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I have checked my order from aqua essentials and I think it is Hygrophila angustfolia rubra.

Great information as usual. Thank you.

Co2 Supermarket will sort you out with a regulator with solenoid and then a bubble counter and reactor package and then all you need is a short length of hose from the regulator to the reactor. Then pick up a 2kg FE anywhere you can. CO2 Solenoid Regulator CO2 Systems For Your Aquarium - CO2...

So it is better to have a mist of bubbles than having the CO2 fully dissolved in the water? I went for a Reactor rather than Atomiser in my other tank as I thought being fully dissolved was more efficient?

I use mine on the pressure side but I have also read that it is ok to put it on the suction side and have it go through the filter media. It's bound to break up the Co2 bubbles a bit more.

I have one of those as well as a Fluval and a glass one and find the Colombo the easiest to read.

I will measure the PH as you say but won't be able to do that for another two weeks. The fluid in the DC was fresh and dark blue on Monday and soon turns to green and stays there. I will keep you updated.

That was at 1pm this afternoon and the lights don't go on till 4pm and there is an hour of Co2 before the lights too so yes that's about the colour when the lights go on and it pretty much stays that colour 24 hours a day.

I forgot to add the dropper colour. This was whilst draining the water during a water change and the Co2 hadn't been on for 17 hours: No point taking a photo now as it always takes a little time to settle after a 50% water change.

Ok I will keep my eye on it and try some different things. The flow seems good with a strong current throughout the tank with swaying plants at both ends of the tank. I am adding Co2 through an inline reactor an hour before lights on and an hour before lights off which are on for 6 hours a day...

I have noticed the Co2 rate is a little slow no matter how much I open the valve. The gauge on the bottle is showing good so I think it may be the UP atomiser getting blocked and causing a restriction so will get that cleaned out.

If anything the Co2 is a little on the high side. I am just fine tuning it a little lower as the gill movement on the fish seem to be a little rapid to me. The indicator is still green though not yellow.

I like the red leaves on the Rotala you mentioned and the P. Helferi looks really good so will plan on them next and take out some of the long leaved stem plants.

Maturing nicely but I think I need to do something with the long stem plants. They are bare at the bottom and too long at the top.

My bulb is sprouting nicely. Just less than a weeks worth from nothing:

Oh and there is an aponogeton bulb just sprouting just to the right of the heater on the left which seems to be doing well. As for the background I am thinking either all blue or all black. I cant have non as there is far too much going on behind it!

Thanks for all the advice. If you look at how the tank was just last week I have actually started trimming the stem plants and trimmed and moved the sword. I will continue to trim more as things grow and look at getting the background changed. lol. I will go and look at these plants you...

I have a change about and bought some more plants. Going to have a sloped look from left to right following the way the wood getting higher at the right. Added section: Here is how it looks now:

Here is an update just to show the plant growth: Used a 2Kg FE in 2 months so picked up a new one today:

I checked the calibration this evening an it pumped 30ml in one minute which is exactly what it should have done and what I set it at web it was brand new. All good on that front but it did do something very strange this evening and dose for 1 min at 10pm even though it wasn't scheduled and had...

I was wondering if it would be ok to turn the flow down when the Co2 isn't on. My reason being is that my extra flow to get 10x is produced by a power head which is noisy and causes the fish to all stay at one end of the tank. As it isn't filtered flow and was installed for the distribution of...

The pumps are working fine. Nothing blocked up or anything and I haven't checked the calibration for a few months. I will do though and let you know how it is.

Mine went off for over two days when I was on holiday. I was lucky it happened at the end of my holiday not the beginning but I was surprised to fine only one fish dead out of over 60 fish and the temperature was down at 16 degrees! I am sure 8 hours will be fine.

No I haven't. My water PH has always been too high for them to want to breed although that may change with Co2 injection. I haven't tried to breed and just let whatever happens happen. The Kribs just breed all the time! Lol

Thanks. Yeah all my fish are doing great. I have spent 6 years learning how to look after them. It's the plants I am having trouble with and only been doing that a month or two and have been away for 4 weeks of that time! I have even had damaged, ripped and wounded fish that have been brought...

I didn't understand all if that fully but it sounded good so I will just trim the plant by removing the leaves with the brown ends from the bottom of the plant. Thanks.

Holy smoke! I just had a look at the photos on page 12 compared to your first page and amazed at how great it looks now! A really good job and awesome feature in your house!

