that one of the larger components of the macro fertiliser mix is potassium nitrate, and although I'm not an expert on test kits, I would suspect that this could be causing a reaction with the test kit chemicals as they respond to nitrates. With the co2 and the lack of ph drop, I'm not sure you should worry so much about it, considering that your drop checker is indicating good levels of Co2 when it's measuring the ph of the 'atmosphere' rising from your aquarium water. I'm not a planted tank expert,in fact I am in the first couple of weeks of running my own first high energy tank,but a lot of the advise I have gleaned from speaking to many of the more experienced guys on here,and outside seems to point me towards not getting to wrapped up with the results from water test kits,like the ammonia,nitrite,nitrate and pH etc,but to concentrate more on applying correct EI dosing, lighting (and co2 using the drop checker), and to pay more attention to how the plants respond to changes in these variables,than what the test kits say. On the same note, I also changed my mind on my original intention of using a ph controller to control my solenoid based on this same advice, as I was advised that there are many variables in the aquarium that affect the ph of the water, which can lead to the controller not giving the ideal instructions to the solenoid, in terms of keeping your co2 levels correct and constant. I would be inclined to pay most attention to your drop checker results, and the response of the plants,which seem to indicate that your co2 is correct, and also worry less about the tank cycling parameters, especially as you currently have no fish in there. The tank will definitely cycle when it has a consistent source of ammonia. :)
 
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Looks great Cai.. :clap:
 
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