17 US gallons excel supplemented tank ( 3rd Month !! )

[faizal]

I had to trasfer this journal from the El natural & Low tech segment of the forum. I had initially intended for this to be a low tech set up,..but I had a change of heart about 3-4 weeks into the set up. This being the only tank in the currently rented and much smaller house and my consistent urge to do SOMETHING on a daily basis with an aquarium ,..i started with some Excel supplementation.

The initial phase of this tank could be found here: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=20299

These photos were taken last week. The only difference now is that the watersprite has grown a little bit more but the whole thing still looks pretty much the same.







The tank has a very slow growth rate. This suits me just fine. 😀 . No speedy gonzales stuffs at this stage of my learning curve.

Thanks to all the members who were kind enough to leave a comment & words of encouragement. You guys have helped me in more ways than you could imagine.

Here is a picture of one of my Plecos,




...haven't got a name for him/ her yet primarily because I can't tell the difference between a male & female pleco. I think I will just call it a "he" for now,....so,...he's always busy busy busy sucking up plant debris, algae, etc. When he spots me looking at him he just stops stone cold & doesn't move a muscle

Then when I get away from his field of vision,...he's back to his usual self,..cleaning ,...cleaning ,...cleaning,.... 😀
Such a simple & humble yet amazingly beautiful creation of God.

My kids & I boiled some frozen peas in the microwave last night & we stuck the peas in a stack using some toothpicks,....they haven't touched them yet,...but from what I have understood in Darrel's posts,..we need to leave the peas in the tank for a day or two until they turn a little mushy for the plecos to find it palatable.

 

[Ady34]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Hi,
lovely looking 'little' fish, however looks a bit like a jouvenile ptergoplicthys gibbiceps and will grow to 12"+ in no time, check this out: http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... ies_id=148 ..... maybe your LFS will swap him for another baby one when he outgrows the tank! Or maybe then look at clown plecs which have very nice patterns and colouration but remain under 4", or even bristle nose plecs which are excellent for the planted tank again not attaining huge adult sizes but great for grazing on nuisance algae.
Apart from his size he's pretty suitable as he wont eat plants, and he will love a few peas in his diet. Was one of my favourite plecs when i was growing up through fishkeeping, really beautiful when mature with a lovely 'sailfin' hence one of its common names... the sailfin plec. Not particularly subtle in an aquascape when they grow up a bit though.
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Thanks for that Ady,...the lady who sold it to me said that it wouldn't grow bigger than it is now. I guess she was clearly wrong. The fish in the picture on that link really looks similar to my little fella. It's too bad that I would have to let him go when he grows bigger. 🙁 He would definetely not be suitable for a 2 feet tank. How long do you think it usually takes them to get to 12 inches?

A basic question here please,...do we need a filter with 10 times turn over rate for an excel tank or is this exclusively for pressurized co2 supplemented tanks?

There's not much planting space left but I am planning on getting some staurogyne for some foreground cover, some flame moss and some rotunda rotundifloia green as a final addition to the tank. 🙂 Hope they do well.

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

There's not much planting space left but I am planning on getting some staurogyne for some foreground cover, some flame moss and some rotunda rotundifloia green as a final addition to the tank. 🙂 Hope they do well.

Ahem,... 😳 ,..yeah,...I think I have enough planting space now coz quite a bit of my crypts that I had tightly planted rear to the Nymphae rubra & ferns had melted completely since I had last posted. The flow was highly compromised especially at the rear part of the tank due to the smaller capacity of the initial filter.

The plants were doing well prior to the addition of the excel,... 🙂 yeah ,...me & my itchy fingers should have just left it alone like Darrel had advised. Anyways the left side of the tank is progressing well. The echinodorus amazonicus has given out quite a few new shoots,..i am also seeing new immersed leaves of e. tennellus here & there. H.polysperma is also coming along nicely. It's going to take another month atleast before I can start trimming them though.

The left side is looking kind of bare now ,...I had to remove one of the ferns to increase the flow to the rear of the tank. I had also installed a much powerful cannister,...I think it should be better now. Just need to wait it out i suppose.

For what it's worth,...here are some pics





Just received my flame moss, staurogynes and green rotalas today. Any ideas on where you'd think the flame moss should go?

Thanks for taking the time to read this rather boring journal. I realise it's very bland when compared to most of the other ones here. 😳 ( Just finished reading about Tom's, Fandango's & Ady's tank,...so feeling very humble about my set up )

 

[Ady34]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Thanks for taking the time to read this rather boring journal. I realise it's very bland when compared to most of the other ones here. ( Just finished reading about Tom's, Fandango's & Ady's tank,...so feeling very humble about my set up )

Hey Faizal, dont put yourself down. Youve got a great start in your set up, with good initial plant mass and your willing to listen and learn. Your getting more of an idea of where your set up is going,

The flow was highly compromised especially at the rear part of the tank due to the smaller capacity of the initial filter.

,

had to remove one of the ferns to increase the flow to the rear of the tank. I had also installed a much powerful cannister,...I think it should be better now.

and obviously your adapting where and when necessary. Everyone starts somewhere, and doing it in the journal is the best way to follow your own progression and level of understanding. As for feeling humble, if youve read my journal youll know that crypt melt is something i still havnt stopped, and c02 something i still havnt mastered!
Stick with it and in no way is this journal boring, there will be folk learning from this, same as any other journal.
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

😀 Cheers Ady. I am sorry if I sounded like a sod there,...
I am looking forward to add some amano shrimps over the weekend. Thanks for the kind words my friend.

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

The lower stump of one of the watersprites at the right rear side of the tank appeared kind of brownish this morning. I couldn't pull it out & check as I was rushing for work. Funny coz it was actually doing quite well at the begining. Could it be possible that since the watersprite has grown much bigger,...it's co2 demand is increasing and hence the current level of Excel dosing is inadequate for it to maintain a healthy stump base? My excel dosing is at it's proper value for the tank's size.

i don't think I can reduce the lighting levels further as the PAR is around 22- 30 at substrate level. I had initially been running it at 30-40 at substrate,....but I had to reduce it to its current range after spotting some hair algae over a couple of the plants including the watersprites a few weeks ago.

Or are my plants telling me to feed them with pressurised co2?

As usual,..your thoughts are highly valued

 

[Ian Holdich]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

the tank looks really clean and fresh. My kind of tank.

are you talking about this plant?


as i'm 99% sure that a non fully aquatic plant. It looks like a Dracaena.

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Thanks Ian,... 😀

How did you do that cool circle thingee with that picture?

No,..Ian I meant my watersprite. You could see it on the right rear side on my full tank shot. That plant there is anubias lanceolata,...at least that's what my supplier said. 😳

 

[Ian Holdich]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

my mistake Faiz, it does look like an Anubias. I just added the pic to paint. What lighting do you have over the tank?

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

No problem my friend. Ian,..i've got 3 T5s 15 watts each but i've got them raised more than a feet above the water surface and the PAR ranges between 22-30 micromol/sec/m2

 

[Ian Holdich]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

thats still a lot of light over a 60l tank. Have you thought about going down the pressurised route?

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Everyday 😀.
I had just removed the melted lower 1/5 th portion of the watersprite & replanted the rest back into the substrate.
You're right. I might just go pressurized. Just a bit worried that i might kill my new little ones y'know? I have 3 new baby otos in there. Just fed them some boiled peas. 😀

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Ian,...I have been thinking about this since last night so here it goes,....

There were basal stem rots on 2 of the green rotalas that I had planted last week. I realise that i am just guessing at things here but I can't help to think that this could just be another problem concerning obstructions in the flow. The melted basal stem of the watersprite had lots a huge drapes of roots covering the entire lower 1/3 rd of the plant. The upper part of the affected stem was very healthy,...this being closer to the light source.

Now those roots could have caused some flow obstruction,...right? I've trimmed most of those roots on the other watersprites and the whole thing kind of looks quite tidy & clean especially in the lower 1/3rd of the stems ,...hopefully with better flow now.

the 2 melted stems of rotalas were also obstructed by the anubias lanceolata. So I've moved the lanceolata away.

Like Clive says,..."One cannot expect instant reversal of fortunes with respect to aquatic plants" but bad things though can happen overnight especially in a carbon enriched system.

So I guess i'll simply wait it out for another 2 weeks and see. Besides the rotalas are all still in their emmersed leaf forms now.

So i think I am just going to keep on pruning those nasty hanging roots that keep on growing on the watersprites, be consistent with my daily dosing, water changes, keep the filters clean,etc etc and just wait it out before deciding on pressurized system. This might just work as the PAR ranges of 22-30ish are actually the substrate PAR levels,..not at the water surface.

 

[flygja]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Hey Faizal, a pleasantly bright looking tank you have there. You mentioned in your other thread that you were under-dosing Excel. I think that's not enough, in my experience, you may need to dose a lot more Excel. My truly low-tech tank is not carbon supplemented, runs only 24W of lighting over 2.5 feet, water is only 2/3rd filled so about 50L I'd guess. It keeps my Anubias and Java ferns alive but not much else.

