# Aquanano 40 DSM shrimp pics



## jon32 (17 Feb 2013)

Hi,

My DSM Set up has been running for 2 weeks now, so better late than never but here is my first journal 

I was a little busy at the beginning and I forgot to take pics before it was planted doh! anyway here is a couple of (not very good lol) pics I took today.








I used almost 4 pots of HC and a pot and a half of Eleocharis sp. 'mini'. I want a bit more height along the back so I will probably plant the longer hairgrass variety just before flooding.

Here some week by week comparison shots....

This is when it was just planted




After 1 week




2nd week




Some observations:

After the first week I started seeing some of the grains of amazonia powder near the front of the tank turning white... mould!
I read on another forum about some members that were living in hot humid countries(not here!) having lots of problems with mould. I also Googled best condition for growing mould and of course it is when you have damp + humid + dark. So I turned off my heat mat and let it air out a bit and increased the photoperiod to 13 hours. I've kept the heating mat off since. I only had it on a 1 hour on/off cycle but it seems it wasn't helping and made the walls of the tank run with condensation. I now only get a fine mist on the tank walls and lid. The temp doesn't go lower than 17c at night. This seems to have done the trick and I haven't seen any mould since.

Growth on the HC is looking good so far but the Hairgrass was not so healthy when I got it (yellowing) but is recovering well with a few runners popping up and some fresh new leaves.

specs:
Tank- Aqua one aquanano 40
Cabinet - Aquanano 40 black cabinet
Lighting - 2 x 18w PLU aqua one
Filter - Built in
Heating mat for DSM 
Substrate - ADA Amazonia normal  & powder, Power Sand Special
Hardscape - Seiryu Stone
CO2 - Pressurised (yet to buy) & Neutro CO2
Ferts - Neutro +
Plants - Eleocharis sp. 'mini' Tropica 1-2-Grow, Hemianthus Callitrichoides Tropica 1-2-Grow
Fauna - Amano shrimp, Oto cats & most likely Cardinal Tetra or Green Neons

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,


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## Ady34 (17 Feb 2013)

Hi Jon, pleased youve started a journal 
Looks great, i really like your hardscape. 
The taller hair grass will add some height to the back, but i wouldnt let it get too high or it will imbalance the overall look.
I best not watch this journal too closely, I was considering rescaping my aquanano and this really isn't helping with that!
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (17 Feb 2013)

Looks really nice. Is that a vivarium humidifier?

I was thinking of running one on my next DSM


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## Ady34 (17 Feb 2013)

Did you cover/block the lower rear filter inlet slots before adding your Aquasoil?


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## jon32 (17 Feb 2013)

Hello Ady. Your CRShrimp tank looks great. Thanks for the comments on my set up. They must have revised the AN 40 because mine only has the top one? Actually you just had me check behind there with a torch lol, but really I did know mine didn't have the lower inlet because I remember filling the sump up by it's self to check the seals and see if it was leaking through to the front.


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## clone (17 Feb 2013)

Nice start mate. Very good rock composition. You have some awesome rocks out there. I think yor DSM doesnt require heat mat. Just spray regulary water with some weak ferts mixture. Avoid standing water in the tank as may get algae. Photoperiod of 12h worked for me just fine. Keep posting.


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## jon32 (17 Feb 2013)

Hi Nathaniel. It's actually just a probe for my digital hydrometer. I picked it up from a well know auction site for less than a fiver! It's surprisingly acurate


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## jon32 (17 Feb 2013)

Thanks clone  Yeah I was lucky with these rocks I got from TGM. I dropped them a little note with my order and they seem to pick out some nice ones for me.
Yes i've ditched the heating mat. I spray once maybe twice a day, more so on the higher slopes. Deffo will avoid standing water. Cheers for the pointers really appreciate it.


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## jon32 (17 Feb 2013)

Ady I missed what you said about the taller hair grass inbalancing the look. I think you might be right about that.  I'll see what the mini hair grass looks like first so I may leave it. Or as you say I could just keep trimming to keep in check.


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## LondonDragon (18 Feb 2013)

Great start, looking forward for it to fill in  congrats


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## Pedro Rosa (19 Feb 2013)

For the size of it you've got a really great layout.
Congratulations.

Pedro.


