First tank

[MichaelJ]

Thank you Michael. Yes, the tank is three weeks old but I replaced the filter just the other day so should I reset the ‘clock’?

I suppose you mean the filter material ? Either way, no, that wont be necessary in my opinion. You are running a relatively densely planted tank with fast growing plants and thats a very, very good thing when starting up 🏆... The filter, as far as I am concerned merely serves a mechanical purpose and to provide flow (nutrient distribution) around the tank - which is crucial... In a healthy densely planted tank, the biological filtration is by and large provided by the plants and the substrate. Not everyone here will agree with me 100% (I've become somewhat of a doctrinaire on this lol...) and it may not hold entirely true in a totally new and relatively sterile tank, but for sure it does when the tank matures.

Ok, I’ll do 50% water changes twice a week. I have bought some Seachem Prime and I did 50% change yesterday and found it was usable within minutes as you say. As next week will be the fourth week, shall I resort to just once a week water change after that or keep doing it twice a week until things settle down.

Yes being 3 weeks in already, do 50% twice a week for a couple of more weeks would be my recommendation.

I do have the Tropica Premium - how much should I be using in terms of ml and frequency?

Just add the recommended amount of Premium after each of the initial 50% WC - 3 pumps (6 ml) per 50L (I believe your tank is 60 L, so you can add an extra pump every other time you do WC, but of course the best gauge is to watch the plants and adjust if you see signs of deficiencies. In a low-tech tank such as yours it wont be too critical whether you're slightly below or above.

With regards to the phosphate level, is this something I need to address?

No, probably not - I didn't see a reference to any measurements above... merely switching away from Specialized for the time being will lower the PO4 levels... What do you measure anyway?

EDIT: Just saw your post above about your reading from the Salifert test that says its zero... Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it - it's unlikely to be absolute zero. Plants do not need much - but they need some for sure - I run my tanks at around 0.25ppm of PO4 (0.08 ppm of P) but they also get some P from food, plant and fish waste.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[BarrWarr]

Thank you, that’s very informative and extremely helpful.

I replaced the actual filter (see previous posts in this journal) owing to it not providing much flow. I have also added a smaller pump at the opposite side half way down (the main filter has a spray bar just below surface level) of the tank to ensure plants at the main filter end receive flow.

With regards to dosing, when, if ever, should I revert back to the Tropica Specialised liquid?

One final question for the time being, I have several Bladder snails and I saw the first egg sac last night - should I pop another assassin snail (the one I have hitchhiked on some wood) to keep numbers stable? I’ve read numbers will level out based on available food anyway but I don’t think I’d want too many of them.

Many thanks once again, I’m feeling a lot less stressed out by it all!

 

[MichaelJ]

I replaced the actual filter (see previous posts in this journal) owing to it not providing much flow. I have also added a smaller pump at the opposite side half way down (the main filter has a spray bar just below surface level) of the tank to ensure plants at the main filter end receive flow.

Got it... flow - as in nutrient distribution - is indeed King! ... it really applies equally to low-tech tanks as it does to high-tech (co2 injected) tanks!

With regards to dosing, when, if ever, should I revert back to the Tropica Specialised liquid?

Give it a few more weeks and then start dosing Specialized again ... btw. for the record, I use Specialized exclusively in one of my 150L tanks and I simply dose according to Tropica's recommendations ( actually less than that )... its definitely not the cheapest solution, but for beginners (and hobbyist who have better things to do) its an excellent choice .... later on you might want look into cheaper alternatives - if you even care - for a 60 L tank dosing 6 ml per week, I wouldn't bother, but that just me of course. (A 750 ml bottle at ~45 GBP will last 29 months at 6 ml a week).

One final question for the time being, I have several Bladder snails and I saw the first egg sac last night - should I pop another assassin snail (the one I have hitchhiked on some wood) to keep numbers stable? I’ve read numbers will level out based on available food anyway but I don’t think I’d want too many of them.

Personally, I am not a big fan of bladder snails, I prefer ramshorn and Nerite snails, but snails are generally a good thing. I believe Bladders are good janitors as well, but I don't have a lot of experience with them.

Many thanks once again, I’m feeling a lot less stressed out by it all!

Yeah the cumulative knowledge here on UKAPS will help you through this and make sure your tank will be successful - just keep asking questions when in doubt... but have patience!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I do like floating plants but I think they’d get pushed into the corner of the tank due to the spray bar?

