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Possible BBA and a host of questions

Really don’t want to scrape it and start again. Would also mean buying a new tank as I don’t have another big enough to take all the fish.

lighting could be bright, when I took the photo it was at 80% I’ve now reduced it to 50% and only 6hrs. Does seem dark to me, worried some of the plants won’t have sufficient light which I’m sure is possible cause of my stem plants being green for the first 2cm then brown to the base.

current setup...

033051C8-0E18-45DA-8507-AC5AC6EB5EBF.png
 
Is it dangerous to also be thinking of CO2 or is it a crazy thought until I get things settled and I know what I’m doing.
Slightly worried that I’m running out of substrate place for more plants but that might be my lack of experience in placement.
 
jaypeecee said:
Hi @Marcus_F


I guess my suggestion went down like a lead balloon! 😀

JPC
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It would work, but I think a lot of people just prefer to try to save what they've got rather than scrap it and start again. Even when restarting is clearly the better option, and I don't think it is clearly better in this case. It's certainly a good plan though, and a viable option for Marcus to consider.
 
Marcus_F said:
Is it dangerous to also be thinking of CO2 or is it a crazy thought until I get things settled and I know what I’m doing.
Slightly worried that I’m running out of substrate place for more plants but that might be my lack of experience in placement.
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Co2 isnt rocket science (i just about manage it!), but you are getting a bit tied in knots now and adding Co2 will just make it knottier. Get your tank on an even keel. You could then add Co2 if you wanted, at least you'd know at that point that Co2 was the only variable you are changing. Rather than now when you are doing changes to lights, ferts, water changes etc etc.

In terms of space for plants, you've got the whole of the front of the tank and all that wood for epiphytes. You could easily double what you have would be my guess.
 
I didn't think I was in knots until it was suggested scraping it and starting again would be my better option. I hadn't actually realised I was in that much trouble.

I've been looking but can't find like a beginners thread on the balance you need? Or something about lights? I can only find really technical discussions.

I do think my biggest issue is the light in that I don't know what to do with it. How do you calculate if you have it at high intensity or not and how long it's on for. My worry is the 22" depth of my aquarium means reducing the lights to 48% and on for just 6hrs is depriving the plants of what they need. I think I'm overly worried as I've such massive failure with my stem plants.
 
sparkyweasel said:
It would work, but I think a lot of people just prefer to try to save what they've got rather than scrap it and start again. Even when restarting is clearly the better option, and I don't think it is clearly better in this case. It's certainly a good plan though, and a viable option for Marcus to consider.
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Hi @sparkyweasel

I fully understand. As I said initially, I wasn't even sure myself that restarting was the way to go. But, I thought it was worth tossing the idea into the melting pot - even if I was at risk of being thrown into the melting pot instead!

JPC
 
Marcus_F said:
I didn't think I was in knots until it was suggested scraping it and starting again would be my better option.
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Hi @Marcus_F

I didn't actually say a restart would be your better option. That's not my way of working. I simply felt it was the right time to throw in the idea. And I made it clear that I wasn't even sure myself if it was the right way to go. Plus, I was openly inviting comments from others.

JPC
 
Fully understand why you put the idea out there, panicked me a little.

I only go for Easy rated plants, I'm seeing that should be around 10 - 2o lumens per litre. My light can produce 2350 lumens and tank is registered as 170 litres which gives a value of 13.82 lumens per litre. If I reduce the light to 48% so that mean I'm only at 7 lumens per litre and so no good for growing plants?
 
Hi, didnt mean to sound patronising.
I totally agree that discussion often jumps right into high technical detail and its often baffling.

Your light is a case in point. There is loads of adjustment but its impossible to know what it really means for your tank. Its worthless info.

That's why i suggest you ignore it all and keep it simple. Low light (guess it), complete fertiliser, 50/50 RO and tap, 50% water change a week, more plants.

Then watch what the plants do and take it from there.

That's not meant to be glib. There is so muxh information you simply dont need to have reasonable success. Of course if you want to go Premier League you can go nuts with chemistry and physics.

K
 
Oh no didnt come across patronising, far from it it's all been a great help.

Can I ask what we're trying to achieve with a 50% water change? Is it to dilute nutrients in the water or is it to replenish certain ones?
 
Marcus_F said:
Oh no didnt come across patronising, far from it it's all been a great help.

Can I ask what we're trying to achieve with a 50% water change? Is it to dilute nutrients in the water or is it to replenish certain ones?
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From and EI dosing perspective, it is to reset the nutrients in the tank, as well as to remove organic waste produced by your fish and plants.
 
How should you go about introducing new plants? I had a snail issue in the mini fluval, dont want that again or introduce anything I shouldn't.
 
Marcus_F said:
The end result is my 35 litres of water which is a mix of RO and filtered Tap reads about 5ppm of NO3 and I add this to my 170 litre tank. I'm guessing the fish waste contributes to keeping the tank reading itself always around 20ppm NO3 on the API test.

Sorry I still don't understand why I'd want to increase my NO3 by x5 to a reading 25ppm NO3 as a minimum. It can easily be done, I can mix the RO water directly from the Tap without the filter.
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Ok, so it means you add only approx 1ppm of NO3 for the whole volume of the tank and either NO3 is not consumed by plants or tests are giving you false results. I'd just add more NO3 - approx. 5-7ppm/wk for the whole volume, (that's why I'm talking about increasing it by 5x) and PO4 - at least 1.5 ppm weekly for whole tank. Sessiflora I see in the 4th image you've pasted is almost yellow - assuming this is how it looks in reality it's definitely NO3 deficient (or being kept under very strong light which reduces the need for the chlorophyll/NO3/Mg/C).

Marcus_F said:
Tank now with the Light reduction
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While I'd agree with other fellas suggesting you to lower the light intensity to fight certain algae, I think in this particular case nutrients are the main problem, not the light. BTW you can also use alder cones to lower the light intensity (they will tint he water with yellowish-brown tinge) or put some floating plants - which will also increase plant mass.

Marcus_F said:
Ok, I'm going to need a bigger bucket. Only setup to hold 36 litres at a time.
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You don't use EI method for keeping your tank (you actually dose extremely low ferts - good for red plants and you have no gaseous CO2 apart from what bacteria will convert to CO2 using excel doses), I think such a large water changes are completely unnecessary. Just increase your NO3 and PO4, wait few weeks and that's it.
 
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