David Shanahan
Member
So after my first attempt at this hobby i thought i would start from scratch after 9 months with my old tank, and to be fair I'd given up hope so time to move on.
I stripped my old tank and rebuilt it using ADA substrate, powersand S, Amazonia and Amazonia mini. Left the aquarium for a couple of weeks whilst the ADA ammonia spike went through its cycle as I had read about. This happened pretty quick as both of my filters, an Eheim 2073 and Allpond 1400EF were kept running during the strip down.
I have 4 x 39w tubes 3 of them being Giesemann daylight and one fluval 6700k bulbs. I run the fluval and one Giesemann for 7 hours a day with a midday run of the other giessmann bulbs for 3 hours.
I'm currently running pressurised co2 on 1 hour before lights on and off at lights out.
I am dosing ADA step 1 and Brighty K each day as directed and running RO water, 50% changes per week. I use aquadur to remineralise the RO water.
Once the Ammonia had gone, I planted;
Staurogyne repens
Anubias bart v. nana
Hygrophila corymbosa 'Compact'
Marsilea hirsute
Vesicularia dubyana 'Christmas'
Hygrophila pinnatifida
I think I'm getting on top of the melt that happens to the Staurogyne and Hygro Cory as they settle in to being submerged, but now I have big stalks with leaves growing on top, so what's the best thing. Let them recover on their own, or give em the chop and replant the tops and hope the stalks are strong enough to recover?
Also, does anyone trust the ADA step programme. I failed miserably with dry ferts so thought I'd give it a go. If its good enough for Amano, then it's good enough for me....
I stripped my old tank and rebuilt it using ADA substrate, powersand S, Amazonia and Amazonia mini. Left the aquarium for a couple of weeks whilst the ADA ammonia spike went through its cycle as I had read about. This happened pretty quick as both of my filters, an Eheim 2073 and Allpond 1400EF were kept running during the strip down.
I have 4 x 39w tubes 3 of them being Giesemann daylight and one fluval 6700k bulbs. I run the fluval and one Giesemann for 7 hours a day with a midday run of the other giessmann bulbs for 3 hours.
I'm currently running pressurised co2 on 1 hour before lights on and off at lights out.
I am dosing ADA step 1 and Brighty K each day as directed and running RO water, 50% changes per week. I use aquadur to remineralise the RO water.
Once the Ammonia had gone, I planted;
Staurogyne repens
Anubias bart v. nana
Hygrophila corymbosa 'Compact'
Marsilea hirsute
Vesicularia dubyana 'Christmas'
Hygrophila pinnatifida
I think I'm getting on top of the melt that happens to the Staurogyne and Hygro Cory as they settle in to being submerged, but now I have big stalks with leaves growing on top, so what's the best thing. Let them recover on their own, or give em the chop and replant the tops and hope the stalks are strong enough to recover?
Also, does anyone trust the ADA step programme. I failed miserably with dry ferts so thought I'd give it a go. If its good enough for Amano, then it's good enough for me....
