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Olympus is Calling.

Went to Green Aqua in Budapest the other week and I have a long way to go before its as clean and algae free as their tanks, but always good to see whats possible, had a good chat with the guys and with the limited time I had as wife will only hang about so long, three things I took away which might help me

1. Root Tabs ! I have been meaning to get some but never got round to it so got some ADA ones and stuck them in a week ago.
2. Water temp. They run their tanks at 22 degrees Celsius in the showroom. Tried to lower my tanks temps but even with the heaters off they go above 23-24 but 'winter is coming' ;)
3. Snails in all their tanks

Plus non of their tanks was over 12 months old, its been 18 months since I started my DSM :eek:

Was very tempted by the ADA RGB solar LED lights the colours was amazing, Good job they wasn't in stock. Same they don't dim either


Its been a month since I trimmed the carpet and tank has not been looking so happy, micro swords dying back with algea due to trimming! Hygrophila pinnatifida was doing well but algae and BBA was increasing on the anubias due to the increase light, but the MHG is coming back and roots improving in substrate too, so turned the light down and the Hygrophila pinnatifida took a turn for the worse after a couple of weeks so turned the light back up, I think its starting to recover but the Anubis will take the hit with the extra light, so I've took some Pogostemon helferi and squeezed it into the anubias to provide some shade, not sure if I like it or not? Also gave the Trident a good trim back to help the flow and its coming back already. Rocks are in need of a good clean but quite a few can be taken out and soaked in weak bleach them primed.

Pest snails doing well so I had planned to sort them out with eSHa Gastropex which I had done a test run on my 16l fluval single dose wasn't so effective so double dosed and it sorted the snails out and shrimp was fine so ordered a job lot to sort it. But when I did the repeat dose 14days later a lost a few shrimp and some fish I had in quarantine in the tank at the time also! so was cautious to dose my 50l and 500l tanks to clear the pest out! So decided to embrace the snails as 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' after all and detritus and algae is the worst enemy after all, so ordered some Ramshorns snails and dropped them in the tank also

Also boosted the clean up crew by Amanos x10, Tiger Ottos x2 and SAE x3 (small)

Got my Turkey baster and well put it this way I had to do two 50% WC after using it and my filter was full of detritus like never before. I could of caught some water off whilst using the baster clipped to a hose but it would off been to much of a water spillage hazard IMO, so it was a case of blast the carpet etc get the detritus into suspension and let the filter remove it, there was LOADS! which is bad and good, bad it was there in the first place, but good that I have identified a major fault in my maintenance :oops: Expected really, as with two thirds of tank being relatively the same level the detritus settles at the lowest point and thats 2/3 of tank, I should of took some pics but was gobsmacked at what was coming up, its going to take a few WC's and baster to removed whats needed IMO

Also have an Ehiem skim on full time.

Slightly lowered the target pH also so pH drop in 36mins and DC still yellish green, think I've been a bit OTT with the [CO2] trying to battle the algae but hopefully the reinforced clean up crew will help

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I've heard quite a few people running planted tanks at a slightly lower temperature now... you would think it would slow plants growth... not sure of the theory behind it?
 
After doing Pot Scape and been really happy with how well the pot scape is doing and great plant growth learning lots with some reaching the top of the tank and great colours and healthy stems, then the idea cam to mind with these potted plants, just drop them in my 500l
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I just gently placed the pots in between the hardscape I have you can only just see the pots from one end of the tank
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Think the results speak for themselves IMO. Needless to say I have plans for adding more pots when the plants are ready from my pot scape:thumbup: and so easy to move around and take pot out for trimming stems and replanting. some might call it cheating but I call it conman sense and Fun with instant impact. Even thinking about having areas where the pot can be sunken into the carpet so you cant see the pot with the carpet then just carefully lift it out for trimming or a different plant, The future is 'Pots' IMO :cigar:
 
Looking great, I reckon you could do with some stems at the back (the side against the wall) just under the spraybar as well :)

Was thinking the same myself and nearly took some crypts out and added some more pots as have some ready but thought 'PATIENCE YOU MUST HAVE my young padawan' so thought I would see how the two pots I've added do with the flow and light first, makes sense OFC
 
Loving this new planting style!

Me too:D if you plan your hardscape around hiding the pots it just makes life easier. I just got lucky in a way. But retrospectivly I think the idea is a good one.
 
