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3000 Liter High Tech Planted Tank
- Thread starter RickyV
- Start date
Today the tank had its first trimming session, I totally forgot to take a picture before trimming but this is after.
As you can see the rockwork has turned a darker brown from all the diatoms. Luckily still no algae on any new plant growth.
There's a crazy amount of malaysian trumpet snails all over the tank but either they aren't the best algae eaters or the diatoms are growing that fast.
I added some hydrocotyle tripartita here in front of the trimmed wallichii. You can see a bunch of the trumpet snails on the wood there.
Also received some anubias nana petite and bucephapandras that were out of stock the first time I ordered plants.
I began dosing micros daily and increased the total weekly dosage to 0.4 ppm Fe gluconate and 0.2 ppm Fe DTPA. The rotalas didn't look much better but it's only been about a week and a half so I will wait and see. The chlorosis is looking much better on the Amazon sword. Before and after.
We received 2 darter fish mixed in with a feeder shrimp shipment so I went ahead and added our first fish. Of course I rarely see them lol. But they have all that tank to themselves.
Some red cherry shrimp and amano shrimps are on the way but unsure on when they'll arrive. Fish will be quarantined before being introduced to the tank so the shrimps will get a few weeks to establish themselves.
I recorded a top view of the surface agitation on the tank and the overflow that's been keeping the pH very stable.
As you can see the rockwork has turned a darker brown from all the diatoms. Luckily still no algae on any new plant growth.
There's a crazy amount of malaysian trumpet snails all over the tank but either they aren't the best algae eaters or the diatoms are growing that fast.
I added some hydrocotyle tripartita here in front of the trimmed wallichii. You can see a bunch of the trumpet snails on the wood there.
Also received some anubias nana petite and bucephapandras that were out of stock the first time I ordered plants.
I began dosing micros daily and increased the total weekly dosage to 0.4 ppm Fe gluconate and 0.2 ppm Fe DTPA. The rotalas didn't look much better but it's only been about a week and a half so I will wait and see. The chlorosis is looking much better on the Amazon sword. Before and after.
We received 2 darter fish mixed in with a feeder shrimp shipment so I went ahead and added our first fish. Of course I rarely see them lol. But they have all that tank to themselves.
Some red cherry shrimp and amano shrimps are on the way but unsure on when they'll arrive. Fish will be quarantined before being introduced to the tank so the shrimps will get a few weeks to establish themselves.
I recorded a top view of the surface agitation on the tank and the overflow that's been keeping the pH very stable.
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Another day of maintenance today. Plants are growing well and the Fe deficiency is for the most part gone. Here are some above tank shots of the plants condition.
Two of the swords are shooting out flower stocks which is pretty cool.
I also added a little frogbit ring to use as a nutrient deficiency indicator.
There is a bit of black beard returning on the rockwork but none currently on plants, hopefully it stays that way. Though when we get livestock I'm sure some will get eaten. I've also found a few giant strands of green hair algae growing from decaying emerged growth. Hopefully just part of a new tank. No sign of it spreading. The diatoms are subsiding, possibly due the exploding snail population. They have no competition for the algae so they're having a blast in there.
I noticed some of the bladder snails look a little different from the ones I'm used to. These look a little translucent. Anyone know the ID for this snail?
Here is a full tank shot of this week.
Two of the swords are shooting out flower stocks which is pretty cool.
I also added a little frogbit ring to use as a nutrient deficiency indicator.
There is a bit of black beard returning on the rockwork but none currently on plants, hopefully it stays that way. Though when we get livestock I'm sure some will get eaten. I've also found a few giant strands of green hair algae growing from decaying emerged growth. Hopefully just part of a new tank. No sign of it spreading. The diatoms are subsiding, possibly due the exploding snail population. They have no competition for the algae so they're having a blast in there.
I noticed some of the bladder snails look a little different from the ones I'm used to. These look a little translucent. Anyone know the ID for this snail?
Here is a full tank shot of this week.
Hi all,
Have a look at Marcel's @zozo post in <"Snail Identification">.
cheers Darrel
Good.
It is a Lymnaea type species, you can tell from the "antennae / tentacles", broad in these, and thread like in Physella spp.
Have a look at Marcel's @zozo post in <"Snail Identification">.
cheers Darrel
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Tank is looking good @RickyV - only thing I think could do with improving a little it the large rock face on the right. I see the Hygrophila pinnatifida has started to grow in between the cracks on the top left of it, I think that would look really good it you stuffed any cuttings into the remaining gaps - it would soften that aspect of the hardscape, and make it look more natural, and would actually look pretty cool with pinnatifida tracing through it.
