Hi all and
@Marcus_F,
I read through the thread and there is great advice here. As I read your posts, Marcus, I totally feel for you - the beginner complete comprehensive guide - I needed it. I think the issue is that there are lots of great beginner guides, but the conversation becomes so complex and unique that there isn't much of a guide that isn't as follows:
1) Good substrate
2) Good flow
3) Good CO2
4) Good husbandry
5) Good fertilization
6) Good light
7) Good oxygen
8) Good gaseous exchange
9) Consistency
10) Watch your tank and respond appropriately <-- the hardest part
11) Embrace a holistic approach to fish keep (this is my newest ideology)
And then for each of these concepts, let us delve into "good" etc.
"Grow Healthy plants" <-- I remember watching a video from Jurijs (
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLgPlYlHA8HtIcKp33x0hdw) where he said, "step 1, learn how to grow plants". Ha, who knew that 5 words could encapsulate steps 1-10. The one benefit we have over terrestrial plants is that we don't have to water ours
😉. It's true, healthy plants resist algae attacks ... but sometimes old plant leaves get algae, not because they were unhealthy but because they are old - Barr mentioned that even his OLD S. repens leaves get some BBA - but just pinch them off (in a 2 foot tank with regular sized fingers on a tiny plant ... good luck). So when you grow healthy plants, then what prevents the algae from getting on hardscape? You can't grow healthy hardscape. You may have to remove it. This is where I am at right now in my journey.
A few things:
You need to remove algae, so when there is a suggestion of a rescape, it is to start fresh and do it all right from the beginning ... with all your new knowledge.
The problem is that if you do not know what "healthy" looks like, you will never be able to do the most important which is respond to the needs of the tank - so when masters profess that you just need to watch the fish or the plants and respond, it is hard - simply because we do not necessarily know what healthy looks like.
Furthermore, what on earth does the word "good" mean.
You have to ask yourself what you want. Then you decide what route to go CO2 injection or not. Lush scapes truly benefit from CO2 - otherwise you need to have mastered plants to produce a lush scape without the addition of any more CO2 (I am not here). CO2 is a beast - high risk, high reward. I set up a low tech tank upstairs for my wife (to house my angry betta) ... she wanted plastic plants and blue rocks ... to be honest a tiny betta in a 5 gallon tank with everything inert ... I chalk it full of duckweed and feed the guy every now and then. It's healthy - algae free - I don't even use a light ... just the light from my window that peers in - the filter (HOB) is empty except for 1 piece of foam ... I should probably throw pothos in it. It works... but I don't sit and watch it <-- that is the key. So I wanted CO2 for the scape that I want -- however, when the time comes, I will be making a low tech hornwort + duckweed EXTREMELY healthy tank where my fish will likely be happier than the stable pandemonium of the high tech world.
Balance your tank - this means ferts + light + CO2 is all in line. Light is the gas pedal that drives photosynthesis which allows your plants to grow - photosynthesis needs CO2, so each mol of light needs a mol of co2 -- well ... then to avoid all algae just don't use light - but we are forced to use light to grow plants (as all plants require a minimum amount of light referred to as the LCP (Light compensation point). But if we have an amount of light and not enough CO2 for the plants to utilize it (and not enough OTHER ferts for the plants to utilize it), then the algae can take over. I used too little light before - and I was algae free ... but my plants rotted.
If everything is "in check" then every wave that passes through the tank, carrying nutrients, is depleted by your plants, starving the algae - voila - a theoretical goal which will never be achieved as the tank constantly changes. So, being intimate with your system is the way to do it - and the pains and heart ache and failure are how you become intimate with the system. Then you restart with your new knowledge. That was the second thing Jurjis said, abandon your scape after 6 months then start again -- at that time I was like
😱 ... I just want 1 scape that looks good.
I have already written a novel so I won't continue; however, I will provide some links for information that have helped me understand a few things.
Fertilization:
Green aqua:
Filipe Oliveira:
Listen to how those two TALK about fertilization - they know the plants and the signs of deficiency. The reason CO2 is the most common response for deficiency to EI users is because that is all that is left. It is CO2 and light. And CO2 has flow and diffusion of gases.
The top links "articles" - read all those .. I recently found them - excellent reads. There is the beginner guide. Here is Clive's EI post:
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/pages/dosing-with-dry-salts/
Yes you can limit CO2 requirement by limiting other nutrients. CO2 is a nutrient like everything else and so if you are able to do something with phosphate (which by my reading seems to be the most influential) you can control the requirement of CO2 on the system. But you can't starve the plants. This is out my of league as of right now - I can attempt to wrap my head around the theory but I cannot with the implementation.
This is where the notion of using a comprehensive fertilizer and going with it is excellent advice -- that way you don't have anything being limited. Do you need to have nothing limited for up to 650 mmol of lights from EI ... no ... but most people do just because it is "easier" -- then you can focus on CO2 + light mastery -- I don't think that half EI means 325 mmol of light either.
This is awesome:
https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/blogs/beginners-planted-tank-101/how-much-to-dose
Dennis Wong also has youtube videos for everything.
After ferts you have light and CO2 - at low tech no need to worry - but low-velocity, well-distributed flow is just good in general. Spray bar is nice - I see you have one.
Cleaning your tank is key:
The more you clean, the less bacteria have to do, the more oxygen for everyone.
Cheers,
Josh