They may do. Some people use <"floating rings"> etc. to keep them in position, I've not needed too try it, but I think it works.

I was adding 6ml of Tropica specialised food once a week during the water change - what would you recommend to cut this too please?

Try halving in it? And see what happens. I don't add a set amount of fertiliser, I just use the <"Duckweed Index">.

So, I’ve just used a Salifert Phosphate test and it has come back as absolute zero - is this a problem and possibly the cause of the algae?

The simple answer is "no" and "no". Whatever the test tells you, I can tell you (well really the plants can tell you) that you have sufficient phosphate (PO4---) ion in the water column for plant growth. One of the first effects of removing PO4--- ions from the water column is that green algae stops growing, this is the factor that the unscrupulous sellers of phosphate removal resins etc. make use of.

.... I tend not to worry too much about phosphate deficiency, because plants are very good at shuffling it around and, even though it is a macro-nutrient, <"plants need to run out all together"> before you get real growth problems. As soon as it becomes available again? Growth resumes.

Because PO4--- forms a lot of <"insoluble compounds"> you can always remove it from the water column, but it will take a while before deficiencies show. The vendors of <"Rowaphos">,"Phosban", "Phosguard" etc know that it takes a while for deficiencies to show, so can carry on peddling their wares to the, initially delighted, freshwater fish keeper. .....

We have some wastewater threads about <"phosphate strippers at sewage works etc">.

....... It also allows them to sell a phosphate test kit etc. and you then have the repeat sales of both PO4--- remover and test kit, add in a "pH buffer" and a fertiliser containing PO4--- as well? You can sell punter the phosphate remover, the buffer, the test kit and the fertiliser and they will work together to extract <"an ever increasing amount of money"> to solve a "problem" that <"never existed in the first place">.

I don't have a lot of time for the business models of many of the vendors of aquarium supplies, they act more like payday lenders, where they attempt to confuse an aquarist and then extract as much money as possible out of them before they suck them dry and move onto the next mark.

cheers Darrel

 

[BarrWarr]

Many thanks Darrel, much appreciated once again. I’ll look into the duckweed method and probably give it a go.

Fully understand re the sellers of supplies - I am one of those suckers who thinks I’m doing the right thing by buying all the stuff!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

...... I am one of those suckers who thinks I’m doing the right thing by buying all the stuff!

You shouldn't feel bad about it and<"it really isn't your fault">. In the past (in the days of books) there was a dearth of information, now there is information overload, but much of it either ill-informed or deliberately misleading.

My opinion is that it is an industry built on the concept of keeping the punter teetering on the edge of <"real, or imagined, disaster">. Once you've bled that one dry you wait for the next new arrival, and try and take them for everything they've got as well.

I'm guessing that most new-comers eventually build a hasty retreat, but that a small proportion carry on with fish-keeping and eventually find the happy, stress free place that fish keeping should be.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bradders]

Hi all,

You shouldn't feel bad about it and<"it really isn't your fault">. In the past (in the days of books) there was a dearth of information, now there is information overload, but much of it either ill-informed or deliberately misleading.

My opinion is that it is an industry built on the concept of keeping the punter teetering on the edge of <"real, or imagined, disaster">. Once you've bled that one dry you wait for the next new arrival, and try and take them for everything they've got as well.

I'm guessing that most new-comers eventually build a hasty retreat, but that a small proportion carry on with fish-keeping and eventually find the happy, stress free place that fish keeping should be.

cheers Darrel

Agree with Darrel here.

If you think about it, every time you buy something, ask yourself the question ‘are they selling this to me for my benefit or theirs’?

 

[BarrWarr]

Thanks everyone. I’m really pleased I found this forum as it’s been so helpful.

Just an update - I have today reduced my lighting to 50% (from 90%) of the leds max intensity and I have reduced the time from 12 hours to 9 hours with an hour off between 2-3pm (cloud cover mode 🙂 ).

All my plants are growing really well but I have started to notice algae building so hopefully the above will help reduce this in time.

I’ll keep doing 50% WC twice a week for the next couple of weeks and add some Tropica Premium nutrition at water change time.

I’ll let it progress now before adding any livestock.

 

[BarrWarr]

I’m thinking of adding some low growing foreground plants but having spent all evening looking online, different websites/suppliers give different conditions in terms of lighting. I see one I like which is easy care and ok for low lighting but go on another site and it’ll say it needs moderate/high lighting.

So, could anyone please recommend some low growing foreground plants that would be fine in the low lighting of my tank?

