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259L bookcase rebirth
- Thread starter greenink
- Start date
Replaced the stone to the far right and added about 10 cherry shrimp, some HC and a bit more Hemianthus micranthemoides from my other tank, which I'm gradually stripping down. The HC had serious roots from the other tank where it had been for a few months. (Had never been successful in growing it before then). Sure it will now float off or die or something. Shrimp seem to like it though.
Anyway, pictures, which I'll try and number with days since the rescape as I've found this way of doing it really helpful on other people's tanks:
Day 9 shot 18 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Day 9 shot 31 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Am trying to be a bit more religious about water changes. So this is the 3rd 70% change in 9 days. Seeing if that makes a difference. Was pleased to see when I moved some of the Lillaeopsis - to make way for the HC - that this has grown pretty good roots of every individual plantlet I put in. So expecting some more visible progress soon. Think plants were recovering from my pretty severe trim!
Anyway, pictures, which I'll try and number with days since the rescape as I've found this way of doing it really helpful on other people's tanks:
Day 9 shot 18 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Day 9 shot 31 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Am trying to be a bit more religious about water changes. So this is the 3rd 70% change in 9 days. Seeing if that makes a difference. Was pleased to see when I moved some of the Lillaeopsis - to make way for the HC - that this has grown pretty good roots of every individual plantlet I put in. So expecting some more visible progress soon. Think plants were recovering from my pretty severe trim!
Forgot this photo, which really shows the colour of the purple schist stone. For some reason, can't get it to come out properly in overall tank photos.
Day 9 shot 32 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Day 9 shot 32 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Ended up in Wrexham accidentally, so popped in to TGM. Learned a useful little tip: they use an 8mm internal diameter hose to do cleaning by siphoning - just enough suction to get crud out without dislodging plants or hairgrass. So some arrived from a cheap ebay supplier by post today. Works a treat.
8mm hose by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Also bought some new pincettes, which feel lovely, and make a surprising amount of difference. And planted in some Elechoaris mini.
Pincettes by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Final thing: trying a new way of holding down the quite big bits of HC carpet (10cm square or so) I've lifted and shifted from my other tank. Basically using bits of garden steel wire bent into an upside-down U shape, and inserted. When the HC roots in properly will either remove, or just leave them in.
Bookcase day 14 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Quick water change (4th so far). And here's where it is today.
Bookcase day 14 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
8mm hose by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Also bought some new pincettes, which feel lovely, and make a surprising amount of difference. And planted in some Elechoaris mini.
Pincettes by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Final thing: trying a new way of holding down the quite big bits of HC carpet (10cm square or so) I've lifted and shifted from my other tank. Basically using bits of garden steel wire bent into an upside-down U shape, and inserted. When the HC roots in properly will either remove, or just leave them in.
Bookcase day 14 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Quick water change (4th so far). And here's where it is today.
Bookcase day 14 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Day 19. Stuff growing in a bit. Am trying to be disciplined about water changes. So here's one I did earlier. Everything looking pretty healthy and starting to spread out with new runners. Managed to snap pipe cleaning brush so rocking the dirty look for a while longer...
Day 19 shot 1 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Day 19 shot 2 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Also cleaned the big filter for the first time ever, using water from the water change... Not too jammed up but definitely a bit dirty.
Day 19 shot 1 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Day 19 shot 2 by mike@ukaps, on Flickr
Also cleaned the big filter for the first time ever, using water from the water change... Not too jammed up but definitely a bit dirty.
James O
Member
Great read! Thanks for the honest 'warts and all' presentation. Gives a noob like me a realistic view of what to expect when I set up my big tank
Love the DIY pipes & shade
Love the DIY pipes & shade
Aaargh. Just discovered my timer plug on CO2 solenoid has literally been doing its own thing at random. Explains quite a lot! Wonder how long that's been going on for.
Taking the opportunity to do a proper CO2 / PH over time test this evening. Results later in lovely graph form, thanks to this cheap and cheerful device arriving in the post.
