259L bookcase rebirth

[greenink]

Am fed up with my rotala: I've trimmed it too many times and it's just not happy towards the bottom any more. So am going to let it grow to the top and replant the lot. But before I do, am going to experiment with something.

Have heard about a rather natty way of planting rotala: basically, you pin it horizontally across the substrate. The idea is that each node sprouts roots and a new stem. Then once it's established a bit, you cut through the original stem and hey-presto, you have an incredibly densely planted rotala 'line', with one new stem for each original pair of leaves. With this method you'd only need about 10 original stems laid out in parallel strips across the substrate to get a ridiculously thick bush.

Here's my test stem:



Will let you know how it goes.

 

[Ian Holdich]

Sound interesting mike! Please keep us updated.

 

[Li@m]

I've had great success planting rotala like that. You should have ten or so stems in a week or so growing off it.

 

[greenink]

I've had great success planting rotala like that. You should have ten or so stems in a week or so growing off it.

Great! Any pictures?

 

[greenink]

Quick lights update. Am getting quite a bit of green algae on rocks with LEDs at the same height of the luminaire, which means they're definitely brighter in terms of PAR as well as to the eye. So have raised them up a bit. Judging by the analysis of their spread by glassbox on the original 1000 LEDs, think better to have them as high as possible as means less of a variation in PAR from the centre outwards. Here's their comparison of PAR at 18" and 24" - pretty much the shift in distance I've just moved them from. (All units in inches).



Can see the difference they're making already: really noticeable reaction from the hair grass in particular, which is looking much healthier and sending out lots of shoots.

 

[Li@m]

Great! Any pictures?

Unfortunately not.

 

[greenink]

Quick update. Have changed the flow pattern dramatically, using inlets going the length of the tank, rather than towards the front. I've been running (1) for a while, which gets good CO2 to the substrate but has quite a few dead spots. Amazed by how much switching to (2) still gets CO2 to the substrate while maybe doubling overall speed of water flow everywhere in the tank. Obvious really. Diagrams below are top-down.

(Did a custom bend of an eheim on the right, and a quick job with some spare acrylic on the left - took 15 minutes with a paintstripper gun and a pipe bending spring, just to see if it made a difference.) Initial thought is I'm getting much, much better distribution, though more surface movement too so have upped the CO2. Will make some properly thought through inlets that go a bit deeper - so reduce surface agitation a bit - and maybe have more of a lilly effect once I'm convinced this is definitely better.

All going more or less to plan, though blyxa has melted in centre and have replaced some of the rotala on left with Heminathus Micranthemoides, which is more fragile than I'd hoped and being buffeted in the new flow arrangement, so might have to move it somewhere. Eleocharis that was going brown is sprouting lots of fresh green new shoots, so think must have been too low light for it.

The bits of metal on the far left are my experiment in pinning down rotala horizontally to see if it sprouts. A few days in, the answer looks like yes!

 

[greenink]

Ordered a £6 sheet of 1.2mm stainless steel, cut to size:

Which I drilled a couple of holes in and made into a luminaire-type cover for the LEDs. Pretty hard to bend neatly, so it's far from perfect, but a big improvement from this:

To this:

(Sellotape strip there just to hold bend in place for a bit.)

 

[greenink]

Have got in some Utricularia graminifolia from Aquaessentials. Their stock had died, so they kindly upgraded me to the Tropica 12Grow version:

Have never tried this plant before, or the 12Grow. So in it goes on left to replace the Hemianthus m. which was just getting buffeted:

Hemianthus moved to a more central position. And hydrocotyle put in the gap where my blyxa has died. Hoping it will be a bit less CO2 demanding as is a spot with poor flow I think.

 

[flygja]

Thats an excellent DIY lamp cover.

 

[greenink]

Everything looking a bit healthier since the change in flow.

 

[greenink]

A few changes afoot:

1. LED lights being brighter is causing algae. But like the growth rates. So will do a bit of spot dosing with Excel/EasyCarbo - but am fed up of how much these cost. So have ordered some Glutaraldehyde to make my own, as recommended in this thread. Is about 100 times cheaper!