But then again, I run crazy hi-tech tanks with lots of light and injected CO2. My current 60L tank is lit with 45W of Cree LEDs, CO2 injected at 2bps and I still dose 4 caps of Excel every alternate day so keep GSA and BBA at bay. Why am I going mad? Because I'm chasing mega growth for IAPLC at the moment

What about water temps? Weather is truly scorching these days, max of 34'C and "feels-like" of 38'C sometimes!

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

What about water temps? Weather is truly scorching these days, max of 34'C and "feels-like" of 38'C sometimes!

Thanks buddy,... 😀
I hear you brother,.. about the weather,... 🙄 But I have a fan running 24/7. It keeps the water temp @ about 28-29'C

The prescribed excel dosing on the bottle says:
5ml for every 10 gallons of aquarium water after a major water change (> 40%)
5ml daily dosing for every 50 gallons ( i presume US gallons) of aquarium water.
My tank is about 17 US gallons
So i have been dosing 2ml every day and 8.5 ml after the weekly 50% water change on every fridays.
Does this seem okay? I am a bit hesitant to increase the dose beyond this for I fear for my fishes. Or do you think I can increase it a little bit more?

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

A small update,...

Staurogynes as of last night. Appear to be doing well. I'd like to thank spyder for his detailed explanations on how to plant the staurogyne for foreground cover. I think he was explaining it to mikeappleby in one of the threads. 😀

I.e. "Take the staurogynes out from the nursery pot --> Remove the bottom 2-3 leaves --> make sure the bare stem is long enough--> retain just the upper 2-3 nodes with leaves on it--> plant it deep into the substrate so that the lowest leaves are just touching the substrate."




The Rotalas behind the ferns & nymphae rubra






If the rotalas pick up nicely,...I intend to keep them. If they show signs of disintegration again I was thinking of replacing them with some Hygrophila corymbosa compact. I really like the Excel driven growth rates y'know? It's just nice for someone like me cause I don't get to spend as much time with my tank as I would like to.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Looking good faizel...I couldn't help noticing that you're a doctor, are you an MD because...I've got this medical problem...only kidding. I was thinking of dabbling with Excel myself, it looks like a good home for your cardinals.

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Thank you for the kind words Troi. Yeah,....just your regular family physician stuff,...nothing exciting like surgery or Emergency Medicine though 🙂 But i like this life as there is a balance between family & work so you could say that i am content with it. 🙂

I am still getting some lower stem melts on the rotalas,...
See the small bunch of anubias petite nanas tied to the driftwood situated right in front of the rotala stems,...I think they are blocking the flow. When I removed them last night,...the plants at the back were swaying a bit more. I am just gonna wait & see. I've taken out 3-4 stems of the melting rotalas, cut the melted portion & then replanted them at a higher flow area of the tank where I believe there is less obstruction,...if these survive then i guess it's safe to consider that the reason behind the melt was poor flow.




There was practically no flow at all near the small crypt balansae that's closest to the rear wall of the tank there. When I removed the little anubias & the wood,...it was slightly swaying in the "breeze",... just a little bit that too though. This with a filter rated 1030 litres per hr in a 64 litre tank 🙄 .

 

[faizal]

Re: 17 US gallons excel supplemented tank.

Hi everybody. It's been nearly 2 weeks since my last update. The tank is settling in nicely I think. The need for removing constantly dying leaves seem to have gone less this last week. The rotalas have all since melted & I had to throw them all out a few days after my last post. I did some small changes like moving that tall driftwood with the phillipine java ferns to the right rear side of the tank, moving a nicely recovering echinodorus quadricostatus that I had thought was long gone to the spot where the rotalas were initially. Some of the e.tennellus have given out runners,... 😀 , yeah finally. It's far from a nice thick carpet that one gets to see in most of the exquisite tanks here but i am chuffed nevertheless. 😀

The hygrophila polysperma have done very well after an initial light trim ( an effort to make them to fill up a little bit). The bottom stems of some of the watersprites had shown signs of early melting,....which I think was due to that tall driftwood causing a block in flow,...so I removed the bottom melting part and replanted the upper portion which had those roots coming out of them back into the substrate,...they seem to be doing well so far.

The Staurogynes are looking healthy but not much of a prominent growth yet ( which I think could be due to the low light & excel only supplementation). I am not complaining. I would like to keep this tank for some time,...at least till the end of this year,...& who knows maybe for longer if all goes well.

Well enough of my yapping,... 🙂 here are some pics to follow. Nothing drastic in terms of change but the plants look healthy which I am quite thankful for.








I am going to move the amazon sword ( right mid ground plant) a bit to the front .I have ordered for another 2 pots staurogynes to fill up the foreground area, 1 pot of hygophila corymbosa compact which i intend to plant at the right fore-mid ground area, and 1 pot of hygrophila polysperma rosanervig at the right background behind the soon to be moved amazon sword.