Note: you need 500ml of RO water to calibrate it... Deeply annoying if you don't have any to hand.
Taking the opportunity to do a proper CO2 / PH over time test this evening. Results later in lovely graph form, thanks to this cheap and cheerful device arriving in the post.
Note: you need 500ml of RO water to calibrate it... Deeply annoying if you don't have any to hand.
Hmm. So I've got these results so far this evening.
The first bit of good news is that I'm timing it about right: the PH drops pretty much to it's lowest point just as the lights come on, which means that I've got the highest CO2 just as the plants begin photosynthesising - though I should probably push it back to 2hrs from 1.5 hrs just to be on the safe side. (The lights ramp up from 0% to 100% quickly over 30 mins as I don't like the whining noise they make at anything less than 100%.)
The second bit of good news is that the CO2 levels are pretty stable - there's not a huge amount of change in PH after 17.45 - so less likely to have BBA type problems.
The big bit of bad news is that my drop checker look like this:
(White balance corrected in Aperture using the white sucker as a reference).
Must have knocked the needle valve some time recently without noticing. So I'll take a few more readings, and if the PH and drop checker don't move any further, then I'll crank up the CO2 to a point where I'm getting lime green on the drop checker, and then repeat the exercise tomorrow!
Main lesson so far: look at the drop checker properly more often, don't just assume it's where it used to be! But can also see the real value of this way of homing in on the right injection rate and timing.
The first bit of good news is that I'm timing it about right: the PH drops pretty much to it's lowest point just as the lights come on, which means that I've got the highest CO2 just as the plants begin photosynthesising - though I should probably push it back to 2hrs from 1.5 hrs just to be on the safe side. (The lights ramp up from 0% to 100% quickly over 30 mins as I don't like the whining noise they make at anything less than 100%.)
The second bit of good news is that the CO2 levels are pretty stable - there's not a huge amount of change in PH after 17.45 - so less likely to have BBA type problems.
The big bit of bad news is that my drop checker look like this:
(White balance corrected in Aperture using the white sucker as a reference).
Must have knocked the needle valve some time recently without noticing. So I'll take a few more readings, and if the PH and drop checker don't move any further, then I'll crank up the CO2 to a point where I'm getting lime green on the drop checker, and then repeat the exercise tomorrow!
Main lesson so far: look at the drop checker properly more often, don't just assume it's where it used to be! But can also see the real value of this way of homing in on the right injection rate and timing.
Interesting results. Even though I've turned up the bubble rate a lot, the 'straight to filter' technique I've been using seems maxed out - it doesn't look like the filter can handle as much as I'm putting in. (Link to the thread on this approach here). I'm just getting a bit of build up within the filter, not any quicker or more CO2 diffusion.
This approach worked fine on my smaller tank (70L) using an Eheim 2075 pro 3, but in this tank, with the same filter, it just isn't cutting it. So maybe it's a technique that has limitations, and you need to be careful about not overdoing the injection, as you just waste CO2 without increasing the diffusion into the water.
So it's back to the drawing board on CO2. Am going to try a Sera diffuser for a bit and see if that works better, as have quite good flow and have never used an in-tank one before.
Might give the Aquamedic another go at some point if the bubbles drive me potty - have got a few ideas about how to make it work better and silently.
This would be no fun if it was easy.
This approach worked fine on my smaller tank (70L) using an Eheim 2075 pro 3, but in this tank, with the same filter, it just isn't cutting it. So maybe it's a technique that has limitations, and you need to be careful about not overdoing the injection, as you just waste CO2 without increasing the diffusion into the water.
So it's back to the drawing board on CO2. Am going to try a Sera diffuser for a bit and see if that works better, as have quite good flow and have never used an in-tank one before.
Might give the Aquamedic another go at some point if the bubbles drive me potty - have got a few ideas about how to make it work better and silently.
This would be no fun if it was easy.
After three days testing, have pretty much nailed a 1.1 PH drop to a lime green drop checker and relatively stable CO2 throughout the 6.5hr light period.
