# Change from High to Low



## Wraithio (19 Dec 2009)

Hey, first "proper" post so this is my go easy plea  

I have a 60l (there about), its lit by 2x24w T5HO bulbs, in one of the hagen glo light units. 
Filters a eheim ecco pro 200. So it wacks it out 10x an hour near enough. 
I have eco-complete substrate. 
CO2 via a Aquagro CO2... Couldn't afford a proper pressurised CO2. 

My regime is the following - 

Friday - 50% water change, testing nitrate and phosphate. Deterime the week regime by that, but its pretty uniform and stays at this type of routine. 

Adding 0.4g Potash, and Mediclay for the shrimps. 1pipette of easy carbo. 

Saturday - 0.3g Nitrate, 1 pipette easy carbo, 2 Pipette profito. 

Sunday -  1 pipette easy carbo, 2 Pipette profito. 

Monday - 0.3 Nitrate,  1 pipette easy carbo, 2 Pipette profito. 

Tuesday -  1 pipette easy carbo, 2 Pipette profito, 0.4g Potash, 5 pipette Fosfo. 

Wednesday - 0.3g Nitrate, 1 pipette easy carbo, 2 Pipette profito

Thursday - 1 pipette easy carbo, 2 Pipette profito. 

Rinse, repeat. 

I got a bout of staghorn, and its annoying me. I have to leave the tank to my mum while I go to uni (only till May to go now, so soon can take full control). 

Its planted with vallis nana, blyax japonica, hygrophillia polysperma, some mexican oak leaf, creeping jenny, bits of tenellus, some random crypts and some other vallis type thing which I have no idea what it is. Ludwiga aracuta, some rotala roundfoila i think, some mosses and pelia. And some water lettuce. 

For one, is there anything wrong with my regime? Its been ok untill now, and I come back for Christmas and my filter needed cleaning and my mum wont touch it, so its had bad flow for a while. Hence the staghorn I guess? 

I am tempted to go to lowtech for one just to save hassles of dosing, and two to save the moaning at me  

Think I have given pretty much everything thats needed. 

Cheers, Damion.

(I forgot) Stocked with - Emperor Tetras, which are breeding madly and I have gone from 2:2 mf to 7 in a few months. 2 ottos which was 6, they found a way in to my old internal and 4 died :/ Tiger shrimp which are breeding nicely, and yellow neocaridinas hetrapods.


----------



## dw1305 (21 Dec 2009)

Hi all,
I think it depends on what you want from the tank, if you want to still grow all your plants it probably isn't going to work, and whatever you do, you're going to have a time when the tank looks distinctly sub-par whilst some plants die and others adjust to the leaner conditions.  I'd probably look to plant some Echinodorus and Cryptocoryne spp. as well as more mosses & Java fern to fill the gaps in the lower tech planting.

I think you could reduce the light (24W would probably be all right) and slowly reduce both CO2 and nutrients.  I'd carry on with regular water changes, but others will tell you to reduce these as well. Eventually you should get to a balanced situation again. 

Have a look at Plant Brains comments on the third page of this thread<http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8592> and this thread <http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2422&start=0> and Spider72's posting and figure on page 3 of this thread <http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8834&start=20>. They should give you some ideas.

cheers Darrel


----------



## Wraithio (22 Dec 2009)

Cheers man, I will go and have a read of those while I eat my tea   

I'm tempted still to just bring it all back down, but I can't make my mind up. 

Might leave it untill I finish uni and see where I go with it from there. But I'm sure the links will be a good read anyway! Learnings never a bad thing.


----------



## plantbrain (22 Dec 2009)

Well, you have issues with CO2, not nutrients.
You can fix the symptom by reducing the light, or fix the CO2.
If you want better plant growth, more CO2, not more light is ther way to go, so either way with the light, yuo need to work more with CO2, stay on top of that.

Stop messing with micromanagement of nutrients, spend the time/energy on the big players, light/CO2.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------



## Wraithio (25 Dec 2009)

Yeah I collared that with reading all the above links I was given. 

I will possibly invest in a pressurised Co2 come summertime when back from uni (must save my loan). 

I have reduced the lighting by one hour. So hopefully that plays a part. I have trimmed a lot of the effected elaves away. 
Do you think a small powerhead would make any differences to anything, or am I just going to have to play with the lights and co2 more? 

Thanks for the help both of you, very englightening with thel inks above too! Really gave more insight, and I  think i'll remain high-tech for now


----------