Had a little issue with my Kessils 160 with a bit a cooling issue here

Decided to add more stems LOTS of stems as wife wasnt keen on the crypts anyway, so Pick up some cheep bunches of stems from LFS plus already had some in my Pot scape. To help me decide on how they would look I decided to just use some ceramic filter rings I had then they would be easy to move etc two stems per small ceramic ring to try and keep the flow around each stem
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Took out most of my Crypts and over the last couple of weeks been busy adding more and more stems and have some growing in pot scape to add later.
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Can see how they grow, melt colour up in various spots and how well it looks then I may plant them in the AS, well at least the ones you can see I will, the ones you can't see I may just leave as they will root into the AS anyway.

Increased the light intensity to suit the stems better and its early days but the BBA and algea in general seems to be decreasing, there was less GDA on the glass this week also, but the snail population is increasing OFC

Been blasting the substrate with the Turkey Blaster lots at WC too, like a dust storm at WC and leaves a fine detritus over all plants rocks/wood when it settles even after 50% WC, the fine detritus is removed/disturbed by the clean up crew by the next day and all is good

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Looking good, maintenance will go up a lot:nailbiting::nailbiting:

But to quote Foxfish post from here

I am going to set the tank up with C02 and more light as I found this one a bit boring, it just seemed I was looking at the same picture every month. I like a bit more action.......

Crypts can be a bit boring with their slow growth, but the stems are fast and colours can be played with with the light/ferts, but yes more maintenance but I do tinker/look with all my tanks most nights for a few hours as nice escape from work. Plus the high growth rates of the increased biomass results in less algae issues with more intense light, I have experienced the same in my pot scape I have two lights on that ATM at 100% intensity and algae no problem, but at the start I had one light at 30% and had minor algae issues.
 
Trimmed the carpet last week.
All was going well and was cleaning my independent line out yesterday and a broke the hose fitting on my Ehiem 3000+ when I was refitting it :arghh:

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None in stock in any LFS so I fitted my spare FX6 which wouldn't fit inside the base

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So bought some time as away next week too. Plus been waiting for release the New maxspect gyre XF330 which has been delayed till Xmas. The FX6 is giving better flow/output than the Eheim 3000+ so thats good as I will be able to see how some extra turnover benifits the plants. Plus it did help clear the tank water when stirring up all the detritus when doing a WC today so that was a bonus too. Had been planning the try it short term with both the FX6's on the tank but never got round to it :rolleyes:

Stems settling in nicely with winners and melters OFC

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Just turn up the intensity at the wall end toady also, I wouldn't normally turn it up with going away but the tanks been coping with the extra intensity well with the stems and the WC will be delayed three days can always do a WC only on day I get back. Changing nothing lights and ferts wise for the break :angelic: Macros and Micros for six days day rest then start ferts cycle again. Did a 60-70% WC today
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Hi Zeus - having taken inspiration from your set-up here, I've connected one of those external EF boosters on the outflow of my Fluval 306 using a Qanvee M2 diffuser. Previously, I was injecting CO2 through the 306 using an UP inline diffuser and whilst I wasn't enjoying the regular burping of the filter along with quite a lot of bubbles still ending up in the tank, the CO2 diffusion seemed to be pretty good with my Ph dropping to 6.9 or even 6.8 without a problem. Now, it's stubbornly not going below 7 even if I increase the bubble rate quite a bit (it's quite fast now and I can't count the bubble rate).

I've filled the EF with some plastic scourers as someone on the forum suggested. The flow from 306 doesn't seem to have been massively affected.

Any ideas why this may be happening? I would've thought that with this method the dissolution rate would've significantly increased?
 
Hi Zeus - having taken inspiration from your set-up here, I've connected one of those external EF boosters on the outflow of my Fluval 306 using a Qanvee M2 diffuser. Previously, I was injecting CO2 through the 306 using an UP inline diffuser and whilst I wasn't enjoying the regular burping of the filter along with quite a lot of bubbles still ending up in the tank, the CO2 diffusion seemed to be pretty good with my Ph dropping to 6.9 or even 6.8 without a problem. Now, it's stubbornly not going below 7 even if I increase the bubble rate quite a bit (it's quite fast now and I can't count the bubble rate).

I've filled the EF with some plastic scourers as someone on the forum suggested. The flow from 306 doesn't seem to have been massively affected.

Any ideas why this may be happening? I would've thought that with this method the dissolution rate would've significantly increased?

My initial thought is that the APS EF is building up a big bubble as mine do also although mine still gets the pH drop but I do use lots of CO2 also. Have you check to see how much detritus is getting on the plastic scourers? I dont clean mine out much at all as they remain pretty clean being post filter.

The flow though my APS EF2 isnt very high at all, as I do have a bypass fitted as increased flow doesnt seem to increase the dissolution rate plus helps keep the output up.

Seems strange all the same will have a think on it ;) whats the size of your tank m8?
 
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