Ray's 90cm - Growing Pains Over?

[Mark Evans]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

glad your algae probs sorted ray.

To all intents and purposes this is starting from scratch

i guess it is, are you going to be buying some more plants? couldnt you buy from AE? plants do well in transit apparently.
have you considered 24/7 co2? its taken the hard work out of it for me 😉 and a 2kg FE lasts an eternity.

 

[Ray]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

i guess it is, are you going to be buying some more plants? couldnt you buy from AE? plants do well in transit apparently.

I can get Dennerle, Aqaufleur or Tropica plants within a 45 minute drive. In hindsight I should have just brought the "rare" crypts back from asia and kept them immersed while I fishless cycled and placed a order with the LFS for everything else I needed.

have you considered 24/7 co2? its taken the hard work out of it for me 😉 and a 2kg FE lasts an eternity.

Funny you should say that because my CO2 just ran out and no chance of a refill until the LFS opens on monday . Is that normal, 6 weeks for 2kg? Well, its still going but the regulator says empty in the bottle but still pressure on the regulator side, so I stopped so I stopped it and the lights, was that the right thing to do?

So tell me about 24hr CO2. I'm so confused - do I want a bottle green drop checker or murky brown? How can 24 hour CO2 use less than the other method?

 

[Mark Evans]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

So tell me about 24hr CO2. I'm so confused - do I want a bottle green drop checker or murky brown? How can 24 hour CO2 use less than the other method?

i dont think it uses less. i guess its all down to your water paramaters. i cant answer that one. i run with the drop checker a real light green colour. i upped the rate ages ago on ceg's advice, and it worked a treat.

i get more than 6 weeks on my 300L running 24/7. dont know why. about 5bubbles p/s. i run this rate through the night to. fish dont mind at all.

the science baffles me, as long as my plants look good, i dont care for the in depth science. i just know the basics really.

 

[aaronnorth]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

on Paulo's tank, his 2kg lasted 4months on a 125l, so yours should last about 2 month at least, did you check for leaks?

i dont think it uses less. i guess its all down to your water paramaters. i cant answer that one. i run with the drop checker a real light green colour. i upped the rate ages ago on ceg's advice, and it worked a treat.

water parameters wont affect it, (only tiny amounts) it is mainly Kh which unless is extremely high (like 30d) then you should be needing more CO2. You still want to be running a green DC, not yellow if you are going 24/7, also make sure you have enough surface agitation for the night, rippling the surface of your water (like the hairdryer trick) is enough.

the science baffles me, as long as my plants look good, i dont care for the in depth science. i just know the basics really.

i love the science behind it all 😀

 

[keymaker]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

I like your tank a lot, Ray, I am currently setting up a 240l with two 2028 filters and two Aquamas reactors - the same like yours. It would be really useful to know how your reactor works with the 2028 so far. Does it dissolve all the gas? Is it noisy? Do you count the bubbles inside the reactor or do you use a separate counter?

on Paulo's tank, his 2kg lasted 4months on a 125l, so yours should last about 2 month at least, did you check for leaks?

I have a 2kg too... Guess I will have to upgrade to a 5 kg, refilling every second month is a pain. 🙁

 

[Superman]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Keep going Ray, I think there's a few of us struggling with algae issues and are going through them now and coming on the good side.
I seem to battle against GSA all the time even when my plants are pearling like mad!

 

[aaronnorth]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

I like your tank a lot, Ray, I am currently setting up a 240l with two 2028 filters and two Aquamas reactors - the same like yours. It would be really useful to know how your reactor works with the 2028 so far. Does it dissolve all the gas? Is it noisy? Do you count the bubbles inside the reactor or do you use a separate counter?

on Paulo's tank, his 2kg lasted 4months on a 125l, so yours should last about 2 month at least, did you check for leaks?

I have a 2kg too... Guess I will have to upgrade to a 5 kg, refilling every second month is a pain. 🙁

i wasnt saying that it will last 2months, i just meant that that will be the least amount of time, it dpends on lighting, plant biomasss etc.

 

[Ray]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

I like your tank a lot, Ray, I am currently setting up a 240l with two 2028 filters and two Aquamas reactors - the same like yours. It would be really useful to know how your reactor works with the 2028 so far. Does it dissolve all the gas? Is it noisy? Do you count the bubbles inside the reactor or do you use a separate counter?

Thank you keymaker, the Aquamas reactor is very efficient - 100% of CO2 is dissolved, no gas build up, no bubbles in the filter output. I keep a torch in the cabinet so I can count bubbles in the reactor bubble counter, but actually you can hear them. Mine makes a "blop" "blop" "blop" noise as each bubble enters the reactor. Other people say theirs is silent, but this one is not. To be honest its driving me nuts. The input would take an air stone, which should shut it up, but access is difficult - I can't see how to get it in place (if anyone knows, beer vouchers up for grabs )

 

[Ray]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - What to stock?

Day 55
When I eventually got CO2 (my LFS swaps your empty bottle for a full one for equivalent about 15 quid, but first one would not turn on) I dropped CO2 to 3bps, still yellow brown drop checker. I've increased to 6 hours light, and get good pearling during the last hour. A small amount of GSA in the sand so I've doubled NO3 dosing to 1tsp 3x week to hopefully get rid. A little normal algae on the wood. No algae on any plant leaves anywhere. The crypts are growing in their normal stealthy way but not enough change to be worth a photo.

I think its time to get some animal life into this tank. I will throttle back the CO2 slightly and add a couple of juvenile guppies, if they can last a few days and still no algae from drpping the CO2 then I'll get some Ottos and some Amano shrimp.

I'm tempted to order Dennerle Eleocharis Viviparia for back left.

