DSM Noob; am I doing this right?

[Vinkenoog1977]

Right, decided to redo my 40L cube, and wanted to give the dry start method a go. For right now, there is some Eleocharis Parvula around the rock, and I attached some Anubias Nana, Java Moss and Java Ferns to the wood with some super glue gel. I mist everything three times a day, and there's a heater in a bottle of water inside, set to 32 C. The inside temperature is around 22-23 C, with the room temp at 19. The light is LED 3,5 Watts, and the PP is 14 hours at the moment. I covered the tank in cleanfilm and I can see it's pretty humid inside, due to the condensation.

Coming thursday, I will add a pot or two of Monte Carlo, and some Ammina Bonsai. The substrate (Sera Floredepot covered with fine gravel) was soaked first (well, the gravel was), and I remove any pools of water accumulatede from the misting, with a syringe daily. The plan is, after the MC and the Bonsai are added Thursday, to keep it standing for another 4-5 weeks. After that I will flood it, and, probably, add some Ceratopteris Siliquosa at the back around the wood in the corners (to cover the filter and heater), and Lysimachia Nummularia behind the center stone at the back (suggestions are welcome though!).

The PP will go right down to 6 hours, and I will add one hour every week, until 10 hours maximum. I will be using Bio CO2 (no solenoid; will be upping the yeast for the first three weeks for some extra CO2, then go back down to the regular recipe), and will be dosing with Easycarbo and EI daily the first weeks, after that EasyCarbo only when doing water changes. Water changes the first three weeks will be 50%, every day the first week, every other day the second week, and every three days the third week; after that weekly water changes of 25%.

The question now is: am I doing this right, should I add something, stop doing something, or any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Front view:

Top view:

 

[Julian]

I'd say you might be misting too often. Rather than sticking to a "3 times a day" misting regime, see what your plants are telling you. If the leafs are moist, they don't need misting. I know it's a different plant, but when I started growing some HC using the DSM, I only sprayed them a couple of times a week. But like I said, see what the plants are telling you.

Also, your temperature might be a bit high, keep a look out for mould, especially this stuff:



This stuff is nasty, it's like BGA in an emersed form.

Mould issues are usually resolved by manual removal and turning down the temperature.

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

The temperature in the tank itself is a steady 22 degrees at the moment; the heater is in a water bottle, so I jacked it up to 32 to make sure it had an effect on the temperature in the tank. Regarding the misting; I think you might be right, the Anubias, DHG and the moss are looking good without any misting, it's just the java ferns whose leaves go dry rather quickly, so I might just mist them a wee bit, and forgo the rest. Things were looking good this morning, will make some more pics later, and might even start a journal on this one.

 

[Andy Thurston]

Peel the cling film back daily to refresh the air in the tank and remove any melt you have during the dsm to help reduce the mold.
If you succeed with the dsm without getting any mysterious mould your next biggest hurdle will be the co2 when you flood it.
Co2, flow and distribution are critical at this time, get this wrong and all your effort will be wasted use 1.5-3 x reccomended easy carbo dose but reduce this if your moss starts suffering
Have a look at my journal to see what happens to the monte carlo if co2 in not good
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/andys-60l-cube.31194/
When you do flood aim for the largest ph drop you can achieve and start dosing nutrients from day 1, keep this up for a 3-4 weeks and if all remains good you can start to make the tank safe for fish/shrimp by slowly reducing the easy carbo and co2 levels. The usual tank maintenance regime, daily waterchanges etc, should carried out as normal too
Finally good luck

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Cheers for that! Yeah, I peel back the cling film once a day for a couple of minutes to get some fresh air in there.
As said, I will up the CO2 the first couple of weeks. Flow and distribution should be allright; these little internal filters produce quite a good flow, and with the mini spraybar, I get flow all throughout the tank, so that should be okay.

Thanks!