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My Jewel 25 gallon

M

morgan

Seedling
Joined
12 Apr 2012
Messages
15
This will be my first attempt at keeping live plants . All other tanks were hardscaped only .
After a few good hours of reading im ready to give it ago ....

My tank is a 114 liter with a inch of 3mm dorset pea gravel and capped with a nice layer of 1-2 mm fine pea gravel.
filtration is a Jewel bioflow 400

Substrate is dosed with 4 x TNC plugs . Water is dosed with TNC complete @ 5ml every 3 days . Every 3 days i do a 25% water change .

Lights - 4pm -12. Scrapped the standard lights and went DIY . With a bit of squareline gutter, heat reflective tape and some ceramic bayonets im able to run 75w of compact spiral cfl @6500 kelvin. I choose to run just 50 w at the mo, equivalent to 250 watts of light , but thats a irrelivant 2wpg.

CO2 is provided by simple DIY yeast with a jelly fuel which gives me 1 bubble per sec for 5-6 weeks constant.
Diffused by a wooden air block which is then directly sucked up by a 600l/h circulator and spat out round the tank.
I have to unscrew the cap off evry night to keep my dropchecker a nice green .

day 1 - SAM_1507-Copy-Copy.jpg
after cycling the tank for 2 weeks i added 20 ramshorns ,4 neons and 4 guppies
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Wood is Redmoor and plants i will try to list on another post .

That was 7 weeks ago , Co2 bottle has been changed and everything is running ok
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Thanks pariahrob , yeah im happy with the wood. but it may be blending in too much with the scape . I may have to clip the moss off to keep the side branching in view still

Fish - Albino Bristlenose, 10x Cherry shrimp , 10x mt snails, 20 x ramshorn , 6 neon tetra and 6 guppies and 4 guppy fry around 3 weeks old .
Tank is prob reaching full because of my bio flow 400 , may upgrade to the 600. I have another tank in my bedroom which is my overflow tank for my fry and shrimp for my kids to "pretend to look after"
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shrimp was just added in pic so his colour isnt so hot
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Plants - Still trying to remember the names, but im struggling lol .
java moss, riccia, Anubias barteri "marbled nana" , Bacopa monnieri , Blyxa aubertii or Blyxa japonica , Cabomba caroliniana, Cabomba furcata, Cladophora aegagropila, Egeria densa, mini water lettuce , Eriocaulon sp. 'cinereum', Hemianthus callitrichoides, Hygrophila polysperma, Sagittaria subulata, corkscrew val and amazon swords

Prob half wrong but its as good as i can identify them
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Trying to hold off as long as possible for the first real trim , tring to settle plants in as much as possible with only gravel as my substrate. The Cabomba is the only plant to be trimmed as of yet , its growth is putting all the other plants to shame , i also have Red Cabomba in my other tank which is growing just as fast




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Hi Spyder , Thanks yes its been a real joy to sit back and watch with no probs .... yet
Im keeping to a strict 25 liter water change every 3 days and dosing ferts with fresh treated water .

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Got a few of theese lying about and its only 6 quid to get them filled, but i refuse to pay the money for regs,tubing, solenoid etc when a 2 quid set up will last me along time and is more than capable of getting a bright yellow on my drop checker

So this is what im using ..
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and this is what u need ...
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I can give a detailed recipe, but in a nutshell the jelly acts as the fuel for the yeast keeping a food source for 1/2 teaspoon of yeast for up to 6 weeks .

Even using silicone tubing , the pressure would run a ceramic diffuser , and for bigger tanks you would just add extra 2ltr bottles on to the set up for a higher bpm .

Edit -I will be changing to vynil tubing soon @ 35p per meter .
 
apart from tropica flakes and algea wafers this is all i use .. keeping things simple .
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Make the jelly as packet says , but add 2 cups of sugar when dissolving jelly cubes . Let it sit in fridge to set.
Once set the hard part is to get the jelly into the 2 ltr bottle. My kids do this for me , but gloves would be a good idea lol .
Get a cup of warm/hot not boiling water add a tspn of sugar , dissolve add 1/4 tspn of yeast , mix. Let it sit 5- 10 just to check if your yeast is active .

add to bottle and add 1/2 tspn of bicarb , this stops the yeast from getting too lively , then fill up with warm/hot but not boiling water to within 2 inch of top of bottle, add a further 1/4 tspn of yeast . A light shake once and you are done. :thumbup:

Edit - The first run i did with this lasted 6 full weeks . I used fresh bakers yeast and cane sugar . This run now ive used sugar beet and dried instant yeast so i will record the progress with the new mix ....
 
This weekend i have had a quick mess with tank , introduced some Fissidens Fontanus and flame moss with some glosso to fill in some gaps. Ive kept the glosso in 1 bunch as if its anything like hc its not going to do great (yet). Trimmed the Cabomba caroliniana back and added a Red Cabomba at the back of the bunch .

found a berried shrimp so shes gone upstairs into my other 25 gallon , 0% survival of any babies with my guppies in this tank.
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Gave the java moss and riccia on the redmoor a good thinning out also , no pics .

got a co2 reg,needle valve and solenoid , co2 clear tubing and a nice ceramic diffuser with built in bubble counter on its way to me in a few days .

as my plants are growing , there needs are changing,i think. some of my leaves look a bit worse for wear and the co2 is struggling now to get any were near yellow , there getting hungry , so every 3 days im now changing 1/3 of the water and dosing 7ml of tnc complete . thats 4ml over there usual weekly dose .
 