Needs CO2 on 3 hrs before lights though... And much higher injection than previously, through an internal diffuser.
Hooray! Will put up charts at some point during the week.
Needs CO2 on 3 hrs before lights though... And much higher injection than previously, through an internal diffuser.
Hooray! Will put up charts at some point during the week.
Same bloke, just now the same name across different things! Sorry for any confusion.
Day 39 since the rescape: Quick update. Here's how the tank is looking. Overall quite a bit of growth. Carpet filling in and recovering nicely. But some algae issues that I'm hoping isn't BBA.
Have had a glass cover lid made in the ADA style by a local glazer for £10, and ordered some tiny ADA clips for 12mm glass for another £12 (!)...
...and going to get in some Siamese Algae Eaters in next week I think. They're proper jumpers, hence the lid! Have never liked lids on tanks, but have been pretty sold on how neat the ADA style glass ones look.
Have had a glass cover lid made in the ADA style by a local glazer for £10, and ordered some tiny ADA clips for 12mm glass for another £12 (!)...
...and going to get in some Siamese Algae Eaters in next week I think. They're proper jumpers, hence the lid! Have never liked lids on tanks, but have been pretty sold on how neat the ADA style glass ones look.
Bit of DIY and general tinkering.
Have noticed that my shrimp aren't really breeding in this tank, and think I might be injecting too much gluteraldehyde daily (it's automated along with macro and micro using a cheap dosing pump; really recommend doing this!). So am cutting that out entirely in favour of spot dosing. It doesn't seem to be keeping algae at bay much anyway.
So made a DIY spot-dosing 'chamber' for getting gluteraldehyde solution onto carpet plants (my lilaeopsis is starting to suffer from BBA/staghorn).
So have tried using this on an affected area on the right hand side, injecting the maximum that my tank can take while being ok for shrimp (9ml of 3% solution) into the chamber for 15 minutes with filters off.
Just to be scientific-ish, am doing a HARD trim on the left hand side to see which method works best, along with a trim on the stems.
[Photos of trim updated when lights come on].
Also got a bit fed up with my custom acrylic inlets getting dirty, so made some with side slits like the NA ones. Here's a comparison with the original ones I made.
And have also added a Hydor 3200 powerhead to improve flow. Ug. Not pretty, but going belt and braces in this tank to get things really healthy, then will start stripping back...
Have noticed that my shrimp aren't really breeding in this tank, and think I might be injecting too much gluteraldehyde daily (it's automated along with macro and micro using a cheap dosing pump; really recommend doing this!). So am cutting that out entirely in favour of spot dosing. It doesn't seem to be keeping algae at bay much anyway.
So made a DIY spot-dosing 'chamber' for getting gluteraldehyde solution onto carpet plants (my lilaeopsis is starting to suffer from BBA/staghorn).
So have tried using this on an affected area on the right hand side, injecting the maximum that my tank can take while being ok for shrimp (9ml of 3% solution) into the chamber for 15 minutes with filters off.
Just to be scientific-ish, am doing a HARD trim on the left hand side to see which method works best, along with a trim on the stems.
[Photos of trim updated when lights come on].
Also got a bit fed up with my custom acrylic inlets getting dirty, so made some with side slits like the NA ones. Here's a comparison with the original ones I made.
And have also added a Hydor 3200 powerhead to improve flow. Ug. Not pretty, but going belt and braces in this tank to get things really healthy, then will start stripping back...
Quick snap of the Marsilea hirsuta I planted a couple of weeks ago. Really like this little plant now it's transforming into its submerged form. Was pretty browned off when I bought it (with a discount) and is basically recovered. May end up being a favourite.
You can see the BBA/staghorn pretty clearly on the Lilaeopsis. Here's almost the same shot post-trim... Am I doing this right?
Learning from Ian who does it like this in a rather slick video:
You can see the BBA/staghorn pretty clearly on the Lilaeopsis. Here's almost the same shot post-trim... Am I doing this right?
Learning from Ian who does it like this in a rather slick video:
