# South American 720L high tech



## Gfish

Hi,
I've gathered so much information from many folk here and from trawling through and reading everyone elses tank threads, well I thought it's about time I showed how my own is doing.
It's been running now since April last year and after alot of stress with algae etc I've now been running it high tech for about 6 months. I think :-/ ?

















I will add some info about tank hardware and plants soon , but would love to know what you all think? Different to alot of scales on here, but i started with fish as a priority and designing the planted tank around the kind of fish I like. It's been a trial at times but im fairly happy with the results and ive learnt so much throughout. 
Cheers

Gavin


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## vauxhallmark

720l - wooh-hoo!!!

Looking good.

What are the tank dimensions (LxDxH)?

Mark


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## flygja

I like that a lot as a fish-focused scape. Can't see any trace of your algae battles so hats off to you!


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## Gfish

Hi
It's 5x2x2.5high. And the algae creeps in occasionally near the surface and on the old leaves but I try to keep on top of it. It's a delicate thing though controlling algae. It doesn't take much, like a day without CO2, or a filter in need of a clean to start it off. 

Cheers  will write more soon

Gavin


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## LondonDragon

Great tank, nice wood too!! Must be great to watch this one  make sure you dosing enough trace and PO4 since you have loads of anubias in the tank  looking forward to a video


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## Gfish

Hi
Thanks, my dosing I put in 2.1tsp potassium nitrate 3/week
O.7 tsp potassium phosphate 3/week

And the other days I add Trace 0.7tsp 3/week.
I add nothing on a Saturday and 50% waterchange on a Sunday morning.

That's my usual routine and dosage. Any recommendations?

Cheers

Gavin


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## foxfish

Looks great - really great actually! Some much room in there!


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## Tom

Your Tetras look huge if that's 5 foot! Geophagus look great too


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## BigTom

Really nice, clean looking tank. Good sense of depth too.


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## Gfish

Thanks guys,
The tetras are enormous, yes.  I never really cared for bleeding hearts but when I saw some adult ones I bought them immediately and mixed them with the lemon tetras I already had. I've not seen or heard of them larger, and they are eating machines, so being in with cichlids they get alot of food at feeding time! Not the timid creatures I expected them to be, and the colours are amazing. 
The Geos are Geophagus Pindare. A group of 6 and I have some more young ones in a 3ft that I'm growing on a little and down the line I'll add 2 or 3 more to this tank.
May thin the lemon tetras down around then. Maybe 

I'm always looking to see where I can improve the plant layout. Any suggestions here? Especially to introduce a bit of contrast or colour to the tank?
Although I'm skint at the moment so I'll not be buying plants for some time I think.

Do the dosages I mentioned above sound ok? Anything missing?

Cheers

Gavin


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## BigTom

Only thing that springs to mind would be perhaps continuing the main anubias clump to the left so that it creates a bit more of transition with the hastifolia and other plants on the left hand side. And some sort of greenery down in the front right corner might increase the sense of depth even more.


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## Gfish

Thanks BigTom, the two tall leaved anubias to the left are lanceolatta and afzelii from Left to Right. The Lanceolatta is on a limb behind the forward limb of wood and I recently removed a few large old leaves that had too much algae on them. Since then I've not been happy with this area and I think it needs another plant, possibly the same, adding immediately to it's left and standing higher. Or maybe a Congensis. 

The area at the front right is an area I debate on with myself over and over but I may one day give it a try now someone else has mentioned it  I quite like the idea of an echindorus down there. Not too tall and perhaps with large overlapping round leaves. I can't remember the names but I'm sure a few would fit the bill. And it would be easy for me to leave it in the basket pot and hide it amongst the cobbles. 
Hmmm food for thought so cheers 

Gavin


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## Gfish

Here's my plant list:-

ANUBIAS:- 
Caladefolia
Barteri
Barteri Nana
Barteri nana petite stardust
Lanceolatta 
Afzelii
Hastefolia
Heterophyla

Java fern
Java fern narrow
java fern needle

Hygrophila corymbosa

Aponogeton crispus

Cryptocoryne balansae
Cryptocoryne green gecko

Tried some Xmas moss here and there but it didn't work too well and I got sick of bits floating around the tank. Thread or glue used to attach it.

