# Journal of a Natural 16g tank



## daniel19831123 (26 Nov 2007)

I've setup my 16G tank a week ago and thought it would be fun to document how everything is going and see changes in a few months time. Plants to go in the tank includes pogostemon helferi, bolbitis heudelotii, ludwigia repens, pogostemon stellatus, HC, java fern narrow and windelov, and one unknown plant at the moment. Will need help to id this plant sometime in the future. 


I decided to go with Diana Walstad Theory of natural aquarium. Didn't soak my top soil before using since I won't be stocking any fish atm and the ammonia leaching is good for my fishless cycling. I placed the tank on the shelf and pour the soil and top it up with some dupla substrate. I later found out that I poured too much top soil in the tank when I have a peep from behind. Some area on the slope came up to nearly 5 inches and this might caused some problems in the future with anaerobic spaces. After consulting with Diana, she suggested that I constantly poke the soil with a skewer stick or something long and pointy or the other alternative would be to grow loads of heavy rooted plants such as tiger lotus or sword. I will used the plants method but instead I will planting loads and loads of stem plants. If there is a problem they will be the first to show sign as they are normally pretty fast growing. Looking at the bright side, with this amount of soil in my tank, I would generates loads of DOC which will be beneficial for the plants. Diana reckons I could get away with growing difficult plants with no CO2 injection as long as the lighting is sufficient.


Lighting is made using 2x24w T5HO luminaire purchased from EQJ trading. A total of 48w over 16 gallon tank. Taking into consideration my huge amount of substrate and the gap between the water and the light, it most probably work out to be 3.5-4wpg. I'm not sure which colour tube was used as I've requested for planted tank tube and the seller had changed it before it was dispatched to me.

Filtration is achieved using eheim Ecco 2232 external filter.



My other plant arrived today from a Germany company and I am very pleased with the quality of the plant. I've bought 4 but they have send me another plant for free. The downoi was enough to be separated into 6-7 CLUMPS (yes clumps not stalks!) to be planted separately. HC was enough to cover some of my foreground. The item that pleased me most is the bolbitis heudelotii. It not only came fully grown on a bogwood, there is at least 5 rhizomes on it with at least 25-30 leaves on the bogwood! Crypt balansae came fine in the packing as well. The whole package costing me 22 quid including postage at delivery (which I think is a very good deal considering that greenline charge 3.50 for each stalk of downoi.   )

I wanted to upload some picture but I can't seemed to get the picture onto the message. Can anyone advice me on how to do this? Thanks


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## Themuleous (26 Nov 2007)

Which German company is that?  Worth remembering!


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## daniel19831123 (26 Nov 2007)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=012

this is the URL of the item that I bought. The plant was shipped in a styrofoam "box" made out of 2 styrofoam plates so unfortunately the HC and downoi pot was a little squashed. The plants was fine though. I strongly recommended the bolbitis purchase it so far the most worthy plant purchase ever considering the ridiculous price of this plant offered elsewhere in the UK.

Edit. Damn just found out they have Utricularia Graminifolia today! Would have buy it together if they have listed it then!


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## daniel19831123 (28 Nov 2007)

Still struggling with photo loading.


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## Dan Crawford (28 Nov 2007)

I can't see that pic mate, have you tried photobucket?


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## daniel19831123 (28 Nov 2007)

I used to use snapfish and for some reason the photo just won't load. I'm trying photo bucket now





The tank when first filled with substrate and water on the 20.11.2007

Yes Finally done it!!!


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## daniel19831123 (28 Nov 2007)

Sorry for the poor quality photos as they are all taken with my 2mega pixel camera phone.



 taken on 21.11.2007

Received snail from snailshop. Bought 4 golden apple and 6 malaysian mahogany trumpet snail. Got a little worried about the substrate with topsoil as I've accidentally poured too much top soil in the tank. Some place it measures up to 3.5 inches deep! Hopefully the trumpet snail will help the problem a little.

