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HI, Had some problems with the S repens the last 5 days so the lovely carpet is no more. It suddenly all melted, The melt spread like wildfire from one spot in the middle of the front, leaves turned grey and rotted within 3 days all the front section had disappeared. Oh well. I'm sure it will...

I usually do maintenance on Saturday morning but I am away the weekend so had to do it today. The tank needed a good clean and a good prune, the R macranda was trying to escape and the R sp green needs regular pruning to keep it healthy. I have been re-planting the cuttings, but this is the...

Hi Sacha, I would be tempted to keep the s repens, I was under the impression that they are ok with lower co2 and light? Anyway, You do have the choice to continue co2 with liquid if you wish or if you want to go fully low tech I would just switch the lights off for a week and turn off the co2...

Its fairly long photo period 7 Hours. I still think the light intensity can go up a little, just not quite yet.

The blue background really is a nice change. I would never had thought of that. Very nice.

Lol, I had to read your post three times. I read it as Karla has had kittens! Kitties need cuddles so I can see why you have been busy. I love video, its very different without a substrate. I'm wondering if you could stick a big java fern on to the glass behind the wood, with a dab of waterproof...

Thanks Jay, Its taken nearly 2 months for the tank and filter to settle in, hopefully its stable now.

Thanks Christos, The previous Picture was taken on Tuesday. So 4 days. The light is different, its a box with two 11W spiral cfl bulbs. The led unit is pretty to look at but I have not seen any growth with it. The light has been ramped up in the last few days from 11W led to 2x11Wcfl today...

Fingers crossed, this time hopefully it has settled. Starting to fill out now.

As long as you do not have vallis or similar like egeria, then you can continue dosing easycarb. Actually might be better to just ease out of it rather than stopping completely, or just continue dosing alongside the co2, the two methods should complement each other.

Hi, Thanks Jose and Luckyjim :) New plants, S repens. The Hc kept going black so in the bin and try something new. Never tried this before. Also, as there are new plants, the light goes down again for a while.

The view from my bed is starting to improve very slowly but surely.

That is very nice, it is good to see something different. I am looking forward to seeing more tank lit shots.

That picture in #104, beautiful.

How about some of this or similar? http://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Cryptocorynealbida%27Brown%27%28126B%29/18194 This one is a personal favorite and grows very thick quite quickly. http://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Cryptocorynebeckettii%27Petchii%27%28108A%29/4560 There...

I think its great, maybe a carpet of some of the smaller crypts in the front corners and thicken up the stems at the back corners.

Hi Dan, I do not think the eheim 600LH Filters will be sufficient for your needs, even if you have two. If you go low tech and possibly supplement with Liquid CO2 you might save yourself a lot of money. Or look at Koralia style pumps for added flow. The nano Koralia is good for 900l/h.

I use an Eheim 2215 on my 20 L tank and the flow is fine. The 2215 is also 600L/H. I use a poppy style Lilly pipe but used the jet style standard Eheim output before and it was still OK. That was only with two filter sponges as well.

Hi jose, its not co2 trust me, unless too much causes it. It is just new tank syndrome, it will take at least 3 months before I can do anything worthwhile with this setup and mature the filter. Its fine I can wait. Again not unless high concentrations cause problems as well. I was dosing 30...

Hi Christos, Yes, the softer water has probably led to their demise. When I stopped doing water changes in my last tank all the snails died in a similar fashion.

Hi Christos, Yes I did try it, but only for 3 days. I thought there was a reduction in diatoms on the second day but an increase in bga by the third. I am forever trying different things that mostly fail, but it satisfies my curiosity, I would not be so reckless with fishes in the tank though...

That video was great, so much nicer than my maintenance..... dragging out dead plants and swearing at mucky water!

I hope, dare I say it, that the diatoms are finally in retreat. I have had to make some changes and throw away a lot of plants in the process. This is my first attempt at co2 tank in a few years so it is like I have to learn from scratch. A few things I think I would do differently in future...

Well, I was very surprised. Today there was a big improvement of the plants. The very high light was only on for 3 days and the diatoms I cleaned off did not grow back so quickly. Also there was a lot more growth. I have given everything a good prune to remove as much of the affected leaves as I...

Well, it is a shame but the ongoing issues I am having with Diatoms have near but killed this attempt completely. This would be the third time for me that Diatoms have destroyed my plants. I will continue for now, but I will be increasing the light considerably. I have for the last 10 days or so...

Hi, LOL I gave up buying lottery tickets long time ago. Perhaps I should start again. It sounds a lot but it also sounds like where I would like my lighting, I do not like dim tanks, or pink ones. The arcadia leds make my plants all look pink, and the diatoms seem to still enjoy it. :arghh:

http://www.apogeeinstruments.co.uk/aquarium-par-meters/ They also sell the electric calibrated sensor only, for people that do not mind hooking it up to a mutimeter, or want to use their own data logger.

Hi, do you mind me asking what your lighting setup is and if you consider it low,high, very high or moderate. I'm hoping your right about the specialist lighting.

