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Welcome, look forward!

Hi, Could you not temporarily move the outlet to the front and and direct it across the front of the tank where the plant growth is lower, by the time it has circulated round the back it should have calmed down a bit. You can then return it to your ideal location once the stems have gained a bit...

Nice, I'm still paying off the interest for a ADA hang-on glass thermometer I bought 3 1/2 years ago!

Might prove ideal for catfish!

Welcome! :wave:

Welcome! :wave:

Welcome! :wave:

At least he can't complain about the price of electric.

I would have no problem mixing the two together in the bags and then cover them with whatever is pleasing to the eye or affordable, I know a good few people over the years have successfully utilised cat litter but I don't think I could live the associated stigma. 🙂

Nothing to do with your problem but rather than sporadically adding a lot all in one go just add 1 or 1/2 or 1/4 depending on the contents and brand in different areas each week after the water change, plants love stability and will not be adapted to take in a sudden massive influx of nutrients...

Look forward to seeing what you come up with, is your existing tank still in operation?

Welcome! :wave:

Hi, For me it would have generally been, manual removal, clean, water change and repeat but obviously using the Walstad method prohibits this, but then again adding algaesides probably goes against the grain too. This seems like a good idea but beware on the front page of the website for this...

Personally I wouldn't be tempted to add any fish for a good couple of weeks yet, the dark start is good for cycling the 'Nitrogen cycle' but it wasn't until you put those plants in 1.5 weeks ago that the Biorhythm would have kicked off, plus I can see that a lot, if not most of your plants have...

I've been trying to eradicate Christmas Moss from my CO2 injected tank for about two years now and I never put any in there, it obviously came in with other plants. I remove all I can find but a couple of months later I'll find a batch growing out of a clump of Buce.

If Aquasoil can reduce the dKH of hard water to zero for approximately 6 months would it not be feasible to estimate a similar length of time to reverse the process, I'm just talking ballpark figures here and not scientific calculations?

I use the same combination, the Eheim Scraper is around 10 years old now and still on the original blade although I tend to just use it down at substrate level and one or two hard to reach areas, the blade has a very slight tinge of rust but it's certainly not detrimental.

Have you got any further on with this project?

I personally would just put one bag in and cover with sand. Might be wise to add a teaspoon of MgSO4 also, as our tap water contains very little.

Welcome! :wave:

I used one at start up for two to three months purely for Oxygen production before the Plants took over the task and found some of the fish shied away from the bubbles while others seemed to almost be addicted to them. I can't really see it being an aid when adding new fish though especially in...

Hi, Presumably 412 never gets a mention because of the high Urea and low Nitrate content but I can't help wondering if it may or may not be a better option for daily lean dosing in a soft water CO2 injected tank, I wouldn't really want a ratio of 1-2 Nitrogen-Potassium although I know people are...

I've always found the substrate will end up pretty level anyway especially with shrimp unless it is banked up with something solid. In the past the use of a spray bar also alleviated this problem with the flow going from front to back across the substrate. You could always remove the soil and...

:thumbup:

Welcome! :wave:

I think (but might be wrong) that Mini Coin is the smallest Anubias.

Well, I say go for it, as I mentioned above I never saw any noticeable difference between the two but one variable is the buces that are rooted into the substrate were obviously further away from the light than the ones which are attached (I use the word attached very loosely) to the hardscape...

Congratulations on your DIY approach and a good read too!

If you're using a correctly tuned reactor you ought to be getting pretty much 100% dissolution, however your longer outlet will most probably assist with flow and distribution down at the lower levels which is definitely a boon, I use a low level wavemaker for this exact same purpose.

One look at your tank should tell her it's evident you require a larger one!

Nice project, will look great in a year a so when they have all grown in. The Filiformis looks to be an interesting catch, I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for that one. I attached small buce to various pieces of hardscape around my tank but after three years they have now grown into four big...

Welcome! Looking forward to seeing it.

For me stability is the most important factor, your plants will acclimate to the stable regime that you provide (within reasonable parameters of course) rather than trying to hit some magical number. Just plant up, it's going to take a week or two for the plants to acclimate to all the other new...

Looking at your photo and the fact you are seeking advice on how to improve your plant growing skills I was going to suggest replacing the plastic plants with real ones from the Tropica easy range but having read your other posts it appears you are already on this track. As Darrel says above the...

Welcome! Do you have a photo of it by any chance, I'm sure someone will be able to identify it, in fact a couple of photos of your tank will give others a better feel for it and be able to offer more appropriate advice. Cheers!

Welcome! If you're here for the long haul consider starting a journal where all your questions and answers are in one place making it easier for other's and yourself to gather past information along with the addition of photographs. Cheers.

