# Thailandia Sunset



## Hanuman (16 Mar 2022)

This journal is retro-active as this specific tank is several years old. Yet I realized that having pics and discussions in one place might be a good idea. Not sure why I didn't do this before. I'll provide some basic technical info. If you want to know something specific then please shoot, I'll be happy to answer.

*Current Hardware:*
Tank: 90x45x45 (cm)
Light: Chihiros WRGB (1st generation)
Filter: Aquael Ultramax 2000
CO2: 9kg Catalina B20 cylinder  + Home-cooked CO2 reactor (Rex Grigg type)
Peristaltic pump: Kamoer X1 PRO2 WiFi
O2 extra supply: Chihiros New Doctor
Skimmer: SunSun JY-03
In-tank pump: Eheim CompactON 300
Stand: Custom made out of rubber wood.

*Current fona, flora:*
Substrate: Mastersoil Next (Jun Company Limited)
Fish: Silver flying fox, Garra flavatra, Ottocinclus, blue neons, rasborras
Shrimps: Amanos and mixed color cherries.
Plants: Mostly buceps (Theia 9, Black velvet (large and mini), Green Wavy, Browni ghost 2011 and a few others), Anubias nana petite, Eriocaulon ratnagicirum, Eriocaulon Quinquangulare, Cryptocoryne parva mini, Ludwigia pantanal, Blyxa japonica, Syngonanthus macrocaulon and Myriophyllum tuberculatum. I have had many other plants in this tank but they come and go according to my mood and desires.

Now a selection of pics from the early beginnings up until this very day:




Guy in blue shirt is called Ittipong, a well establish Aquascaper in Thailand and is the one that made the scape for me at that time. So credits go to him. From there on I took care of the baby. Please pay close attention to the stand and its shittyness. I did change that a few weeks later obviously.



 








The tank at its peak before I started experimenting with new plants and slowly toying around.



These were the plants in that tank at that time:




Chihiros light power supply went nuts and light looked green. I had to change the supply.




Most plants had been removed but scape remained largely the same. This was temporary until I figured what to do:




We can call this v2 of the tank/scape.



Which became this:



and this:




Which then became this mess. (Excuse the white markings. Couldn't find the original picture).




This is v2.1 reboot. Mostly the same but removed a large chunk for the back left corner. Added some new plants and shuffled some.




Switched to black background.








The downfall.




Reboot. V3.




90% of all hardscape removed.Got tired of wood and that's where I realized I am more interested in plants than making an "aquascape" with features right and left.








This very day. Excuse the reflexions. E. quins. are places awkwardly. Been selling many plants lately and had to replant where-ever I could


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## plantnoobdude (16 Mar 2022)

those quinquangulare!!!


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## Hanuman (16 Mar 2022)

plantnoobdude said:


> those quinquangulare!!!


Big mamas aren't they?


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## PARAGUAY (16 Mar 2022)

Certainly got good plant growth and loving those red crypts. Brilliant title for a journal btw🙂


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## Hanuman (25 Mar 2022)

This guy (or girl) jumped 2 weeks ago from the tank after being startled. He hid for the entire 2 weeks nowhere to be seen. This morning he came out, probably hunger.  He does have some weird hump now at the back of his head. This said, he/she is out and about to regain his dominant/dominatrix status he/she once had.


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## Hanuman (26 Mar 2022)

Tank is no longer a virgin. It has been front end loaded for the first time in its life. And that's how it shall be from now on. This time I dried dosed but for next week I am preparing a concentrated solution to avoid having to weigh salts each week. I will probably have to use a share of Potassium Sulfate + Potassium Chloride when targeting K to avoid solubility issues or use Potassium Chloride alone. Not decided yet. Remin salts will obviously not be added to the concentrated Macro solution but dried dosed instead.







Trace juice was prepared and is ready for action. No precipitation observed so far. I halved Ascorbic acid compared to what we suggest in the IFC Calculator.


 





Traces were prepared according to below values using serial dilution for Cu, Mo and Ni. You can see the stock solutions and syringes in above picture. This recipe is the one I was using last year before I switched to using APT.  This trace recipe was created by the trusted and respected member @X3NiTH.







And to sum everything up, @GreggZ, because I was lazy in doing a new layout I shamelessly used your excel layout to gather all data in one table. All in metric, OF COURSE. Can't handle gallons. Burns my eyes.



*Edit*: screenshot above was re-uploaded. There was an error in the Macro list. I wrote K2CO3 instead of KCL


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## John q (26 Mar 2022)

Lol, looks like a scene from Trainspotting.





Going to have to start calling you Mother superior 😄


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## GreggZ (26 Mar 2022)

Hanuman said:


> And to sum everything up, @GreggZ, because I was lazy in doing a new layout I shamelessly used your excel layout to gather all data in one table. All in metric, OF COURSE. Can't handle gallons. Burns my eyes.
> View attachment 185151


No problem I have been sharing this spreadsheet for years. If anyone wants it just PM me. And looking forward to seeing how things go with the front end loading.


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## Hanuman (26 Mar 2022)

John q said:


> Lol, looks like a scene from Trainspotting.


And this?


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## John q (26 Mar 2022)

Breaking Bad springs to mind. 

Maybe I was a tad premature with the name Mother superior... Arise Walter White..


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## ElleDee (26 Mar 2022)

What is the dark purple rosette plant in version 2 of the tank left of center and then on the right further back?


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## plantnoobdude (26 Mar 2022)

ElleDee said:


> What is the dark purple rosette plant in version 2 of the tank left of center and then on the right further back?


looks like echinodorus aflame purple knight!


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## Hufsa (26 Mar 2022)

Great to have a journal from you @Hanuman  😃😃
So many fancy plants.
Have you had success growing light hungry stuff in those hanging cups? If so I might need to try it..


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## Hanuman (27 Mar 2022)

Hufsa said:


> Great to have a journal from you @Hanuman  😃😃
> So many fancy plants.
> Have you had success growing light hungry stuff in those hanging cups? If so I might need to try it..


Yes, those cups have enabled me to make quite some money 😅 since my light at substrate level is most probably ~100 PAR or below. Not certain, just a guesstimate but mostly because I can't  grow fast enough certain plants like blood vomit. Cups just help me grow some stuff faster like E. Quin for example. It also allow me to stress those plants to the point where they start creating offsprings for propagation.
Now obviously if the point is to have a nice scape those cups are just painful to see.



ElleDee said:


> What is the dark purple rosette plant in version 2 of the tank left of center and then on the right further back?





plantnoobdude said:


> looks like echinodorus aflame purple knight!


That is correct. I liked the plant early on then disliked the shape it took. Leaves kind of curl.


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## Hanuman (27 Mar 2022)

3 Ladies made their entry in the bachelor's pad.

Proserpinaca palustris - far left still partially in their emersed form
Rotala wallichii  - ~ center
Rotala bossii - far right - although not obvious on the picture, the stem is triple the size in thickness compared to Rotala wallichii.


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## Hanuman (30 Mar 2022)

When I do DIY ferts I always keep ~100ml of the concoction in a small clear bottle that I put on a shelve in my store room. I get in there everyday so I can see it everyday. If for some reason I start seeing cloudiness or deposits at the bottom, that's a reminder that it is time for a new batch. This trace batch is only 5 days old so it's still pretty clear, which is a good sign I didn't screw things up. Wife wanted to pose behind the bottle, so she got her shot.


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## Hanuman (6 Apr 2022)

As I said above I would prepare a concentrated solution to front end load the macros, so I did.


 


We can see two things here:
1. the yellow color which was given by KNO3 at the very beginning of the mixing;
2. the foam.

Well I was not immediately concerned by this until I enquired with our trusty @X3NiTH
1. the yellow is in fact due to impurities and more specifically to the fact that the Potassium Nitrate I have is most probably urea derived. I had never considered this as I always thought that KNO3 was yellow for some reason. But in fact it is not. It should be white. You can see the yellowish tint of the KNO3 I have.



So I was advised to test for ammonia, which I did:



Positive result we have!! The ammonia content is actually not that high but still there. I mixed 4gr of KNO3 to 100 ml of water, so that mixture is rather concentrated yet the ammonia reading is not completely off the charts.
I did the same test with some newly purchased completely white KNO3. No ammonia detected:




2. As for the foam, it is actually the phosphate reacting. It actually adhered to the beaker's glass pretty strongly. I had to scrub it off with some scotch bright pad. No real precipitate formed so I decided to keep the mixture. Fish are fine, plants are fine.

I'll be posting some pictures later this week after 2 weeks of front end loading and give some feedback..


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## Hanuman (6 Apr 2022)

This is something that has been bothering me for the past couple of months since I just can't find the reason. I have this Syngonanthus macrocaulon that grows just fine until at a certain height it will starts melting from the top. To this day I still can't figure out what is going on and why this is happening. Anyone can shed some light on this?


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## Simon Cole (6 Apr 2022)

Hanuman said:


> I have this Syngonanthus macrocaulon that grows just fine until at a certain height it will starts melting from the top. To this day I still can't figure out what is going on and why this is happening. Anyone can shed some light on this?