Think I named them all


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## Maloney

Beautiful aquarium mate  , very jealous. what sand is that ?
Tony


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## Gfish

Thanks Tony 

The sand is swimming pool filter sand. Excellent stuff. Not too fine, so doesn't compact like other sands. It's inert, so has no affect on PH. And it's heavy, so it doesn't get washed around and end up in the filter.
Chose it for the Eartheater Geophagus cichlids more than anything else, as they sift and spit sand all the time.

Cheers

Gavin


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## Gfish

Here's a few shots of the fish



My lovely L123 plecs. I have 4 of them and I still haven't spoke with anyone who has kept these.





small algae cleaners. Ancistrus Claro. 4 also














sub adult Geophagus Pindare (x6)








huge bleeding heart tetras (x16)





Peru gold laser (or orange stripe) corydoras (x6)

And there's a few otocinclus cocama and a couple dozen lemon tetras

I think that's all


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## Gfish

Here's the initial planning pic of the main parts in the wood arrangement


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## ceg4048

Gfish said:
			
		

> my dosing I put in 2.1tsp potassium nitrate 3/week
> O.7 tsp potassium phosphate 3/week
> 
> And the other days I add Trace 0.7tsp 3/week.
> I add nothing on a Saturday and 50% waterchange on a Sunday morning.
> 
> That's my usual routine and dosage. Any recommendations?


Hi Gavin,
     Yeah that's really looking smart mate. It looks like the anubias are elevated, which brings them closer to the light and increases the PAR at the leaf surface. As a result they are susceptible to GSA. Normally you want to shade anubias to lower the PAR reaching them. 

As long as you're getting good growth then you can control their appearance by simply removing the mature leaves, but as Paulo mentioned, GSA can be mitigated by increasing PO4. Try doubling it and see if that helps. You can add as much trace as you want but it's the PO4, especially in a big tank that does the lion's share of the anti-GSA work.

Have you been excommunicated from your chiclid forums for actually dosing NO3?   

Cheers,


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## sanj

I think you need to fix your fence.


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## Gfish

Clive
I think I'll try doing exactly that starting from Sunday for a week and see if there's a noticeable difference. 
It's amazing the growth the anubias in the centre has achieved. I had loads of java behind them and ive removed much of that now and brought one lovely bunch forward that was really small when it was planted back there. It's been out of sight for so long and I reached down and pulled this lovely thing out and placed it in the foreground right.  








The highest point where the wood breaks the surface toward the right is the only place the anubias has regularly flowered. One plant there just below the surface has sent out 2 flowers on a number of occasions now. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	



The flowers just touch the surface at times.
 It seems if we manage to grow anubias close the the surface without killing it, it actually does better here than anywhere else. But it's a risky thing to try and as soon as the leaves are too old they need removing. It's an ever changing shape, but I like how it's going.

Yes, I think many cichlid guys strongly disagree with what I'm doing. But they voiced opinion more at the start than they do now. They seem to accept that I'm going to do it differently and they're going to stick to what they know and has worked for them all for years.

The hard thing as I mentioned before is oxygenating the water enough. I'd love more oxygen as the cichlids do thrive on it. I think I've proved to myself with help and guidance that it's possible to have a nicely planted tank and big cichlids. But I'm not convinced it's the absolute best for the cichlids. The difficult thing is I'm keeping soft water fish in hard water so it's hard to tell what's the limiting factor. The day I try central American or African cichlids I will be able to speak better about the effects of CO2 and fertiliser rich environment and the affects on fish. But I'm happy enough to be sticking with it so things are going well enough 

Sanj, ive lived here for 5 years and the fence has been buggered for most of that time and is probably as old as I am! Landlord sucks, big time!
Weve hassled him recently and remain hopeful. But thanks for your concern lol
Anything constructive???? 

