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60L bialix's home tank - low-tech in dutch-style

Alexander Belchenko

Alexander Belchenko

Member
Joined
23 Sep 2013
Messages
1,242
Location
Ukraine
End of may was the last day of my blackwater (failed) attempt. But I was pleased to see I can handle some plants in low-energy manner, and so I decided to rescape my home tank with dutch style limitations in mind.
At the very beginning of June it started as new layout. Low energy, 1 bulb (of 2 in the light unit). No CO2. No Liquid carbon. Plain Manado sand (I even did not wash it). Simply plants. Lean dosing of nutrients. Limited number of plants (well, I was unable to fit in the limit of 6 species only, my bad).

Technical spec:
60x30x36 optiwhite
Manado sand 10L
Light unit SunSun HDD-600B, 1 lamp 24W 865 Osram
Eheim 2211 (300l/h) output to spraybar on the back
No CO2, aeration 24/7
RO-water + Seachem Equilibrium (TDS 200-250)
Ferts of local manufacturer (Aquayer).

Well, enough words - show time:

The tank is 1 week.
18422982378_b739bc1520_c.jpg60x30x36 - 1 week by Alexander, on Flickr

 
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Sarpijk said:
Is the extra aeration necessary?
Click to expand...
Although spraybar is directing flow with angle to the surface, it's not enough to break the film on the surface. Aeration helps a lot here. I prefer it without dirty film.
I've read that film is the sign of absense of important bacteria in the tank. I'm using dried bacteria for cycling but it does not help anyway. I fear my problem is not inside the tank but also outside as well. The tank located near the kitchen, and near the window to street. I think that may play some role in build up of the film.
 
Alexander Belchenko said:
Although spraybar is directing flow with angle to the surface, it's not enough to break the film on the surface. Aeration helps a lot here. I prefer it without dirty film.
I've read that film is the sign of absense of important bacteria in the tank. I'm using dried bacteria for cycling but it does not help anyway. I fear my problem is not inside the tank but also outside as well. The tank located near the kitchen, and near the window to street. I think that may play some role in build up of the film.
Click to expand...

Dont worry about too much aeratin in a low tech/no co2. The aeration will keep co2 constant during photoperiod so that plants always have a little bit. If you stop aeration co2 might build up in the morning but will be depleted soon after which is actually worse for plants in the long run.
 
I'm using aeration to break surface film actually. I've tried with and without it, and it's better with aeration.
 
Alexander Belchenko said:
I'm using aeration to break surface film actually. I've tried with and without it, and it's better with aeration.
Click to expand...
I'm also trying this technique on a high tech and I am quite happy with the results... It was actually something temporary for solving degassing and film building while on holidays but I think I will use it permanently from on now. It is basically the same thing than raising the lily pipes but automatic. The only constraint is that you have another piece of equipment inside the tank n another timer.

Jordi
 
parotet said:
I'm also trying this technique on a high tech and I am quite happy with the results... It was actually something temporary for solving degassing and film building while on holidays but I think I will use it permanently from on now. It is basically the same thing than raising the lily pipes but automatic. The only constraint is that you have another piece of equipment inside the tank n another timer.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I am doing in mine. I have a separate pump on a separate timer for the night aeration. Water is cristal clear in the morning and you dont need much ripple in the photoperiod since you dont normally get surface scum.
 
Jose said:
This is exactly what I am doing in mine. I have a separate pump on a separate timer for the night aeration. Water is cristal clear in the morning and you dont need much ripple in the photoperiod since you dont normally get surface scum.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the same doing for my hi-tech hi-energy scape in Pet Shop.
 
Tank looks great. Plants all look very healthy

Could you tell me what that little reddish plant is at the bottom?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
Sarpijk said:
Do you believe that the extra aeration can help with plant growth too?
Click to expand...