Many thanks as always.

 

[Ratvan]

Cryptocoryne Petchii is a personal favourite of mine as is X Willisii they stay relatively small

 

[G mac]

I don't have a lot of time for the business models of many of the vendors of aquarium supplies, they act more like payday lenders, where they attempt to confuse an aquarist and then extract as much money as possible out of them before they suck them dry and move onto the next mark.

cheers Darrel

Harsh but possibly true with some of them.🙂 I always recommend Aquarium Gardens, as certainly don't fall into that category, always good advise and on a number of occasions, they have steered me away from a big spend.

 

[Bradders]

I always recommend Aquarium Gardens, as certainly don't fall into that category, always good advise and on a number of occasions, they have steered me away from a big spend.

Yes, I can vouch for @Aquarium Gardens - they have been immensely helpful and supportive in all aspects of building my latest aquarium. Went above and beyond, and very sensible advice pre and post sales.

 

[BarrWarr]

Cryptocoryne Petchii is a personal favourite of mine as is X Willisii they stay relatively small

Thanks. I’ve popped to the local store and bought a couple of the petchii. I’ve read they can melt so I won’t panic if/when they do!

 

[Ratvan]

Thanks. I’ve popped to the local store and bought a couple of the petchii. I’ve read they can melt so I won’t panic if/when they do!

Yes they sometimes do when going from emersed to fully submerged. I have a lot of beech leaf litter in my tank so I don't see as much now as when I first started with them

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Harsh but possibly true with some of them.

It is a strange one, some companies sell good products alongside absolute tat, it is more the <"deliberately misleading"> advertising I don't like. Seachem are a prime example, their adverts are very carefully worded, so that they imply something without actually ever saying it.

I always recommend Aquarium Gardens, as certainly don't fall into that category, always good advise and on a number of occasions, they have steered me away from a big spend.

I'm not really having a go at LFS., as you say there are some really good ones (like <"our sponsors">). I'd guess that nearly every independent left is a <"fish-keeper with a shop">, not "a shop-keeper with fish".

cheers Darrel

 

[BarrWarr]

Afternoon,

Out of curiosity, I have borrowed a lux meter from a friend to see if my current lighting intensity is low/med/high.

I have read lux isn’t the most reliable and converting to PAR isn’t straightforward but the lux meter read 3,300 - I then divided this by 80 to give a rough PAR of 41.

Fully appreciate this isn’t an accurate measurement but will it be in the right ball park area? If so, as I can’t use the ‘duckweed’ method due to too much surface disturbance, I assume this is acceptable for my tank?

Also, I bought two Anubia barteri nana a couple of days ago and one of them has started to get small holes in the leaf. I noticed the leaf looked like it had concave marks on the upper surface and these have now turned into holes as shown in the pic. The other one appears to be lacking in these holes but is placed underneath some Limnophila so isn’t getting as much light as the one with these holes. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

Many thanks as always.

 

[BarrWarr]

Just an edit to my post above. I have just found the light calculator at the top of this website and entered the tank details (although I’m not sure if my leds are ‘cree’?).

This is what it calculates.

Based on this, should I reduce my lighting intensity to about 40% (for a PAR of c40 for my low tech tank)? Apologies if I’ve completely misinterpreted this.

Many thanks.

 

[BarrWarr]

Just thought I would give an update on my tank. It’s very low tech and I’ve messed about with the plants (some removed due to getting too big, too quickly, plenty of new ones added), changed the lighting and filter and the layout.

It’s now almost two months old and thankfully none of the crypts or anubias have melted (yet), apart from the odd leaf. All plants are ‘easy’, just anubias, crypts, Java fern, moss, one limnophila and a single buce. I removed a lot of the bog wood as it severely reduced space.

Still doing 2x a week 50% WC and only adding 2.5ml of TNC complete once a week.

Only livestock are snails. Prob get some shrimps in the next couple of weeks.

It’s certainly not going to win any prizes and probably not to everyone’s liking but it’s now starting to look something like what I wanted.

Thanks to everyone on here who has been patient enough to answer my questions, it’s very much appreciated.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

probably not to everyone’s liking but it’s now starting to look something like what I wanted.

You are the only one who matters, but it is to my liking, and looking great.

cheers Darrel

 

[Ratvan]

@BarrWarr very nice looking tank, love the amount of moss that you have in there.

Also that Anubias (i assume) thats to the right of centre with the wavy leaves is really very nice. adds a lot of additional texture to the tank