• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

My first planted aquarium.. 80x45x60 cm

Lexy,
Why on Earth are you boiling your water?

There is no such thing as too much CO2 from a plant's perspective. That only has to do with fish. That's why you have a dropchecker. It's not something to worry about at this point.

Cheers,
 
Alright, ill keep adding a overdose CO2. I can hear it fizzz on the surface side of the water :nurse:
The boiled water was just there, it needed warm water to dissolve it, as by its instructions. So I used that beacuse I just made tea :)
 
IMG_4325_zpsf7762ee3.jpg

Bubbles everywere!
 
Hi Lexy,
If you want to improve the effectiveness of your CO2 for now then just cover the tank with cling film or any clear material to slow it's escape from the tank.

Cheers,
 
Just poked around with the hose and rubbed off the diatoms of the plants and wood.
60% water change.
I had surface scum also, the co2 bubbles made it sticky and it can be removed with a net
 
Hi Lexy,
If the diatoms persist you might be able to do a blackout to reset. Where did the diatoms appear first? I'm wondering if you have a blocked flow issue because the size of the wood.

This is the penalty of impatience. I always consider a start-up tank to be the same as a hospital tank for plants. I don't really worry too much about speed of growth. That happens automatically when everything else works efficiently. The thing to worry about is figuring out what works and what doesn't in that particular tank. For example, you may need to rearrange the spraybar position. You may even need to rearrange the hardscape slightly. Some plants may do better in different locations. These are the riddles which must be solved, so the absolute last thing that should be on the agenda is increased light/speed.

Cheers,
 
Hi Clive!

The diatoms started near the surface (10cm below) on the horizontal branches.
There is some also on the substrate near the front of the glass were there is alot of flow.

Co2 level is high 24/7, it fizzzes on the surface. I have been following the trail of small bubbles, but it does not look like that there are spots with low flow. At the spots were the diatoms occure is alof of flow.

Lighting levels are still low, it did not pump it up hard the last week. just increased it with 8% or so.

Have a nice day!
Lexy
 
Just did a 50% water change, the diatoms are still there, but it seems to get less, although slightly (or is it me hoping to hard?) its not bad, but its there.
Bolbitis H (Melted) and have been almost all cut down to the rhizome. (remove the rhizomes? or is there a chance that they regrow new leaves?)
Microsorium (only the larger leaves) have been cut, they were failing.
Opened the smallest filter to clean the sponge, but there was hardly anything in it.

Added Blyxia japonica, 7 stems (submerged) and some more stems of a plant that I do not know the name of.
Fiddled with the spraybars too..
 
HI mate,
Yes it's very strange with all that CO2 you're pumping in that you are getting melting. That plus the diatoms means that the lighting is stronger than you think.

There is a chance the bolbitis will recover so leave if for now and reduce the lighting some more.

Cheers,
 
Maybee that the plants were damaged in the shipping proces, it was a very cold week then..

I was planning to only do one 50% water change from this week, but is that smart with the diatoms?


Have a nice day!
Lexy
 
Hi Lexy,
I don't think so mate. They would have had to be already rotting to be unable to recover with that amount of CO2 and nutrition. Any algal attack is best addressed with more water changes and reduction of lighting. Diatoms are fundamentally caused by too much light and is exacerbated by poor distribution/CO2. Since your CO2 is high then that leaves light and distribution. It's a very simple logic diagram for algae.

Cheers,
 
back to 24% light, there is still diatoms on parts of the wood and substrate, its not expanding, but it is there and only on the parts were there is high flow.
Could it be that iam dosing to much Ferts?

added a few more cryptos and microsorum mini.


Have a nice day!
Lexy
 
Hi Lexy,
A more reasonable assumption, despite it's seeming absurdity, is that even at only 24% power, there is still too much light. Without a PAR meter it's impossible to tell but check online to see if anyone has a review of this fixture with measurements.Plants don't need nearly as much light as we think they do, and that's the root cause of most of our problems.

In any case, diatom algae happens a lot in immature tanks and often goes away by itself after a few weeks. Diatom algae is one of the most successful species on the planet and it's one of those that are first to colonize. There are over 10,000 varieties. In fact, most of the yearly Oxygen production of the planet comes from diatoms, so theoretically, we should welcome their persistence. That's little consolation, I know...

Cheers,
 
Hi Clive,

I have been searching for par readings, but I cant find them for the 10.000k version of this unit.

I know that you cannot see par with your naked eye, but when the lights are at 24% its way to dark for a normal aqaurium level, its light level is as if the sun has just come up.
It could be offcourse that there is tons of par, but I do not see hardly any growth in even the already submerged Hygrophilia Polysperma that have been put in from a other tank at 24%, at 30% it grew quite alot in a week, approx 10cm.

Sanj has almost the same unit and somewhat same sized tank, but it has one led cluster less and 40w less, he runs it on 55% at averge with a peak at 60%.

At the moment my impatience has gone away completely, light (24%) and temperature (22C) levels are low, ~50% water changes every other day and dosing EI everyday.
5kg FE bottle has been changed this morning as it was empty already 8)
My lights do not start and stop at 24%, it takes two hours for them to build up to 24% (linear pattern) and one hour to go down to 0. Light is on 8.5 hours a day.

I have a bit of surface scum, not really thick, it does not smell funky either, you can get some of it of with a fine net, its then brown colored, as it was diatoms.

My spraybars are spraying less horizontal, they still hit the glass but now about 2/3 of the tank when there is no water there, maybee it helps with the diatoms on the wood.
I still have a circular flow, thinking of adding a powerhead to get some more flow behind the wooden hardscape and the rear glass.

as always, thank you very much for thinking for me and helping me out!

Have a nice day!
Lexy
 
I got some credits (50 euros) from the store that I bought my light off
aquacompleet.nl.
Tunze 6015 (1.800 l/h) looks like a nice circulation pump, my fear is that the impellor will eat small fish and stupid shrimps..
Tunze 6015 - Aquacompleet

Have a nice day!
Lexy
 
Happy easter bunny!

Almost six weeks, alot less diatoms, there was hardly any scum (its the iron scum version, not the green thick one) on the surface this morning, did a diatom wrubdown of the wood and a extra waterchange. The amount of dust that came off was alot less then last week.
They seem to prefer the front glass the last couple of days.

I always thought that brown algae wasnt algae but single cell organisms that prefered dark and dirty tanks. Some snails that came with the last plants have survived the Co2 bombardment and they are eating the stuff.

Still debating the circulationpump, not sure how to integrate it into the flow.
There is indeed a bit less flow (and light) on the left and a right side of the hardscape.

Have a nice day!
Lexy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top