Cheers

Gavin


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## ceg4048

Hi Gavin,
              There is no way oxygen is a limiting factor in a planted tank. The plants add more oxygen than can ever be achieved by aeration alone. This is not true at night though. It's more likely that CO2 is an issue. CO2 is much more problematic as the size of the fish increases. The oxygenation rate during the photoperiod can only be improve in this case by having faster growing plants, which generally have faster rates of oxygen production.

Cheers,


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## Gfish

Clive

So if you were to recommend a faster growing, good oxygen producing plant for this tank, now you've seen it, what would you suggest? And where would you put it? 
I'm all ears when it comes to adding more oxygen. Before I went high tech and I was on the right track with the plants after cutting them right back post algae, I had some other Geophagus that had short fin extensions with damage from nipping etc. I upped the oxygen by setting up a short spraybar that came from the front right and circulated the flow around the tank. I had it set so the holes were half above the water line and it vastly improved oxygenation that resulted with the fish all growing their fin extensions and repairing nipped ones very quickly. 
It's something I'm always thinking about so im definitely up for trying new things to improve oxygenation.

I listed my plants a few posts back, maybe increasing the Hygrophyla Corymbosa? That's all I can think of that's a faster grower. But maybe there's better options???

Cheers

Gavin


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## Tunafish

great system Gavin,

how are you finding the Geophagus colour wise?, im currently setting up a Geophagus sp. system and am weighing up the options.

cheers

Nicholas


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## Gfish

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks very much. Great to hear you're setting up a Geo tank. 
Give me some idea of what plans you have in place already.
I went against the norm to set up a high tech planted display and keep a group of cichlids, but I do not regret it. My Pindare have coloured up nicely of late and like many of the Geophagus they just don't colour up until they're large and close to adult. I'll try to post some recent pics up very soon but the Pindare are subtle compared to other Geos. My aff. Altifrons Rio Xingu I had before them were adult when I sold them and their colours were stunning! 
What fish do you have or have in mind?

What I've learnt is that there are more plants to try than just java fern and anubias. Having said that, I could happily keep a tank with only anubias plants in it. There's so many to choose from, although some are harder to find than others.

Tell me as much as you can, and I'll give you as much info in return. I look forward to chatting with you on all this as we are few and far between 

Cheers

Gavin


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## dw1305

Hi all,
How about running an air stone at night? Just have it on a timer. You need really fine bubbles if you do go down this route.
Another option would be a time switched power-head with venturi? 
cheers Darrel


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## Gfish

Hi Darrel, 
I tried the timer with airstone overnight but it raised PH and it meant that when the co2 came on it took longer for the drop checker to reach Green/Yellow so I needed a longer co2 period and used more gas. The other thing which I'd read of other people suffering, was I got a sudden increase in algae. This was the deciding factor, and I stopped using this method.
The Venturi idea is a good one, and maybe one day I'll add more hardware and give this a try. But I'd probably leave it on 24/7 so hopefully it wouldn't be too noisy.

In the meantime, what I've done recently is have the input from my second filter coming in through an open pipe half in, half out of the water. This brings in a visible stream of bubbles which makes me feel better and it doesn't disturb the whole water surface too much. Time will tell on this one but it's a step in the right direction I feel.
Cheers


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## dw1305

Hi all,


> I tried the timer with airstone overnight but it raised PH and it meant that when the co2 came on it took longer for the drop checker to reach Green/Yellow.....The Venturi idea is a good one, and maybe one day I'll add more hardware and give this a try. But I'd probably leave it on 24/7 so hopefully it wouldn't be too noisy. In the meantime, what I've done recently is have the input from my second filter coming in through an open pipe half in, half out of the water. This brings in a visible stream of bubbles which makes me feel better and it doesn't disturb the whole water surface too much. Time will tell on this one but it's a step in the right direction I feel.