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## jon32 (21 Feb 2013)

Hi guys, thanks for the comments 

Got a new light yesterday.. TMCMini LED 400. It's very bright. Just from eye balling it, it's at least twice as bright as two of the Aquanano 40 18w PLU lights. I have it set on 50% in the pic below, however it still looks brighter than the PLU's. I guess it won't do any harm to increase to full brightness as I don't have to worry about algae issues  think it will need to be dialled back some what when I add water though.

Installed. 50% brightness.




Trying to eyeball light levels of new light vs old, same distance off the floor.
Left 2 x 18w plu.	Right 400 mini led @ 100%.




Cheers,


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## Ady34 (22 Feb 2013)

Hi, nice light, looks very suited to the aquanano tank.
I'm fancying an upgrade for my nano when I eventually redo it and was thinking about an led tile. I'm guessing you can get controllers for these as you have it set at 50%? 
Cheers
Ady.


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## nayr88 (22 Feb 2013)

Good start mate 

I'm going to subscribe to this one, I always catch journals 6 pages in and this one looks like its gonna be a good'n 

I'm with Ady, don't let the hairgrass get too tall, just add some floaters...can't think of the one. It has the nice think roots and looks like a little Lilly pad on top haha :/ I few of those roots to keep the fish happy with such open space would be good.

Where did you manage to get your 2d light from? There not very bright are they so I tried tiger hold of one and had to wait for 2nd hand of ebay. The tile looks so damn good!


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## jack-rythm (22 Feb 2013)

How much is a controller for the dimming, out of interest?

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## tim (22 Feb 2013)

looks like a good start to your scape mate very nice ! this is the first time i've seen that tmc mount on a tank and not thought god thats ugly  really suits the tank


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## HarryRobinson (22 Feb 2013)

Amazing rock layout, i can see this becoming something special


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## jon32 (22 Feb 2013)

Hi guys, thanks for the comments. I'll try to answer some of the questions and elaborate a little further 


Jack & Ady - Yep got the controller for it. The main reason for buying the new light was to have some control and flexibility of the lighting. It meant shelling out a further £64 for it, but it's a lovely bit of kit. You can set it to have the light gradually ramp up and down over a period of time to create sun set/sun rise in your tank. And of course you can have it at any brightness level from 1-100. I saw some PAR data for it. The guy took readings at 14+" from the substrate in an empty tank of 55 umols.

The mountaray bracket thingy.. I guess is an acquired taste, but as Tim says (cheers mate) it suits this tank quite well. It only just fits between the 2 pieces of glass that section off the middle chamber of the filter/sump section, fits like a glove! Couple of downsides though (for AN 40 owners)... I will have to remove it when cleaning the filter to access the media in the middle chamber. I don't think it would be possible to pull out the ceramic rings with it attached anyway. Also the rear piece of glass won't fit if you want to cover the sump but many have top less open tank so it's not that much of a problem. You could easily cut a piece of acrylic to fit if need be.

Nayr88 thanks mate  Think I know the floating plant you speak of. Is it Hydrocotyle sp.?  Actually it's one of my favourites plants. I'm considering putting some taller HG in the back left corner but I'd keep it mowed down some what  Also considering trying the chopped up moss + yoghurt method (inspired by George Farmer) brushed on to the top of the 2 largest rocks and the flat rock to the right. What do you think? think I'd like to add another texture in there to look at.
I got the other light from said auction site. The lights will be up for sale soon, along with 2 digital timers I no longer have a need for lol.

Cheers,


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## jon32 (22 Feb 2013)

Thanks Harry!


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## nduli (22 Feb 2013)

great start, and bizarre as i was looking at the 400 tile for my aquanano just yesterday


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## jon32 (22 Feb 2013)

Cheers nduli. It's a perfect fit for the tank IMO. Go for it


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## Ady34 (22 Feb 2013)

Yeah, thanks for the info on the light.....mmm....sounds ideal and if i rescape mine ill be removing the rear filter chamber i think in favour of external and glassware  so no issue with it being in the way for maintenance.

I think the moss would be nice, if used very sparingly....the look now is very crisp and the moss may soften/naturalise it too much if left to fill in a lot....Georges looks really nice with just the tiny clusters, you could keep it like that and it will add an extra texture subtly. I like the idea of the taller eleocharis, even just a few well placed plantlets will have a big impact....but thats just me, maybe see how you feel once its flooded 


Cheerio,
Ady.


