Solex
Member
I was looking at my older pictures, wow plants are much less green at the moment!
The moss is more brown then green, no worries, it will come back!
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My first planted aquarium.. 80x45x60 cm
- Thread starter Solex
- Start date
I was looking at my older pictures, wow plants are much less green at the moment!
The moss is more brown then green, no worries, it will come back!
Hi Lexy,
You might want to try rearranging the positions of the spraybars. The brown is caused by poor CO2, so despite all the gas you are injecting, somehow it is not getting to the plants. Try mounting the bars on the side glass. Try different combinations to see if you can solve the riddle.
Cheers,
You might want to try rearranging the positions of the spraybars. The brown is caused by poor CO2, so despite all the gas you are injecting, somehow it is not getting to the plants. Try mounting the bars on the side glass. Try different combinations to see if you can solve the riddle.
Cheers,
Solex
Member
Co2 not getting there! :shocked:
wow with all of those thousands of small bubbles and massive injection rate that was one thing I did not expect! The water was foggy with them.
Ill set up the bars on the side today.
Again this morning there was no scum.
Have a nice day!
Lexy
wow with all of those thousands of small bubbles and massive injection rate that was one thing I did not expect! The water was foggy with them.
Ill set up the bars on the side today.
Again this morning there was no scum.
Have a nice day!
Lexy
Solex
Member
Ohhh...
The larger of two pumps has a spraybar that is too long, it stayed on the back, one half spraying down along the backwall the other half below the surface.
The spaybar of the smaller pump is on the rightside, trying different flow patters, but a circular is not one that can be achieved.
Looks like there is flow around the hardscape, more then before.
Thinking of removing the stem plants for alot of cryptos, they are clogging up the flow.
But they are needed for its faster growth rate??
Have a nice day!
Lexy
The larger of two pumps has a spraybar that is too long, it stayed on the back, one half spraying down along the backwall the other half below the surface.
The spaybar of the smaller pump is on the rightside, trying different flow patters, but a circular is not one that can be achieved.
Looks like there is flow around the hardscape, more then before.
Thinking of removing the stem plants for alot of cryptos, they are clogging up the flow.
But they are needed for its faster growth rate??
Have a nice day!
Lexy
Hi Lexy,
Yeah, the problem with gases in water is that they immediately try to escape from the water as you can see by the bubbles. It should be clear to you that the bubbles are moving away from the plants, not moving down into the plant beds, right? Barr estimates that about 90% of the gas we inject immediately dissipates into the atmosphere, so we really have to find a way to force that remaining 10% down and to make contact with the leaf. The hardscape and other objects have a powerful impact on flow and distribution and unfortunately, it's not possible to predict, so this forces us to experiment with the arrangement. I cant recall whether you are adding liquid carbon daily, but if not, you will see improvements by doing so.
You can spread out the stems over a wider area to reduce the blocking. I know it's frustrating after all the energy, but I always try to discourage people from just ripping out the plants that are not doing well, because one has to learn how to solve the riddle of their tank. Changing to a different plant does not always solve the root cause. When you learn how to solve the problem, that lesson stays with you and helps you to recognize and solve future problems. I've seen so many cases where people have a lot of problems and they get frustrated and they drain the tank, rip out all the plants and start all over again...but they haven't changed. They didn't learn why they had a problem and so make the same mistakes the second time, so the same problems return.
You can even try extreme maneuvers such as placing the long spraybar at the bottom front glass pointing towards the back, just to get flow down at the bottom and to see what difference it makes. YOu can even rearrange the hardscap to see what effects there are. It doesn't have to look pretty right now because you are trying to understand the problem. That's another thing that stops people from being creative problem solvers, they don't want to mess up the arrangement, or to have piping in areas that diminish the aesthetics, but, dying plants also ruin the aesthetics, so we need to figure out and visualize the problem. Once we see an improvement in the plant growth, then we can find a different, more aesthetic way to get the same effect.
Cheers,
Yeah, the problem with gases in water is that they immediately try to escape from the water as you can see by the bubbles. It should be clear to you that the bubbles are moving away from the plants, not moving down into the plant beds, right? Barr estimates that about 90% of the gas we inject immediately dissipates into the atmosphere, so we really have to find a way to force that remaining 10% down and to make contact with the leaf. The hardscape and other objects have a powerful impact on flow and distribution and unfortunately, it's not possible to predict, so this forces us to experiment with the arrangement. I cant recall whether you are adding liquid carbon daily, but if not, you will see improvements by doing so.
You can spread out the stems over a wider area to reduce the blocking. I know it's frustrating after all the energy, but I always try to discourage people from just ripping out the plants that are not doing well, because one has to learn how to solve the riddle of their tank. Changing to a different plant does not always solve the root cause. When you learn how to solve the problem, that lesson stays with you and helps you to recognize and solve future problems. I've seen so many cases where people have a lot of problems and they get frustrated and they drain the tank, rip out all the plants and start all over again...but they haven't changed. They didn't learn why they had a problem and so make the same mistakes the second time, so the same problems return.