I hold the belief that certain plants suffer from photoinhibition when they reach a certain height (trophic zone) and receive higher light intensity.


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## Hanuman (6 Apr 2022)

Simon Cole said:


> I hold the belief that certain plants suffer from photoinhibition when they reach a certain height (trophic zone) and receive higher light intensity.


That is instinctively what I thought but I have seen the plant being grown in a lot of tanks with high light and this doesn't seem to happen in those tanks. What does go along that theory though is that the heads that are most affected are the one which are closer to the light and directly under. The ones at the back seems to be less subjected to this melting.


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## Simon Cole (6 Apr 2022)

I use Perspex Neutral 9T20 if I want to reduce the light. It is a very light grey shade similar to factor 1 or 2 sunglasses and doesn't distort the colours inside the aquarium. Perhaps try a section over the affected plants. Or attach a floating hoop of floating plants. I think your aquarium looks superb!


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## Hanuman (6 Apr 2022)

Simon Cole said:


> use Perspex Neutral 9T20 if I want to reduce the light. It is a very light grey shade similar to factor 1 or 2 sunglasses and doesn't distort the colours inside the aquarium. Perhaps try a section over the affected plants. Or attach a floating hoop of floating plants. I think your aquarium looks superb!


Thank you. Not sure I will find that product here in Thailandia and not a fan of floating plants in my tank. Other option is to change plant all-together 😅. This said, this plant is nice though, it doesn't grow too fast and that's what I like about it.


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## Hanuman (16 Apr 2022)

So I came back home from my little holiday (it's new year here in Thailand - Songkran for the initiated). Little pic of the temp and PH of my tank. I actually underrated the temp. It's higher than I thought.



 


So we can see the temps is at 32.2C and PH at ~6. Plants look fine so far but also I started noticing some melt happening on E. Quin. In a normal day the PH would be around 5.3 at the same time at which I made the measurement. So that's a pretty hefty price to pay CO2-wise for 4 degrees away from my baseline temp. This is why controlling temps is beneficial in the tank if possible.


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## Hanuman (16 May 2022)

I believe some update wouldn't hurt.
So it's been nearly 2 months since I started front loading all macros + calcium after WC. Traces are dosed daily, morning just before lights on.
So far I have seen no ill effect and in fact it has helped to some extent with my L. Pantanal which struggled severely after being uprooted, trimmed and top replanted. It does still struggle after replanting but I would say it recovers faster than before. Still not satisfied with how long it takes to fully come back to glory specially because when that happens it's time to trim again 😅, so that is a bit annoying. I will concede I am not sure how high intensity tank owners handle that plant so that it doesn't go through a nasty phase. None of my other plants do that. She is the only party pooper of the bunch.
I have also removed entirely the Syngonanthus macrocaulon to give some space for the Rotala. Couldn't figure exactly why it was melting at a certain height and anyway, got bored of it.

Here are some pics of the WC day ++.
I scrap front and side panels with an old credit card to remove any algae buildup. I very rarely do that on the back panel since it's black and it's actually fairly difficult to see the algae. Only when you look from the side and you really need to pay aattention. I like to leave that algae for all the suckers, snails and whatnot. I will clean it maybe once every 2-3 months.




Me filling up the tank. Yes that's how I roll. 20L water containers at a time and my hand. I need 5 of those. And yes still in pyjamas.




Filled up and just after adding the CaSo4 in the skimmer. Snow time.


 



End product two days later.




This is same day after trimming. The tops will progressively shrink throughout the week until it reaches a certain height then will bloom again so to speak.


 



Proserpinaca palustris. It turns progressively orange the closer it gets to light. Easy plant.




Anubias nana petite variegated center and Bucephalandra green wavy left. Some pin holes here and there from old leaves and a bit of algae. Algae is mostly due to me uprooting stuff at the back nearly every week and flow not being great down there and it's starting to get a bit packed.




Rotala Bossii and Rotala Waliichii. El weed. They turn progressively pinkish the higher they get to the light. Easy plants.




Last but not least, since today is medical Monday, some cucumba was required.


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## DeepMetropolis (16 May 2022)

Nice all your plants looks so healthy.


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## Yugang (17 May 2022)

Hanuman said:


> So I came back home from my little holiday


I thought that Thailand was all year holiday? 🏖️

Beautiful tank😍

Is the flow pattern working for you, or would you consider a spray bar?


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## erwin123 (17 May 2022)

32 degrees! That amount of heat is scary - my experience is that heat spikes can lead to algae outbreaks, but your tank looks pretty clean and the plants are nice!


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## Hanuman (17 May 2022)

Yugang said:


> I thought that Thailand was all year holiday? 🏖️
> 
> Beautiful tank😍
> 
> Is the flow pattern working for you, or would you consider a spray bar?


Wish it was holiday all year round! That is so far from the truth though 😅

Yes that flow pattern works fine for me. Reality is that there is no perfect flow pattern, you have some that are more efficient but I would say for my tank size, side to side flow works relatively well. It is also dependent on the hardscape and plant size. I have considered using a spray bar though but I am just too lazy to reorganize all the hoses specially because of my CO2 reactor that makes things not so flexible and I would need to make some not so trivial changes.



erwin123 said:


> 32 degrees! That amount of heat is scary - my experience is that heat spikes can lead to algae outbreaks, but your tank looks pretty clean!


There was the usual very light GDA but nothing out of the ordinary. There was a bit more GSA than usual but nothing extreme.  If the tank had remained longer at those temperatures then perhaps there would have been a bigger outbreak.


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## Yugang (17 May 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Yes that flow pattern works fine for me. Reality is that there is no perfect flow pattern, you have some that are more efficient but I would say for my tank size, side to side flow works relatively well. It is also dependent on the hardscape and plant size. I have considered using a spray bar though but I am just too lazy to reorganize all the hoses specially because of my CO2 reactor that makes things not so flexible and I would need to make some not so trivial changes.


I see your tall stems (before maintenance) bending in the flow, and you indicate some issues on the low Anubias.

You've seen my tank, similar dimensions to yours. I never liked a spray bar over the full tank length, a best practice I also noticed with @GreggZ and @Hufsa tanks, for aesthetic reasons. Yet I found some thin transparent tube, colourless plastic, and now made such full length spay bar that is nearly invisible in the water. I have now more degrees of freedom (taller stems at the back, easier distribution on carpet plants) to play with.


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## Hanuman (17 May 2022)

Yugang said:


> I see your tall stems (before maintenance) bending in the flow


Yes that's because I had planted them too far back. I usually leave a small gap between the glass and plant and this bending does not occur since the flow generated from skimmer and small pump are not directly in the path of the plants. Mind you, I uproot and replant all those stems plants at the back every week, max 2 weeks so their position is never perfect since I don't pay much attention. The bending that does occur consistently though is forward as plants look for the light that is centered.  A spray bar could perhaps also mitigate this.


Yugang said:


> and you indicate some issues on the low Anubis.


No matter the flow, slow growing plants are bound to get some algae here and there at some point. It is inevitable specially when you have a farm tank and one keeps adding, removing plants regularly. Organics get into the water column etc etc. 



Yugang said:


> a best practice I also noticed with @GreggZ and @Hufsa tanks, for aesthetic reasons. Yet I found some thin transparent tube, thin colourless plastic, and now made such full length spay bar that is nearly invisible in the water. I have now more degrees of freedom (taller stems at the back, easier distribution on carpet plants) to play with.


Yes spray bars do have their benefit. I used to have a spray bar on my 60cm tank and it works fine as well although for that tank size I would say side to side works equally well IMO. It really depends on the hardscape/landscape. When I get the motivation I will probably add the spray bar to my 90cm but it's just a PITA because of my reactor and the labor involved, but it's on my to do list definitely.


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## GreggZ (17 May 2022)

The tank is looking great! Plants look very healthy and everything is very well presented. It all creates a very good vibe.

Well done!

And good to put a face to the name too!


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## Hanuman (17 May 2022)

GreggZ said:


> good to put a face to the name too!


I look better in the OP picture 🤓. The latest pic above is me 3 years laters without gym training due to an injury, waking up early, being moody and 10kg surplus. Luckily for me I decided that I could no longer continue in that path so decided to make a u-turn. Here is the u-turn 😰:


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## Yugang (17 May 2022)

UKAPS fitness advice, weekly 50% WC 






			Home Bucket Squat Exercise


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## Garuf (17 May 2022)

Pumps? Hoses? Automatic w/c?! Sounds like cheating to me.


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## Yugang (17 May 2022)

Garuf said:


> Sounds like cheating to me.


Agree, there must be something _fishy_ about @Hanuman  working out in a gym 🐠


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## Garuf (17 May 2022)

You should see the size of the tank.


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## Hanuman (20 May 2022)

Garuf said:


> You should see the size of the tank.





You should see the size of the BBQ.


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## Hanuman (22 May 2022)

The other day I forgot to post a picture on how I usually trim my plants. As you can see I cut just below the nodes and remove all leaves 2-3 cm from the bottom. These leaves will eventually die since underground, so better to get rid of them since they will add organics to your tank. I also remove any side shoots I see to reduce the burden on the plant. The devil is in the details.