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## jon32 (22 Feb 2013)

Sounds very cool Ady. I shouldn't say this really (mines not even flooded yet lol) but if I get tired of this scape that is exactly what I would do 
BTW did you use the supplied filter media or exchange it out for something else?

This is the kind of effect I'd shoot for with regards the moss on top of the rock





Cheers,


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## Ady34 (22 Feb 2013)

jon32 said:


> Sounds very cool Ady. I shouldn't say this really (mines not even flooded yet lol) but if I get tired of this scape that is exactly what I would do
> BTW did you use the supplied filter media or exchange it out for something else?
> 
> This is the kind of effect I'd shoot for with regards the moss on top of the rock
> ...



Looks very nice 

Yeah I kept and used all the supplied filter media. I added some filter floss above the sponge as a kind of pre-filter, and also a small bag of purigen on top of the ceramic bio media.....havnt touched that since!
I think the filter is excellent and I really like the way the space hides all the equipment we need, but if I were to rescape I'd favour the extra scaping depth you would gain by removing it.
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## jon32 (22 Feb 2013)

Thanks for the info. I've bought a small bag of purigen as well, might add some floss above the sponge as you have done also.
Agree it's a well thought out little tank, I also like the fact all that stuff and more can be hidden away back there... but.. the extra depth for scaping would be good also and then you can bring in the sexy glass ware and bigger external filter, in line heater, etc, etc lol. Always good to freshen it up once in a while 

Cheers,


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## jon32 (22 Feb 2013)

DSM been going for 3 weeks now.
HC continues to do well and spread. Hair grass recovering now with old growth dying off and more new growth appearing everyday


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## nduli (22 Feb 2013)

I have to admit that day's suggestion to add the filter wool as a pre-filter was fantastic. It just shows how much crud floats about. Mine is filthy each week.....without it I had recharged my purigen twice in 5 months!


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## jon32 (23 Feb 2013)

Yes it sounds like a very good idea! I'll add it to the shopping list. Cheers guys.


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## jack-rythm (23 Feb 2013)

How do u make sure all the Cuba doesn't melt when u finally fill the tank?

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## jon32 (23 Feb 2013)

Hi Jack, I'm going to blast it with co2 (whilst there's no fauna in there). From what I've read.. plenty of co2 makes the transition easier and hopefully there should be no problems with the melting. Fingers crossed


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## jack-rythm (23 Feb 2013)

jon32 said:


> Hi Jack, I'm going to blast it with co2 (whilst there's no fauna in there). From what I've read.. plenty of co2 makes the transition easier and hopefully there should be no problems with the melting. Fingers crossed


Look forward to seeing how it goes Mate, good luck  

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## nduli (27 Feb 2013)

Ady34 said:


> Did you cover/block the lower rear filter inlet slots before adding your Aquasoil?



Ady, am in London this evening and dropped off work early to do my first ever visit to the aquatic design centre, they had a new aquanano40 in and it has changed in design, has 1 small slit at the bottom from what I could see (shrimp safe) and a change at the top where it appears you can add pre filter pads in slots,  didn't get much time to look at it as I spent most of the time oggling the King Kong and blue bolts at 70 along with the black Sakura (beautiful) and loads of different crs grades. Must admit it has had me thinking a bit about some changes, just need to keep my expenditure in the aquatics department down at the moment......


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## nayr88 (28 Feb 2013)

The king kongs in there are craaaaaaazy crazyyyyyy CRAZY SICKKKKKKKK(very good)


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## jon32 (9 Mar 2013)

Wasup guys , time for a little update..

Did the blender/yogurt/moss method yesterday and painted the tops of the two largest rocks with xmas moss.








Since the top of the rocks dry out quite quickly (even with 90% + humidity) I covered them with their own little green houses. I hope it will keep the moss moist enough to survive and attach to the rocks. I'm still misting the smallest rock once a day as the cover has large gaps where it doesn't fit the rock properly.

