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The unknown start of a journey

Steve wilcox

Steve wilcox

Seedling
Joined
29 Oct 2015
Messages
6
Hello thought i would start a journal, people asking for pictures!! Although the pictures are not great its progress.

Ok so i started with my juwel lido 200 which i used planting substrate and then a layer of snow sand.

Since then i had a few plants in, but i broke my own promise of not putting any plants in that i didn't know the name of. So some plants did average most died some are hanging on!

Then i decided to go with co2 so after setting that up i expected better growth and some did start growing better but others still struggling so i have just recently got ferts in the hope these will help make everything grow and be healthier looking.

I currently have amazon swords along the back, water sprite on the right, wood covered in xmas moss, hc just planted along the front (hoping this does well!!) and the stem plants i have no idea what they are but they are looking in a sorry state!

Will upload more pictures soon having few issues with them been too big


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Well a bit of a novice myself. But in my experience it's best to change things slowly. Changes take time. If you add a lot and make a lot of changes and everything goes well all good but hard to say if it was ferts co2 or wc regime lighting etc that did the trick for later reference in your tank work. If things go bad same problem and it can be a long road back finding out what was the trouble. If you change parameters I advocate for small graded change of one parameter at a time over say a fortnight or a month. Then if things either go good or bad you will know what went wrong or made things fantastic. And then you will be able to either easily see if it was ferts co2 or light etc. And either repeat your success in your next setup or avoid running into the same problems again and again which is the same. With more experience comes ease and ability to make more changes at once but for me this approach of focusing on one thing at a time did the trick in the long run. And remember it takes a lot of patience but you will be rewarded with a stable and beautiful tank in the end.

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Troels Zacho said:
Well a bit of a novice myself. But in my experience it's best to change things slowly. Changes take time. If you add a lot and make a lot of changes and everything goes well all good but hard to say if it was ferts co2 or wc regime lighting etc that did the trick for later reference in your tank work. If things go bad same problem and it can be a long road back finding out what was the trouble. If you change parameters I advocate for small graded change of one parameter at a time over say a fortnight or a month. Then if things either go good or bad you will know what went wrong or made things fantastic. And then you will be able to either easily see if it was ferts co2 or light etc. And either repeat your success in your next setup or avoid running into the same problems again and again which is the same. With more experience comes ease and ability to make more changes at once but for me this approach of focusing on one thing at a time did the trick in the long run. And remember it takes a lot of patience but you will be rewarded with a stable and beautiful tank in the end.

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All very good advice, I have been trying to get everything stable so my co2 and lights on separate timers and I'm giving that a go with the tnc complete not sure if it's any good I bought it before I joined here or I may have asked the question first. One thing I never had success with before was moss but this time it's doing well so that's one positive

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Nice i don't know why Moss always works for me but haven't tried anything else than java and fissidens would like to get my hands on some of the other mosses. Will follow you maybe with the new pics you're going to post we can Id your stems.☺
When I started my stems did horrible and lost all there lower leave and my my maintenance routine wasn't good enough so I plunged straight into algae and it took me ages to recover because of lack of experience . Those where hard times and led me to my keyword in tank keeping.

Cleanliness is godliness.



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Troels Zacho said:
Nice i don't know why Moss always works for me but haven't tried anything else than java and fissidens would like to get my hands on some of the other mosses. Will follow you maybe with the new pics you're going to post we can Id your stems.☺
When I started my stems did horrible and lost all there lower leave and my my maintenance routine wasn't good enough so I plunged straight into algae and it took me ages to recover because of lack of experience . Those where hard times and led me to my keyword in tank keeping.

Cleanliness is godliness.



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To be fair my stem plants are that poor at the moment id would be difficult! I have Xmas moss at the moment and it's getting thicker now. Yes water changes are something I have to look at tbh i do around 50l a week but I've been quite poor with removing dead leaves and have had algae problems I still do on the stem plants.

Hoping my main issue was lack of ferts. Got to play with the dose it states 1ml per 10l a week but unsure if to do so much per day all at once or a mix of the 2.



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wilcox.sp said:
To be fair my stem plants are that poor at the moment id would be difficult! I have Xmas moss at the moment and it's getting thicker now. Yes water changes are something I have to look at tbh i do around 50l a week but I've been quite poor with removing dead leaves and have had algae problems I still do on the stem plants.

Hoping my main issue was lack of ferts. Got to play with the dose it states 1ml per 10l a week but unsure if to do so much per day all at once or a mix of the 2.



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44948eee9664e967a6ee4a99d86987d2.jpg


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Stem plants like I said that poor an id will be difficult!

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Thanks for that, good read and now explains my algae on same places of the glass, may have to look it to more flow, the tank is pretty deep so it struggles

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Been looking at your stems couldn't they be rotala rotundifolia green.

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Troels Zacho said:
Been looking at your stems couldn't they be rotala rotundifolia green.

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I will have a look at that, struggling to see why things are not really growing after seeing some tanks after 1 month and everything has gone mad, I think I need to increase the flow around the bottom but unsure of which pump to go for that's not a fortune

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Yes that could do the trick my Mc was just sitting there doing nothing not dying but not growing until I turned my pump to adjust flow. At that point it started growing. It's still not the fastest shark in the water but slowly growing into a proper carpet.

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Troels Zacho said:
Yes that could do the trick my Mc was just sitting there doing nothing not dying but not growing until I turned my pump to adjust flow. At that point it started growing. It's still not the fastest shark in the water but slowly growing into a proper carpet.

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To be fair it's all my plants, any recommendations on a pump? Hoping to get it sorted this weekend

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Troels Zacho said:
What light pump co2 ferts are you running now

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Standard juwel light t5s I believe with reflectors, co2 I'm using co2 arts regulator currently running a soda stream bottle at about 1-1.5 bps and the fertiliser I have is tnc complete which I'm dosing around 3ml per day to meet the 1ml per 10l a week. 200l tank. Co2 and light on for around 7 hours a day with the Co2 coming on 40 mins before.

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Well I'd buy an external but they do tend to be a bit pricey

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Troels Zacho said:
Well I'd buy an external but they do tend to be a bit pricey

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Running standard juwel internal filter, was going to buy the bigger pump so I get more flow and get a flow pump in bottom near my co2 diffuser, I'd like an external but not really looked at them to know what I'm looking at other than than there not cheap

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a lot of people here seek a volume rate of about 10 x tanks I pr. hour too achieve optimal bacteriological filtration and add a circulation pump for flow. I actually have a very small internal and only tweaked co2 flow for better result. So if money is an issue then I think I would start with a small circulation pump like a korelia. If money isn't an issue I'd go for both. Try posting your search for both in the proper section since it's been a long time since I had a big tank so I'm not up to date on brands and quality. I used to be an Eheim fan but something better and cheaper might be available now.

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