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## Hanuman (30 May 2022)

Today I came across a fews posts made by Tom Barr. This is unrelated to my tank specifically, and there is nothing new about what he says but I thought it would be a good reminder to the community. These posts came in response to someone posting an old article relating to the <Redfield ratio>, and asking if it worked as suggested to help control algae:













For reference: rate of nitrate and phosphate


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## X3NiTH (30 May 2022)

I totally agree with Toms sentiments as my current NO3 : PO4 is currently 119.6:1 and a Redfield Ratio of 183.





No fish in there only Physella Acuta snails.
The GDA on the back glass is a recent phenomena as I swapped out my own ferts  a few weeks ago for a commercial brand that has EDDHA in it and also Cobalt (I limited that for 3 years), no change to rate of dosing but my Fe has accumulated to 5.12ppm, I’ll be swapping back soon when it runs out.


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## Hanuman (30 May 2022)

I like the ambiance in that tank. Feels mysterious


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## Hanuman (31 May 2022)

MarcusA said:


> For PAR values, you can try the Photone app with an iPhone in one of those waterproof pouches for scuba divers. It will at least give you relative numbers.


Not having a PAR meter since those are rather expensive, I abandoned the idea of measuring PAR, UNTILL, thanks to your post on this thread I was finally able to get what I wanted. I bought the "LED Full spec" in-app option for around 8USD for better accuracy. That's far from the 500++ USD an Apogee MQ 500 costs.

At substrate level at the front and back of the tank I have ~ 100 μmols/m2/s while center at ~ 150 μmols/m2/s. Give or take maybe 5%. This is in fact what I more-less suspected but could never confirm.

There is a ~100μmols/m2/s difference between the top of the bucephalandra in the middle and at substrate level in the middle. That's roughly 15cm/20cm.

Interesting indeed. I didn't measure the PAR on the blood vomit cup, but that is probably a good 500+ μmols/m2/s.


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## seedoubleyou (31 May 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Not having a PAR meter since those are rather expensive, I abandoned the idea of measuring PAR, UNTILL, thanks to your post on this thread I was finally able to get what I wanted. I bought the "LED Full spec" in-app option for around 8USD for better accuracy. That's far from the 500++ USD an Apogee MQ 500 costs.
> 
> At substrate level at the front and back of the tank I have ~ 100 μmols/m2/s while center at ~ 150 μmols/m2/s. Give or take maybe 5%. This is in fact what I more-less suspected but could never confirm.
> 
> ...


Coming from a reefing background where people are obsessed with PAR. I find those readings interesting


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## Courtneybst (31 May 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Not having a PAR meter since those are rather expensive, I abandoned the idea of measuring PAR, UNTILL, thanks to your post on this thread I was finally able to get what I wanted. I bought the "LED Full spec" in-app option for around 8USD for better accuracy. That's far from the 500++ USD an Apogee MQ 500 costs.
> 
> At substrate level at the front and back of the tank I have ~ 100 μmols/m2/s while center at ~ 150 μmols/m2/s. Give or take maybe 5%. This is in fact what I more-less suspected but could never confirm.
> 
> ...


Did you use a diffuser when measuring? I'm just intrigued because I have the Full Spectrum add on as well.


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## Hanuman (31 May 2022)

Courtneybst said:


> Did you use a diffuser when measuring? I'm just intrigued because I have the Full Spectrum add on as well.



Yes, that’s what the app recommends with iPhones. With Android phones they say it’s not necessary.


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## Hanuman (6 Jun 2022)

A few weeks back I got some new plants. These are meant to be propagated and sold since at least 2 out of 4 of the following sp are not being sold in Thailand yet:

Ludwigia inclinata sp. meta
Rotala “sp Red” (blood red SG)
Rotala tulunadensis
Erio cetaceum
Long story short the plants were hand carried by plane and it took less than 24h from harvesting to delivery to my place. Unfortunately the shop did not properly wet the paper (in fact I think they didn't wet it at all) when wrapping the plants and when they arrived... well, they were basically nearly as dry as some fritolay chips. Judge for yourself. Needless to say I was rather annoyed. This said shop was kind enough to offer new plants if I ever had someone go to his country... or if he had people coming to Thailand he would send a new batch. I told him I would try to salvage what I could.  Since then no communication. [Rant over]




So I tried hydrating them before adding them to the tank and removed all obvious dead leaves and stems:




I was left with this. Plant order is same as stated above.


 





 



So far the L. meta and the R. “sp Red” have basically shown no issue in recovering from the unpleasant "dry" trip. The Erio cetaceum on the other hand is just about to become extinct from my tank. The R. tulu is also struggling. From the few 6 or 7 tiny stem portions I was able to save, 4 have already left to a more peaceful world.


 




 



Now some more aesthetically pleasing pictures:
L. inclinata sp pantanal vs. L. inclinata sp meta


 





 





 



Rotala “sp Red” (blood red SG). In the middle is the one I bought flanked by Rotala “sp Red” (from APC) in its emersed form. We can see it is starting to transition to its submersed form as leaves are slowly turning red. You might ask yourself why I am putting them together that way. That's because I have the strong feeling both are in fact the exact same plant and the "blood red SG" is just some man made gimmickry to promote a "new" sp that isn't one. So I want to compare them side by side. In fact a well informed source has told me that Rotala “sp Red” (blood red SG) originally came from Thailand.... 😂 - No comment. I'll post some pictures in a few months once the APC version has fully transitioned to confirm this scam.


 



Now to the novelty section of this post. I picked up this plant from an outdoor pot in some random coffee shop down the street. I have absolutely no clue if is aquatic-compatible, but one got to try!! I'll let the botanists (@dw1305) chime in and speculate on what plant this is because I can't even put a name on this. My gut feeling tells me it will not survive.


 



Last but definitely not least, a package arrived yesterday from Englandia. My thanks go to both the product originator and the financial agent (😉) who made this possible. You guys are the GOATs. My Thailandia home will be open to you as you already know.




Oh and I almost forgot, I am reviewing my dosing. Minor detail. Removing KCL entirely from my mix and dropping K to ~23ppm in my next mix. In the following mix I will probably drop it further down to 20ppm. This decision came after a conversation and advise from Raj (@GreggZ you know him well I believe). Let's see how things go from here. I also increase each channel of the WRGB light by 5%.


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## Hanuman (6 Jun 2022)

And I just realized... I might as well include the new Fe Gluconate in my next Micro mix. First need to figure out the mixing proportion.


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## GreggZ (7 Jun 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Oh and I almost forgot, I am reviewing my dosing. Minor detail. Removing KCL entirely from my mix and dropping K to ~23ppm in my next mix. In the following mix I will probably drop it further down to 20ppm. This decision came after a conversation and advise from Raj (@GreggZ you know him well I believe). Let's see how things go from here. I also increase each channel of the WRGB light by 5%.
> View attachment 189563


Yep Raj is a friend of mine and knows his stuff. Curious what do you hope happens from reducing K? 

For me I've never seen any big changes from adjustments in K, other than dosing way too little or way too much. Seems to work pretty well for me in a fairly wide range. 

I'll be curious to follow along.

Oh and BTW nice set of pics!!


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## Hanuman (7 Jun 2022)

GreggZ said:


> Curious what do you hope happens from reducing K?


Nothing much really. I just think that 28ppm is already on the high end, and 20ppm will probably be enough as well. The initial idea is actually to remove KCL to remove all chloride and I don't think that the lost K will impact much if anything. Reality is that KCL is not even adding that much Chloride.  ~4ppm weekly so it's on the low side anyway and removing it will probably be a non-event.



GreggZ said:


> Oh and BTW nice set of pics!!


Thank you.  I am really hoping for the R. tulu to survive. It's giving me cold sweats. The whole set of plants cost me ~85USD so would be annoyed to lose them.


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## Hanuman (9 Jun 2022)

And this is what happens when you don't comply and the boss is unhappy about your attitude.


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## Hanuman (11 Jun 2022)

L. Pantanal (right) is leaving the tank next week... She too has a behavior which is not worthy of my time anymore. Look at that sad, dropping, shrinking shenanigans compared to L. Meta on the left showing gratitude and embracing life. I warned her many times over that this is not acceptable and that there would be consequences. She didn't listen.


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## Hanuman (21 Jun 2022)

I have been struggling with Rotala tulunadensis. Pictures were taken 1 day appart for 4 days. For some reason, stems will grow fine for a week or two then suddenly out of the blue will exhibit this black veining, then all leaves will eventually melt. I have lost already 4 stems like this and still can't figure out the reason for this behavior despite parameters in the tank being unchanged. Anyone having experienced the same thing with this plant?



 

 

 



edit: added additional pics.


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## Hanuman (29 Jun 2022)

Cassy0110 said:


> Can you tell me please, what is a long red plant?


Which one? There are several long reddish plants!


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## Hanuman (30 Jun 2022)

Poll here.
Yes or No for two Plecos L114 super red in this tank?
If no, why?
I'm no pleco expert, but I have two in my small tank and was wondering if moving them in this bigger 90cm would be a good idea.


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## Hufsa (30 Jun 2022)

Do you have any delicate salad-like plants? Im not sure how tasty some of those rare erios are.. 
Thats about the only risk I think, that they might turn on some of the plants


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## Conort2 (30 Jun 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Poll here.
> Yes or No for two Plecos L114 super red in this tank?
> If no, why?
> I'm no pleco expert, but I have two in my small tank and was wondering if moving them in this bigger 90cm would be a good idea.
> View attachment 190559





Hanuman said:


> Poll here.
> Yes or No for two Plecos L114 super red in this tank?
> If no, why?
> I'm no pleco expert, but I have two in my small tank and was wondering if moving them in this bigger 90cm would be a good idea.
> View attachment 190559


bad idea, they get big and will kick up that aquasoil as they dig about. They’re more carnivorous feeding on molluscs and similar stuff. But they’ll uproot those plants as they dig around for food. 

They’ll eventually get around 12 inches although I imagine it’ll take some years, they don’t grow like common plecs.


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## Hanuman (30 Jun 2022)

Hufsa said:


> Do you have any delicate salad-like plants? Im not sure how tasty some of those rare erios are..
> Thats about the only risk I think, that they might turn on some of the plants


I wouldn't be concerned about the erios. In the tank they currently are I have the same erios and they don't touch it. 



Conort2 said:


> bad idea, they get big and will kick up that aquasoil as they dig about. They’re more carnivorous feeding on molluscs and similar stuff. But they’ll uproot those plants as they dig around for food.


I haven't seen them dig in the tank they currently are. Is that something they develop with time? Because if that's the case then obviously it might not be a good idea. Truth is I didn't pay much attention to that 60cm tank. It's more like a holding or nursery tank so whatever happened in there, stays in there.😅


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## Conort2 (30 Jun 2022)

Hanuman said:


> haven't seen them dig in the tank they currently are. Is that something they develop with time?


Will just be as they get larger, from around 4inches on they will more than likely start to become a problem. L number plecos in a high tech planted tank can be done but I wouldn’t say it’s ideal for either them or the plants. Mounds of rocks and wood are more plecos kind of tanks. 

Cheers


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## Hanuman (29 Aug 2022)

Coming back from holidays to find this:



I think L. Meta got a bit too excited of my absence and decided to grow beyond the authorized level.

Anyhow, this tank is about to get a reset in the upcoming weeks. I see more and more algae appearing right and left and this is a sign organics are building up . Soil needs to be vacuumed deeply and I really need to remove some Bucephalandra as they are choking.


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## Hanuman (14 Sep 2022)

I thought I would make a post about how DIY fert is not always perfect. 
When I prepare ferts I always keep a small quantity (~100ml) in a separate container to monitor the solution. As you can see my last batch turned bad and mold/fungi developed. Incidentally in this batch I used a new potassium nitrate salt that I recently purchased as the one I had used in the past is derived from urea (April batch - see the yellow tint). When I looked at the actual dosing container under my tank I also saw that mold in the solution.

This got me wondering if urea had some antiseptic property or it's just that the new KNO3 I have is just very dirty. When preparing my ferts I always thoroughly clean the containers with bleach and I boil the water that I use to make the solutions as well.


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## Wookii (14 Sep 2022)

Hanuman said:


> I thought I would make a post about how DIY fert is not always perfect.
> When I prepare ferts I always keep a small quantity (~100ml) in a separate container to monitor the solution. As you can see my last batch turned bad and mold/fungi developed. Incidentally in this batch I used a new potassium nitrate salt that I recently purchased as the one I had used in the past is derived from urea (April batch - see the yellow tint). When I looked at the actual dosing container under my tank I also saw that mold in the solution.
> 
> This got me wondering if urea had some antiseptic property or it's just that the new KNO3 I have is just very dirty. When preparing my ferts I always thoroughly clean the containers with bleach and I boil the water that I use to make the solutions as well.
> ...



Did you add potassium sorbate?


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## Hanuman (14 Sep 2022)

Wookii said:


> Did you add potassium sorbate?


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## Wookii (14 Sep 2022)

Hanuman said:


> View attachment 194486



Yeah, but did you actually add it, or mistakenly thought you were making alcoholic tea, and forgot?


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## Hanuman (14 Sep 2022)

Wookii said:


> Yeah, but did you actually add it, or mistakenly thought you were making alcoholic tea, and forgot?
> 
> View attachment 194487


Yes pretty sure.👌🏻


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## Zeus. (15 Sep 2022)

I always got mold/fungi in my DIY ferts batches after a few months at first then I just starting making enough to last a couple of months, which kept it under control.


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## Hanuman (15 Sep 2022)

Zeus. said:


> I always got mold/fungi in my DIY ferts batches after a few months at first then I just starting making enough to last a couple of months, which kept it under control.


In fact I never had any mold/fungi prior using the new KNO3 salt I bought in June. All my batches are designed to last 2 months at most. I went back to using my urea based KNO3 see if that solves the issue.


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## Wookii (16 Sep 2022)

It varies for me, some containers I always seem to get a bit of mould, but some I never get any mould - it does seem to vary depending on the container despite rigorous disinfecting prior to mixing.


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## _Maq_ (16 Sep 2022)

Hanuman said:


> urea based KNO3


What do you mean by 'urea based KNO3'? Do you prepare it yourself?


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## Hanuman (17 Sep 2022)

_Maq_ said:


> What do you mean by 'urea based KNO3'? Do you prepare it yourself?


KNO3 can be made using urea. No I don't make it myself. It is sold as KNO3 but when mixing it to water there is a distinctive yellow tint.


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## Hanuman (17 Sep 2022)

Ok so today was the day. All plants and fish were removed. Tank was reset by deep vacuuming the substrate. What came out of there was never ending. Had to vacuum the tank twice and I am sure I didn't get it all but that's fine. I then added some root tabs made by some local producer. They seem to be made out of clay. These root tabs are made with KNO3 so nothing extraordinary will happen there so I also added 1 prill of urea every 2-3Sq-Inch. That should give a punch for the next few days/week. I'll keep an eye on the ammonia levels but I doubt I'll see much as I added those prill at the very bottom and it's really not that many prills at the end of the day.




Then I basically removed more than 60% of all the bucephalandra I had in there. It was just choking. I actually removed all the theia 9 and replaced it with brownie ghost. I kept some of the bucephalandra black velvet as I like the plant overall. For the rest I simply re-added some of the plants I already had and permanently removed some. I'll probably be adding some new plants later on.







Tank still cloudy but that's to be expected. Tomorrow should be better.


Nothing really glorious at this point as the main idea was to clean the substrate so the scape remains largely the sameish.

Here is what I ended up removing plus some smaller miscellaneous bucephalandra I had on smaller rocks. I just want to keep 2 or 3 species max.


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## plantnoobdude (17 Sep 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Ok so today was the day. All plants and fish were removed. Tank was reset by deep vacuuming the substrate. What came out of there was never ending. Had to vacuum the tank twice and I am sure I didn't get it all but that's fine. I then added some root tabs made by some local producer. They seem to be made out of clay. These root tabs are made with KNO3 so nothing extraordinary will happen there so I also added 1 prill of urea every 2-3Sq-Inch. That should give a punch for the next few days/week. I'll keep an eye on the ammonia levels but I doubt I'll see much as I added those prill at the very bottom and it's really not that many prills at the end of the day.
> 
> View attachment 194603
> Then I basically removed more than 60% of all the bucephalandra I had in there. It was just choking. I actually removed all the theia 9 and replaced it with brownie ghost. I kept some of the bucephalandra black velvet as I like the plant overall. For the rest I simply re-added some of the plants I already had and permanently removed some. I'll probably be adding some new plants later on.
> ...



Lovely looking plants!

perhaps I am going crazy but I seem to recall you trying ammannia pedicellata? How did that go?


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## Hanuman (17 Sep 2022)

plantnoobdude said:


> Lovely looking plants!
> 
> perhaps I am going crazy but I seem to recall you trying ammannia pedicellata? How did that go?


Thank you. The ammannia is in my smaller tank which is yet to be unveiled to the world. It's growing pretty ok. Never stunt after 2 uprooting and trimming so far but it's incredibly slow compared to all other plants in there. I don't mind though. I am getting tired of the constant trimming of the back plants.


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## Hanuman (17 Oct 2022)

So it's been exactly 1 month since tank was reset. I was expecting to see more algae but since it wasn't a full reset but rather a deep substrate cleanup, there was nothing much in the water column to trigger major algae blooms. I thought that perhaps the urea I has added in the bottom would make something happen, nothing much that I could detect. All plants have adapted nicely. L. meta went a few days with some meah attitude then bounced back. BBA increased slightly but now under control though. I'm not surprised as the wood is now more exposed to flow and light and it's been underwater for now nearly 3 years to it is decomposition at a faster rate. At some point I will probably remove the wood and replace it with new pieces. I also had 2 silver flying fox which were removed 2 days ago. Those tend to agitate the substrate thus contributing to further organics flying around.
Current fert regime is and has been the same since early July of this year. Only change has been the introduction of fish + shrimp as detailed below:



So I was saying, the major change has been the introduction of 30 amber tetras + 100 cherry shrimps 2 days ago. The removal of the 2 flying foxes was also because they had become lazy in eating algae and thought shrimps were more tasty. I could barely see any shrimps anymore. Additional to that they kept hiding nearly all the time (I guess eating the shrimps 🤨) and when that didn't fit them they chased each other. I didn't like the negativity. So I told them enough with the shenanigans, you are out. One of them in fact flew 4 meters off the tank a few days prior their removal, perhaps they knew what was coming to them and attempted to fly away as their name imply. They are very nervous and fast fish.

