Referb and restart after 30 years. Low tech.

[The grumpy one]

Day 91
This weeks dosing:
Daily 3.0ml tnc complete.
Daily 1.0ml Carbo Elixir BIO

It seems to have got to the stage of trying to balance the whole eco system by controlling the amount if light.
I am going to try to achieve this by reducing the brightness. Keeping the photo period the same at 7hrs.
My lights can give out 1520lm. I know it is not a good way to measure light. PAR is what you should use.
At least it is a good guide to the amount of light going in when you can't calculate the PAR nor measure nor get it from the manufacturers.

On Tuesday I noticed a small patch of blue green algae on the rocks. So turned the lights down by 5% to 60%
On Thursday I noticed a small patch on the edge of a leaf of the ECHINODORUS RUBIN. So turned down the lights by another 5% to 55%
Today the algae is still there but it is not growing very fast. I turned down the lights by another 5% to 60%

Wildlife:
All doing well.

Water:
Did a 33% water change today. Gave the pump a good strip down, clean and lubrication. I use JBL silicone spray as lubricant. I found that when I run the pump, after lubrication, a lot of the silicone ends up floating in little clumps in the tank. So, I now run it for 15 min in the bucket with the old water. I just make it the last thing I wash in the bucket.

Plants:
ECHINODORUS 'AQUARTICA': Yet another big leaf. Colour is very good.
HYDROCOTYLE LEUCOCEPHALA: Did not prune this week. It had come out of the water and was spreading over the top of the filter. Just pushed it back in the water.
HELANTHIUM BOLIVIANUM: Fertilizer increase to 3ml/day has seemed to save this. Its size is stunted, but it is growing new leaves and the colour is good.

Pics:

 

[The grumpy one]

Day98
This weeks dosing:
Daily 3.0ml tnc complete.
Daily 1.0ml Carbo Elixir BIO

On Tuesday I had to turn lights down to 55%. Wednesday to 50%. Then Thursday to 45%
Bluegreen algae started to grow again. Today I noticed some sort of tufty black algae. It is only about 1mm high, so can't tell if it is black brush algae or Staghorn.

Wildlife:
All doing well.
LUMBRICULUS: I moved a plant today and as I disturbed the soil there were quite a few running for there lives.

Water:
Did a 33% water change today. Changed the fine filter floss for new. It was getting past it's useful life. The water was milky/cloudy after water change and plant messing. I assume it is linked to new fine filter and disturbing the sub straight.
Did a water test today before water change.

	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate	PH	Carbonate hardness	General hardness
	NH₃	NO₂	NO₃
30/10/21 after 70 days	0.00	0.00	5.00	7.00	2.00	8.00
27/11/21 after 98 days	0.00	0.00	10.00	7.25	1.00	10.00

Nitrate is high. General hardness is high. Might be down to ferts??

Plants:
ECHINODORUS RUBIN: Growing well.
HYDROCOTYLE LEUCOCEPHALA: Gave it a very good prune. It had almost reached the other end of the tank in two weeks.
HELANTHIUM BOLIVIANUM: Still very small leaves, but it is growing new ones. Moved the original plant to the front. This is in anticipation of buying a Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'. It would look good in that corner.
VESICULARIA MONTAGNEI?: This moss is growing very fast. Small bit have attached themselves around the tank and started to grow. If nothing else, I can have a tank full of moss.

Pics:

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 105:

Added ALTERNANTHERA REINECKII MINI today. It is 1-2 grow. Quite fun trying to get it to stay in the soil and not just float away.

Pics:

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 112:

Pics:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Day 112:

It looks pretty good.

cheers Darrel

 

[The grumpy one]

Thanks Darrel.

It's beginning to look like a real aquascape!!!! I am getting a lot of pleasure just growing plants. Even started to think of getting a real tank (150l+)

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 119:

Pics:

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 125: Early this week. Cos it's that day tomorrow where I have to be sociable or else.

Pics:

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 133:

Pics:

 

[John q]

It's looking very healthy.

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 140:

Pics:

 

[Hufsa]

I admire the very thorough way you are documenting the development, its gonna make for a sick timelapse later on. Plants look really good

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 147:

Had to give it a very good trim today. Planted most of the trimmings. I won't have to buy many plants for the next tank.
Gave the filter media a jolly good sploshing in the old water. My it was a bit dirty. Too much snail poop.
Pics:

 

[John q]

Looking really good @The grumpy one are you cheating and using Tom barrs magic water 🤫

 

[The grumpy one]

Looking really good @The grumpy one are you cheating and using Tom barrs magic water 🤫

Just have not been doing any water changes at all! ( For those new people, if you don't do water changes you will end up with a tank full of poison. A bit of an forum in joke)

 

[John q]

Haha are you related to Stan 🙈

 

[erwin123]

looking good! if you could stitch all 150 photos together in a slideshow or time lapse, it would be very instructive to beginners on the virtues of being patient (just don't mention the no water change bit)

 

[heliophyte]

Cool progress!

 

[The grumpy one]

Day 154:

Continuing the goal of trying to get the light at the right level to let the plants grow and not the algae. Its got a name the point at which plants stop growing because of lack of light, I just can't remember what it is. I bet Mr dw1305 can help this foggy brain remember what it is? This week I think I have found the balance point for my plants to grown well. I am so glad I went down the route of LED spot lights for my tank. This allows me to focus the light in specific areas of my tank. My ALTERNANTHERA REINECKII MINI needs more light than the others and my moss needs less. So I have focused my lights to cover the area where the ALTERNANTHERA REINECKII MINI is planted and pointed them away a bit from the moss. As far as I am concerned this give a much more natural look, Rivers have trees shading some areas and full sun in others. The plants tend to colonise the areas where the light is what they need to do well. Every plant has its own light intensity needs and with most of the popular LED lighting units it is not possible to change the intensity in separate areas of the tank.

Did a set of water tests before water change today:

	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate	PH	Carbonate hardness	General hardness	Iron
	NH₃	NO₂	NO₃				Fe
Date	mg/L or ppm	mg/L or ppm	mg/L or ppm		dKH	dGH	mg/L
22/1/22 after 154 days	0.00	0.10	20.00	7.50	2.00	12.00	0.080

Nitrate seems a little high. Probably because this week I was trying the lights at 35%.
General hardness is a bit high. PH is a bit alkaline.
Might be time to add a bit of acid buffer to try to get rid of some of that hardness or a big water change 90% to get rid of all that GH?
What are peoples opinion on that?

Pics:

 

[John q]

What are peoples opinion on that?

Lcp: Light Compensation Point ~ that's the name regarding plants stopping growing.

If the Gh and Ph are drifting northwards and you feel you need to reset things I think the best advice would be to do the water change. I re set my tank over Christmas with 2x 50% changes over a few days.

Your tank continues to look good 👍