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Steve's ADA 120P - Emerald Isles

So far a couple of changes, wood has grown a little white fuzz here and there but as we all know this happens when adding wood to an aquarium, also not had to mist it much as just tapping the film is soaking the whole hard scape like a light shower :).
 
Been pondering a few things today and was hoping the vast knowledge on the forum might help me out?

Question 1 lol,

I'm using florabase which leeches ammonia, as I'm dry starting with an inch of water in the bottom of the tank can I assume the spike when flooding won't be quite as bad as usual?

Just bought 500ml purigen for flooding, it says it controls nitrate? Should I be worried?

Last one is how long do you think I should keep the dry start going for the Fissidens and Riccardia to get a hold of the wood?

Thanks in advance guys,

Steve :)
 
I'm not following why there would be less of an ammonia spike when you flood - from the photo you're only doing DS with the mosses & riccardia, so where might the ammonia be going?
I think the purigen is good idea, just remember that it's an adsorbent so can also "dump" back into the system if something with better adsorption comes along or if overloaded ie keep your eye on it for when to recharge.
If you mixed your moss & riccardia together, then painted, I suspect that latter will stick better
(I think Tom Barr used it in a client tank & the thriving riccardia began to break away & infiltrate hairgrass etc, so just be aware that this happens, not sure about posting the video link directly but you can follow from this journal )

Scape looks great, any updated photos?
(I like to see white fuzz on wood :D)
 
alto said:
I'm not following why there would be less of an ammonia spike when you flood - from the photo you're only doing DS with the mosses & riccardia, so where might the ammonia be going?
I think the purigen is good idea, just remember that it's an adsorbent so can also "dump" back into the system if something with better adsorption comes along or if overloaded ie keep your eye on it for when to recharge.
If you mixed your moss & riccardia together, then painted, I suspect that latter will stick better
(I think Tom Barr used it in a client tank & the thriving riccardia began to break away & infiltrate hairgrass etc, so just be aware that this happens, not sure about posting the video link directly but you can follow from this journal )

Scape looks great, any updated photos?
(I like to see white fuzz on wood :D)
Click to expand...
There would be less of a spike because bacteria in the substrate would have converted it into nitrate already
 
I suppose ... but how long to establish sufficient populations of various bacteria - are you thinking of aquarium N-cycle bacteria or soil N-cycle bacteria - & how "fast" are they working???
(Is florabase sterilized pre-sale?)

I'd suspect that an established (aquarium) filter added upon flooding might be more efficient ... must admit I've not seen ammonia release profiles from Florabase so no idea of the levels (re possible inhibitory effects upon the usual aquarium N-cycle bacteria)

As always, water changes are a great equalizer ;)
 
Big clown said:
Fissidens attaches quite quickly so if you have some new growth it should be quite well attached in a few weeks I dont think the riccia will attach properly but i could be wrong
Click to expand...

Lol it's mini pelia not riccia ;)

alto said:
I'm not following why there would be less of an ammonia spike when you flood - from the photo you're only doing DS with the mosses & riccardia, so where might the ammonia be going?
I think the purigen is good idea, just remember that it's an adsorbent so can also "dump" back into the system if something with better adsorption comes along or if overloaded ie keep your eye on it for when to recharge.
If you mixed your moss & riccardia together, then painted, I suspect that latter will stick better
(I think Tom Barr used it in a client tank & the thriving riccardia began to break away & infiltrate hairgrass etc, so just be aware that this happens, not sure about posting the video link directly but you can follow from this journal )

Scape looks great, any updated photos?
(I like to see white fuzz on wood :D)
Click to expand...

lol yeah the White fuzz is annoying, I was thinking the ammonia spike from substrate might be less if I syphon out the water in the bottom now just before flooding as it in theory should have a huge amount of ammonia in it from keeping the florabase wet for 3 weeks?

No new photos yet lol nothing to see :(

Cheers

Steve
 
Siphoning out that bit of water is hard work (or at least makes my list of things I dislike doing - but that would be 'cause I always suck up substrate too :banghead: ), easier to partly flood & then change out that water, use a plastic cover as in this Tropica video - not the one I was looking for but I've no idea which one it was :oops:

There is a limit to how much ammonia will leach into that limited volume of water before an equilibrium is reached between soil/water levels. If you were to change out the water regularly, that might have some effect but how efficient depends on various factors ... how much ammonia, how tightly bound, how much water, how fast the movement of ammonia from soil to water (without the currents of a filter, I suspect this is much slower) etc, ie I've not high expectations though, if as Big Clown suggests, you have an efficient bacterial colony at work, that would be key.
 
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Right after a nightmare with one of my FE's its up and running, the twinstar isn't working at all :( prob needs a new electrode, I had a 5kg FE earmarked for this scape but after trying all my regs, 2 different inline atomisers, soaking them in bleach, I switched to a 2kg it was working great, 3bps.

Did notice that after filling the tank isn't the brightest, obviously it was very bright during DSM but full it seems a bit dull, might have to get a grobeam to sit between the tiles.

The 5kg had a sticky valve, took it outside to show the missus how loud they are as I couldn't use it and the valve stuck and let out 5kg in 10 secs lol, nearly gave her a heart attack lol.

So after filling from a hose on the kitchen tap and dumping in 25ml of prime I got up this morning and noticed the DC had turned from blue to dark green without the CO2 on, do you think it's the CO2 in the tap water? I never see my DC's go back to blue overnight tho, I use Neutro 4dkh premixed solution from Aqua Essentials.

Pics to follow later on once the lights are on :).
 
Whatsit look like? :snaphappy:
 
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