2. Going to up the filtration. At the moment is just running off one Eheim 2073 (1050 lt/hr). Am adding an Eheim 2078 (1850 lr/hr) bought off a member here.

3. The test with the rotala stems being flat seemed to work well. (Sorry no photos). So am taking this to the next level and doing a bigger test with quite a few stems at once, at the back left.

4. Switching back to flake food from frozen. Made the switch initially because I had oil on the surface and thought the food might be something to do with it, but have since diagnosed that as poor plant health and don't really get it any more.

 

[greenink]

Have just realise this journal is now quite a long-running affair. Here's what the tank's been through as I've learned a lot...

 

[LondonDragon]

Have just realise this journal is now quite a long-running affair. Here's what the tank's been through as I've learned a lot...

Reminds me of one of my journals!! haha great read so far 😉

 

[greenink]

Here's a quick shot this evening.

These LEDs are bright! Great plant growth. Have raised up and started dosing 15ml of a 3% DIY gluteraldehyde solution that adds 2.2mg/l every day of glute - just below negative effects on crustaceans and well above lethal to algae - effectively triple dosing excel but at 1/100 of the cost...

Waiting for the postal van to deliver a new monster filter to add to the existing Eheim. Then will do some proper maintenance to get into shape. Flow at the front right in the lilaeopsis is poor, everywhere else pretty good now. That big sweeping rock may have to go! Waiting until it does to plant the Didiplis diandra picked up at LFS a few days ago (it's hanging about in the middle right now).

 

[greenink]

Have added in a new big filter bought from a member here (the whopping Eheim 3e 2078 @1850 l/h) which is silent as a mouse.

That's meant I could ditch the old AM1000 reactor which was just getting too clogged, and instead just inject CO2 directly into the filter intake on the smaller Eheim (Pro 3 2073 @1050l/h) using one of these AquaMedic reducing T-pieces hooked up directly to the CO2.

Works a treat: crystal clear water, lime green drop checker, and no clogging of a reactor, so reliable for ever... Can't understand why anyone does anything different, ever.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

thats a beasty mike, plenty of flow now!
What do you mean by clogging of the reactor?

 

[greenink]

All that made me confident enough to pretty much replace the hotch-potch of fish I've built up over time with a new shoal of 30 neon tetras. (Thanks to LFS for taking the others!) Much more pleasing to the eye in how they behave. Will get another 30 or so when the tank is at full health and the new filter's properly matured.

Did a mini-rescape too to improve flow, including removing the big rock on the right people here have not liked. (The new rock on the left has caught the light oddly in this photo - looks much more textured in real life). Here's an overlay of hardscape 'rules' now...

and before


Sorry these are both large files (2.5mb each). As always, comments really helpful!

Have to say, having just bought some seriyu stone for the small tank, wish I'd started out with better actual rocks in this tank. The purple schist is cool, and they were cheap, but slate just isn't as textured or interesting as seriyu, and makes getting a sense of scale much harder.

 

[greenink]

thats a beasty mike, plenty of flow now!
What do you mean by clogging of the reactor?

Have found the AM1000 gets a bit bunged up with algae over time. Or when injecting inline before (or after) a filter using an UP diffuser and the like the ceramic gets slowly bunged up - I think with limescale - and the injection rate decreases, so it needs cleaning, and you have to fiddle with CO2 rates. This way, it's like the day you plumbed it in, forever.

 

[greenink]

Raised the lights up quite a bit, and added all the plants from my small tank which is undergoing a rescape and re-fit. Mostly Eleocharis acicularis and rotala 'green'.


Algae on the rocks seems to have almost completely gone as a result (though may also be adding another filter, bigger water changes and my home-brew gluteraldehyde solution). There are also four more ottos and four more cory's too, which is doing wonders for the glass and substrate respectively.

Getting there! Though won't be anywhere near IAPLC standards by the deadline. Am going to submit my best attempt nevertheless to give myself a baseline to improve from... The main aim is to get it properly algae-free by then.