Hi guys, I have lossed my journal and after about 20 mins of trying to find it I have given up and created this continuation of it.
It is basically a rainbow fish tank with a few additions
Size: Tank 134g 6x2x1.5
Lighting: 312w T5 (6x 39w 6500K, 2x 39w 10,000K) I class this as being over 3 watts of T5 per gallon as I have alot of tank space taken up by substrate.
Lighting in Lux at substrate level: 3366
Filtration: Aqua One Aquis 2400 Aprox 2400 Ltrs/Hr. Aswell as another 800 Ltr/Hr internal filter I use for extra circulation 10x cycles per hour.
CO2: Pressurised
Fertilisation: EI method
Heating: 1x 300w Aqua One
This tank has been a massive journey and is my first serious attempt at a planted aquarium. The origional journal covered all of the problems I faced up to about 2 months ago but I will have to try to bring it up to speed.
I started with all Australian bio type stuff but ended up dialuting it with foreign stuff over time. I had a big attempt at growing HC which failed massively. I have gone through probably 1000 shrimp since the tank began due to dosing dry salts directly into the water.
Enough with the past, here is where I am at:
My rainbow fish are maturing nicely and are gaining some colour, I have a dwarf cichlid in there apisto something I call it the punk of the fishes. I have a few columbian tetras in there (still young) a pair of empire gudgeons which are amazing because they look sooo plain except when they get excited and then they are a sight to behold. Their heads and dorsal ann anal fins go a strong blue and red.
I had major black brush algae issues a while back. I have addressed the problems although there is some bits still here and there and it has not spread for a few months.
I am now up to my 2nd attempt at growing HC. I got alot of with for $4.50 a bunch from my supplier (amazing!) and have re structured my approach. I have bought alot of my suppliers equivilent to flourish or easy carb (The active ingredient is called gluteraldehyde for those who are interested in knowing ) and am dosing strongly. I have also planted my HC by planting 75% of it under the substrate so that it anchors down well. I am also only running my canister filter whilst the CO2 is running. When the CO2 is not running I run the 800 LTR/HR internal filter to stop thr HC from up rooting.
I am having massive brown dust algae problems at the moment and have decided to include the pictures of it since this area is a "warts and all" thingy. I am open to suggestions about why I am having a brown dust algae outbreak guys and bare in mind that this tank has been running about 8 months since I started my fishless cycle. I have been over dosing nutrients and running my CO2 at about 35-40 PPM since planting the HC. Poor circulation?
OK now to the pictures, tomorrow is my massive maintenance day so I will include some more "cleaner" pictures at a later date.
A full tank shot, I have let the algae go a bit so that I dont upset the HC while it is rooting.
Some local Fissidens which is (like the rest of the tank) over-run with algae
The Rotala is going off
This is a pic of the shrimp I am atempting to breed.
As a backup I have alot of HC growing emmersed out in my sunroom and am also having my first attempt at breeding shrimp. I bought 60 red nose shrimp but the size they came at was way too small and the fish ate 1/2 of them so the rest went into my new breeding tank so all going well I have some sucess with that. My intention was to have up to 10 shrimp per square foot of substrate space so they could destroy my algae but that fell through so now I am relying on the gluyteraldehyde.
It is basically a rainbow fish tank with a few additions
Size: Tank 134g 6x2x1.5
Lighting: 312w T5 (6x 39w 6500K, 2x 39w 10,000K) I class this as being over 3 watts of T5 per gallon as I have alot of tank space taken up by substrate.
Lighting in Lux at substrate level: 3366
Filtration: Aqua One Aquis 2400 Aprox 2400 Ltrs/Hr. Aswell as another 800 Ltr/Hr internal filter I use for extra circulation 10x cycles per hour.
CO2: Pressurised
Fertilisation: EI method
Heating: 1x 300w Aqua One
This tank has been a massive journey and is my first serious attempt at a planted aquarium. The origional journal covered all of the problems I faced up to about 2 months ago but I will have to try to bring it up to speed.
I started with all Australian bio type stuff but ended up dialuting it with foreign stuff over time. I had a big attempt at growing HC which failed massively. I have gone through probably 1000 shrimp since the tank began due to dosing dry salts directly into the water.
Enough with the past, here is where I am at:
My rainbow fish are maturing nicely and are gaining some colour, I have a dwarf cichlid in there apisto something I call it the punk of the fishes. I have a few columbian tetras in there (still young) a pair of empire gudgeons which are amazing because they look sooo plain except when they get excited and then they are a sight to behold. Their heads and dorsal ann anal fins go a strong blue and red.
I had major black brush algae issues a while back. I have addressed the problems although there is some bits still here and there and it has not spread for a few months.
I am now up to my 2nd attempt at growing HC. I got alot of with for $4.50 a bunch from my supplier (amazing!) and have re structured my approach. I have bought alot of my suppliers equivilent to flourish or easy carb (The active ingredient is called gluteraldehyde for those who are interested in knowing ) and am dosing strongly. I have also planted my HC by planting 75% of it under the substrate so that it anchors down well. I am also only running my canister filter whilst the CO2 is running. When the CO2 is not running I run the 800 LTR/HR internal filter to stop thr HC from up rooting.
I am having massive brown dust algae problems at the moment and have decided to include the pictures of it since this area is a "warts and all" thingy. I am open to suggestions about why I am having a brown dust algae outbreak guys and bare in mind that this tank has been running about 8 months since I started my fishless cycle. I have been over dosing nutrients and running my CO2 at about 35-40 PPM since planting the HC. Poor circulation?
OK now to the pictures, tomorrow is my massive maintenance day so I will include some more "cleaner" pictures at a later date.
A full tank shot, I have let the algae go a bit so that I dont upset the HC while it is rooting.
Some local Fissidens which is (like the rest of the tank) over-run with algae
The Rotala is going off
This is a pic of the shrimp I am atempting to breed.
As a backup I have alot of HC growing emmersed out in my sunroom and am also having my first attempt at breeding shrimp. I bought 60 red nose shrimp but the size they came at was way too small and the fish ate 1/2 of them so the rest went into my new breeding tank so all going well I have some sucess with that. My intention was to have up to 10 shrimp per square foot of substrate space so they could destroy my algae but that fell through so now I am relying on the gluyteraldehyde.