Cool thank you!
Thanks! I was feeling like something was a bit off and that is definitely what it is. Thanks for confirming it. Some pinnatifida would look amazing growing all over that rock! Now I just need to figure out a creative way to reach the lower portions of that rock. Ideally I would prefer not to have a diver in the tank lol.
Tim Harrison
Member
Looking great, and growing in very nicely
Thank you!
Another weekend of tank maintenance. Tank is doing fine for the most part except for a variety of algae's. Though the most concerning to me was what looks like blue green algae right here in this picture.
I sucked most of it out, I just hope it doesn't spread to plants. From what I've been reading on the forums, no one is completely sure what causes this cyanobacteria. Tom Barr was saying low nitrates causes it?
I tested the nitrates and phosphates using a Hach spectrophotometer at the end of the week right before the weekly 40% water change.
NO3: 3.5 ppm
PO4: 2.4 ppm
KH: 4
GH: 9
Ca: 43.2 ppm
I am front loading macros after WC which doses the following:
NO3 : 8 ppm (40 grams of KNO3)
PO4 : 2 ppm (9 grams of KH2PO4)
K : 11 ppm (34 grams of K2SO4)
Mg: 10 ppm
The interesting thing is I tested the nitrates and phosphates about 24 hrs. after dosing and the nitrates somehow went down even after dosing. NO3: 3 ppm PO4: 3.73 ppm I am not sure what to make of this. The plants don't seem to be indicating nitrogen deficiency, all of the plants are looking very healthy except for a few that are showing Fe deficiency. If you look closely on this rotala you can see the leaves have a pattern of choloris and green.
I'm only really seeing it on a few of these rotala stems in certain areas and a little on the sword.
But as you can see right under the center brace where the light is dimmer the rotala green is looking pretty healthy. I'm considering doing a slow drip of my micros 24/7 to see if this fixes the few spots. I may also consider EDDHSA, it just seems hard to source.
Also noticing a little bit of green spot algae on the acrylic here.
The black beard that was on the rock before has been coming back pretty fast. I noticed some of it looks bicolored, red and blue.
Green hair algae is also growing in a few spots, as well as staghorn.
Should I be concerned with all these algae's? Are they just part of the tank being new? For the most part everything is doing really well so I am just hoping the tank will grow out of this phase.
I was able to reach and attach some pinnatifida on this rock on the right of the tank. I am excited to see it grow and spread on this rock!
The pinnatifida here at the top is spreading some really nice long roots down the rock.
Here are the trimming tongs in action for anyone curious.
Fish will be coming the following week, I am not sure what all was ordered so it will be a surprise! The fish will be in quarantine for a few weeks before being introduced in the tank. I am not sure about the delay on our shrimps.
Here is a full tank shot of this week. People seem to be enjoying the tank based on the handprints lol.
I sucked most of it out, I just hope it doesn't spread to plants. From what I've been reading on the forums, no one is completely sure what causes this cyanobacteria. Tom Barr was saying low nitrates causes it?
I tested the nitrates and phosphates using a Hach spectrophotometer at the end of the week right before the weekly 40% water change.
NO3: 3.5 ppm
PO4: 2.4 ppm
KH: 4
GH: 9
Ca: 43.2 ppm
I am front loading macros after WC which doses the following:
NO3 : 8 ppm (40 grams of KNO3)
PO4 : 2 ppm (9 grams of KH2PO4)
K : 11 ppm (34 grams of K2SO4)
Mg: 10 ppm
The interesting thing is I tested the nitrates and phosphates about 24 hrs. after dosing and the nitrates somehow went down even after dosing. NO3: 3 ppm PO4: 3.73 ppm I am not sure what to make of this. The plants don't seem to be indicating nitrogen deficiency, all of the plants are looking very healthy except for a few that are showing Fe deficiency. If you look closely on this rotala you can see the leaves have a pattern of choloris and green.
I'm only really seeing it on a few of these rotala stems in certain areas and a little on the sword.
But as you can see right under the center brace where the light is dimmer the rotala green is looking pretty healthy. I'm considering doing a slow drip of my micros 24/7 to see if this fixes the few spots. I may also consider EDDHSA, it just seems hard to source.
Also noticing a little bit of green spot algae on the acrylic here.
The black beard that was on the rock before has been coming back pretty fast. I noticed some of it looks bicolored, red and blue.
Green hair algae is also growing in a few spots, as well as staghorn.
Should I be concerned with all these algae's? Are they just part of the tank being new? For the most part everything is doing really well so I am just hoping the tank will grow out of this phase.
I was able to reach and attach some pinnatifida on this rock on the right of the tank. I am excited to see it grow and spread on this rock!