Here's a few shots I took last week










Cheers


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## clone (9 Mar 2013)

Hi, your DSM going well but you can speed it up sticking CO2  line in the tank. Cover with clingfilm and mist even twice a day. I can see on the upper parts if the slope the HG is yellowing it is because the substrate gets a little dry. Keep the temps around 20 ies and all will be fine. DSM is a good learning curve though and will give you better understanding about the plants. Like the yoghurt method Keep updated. Your light can be 12-14h on as well Spray some water- ferts mix but very weak solution cause may burn the mosses


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## jon32 (9 Mar 2013)

Hi clone, thanks for the comments  I've actually only just got all the parts together for CO2  It is a little slow going but I've seen numerous post by Mr Barr telling people to have patience with this method, so that's what I'm doing  The lid isn't tight fitting so there is some exchange in/out of the tank for the plants getting natural co2 but without losing all humidity.

 If you see where I write in my first post about the HG being not so healthy and yellow before I plant it you will understand why it still looks a little 'off colour' now. However if you compare the first day photo to the newest you can see there is new green growth, but it's easier to see in person. I still need to trim some of the old dying leaves away.

The soil is ADA Amazonia, so I didn't add any ferts to my spray bottle, but as the moss does not have access to the nutrients I will add few drops to the bottle.

The temperature has dropped down to 15-16 degrees overnight once or twice without any ill effects, it does usually sit around the 20-22 degree mark during the day.

Lights are on from 8am-8pm.

Yeah the DSM is really a good learning curve. It has also given me plenty of time to read understand things better whilst still having a fun project on the go.

Cheers


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## jack-rythm (9 Mar 2013)

You could probably afford to have your lights on for 14-16 hours too if it doesn't bother you too much ?

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## nduli (10 Mar 2013)

jon32 said:


> Cheers nduli. It's a perfect fit for the tank IMO. Go for it



It's about 150 all in tho


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## jon32 (10 Mar 2013)

jack-rythm said:


> You could probably afford to have your lights on for 14-16 hours too if it doesn't bother you too much ?
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2


I had my lights on for 13 hrs a day for a while but I dropped them to 12 when someone said 10-12 hours was enough lol. Yeah sure 14-16 hours wouldn't hurt, well maybe just the pocket but not so much with the led


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## jon32 (10 Mar 2013)

nduli said:


> It's about 150 all in tho


Think mine was just over £130 all in from H2o aquatics but it still quite a lot. On the plus side you never have to buy a replacement bulb/tube, light output stays constant pretty much for it's life, and uses less leccy


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## jon32 (31 Mar 2013)

Hey guys! flooded it a couple of a days ago. All went well and nothing floated  The moss (see first pic) has attached it self to the rocks using the yogurt/blender method 

A couple of weeks before I flooded it I made a few small changes.. planted Eleocharis acicularis in the back left corner and moved some of the HC and HG that was there to fill in some gaps. Also added a few more small rocks.

So far I've done two 90% water changes on day 1 & 2 and today I did 50% and added a small bag of purigen to the middle chamber and some fine filter pad on top of the sponge filter.

CO2 is going fast with drop checker lime green. Aiming to get it into the yellow untill fish are added.
I have a fluval ceramic co2 diffuser in the pump chamber and exit thorugh the spray bar, this little setup seems to be working quite well. I got some clear acrylic tube and made a spray bar to replace the black one I had.

I'm dosing 1ml liquid co2 and a half dose of ferts per day.

Light is on for 8 hours total but only 6 hours at 100%. I have some par data for the light and the lowest point of my scape according to the data gets 35 par... I think this is ok but input welcome. Cheers, enjoy the photos


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## jimwalsh (1 Apr 2013)

looks really nice what are you planning to put in there?


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## jon32 (1 Apr 2013)

Thanks Jim. Probably cherry shrimp and cardinal Tetras or Green Neon tetra


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## justin85 (1 Apr 2013)

Very nice indeed, Will look stunning once grown in. will be doing a DSM myself soon to attack moss to my room wood, just wanted to ask how come yogurt is used and if you know of a good article/thread on here I could read?


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## jon32 (1 Apr 2013)

Hi Justin thanks mate. Check out George's TMC Signature thread pg 12, lots of good info from plantbrain and George on the ygurt method. Good luck with your DSM


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## justin85 (1 Apr 2013)

Thanks mate, I will have another look through his thread. will be following your thread also.


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## jon32 (4 Apr 2013)

Decided to try and take some better photo's with my tripod  It's been nearly a week and it's going well so far. I'm injecting co2 at roughly 2 bps and also I dose liquid carbon. Co2 comes on   3 hours before lights on and goes off 2 hours before lights out. My drop checker is a pale green colour, I'm using the pre mixed AE Neutro Bromo Blue solution, it does seem quite hard to read against the black background especially. Having said that I also have one of the Gush jet stlye indicator that hang on the side of the tank and I still struggle to see a decent colour in that.
I'm doing 50% wc every couple of days atm then I'll gradually taper off the frequency untill about week 7 when I'll do 50% weekly. I'll add shrimp in about another weeks time


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## DTL (4 Apr 2013)

Looking great!
How long now till you add livestock?


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## jon32 (4 Apr 2013)

Cheers DTL! another week I reckon


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## Ady34 (5 Apr 2013)

Hi Jon.
Tank looking great and the plants look to be filling in really well.
Regards the dc, especially the hang on one, just pop a bit if white paper behind it when trying to read the colour, it will give a truer representation 
Cheerio
Ady


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## jon32 (5 Apr 2013)

Cheers Ady  Tried the paper behind the drop checker, it's better but still very pale in colour. It might get some bromo blue and add a drop or 2 more to make it easier to see.

Did a water change today. HC started to pearl right after so I took some pics. I have yet to see pearling other than when a water change is performed. I did a bit of searching on the subject of plants not pearling and came across this...



> Regarding pearling...... This is a phenomenon that is observed when plants are producing O2 in water that is already O2 saturated. The best way to get pearling is a low fish load, tight fitting cover, intense lighting, perfect ferts, and a jungle of rapidly growing plants (stemmies). If you have a high fish load you might never see pearling. If you have only slowly metabolizing plants or a low plant density you might not overcome the rate of O2 loss to the atmosphere. Despite this, the plants can be perfectly healthy and
> growing quite well. If the plants aren't metabolizing due to a nutrient deficiency, no amount of CO2 will cause them to pearl.


 
Seems to make sense.

taken after water change....


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## ltsai (5 Apr 2013)

Looking great. I'm jealous!


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## Ady34 (5 Apr 2013)

Lovely looking carpet, very clean and great photos.
Cheerio,
Ady


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## jon32 (13 Apr 2013)

Hi guys, quick update on how the tank's doing.The HC has really taken off since being submerged. The HG is slower growing but even so there has been significant growth over the past 2 weeks. It's not all a piece of cake though. There has always been some floating muck on the surface since day 1 but this has now developed into a thin white oily film. I skim it off everyday and top up. I don't know if this is as a result of ADA AS or plants transitioning from emersed growth or I'm doing something wrong? 

I did plant about 5 more hairgrass plants the day before this got worse but the water remained crystal clear and I was doing a water change at the same time anyway. Water changes are every couple of days at the moment. 50% removed and replaced with dechlorinated (prime) tap water. I use a shower spray push on hot and cold tap connector so I mix the water somewhere close to the temperature of the tank. Then I put a small pump inside my 5 gallon bucket wc bucket and pump the whole lot into the tank.

One change I've made (partly to help with the scum and partly for fish and inverts when they're added) is to angle the spray bar up slightly to create more surface movement. The drop checker now shows bluey/green in the mornings then changes to light green a couple of hours after lights on. Before I did that it was light green all the time.

Flow seems good with plants all around the tank moving around gently in the current. The CO2 is going at 2bps still and the mist fills the tank at all levels.
The lights are on for 8 hours total with 2hrs (changed from 1 hr) ramping up at the begining and 2hrs ramping down at the end of the photo period.
I'm dosing 1 pump of liquid carbon (about 1.2ml) and 4 pumps of Neutro+. Initially I was only dosing half Neutro+ because I figured with ADA AS there would be plenty of nutrients in the water, but went to full dosage on the advice of the staff at AE. Today I noticed some white undissolved stuff floating about in the liquid fert bottle... not sure if anything to be concerned about?

The plants look healthy especially the HC. The mini sp. HG is sending out new runners but I have noticed some leaves are kind of wrinkled looking? deficiency of some kind? not many leaves are effected though.
I have yet to see pearling (apart from when water changes are performed) in fact the only pearling is from some brown type of algae? on top of the rocks at the back. The moss is unaffected though and growing slowly.