Providing the details outlined in the thread below will allow us/others to make a more accurate evaluation. https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/please-read-the-guidelines-for-plant-help.60671/ Cheers!

Welcome! I most definitely wouldn't get an oto to combat BBA as they don't eat it, getting rid of the source of the problem is a better way forward. If it is BBA (and I'm not fully convinced it is from the photo), water changes, cleanliness, manual removal and healthy plant growth will assist...

Good morning Zoe, It's good to see you have new growth on all of your plants so things are going in right direction. Those Diatoms will surely disappear before long and I know some will say to just leave it but I can't help thinking some of those Anubias leaves would benefit from a light rub...

Morning Brian. Good to see some water and plants in... As long as you're happy that's all that matters, the only suggestion I would make is to move the Val and is that Cyperus Helferi towards the back of the tank as all your other plants which appear to be stems can be trimmed down and shaped...

As a proponent of stability, for me it would be logical to dose at the same time everyday, but the reality is it's a hobby and trying to follow some strict routine will diminish the enjoyment and it will become a chore (been there). I only work three days a week now (winding down) but on these...

...and after you've done all of above just run it for a couple of weeks without fish, which you probably should do anyway if it's only just in the process of being set up.

Welcome and I look forward to seeing this grow in!

Hi, I'm certainly no expert and stand to be corrected but I seem to remember from the past (and I'm a bit muddled) that Ich goes through a 2 week 3 stage life cycle and the meds only attack the free swimming larval stage usually meaning you repeat the dose after a week or so, but as I said I'm...

Why thank you!

It’s in the last photo above, a water butt sump pump from B&Q, had it years, I don’t think they sell them anymore but you should be able to find a modern equivalent or any fairly powerful pump will do. The beauty of this though is after syphoning off I just attach the hose adapter to the pump...

Sorry I also meant to say, that if you're producing 0 TDS then I would assume you are polishing off with resin which is not really necessary in a freshwater aquarium unless you like buying it, 300 to 12 is good enough. I also forgot say that just after adding the salts I run the main transfer...

Just to give you an idea, I collect 130l RO in to a potable container add my remin salts and leave for a couple of days for the water to stabilize and it will also warm up a few degrees (room temperature if left for an adequate time), with a very small Eheim pump for circulation. I use a mixture...

The one at the front is Tiger and at the rear is Red, strangely enough the new leaves of both have grown with pretty similar colouration under this light whereas they were easy to identify before. I intended to say above that I'm definitely getting better growth down at the substrate level...

Welcome! Look forward to seeing some snaps sometime.

6 month update! After 3 years of the Kessil I fancied a change of scenery so I've purchased a P100 (the Kessil still hangs above it ready for action). It's been on 3 months and a lot of the Crypts leaves slowly senesced but larger more colourful ones grew quicker than this process. I'm really...

Limnophila Sessiliflora and Hygrophila Corymbosa 'Siamensis 53b' are my go to work horse fast growers for both high and low tech, the Tropica ones that come in like a sandwich packet (blister packs?) will take off better (than Tissue Culture) and be free of pests but as @Wookii has mentioned...

Hi. I personally would advise that there is really no need to inject such high levels of CO2 that you're fish are gasping at the surface or the drop checker is turning yellow, turn it down notch and head for the mid table. The important factor from there on is to keep the level stable throughout...

Welcome and look forward to seeing your progression!

Welcome! :wave:

BTW, 2dKH is absolutely fine for those tetras and rasboras. I'm not sure what your GH is but it may be beneficial to add a little Magnesium to achieve an approximate 3:1 ratio with the Calcium if you're not already doing so. Cheers!

It's difficult to tell for sure from photos but it looks like lowering the intensity of the lights has brought it down to a more acceptable level for a low tech tank but I personally wouldn't have reduced the duration to less than 8 hours and if it's been working for you for the last 2 1/2 years...

Hi, I personally would turn it right down to about 10% or even less especially if it's moving your substrate around and turn it up gradually as the plant mass increases. As it is it will also uproot your newly planted plants. Once you start getting some growth you will be able to judge much...

Looking forward!

Aquartica and Grisebachii are two of the smaller Echinodorus that springs to mind.

I've zoomed in and I personally don't think it's BBA. Difficult to tell for sure from the photo but could be filamentous diatoms mixed with a bit of die off or possibly some form of cyanobacteria. Hopefully someone who has experienced this will chime in and enlighten.

Your filter capacity and flow are more than adequate coupled with the use of a powerhead or gyre but I can understand you wanting to get away from the the ribbed hoses plus having the addition of external heating. The Nero 3 is programmable through the app with time, power and function, I use...

Welcome! If travel is not a problem for you then @Horizon Aquatics Horizon Aquatics is well worth a visit too. These are the two best shops I have found so far that cater for our needs.

