ElleDee
Member
Yeah, that all sounds very reasonable, but at the same time also wildly unrelatable! Such a dedicated hobbyist without at least a couple side projects? How?? I thought MTS comes for us all.
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GreggZ Planted Rainbow Tank!
- Thread starter GreggZ
- Start date
Hi GreggZ, and yes I remember you from TPT. As a lover of Rainbow Fish, I look forward to continuing to follow you here.
Referring to your post about water flow from the previous page, it appears the two Rena XP L’s delivers 350G/Hr (1325 Ltr/ Hr), and the Rena XP XL delivers 450 G/Hr (1700 Ltr/Hr), totaling 1150 G/Hr (4350 Ltr/Hr). All please check that my numbers are approximately correct. This gives approximately 9 water changes per hour. I thought this might be of interest for others making a comparison with other filters.
Could you possibly post the the online source for Male only Rainbows online, or PM me directly with the source info? Might they be located in the Portland, OR area?
Referring to your post about water flow from the previous page, it appears the two Rena XP L’s delivers 350G/Hr (1325 Ltr/ Hr), and the Rena XP XL delivers 450 G/Hr (1700 Ltr/Hr), totaling 1150 G/Hr (4350 Ltr/Hr). All please check that my numbers are approximately correct. This gives approximately 9 water changes per hour. I thought this might be of interest for others making a comparison with other filters.
Could you possibly post the the online source for Male only Rainbows online, or PM me directly with the source info? Might they be located in the Portland, OR area?
SkaleyAquatics
New Member
Hello Greggz,
I was a pretty big lurker to your journal over at TPT, only commented a few times. As your tank was a huge inspiration for me to get into high tech planted aquariums. I am glad to see you have found a new home for your aquarium journal.
I was a pretty big lurker to your journal over at TPT, only commented a few times. As your tank was a huge inspiration for me to get into high tech planted aquariums. I am glad to see you have found a new home for your aquarium journal.
GreggZ
Member
Yep in theory with the filters unloaded that is about right. But turnover is only part of the equation. It's also in how you disperse that flow. Put it through a narrow nozzle and you have a strong turbulent flow. Put it through a wide nozzle and you have a weaker gentler flow.
Now as to Rainbows there are lots of options. Since you are in Portland I'd probably start with the WetSpot. They work with some breeders to bring in good lines of Rainbows. Next would be Imperial Tropicals out of FL. They also work with many of the top breeders in the US to offer good blood lines. With some species you can pay just a bit more and get all males.
The next option is to work with individual breeders. I know most of the them. The issue there is that they usually only have one or two species available and ready to ship at a time. They also tend to ship when the Bows are very, very small and can't be sexed.
You even have sites like Dan'sfish that gets fish from breeders and then sells them out of a central site. So there is good variety there of many "rarer" species in the hobby.
If you have something in particular you are looking for let me know and I may be able to point you in the right direction.
Thank you and I am glad to hear it helped inspired you to get into high tech. That always warms my heart a bit as you never really know who is following and what they are thinking.
I will say from the time I started the journal to the end I sure did notice a LOT more planted Rainbow tanks popping up everywhere. And seeing their success makes all the posting worthwhile.
SkaleyAquatics
New Member
Does it count if I started a low tech tank with rainbows? LOL. In reality they are going in my first summer tub this year, hoping to have a bunch of rhadinocentrus babies.
Easternlethal
Member
GreggZ
Member
How come I hear from more people now than when the journal was still up??😀
Do you mean the Nymphoides Hydrophylla 'Taiwan'? If so I pinch the top leaves every week, which makes it get bushier and bushier and keeps it shorter. Then every once in a while I pull the whole thing and rip off about 8" or 10" then replant and the cycle repeats.
Like most plants it takes a while to understand how to trim it and bring it to good form. The good thing about this one is you can never make a bad mistake........it just grows and grows and grows.
GreggZ
Member
SkaleyAquatics
New Member
The first time I saw millenniums in person I was instantly hooked on them and they still look really good here.