The pinnatifida here at the top is spreading some really nice long roots down the rock.
Here are the trimming tongs in action for anyone curious.
Fish will be coming the following week, I am not sure what all was ordered so it will be a surprise! The fish will be in quarantine for a few weeks before being introduced in the tank. I am not sure about the delay on our shrimps.
Here is a full tank shot of this week. People seem to be enjoying the tank based on the handprints lol.
PARAGUAY
Member
As regards Cyno Bacteria just my recent experience My two largest aquariums 40gallon or thereabouts and a aqua one 55gallon, the 40 was in the kitchen sunlight from early morning and daylight filtered through all day, 2 t5s raised above 4pm 11pm on timer
Kept getting Cyno on patches on sand vacumed up every day or so if left quickly formed typical drapes of sheets all over With regular W/C and vac up still persisted, then tried small powehead along substrate as advised by Abys Manchester . Improvement but still came back. Eventually gave up took tank down transfered fish to 55gallon, no ambient light att all ,sand substrate same W/C regime, No Cyno at all, my conclusion in my case here lighting, It's said plenty of beneficial bacteria in filter helps, but lighting because of tank and sunlight and daily ambient must have caused it Never tested for Nitrate ,not sure of that theory and filters and media in good order
Kept getting Cyno on patches on sand vacumed up every day or so if left quickly formed typical drapes of sheets all over With regular W/C and vac up still persisted, then tried small powehead along substrate as advised by Abys Manchester . Improvement but still came back. Eventually gave up took tank down transfered fish to 55gallon, no ambient light att all ,sand substrate same W/C regime, No Cyno at all, my conclusion in my case here lighting, It's said plenty of beneficial bacteria in filter helps, but lighting because of tank and sunlight and daily ambient must have caused it Never tested for Nitrate ,not sure of that theory and filters and media in good order
On the cyno. . .
I usually equate cyno with a lack of dissolved oxygen (DO). If I ever get it, it's usually in dead spots in the tank. Are you getting leaf movement from the flow right down at the bottom of the tank there?
I also think it's also part of the maturation phase of a tank - I had a patch in my new/current tank after set-up. It was in an area that I could control if I wanted, so I left it to its own devices to see what happened. It spread for a week or two to the area of about 10cm diameter, and then it gradually started receding, then suddenly disappeared over night. I imagine I was witnessing some sort of microbial war in the corner of my tank, and the cyno lost.
Long and short of it, for the cyno is firstly make sure you're getting some flow down to the substrate so it is DO rich down there, and then just hang tight for the tank to continue maturing.
On the BBA:
Generally if patches are going light coloured as you are seeing, it's starting to die. Have you done anything yourself to cause that (application of glut or H2O2 etc)? If not, then it might already be starting to die off by itself.
You can speed that up by misting with a bit of glut or H2O2, but if it's starting to go on its own, I wouldn't worry too much. I'd also increase your algae crew if you can - more shrimp and ramshorns should make short work of the dying parts, and their microscopic grazing should take care of the invisible (to the naked eye) new growth.
Green algae:
As long as you are sticking to your big 50% water changes each week, just try and hang tight with the other algae too. Manually remove what you can, but try not to turn 'too many dials' and change parameters too much as I'm a firm believer that it is stability in the system that eventually wins out.
Personally I would up the nitrogen dosing a bit. Your equilibrium levels are lower than I would want them myself on a high energy tank, and not really in line with where your other ferts are.
Also what are you dosing now on your micros? The green algae are likely to persist as long as you have deficiencies in the tank, as it indicates a weakness in the plant grow which typically correlates with algae proliferation. When you get good clean, strong and healthily growing plants, algae tends to have a harder time of it.
By the way, the H. pinnatifida looks great on that rock section - it really softens it, and makes it look a more natural part of the scape.
I usually equate cyno with a lack of dissolved oxygen (DO). If I ever get it, it's usually in dead spots in the tank. Are you getting leaf movement from the flow right down at the bottom of the tank there?
I also think it's also part of the maturation phase of a tank - I had a patch in my new/current tank after set-up. It was in an area that I could control if I wanted, so I left it to its own devices to see what happened. It spread for a week or two to the area of about 10cm diameter, and then it gradually started receding, then suddenly disappeared over night. I imagine I was witnessing some sort of microbial war in the corner of my tank, and the cyno lost.
Long and short of it, for the cyno is firstly make sure you're getting some flow down to the substrate so it is DO rich down there, and then just hang tight for the tank to continue maturing.