I know I always said Asian theme but I'm now less decided:

Asian Theme Stocking:
2 or 3 Pearl Gourami as centrepiece fish.
20 or so Rasbora Hengli
10 or so 5 band barbs, or, if I can get them, a more obscure rasbora (so many to choose from, if you can get them)
6 or so sparkling or chocolate gourami

South American Theme Stocking
1 or 2 pairs of Rams or Apistos as centrepiece fish.
20 or so Rummy Nose Tetras
10 or so Lemon tetras or some other tetra
6 or so cory cats

What do people think?

 

[Thomas McMillan]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Asian, definately. I think you should definately get three Pearl Gouramis instead of two (one male, two females). I think the two shoals will look great, I just got some Hengli Rasboras and they are awesome fish. I think the Five Banded Barbs would be better than another shoal of Rasboras too. The only thing I don't like about your Asian stocking list is the Sparkling/Chocolate Gouramis. I would definately scrap them and either leave the stocking how it is and maybe increase the existing shoals a little or get something else, like a small shoal of Cherry Barbs or maybe something from Asia to occupy the bottom strata more, although I'm not sure what there is.

I do like the American list though come to think of it. If you do go for that idea I would either get a couple of pairs of Rams or one male Apistos and three females. I'm not sure on the Lemon Tetras to be honest, maybe Cardinals instead? I know it's a bit mainstream but I think Rummies and Cardinals go great together, the way Rummies shoal so tight and the Cardinals spread out a lot looks awesome. The Cories are cool too.

 

[Mark Evans]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

I'm tempted to order Dennerle Eleocharis Viviparia for back left.

apparently it's really high maintenance due to the fact it gets in tangled messes.

as for the theme, i wouldnt know an asian theme from a african theme so i cant help you on that. :?

pm me if you still want some moss.

 

[jay]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Acicularis can tend to look much better. Viviparia grows mad with grass strands growing from little nodes along the existing strands. Can end up looking like mad hair.
As for fish stock, go with what you like mate.

 

[Ray]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

The only thing I don't like about your Asian stocking list is the Sparkling/Chocolate Gouramis.

Why don't you like Chocolate Gourami's Thomas? For me they are one of the main reasons to go Asian. Although I must say, with the current limited plant mass there is a lot of flow in this tank and no deadspots, I don't think Gouramis would like it.

Last weekend I added 6 Ottos and 6 Amono Shrimp. They've really cleaned things up nicely, my wood is spotless (the shrimp, I think) and some of the pre-apocalyptic crypt leaves were getting algae again, which is all gone (Ottos).

So seems to be going quite well. Just increased lighting to 7 hours. I plan to add a few more fish next weekend hopefully, but still no idea what! Will update more when I have time.

 

[jay]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Think it can be quite difficult to keep chocolate gourami's in a planted set up as they love very soft, acidic water, low flow and dim lighting.
I know the Co2 we pump in the tanks lower pH but if your source water for WC isn't very soft to begin with, then the stress of hard water being pumped in every week could lead to some stress.

I have seen chocolate gourami's in a planted tank (Greenmachine??) but there are some real precautions in doing so.

 

[Ray]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Day 82

I lost one Otto to an accident, I had an Aquamedic filter strainer which was basically a pipe with slits in it and he was found dead, tail in, head stuck. I think he just got caught, I've replaced the strainer with the one off my Eheim which has finer mesh, the old one was too wide bore - I also found two medium sized Amano shrimp living in my filter thanks to that! I feel bad about the Otto though, they are so cute and playful...


Everything else is going quite well. No algae, except on my sand. Latest annoyance was when I changed my CO2 over again and during the gap all my hornwort melted and filled my water with minuscule particles. The white pad in the Eheim couldn't get them - I had to replace half my Zeolite with filter floss then it cleared overnight. Flow is good with 1050lph from the filter which jets down the whole tank 3" below the surface and 400lph from the internal filter which also goes down the whole tank from a spraybar just below the surface. I get good flow through the whole tank and only at 7.25 times volume as the circular motion builds up its own momentum moving more water than I pump, if that makes sense.

Here is a teaser shot, excuse the poor quality, I need to figure out the settings on a D40 to tweak aperture so the whole tank is in focus and compensate exposure for sand and lights. There is a lot of growing in still needed from the crypts, mosses and ferns, 3 months before its looking really good I think. Also ignore the internal filter, its at the front because I'm trying different positions for optimum flow.

Its crying out for some fish. I think I might start with some rummy nose tetras and false neon tetras (the ones without any red, just the blue stripe). Once things are more mature then I'm tempted to try 2 pairs of German Blue Rams - even in the shop you can see they are great characters. Or maybe some apistos but the ones in the shop always look miserable. My wife would like a pair of altums which would look stunning in the tank but I'm worried they'll just bug everything and then grow too big.

 

[Themuleous]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Looking good Ray, that fissends looks very nice. Must try some of that at some stage.

Sam

 

[keymaker]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Ray, what do you feed to the Otos? They look really nice and fat. Did you consider getting some SAEs? (My SAE is always chasing away the little Otos from the spirulina mix, thus starving them lately.)

 

[Mark Evans]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

wow, loving it ray. balansae coming on too. its good to see you've over come your algae problems its good all the way in now 😀 just keep an eye on your sand maintenance. i fell prey to this one.

any chance of a full frontal?

BTW, i have your parcel ready too 😉

 

[Garuf]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

I'm with Mister Saintly, sand maintenance is key. I love it Ray, I'm glad you've got over your algae problems, it fills me with hope.
Really love the scape and can't wait to see if fully matured.

 

[Steve Smith]

Re: Ray's 90cm Asian Theme Journal - Look - No Aglae!

Looks great Ray 🙂 Loving the ottos too! Cute little blighters!