Hi, banthaman. I definitely recommend the in line atomiser. Incidentally, I have GSA in some areas of my tank and I add 6 ppm po4 per day. So, sometimes there is something else going on.

I love it, You do not really need spray bars though. No substrate to worry about, slower growing plants in the middle normal outflows would work just as well.

Good review! I recently brought a single 11w arcadia stretch led unit but thought it was not bright enough for my tastes. I really like the light though so I brought another one. Unfortunately, it does not appear that there is much more light than before. I'm going to persevere with them for a...

I can not say if they are more susceptible than other species in general, but the ones I tried were definitely more delicate than other fishes and seem to take quite a long while to acclimatise.

I have a bit more pearling now. I have fitted my very old up inline atomiser on. I thought it was blocked but I just run a pipe cleaner through it and now I have a very milky white water. Plants seem to like this. I hope now that with these much higher co2 levels I can see some decent growth and...

Just a fun thread, (I hope). I am curious to know all your light experiments over the years and which types, power etc gave you the best growth and plant health. For example, High light category, 10 gallon started at 15 W T8 and ramped up to 75 W over a period of about 4 months. 2 x 30 W...

Thank you Roy, I hope so, it seems to be recovering, I am still playing with light levels a lot trying to find a comfortable amount. I have the Arcadia stretch Led but I think it is too dim, growth slows visibly, the cfl fitting I have seems ok, but I do still have some diatoms. Not sure what to do.

I have given the front right hand side a good prune back in order to remove some of the old emergent growth. I hope it grows back ok.

I never saw anything like this before, I was amazed. :clap:

It will be fine, give it a go :). It does seem to be a smaller rush after all, I bet Darrel knows more about it.

Lighting and getting the right lighting is the most infuriating aspect of this hobby I think. They are either too dark too bright, too expensive or unobtainable, lighting has always been an issue for me.

Nice choices. That last one looks like a monster though.

Amazing pictures, your tank is really very nice to look at it.

You could try a leaner dose over time, but for now I would leave it as normal, extra ferts wont do any harm. Also you are using liquid carbon so technically is still co2 tank. Have you had a look at this thread? http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/ei-daily-methods-or-pmdd-po4.915/

Sometimes it takes a while to establish, but regular pruning helps to fill it out, re- plant the off cuts to help. Mine have preferred higher light levels, but balanced with co2. I have grown it many years ago in liquid carbon. Light levels to suit the available carbon of course.

I have had much better success with in vitro plants than potted ones, differences, I have always started with moderate light for the first 3 weeks and never introduced livestock until everything is running smoothly. Maximum EI from day one lots of water changes and as much co2 as I can get into...

Lol, It had nothing to do with anything on here, it was a domestic drama. I would like an ID on the plants if possible, the new one with the little leaves, Hc or Monte Carlo? There are two varieties of grassy plant one sold as Eleocharis parvula but it does not look like that plant, and the...

Very impressive, nice growth, clean and very pretty. you are most welcome.

Please do not take this as a criticism, I have noticed in a lot of your pictures your hardware appears to be very dirty, with many days growth of algae and detritus on them. It helps greatly I believe to maintain the hardware in the best condition possible, this may not stop your algae, but...

I have had better luck with the tropica brand with this plant. Anyway, I lose patience. In the bin it goes. High light, lots of co2 and fertiliser, what could possibly go wrong? :nailbiting: Never had the opportunity to try one of these photo's till now, never tried to grow this plant before!

yes, exactly that. But, also it is not growing well. growth is slower than it should be in my experience.

Hello, A quick photo update, I have had to pull most of the Pogostomon out and strip the lower leaves off, again. So, as a result the pogostomon is not doing very well. It is normally such an easy plant to grow. Everything else is doing well, the R Macranda and E Parvula have both adapted to the...

I see two faces in the pictures. Troll or goblin faces! Very nice. But do not like the troll faces. :)

Hi polly, do not want to promote my journal but this pic shows the color spectrum of the stretch fairly well, the only editing to the pic was increasing the exposure slightly but this is very close to what I could see by eye. It does bring out color very nicely.

Have edited the first post and re-opened imgur account so there should be no problem to see pictures now, also picture 2 was incorrect, this is the actual pic showing the light from the arcadia stretch. So as not to waste this post bump the thread for no good reason, I will post details of my...

It is very interesting. Your light seems very bright. I recently purchased an 11 watt unit that appears very dim in comparison, I was not happy with it at all. Your tank is filling in nicely and looks very healthy.

Wow this is lovely.

No your right, they do not show up on my i phone either, ok in firefox/iceweasel. I am using, dare I say it, planted tank for hosting as my imgur account was deleted.

I am, very sorry that I cant answer your question relating to bba zak. I have only had bba once in a very low light tank with no added co2. It grew very slowly on the leaves of crypts for a couple of weeks. I removed the infected leaves and it did not come back. I was doing water changes weekly...

I recently brought the small 11w stretch, it is very nicely made but the controller is a bit cheap. Also the light from it takes some getting used to, but plants do look pretty under it. I found it too low light to use only one, even in a nano tank like mine, Good value for money but not if you...