On the BBA:
Generally if patches are going light coloured as you are seeing, it's starting to die. Have you done anything yourself to cause that (application of glut or H2O2 etc)? If not, then it might already be starting to die off by itself.
You can speed that up by misting with a bit of glut or H2O2, but if it's starting to go on its own, I wouldn't worry too much. I'd also increase your algae crew if you can - more shrimp and ramshorns should make short work of the dying parts, and their microscopic grazing should take care of the invisible (to the naked eye) new growth.
Green algae:
As long as you are sticking to your big 50% water changes each week, just try and hang tight with the other algae too. Manually remove what you can, but try not to turn 'too many dials' and change parameters too much as I'm a firm believer that it is stability in the system that eventually wins out.
Personally I would up the nitrogen dosing a bit. Your equilibrium levels are lower than I would want them myself on a high energy tank, and not really in line with where your other ferts are.
Also what are you dosing now on your micros? The green algae are likely to persist as long as you have deficiencies in the tank, as it indicates a weakness in the plant grow which typically correlates with algae proliferation. When you get good clean, strong and healthily growing plants, algae tends to have a harder time of it.
By the way, the H. pinnatifida looks great on that rock section - it really softens it, and makes it look a more natural part of the scape.
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I've heard some people mentioning this about BB in the filter. This tank has a sump but there is no media in it. I am not sure why this tank has never had proper biomedia in it but I guess the surfaces in the tank and the sump where enough for the livestock before. I've considered adding some, but I figured the plants would be enough as the surfaces were enough before with all that livestock. I've been reading that the bacteria needs really heavy oxygenation for it to really work effective so I wonder what the 300kgs of lava rock are contributing.
I messed with the direction of one of the returns and there was flow on the anubias/buce down there. I don't recall if it was there before, but I am sure the flow was minimal with the build up of diatoms/debris there. Will confirm next week when I see the condition of the sand.
Very interesting, this makes me feel better knowing it can recede on its own. Hopefully the adjustment I made to the flow helps.
That is good news then, I did not do any spot treatment. I'll try adding some more ramshorns to the tank. Hopefully shrimps get here soon though! I the mean time I'll spot treat with H2O2 on my maintenance days.
That is great to hear, I'll keep manually removing and doing the big water changes. Yeah I was wondering If I was dosing too little, I'll increase NO3 to 12 ppm on the next dose.
Currently micros are this. They are split into 7 doses usually dosed a few minutes before lights on.
Fe Gluconate: 0.4 ppm (10 grams)
Fe DTPA 11%: 0.2 ppm (6 grams)
(12 grams of Planted CSM+B Adds Below)
Fe EDTA: 0.25 ppm
Mn: 0.074 ppm
Cu: 0.004 ppm
Mg: 0.015 ppm
Mo: 0.002 ppm
B: 0.032 ppm
dGH: 0.013 ppm
_Maq_
Member
In my tanks, it's quite the reverse. Cyanobacteria sporadically appear at the very front section, while the pump is directing the flow from rear-up to the front glass and down. So, if there's a spot well-oxygenated, it's the spot where my cyanos appear.
Yes! My words. It's important to see algae as a part of our microbial community. I suspect any algae proliferation cannot be comprehended without relation to other groups of microbes.
Qwedfg
Member
Do you know how many Gertrudae you got? A huge group would look amazing in a tank that big.
I am not sure, but it sounded like not too many honestly. But I'll see for sure this weekend.
Thank you! I love how small fish can make a big tank look even bigger!
This weekend I came to see some shrimps in the tank! Though I only saw like 5... I heard we only got 50 shrimps. The owner made the same comment and said to order 500 more shrimps. So hopefully we get more soon.
I saw the fish we received and I think we got 12 of each... This may change though as the owner will probably want more fish than that lol.
Cyanobacteria patch was starting to come back again, but barely and it was contained to the same area. I sucked it out.
Black beard algae stopped spreading and looks to be dying off, I still am spot treating it just as a precaution. Hair algae and staghorn is about the same as when I saw it last week, not spreading but still coming back in the same spots. I removed most of it and spot treated what I could. I also noticed most of the diatoms are gone now, and is being replaced a tiny amount of prettier green algae.
I took a closer look at plants today and some areas do indeed still have some chlorosis. I have been dosing 0.2 ppm Fe DTPA and 0.4 ppm Fe gluconate weekly split into 7 doses, dosed in the morning. I am a bit confused with this because I felt like this should surely be enough. My kH sits at 4, gH is 8, and pH degassed is about 7.9. Though in the first 2 days after water change its about 7.5 degassed pH and slowly rises to 7.9 by the end of the week. I drop the pH by 1.1 for the photoperiod.