Wrinkled HG leaves



Brown algae on top of rock




HG spreading







Cheers


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## clone (13 Apr 2013)

Nice pics mate and lovely tank. The curling might be Ca deficiency or Too much potassium wich affect Ca uptake from the plants. Are you usin RO water and any conditioner for RO.


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## jon32 (13 Apr 2013)

Thanks clone! I'm using water straight from the tap. I use Prime to dechlorinate it before filling the tank with it. Our tap water is soft (devon). I think that the GH of the tank has been raised by the seiryu stone. KH is 0 or 1.


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## Steve Smith (14 Apr 2013)

Great journal so far Jon! Linked to from the UKAPS Facebook feed


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## clone (15 Apr 2013)

Hi., I used to have the same curling of the hairgrass and some other plant leaves as well. I use pure RO as the water in London is pretty hard since start to add Microbe -Lift RO conditioner plants look healty, hope that will help. You can use equilibrum as well.


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## Ady34 (15 Apr 2013)

jon32 said:


> One change I've made (partly to help with the scum and partly for fish and inverts when they're added) is to angle the spray bar up slightly to create more surface movement. The drop checker now shows bluey/green in the mornings then changes to light green a couple of hours after lights on. Before I did that it was light green all the time.


 


jon32 said:


> HG is sending out new runners but I have noticed some leaves are kind of wrinkled looking? deficiency of some kind?


Hi Jon,
this issue could be due to the changes in carbon enrichment. Your spraybar adjustment to give greater surface movement will be creating increased gas exchange, and your drop checker corroborates this with a blue green rather than light green colouration for lights on....you most likely need to inject at a higher rate now to compensate and to give you the light green colour for lights on as this is when the plants need it most.
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## jon32 (15 Apr 2013)

clone said:


> Hi., I used to have the same curling of the hairgrass and some other plant leaves as well. I use pure RO as the water in London is pretty hard since start to add Microbe -Lift RO conditioner plants look healty, hope that will help. You can use equilibrum as well.


Thanks clone. Very few leaves are curled, I mean hardly any really, but I will keep an eye on things and see if it gets any worse.


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## jon32 (15 Apr 2013)

Ady34 said:


> Hi Jon,
> this issue could be due to the changes in carbon enrichment. Your spraybar adjustment to give greater surface movement will be creating increased gas exchange, and your drop checker corroborates this with a blue green rather than light green colouration for lights on....you most likely need to inject at a higher rate now to compensate and to give you the light green colour for lights on as this is when the plants need it most.
> Cheerio,
> Ady.


 
Hi Ady, I was hoping to reduce co2 to be honest. I know you shouldn't read to much into bubble count but I'm at 2 bps at the moment. I was hoping to slowly reduce that to around 1 bps. With regard to the dc - what about the time delay? if it's green 2 hours after lights on would that not be the actual reading 2 hours earlier? Or does that only apply when you first fill the dc with new solution? fyi I switch the co2 on 2 hrs before the lights come on. Also dosing liquid carbon as a belt and braces approach.

Thanks for your help chaps


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## Ady34 (15 Apr 2013)

jon32 said:


> Hi Ady, I was hoping to reduce co2 to be honest. I know you shouldn't read to much into bubble count but I'm at 2 bps at the moment. I was hoping to slowly reduce that to around 1 bps. With regard to the dc - what about the time delay? if it's green 2 hours after lights on would that not be the actual reading 2 hours earlier? Or does that only apply when you first fill the dc with new solution? fyi I switch the co2 on 2 hrs before the lights come on. Also dosing liquid carbon as a belt and braces approach.
> 
> Thanks for your help chaps


well the dc is just a guide, as is the timing. the colour change is slow due to the slow rate at which the c02 has to interact with the aquarium water and then degas to react with the reagent in the dc...if you remove the dc from the tank and sit it on a shelf it certainly doesnt take that 2 hours to go blue again because the gas exchange is much faster without the water involved....likewise if you placed your c02 diffuser under the drop checker, then im sure the dc would react much faster as the gas would be directly effecting the reagent without having to dissolve into the water then degas out again. 
Its best to cover the bases and have the c02 concentration at least somewhere near to what you think you have, its hard enough to get right without guesstimating based on a 2 hr adjustment period. The easiest way to do this is to have the dc showing a lime green for lights on, at least you know your in the ball park then, most of the time we have less c02 than we think, or at least its not in the right places!
If you want to reduce the co2 concentration then you will also have to reduce the lighting intensity otherwise you may well suffer plant health issues and resultant algae outbreaks. By all means reduce your c02 for the introduction of livestock, maybe even leave your lights off, you could then start with a dimmed lighting intensity with low injection rate and build both up slowly whilst monitoring your livestock and plants.
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## jon32 (16 Apr 2013)