I am actually very pleased with the Amber tetras. They are peaceful and fun to watch. No sudden crazy movements. Even the rasboras have taken to school with them. I guess the similar color and pack instinct just kicked in. Even the neon tetras sometimes join the pack. Around 3 or 5 shrimps have died since introduction but I am not concerned. That's a very little % and I was expecting that to happen anyways considering the large amount. Some will be weaker than others and those don't make it. 


On the plant side, nothing much has happened. I added some Limnophilla Aromatica on the back left. I have reduced the amount of L. meta. The amount of work they were giving me was just too much. I removed more than half. The market is now flooded with them anyway and no one wants to buy anymore. I am currently keeping around 12 stems because I really like them. The Tonina lotus blossom on the center is a test I am doing. They grow straight nicely up to a point then they start losing their straightness. I guess the elongation + flow doesn't help. I used to have them more up front but they grew too fast (in comparison to the back plants) and hid the bucephalandra. I do like that it doesn't grow that fast overall though. I haven't uprooted them in 3 weeks compared to the L. meta which has been trimmed weekly. And on the right side of the tank those as remanents from the previous setup. There are some random bucephalandra and some anubias sp. I need to sell them and add some stem plants instead. Just not sure what to add.
As for the the bucephalandra brownie ghost it's not taking the color I want. I am not entirely sure if it's due to my light or other conditions. The whole point of reseting the tank was to give this bucephalandra the chance to thrive. It's the most expensive plant in the tank and could make me a millionaire (in my dreams). In the meantime I am still investigation what the cause is and no one has been able to give a proper clear answer. Not even the all might Dennis Wong. I have the feeling though that the light + combination of higher nitrate over the years are the culprit.
As for the front part of the tank, well that looks rather ridiculous. I need to do something about that sloppy job. I am currently growing some Rotala mexicana goias on my smaller tank and I am wondering if I could use it to fill in the space. That combo, mini parva + erio ratnagiricum + erio quiquangulare makes no sense whatsoever. Looks like some Martian dropped them there without a clue what he was doing. If any of you have some plant ideas I'll be happy to hear them.

Here is the Rotala mexicana goias in the smaller tank. I know @zozo was (perhaps still is) a fan of this plant.



That's all for now folks.


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## erwin123 (17 Oct 2022)

love the huge collection of Brownie Ghost! 
That Rotala mexicana goias is doing the same thing that Rotala Hra likes to do, which is to creep along the ground. 
As for the growth rate of L.meta, I totally agree its a weed.... but at least it grows relatively straight all the way till it hits the water surface...


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## Hanuman (18 Oct 2022)

erwin123 said:


> love the huge collection of Brownie Ghost!


It all started from this 2 and half years ago.


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## Hanuman (18 Oct 2022)

I've had this piece of wood for three years now. It was intended to be used for a shallow tank that never materialized. Wondering whether to use it in my main tank. I also got a somewhat large stone 🧐.


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## Hufsa (18 Oct 2022)

I quite like the wood 😃
I find the tricky part of hardscape to leave enough of the details uncovered by plants, otherwise it all just disappears anyway.
That lion king rock is cool but I think it would need a fair bit of complementary pieces to balance out the overall picture


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## Hanuman (18 Oct 2022)

Hufsa said:


> I quite like the wood 😃
> I find the tricky part of hardscape to leave enough of the details uncovered by plants, otherwise it all just disappears anyway.
> That lion king rock is cool but I think it would need a fair bit of complementary pieces to balance out the overall picture


You're quite right. Those pieces were not meant for this tank. Just seeing if they could be put to good use. Agreed about the stone


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## Hanuman (23 Oct 2022)

Here is a cautionary tale for all you folks.

Yesterday I went to replenish all my CO2 tanks. After filling them up, I put them in the trunk of the car in a horizontal position, which from the moment I laid them down I thought it was not an ideal position, but then thought it would be ok since I'm not far away from home. Well that didn't go very well. The safety disk of one of the tanks just ruptured while I was on the expressway. Luckily the car was stopped due to traffic but I can tell you the popping noise and the subsequent off gazing really caught me off guard. No on-the-spot pictures here obviously as that was not the first thing in my mind. Anyhow, I just waited for the tank to fully degas and then opened all windows to allow all the CO2 to evacuate. I am not entirely sure if the reason for this was the fact that the tank was laid down horizontally making liquid CO2 contact the disk or that the disk simply was old and deformed already or that they simply overfilled the tank. Here is how it looks like after unscrewing the safety valve. That little piece missing on the washer it's me who accidentally broke it while removing the disk. It's a non-metal washer.


 


Scary day indeed.


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## Freshflora (23 Oct 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Here is a cautionary tale for all your folks.
> 
> Yesterday I went to replenish all my CO2 tanks. After filling them up, I put them in the trunk of the car in a horizontal position, which from the moment I laid them down I thought it was not an ideal position, but then thought it would be ok since I'm not far away from home. Well that didn't go very well. The safety disk of one of the tanks just ruptured while I was on the expressway. Luckily the car was stopped due to traffic but I can tell you the popping noise and the subsequent off gazing really caught me off guard. No on-the-spot pictures here obviously as that was not the first thing in my mind. Anyhow, I just waited for the tank to fully degas and then opened all windows to allow all the CO2 to evacuate. I am not entirely sure if the reason for this was the fact that the tank was laid down horizontally making liquid CO2 contact the disk or that the disk simply was old and deformed already or that they simply overfilled the tank. Here is how it looks like after unscrewing the safety valve. That little piece missing on the washer it's me who accidentally broke it while removing the disk. It's a non-metal washer.
> View attachment 196153 View attachment 196152
> Scary day indeed.


Wow, I’m glad you’re safe.  I’ve been worried about something similar happening for quite a while honestly.


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## Hanuman (23 Oct 2022)

Freshflora said:


> Wow, I’m glad you’re safe.  I’ve been worried about something similar happening for quite a while honestly.


Thanks. I'm glad too! After thinking about it I think they simply overfilled the tank. I think for some reason I told them 3L and in fact that tank is designed for 2L. I am not sure why I would say 3L 😳At first because the tank is cold it was fine but being in the trunk for a while and temperature rising up the liquid CO2 expanded as it went from liquid to gas form to a level beyond the designed safety disk.


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## Yugang (23 Oct 2022)

A happy ending in Bangkok 

I agree, probably overfilled. And potentially dangerous in a closed space. Also as a reminder, a good practice is to fasten a cylinder to the cabinet, so that it does not have a chance to start a journey as an unguided missile in the unlikely case of a catastrophic break down and gas release.


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## Hanuman (23 Oct 2022)

Yugang said:


> A happy ending in Bangkok
> 
> I agree, probably overfilled. And potentially dangerous in a closed space. Also as a reminder, a good practice is to fasten a cylinder to the cabinet, so that it does not have a chance to start a journey as an unguided missile in the unlikely case of a catastrophic break down and gas release.


Yes. I always attach my tanks with bungee cords for this reason. Also I usually put the tanks in the passenger cabin but for some reason this time decided to put them in trunk which potentially saved me.


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## Wookii (23 Oct 2022)

Nothing like a nice relaxing day out aquarium shopping . . .







On a more serious note - I’m glad you’re ok man, must have been a bit scary!


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## Hanuman (23 Oct 2022)

Wookii said:


> Nothing like a nice relaxing day out aquarium shopping . . .


😅 - If anything like this happened I'd be in chock for a good month.


Wookii said:


> On a more serious note - I’m glad you’re ok man, must have been a bit scary!


Thank you. Yes it was somewhat scary. The pop wasn't that loud but enough to make me look in the rear mirror. When I saw some sort of smoke coming out of the back of the car I immediately understood what had happened. When I opened the trunk a huge cloud came out and I backed away asap. The whole release only took about 10 seconds or so. The trunk was entirely white and when I came home the cylinder was totally frosted. Something like this (picture is not mine). My bigest fear was that the other two cylinders (a 9kg and another 3kg) I had in there would do the same. The one that burst was a 3kg cylinder.


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## Yugang (23 Oct 2022)

One day, I emptied a full CO2 cylinder opening the main valve. Try it, just for fun. a loooot of gas in there, with lots of energy. If you do it in 5 min it is impressive, not even to think about an uncontrolled failure that takes seconds.
Happy you're safe @Hanuman


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## Hanuman (2 Nov 2022)

Ramdom shots. I thought that despite BBA proliferating, plants looked good today, so worth posting some tank pics:
































Plus a present I received today in the mail...