Without reading the whole backstory I could well imagine that this could quite possibly your problem.

Any chance of a picture of the BBA. seems rather soon to have developed to me although it's probably not unheard of, did you get it new or was it from someone else's tank?

With the small tank I would just carry on with what you are doing it looks great and will look even better when it has grown in a tad more. The right hand side of the 350 is perfect but the left hand side appears to me to have grown to close to the front glass, nothing that a good trim wouldn't...

Great photos Tai !

Welcome! :wave:

Hi, Interested to see how is this going with the sump etc. would be good to have an update and a photo. Cheers!

Afraid I'm not using one and not sure how long you have had it running but plants generally take a week or two to transition to new parameters. As such I personally find keeping the CO2 stable throughout the photoperiod as important if not more so than having wavering levels trying to reach some...

It could well be what @LMuhlen has described, are you keeping your salts in good quality airtight containers, I can imagine it being quite hot and humid in Italy at this time of year? I'm no chemist but I know that some anhydrous salts are used as desiccants therefore I would imagine CaSO4...

Welcome! :wave:

Looking good, keep us posted and keep up with the water changes for the first couple of weeks to keep ammonia levels down and removal of decaying plant matter as they transition.

I agree with you 100%, and the money you would spend on fish could be put towards a nice strain of shrimp and maybe a couple of clithon snails or similar.

Shrimp really prefer a mature tank so ideally I would wait six weeks or so, but if/when after a couple of weeks you get a diatom outbreak I can see no problem adding 5 approx as long as the ammonia and nitrite levels have reduced to zero. If you are intending to keep a/some snails then it would...

Looks nice whatever it is.

@Aquarium Gardens @Horizon Aquatics :thumbup: or Aquarium Plants from Aquarium Gardens UK | Live Aquatic Tropical Tank Plants Horizon Aquatics

That's a lovely looking tank!

For some strange reason I've been keeping my eye on the dam rupturing and flooding in Minnesota, you OK @MichaelJ or anyone else from there for that matter?

All of the surfaces within your aquarium is biomedia, I know biomedia is the given name for some porous bits of stone or round plastic balls but you are basically just providing a surface for bacteria to colonise, and it's then a case of providing the right conditions for the beneficial bacteria...

Hi, I personally wouldn't turn up the CO2 any more at the moment (your current plants will be fine with lower levels), in fact I would turn it down a notch for the time being. I can see you have guppy grass in there but with a tank that size I'd be tempted to add a fair few more bunches of fast...

MFS = Multiple Filter Syndrome!

I personally would go with the Complete as I would imagine (without looking) that Lite does not contain any Nitrate or Phosphate which are two of the Macro elements most plants need to thrive. You could get away with using Lite while the Aquasoil is new but with a tank that size a bottle is...

Welcome! :wave:

Good to see you Clive!

To me, time and patience seems to be something a lot of modern society lacks in general, the consumer age we have created appears to me to be based around a desire for instant gratification. Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking anyone (I'm just as responsible as the next man/woman) just observing...

It should produce roots by itself, just wait until you have three or four decent looking little plants and then snip them off the stalk (or whatever it's called) and plant, well that's all I used to do when I was an Amazon fanatic, there was no special process.

I'm not sure (in fact I've got no idea and I'm not a stem grower) but just a thought or two. Do you think it could possibly be die back from reducing the mineral content of your water (RO) by two and a half times. Is flow not a problem now the plants have filled in (not sure what your...

Welcome! :wave:

Have you considered just using a powerhead to supplement flow around your tank, you don't necessarily need masses of filtration in a planted tank. I use a AI Nero 3, it is capable of moving a large volume of water without creating a vortex and is programable for both time and power percentage...

The humble JBL checker has a white background making for easy colour distinction, I personally wouldn't bother using their stickers, indicator solution and varying dKH method of calculation but I would imagine you already have 4dKH solution left over from your 'tear drop' checker. JBL CO2-pH...

For such a small tank you might as well use a commercial brand TNC Complete 250ml, I think this is what quite a few people use or you can go down the Tropica route Tropica Specialised Nutrition Fertiliser 125ml or any complete all in one, the choice is yours.

Welcome! :wave: Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Excellent tip, will try this in the next day or two.

'Like a Hurricane' takes me back to the earliest house parties I attended.

Welcome! :wave: Look forward to seeing your 'work' later.

Welcome! :wave:

Welcome! Consider starting a journal where all your photos and information will be in one place making it easier for others to access and offer appropriate advice plus you will have a pictorial history of your journey.

Thanks to all @Horizon Aquatics for having us, the selection of plants is second to none including a few I have never even heard of before, and thanks to any UKAPS team involved with the organisation Including and especially @Geoffrey Rea and @Ady34. It was also good to catch up/meet with other...

Good luck for the future Paulo!