The water is clear as such, its just leaves and stems that have uprooted or fallen off for whatever reason. The flow is enough to sway the plants and the Eheim filter does a reasonable job of catching small particles. Since posting this I now have about 50 Kribensis Fry in the tank so I have...

Thanks I have been reading through the James' Planted tank page now. And yes it is a Echinodorus Bleheri. As found here: http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/echinodorus-bleheri-p-5902.html Its not the only plant I have issues with which is why I wanted a symptom, cause, and remedy guide so I...

Can anyone point me in the right direction to where I can find various symptoms and solutions to plant health and algae issues in a planted tank so I can keep my eye on things and know what changes I need to make. I am sure I have read information in various topics but can't seem to pin point...

I pick them out from the surface usually as they are on their travels. Turning the filter off stops the movement but the bits tangled up in the other plants has to be removed by hand.

The planted set up is reasonably new so hoping as they get more rooted and grow stronger there should be less. It's mainly any dead leaves that have detached or pieces of grass that have uprooted.

I would have all the rocks at one end of the tank stacked up creating a sloped scape and have tall plants behind it and the foreground plants at the other end of the tank.

Since upgrading the filtration and flow to 10x in my 165 litre tank there has been a lot of plant debris flying around the tank. It follows the circulation of the flow from the back of the tank and down the front and gets caught up on any plants at the front of the tank. Whenever I see photos or...

Whole tank:

It's early days and things have only just become stable in the tank. The plants at the moment do not look great but I know I need to give them time and read the signs so I can make small adjustments to get it right. Here are how some if the plants look at the moment. Some are suffering from...

The correct size UP atomiser arrived so I have replaced the Fluval Diffuser with it to see how I get on: Seems to be a much finer mist of bubbles out of the spray bar. Still adjusting bubble count to get it right as its more efficient that the diffuser.

I just went on holiday and turned the lights and Co2 down to 3 hours a day and dosed a whole weeks worth of ferts before I went.

One of my old plants I transferred from my old tank looked like that. A few days with a Bristlenose Pleco and the leaves were all clean. I don't know enough about how to prevent it though.

10 times per hour flow rate is a term mentioned a lot. I am running 1000 lph on my 165 litre tank and that seems more than enough as the fish look like they are swimming against a strong tide all the time and the plants all sway like there is a breeze. I would say distribution is just as...

That's a bad crack! Won't be messing with mine too much that's for sure!

I got it off eBay: Aquarium Powerhead water pump 800lph http://bit.ly/12KzvT5

I set up my Fluval Co2 checker and immediately noticed how poor the indication was and how difficult to colour was to see. I was unsure if it was the checker or the supplied fluid so I put my other checker from my other tank in next to it with the same Fluval fluid in and the difference is...

I'm home from my holiday and everything has survived so now I am going to start really paying attention and making slow changes and monitoring. Thanks for the help and advice.

I'm back! If going away for 10 days wasn't bad enough there was a power cut Friday mining and I didn't arrive back home until the early hours of Sunday so both tanks had no heater or filtration for 36 hours never mind lighting Co2 or Ferts! The temp in the small tank was 17 degrees and the large...

You would also need a big cabinet to hide a 3 foot tall bottle!

I have just got a Co2 Supermarket regulator and you can not adjust the output pressure. Mine is sitting at 50psi. If you have a bubble counter coming off the regulator you might want to have the gauges facing upwards so the outlet for the Co2 is pointing upwards.

Right I am going away tomorrow for ten days. I have done a 50% water change on both tanks and set the Co2 to come on for 3 hours and the lights for 3 hours with the Co2 coming on an hour before and off an hour before the lights. On my larger 425 litre tank I am only going to run 2 of the 4 54w...

The top half if the water seems to be flowing away from the spray bars and pump and then the bottom half of the water flowing in the opposite direction. I am hoping this means the pumps are strong enough to force the water along the tank and its hitting the end and then being sucked back along...

Video:

I am trying out an inline reactor from Co2 Supermarket on my larger tank: No idea how efficient it is but I can't see any bubbles coming out of the spray bar so it might be mixing them pretty well. Slightly noisier with Co2 going through it mind you but its liveable.

Aqua Essentials order arrived this morning. And as I was setting up the FE in my new tank I swapped them around as my new one is tall and thin which won't fit in my other cabinet so it has gone under this tank nicely: And as it is the wife's tank I had no say in the distribution of the...

I went for this option. 1600 filtered external pumps and 3200 Hydor Powerhead. I have one spray bar pointing horizontally just below the surface without much surface agitation, one scrap bar pointing at about 70 degrees downwards and the powerhead pointing about 30 degrees through the tank...

I have only been using 2 lamps since you advised that earlier. That was just for the photo. I don't have problems as such as just starting out. I do feel I have all the tools required now to have a successful go at it. 10x flow, Co2, EI dosing, 2 WPG lighting, 50% water changes per week and...

All my equipment arrived so I installed it all today. Firstly I put my FE and Regulator together. I was impressed with the quality of the Co2 Supermarket regulator. I decided to put both external filters at one end an have both spray bars at one end and the suction at the other end and have...

I'm dosing Macro and Micro on alternative days 6 days a week with one day off. Which day would you do your water change? I have just done a 50% water change but it is also my day off dosing. I take it there is enough ferts in the 50% of old water to keep the plants happy until the dosing starts...

I could try that. That would then suck the Co2 up then through the external filter and out of the spray bay giving it more time to be absorbed into the water. I am getting an UP inline atomiser soon as I have sent mine back for an exchange as I got the wrong size.

It's a Fluval ceramic diffuser at the moment. Distribution seems pretty good. Have you watched my video I posted at the start of the topic?

Set it up today so it came on 2 hours before. It's lime green now and the lights have come on. I will monitor it now. I must be losing a lot of gas though looking at how many bubbles are at the surface:

This is what the drop checker looks like now after Co2 has been on for 5 hours and lights on for 4:

Sorry for the vague title but I am having some trouble knowing when and of how much Co2 to inject. At present I start injecting at 3pm and my lights go on at 4pm. The Co2 goes off at 9pm an the lights at 10pm. For instance it is now 8pm so the Co2 has been on for 5 hours and my drop checker is...

My UP atomiser was the wrong size so getting it exchanged so I thought I would try the Fluval Co2 88 ceramic diffuser. I also had a big cut back of the Aponogetum which has some new shoots coming up and removed some dead leaves from some other plants. The grass type plants seem to have some...

Sorted and tested properly this time!

Well it was a good job I was home when the dose started. The settings for auto dosing is start time and RUN TIME. I thought it was start time and END TIME. I had it set so it would run for 15 hours 1 min rather than start at 15:00 and end at 15:01! Woops. I will set it up correctly and post a...

Ok I have ordered a 2kg FE, a regulator with solenoid, bubble counter and reactor from Co2 Supermarket. Then I will start EI dosing and use the full 200W of lighting.

The checker is that colour pretty much the whole time the lights are on but I was going by what I read in regards to the checker taking up to two hours to respond so if that photo was taken just as the lights went out at 10pm that would be an indication of what the Co2 levels were like at 8pm?

Thanks. I think I will get some other bottles and try a non return valve in the lid as you have shown.

I can eat breakfast wherever I am but I can't take my tank to work with me for 2 weeks and I can't guarantee the wife will remember so this was my solution.

Ok. I have two sets of two so I can just switch one off for now. Would EI dosing and liquid carbon be any good?

Just realised if you use tapatalk you can't see signatures and you Can copy posts so here goes: Dosing pumps arrived this afternoon. I managed to get a free spare pump thrown in too. There is a master that controls the timers and the slave that just does as its told: Each pump can have up...

Dosing pumps arrived this afternoon. I managed to get a free spare pump thrown in too. There is a master that controls the timers and the slave that just does as its told: Each pump can have up to 36 timed intervals. You can set the day of the week and how long the pump runs for. I did...

Ok my dosing pumps arrived today. Follow the link to my journal for the Aquaone AR850 in my signature. Save me posting all the photos and stuff twice.

I don't have Co2 injection on this tank and have only dosed Excel once as a carbon substitute when i did a water change. This is why I would like advice as to what to do until I can afford another Co2 setup.

It will be on my journal as soon as it arrives. ;)

This is what I have just ordered: Marine Magic 1+1 doser - Set Instructions: http://www.rrasco.com/downloads/MM-01B_IB_-_English.pdf

I have had a big change in the tank recently. I took my 6 Bala Shark back to the LFS and exchanged them. I think even a 5ft tank will be too small for them in the long run and they were uprooting the plants and very photosensitive. I have now gone for a variety of Rainbowfish, Barbs, and Tetra...

I have just ordered a double dosing pump. I was put off by the triple as you can only program them per 24 hours and not by the days. I am planning on dosing one pump Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other pump Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday which I think you can do going by the instructions...

I have gone for Ruby Barbs, Lemon Tetra, Purple Emperor Tetra, Western Rainbowfish, Blue Rainbowfish and Boesemani Rainbowfish. Looking forward to them all settling in and the colours coming out.

Would Spotted Blue Eye and Yellow Forktail Rainbow fish be suitable?

Yes I am thinking of the Ruby Barb as I too like them and would love to add some colour to the tank. Its very monochrome at the moment with Silver Shark and Glass Catfish. My wife has 5 bar barbs in the other tank and they look fantastic now they have settled in with electric blue stripes...

At present I have 6 Silver Shark in my 5 foot 425 litre tank. I am going to be swapping them at my LFS. I think they will get too big for this tank and as they are very fast moving and sensitive to movement they flip around the tank and uproot the plants and I don't want to put any more fish...

Everything has been running since yesterday morning now. I dosed Macro yesterday and Micro today and the Co2 and lights are on their timers. This is what the checker is showing now an hour after lights out so really its showing the Co2 an hour before lights out. Looks ok to me.

I will keep my eye on them. Thy are in the lid and not inside the tank but even so thanks for the warning.

Does it root itself to the wood eventually? Looks kinda strange how it is now. Do you have a photo of your mother plant? I took that fern out and the underside of its leaves had little roots shooting off it. I didn't have anywhere where I could tie it on so the stems weren't in the gravel...

I wasn't sure what I was doing but I tied it to the wood. Is this right?:

Thanks guys I will do some research on these books.

The fish don't think it's a small Eheim. Lol. They are having to swim like made just to stop being swept away! I will get the ferns out and replaced with something else on Sunday. Any ideas of a suitable mid ground fern?

I will sort the plants out then. Can I plant that fern in a pot as a house plant? What about the Aponogetum? If I cut that down will it grow back? I have been rocking the filter around all morning and opening and closing the taps to try and get rid of air but its still loud. I will keep trying.

I am back from working away for 2 weeks. That tiny Co2 bottle lasted less than 3 weeks and I left my wife the wrong plant food to feed. Needless to say the plants are suffering a bit: I got back late last night so at 7am this morning I went about setting up all the kit I had ordered...

I am looking for a book with a guide to different types of aquarium plants. I already have the Mini Encyclopedia Tropical Aquarium which I found useful thwn starting out but was wondering if the Mini Encyclopedia Aquarium Plants was any good? If not any other books worth getting?

Lol. Did you ask the fish? And if so what did they say? Something along the lines of "not bothered as long as you give us some fresh water now and then and do t turn the Co2 up too high?"

I have bought a twin programmable dosing pump which I plan to use on alternative days for Micro and Macro. I just have a couple of questions regarding frequency and time. Say I am dosing 30ml per day what time should I program it to dose and should I do it all in one go or say 10ml 3 times a...

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking of asking Maidenhead Aquatics if they could get hold of the spray bars for my filters and then just taking the plug out of end and extending them somehow. Then I would have spray bar pretty much the whole way across the back of the tank as shown by ceg.

I have a full EI kit waiting for me to mix up, a Eheim 600 filter, 2kg FE, Regulator and UP inline atomiser to install as soon as I get home! Its just a waiting game now and hoping they can be saved.

Only just realised I have been feeding Flourish Excel in the tank for the last 2 weeks after ordering it by mistake rather than just normal Flourish! We have been dosing Excel along with injected Co2. I have been away working for 2 weeks and the wife has reported that the plants aren't looking...

How does joining two spray bars together to double their length affect the efficiency of the pump and the flow? From an engineering point of view I would imagine having more holes from the added spray bar would mean less pressure out of each hole but less restrictive to the pump alling a higher...

The funny thing is that since getting my new 5 foot tank I have been spending all my money and efforts in my old tank that my wife is turning into a planted tank. Once I have that up and running and can maintain a smaller 165 litre tanks I may then turn more attention to the big tank. So to...

I am turning my smaller tank into a high tech setup first so this one may happen one day. I will see how it goes.

Well at the moment I have no Co2, not many plants and its only been set up less than 2 months. The design of my tank will make it difficult to add any additional pipe work due to the cut outs in the glass lid. I have been looking at external filter options but to get up to 4000 litres per hour...

Would something like a circulation pump work? I looked up the make you said and found this: HYDOR KORALIA EVOLUTION 3200 CIRCULATION PUMP It has 2800 lph circulation? And mount that at the end of my tank and have it set up as diagram 2? Or even a bigger one with 4000 lph?