Thanks Ady. I see what your saying.. it's best not to take a chance on it and make sure the dc is green by the time the lights are on  I've noticed that the gush dc with it's small opening for gas exchange takes far longer to change colour than my other dc. Think I'll go back to having the gas come on an extra hour earlier, so it comes on at 9.30 am. The tank does get a fair amount of indirect ambient light from two windows so having the co2 come on earlier might help with that. I have the lights set to come on at 12.30 with a 2hr ramping up period so the tank is only at 50% brightness by 1.30 and then full brightness by 2.30, then the same deal happens 2 hrs before the lights fully go off (you probably worked that out your self anyway lol  ) my thinking is this should help reduce the plants need for co2 until levels ramp up later in the day.

Cheers


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## Ady34 (16 Apr 2013)

Hi, 
yeah the versatility from the lighting unit will help and makes perfect sense, i wish i had that option myself. The brown algae and curling leaves are however suggesting an imbalance between lighting and co2, maybe it's just the extra ambient light, maybe it's the change on flow and gas exchange, you could either increase co2 injection (which your trying to reduce) or reduce peak lighting intensity via your controller and see if this helps.
How long have you been suffering the issues and do they relate to increased ambient lighting or the change in flow pattern? It could be the problem was already there.
Cheerio,
Ady


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## jon32 (16 Apr 2013)

Hi mate. yeah makes sense to use the controller seeing as I have that option. I'll try a lower peak intensity, maybe 70%, see how that goes.
The brown algae (diatoms?) started to appear after the first week. It's restricted to the tops of the rocks where I attached the moss using the yoghurt/blender method. I saw some signs of it before I messed with the spray bar.
The ambient light I would say has increased slightly what with the onset of spring.

Cheers


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## TallDragon (30 Apr 2013)

Hi Jon,
If you have a sec, could you post a few pictures of current status? The last pictures (with a lot of brown algae on rocks) are from 2 weeks ago?
Has the lower lighting intensity helped? Did you manage to block out the ambient light somehow?
I am enthusiastically watching this thread (and Ady34's aquanano40), as my tank's dimensions are similar. ... Mine is still in the planning stages, as our 6 month old twins    are taking up all my 'aquarium building/tending' time.

Question: would you do DSM again, if you were to start over?

Cheers.


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## jon32 (30 Apr 2013)

Hi mate,
Don't have any recent pics but will put some up pretty soon. The HC is almost fully carpeted now. I've been trying to take some video with my compact digital camera but the quality was awful so I'll just stick with the pics until I decide to get a new camera lol

I think that reducing the light to 60% may have helped stopped the brown algae growing any further as I removed some a few days ago and the spot has remained clean.
I have added some Amano shrimp today so hopefully they help clean it up.

The light from the windows is indirect, the velux widow has a blind covering it all the time so it's not a major problem.

If I used ADA aqua soil again I would use the dry start method because if left a couple of months the soil is cycled and you don't have to worry about the ammonia. It's also useful for establishing the root systems of plants especially plants like HC which have a habit of not staying put and floating up to the surface if not well anchored. I probably wouldn't bother growing the hair grass immersed again though as it really didn't do much in my set up until it was flooded. I will definitely use it again for mosses.

Good luck with the tank (and the twins) 

cheers


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## jon32 (1 May 2013)

The 4 Amano's I put in yesterday cleared the algae overnight! 








They like the moss too. Some that wasn't so well anchored erm... isn't anchored any more lol.


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## Steve Smith (1 May 2013)

Looks great!


