A
Anonymous
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nice tank simple but very affective the anubias at the back looks spotless 😀
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South American 720L high tech
- Thread starter Gfish
- Start date
samkiller42
Member
Bumping an oldish thread, But any updates to this amazing looking tank?
Sam
Sam
Gfish
Member
- Joined
- 5 Mar 2010
- Messages
- 426
Thanks for the kind words 🙂
The tanks going ok actually. Had an attempt at a spawn from my Geos. The largest 2 fish paired up, but as is often the case they messed it up. Let's see how they go next time around.
I'm having thoughts of changing things a little though.
Hi all
If I chose to go Low Tech and I remove the CO2, I'd also drop the brightest T5 tube and maybe shorten the light period from 8.5 to 5.5 hours.
Would this be the right approach? And would it all be ok? Would plants suffer from the sudden shock change in growing conditions?
At the moment I dose EI and I would like to continue but with much smaller dosage.
To be honest, the tank's running ok, I get a bit of BBA here and there at times, but I'm fairly happy with it. This is more to do with my own curiosity. How will the plant growth change? Leaf size as well as growth rate. Whether I can achieve good results (slower) with lower light and no addition of carbon, as well as be without BBA?
Also, how the fish react? I know everyone says fish do fine, but I'd like to see the cichlids and other fish I have in there, in a lower light non CO2 environment. Just to satisfy my own curiosity.
Aside from that, it will save me some cash! 🙂
Will take some more pics of the tank soon.
Cheers
Gavin
The tanks going ok actually. Had an attempt at a spawn from my Geos. The largest 2 fish paired up, but as is often the case they messed it up. Let's see how they go next time around.
I'm having thoughts of changing things a little though.
Hi all
If I chose to go Low Tech and I remove the CO2, I'd also drop the brightest T5 tube and maybe shorten the light period from 8.5 to 5.5 hours.
Would this be the right approach? And would it all be ok? Would plants suffer from the sudden shock change in growing conditions?
At the moment I dose EI and I would like to continue but with much smaller dosage.
To be honest, the tank's running ok, I get a bit of BBA here and there at times, but I'm fairly happy with it. This is more to do with my own curiosity. How will the plant growth change? Leaf size as well as growth rate. Whether I can achieve good results (slower) with lower light and no addition of carbon, as well as be without BBA?
Also, how the fish react? I know everyone says fish do fine, but I'd like to see the cichlids and other fish I have in there, in a lower light non CO2 environment. Just to satisfy my own curiosity.
Aside from that, it will save me some cash! 🙂
Will take some more pics of the tank soon.
Cheers
Gavin
Hi all,
I've never gone from high tech. to low tech. (because I've never been high tech. at all), but I would think that you are on the right lines for a conversion to non-CO2, you don't really have any plants that don't do well low tech.
You need to be aware that the plants in your tank will never look quite as good as it did when you were high tech, as leaf production will be slower. This will also lead to the development of green algae (and probably BBA as well) on some of the older leaves, personally that is a trade off that I'm willing to make.
I'd also carry on with some water changes, probably 5% a day (or 10% every 2 or 3 days) should do. If you find the conductivity keeps creeping up, you need to up your water changes or lower your dosing.
cheers Darrel
I've never gone from high tech. to low tech. (because I've never been high tech. at all), but I would think that you are on the right lines for a conversion to non-CO2, you don't really have any plants that don't do well low tech.
I would lower the light intensity, but probably keep the 8:30 growing period. I think that only the Hygrophila will react to the loss of light and CO2 by dropping some of its leaves, in all the others (Echinodorus, Anubias & Cryptocoryne) it is just the rate of leaf production will lower.
I'd go for that, if you have a conductivity meter you can use that to work out how much NPK you need with your water change regime. After a while you will begin to pick up the changes in greeness and growth and you can then just use them as a pointer to whether you have enough ferts. I usually assess the growth of the Limnobium and just add a sprinkle of KNO3 if the plants are very yellow and growth has slowed dramatically, if this doesn't produce a fairly quick greening response, I add a complete macro-micro mix. At the moment I'm using a "Soluble Citrus Feed", but a mix with-out any NH3 would be safer.
You need to be aware that the plants in your tank will never look quite as good as it did when you were high tech, as leaf production will be slower. This will also lead to the development of green algae (and probably BBA as well) on some of the older leaves, personally that is a trade off that I'm willing to make.
I'd also carry on with some water changes, probably 5% a day (or 10% every 2 or 3 days) should do. If you find the conductivity keeps creeping up, you need to up your water changes or lower your dosing.
cheers Darrel
Gfish
Member
- Joined
- 5 Mar 2010
- Messages
- 426
Thanks for your pointers there, much appreciated.
Although it sounds as though Low Tech could prove higher stress!? I've actually watched our 2ft thrive with hardly any effort. No CO2, rarely add any ferts and waterchange every 2 weeks or so. Plants do take longer to grow new leaves, but they're always producing and they look fine. A java fern progressed from a few small leaves when I bought it to a massive full leaved plant. It honestly looked much better than any ferns in my high tech tank here. So this has me thinking.