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## Wookii (2 Nov 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Plus a present I received today in the mail...



I recommend EI dosing yourself with that last one! 😜


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## Hanuman (2 Nov 2022)

Wookii said:


> I recommend EI dosing yourself with that last one! 😜


Sure will!! I'll grow faster better and healthier!


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## Yugang (2 Nov 2022)

This for me is the gold standard of tank maintenance. I try to get to this level, but don't have the time to polish each grain of soil with a toothbrush 
Also how carefully you cut, position and plant the stems, really like it 👌


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## Hanuman (2 Nov 2022)

Yugang said:


> This for me is the gold standard of tank maintenance. I try to get to this level, but don't have the time to polish each grain of soil with a toothbrush


Well I also did a deep vaccum cleaning a month a half ago so that help 😅. I posted a video a bit earlier in the journal. I do superficial top layer vaccum at each water change though to minimize accumulation.



Yugang said:


> Also how carefully you cut, position and plant the stems, really like it 👌


Thank you. I try my best to make the tank aesthetically pleasing but I know I still got loads to learn. I am millions years away from what Dutch tank keepers do. Dutch aquascapers are truly artists that have mastered all aspects of plant growth and know how to manipulate that.


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## Hanuman (4 Nov 2022)

This is a parenthesis in my journal.

The following tank [pictures] was going to be my next journal. I have been working on this 'dutch style' tank for the past several months but ultimately decided to strip it down despite the fact that plants have been growing just fine, actually too well and that is exactly why it's being stripped down. The Syngonanthus macrocaulon is showing some signs of deficiency but that's because there was a time where I was dosing very lean. Since then it has recovered as I have doubled the doses.
Anyhow, it was giving me too much work so I decided to transform the scape into an iwagumi which will require less uprooting etc etc. As much as I enjoyed it, it has been taking more and more time each week to the point where I have become a bit sloppy and just did some quick uproots and replanting without any scape in mind. I decided to focus more on my main tank. Some plants have already been sold, some will be reused in the iwagumi and my main tank and the others well I am unsure of their fate yet.























Ciao little one.


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## Nont (4 Nov 2022)

A while ago, I saw Ludwigia ‘Meta’ sell post on facebook with a picture of the large tank, thought the tank look so familiar…then I just discovered this thread again and realised it was yours. Thanks to you, this ludwigia sp. is in thailand and is also available at my LFS


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## Hanuman (4 Nov 2022)

Nont said:


> A while ago, I saw Ludwigia ‘Meta’ sell post on facebook with a picture of the large tank, thought the tank look so familiar…then I just discovered this thread again and realised it was yours. Thanks to you, this ludwigia sp. is in thailand and is also available at my LFS


Some new plant sp is coming in a bout 2 weeks times... but 🤫 it's still a secret.


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## Nont (4 Nov 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Some new plant sp is coming in a bout 2 weeks times... but 🤫 it's still a secret.


Could you tell me how you are able to get these plants? I really want to get some Echinodorus that isn’t available in the country.


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## Hanuman (5 Nov 2022)

Nont said:


> Could you tell me how you are able to get these plants? I really want to get some Echinodorus that isn’t available in the country.


Through contacts of mine which come and go to and from Thailand. Which Echinodorus are you looking for?


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## Hanuman (5 Nov 2022)

Today was the day. I removed the wood holding all the bucephalandra B. Ghost. That thing was a neodymium magnet for algae. Took me a good 3-4 hours between normal maintenance and putting back all the rhizomes on the rocks. A real chore. I chose the fishing line technic. I really hate the white stain that super glue leaves when dumped in water. Prior adding the plants to the tank I soaked all the rhizome in some locally made anti-algea product to kill all the algae on the plants and allow shrimps to eat it. Here is the result:








Rhizomes are placed so that they grow in the same direction.




Some baby rhizomes. A shame to waste them so I added them on a new rock.




Good ridance. That wood is completely infested with BBA and GDA. It will not be used in my tanks anymore. They crumble so easily.




Now it's time for some JW IE dose. @Wookii


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## Nont (5 Nov 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Through contacts of mine which come and go to and from Thailand.


Do you need permit paper to import plants or just sneak them through?


Hanuman said:


> Which Echinodorus are you looking for?


Echinodorus macrophyllus, I saw the plant in Thai APC website but never seen it in any of the store.


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## Hanuman (5 Nov 2022)

Nont said:


> Do you need permit paper to import plants or just sneak them through?


Technically yes. A phytosanitary certificate.



Nont said:


> Echinodorus macrophyllus, I saw the plant in Thai APC website but never seen it in any of the store.


If APC has it then it's available in Thailand. You could ask Kawin from Nature Box at JJ. He might be able to get it for you.


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## Nont (6 Nov 2022)

Hanuman said:


> If APC has it then it's available in Thailand. You could ask Kawin from Nature Box at JJ. He might be able to get it for you.


Thanks for the info! I’ll call them up.


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## Hanuman (25 Nov 2022)

Something odd has happened this week. My toninas lotus blosson has started melting from the bottom for the past ~4-5 days and I have noticed a sudden increase in BBA on all epiphyte plants. Also, L. Meta has grown substantially slower than every week and some of the E. setaceum is collecting some hair algae. Bucep BG is also collecting BBA 🤬. Pretty much a bad week.
If I have to conclude something is that I probably forgot to add the ferts last week when I did the WC. I don't see any other reason why this is happening since nothing else has changed. Oh yes I did change the light for a P900 Week Aqua, but that was only 2 days ago and this shenanigans started before that. Anyhow I will increase stem mass in the tank to provide more stability and most importantly I'll try not to forget to add the ferts this week!! I will also bath all the bucephalandra into some anti-algae solution outside the tank.


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## Hanuman (5 Dec 2022)

From Thailand with love and loads of reflections (as usual). I promise one day I'll do things properly and put a black backdrop. Light was upgrade for a Week Aqua P900. So far so good.




I'm modifying my fert regime from next Saturday onward. All has already been prepared in advance and waiting the next WC. I am moving away from front loading to 3x a week dosing, not because there is an issue but because I have added urea in my new macro batch and I don't want big loads of urea in the tank at once. Therefore I am spreading the load over 3x. This said the urea proportions are quite low considering I am doing a 4:1 KNO3:Urea. Below are the precise numbers for the curious.

*MACRO*










*MICRO*






*Note 1*: As mentioned to @Happi in another thread, for this batch I didn't use Ascorbic acid and Potassium sorbate but instead I used Sodium benzoate (0.6gr/L). Let's see how it goes.
*Note 2*: Fe Gluconate 11% is added directly to the mix. After 24 hours, the mix has time to decant and the solution is then filtered with a coffee filter to its final vessel.

*REMIN










SYSTEM SUMMARY* - Yes the date is in the future because that's how I roll.


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## Hanuman (9 Dec 2022)

Today was filter cleaning day + WC. I have been having algae problems for the past two months. It just dawn on me it could be because I haven't cleaned the filter in like over 6 months or more.... So not only did I clean the filter but I also went into full maniac mode and arranged the media vertically so that flow would be less restricted. I had time to kill so had to find something to do! I also removed some bio media as I thought it's not doing much anyway (blue bowl). Now let's hope for the best.
I also started dosing my new concoction with urea. I did a double dose after the WC so that the plants wouldn't be shocked too much after me front loading the tank for a such a long time. Crossing fingers!




Unrelated picture below. This is Cabomba furcata that I left in a container for over 4 months. Plant is very much still alive. Light is extremely low although it appears bright. The container is usually closed so that water doesn't evaporate. I replanted it today in the tank see if it would grow back to its full glory.


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## Hanuman (15 Dec 2022)

It's good to share the good and the ugly. Here goes the ugly.

GDA and what seems to be Oedogonium algae have been invading my tank on virtually all plants and surfaces. Even my fast growing stems like L. Meta and R. Bossii or slower ones like limnophila aromatica got rewarded with algae. What I think is happening:

Increased light intensity from new light fixture. I had it set at 100% but was higher than my previous Chihiros WRGB. I thought the increased height would compensate. I guess I underestimated the power and overestimate the height. Truth be told I also wanted to increase overall PAR of the tank to improve coloration of my bucephalandra. I supposed I got too greedy;
The above then leads to increased CO2 demand from plants. My DC is already yellow so I didn't want to increase it but I should have at least a bit;
Filter having been cleaned last week + fertilizer recipe slightly modified (basically less nitrate) + regimen having been changed (moving from front load to 3x dosing) + use of urea are  all largely responsible for this algae galore me think.

Mitigation/solution:

decreased light intensity 2 days ago by 10 point % + rise the light by ~ 2 centimeters or so. This should ease the situation at least a bit.
Increase CO2 by a slight notch;
I will still double dose after WC;
Trim what is trim-able tomorrow during WC and treat some plants with anti-algae. I tried APT Fix on a small spot and that thing seems to be rather potent, more so than H2O2. I didn't have any shrimp die on me so at least that's good news;
Probably add a few amanos shrimps later next week depending how things evolve. I am also looking for a snails specie that won't bulldozer everything like Nerites. I haven't found any so far and I am not very optimistic in finding one considering that the acidic environment will ultimately kill them by eroding their shells. If anyone has suggestions on specific snails I'm all ears;
continue observing and treating plants with anti-algae until all this clears out to a large degree. Will probably have to decrease light intensity again but waiting for things to settle first.