Maybe only indirectly. I think aeration in my tank helps to keep all eco-system to be more healthier. I.e. not only plants, but fish and invisible microorganisms can benfit from extra oxygen for their life processes. So, what I mean by "my tank looks better with aeration" it's actually quite unscientific observation that everything looks "brighter", water surface, glass, plants are growing, fish are active. That could be self-hypnosis and maybe only removing film from water surface and less dirt on front glass make me think that tank looks better and its inhabitants too. I don't know. Recently the other guy in other forum argued with me that night aeration is not necessary, in his tank at least with medium intensisty of plants. That's possible that his tank got a lot of oxygen during daytime and it's enough for night. I don't want to argue with such statement. There exists very important idea: every tank is different. So what's good in one case maybe not so good in other. You should carefully watch all tiny details. That's why I wrote: in my tank aeration did help.

Also, I think if you don't inject CO2 to the tank then aeration can slightly help to introduce more CO2 for atmosphere. Of course you will never have more than say about 1-2 ppm of CO2 in such case which is way too low compared to CO2 injection, but easy plants don't actually need a lot of CO2 anyway. In my case, in my tank, I'm happy with speed of plants growth. I already put a lot of plants from the start, and during first 2 weeks I already see they settled and started to grow. Slowly, but for me that's actually the goal. So I don't need to spend too much time every week to prune all that biomass. That's slow and easy summer project.
 
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I will try this on my low tech as well! I have already ordered an air pump!
 
Hygropila difformis. I failed in the past to get this plant looks good in high energy setup with high light, lot of CO2 and ferts. It became "fat" and almost lost divisions of the leaves, leaves became more flat and solid, like in emersed form. I don't know what I did wrong, but I don't think I really did. What I can see in my current low energy setup: the leaves became more finer in low energy setup. Look at the picture below. The plant marked with arrow "High energy" was planted this weekend, I took it from pet shop where I have small kitchen-garden for plants I don't have room at home. Plant marked with arrow "Low energy" grew at my tank conditions. This observation is quite contrary to what I read e.g. here.
Your comments? Observations? Photos?

18682434673_761dec913a_z.jpgHygrophila difformis - leaf difference by Alexander, on Flickr

Definitely I like more the low energy form.
 
Alexander Belchenko said:
Hygropila difformis. I failed in the past to get this plant looks good in high energy setup with high light, lot of CO2 and ferts. It became "fat" and almost lost divisions of the leaves, leaves became more flat and solid, like in emersed form. I don't know what I did wrong, but I don't think I really did. What I can see in my current low energy setup: the leaves became more finer in low energy setup. Look at the picture below. The plant marked with arrow "High energy" was planted this weekend, I took it from pet shop where I have small kitchen-garden for plants I don't have room at home. Plant marked with arrow "Low energy" grew at my tank conditions. This observation is quite contrary to what I read e.g. here.
Your comments? Observations? Photos?.
Click to expand...

I guess it may be about the level of nutrients compared to the light. Their fertilising might be lean for that light level, so they got the finer leaves like yours now.
 
Vallisneria "Leopard"

Or: vallisneria spiralis sp. Leopard. I don't know why it's called "spiralis" - I can't see anything on the leaves to support this. Very nice plant, despite it's vallis. Well, you know, vallis is easy plant, it's rarely used in aqua design. Too old-fashioned, I guess. But in this low-tech low-energy tank - it looks very nice.

The top of the leaf has yellow-brown tint:

19077603193_6691be310a_z.jpgVallisneria Leopard by Alexander, on Flickr

With jagged edges:

19698554265_fcb1826b37_z.jpgVallisneria Leopard by Alexander, on Flickr

And sometimes it looks red(?) - believe me - it's NOT edited in photoshop, this color is just reflection of the light.

19510518048_8a2a580877_z.jpgVallisneria Leopard by Alexander, on Flickr

Its leaves grow very long 70-80 cm at least. Of course it's too long for this tank. What do I do? I tear off the upper part of the leaves around water surface. You shouldn't use scissors to trim the leaves of vallis, just tear off with your fingers - this way the leaf will not die and keep going. This is small secret from one plant guru from my country.
 
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Alexander Belchenko said:
Vallisneria "Leopard"

Or: vallisneria spiralis sp. Leopard. I don't know why it's called "spiralis" - I can't see anything on the leaves to support this.
Click to expand...

The flower stalk. :)

510px-PSM_V19_D172_Vallisneria_spiralis.jpg
 
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