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SDIESEL77 AQUASCAPER 900 DIARY

Cheers mate, my 600 looks really good. Tonnes of maintenance on that over the last 6 months. Just a dozen ember tetras, a few amanos left and a million cherry shrimp (bred from 10!)

My 900 was only set up a few weeks ago, so just shrimp in at the mo. Added 15 amanos and 25 black cocoa shrimp (similar to cherries but black so hopefully will breed well)
It’s looking a bit ‘meh’ to my eyes at the moment as had loads of crypt melt and am waiting for the fern to tighten up & look like it’s in a high co2 tank :banghead:

Think I’ll add cardinal tetras and some ottos in a months time.
 
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Great little gadget installed today: the S2pro Smart LED Controller :)
This little gadget now controls my Twinstar 900S light amazingly well!

Instead of being on/off it is now fully programmed to start at a certain time then slowly ramping up and finally slowly decreasing until switch off time :)

In total over 8 different programmable time slots.

Really really happy about this new thing.

You can get it on eBay for quite cheap and you'll also need to buy 1 small adapter to fit the Twinstar PSU (see photo below)
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That’s exactly the same as the Hinterfeld one I picked up. Certainly makes the Twinstar what it should have been out of the box. Great bit of kit.
 
Pleased you like it. Did you get the idea from the forum thread? :)

Have you got brown diatom algae? It’s normal, clean it off. I found big water changes helped massively.

I’d be inclined to adjust it to 30 min sunrise and sunset, rest of time at say 60% then increase at 8% - 10% per week. It’ll be easier to keep track of the amount of light you have and you want to avoid 100% lighting initially, then your later lighting is going down sharply, not giving plants time to photosynthesis?

You can play with it more once your tank is established and ‘more forgiving’.

Also give some thought to my suggestion about some established plants on your rocks at base wood. You want to plant a bit heavilier to begin with, even if you remove them as the tank matures.
 
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Pleased you like it. Did you get the idea from the forum thread? :)

I read about it somewhere once but no sure where

Have you got brown diatom algae? It’s normal, clean it off. I found big water changes helped massively.

Delicate Brown hairy algae

I’d be inclined to adjust it to 30 min sunrise and sunset, rest of time at say 60% then increase at 8% - 10% per week. It’ll be easier to keep track of the amount of light you have and you want to avoid 100% lighting initially, then your later lighting is going down sharply, not giving plants time to photosynthesis?
You can play with it more once your tank is established and ‘more forgiving’.

Ok for the sunrise, sunset. Same amount of time 7h daily?

What do you mean by later lighting going down sharply?

What setup/time would you recommend?

Also give some thought to my suggestion about some established plants on your rocks at base wood. You want to plant a bit heavilier to begin with, even if you remove them as the tank matures.
What kind of plants? I'm looking for slow growing plants if possible
 
Sounds like diatom algae.

Lighting, Yes 7 hours is good. Gradually increase to 8. Half hour sunset/sunrise.
Max power at 60% then gradually increase over a month or 2.

To begin with fast growing plants (hungry stem plants) are good to eat up the excess nutrients. you can change them later if you like.

Before i suggested the trident fern already established on wood from Tropica. Not fast growing but well established and will eat the nutrients. Will also cover the rocks holding down the wood, give you a mid focal point and give some shade to plant below. That’s why GF adds them to most of his clients scapes.

Nothing’s permanent you can remove things later if you like.
 
Looking good!
I have that same scape saved in my folder of inspirational scales but also can't remember where I found it!! Looks great by the way.
See in this had right minded me I really need to move my gobies out of my scale so they don't keep mixing the two substrates!! Problem is they are an absolute 'mare to catch!
 
See in this had right minded me I really need to move my gobies out of my scale so they don't keep mixing the two substrates!! Problem is they are an absolute 'mare to catch!

Thx Matt! Definitely understand you for the gobies. When I had a reef tank I used to have them too as they were the best fish to watch but they were also a nightmare as they kept covering my corals with sand! :)
 
I started my tank with 100% brightness as my dimmer didn’t arrive in time and I was impatient. Just made sure the crank up the Co2. A few plants melted but seem to be recovering ok.

My light schedule is now similar:

2:30pm 0%
3:00pm 100%
9:00pm 100%
9:30pm 0%
 
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