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Natural Aquarium attempt - 16/06/2015 (pics)

Big clown said:
Try topping the tank up daily. I had a huge problem with bba because of evaporation messing with co2 levels
Bba wont disappear on its own you will have to manually remove it or use liqiud carbon to kill it.
Good luck
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Hi and thanks for the advice. I dont have any evaporation due to a glass lid i use. I know i will try using hydrogen peroxide but i want to at least slow it down...
 
Jaap I don't understand why you have a reactor and an inline diffuser... What for? Moreover your co2 tubing seems plenty of water. One device is on the inlet and the other on the outlet? What first comes to my mind is if you have enough flow in this spraybar. It seems quite large (diameter not length) and with all this connected to the pipes I'm not sure if it will deliver enough flow. Do jets hit the front glass?

Another thing. What is your dropchecker saying?

Jordi
 
Hi

I had the reactor first and then I connected the inline diffuser on the inlet and I was too lazy to disconnect the reactor so I thought its ok to leave it there, it will dissolve any co2 escaping the filter and since the filter is 1000 L/h on a 40L tank the flow will be more than enough.

The water in the CO2 tubing comes from the bubble counter....it pushes the water in the tubing but I don't think it causes any problems...well not any that I can see!

Yes the jet hits the front glass just fine. I have plenty of flow.

The dropchecker is yellow and when I move the DC in the tank in various positions it still remains yellow.

parotet said:
Jaap I don't understand why you have a reactor and an inline diffuser... What for? Moreover your co2 tubing seems plenty of water. One device is on the inlet and the other on the outlet? What first comes to my mind is if you have enough flow in this spraybar. It seems quite large (diameter not length) and with all this connected to the pipes I'm not sure if it will deliver enough flow. Do jets hit the front glass?

Another thing. What is your dropchecker saying?

Jordi
Click to expand...
 
Jaap, just a note to your last post. If you have a look to your filter instructions you will see that there is a table with some figures for different models (page 6 in English). Fluval 305 does not have an output of 1000 lph, this the pump output. Have a look to the 7th column in which filter circulation is provided. This is the output, 710 lph. However this is probably measured without media and very short tubing (not explained in this document but for example if you have a look to JBL instructions they explain this very well and even give you the real figures, with tubing and all the media). As explained many times in this forum the real figure can be up to 40% less... Let say you have around 400 lph. Now let's assume that this reactor you don't use is restricting the flow by 25% (not sure because I have never used one, but I bet I can be even more)... This give us not more than 300 lph.

Next time you clean the filter just measure it. Take the outlet tube, put it in a bucket and measure which volume is delivered in one minute. Then do the calculations and check what you really have as flow. I'm not saying this is your problem, but just to point out that this reactor is not doing any good there.

Jordi
 
parotet said:
Jaap, just a note to your last post. If you have a look to your filter instructions you will see that there is a table with some figures for different models (page 6 in English). Fluval 305 does not have an output of 1000 lph, this the pump output. Have a look to the 7th column in which filter circulation is provided. This is the output, 710 lph. However this is probably measured without media and very short tubing (not explained in this document but for example if you have a look to JBL instructions they explain this very well and even give you the real figures, with tubing and all the media). As explained many times in this forum the real figure can be up to 40% less... Let say you have around 400 lph. Now let's assume that this reactor you don't use is restricting the flow by 25% (not sure because I have never used one, but I bet I can be even more)... This give us not more than 300 lph.

Next time you clean the filter just measure it. Take the outlet tube, put it in a bucket and measure which volume is delivered in one minute. Then do the calculations and check what you really have as flow. I'm not saying this is your problem, but just to point out that this reactor is not doing any good there.

Jordi
Click to expand...
Ok I will consider removing the reactor...here is a pic when I lowered the water level once...dont be alarmed that the spraybat is low...its was set just to take the picture so water doesn't spill out.

9a095e109ba99da54915cb11389779b0.jpg
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does it look good to you?
 
As you know bubble rate doesn't mean anything really, but yes it looks quite a lot... I use an inline atomizer (outlet tubing) in a larger tank and with 2 bps my tank looks like 7up. I switch it 2 hours before lights and the DC in any corner gets lime green when lights on, yellowish at the end of the day.

Jordi
 
parotet said:
As you know bubble rate doesn't mean anything really, but yes it looks quite a lot... I use an inline atomizer (outlet tubing) in a larger tank and with 2 bps my tank looks like 7up. I switch it 2 hours before lights and the DC in any corner gets lime green when lights on, yellowish at the end of the day.

Jordi
Click to expand...
Do you have a pH profile?
 
I did it when I set up the tank one year and a half ago more or less. My KH is very high, somewhere between 12 and 15. I managed to have a 1.2 pH drop.

Jordi
 
They were fine yes, I have even increased the bubble rate a bit more when plants were very grown without issues. The only time I had problems with fish my flow and distribution was very poor. I also try to have good rippling even if this way I am degassing a little bit, but I reach the co2 levels I want and I also get rid of surface oil

Jordi
 
Today I have removed the co2 reactor from the outlet of the filter. This has increased water circulation. However, at some point, the fish were gasping at surface and shrimp were lying sideways. I carried out a big wc and all was good. I then lowered co2 injection but unfortunately my ph meter is not working. Now I don't know if the co2 is adequate...
 
Any ideas on how to go about this? I have a drop checher but in my experience a yellow dc isn't enough...
 
If I understand correctly you removed the CO2 that wasn't being used. Now with increased flow your water is probably having more surface movement expelling more CO2 from your tank. As a result your pH will rise. Furthermore the increased circulation could be picking/stirring up debris that has been collecting in the plants/soil. Ammonia toxicity increases with pH and the increased flow, combined with a higher pH could have been the problem. You could try testing for ammonia and nitrite, just to be sure. Either way, your wc seems to have remedied the situation.
 
Day 114!

161d6a168fda1721d9d342c53c55e4fa.jpg



pH profile - 12:00 - pH 7.94 - CO2 ON
13:00 - pH 6.99
14:00 - pH 6.80 - Lights ON
15:00 - pH 6.73
16:00 - pH 6.71
17:00 - pH 6.71
18:00 - pH 6.71
19:00 - pH 6.71
20:00 - pH 6.71
21:00 - pH 6.71 - CO2 OFF
22:00 - pH 6.88 - Lights OFF

Growth is still minimal. Today I have increased the intensity of the Grobeam 600 back to 100%.

I have also removed the external reactor a couple of days ago thus increasing water circulation.

I have added hydrogen peroxide with a syringe to one of my BBA infected rocks and left it there for 10 minutes before doing a water change. I used 2ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide. It did nothing to it! I will try again soon!

Thanks!
 
The situation with the tank is getting funnier by the day. It is like nothing is working towards the tank being healthy and all of the bad karma of the aquarium world is in it.

My new observation? While all the fish in the tank are swimming about happily, my Amano Shrimp are just chillaxing on the rocks....doing nothing! That's what I got them for right? To do nothing! 🙂
 
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