 You can ignore the pH, in my heavily planted, non-CO2, rain water, tanks pH will be below pH7 in the morning before the lights come on (this is because it has little carbonate buffering and the increased CO2 levels will have driven the carbonate / carbonic acid equilibrium (and pH) into the acid range) and well over pH7 in the afternoon when the plants have exhausted the available CO2 and the water is saturated with oxygen. The TDS values will be unchanged at either pH value. It is this equilibrium.







Personally I'd definitely run something to get more O2 in the water, your description makes me think that the fish are probably suffering from sub-lethal CO2 poisoning at night. It hasn't killed them at this level but it will stress them, and any changes in bio-load water flow or filter efficiency may lead to deaths. 

cheers Darrel


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## Gfish

Hi Darrel
If your suspicion is correct, then what would the fish be doing? Would I expect to see rapid breathing, fish hanging near the surface? Or would all look normal?
Thanks
Gavin


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## dw1305

Hi all,


> Would I expect to see rapid breathing, fish hanging near the surface?


 Yes for some fish, certainly Loricariids like _Hypancistrus_ will come right to the top, others just become more and more inactive until they roll over and float to the top (Cichlids tend to do this).

cheers Darrel


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## ceg4048

Gfish said:
			
		

> So if you were to recommend a faster growing, good oxygen producing plant for this tank, now you've seen it, what would you suggest? And where would you put it?
> 
> I listed my plants a few posts back, maybe increasing the Hygrophyla Corymbosa? That's all I can think of that's a faster grower. But maybe there's better options???


Yeah, H. corymbosa or Ludwigia repens are a real speed champs, but you know, swords are pretty fast growers as well and they might be more resistant to attack because they taste kind of nasty. You could stick an E. ozelot or E. barthii in the back somewhere to add a bit of color. Instead of moss, how about tying down some H. zosterifolia to the wood? I would even suggest tying Staurogyne to the wood, although it's a slower grower. Once it fills in though it looks nice and it does have rougher tasting leaves as well.

What you could do with the CO2 is to shut it off much earlier, a few hours before lights off. Insterad of completely off-gassing it with bubbles, which drops the levels too low, just reduce it slowly during the photoperiod. You only need excellent CO2 during the first half of the photoperiod. The second half is not really that important.

Cheers,


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## Gfish

Clive 
I will look at those suggested plants. It's always nice to have a reason to add more plants 







This is the end of the tank showing where I've mounted the aponogeton. It was a little further over and in a strong flow which it obviously didn't like. When i moved it toward the corner more where it isn't bent over as much, it started growing well again. 
I was thinking of adding an echindorus in the front right. I just haven't looked at which one yet.
I'd hope to find a big leaved low plant rather than a tall grower. And hide the basket it's rooted in amongst those boulders. What do you think? The light isn't very strong down there, so that's something to consider when choosing. 

My timing of CO2 is unusual. I have it coming on quite soon.

CO2 On 10.40am
Lights On (1 T5 tube) 3pm.Dropchecker green
2nd T5 tube On 4.30pm.Dropchecker yellowy green
CO2 Off 6pm.Dropchecker yellowy green
2nd T5 tube Off 8.30pm.Dropchecker greeny yellow
Lights Off completely 11.45.Dropchecker green/greeny yellow

I've come to this through much trial and error. Watching the dropchecker and learning that not all tanks are the same. With mine having slow growers this lighting and CO2 schedule has worked out well. The bubble count is lower than it used to be too.

Cheers
Gavin


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## ceg4048

Hi Gavin,
             OK, big leaved low growing sword?

Absolute first choice is Echinodorus Aquartica (Tropica 074F). It's the one right in the middle encircled by the wood. Don't worry about light.