You can even try extreme maneuvers such as placing the long spraybar at the bottom front glass pointing towards the back, just to get flow down at the bottom and to see what difference it makes. YOu can even rearrange the hardscap to see what effects there are. It doesn't have to look pretty right now because you are trying to understand the problem. That's another thing that stops people from being creative problem solvers, they don't want to mess up the arrangement, or to have piping in areas that diminish the aesthetics, but, dying plants also ruin the aesthetics, so we need to figure out and visualize the problem. Once we see an improvement in the plant growth, then we can find a different, more aesthetic way to get the same effect.
Cheers,
Solex
Member
First of all thank you very much for helping this noob out!!
I can not say it often enough, thank you!
Easycarbo, never used it before, bought it this morning, added 4ml just now (1ml per 50liter) Its more expensiven then the real stuff!
It sounds crazy, but this morning when I checked the tank it looked like the moss was making new bright green leaves.
With the change of the FE bottle the injection rate went down, it went from fizzzz to the excact science of 2.6 bubbles a second (measured over 30 seconds)
The moss is no longer completly covered with co2 bubbles, maybe the moss ran out of O2?
The remaining diatoms on leaves are removed by the snails, here and there are small patches and I try to vacuum it off.
The stem plants were never intended to stay, I wanted the substrate to be covered with a carpet or small plants. I added them for the faster consumption rate, so in time they will go out.
The left corner is packed with stems, I have been replanting most the tops of the stems that have be cut. Ill leave them for now then.
Have a nice day!
Lexy
I can not say it often enough, thank you!
Easycarbo, never used it before, bought it this morning, added 4ml just now (1ml per 50liter) Its more expensiven then the real stuff!
It sounds crazy, but this morning when I checked the tank it looked like the moss was making new bright green leaves.
With the change of the FE bottle the injection rate went down, it went from fizzzz to the excact science of 2.6 bubbles a second (measured over 30 seconds)
The moss is no longer completly covered with co2 bubbles, maybe the moss ran out of O2?
The remaining diatoms on leaves are removed by the snails, here and there are small patches and I try to vacuum it off.
The stem plants were never intended to stay, I wanted the substrate to be covered with a carpet or small plants. I added them for the faster consumption rate, so in time they will go out.
The left corner is packed with stems, I have been replanting most the tops of the stems that have be cut. Ill leave them for now then.
Have a nice day!
Lexy
Hi Lexy,
You're very welcome mate. Yes, liquid carbon is expensive, but sometimes it's really worth it. If you can afford it, don't be afraid to do 2X or even 3X dosing as long as you don't have any sensitive plants like Riccia or Valis.
Our Sponsor AquaEssentials sell an equivalent product, Neutro, which is much cheaper, but shipping costs might be high. Anyway, check their website.
Cheers,
You're very welcome mate. Yes, liquid carbon is expensive, but sometimes it's really worth it. If you can afford it, don't be afraid to do 2X or even 3X dosing as long as you don't have any sensitive plants like Riccia or Valis.
Our Sponsor AquaEssentials sell an equivalent product, Neutro, which is much cheaper, but shipping costs might be high. Anyway, check their website.
Cheers,
Solex
Member
Yes there is valis in the back.
Have a nice day!
Lexy
Have a nice day!
Lexy
Solex
Member
Solex
Member
Solex
Member
The new flow and the liquid carbon seem to have worked.I am dosing about 5ml a day.
Almost everything looks more green, Blyxa looks fake as green as it is, the moss has started to grow again.
I have gotten about 40 little cherry red shrimp and they are doing fine.
Thinned out and replanted the top of the stems, they were blocking flow, there was no melting at the bottom of the stems.
I had one little spot of BGA on the wood, vacuumed it al off and dropped some liquid carbon on the location. never saw it again.
Still doing often water changes and lowered light levels.
Almost everything looks more green, Blyxa looks fake as green as it is, the moss has started to grow again.
I have gotten about 40 little cherry red shrimp and they are doing fine.
Thinned out and replanted the top of the stems, they were blocking flow, there was no melting at the bottom of the stems.
I had one little spot of BGA on the wood, vacuumed it al off and dropped some liquid carbon on the location. never saw it again.
Still doing often water changes and lowered light levels.
Steve Smith
Member
Glad things are starting to turn around for you Solex 
Solex
Member
New week, new pictures, the liquid carbon is working great it seems, not much brown left, only the Hygrophila
pinnatifida and the Hydrocotyle seem to be not so happy. Blyxa Japonica is growing rapidly and the moss has come ack to life.
Have some very small algea spots around dead roots or spots of decayed moss / hairgrass. But I assume that has to do with the decaying plant material.
Solex
Member
Solex
Member
Hi Solex,
the tank has really filled in nicely now. Seems the fish can enjoy getting lost in there
Cheerio,
Ady.
the tank has really filled in nicely now. Seems the fish can enjoy getting lost in there
Cheerio,
Ady.