Thank you Roy, :) ADA says he cant see the pictures let me know if they are not showing up please, so I can fix it. They show up ok for me on firefox.

Thank you both. It is nice to be back.

Just wanted to thank you all for the advice you gave me about the noisy eheim, it now is reasonably quiet and allows sleep. No longer does it sound like a cement mixer. Tightening the rotor with tape and some silicon grease on the spindle has fixed it.

Sorry about making a new thread, I'm sure the old one was deleted. It is a long story never mind. Been working a lot so not had much chance to be around. This is the same tank, as before. 20 Litre, Eheim classic 2215 filter with three foam discs only. Co2 by a Bazooka nano. Lighting is : first...

This is very nice, and those lights are very sexy.

Great thread Zak, I am enjoying it a lot.:thumbup: I just wanted to say, maybe we could start a thread with just experimental tanks? Say a fixed time period, arbitrary number of months, with set parameters maybe at extremes and post results. Not journals as such but just one off posts with...

I think you are correct. I think the spindle thing may be worn. I will be forced to drink more before bedtime in order to sleep properly....

I try to fix eheim today, followed instructions, all seems well. Still it sound like wonky washing machine. :grumpy:

It looks like a quality tank, keep us updated. The layout is very nice, I am looking forward to seeing plants and water.

Vallis can be a pain sometimes anyway, sometimes it will hardly grow and melts looks awful etc other times it just grows like crazy and takes over the tank. I think you have done an amazing job it looks really nice, I love the layout and plant choice as well. Keep posting pics. :thumbup:

Good lord they are very cheap. Why in Britain must we pay so high for everything. Ive just spent the same on one arcadia led strip 30 cm long! :arghh: Your tank is beautiful amazing pictures.

I think there was a thread here about ferts in small frozen cubes that could be pushed into the substrate, a DIY method that is economical and you can create yourself. I can not remember what the thread was called though, I think it was Tom Barr who spoke about it though so worth checking out...

Great. I never knew this. My eheim sounds like my grandmas old washing machine. I'll try that. I do not know what they mean by greasing either, maybe its a channel that directs some water towards the spindle to prevent overheating, and added lubrication. I guess, so do not quote me. Thanks for...

I just wipe the inside with kitchen paper that has some white vinegar on it at every water change, other wise I do not touch the glass.

One small tank, easier, less time consuming, fun, cheap (like me) etc.

I never have used a drop checker or ph meter. In the tanks I mention, they were not great but were the best I did myself. I think titration is the only method economically viable, but probably not relevant to our needs. You maybe right about actual ppm values it is very difficult to economically...

cute kitteh

Have you touched the leaves? Are they strong or crispy or fragile? I had Alternanthera grow new leaves like this under very high co2 but they turned normal as they aged. The new growth should be supple and strong it may not be a problem at all. What do they feel like? Also, luvly tank!

Thats very nice, the tank looks similar to the tank I am using now. I am a bit jelly of your aquascaping skills, I have no ability at all and no eye for a nice layout.

Hi, the arguments are all great fun. The best looking tanks I ever did myself were all super high light about 6-7 watts per gallon and obscene amounts of co2 . Most want quick growth big plants and rich Color all the methods I've tried, only with high co2 and loads of light came anywhere near of...

I warned you...... Here it comes. :lol:

The nutrient imbalance theory is likely to start an argument, in my experience. Lol.

Very pretty.

Lol, don't get it for me its your tank. This stuff can also cause grief, it is a pain in my **** to plant it.

Yes the crypts are good but occasionally can cause grief. This is what I was thinking of, they sell it everywhere and its cheap.

Make do with what you have and improvise, spending money does not always get the results you wished for. CO2 will definitely help, just concentrate on stability and routine. Get lots of cheap bunches of plants like that bushy one that starts with c that I cant remember, that way you can build up...

I have to say I do not get any back draw of water on my bazooka when I switched it off. It takes about 15-30 seconds to start. I might switch back to an in-line myself, I found them to be more reliable.

I see the Face as well! Looks like an Amercan Indian in profile! Can never be unseen....

You made me wet myself a little with this comment.

I like your plant list! :thumbup: Don't be afraid to lose some along the way, just try different stuff.

Very nice carpet, how often do you have to trim that?

fill it with stems, and crypts here and there. Lots of colorful stems about and you have the space, Alternanthera, c balansae, c bullosa ( now I know I spelt some of that wrong.). not a fan of the ornament, just get more stems and bushy pretty palnts! :)

C balansae (did I spell that right?), it grows really nice if you stick it in the corner and let it go with the flow. It would look nice in your tank I think.

Lovely, I love the layout, and it looks so clean.

Really? I never get spam from rs, I hate spam, so wouldn't have recommended if I knew that.

Check out RS components they might have a suitable reg

You could just use a teaspoon and estimate it roughly, as long as you don't under dose its fine later add more if your lacking.

I think your gonna need a bigger tree!

It looks really nice in those last pics, I love it. The goldfish look superb as well.

Impressive, very nice, great to see how it developed from those early pictures.