Second choices is E. red rubin (Tropica 074B)

What happens if you were to tun off the gas  simultaneously with "2nd T5 tube Off 8.30pm"? You don't really need green/yellowy at that time at all.

Cheers,


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## Gfish

The gas goes off way before 8.30pm when the 2nd light goes off. CO2 goes off at 6pm. 
This points out how slow the plants I have use up the CO2 I guess. 

I'll have a look at those 2 echindorus. 
What do you think about E. Schlueteri?

Cheers


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## ceg4048

Hi mate,
             E. Schlueteri is an OK choice because it does get very large leaves in an EI dosed tank.  E. aquartica is much more compact. Also, Schlueteri tends to splay out more and is does not have a particularly pretty color unless you get the "leopard" version, which if you're going to get that, you might as well get the E. ozelot which is much prettier anyway. the new leaves flush pink. I think the ozelot is a cross of the Schlueteri and barthii. It all gets very confusing.

Here is an example of a mature ozelot growing in EI dosed soft water tank. 





The aquartica stays about half this height. You can see it here in the middle of the wood.





Cheers,


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## Gfish

Clive, Cheers for the pics, they're all nice but that splaying out of big leaves might be the look I'm after. What do you think? It's for the front right of my tank. The area with a mound of boulders. I was thinking of leaving it in it's basket, or transferring to a larger basket then hiding the basket in the middle of the rocks. You think that would be ok for these plants????And look good down there?
I'd not want the Echindorus to grow too high and completely hide that clump of java. Open large leaves splaying out that potentially grow that high wouldn't hide as much as a dense tall plant with touching leaves. That's what I'm thinking anyway.

I keep reading or fertilised substrates strongly recommended for these. But if I do as above, and carry on with CO2 and EI, should it be ok???

Cheers

Gavin


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## ceg4048

Hi Gavin,
              Well all the swords splay out to some extent. The only way to control the splaying is to prune. 

E. aquartica is the only one that doesn't get too high as you can see in the second photo. You can judge the size compared to the big crypt just to the right.

I generally don't leave the plants in the basket when submerged because the roots have difficulty expanding and making contact with the sediment which does reduce performance. 

Swords do not necessarily "need" fertilized substrate, although it certainly doesn't hurt. The so-called "requirement" is a Matrix induced hallucination. This hallucination is built upon yet another myth that states; swords and crypts are "root feeders" - and that myth is based on the fact that swords and crypts have obviously massive root systems. 

So someone assumed that because a plant has a lot of roots it must be that the plants can only feed from the roots, which is not a logical assumption. This illusion creates more hysteria than necessary. The plants in the two photos shown above were all in inert clay sediment and were dosed EI. So stop worrying. A big sword will strip your water column of nutrients and CO2 in no time flat, and will soon become an unrepentant hooligan. 

The Matrix isn't real.   

Cheers,


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## Gfish

Clive

I do smile reading of your matrix theory. Yet again the good old Internet has provided me matrix information 
I'd have went ahead without worrying too much on the substrate, but I'm glad I asked. The basket would have been ideal for jamming between rocks in the tank.
As this is down deep at the front of the tank I want to avoid roots being exposed and more to the point, the plant coming loose and rising up. I may leave it in the basket but cut alot of it away half way down and below. 
I was thinking at one stage of drilling a chunk of bogwood but plecs like to burrow under bogwood don't they, so I won't bother. I'll stick with the boulders I think.

Do you think I should take a risk and ditch the basket all together? Remember I have digging fish that bare the glass occasionally.

I'm torn between E schlueteri and E Aquartica, but I won't be ordering these online, I'll just look out for them in local shops so I see what I'm getting. No rush.

Cheers

Gavin


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## Mark Webb

Great looking tank Gavin. You have some excellent pieces of wood there, where did you source? I could use something like that myself. I am intrigued to see that you can keep algae at bay which such relatively sparse planting, particularly when we read that dense planting is preferable to use up nutrients in order to avoid the algae. Maybe you could pick up on that Clive?
What water change regime do you have?


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## Gfish

Hi Mark

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. The wood was found over a period and I searched and advertised to find large pieces I liked. It's funny but my initial ideas of how the wood arrangement would be, changed completely. You have to work with what's available, and in this case I'm very pleased with how its turned out. But it really is tight in a 5ft, it would have fit best in a 6ft.
There's a spindly piece in the front left that protrudes out of the water. That's Hazel and it came from my mates drive. I visited him when he'd just helped a neighbour fell a dead tree and had it all in pieces there. I spotted it, took it home, dumped it in a water filled wheelie bin and occasionally brought it out to pick and scrape the bark away, then after a few months I cleaned it up and dressed it for the tank. 
The large long piece of trunk starting in the left corner and coming forward to the right front corner is a piece that was brought over by a bunch of Dutch guys attending a cichlid forum meet in the midlands. They brought a van load like this and it was cheap! It's soft compared to most but has been fine in the tank and many others have used the same stuff and seem happy with it. The huge triangle piece that sits high and ontop  to the right, is a massive and tall piece that has masses of anubias and java and other plants attached to it. This came from a guy answering my Wanted ad. He sold me two pieces and the other is in the wheelie bin outside. It's an awesome piece that id actually sell as I can't see me ever using it, but I ain't giving it away! 
If you're interested in it, PM me your email and I'll send some pics.

I laughed when I read that you think the tanks sparsely planted 
I think it's heavily planted now. Maybe if you saw it you'd agree, but I think because the substrate is clear it appears to most a fairly sparse tank. Seriously, that huge clump of anubias in the centre is a jungle! It has java fern there too. And behind the java there's some Crypt balansae. It's dense and a great hiding place for ottos and corys.

I will add a little more plants soon hope but not too many more 

Cheers

Gavin


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## ceg4048

Gfish said:
			
		

> ...The basket would have been ideal for jamming between rocks in the tank.
> As this is down deep at the front of the tank I want to avoid roots being exposed and more to the point, the plant coming loose and rising up. I may leave it in the basket but cut alot of it away half way down and below...Do you think I should take a risk and ditch the basket all together? Remember I have digging fish that bare the glass occasionally.


Hi mate, it's not so much the basket, but the rock wool which wraps the roots that serves as an impediment. Just pull the wool off and you'll be fine.



			
				Mark Webb said:
			
		

> I am intrigued to see that you can keep algae at bay which such relatively sparse planting, particularly when we read that dense planting is preferable to use up nutrients in order to avoid the algae.


Errr.Mark you may have read that from the same place in The Matrix that Gavin was reading about swords needing rich substrate. The level of plant biomass has no relation to the nutrient level in this sense.

The concept regarding the advantage of high plant mass "using up nutrients" so that algae have no access to these nutrients is just another delusion. This originated from the assumption that plants somehow compete with algae for nutrients and so if we add only just enough nutrition for the plants, they will "use it all up" and will therefore starve algae.

But nutrients don't cause algae, therefore excess nutrients don't cause algae. If this were true then eutrophic dosing schemes like EI and PMDD would fail 100% of the time because the nutrient levels are always high, right? Think about it. In these dosing schemes the nutrient level never fall to zero. We ensure that by consistently dosing, therefore nutrients are always available to algae 24 hours per day. Not only that, but algae have permanent access to nutrients if they wanted it. Spores are in the water column, right next to your ppm of this or that. Spores sit on the top of the plants. Nutrients must pass by algae just to get to the plant, so if anything it would be that algae are first to feed and the plants would get the leftover nutrients, not the other way around.

Algae do not care about nutrient levels. Algae only care about the amount of light,  the health of the plants, and the chemical precursors in the tank which indicate a failing system. These precursors include waste levels, ammonia transients, poor O2 levels, poor CO2 levels and others that we haven't even discovered yet. The bottom line is that algae "know" when the plants are failing. You should therefore always link algal blooms to poor plant health, not to nutrient levels, which are irrelevant from their perspective.

High plant biomass in a tank is advantageous because more plants interact more vigorously with the sediment (and with the water) and provide oxygen to nitrifying bacteria in the sediment, filter and in the water column. Higher biomass consumes higher quantities of NH4. High biomass produces more food such as carbohydrates on which the bacteria feed thereby stabilizing the tank system more quickly and more comprehensively. You can have just a single plant in the tank with massive nutrient/CO2 levels and this will not necessarily trigger algae. But if the bacterial infrastructure is weak or unhealthy, or if the plant becomes weak or unhealthy, then this triggers chemical transients in the tank which can cause algal blooms. This is not related to the nutrient level.

Cheers,


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## Anonymous

nice tank simple but very affective the anubias at the back looks spotless


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## samkiller42

Bumping an oldish thread, But any updates to this amazing looking tank?

Sam


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## greenjar

I was lucky enough to see this tank in the flesh and can confirm this tank looks amazing and even more so in real life....


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## Gfish

Thanks for the kind words 

The tanks going ok actually. Had an attempt at a spawn from my Geos. The largest 2 fish paired up, but as is often the case they messed it up. Let's see how they go next time around.

I'm having thoughts of changing things a little though.
Hi all 

If I chose to go Low Tech and I remove the CO2, I'd also drop the brightest T5 tube and maybe shorten the light period from 8.5 to 5.5 hours. 
Would this be the right approach? And would it all be ok? Would plants suffer from the sudden shock change in growing conditions? 
At the moment I dose EI and I would like to continue but with much smaller dosage. 

To be honest, the tank's running ok, I get a bit of BBA here and there at times, but I'm fairly happy with it. This is more to do with my own curiosity. How will the plant growth change? Leaf size as well as growth rate. Whether I can achieve good results (slower) with lower light and no addition of carbon, as well as be without BBA? 
Also, how the fish react? I know everyone says fish do fine, but I'd like to see the cichlids and other fish I have in there, in a lower light non CO2 environment. Just to satisfy my own curiosity. 
Aside from that, it will save me some cash! 

Will take some more pics of the tank soon.

Cheers

Gavin


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## dw1305

Hi all,
I've never gone from high tech. to low tech. (because I've never been high tech. at all), but I would think that you are on the right lines for a conversion to non-CO2, you don't really have any plants that don't do well low tech. 





> If I chose to go Low Tech and I remove the CO2, I'd also drop the brightest T5 tube and maybe shorten the light period from 8.5 to 5.5 hours. Would this be the right approach? And would it all be ok? Would plants suffer from the sudden shock change in growing conditions?


 I would lower the light intensity, but probably keep the 8:30 growing period. I think that only the _Hygrophila_ will react to the loss of light and CO2 by dropping some of its leaves,  in all the others (_Echinodorus, Anubias & Cryptocoryne_) it is just the rate of leaf production will lower.


> At the moment I dose EI and I would like to continue but with much smaller dosage.


 I'd go for that, if you have a conductivity meter you can use that to work out how much NPK you need with your water change regime. After a while you will begin to pick up the changes in greeness and growth and you can then just use them as a pointer to whether you have enough ferts. I usually assess the growth of the _Limnobium_ and just add a sprinkle of KNO3 if the plants are very yellow and growth has slowed dramatically, if this doesn't produce a fairly quick greening response, I add a complete macro-micro mix. At the moment I'm using a "Soluble Citrus Feed", but a mix with-out any NH3 would be safer.

You need to be aware that the plants in your tank will never look quite as good as it did when you were high tech, as leaf production will be slower. This will also lead to the development of green algae (and probably BBA as well) on some of the older leaves, personally that is a trade off that I'm willing to make.