Pictures below















Plants (E. Quin, R. Bonsai) that don't have algae on them is because they were very recently planted.


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## Courtneybst (15 Dec 2022)

I really rate you going through all that trouble to rearrange the media! You're pushing me to clean out my filters which also haven't been touched in a millennia. Maybe it'll help with my detritus problem. 😅


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## hypnogogia (15 Dec 2022)

Hanuman said:


> full maniac mode and arranged the media vertically so that flow would be less restricted.


OCD filter media arrangement.🤣


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## Hanuman (15 Dec 2022)

hypnogogia said:


> OCD filter media arrangement.🤣


Yes pretty much. I have some tendencies...


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## Hanuman (23 Dec 2022)

So far GDA and filamentous algae have not receded. The glass gets covered with GDA only 2-3 days after WC. Sorry for the bubbles I took the shot in a rush this morning. I cleaned half the glass so you could see the difference but the bubbles make it difficult to see. You can see the demarcation though in the middle. GDA is also pretty obvious on the side panels. Never have I had such a bad GDA and hair algae, and to some extent BBA, outbreak in these years.









Talking about plants:


Eriocaulon setaceum has grown at an accelerated rate. So has the attached hair algae. I will probably remove this plant all together as it's a pain to maintain. You basically can't trim it. You need to uproot, cut top and replant. It also grows lots of very fine aerial roots which becomes unsightly once the plant growth tall enough.
Ammannia Pedicellata golden: has also grown much faster than where it was in my smaller tank.  Not much algae on it though so that's a good thing.
Rotala goias: it was planted clean 2 weeks ago and is now covered with algae as can be seen above.
Rotala bosii: I trimmed it 2 weeks ago. Growth has considerably slowed down since but that’s expected. This said I see quite some stunting here and there on new shoots. Not something I like to see. The plant will go regardless because I don’t really like it sending uneven sideshoots all the time. Not a predictable shape plant.
Tonina lotus blossom: this one has got my head scratching. For the past month and half I have been seeing some random melts starting at the bottom of the stem and then going up. I have had this plant for quite some time so I am unsure what is happening.
L. Meta: it’s not growing as I wish despite plenty of co2 and ferts. This plant used to grow much faster and have a big crown. Things are different these days.
E. quinquangulare: this one is getting algae every week. I have to remove the outer leaves as it just looks ugly.

The GDA and filamentous algae I am seeing are mostly due to the use of urea + filter having been cleaned 2 weeks ago.

I’ll give it one or two more weeks before I make drastic changes, like changing the substrate or changing my formula by removing urea from the mix altogether. I could also shove some root tabs everywhere see how that goes. I can also still decrease the lighting but I have 2 plants in there for which I really need to have high light for coloring reasons so I don't want to lower light too much. In the meantime I will add a few amanos to clean up the hair algae and perhaps 3 more otos to help cleaning the GDA/BBA on the plants. The only oto I have is basically 24/7 with a belly as fat as my thumb so I suppose there is enough food for a few more fish. I am tempted to also add one or two small bristle nose plecos for full GDA eradication in the upcoming weeks. I could then add them in my outdoor pond where they will live happily ever after. In fact I already have an L144 in that pond, but he is a maniac and likes digging around so don't want to use him. He is too big already.


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## Hanuman (28 Dec 2022)

Quick update.
We have lift off. GDA is now very faint after 4 days of WC. This is great and I attribute this to one thing: decreased urea dosing. On my last water change I only single dosed instead of the double dose I did since using urea in my fert mix. This solved my problem but it's not ideal for me. A single dose means a rather lean dose after WC and this is specially not good on a substrate that is depleted. I have two options. Either redo my fertilizer mix and exclude urea altogether (or greatly reduce urea in the KNO3:urea ratio) so I can more heavily dose after WC or change the substrate (or load the soil with those APT root tabs I have, but this is usually short lived).



The algae on the back panel is normal. I haven't cleaned it in 3 weeks as it is not very visible when looking from the front.


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## Hanuman (28 Dec 2022)

Not sure where to post this so I am posting here in my journal as I don't think a new thread is justified for this.
So I re-stocked some Calcium Sulphate as I had finished my stock, except this time I didn't buy from my usual supplier. I just bought some from an online store which did not mention what hydrate it was. It was just sold as Calcium Sulphate. I assumed it's the dihydrate form as the description of the product says it's Gypsum and also food grade. That's the hydrate used in the food industry. Anyhow, suspicious as I am, I needed to carry out some test to make sure I was getting what I paid for.
So I did the following:

Batch 1 with old product: added 1gr of CaSO4*2H2O in 100ml of RO water then measured TDS @ 2128
Batch 2 with new product: added 1gr of CaSO4*2H2O in 100ml of RO water then measure TDS @ 1728

That is odd, in principle should be roughly the same but there is 400ppm gap there. I measured multiple times in the span of 15 minutes and results were replicable and consistent. So then I wanted to make sure I had the same hydrate by testing the hardness of the water. In order for my strip test to pick up the levels I had to dilute the above mixtures. I simply took a 6ml syringe of the solutions and added them each in 100ml of RO water. The results are below. As can be seen both solutions provided the same hardness. I know these strips tests are not accurate but I think it's good enough for the purpose. The only conclusion from all this is that my old CaSO4 is not as pure as I thought it was and probably contains some unwanted impurities which bump the TDS.

Moral of the story:  I'll only be buying food grade CaSO4 from now on.


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## MichaelJ (28 Dec 2022)

Hanuman said:


> Batch 1 with old product: added 1gr of CaSO4*2H2O in 100ml of RO water then measured TDS @ 2128
> Batch 2 with new product: added 1gr of CaSO4*2H2O in 100ml of RO water then measure TDS @ 1728



Hi @Hanuman, I am wondering about this one.  *1 gr *would be  hard if not impossible to dissolve in only *100 ml *of water (CaSO4 solubility 0.26 g/100ml),  and if it did, 1 gram of CaSO4(2H2O) in 100 ml would give you ~2300 ppm of Ca and ~1900 ppm of S.

Cheers,
Michael


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## John q (28 Dec 2022)

MichaelJ said:


> , I am wondering about this one. *1 gr *would be hard if not impossible to dissolve in only *100 ml *of water (


Impossible 😀


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## John q (28 Dec 2022)

Joking aside surely we can predict the tds of 1g of caso4  in 100ml of water? Or maybe not. @dw1305  is there a simple calculation?
Will try 1g of calcium sulphate hemithydrate in 100ml of water tamoz and report the findings


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## dw1305 (28 Dec 2022)

Hi all, 


John q said:


> Or maybe not. @dw1305 is there a simple calculation?


I'm not sure, there almost certainly is a list somewhere, @Oldguy may know? We do have a thread with some discussion of the <"purity of calcium chloride"> (CaCl2.nH2O), where @X3NiTH may have answered this question?

cheers Darrel


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## MichaelJ (28 Dec 2022)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I'm not sure, there almost certainly is a list somewhere, @Oldguy may know? We do have a thread with some discussion of the <"purity of calcium chloride"> (CaCl2.nH2O), where @X3NiTH may have answered this question?
> 
> cheers Darrel


Just add up the ionic charge. It won’t match the TDS as that will only match the calibration fluid but it will be darn close. 

Cheers,
Michael


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## John q (28 Dec 2022)

This is where we start to learn.
What's the difference between ppm and ionic charge.
1g of caso4 in 100ml of water assuming it dissolves, which it won't... should give us a total ppm of 4190 ish. Can this be back tracked to tds, are tds and ppm linked?


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## MichaelJ (28 Dec 2022)

John q said:


> This is where we start to learn.
> What's the difference between ppm and ionic charge.
> 1g of caso4 in 100ml of water assuming it dissolves, which it won't... should give us a total ppm of 4190 ish. Can this be back tracked to tds, are tds and ppm linked?



You can certainly calculate the electric conductivity (uS/cm)  of a dissolved compound from the ionic conductivity and molar mass and then derive the TDS. Whether you will measure the same ppm depends on the TDS meter (conversion factor) and what dissolved compounds  you’re measuring - it will only be an approximaiton.  The ppm’s of the fertilizer and mineralization I’m mixing for my WC fairly well matches what I measure with my TDS meter - it’s about ~20 ppm’s off (as far as I remember) from just adding up all the ppms from the rotala calculator.

Cheers,
Michael


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## Zeus. (28 Dec 2022)

John q said:


> This is where we start to learn.
> What's the difference between ppm and ionic charge.
> 1g of caso4 in 100ml of water assuming it dissolves, which it won't... should give us a total ppm of 4190 ish. Can this be back tracked to tds, are tds and ppm linked?