I may just have to give it a go. Hmmmmm....... Decisions decisions.
Will keep you posted of any changes I make.
Cheers
Gavin
Although it sounds as though Low Tech could prove higher stress!? I've actually watched our 2ft thrive with hardly any effort. No CO2, rarely add any ferts and waterchange every 2 weeks or so. Plants do take longer to grow new leaves, but they're always producing and they look fine. A java fern progressed from a few small leaves when I bought it to a massive full leaved plant. It honestly looked much better than any ferns in my high tech tank here. So this has me thinking.
I may just have to give it a go. Hmmmmm....... Decisions decisions.
Will keep you posted of any changes I make.
Cheers
Gavin
Attachments
sanj
Member
Lol, no not really, youve done a great job with that tank so I thought id make a random observation about somthing else.
😀
Gfish
Member
- Joined
- 5 Mar 2010
- Messages
- 426
Hi Sanj,
Thanks for coming back after so long. You'll be happy to hear we have a new fence now 🙂 but that's got naff all to do with Co2 or EI or any possible GSA on my Anubias leaves ok. lol
The tanks always changing, and I guess is looking more natural rather than showy as time goes by.
I've had 2 successful spawns from my Geophagus in here. Hard water, Co2 and dry ferts chucked in! Fish seem very happy.
Rather than going Low Tech I've decided to try changing my Co2 idea to a 24/7 with a very slow 1 to 2 bubbles/second rate. We shall see.
As all my plants are slow growers I'm figuring a steady slow diffusion but lower Co2 concentration might give less fluctuation and hence less BBA here and there. And just to learn something more 🙂
It's never gotten too bad, but always been there somewhere.
I'm loving my shoal of Triporteus at the moment. Have 10 of them and you can see 1 at the top of this pic.
Cheers guys,
Gavin
Thanks for coming back after so long. You'll be happy to hear we have a new fence now 🙂 but that's got naff all to do with Co2 or EI or any possible GSA on my Anubias leaves ok. lol
The tanks always changing, and I guess is looking more natural rather than showy as time goes by.
I've had 2 successful spawns from my Geophagus in here. Hard water, Co2 and dry ferts chucked in! Fish seem very happy.
Rather than going Low Tech I've decided to try changing my Co2 idea to a 24/7 with a very slow 1 to 2 bubbles/second rate. We shall see.
As all my plants are slow growers I'm figuring a steady slow diffusion but lower Co2 concentration might give less fluctuation and hence less BBA here and there. And just to learn something more 🙂
It's never gotten too bad, but always been there somewhere.
I'm loving my shoal of Triporteus at the moment. Have 10 of them and you can see 1 at the top of this pic.
Cheers guys,
Gavin
Attachments
This is my favourite tank on this website. It's truly awesome. I had pretty much written off keeping Geophagus/Satanoperca or anything like that in a true planted aquarium but this has completely washed that nonsense away. My wife will have another baby when I show her this. She loves those fish and has been somewhat downbeat since I rescaped and focused more on plants.
I would ask though, whenever I have kept these fish (I've kept a few eartheaters over the years) I've had problems with them getting skinny and not growing well. I suspect it's a parasite. Last time I kept Satanoperca I ended up capitulating and taking them back to the LFS with the hope that they would be able to help them recover - Flubendazole did nothing. Do you have to treat them with anything for parasites? Have you had similar issues?
Thanks,
Sav
I would ask though, whenever I have kept these fish (I've kept a few eartheaters over the years) I've had problems with them getting skinny and not growing well. I suspect it's a parasite. Last time I kept Satanoperca I ended up capitulating and taking them back to the LFS with the hope that they would be able to help them recover - Flubendazole did nothing. Do you have to treat them with anything for parasites? Have you had similar issues?
Thanks,
Sav
This is my favourite tank on this website. It's truly awesome. I had pretty much written off keeping Geophagus/Satanoperca or anything like that in a true planted aquarium but this has completely washed that nonsense away. My wife will have another baby when I show her this. She loves those fish and has been somewhat downbeat since I rescaped and focused more on plants.
I would ask though, whenever I have kept these fish (I've kept a few eartheaters over the years) I've had problems with them getting skinny and not growing well. I suspect it's a parasite. Last time I kept Satanoperca I ended up capitulating and taking them back to the LFS with the hope that they would be able to help them recover - Flubendazole did nothing. Do you have to treat them with anything for parasites? Have you had similar issues?
Thanks,
Sav
I would ask though, whenever I have kept these fish (I've kept a few eartheaters over the years) I've had problems with them getting skinny and not growing well. I suspect it's a parasite. Last time I kept Satanoperca I ended up capitulating and taking them back to the LFS with the hope that they would be able to help them recover - Flubendazole did nothing. Do you have to treat them with anything for parasites? Have you had similar issues?
Thanks,
Sav
sarahtermite
Member
I'm a relative newcomer to aquascaping, but your tank looks pristine. Totally exquisite! I love the fact that you can see so much wood, I think it really sets off your plants. Everything looks glowing with heath.