GreggZ
Member
Jackson here is probably more than you want to know. I've been rolling my own for quite a few years now. Like many things in life, once you figure it out you find it was not as complicated as you first thought. If you have any questions let me know.
Quagulator
New Member
The toughest part about mixing your own micros is breaking out all the baggies and a scale then mixing them up. Not complicated at all, but it's sadly not an excuse to run to a LFS to grab some fertilizer and check out new plants / fish. 😉
SkaleyAquatics
New Member
Greggz do you have a link to the file you use to track with. As I have switched to dry fertilizer I would like to breakdown what I put in weekly.
GreggZ
Member
I put together that spreadsheet years ago to help me track everything going on in my tank. Any time I make a change I take a screenshot and save it. So I can go back to any point in time and see what I was up to then.
IMO it helps to keep good records. They can prevent you from making the same mistakes over and over again.
I've been freely sharing the file for years now. You can download it at the link below and use it any way you like to suit your needs.
Planted Tank Shared Files – Google Drive
drive.google.com
SkaleyAquatics
New Member
Thanks greggz!I put together that spreadsheet years ago to help me track everything going on in my tank. Any time I make a change I take a screenshot and save it. So I can go back to any point in time and see what I was up to then.
IMO it helps to keep good records. They can prevent you from making the same mistakes over and over again.
I've been freely sharing the file for years now. You can download it at the link below and use it any way you like to suit your needs.
Planted Tank Shared Files – Google Drive
JacksonL
Member
- Joined
- 27 May 2015
- Messages
- 120
Thanks for that Gregg, that’s super helpful. I just have a couple questions.
Are you mixing those into a single solution for your dosing? If so do you mix it weekly or make up a larger batch of it to save time weighing out ingredients? I guess a quick rundown of your process would be greatly appreciated if you have the time.
also what form do you get the fe gluconate in? I have found and ordered the rest of the ingredients, but my search for fe gluconate turns up both liquids and powders and those are all differing strengths.
thanks!
GreggZ
Member
If my journal at TPT was still up I'd just point you to the page where I went over it. I make up a 1000ml solution and dose 20 ml per day so lasts about 50 days. I make the solution with RO water and add 10 ml of distilled white vinegar and 0.4 gm potassium sorbate. The gram scale is a typical jewelers model that goes to 0.01 gram. Shake it like heck every so often for a few days and keep it stored in a dark place. Mine is in a closet and I have never had any issue with mold or anything like that.
For the items that are very small amounts I create a separate 1,000 ml container (Nickel Sulfate Hexahydrate, , Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate, Sodium Molybdate) and add that to the micro 1,000 ml solution. It's a bit more math but not that bad.
The ferrous gluconate is dry.
Once you do it once you will see how easy it is.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
plantnoobdude
Member
Is there a reason you use unchelated? the reason I ask is because most of my Micros are chelated, but I haven't tried other sources. have you done so and have you found any difference?
GreggZ
Member
Hey Plantnoobdude I hope you don't get in trouble with the other guys for stopping in here!😄😄
I've been using the same or similar mix for about 5 years now. And I know dozens of others rolling their own with the same ingredients. I haven't found a need to try anything different as things have been going pretty well for a long time now.
As to micros in my opinion most tanks can get by well on a pretty wide range of dosing. I've been as high as 0.60 with Fe as proxy and as low as 0.20 weekly. No big changes other than interesting reactions from a very select group of plants. For most stem heavy tanks like mine I have found about 0.40 to be a sweet spot. Enough but not too much is a good general rule. Not an exact science and there are far more important things to worry about.
The bigger issue is to have good stable relative values and nothing in excess or completely lacking. That is the issue with some popular mixes being sold. As I am sure you know CSM+B is meant to be mixed in large vats with 100's or 1,000's of gallons of water to dose crops. The odds of getting a stable mix in your 1/8 tsp is very unlikely. That was likely an issue with many of the micro tox complaints. Just a single large overdose of B can wreak havoc on a tank. By rolling your own you can create a much more stable mix.
JacksonL
Member
- Joined
- 27 May 2015
- Messages
- 120
Thanks yet again for your help!
All my ingredients have been ordered so I will be giving it a shot once they arrive.