Thanks :thumbup:
Today I have took the carbon sponge out of the bio flow and modded it slightly using a home made pre filter and a bag of ceramic rings .
My filtration is 400 ltrs/hr , so ive just ordered a new part which will give me 600 ltrs/hr , hopefully eliminating the need for my little unsightly circulator shoved at the back of the tank . I was using this for my co2 dispersal , again hoping the new ceramic defuser will eliminate the need for it..when it all arrives.

while i have had some spare cash ive used aquarium plant food uk for some E.I starter kits, 4dkh and some indicator solution .

I feel im lacking the ability to control my trace nutes with my current liquid fert .
 
morgan said:
Make the jelly as packet says , but add 2 cups of sugar when dissolving jelly cubes . Let it sit in fridge to set.
Once set the hard part is to get the jelly into the 2 ltr bottle. My kids do this for me , but gloves would be a good idea lol .
Get a cup of warm/hot not boiling water add a tspn of sugar , dissolve add 1/4 tspn of yeast , mix. Let it sit 5- 10 just to check if your yeast is active .

add to bottle and add 1/2 tspn of bicarb , this stops the yeast from getting too lively , then fill up with warm/hot but not boiling water to within 2 inch of top of bottle, add a further 1/4 tspn of yeast . A light shake once and you are done. :thumbup:

Edit - The first run i did with this lasted 6 full weeks . I used fresh bakers yeast and cane sugar . This run now ive used sugar beet and dried instant yeast so i will record the progress with the new mix ....
Click to expand...

Hmmm, 6 wks you say, in a Nano, I would assume this would genarate the required co2, and could be provide enough to keep aquarium going I would have thought maybe a tad longer even?
 
morgan said:
Make the jelly as packet says , but add 2 cups of sugar when dissolving jelly cubes . Let it sit in fridge to set.
Once set the hard part is to get the jelly into the 2 ltr bottle. My kids do this for me , but gloves would be a good idea lol .
Get a cup of warm/hot not boiling water add a tspn of sugar , dissolve add 1/4 tspn of yeast , mix. Let it sit 5- 10 just to check if your yeast is active .

add to bottle and add 1/2 tspn of bicarb , this stops the yeast from getting too lively , then fill up with warm/hot but not boiling water to within 2 inch of top of bottle, add a further 1/4 tspn of yeast . A light shake once and you are done. :thumbup:

Edit - The first run i did with this lasted 6 full weeks . I used fresh bakers yeast and cane sugar . This run now ive used sugar beet and dried instant yeast so i will record the progress with the new mix ....
Click to expand...

Any update on your new yeast sugar mix?
 
Hey sr20det the mix is going great still, 1 bubble per 2 seconds in a 2ltr bottle, no problems
The DIY route should be fine for your "nano" I would recc to any one as there first steps into budget co2
Your lighting is the main decider , more than the size of your tank
I would advise changing bottles every 4 weeks just to be a touch more consistent with the bubble count, as it will eventually slow down to a halt.
Adding a few grains of rice into the mix will also help it go the 6wk distance .
"The rice is a starch. Something about the yeast breaks the starch down and converts it into simple sugars. This in turn is consumed by the yeast as a food source which will then produce CO2"
 
update time

purchased some Cardamine Lyrata, christmas moss, Pogostemon Erectus, Anubias barteri Nana and some Anubias nana 'Petite' Bonsai . prob put some in both of my tanks when they arrive .

Kids have spotted 5 new baby shrimp in my 2nd tank .
Fitted new pump upgrade, trimmed java moss again and gave the riccia a little thinning . Alot of loose java moss all around the tank , a job for sunday by the looks of it.
New plant food has arrived and co2 is now running pressurised and slowly being dialed in .Still looks DIY but not bothered . The glass buble counter bubbles are alot smaller than im used to seeing/counting on my Diy set up, which means a faster bubble count . My drop checker says green so im happy .
50% water change today and the tanks first EI dose of the new macros. I will use the tnc feed on the 2nd tank ignoring the dose guide and going 3ml per day for 5 days .

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small update--

Had a few issues with my drop checker not going back to blue at lights off , problem now sorted. may upgrade to a ceramic atomizer.
Stopped upping my CO2 and backed off a touch now as i spotted a shrimp sitting there opening and closing his mouth/pinchers ? well it looked like he was gasping a touch on the bottom.

Now finished my 2nd week of my new ei dosing feed. Followed the instructions from the supplier to make my mix.

Macro -4tsp KNO3, 1tsp KH2PO4 and 6tsp MgSO4 in 500ml of water
Micro - 1tsp chelated trace in 500ml water.

Both dosed 3 times a week on separate days at 10ml per day. with a 50% water change on sat .

Ill give it a month and see if i need to alter the ratios any.

Trying to keep the tank scaped , but feeling collectoritis coming on rapidly, i suppose no matter what size your tank is its never big enough

My tank as of 2 days ago...

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Apparently the CO" fire extinguishers are not suited for aquarium uses , so ive got this --
£20 bottle £5.90 refills
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that really looks nice and healthy. Well done!


just one observation...there appears to be some Mondo grass in there, which isn't a true aquatic plant.
 
sr20det said:
Why is the FE not suited aquarium use?
Click to expand...

Hi,im not sure. When i went to bryland i just asked for a 2kg fe . As he was walking off to get it i mentioned it was for an aquarium. He stopped and said ,"its a good job you said or i would of given u a red one. Then he said some thing about the insides of a fe there was a tube and the liquid CO2 being able to kill my fish. I just nodded and took the welding bottle .
 
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