If you look really closely on the rotalas below you can see a subtle pattern of chlorosis and green.
A handful of rotala stems had some transulcent spots in their leaves. This is only on these few.
View attachment 210682
This bush of rotala green doesn't really have much chlorosis if any.
Ludwigia super red also looking very healthy.
And pretty much all the other plants not in the photos look very healthy.
I went ahead and doubled the gluconate to 0.8 ppm weekly and doubled DTPA to 0.4 weekly. I've been thinking of other solutions however.
As I've said one potential solution is to drip the micros/iron 24/7. I have a 3 liter container that I can add the weekly micros to and slowly drip it in. I would have to add vinegar to the 3 L container to drop the pH in there, but this vinegar should be neglible compared to the total volume of the tank right? I just need to find a valve or something that can add a very precise amount of water since the regular airline tubing ones haven't been very consistent at the very slow drip.
Another thought I had that may be a little crazy is an iron reactor. I haven't thought too much on how to best execute it, but currently I had this.
The idea is basically to add the daily dose of micros/iron powder to the container ewithout mixing it and slowly pass water through it to very slowly dissolve it and add it to the tank. I would cover it from light to keep it from degrading. I just don't know if the iron will precipate as soon as it dissolves into the "reactor". One thought I had was to inject CO2 in the reactor to keep the pH very low in there. Anyone have any thoughts on why this wouldn't work, or ideas on how to make it better/work.
Perhaps I'm overthinking and overcomplicating this, hopefully the double iron dose causes improvement.
I noticed these two little plants growing on the dead moss we got. I'm guessing they must have come come in the moss? Not sure what they are, but I think this is pretty cool.
Some of the pinnatifida with a small piece of rotala blood red.
Full tank shot of this week. Almost time for trimming those top bushes! The swords are getting massive too.
Here is the tank dimming down.
I saw the fish we received and I think we got 12 of each... This may change though as the owner will probably want more fish than that lol.
Cyanobacteria patch was starting to come back again, but barely and it was contained to the same area. I sucked it out.
Black beard algae stopped spreading and looks to be dying off, I still am spot treating it just as a precaution. Hair algae and staghorn is about the same as when I saw it last week, not spreading but still coming back in the same spots. I removed most of it and spot treated what I could. I also noticed most of the diatoms are gone now, and is being replaced a tiny amount of prettier green algae.
I took a closer look at plants today and some areas do indeed still have some chlorosis. I have been dosing 0.2 ppm Fe DTPA and 0.4 ppm Fe gluconate weekly split into 7 doses, dosed in the morning. I am a bit confused with this because I felt like this should surely be enough. My kH sits at 4, gH is 8, and pH degassed is about 7.9. Though in the first 2 days after water change its about 7.5 degassed pH and slowly rises to 7.9 by the end of the week. I drop the pH by 1.1 for the photoperiod.
If you look really closely on the rotalas below you can see a subtle pattern of chlorosis and green.
A handful of rotala stems had some transulcent spots in their leaves. This is only on these few.
View attachment 210682
This bush of rotala green doesn't really have much chlorosis if any.
Ludwigia super red also looking very healthy.
And pretty much all the other plants not in the photos look very healthy.
I went ahead and doubled the gluconate to 0.8 ppm weekly and doubled DTPA to 0.4 weekly. I've been thinking of other solutions however.
As I've said one potential solution is to drip the micros/iron 24/7. I have a 3 liter container that I can add the weekly micros to and slowly drip it in. I would have to add vinegar to the 3 L container to drop the pH in there, but this vinegar should be neglible compared to the total volume of the tank right? I just need to find a valve or something that can add a very precise amount of water since the regular airline tubing ones haven't been very consistent at the very slow drip.
Another thought I had that may be a little crazy is an iron reactor. I haven't thought too much on how to best execute it, but currently I had this.
The idea is basically to add the daily dose of micros/iron powder to the container ewithout mixing it and slowly pass water through it to very slowly dissolve it and add it to the tank. I would cover it from light to keep it from degrading. I just don't know if the iron will precipate as soon as it dissolves into the "reactor". One thought I had was to inject CO2 in the reactor to keep the pH very low in there. Anyone have any thoughts on why this wouldn't work, or ideas on how to make it better/work.
Perhaps I'm overthinking and overcomplicating this, hopefully the double iron dose causes improvement.
I noticed these two little plants growing on the dead moss we got. I'm guessing they must have come come in the moss? Not sure what they are, but I think this is pretty cool.
Some of the pinnatifida with a small piece of rotala blood red.
Full tank shot of this week. Almost time for trimming those top bushes! The swords are getting massive too.
Here is the tank dimming down.