Splt the mini pellia onto the mesh and secure it with cotton wool thread.



 photo taken on the 26.11.2007
Bolbitis Heudelotti from german seller. Cost 10 euro. Which is a bloody good deal compare to greenline! There is about 6 rhizome on the bogwood. I was too excited when I got the plant, I forgotten to take photos of the HC, crypt balansae, and downoi when they first arrived in the pot.




This is how it roughly looks like when it's in the tank. Although I bought 4 plants from germany the seller had sent me 5. The plant on the far right corner is yet to be identified. 







This is a close up of the plants.




Received a whole lot plants from clive! Cheers mate. Added Pogostemon Stellatus in both corner in the front. Echinodorus madalengensis nex to the few stems of Alternathers reinekii(middle red plant) and a few clippings from bright green Micranthemum umbrosum between the sword and the unknown stem plant.

Not planning to do any more moving for the next months or so. I'm planning to let the plant grow to fill the space before making further decision as to which plant shou;d go where. Just wish bolbitis grows like duck weed lol.


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## Themuleous (28 Nov 2007)

That plant a the back right looks like Rotala wallichii or poss Didiplis diandra, not seen Didiplis diandra 'in the flesh' so not 100% sure.

Good start, Dam. Once it fills out it should look cool.  Nice lot of colour in there too 

Sam


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## daniel19831123 (28 Nov 2007)

I thought i was rotala wallichii too. The leasves are too fine for didiplis diandra. Quite a bonus from that seller then lol.


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## Themuleous (28 Nov 2007)

Indeed!  Nice plant that one, I've only had it once and it didnt do very well cos I neglected the tank but its got a great colour in high light and I love the 'full' shape it has with little stem showing.  I found mine produced side shoots quite readily, so would think it would take well to being pruned.

Sam


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## daniel19831123 (28 Nov 2007)

Just hope they won't be coated with algae before I can even prune them. Just added 20 neon tetras in my tank. Got them for 9 quid! Quite a bargain I reckon.


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## Ray (28 Nov 2007)

I'm very curious to see how this turns out - at 3.4WPG I'd have thought you would surely have algae problems and C02 defficiency without any C02.  When I left my 2WPG 25L with no CO2 or liquid carbon for a fortnight nothing much grew except the algae.  Now I'm dosing Easylife Carbon Pro things are moving and the algae stopped.  I thought the point of Walstead was that they had to be low light tanks?


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## daniel19831123 (29 Nov 2007)

low light but supplement with sun light. I've read through the book quite thoroughly and I thought I will give it a shot with some alternative method. Supposedly, the soil is only meant to be 1 inch thick and top up with gravel. I put mine to be 3 inches at some part of the tank (although this was done accidentally but I can't be bother to correct it). I was hoping that the decomposition of the organic matter will produce enough CO2 to sustain the plants. I might need to change the amount of plants in the tank but eventually I might need to grow some moderate orr slow growing plants rather than all fast growing stem plants due to the CO2 retriction. The CO2 provided in the tank at the moment might be just sufficient as some of the plants are just showing signs of growth but as more growth occurs I might need to supplement more of it. Before the pogostemon stellatus and the other plants arrived, the tank only had ludwigia, HC, bolbitis, rotala and downoi in the tank. All the HC portions that were planted in the tank were pearling! Even the bolbitis was giving some bubbles on the underside of it's leaves. But now that all the other plants is in place, I can only see one bubble after an intensive search all over the tank.... I've added some neons tetra hoping that with more bio loads, that will cultivate more bacteria population and increase the CO2 level by a bit. Can't say for sure what will happen so just keep an eye on it.


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## Dan Crawford (29 Nov 2007)

Hi Dan, what is the gravel that you are using? looks interesting.


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## daniel19831123 (29 Nov 2007)

Loads of top soil from westland. And top up with Dupla substrate. Decided to be cheap on this project lol


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## daniel19831123 (30 Nov 2007)

just look around the tank and found some fuzz algae started growing on the bolbitis (as expected from a new tank). My initial plan of wanting to use crypt balansae to shade off some of the light might not work in time. Guess I will either have doese some excel or remove the plant in the tank and grow it elsewhere till there is some coverage in my tank where I can put the bolbitis. Currently it's receving head on 3.4wpg light 12 hourly. Or shall I physically remove it for now? The crypt are just showing sign of growth... Thank god that there is other plant that was affected.


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## daniel19831123 (30 Nov 2007)

Just bought 3 striped japonica shrimp to my tank. I've also bought a Canon IXUS 950IS so that I can put some presentable pictures on this webpage. Will take some quality photos (I hope I can) and load it up once the camera arrive. All stem plants have shown some sign of growth including the HC, pogostemon, helferi, pogostemon stellata, ludwigia repens and sword. Bolbitis hasn't grown muchs besides throwing 1 leave out so far. Rotala Wallicii doesn't seemed to grow much as well...


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## daniel19831123 (1 Dec 2007)

Just some pictures with my crappy camera phone before I get my proper camera!

Pogostemon Stellatus from top



Pogostemon stellatus from side



Ludwiigia repens



Tank overview on 01.12.2007




Added 6 octocinclus in the tank today. Never seemed to appear anywhere in the picture. No matter how hard I tried to locate them, I can always find a mx of 5....


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## beeky (3 Dec 2007)

It's going to be interesting this one.

Is that Pogostemon stellata a renamed Eustralis or a different plant entirely?

Regarding the R. wallachii, I have something similar which I thought to be Mayaca fluvitans(sp?). It's got red tips to the leaves/needles and it's very soft and feathery to the touch. Anyone got pictures of Mayaca for an id? I'll try and post a pic in the plants forum tonight.


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## daniel19831123 (3 Dec 2007)

Just moved some of the plants arounf my tank. Decided to make pogostemon stellatus as the focal point thus moving it to the centre of the tank. Eustralis stellata and pogostemon stellata are the same plant. Pogostemon stellata is the right name to use now I think after some clever people found out that it was put in the wrong family. So far so good in this tank and every plants seemed to grow well. It's just that I can't seemed to get HC to stay in the substrate. They seemed to be spreading alright and then all of a sudden I will see a plant or two that goes floating around. I think my trumpet snails are responsible for them as they burrow through the soil....


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## Themuleous (3 Dec 2007)

Coming along niely Dan


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## daniel19831123 (10 Dec 2007)

Just some picture of my tank at the moment




The growth rate isn't as what I've expected and algae seemed to start getting hold on the mini pellia and the glass. Considering that the lighting is sufficient, I'm very tempted to start this tank on some CO2 injection until the plant has got good growth and the bacteria in the substrate has got enough mulm to decomposed and mature..... So far none of the plants are showing signs of deficiency and most of the plants have grown good roots. I'm therefore quite tempted to say that nutrient wise the tank will have plenty. 

My HC seemed to be growing clinging low on the ground as well but the only problem is that it's constantly churn overby the trumpet snal  and left floating in the tank before the roots manage to grow long enough to cling onto the substrate. In the end I just ended up burrying more and more of the HC in the substrate


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## daniel19831123 (11 Dec 2007)

another picture from another angle


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## ceg4048 (11 Dec 2007)

daniel19831123 said:
			
		

> The growth rate isn't as what I've expected and algae seemed to start getting hold on the mini pellia and the glass. Considering that the lighting is sufficient, I'm very tempted to start this tank on some CO2 injection until the plant has got good growth and the bacteria in the substrate has got enough mulm to decomposed and mature..... So far none of the plants are showing signs of deficiency and most of the plants have grown good roots. I'm therefore quite tempted to say that nutrient wise the tank will have plenty.



Hi Daniel,
                 Algae is usually a sign of deficiency. In this case, in my opinion, the deficiency is Carbon, and probably other macros based on the amount of light you've got there. Right now, the plants are using whatever reserve of nutrients they built up (either when they were in the emersed state or from when they were in other tanks) so it gives the illusion that the dosing is OK. At some point though, the high lighting will exhaust those reserves and you may start to see the effects in a few weeks or so. You may want to try daily dosing of Excel if gas injection is problematic.

Cheers,


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## daniel19831123 (11 Dec 2007)

yeah I thought so myself and just got myself some excel and fertiliser. Will start dosing the excel and see if things improve. If it does then I will keep the fertiliser on hold. If not then I will add ther fertliser in.


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## beeky (12 Dec 2007)

What's the red plant in the back right called? It's very red!

The wood looks better at an angle like that, it looked a little contrived in the middle as it was before.


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## daniel19831123 (15 Dec 2007)

Alternathers reinekii is the red plant on the right. It's meant to be fast growing but so far besides the root been fast growing the plant hasn't seemed to throw out much shoots.

Just purchase a CO" injection kit from germany. Might start injecting CO2 to give the plant growth a boost to combat the algae at the moment.

Sadly I had one casulty with my octocinclus. Don't know why it died. It's belly just got so bloated..... I would be tempted to say it's got cancer but it's too quick for a cancer to grow that big within such short period of time.


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## beeky (18 Dec 2007)

I think many ottos are still wild caught, so it may just have been stress, or an internal bacterial infection brought on by stress. I had a problem with a shoal of panda corys I bought. I got 6 and within 2 weeks there was only 2 left, those are still going 6 months later. The other 4 all died with red patches on the side, like a heamorage.


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## daniel19831123 (18 Dec 2007)

yeah  I do realise that in fact that's why I bought so many of them. The last time when I got 10 of them only 3 left in the end. This time ouf of the 14 that I've got,  only 1 died. So that's good news to me I think.was thinking about adding another bristlenose plec into my tank just to clean up the wall. I have kept them in planted tank before but it was mostly java fern and bolbitis in the tank with plenty of moss. NOw that I have all soft leaves plant I am afraid that they will ruin the plant for me within a night. Any ideas on tha? 

Will post another picture when the Ludwigia repens grow out of water. It's growing like weed at the moment and is the fastest growing plant in my tank. Pogostemon stellatus is growing much much slower than I anticipated. Will be adding CO2 injection at the end of the wekk to boost the plant growth and will consider weaning it down when most of the plantt form aerial growth.


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## daniel19831123 (19 Dec 2007)

Hmm just found another dead otos in my tank.... Just wondering if dosing excel have anything to do this? They all seemed to have big expanded belly.... this doesn't happen before I start dosing excel...  Will start dosing excel soon when I get CO2 injection kit. Any idea how to reverse the effect of the excel if this is what causing the problem with the otos?


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## beeky (19 Dec 2007)

I used a whole bottle (not all at once!) on two tanks with ottos in and didn't see any problems.

They may have had bacterial infections that is just starting to show.

edit: By the way, if you're trimming your repens then I'll have some!


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## Themuleous (19 Dec 2007)

Unfortunately ottos are notorious for dieing when you get them home and for no apparent reason.  I've used excel in all three of my tanks that have otto's and I've never noticed it affecting them.  It sounds like its a bad batch.

Sam


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## daniel19831123 (19 Dec 2007)

I'be bought the otos in 2 batch. The first batch has been in my tank for 5 weeks now and the second batch has been there for nearly 3 weeks. I don't know which are the one that died but if they have been a weak batch they would have shown problems when I first bought them wouldn't they? The rest of the otos looks active and eating well with stuffed belly.... Just hope that it's not a sign that they will die again. maybe I will do a water change soon.

edit would take a few more weeks before i do any trimming. wanted some aerial growth


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## Ed Seeley (19 Dec 2007)

I have Otos in a cube that I'm dosing with Easy Carbo - effectively the same thing - and no Otos have died.  The bellies could be swelling either through starvation or possibly an infection.  I would add some Melafix to the tank as I've found it has good general tonic properties and make sure they have enough food - maybe put some nori in, or algae wafers?


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## daniel19831123 (19 Dec 2007)

yeah I have. and there is plenty of visible spot algae and green dust algae in the moment that they don't seemed to be munching much on. that's why I was thinking of adding a bristlenose in the tank. I've also added some cougrette in the tank which they munch on earlier in the week. will get some melafix. thanks


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## daniel19831123 (28 Dec 2007)

Ludwigia is growing like weed at the moment and the leaves are getting bigger and bigger so I'm getting rid of them. Rotala wallichii on the other hand doesn't seemed to have grown at all... in fact it looks like it's dead from the first day I planted it in my tank. Constantly brown...

Have placed an order for tonina fluviatilas and limnophila aromatica to replace the rotala and ludwigia and hopefully it will come soon. Has anyone managed to grown any tonina in a low tech setting? They are well known to be a difficult plant to keep alive. So far I've manage to keep the pogostemon stellatus alive and growing


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## Ed Seeley (29 Dec 2007)

Rotala wallichi seems to prefer soft water.  Mine copes with lots of abuse as long as the water's soft.  I'm sure it can be grown in harder water, but it'll probably need more TLC.  I believe Toninas and Eriocaulons are even more fussy...


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## daniel19831123 (29 Dec 2007)

hmm.. I never bother to check my water parameter. After checking on PFK the water supply here shouldn't be that hard. And with using topsoil with plenty of humus and organic matter, the water hardness should drop shouldn't it? And I haven't change the water for nearly 6 weeks now. The magnesium and calcium level should have drop by a little assuming that the plant growth would have consume some of them... Maybe I'll go get a hardness measuring kit...


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## Ed Seeley (29 Dec 2007)

But while the plants are using some minerals up, evaporation will be removing water and upping the hardness slowly too.

Despite my water not being 'too hard' I found the only way to get really soft water was to use an RO unit.  I'm not saying you need to do this (it would be much easier to avoid those plants and fish that _need_ soft water) but it might give a reason why you struggled with the Rotala.


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## daniel19831123 (1 Jan 2008)

just a few more photo of my tank now




Sorry for the GDA and GSA. Thought it would go away with CO2 injection and increase the phosphate by feeding loads! lol




My alternathers


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## Themuleous (2 Jan 2008)

Lovely healthy plants  love the red too.

Sam


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## daniel19831123 (2 Jan 2008)

Thanks. Just discuss in length with clive about my plant in the middle of the tank and we agreed that it is actually limnophila aromatica rather than pogostemon stellatus.  Just bought some Didiplis diandra and tonina fluviatilis. Maybe I will start adding RO water bought from tesco in the tank every now and again to bring the hardness down


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## daniel19831123 (4 Jan 2008)

I can't believe didiplis diandra ran out of stock and they just sent me some other plant to replace it without telling me prior to delivery. gutted 

Tonina Fluviatilis arrived wonderful though. Bought 10 stem came in 20! No complan about that one. But have been reading a lot about this plant and a lot of people seemed to said it need to be grown in soft water and acid base substrate. I'm using potting soil so there is no doubt that there will be plenty of humus there thus ensuring it will be acidic. The problem is my water parameter... Sorry for being cheap but since I don't want spend any more money on measuring kits I decided to go with local water report and this is what I found

Hardness Level  	Hard  	No Standard Applies
Hardness Clark 	16.45 	No Standard Applies 	Degrees Clark
Hardness 	94 	No Standard Applies 	mgCa/l
Aluminium 	6.5 	200 	µgAl/l
Chloride 	25.44 	250 	mgCl/l
Chlorine 	0.13 	No Standard Applies 	mg/l
Coliform bacteria 	0 	0 	no./100ml
Colour 	0.67 	20 	mg/l Pt/Co
Conductivity 	461.94 	2500 	µS/cm at 20Â°C
E.coli bacteria 	0 	0 	no./100ml
Fluoride 	0.04 	1.5 	mgF/l
Iron 	7 	200 	µgFe/l
Manganese 	1.5 	50 	µgMn/l
Nitrate 	41.22 	50 	mgNO3/l
Odour 	0 	3 at 25Â°C 	Dilution Number
Pesticides 	0 	0.5 	µg/l
pH 	7.41 	6.5 - 10.0 	pH Value
Sodium 	10.88 	200 	mgNa/l

Does anyone knows how to convert hardness in Clark into GH and KH? There is no mention of any carbonate content and magnesium content in the report as well... Would be glad if someone can help me out with this. Nitrate was scary as well.....


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## Ed Seeley (4 Jan 2008)

When in doubt look at Wikipedia    

1 Clark degree  divided by 0.175 gives mg/l

One degree of General Hardness = 10mg/l

So 16.45 / 0.175 = 94 mg/l

Therefore 9.4 dGH.  TO be honest I'm not sure about that as I was expecting higher levels.

Just looked at the reading under the reading in Clark degrees and it gives you mg/l!!!  And the level is 94!!!!


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## daniel19831123 (4 Jan 2008)

Hmm maybe 9.4 is just the kH since the unit is in mgCa/L..... and my Gh will be higher.... Damn wasted 8 quid on plant that will die on me...... I've done everything wrong on this tank, hopefully this plant will grow out well and break all the myth that tonina need soft water to grow!


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## Ed Seeley (4 Jan 2008)

GH is mainly made up of Calcium and Magnesium

KH is the Carbonates in the water e.g. CO3

So you will have magnesium to add to get the General Hardness good point


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## Ed Seeley (4 Jan 2008)

eds said:
			
		

> GH is mainly made up of Calcium and Magnesium
> 
> KH is the Carbonates in the water e.g. CO3
> 
> So you will have magnesium to add to get the General Hardness good point



Except the hardness in Clark degrees should include that...

It may be you have very little magnesium in your water and it is almost all Calcium


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## daniel19831123 (4 Jan 2008)

Either way I'm going to faced with 20 stem of melting dead toninas..... lol. Well lets see if praying hard will help this time.


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## daniel19831123 (9 Jan 2008)

a few picture of my recent addition from plants alive....

Tonina fluviatilis (you can see that it's a very very fragile plant.... arrived with lots and lots of bruises)









Clive sent me this plant that was label by the thai seller as pogostemon stellatus aka eustralis stellatus.but the more I look at it the more it doesn't look like the plant it's meant to be. Clive agreed with that and thought it looks like limnophila aromatica. Does anyone have any of these plant from a reliable source such as tropica help me to identified this plants?














So far haven't seen much melting from toninas but I think it'll be too early to say. Will give it another 2 week and see if it survive in my tank with a pH of 7 and kH of 9


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## beeky (11 Jan 2008)

Wow, your alternathera has grown loads. Any chance of a full tank shot?


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## daniel19831123 (11 Jan 2008)

This is how the tank looks like now. Messy.... The limnophila (I think) hasn't grown as bushy as I would like them to grow. Bolbitis as usual has grown at a snail pace.... HC was a total failure.... Don't know why it doesn't seemed to grow much. Do is Downoi.The only thing that is growing really well is the sword, crypt balansae (can't see much of it... all hidden by limnophila) and lysimmachia nummularia. I've seen some growth with the toninas but the bottom leaves are melting. 

I will just keep topping the plants and plant them and make a total jungle out of my tank. When the tank is totally full of plants I will uproot every single one and do a rescape! This project is going to take me a while....  Will be upgrading the lighting to either a 4x 24W or 3x24W in the future too


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## Themuleous (13 Jan 2008)

I like it Dan its certainly coming along nicely. One comment, will the sword not get too big for that size tank?  

Sam


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## daniel19831123 (14 Jan 2008)

I don't really know how big this sword plant will grow to be honest. Looking at the size of the plants that clive had sent me, I was hoping it will be a max of 8 inches tall. I'm normally not a big fan of sword plants but this one looks really nice. Might rescape with it next time


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## ceg4048 (15 Jan 2008)

I have trouble keeping track of everything. I think this might be a version of E. Parviforus (magdelensis?) The nominal is 4 inches and the max is 10 inches based on what I've read. It's limited to 5-6 inches in my tank but you can always chop it down to size  

Cheers,


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## daniel19831123 (26 Jan 2008)

I've been having some staghorn algae in my tank recently.... Looking at james planted website, the cause of it could either be low CO2 or too much mulm and dirty filter in the tank. The latter sounds very possible as I don't disturbed the substrate when I water change and further more the tank hasn't had a water change for ages. 

The question is, if I vaccuum the substrate, will the algae go away on it's own or will I have to physically remove it? It's mostly on old leaves.... Initially it was only on alternathers leaves, now it's found on my crypt and bolbitis....Even on the filter intake.  Would it be alright if I just clean the filter and not vaccuum the substrate as most of my foreground plant come off very easily if I disturb them.


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## Ed Seeley (26 Jan 2008)

daniel19831123 said:
			
		

> I've been having some staghorn algae in my tank recently.... Looking at james planted website, the cause of it could either be low CO2 or too much mulm and dirty filter in the tank. The latter sounds very possible as I don't disturbed the substrate when I water change and further more the tank hasn't had a water change for ages.
> 
> The question is, if I vaccuum the substrate, will the algae go away on it's own or will I have to physically remove it? It's mostly on old leaves.... Initially it was only on alternathers leaves, now it's found on my crypt and bolbitis....Even on the filter intake.  Would it be alright if I just clean the filter and not vaccuum the substrate as most of my foreground plant come off very easily if I disturb them.



Personally I think it's very important to do both; clean the filter and syphon up all the mulm you can.  I use a long straight plastic pipe that's only about 12mm to poke in amongst foreground plants without sucking up too many, but I just replant any bits I suck up after I've finished syphoning off water.

IMHO, you need to physically remove as much of the algae as you can too.  If you can pull it off the least affected leaves and remove the worst affected leaves completely.


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## ceg4048 (26 Jan 2008)

daniel19831123 said:
			
		

> I've been having some staghorn algae in my tank recently.... Looking at james planted website, the cause of it could either be low CO2 or too much mulm and dirty filter in the tank. The latter sounds very possible as I don't disturbed the substrate when I water change and further more the tank hasn't had a water change for ages.
> 
> The question is, if I vaccuum the substrate, will the algae go away on it's own or will I have to physically remove it? It's mostly on old leaves.... Initially it was only on alternathers leaves, now it's found on my crypt and bolbitis....Even on the filter intake.  Would it be alright if I just clean the filter and not vaccuum the substrate as most of my foreground plant come off very easily if I disturb them.



I'm with Ed - algae are too clever to go away with half measures. Algal strands produce algal spores, which turn into algal strands. There is no point only cleaning the mulm without removing the strands. Dan, I lost track - are you injecting CO2 now or are you only dosing excel/easycarbo?

Cheers,


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## daniel19831123 (26 Jan 2008)

I'm injecting CO2 at 1 bps


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## Ed Seeley (26 Jan 2008)

daniel19831123 said:
			
		

> I'm injecting CO2 at 1 bps



Have you got a drop checker to check the ppm?  Depending on your bubble counter, size of tank, diffusion method 1bps could give a wide range of CO2 levels.

On my new tank I have a Boyu bubble counter near the CO2 reg and that is over 2 bps, but in the Spiro diffuser with the coil section I am having a bubble rate about 1.5 bps because of the different size of each bubble.  So same CO2, quite different bubble rates.  Only my drop checker with 4dKH water lets me know the CO2 is at 30ppm.


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## daniel19831123 (26 Jan 2008)

I don't have a drop checker but I kinda regulate the co2 based on the limnophila leaves. if I turn the CO2 down, the new leaves will grow in a distorted wrinkly manner and when I turn it up, it will grow normal leaves. My Co2 goes straight into my filter inlet so there is no obstruction such as those with a glass diffuser.  Bubbling any faster than 3 bps the filter will be sending out loads of micro bubble so I tend to just play around with 1-2 bps. Maybe it's time to invest in a CO2 checker...


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## daniel19831123 (6 Feb 2008)

I've managed to finally decide which option I'm going to go for my lighting upgrade. I will be getting a whopping 24w x 4 overtank luminaire for my tank. My current 24w x 2 overtank luminaire will most probably have to go. Anyone interested in them? I've only used them for 3 months. PM me if anyone is interested.


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