I'd also carry on with some water changes, probably 5% a day (or 10% every 2 or 3 days) should do. If you find the conductivity keeps creeping up, you need to up your water changes or lower your dosing.

cheers Darrel


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## Gfish

Thanks for your pointers there, much appreciated.
Although it sounds as though Low Tech could prove higher stress!? I've actually watched our 2ft thrive with hardly any effort. No CO2, rarely add any ferts and waterchange every 2 weeks or so. Plants do take longer to grow new leaves, but they're always producing and they look fine. A java fern progressed from a few small leaves when I bought it to a massive full leaved plant. It honestly looked much better than any ferns in my high tech tank here. So this has me thinking.

I may just have to give it a go. Hmmmmm....... Decisions decisions. 

Will keep you posted of any changes I make.

Cheers

Gavin


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## Gfish

Does anybody ever go from High tech to Low tech??????
:-/


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## Tom.Verey

stunning


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## sanj

> Sanj, ive lived here for 5 years and the fence has been buggered for most of that time and is probably as old as I am! Landlord sucks, big time!
> Weve hassled him recently and remain hopeful. But thanks for your concern lol
> Anything constructive????



Lol, no not really, youve done a great job with that tank so I thought id make a random observation about somthing else.


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## Gfish

Hi Sanj,

Thanks for coming back after so long. You'll be happy to hear we have a new fence now  but that's got naff all to do with Co2 or EI or any possible GSA on my Anubias leaves ok.  lol

The tanks always changing, and I guess is looking more natural rather than showy as time goes by.
I've had 2 successful spawns from my Geophagus in here. Hard water, Co2 and dry ferts chucked in! Fish seem very happy.




Rather than going Low Tech I've decided to try changing my Co2 idea to a 24/7 with a very slow 1 to 2 bubbles/second rate. We shall see.
As all my plants are slow growers I'm figuring a steady slow diffusion but lower Co2 concentration might give less fluctuation and hence less BBA here and there. And just to learn something more 
It's never gotten too bad, but always been there somewhere.

I'm loving my shoal of Triporteus at the moment. Have 10 of them and you can see 1 at the top of this pic.

Cheers guys,

Gavin


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## Skatersav

This is my favourite tank on this website.  It's truly awesome.  I had pretty much written off keeping Geophagus/Satanoperca or anything like that in a true planted aquarium but this has completely washed that nonsense away.  My wife will have another baby when I show her this.  She loves those fish and has been somewhat downbeat since I rescaped and focused more on plants.

I would ask though, whenever I have kept these fish (I've kept a few eartheaters over the years) I've had problems with them getting skinny and not growing well.  I suspect it's a parasite.  Last time I kept Satanoperca I ended up capitulating and taking them back to the LFS with the hope that they would be able to help them recover - Flubendazole did nothing.  Do you have to treat them with anything for parasites?  Have you had similar issues?

Thanks,

Sav


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## Skatersav

This is my favourite tank on this website.  It's truly awesome.  I had pretty much written off keeping Geophagus/Satanoperca or anything like that in a true planted aquarium but this has completely washed that nonsense away.  My wife will have another baby when I show her this.  She loves those fish and has been somewhat downbeat since I rescaped and focused more on plants.

I would ask though, whenever I have kept these fish (I've kept a few eartheaters over the years) I've had problems with them getting skinny and not growing well.  I suspect it's a parasite.  Last time I kept Satanoperca I ended up capitulating and taking them back to the LFS with the hope that they would be able to help them recover - Flubendazole did nothing.  Do you have to treat them with anything for parasites?  Have you had similar issues?

Thanks,

Sav


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## sarahtermite

I'm a relative newcomer to aquascaping, but your tank looks pristine. Totally exquisite! I love the fact that you can see so much wood, I think it really sets off your plants. Everything looks glowing with heath.


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