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## Ady34 (1 May 2013)

Looking pristine


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## jon32 (5 May 2013)

Added 10 cherry shrimp yesterday. Some have really nice colour.
They looked to have settled in well. I drip acclimatised them for a few hours last night, switched light off & co2. Took a couple of photo's today, looked like they were having a game of shrimp hide n' seek


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## Joel S (15 May 2013)

Hi Jon, this tank is great! Could I ask, do you know if the Mountaray bracket will fit easily onto a tank that has a thickish plastic edging? It is about 1.5cm thick, and about 1cm deep before it hits the shelf for a cover -although that shelf is cut away where the bracket would mount I think. I can modify it if I need to but I'd rather not.


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## jon32 (15 May 2013)

Hi Joel, thanks for the kind words! From memory the bracket fit quite snug over 6mm thick glass,but it is a universal bracket so I guess it should fit quite a wide range of thickness's.  Having said that.. they say the light that fits it is only meant for aquariums up to 50 litres or so, so the bracket may not cater for more that 6mm thickness. Best to shoot them an email really mate


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## Joel S (15 May 2013)

Thanks Jon, I imagine I'll have to modify the tank rim. It's fairly easy to cut with a hacksaw, but sends plastic dust everywhere - with a knife it's not so easy. It isn't a deal-breaker however, because the light seems ideal every other way but cost.


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## DanMac (16 May 2013)

If i were ever to make a nano iwagumi this is exactly what I would hope it would look like, Perfection.

Are amano shrimp good cleaners then?, I am looking to get a few for my 54 litre which has no plants or co2 at the moment and only a few small pieces of moss. Since I bought a decent light (24watt T5) algae is now my enemy.

Would 5 amano shrimp combat algae slighty or is that a stupid question?


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## jon32 (16 May 2013)

Cheers Dan!  I was amazed at how fast they cleared the algae in my tank.. I had some brown algae covering the rocks and literally overnight they (4 amano's) had eaten the lot!

Of course you really need to fix the route cause of your algae problems first, and you know that since adding the light with no co2 and plants has caused an increase in algae in your tank.
Might it be worth having a few floating plants that block out some of the light? They would also soak up some excess nutrients which are feeding the algae.

But yeah get some amano's in there, they are also brilliant to watch


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## DanMac (16 May 2013)

Yeah I am looking at getting a few plants soon and ill get some amano shrimp aswell, the combinantion should help atleast a little bit


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## Joel S (21 May 2013)

Hi Jon, forgive me if you've mentioned it earlier, but what kind of co2 diffuser/atomizer are you using on this tank?


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## jon32 (21 May 2013)

Hi Joel, it's this one - http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/fluval-ceramic-co2-diffuser-p-6010.htm

You may not like the look of it unless you can find a corner to hide it away in. Mine is in the sump at the back of my tank so it doesn't matter. I heard good things about it from other ukaps members so I went for it. It is really effective, bubbles are tiny. It's also really easy to take apart and pop a replacement disc inside then you can clean the dirty one later and rotate them out when necessary.


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## Joel S (21 May 2013)

Thanks. It sounds great, but I probably wouldn't be able to hide it. Thinking about experimenting with the Up Aqua atomizer, (there's seems to be a mini one that'd fit my Eden 501), but I've read conflicting things about it.


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## Richard Dowling (29 Dec 2013)

Jon, Just read your journal front to back, interesting stuff! Really nice healthy looking scape.

Is this still going or have you rescaped?

Sent from my XT890 using Tapatalk


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## jon32 (30 Dec 2013)

Hi Richard, thanks. it's been a long time since my last post here but the tank is still going but it has had a bit of a rescape.
The HC became too thick and inspite of my best efforts to trim it it eventually began lifting from the substrate. As time went by the tank also had a problem with bga which coated the leaves of the plants, this was due to improper maintenance of the filter media. The plants stopped growing even though I was still maintaining a 50% per week wc schedule and injecting co2 and dosing ferts. Now that I'm back on track with the filter maintenance things are returning to normal. Also the controller for my light doesn't switch off sometimes which caused some problems so I had to plug it into a timer, I can't even adjust any functions but I think it's stuck on 80% intensity. I need to get it changed out after Xmas.

Tank looks like this now. I lost most HC from the front but what there is left is looking healthy again now. I really liked many scapes on here that use sand so I decided to try it in my scape and planted some mixed crypts along the edges and some larger clumps to the right. I think the tall plant is some hydrocotyle tripartita. The back remain untouched with the HG and some HC mixed in also the Xmas moss has grown well and had several trims but I have let it grow really long now.


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