Evening all!
Some of you have been following the saga of my low-tech Juwel Rio 240, which has now been reborn!
This tank was first set up in 2018, with a soil substrate topped with gravel. No Co2 but liquid carbon and half EI dosing. It was running beautifully for the best part of a year (pic), but around 6 months ago I started getting serious algae problems. I won't bore you all with the details but this video should give you an idea of what state the tank was in a couple of days ago...
Long story short, yesterday I bit the bullet and tore the tank down completely. Swapped out the old soil & gravel substrate for inert Unipac sand, threw out all the old plants (there wasn't a single one that wasn't covered in algae), scrubbed away at the walls, hardscape etc. and restored the tank to 'like new' so I could start afresh. 8 hours and £120 worth of plants later, and here's the result.....
I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. I'm hoping that in time it will grow out into a nice bushy 'jungle'-style tank, something along the lines of this. My plan is to run this as a low-maintenance tank (monthly water changes) with lean dosing and relatively slow growth (but no algae!)
Set-up specs as follows:
Tank: Juwel Rio 240
Lighting: 2 x Juwel Multilux LED (2x29w = 58w total) - 7 hour photoperiod
Filtration: Internal Juwel Bioflow upgraded (1000 lph); External Eheim Professionel 3 600 (1250 lph)
Substrate: Unipac sand (inert)
Livestock: 9 rummynose tetra; 7 cardinal tetra; 5 red phantom tetra; 4 otocinclus; 1 rosy tetra; 1 silvertip tetra; various snails (ramshorn / MTS)
Fertiliser: 7 x JBL kugeln root balls (ferrous clay / insoluble iron); Weekly quarter dose of EI
Water: Currently a 50/50 mix of RO and London tap, tank TDS is around 340. Will gradually move to 80/20 mix of RO / tap.
I think that's everything for now. I'll update this thread as I go along but would welcome any comments / suggestions / criticisms / words of wisdom etc. I'd be particularly grateful for any advice on a lean dosing regime - I'm going to go with a weekly 1/4 dose of EI for the time-being but if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know...
Wish me luck!
Sacha
Some of you have been following the saga of my low-tech Juwel Rio 240, which has now been reborn!
This tank was first set up in 2018, with a soil substrate topped with gravel. No Co2 but liquid carbon and half EI dosing. It was running beautifully for the best part of a year (pic), but around 6 months ago I started getting serious algae problems. I won't bore you all with the details but this video should give you an idea of what state the tank was in a couple of days ago...
Long story short, yesterday I bit the bullet and tore the tank down completely. Swapped out the old soil & gravel substrate for inert Unipac sand, threw out all the old plants (there wasn't a single one that wasn't covered in algae), scrubbed away at the walls, hardscape etc. and restored the tank to 'like new' so I could start afresh. 8 hours and £120 worth of plants later, and here's the result.....
I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. I'm hoping that in time it will grow out into a nice bushy 'jungle'-style tank, something along the lines of this. My plan is to run this as a low-maintenance tank (monthly water changes) with lean dosing and relatively slow growth (but no algae!)
Set-up specs as follows:
Tank: Juwel Rio 240
Lighting: 2 x Juwel Multilux LED (2x29w = 58w total) - 7 hour photoperiod
Filtration: Internal Juwel Bioflow upgraded (1000 lph); External Eheim Professionel 3 600 (1250 lph)
Substrate: Unipac sand (inert)
Livestock: 9 rummynose tetra; 7 cardinal tetra; 5 red phantom tetra; 4 otocinclus; 1 rosy tetra; 1 silvertip tetra; various snails (ramshorn / MTS)
Fertiliser: 7 x JBL kugeln root balls (ferrous clay / insoluble iron); Weekly quarter dose of EI
Water: Currently a 50/50 mix of RO and London tap, tank TDS is around 340. Will gradually move to 80/20 mix of RO / tap.
I think that's everything for now. I'll update this thread as I go along but would welcome any comments / suggestions / criticisms / words of wisdom etc. I'd be particularly grateful for any advice on a lean dosing regime - I'm going to go with a weekly 1/4 dose of EI for the time-being but if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know...
Wish me luck!
Sacha