When myself and @Hanuman added TDS reading to the IFC calculator based on the amount salt being added to a certain volume and the relevant maths. Hanni did some bench tests with various salts and we found the results compared to the TDS meter reading very acceptable, so we was happy to add the feature. Obviously all the salt has to dissolve, but Hanni did  some solid work on the conditional formatting in Excel so it has 'bells and whistles' to let you know you have exceeded solubility limits for all the various salts


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## Hanuman (29 Dec 2022)

Hi all,


MichaelJ said:


> Hi @Hanuman, I am wondering about this one.  *1 gr *would be  hard if not impossible to dissolve in only *100 ml *of water (CaSO4 solubility 0.26 g/100ml),  and if it did, 1 gram of CaSO4(2H2O) in 100 ml would give you ~2300 ppm of Ca and ~1900 ppm of S.


Yes I was well aware that 1 gr of CaSO4 would not dissolve entirely in 100ml of water. That was exactly the point so that the solution would be totally saturated and I could compare how much sediment would be left out between the 2 solutions . There wasn't much if any difference at the end of the day. This was a way for me to assess if I was dealing with the same compounds or not, albeit not very precisely.
Also the actual TDS figure didn't matter to me. If the two products were exactly the same in purity I would have read the same TDS or very close (if you account for measuring errors with the scale and water volume) regardless of the number shown on screen. That's what I was after. Not the actual number.


John q said:


> Impossible 😀


Indeed. I mean, we did make the IFC calculator and looked at 100s of compounds solubility limits in multiple conditions from multiple sources and multiple times after all 😅.


John q said:


> Joking aside surely we can predict the tds of 1g of caso4  in 100ml of water? Or maybe not. @dw1305  is there a simple calculation?
> Will try 1g of calcium sulphate hemithydrate in 100ml of water tamoz and report the findings


I have to say I have no clue about this. Try to make it as precise as possible. I used a 0.1 precision scale and a 100 ml lab graduated cylinder.


dw1305 said:


> I'm not sure, there almost certainly is a list somewhere, @Oldguy may know? We do have a thread with some discussion of the <"purity of calcium chloride"> (CaCl2.nH2O), where @X3NiTH may have answered this question?


Let's see what our trusty @X3NiTH has to say on the subject. Would be interesting to know why there was such a difference in tds readings between the two. I assumed that one was contaminated/less pure than the other but I could be wrong.


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## Oldguy (29 Dec 2022)

With reference to some of the above posts, just don't go there. You will be entrapped by the Nernst equation. This hobby is for enjoyment not flagellation.
The solubilities of chemicals can be found on the internet.
Common ions will reduce solubility ie Ca & Mg Carbonates, the carbonates will 'add up' to precipitate Ca & Mg below their individual solubilities, so use dilute solutions and add larger volumes to you tanks. (Even non common ions can reduce total soublities [I once had a fad of making transition metal complexes in a range of colours and some were sods to get out of solution, so used various very soluble salts to form saturated solutions to try and 'force' the desired compound out of solution]).
To a first approximation ppm and TDS can be viewed as the same thing.   
Do not take as gospel your test kit and meter readings  they are a useful guide. The real test: are plants and critters doing well.
Enjoy the hobby, have fun and I wish you all a Happy New Year.
​


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## LMuhlen (29 Dec 2022)

I'm considering adding some urea to my ferts schedule, but my idea was to keep it separated from the main mix so that I can front load as usual and then add urea 3 times a week. Any reason not to go this way? Maybe I could even mix urea and micros, since I don't front load them...


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## John q (29 Dec 2022)

LMuhlen said:


> . Any reason not to go this way? Maybe I could even mix urea and micros, since I don't front load them...


Urea is only available for a short period, the chemists will explain why,. I dose small amounts mixed in with my micros.. it seems to work.
Give this thread a read if one is considering crossing to the dark side.





						Dosing with Ammonia and Urea
					

Decided to open a new thread on this very interesting subject rather than carry it on in the Good Algae Article thread - http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=905  Here's what been said so far:   As George alluded to, some vendors use ammonia salts as their source of N, which I find completely...



					www.ukaps.org


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## Hanuman (30 Dec 2022)

LMuhlen said:


> I'm considering adding some urea to my ferts schedule, but my idea was to keep it separated from the main mix so that I can front load as usual and then add urea 3 times a week. Any reason not to go this way? Maybe I could even mix urea and micros, since I don't front load them...


With urea that's the best move. Dose little more often. That is why I moved from front loading to 3x a week but I think it's best to spread it even more. Interestingly it never occurred to me I could mix the urea with the micro hence why I added it to the macros. It made more sense at the time.
This 3x dosing thing I am not liking so far so I might just add some urea to my micro, redo my macro bottle and go back to front loading like I was a few weeks back.


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## X3NiTH (6 Jan 2023)

Regarding the CaSO4 I think the difference is probably just down to purity with one being possibly industrial grade and the other food grade. The calculated differences in TDS suggest this.


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## Happi (Yesterday at 11:25 PM)

X3NiTH said:


> Regarding the CaSO4 I think the difference is probably just down to purity with one being possibly industrial grade and the other food grade. The calculated differences in TDS suggest this.


This is true. Also, the purity indeed does matter to some people and people should keep an eye on the Grade when purchasing any Chemical.


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## Hanuman (Today at 1:12 AM)

X3NiTH said:


> Regarding the CaSO4 I think the difference is probably just down to purity with one being possibly industrial grade and the other food grade. The calculated differences in TDS suggest this.





Happi said:


> This is true. Also, the purity indeed does matter to some people and people should keep an eye on the Grade when purchasing any Chemical.


This is definitely the case but I live in country where not everything is always clear to the consumer. In the USA and Europe there are probably legislations in place that makes things easier and safer for the consumer. I used to buy the CaSO4*2H2O in a chemistry supply shop because it's the only one that would properly label the hydrate, problem is there was not grade mentioned (it's probably laboratory or technical grade). Everywhere else it was just CaSO4 and the origin was suspicious with no grade mention. Here they like to repackage stuff with home made labels, so you understand my suspicions. Anyway, I was recently able to find a shop that sold food grade CaSO4 and in principle that's CaSO4*2H2O. I can notice a clear physical difference between the two products. The food grade stuff is really a very fine powder that doesn't clump which is not the case with the other product. When I add the new product in my skimmer everything will dissolved and will be expelled within a few minutes. With the former product I always had some clumps remain for a day or two. I am also noticing more exoskeletons in the tank which mean shrimps are molting properly.

Also, regarding grades, one cannot always find high quality grades here unless you pay a fortune for some specific compounds.


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## MichaelJ (Today at 4:14 AM)

Happi said:


> This is true. Also, the purity indeed does matter to some people and people should keep an eye on the Grade when purchasing any Chemical.






Hanuman said:


> This is definitely the case but I live in country where not everything is always clear to the consumer. In the USA and Europe there are probably legislations in place that makes things easier and safer for the consumer. I used to buy the CaSO4*2H2O in a chemistry supply shop because it's the only one that would properly label the hydrate, problem is there was not grade mentioned (it's probably laboratory or technical grade). Everywhere else it was just CaSO4 and the origin was suspicious with no grade mention. Here they like to repackage stuff with home made labels, so you understand my suspicions. Anyway, I was recently able to find a shop that sold food grade CaSO4 and in principle that's CaSO4*2H2O. I can notice a clear physical difference between the two products. The food grade stuff is really a very fine powder that doesn't clump which is not the case with the other product. When I add the new product in my skimmer everything will dissolved and will be expelled within a few minutes. With the former product I always had some clumps remain for a day or two. I am also noticing more exoskeletons in the tank which mean shrimps are molting properly.
> 
> Also, regarding grades, one cannot always find high quality grades here unless you pay a fortune for some specific compounds.


Yes._ Food grade _  do not necessarily imply purity.  As far as the FDA goes here in the US, It only means it's safe for human consumption which includes whatever impurities might be in the compound - impurities that potentially could be hazardous to our livestock.  If you want to be _more_ sure - and break the bank - you need ACS grade compounds.

Cheers,
Michael


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## Hanuman (Today at 4:26 AM)

MichaelJ said:


> Yes._ Food grade _  do not necessarily imply purity.  As far as the FDA goes here in the US, It only means it's safe for human consumption which includes whatever impurities might be in the compound - impurities that potentially could be hazardous to our livestock.  If you want to make sure - and break the bank - you need lab grade compounds.
> 
> Cheers,
> Michael


I bought the CaSO4 in a chem supply shop for education, so meant for schools and experimentation. I assume that was technical or lab grade, perhaps even lowers, who knows. If you read the link above posted by @Happi, Laboratory grade is actually not even pure enough for food consumption. So not sure what is what but I do see an improvement in shrimps so it must be better than what I had before.


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## MichaelJ (Today at 4:34 AM)

Hanuman said:


> I bought the CaSO4 in a chem supply shop for education, so meant for schools and experimentation. I assume that was technical or lab grade, perhaps even lowers, who knows. If you read the link above posted by @Happi, Laboratory grade is actually not even pure enough for food consumption. So not sure what is what but I do see an improvement in shrimps so it must be better than what I had before.


right on... I meant ACS grade.... but even that with its > 95% purity might still cause issues for sensitive critters.... we just cant know.


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