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Well Dr.,

I would much rather see pictures of the Sword removal process. I can only imagine what kind of a mess this must create.

As nice as it is to look at a tank when it is at its best, as informative a visual demonstration can be that shows how one got to that point .

So please, document it for us,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

It took a little while longer than planned; the day after the previous post the angels laid another set of eggs, and I just could not make myself throw them away. So I just let nature run its course and had only after all the freeswimming angel fry was gone I started the removal process. That was last weekend, on saturday.

All in all it went really surprisingly easy. The Sword had roots of about 30 cm long, but it came out without too much trouble. I think it has something to do with the substrate that I'm using. it is very smooth and stays loose even after the tank has been running for a year. The roots don't really get a very good grip on it. In theory that should be bad for plants, but as they all grow very well I'm not really all that worried about it.

After the sword was out I did a bit of replanting. Currently it is a bit of a temporary solution until the plants fill out a bit more. I bought two new plants, one is Lymnophila aromatica the other I could not find a name for just yet (I haven really looked yet either ) but it's the bright green stuff on the place where the Sword used to be (see photos below). Here are a few photos of what the tank went through in the last few days. the first one is of last friday, then two of last saturday, right after the sword was taken out, and finally one of just an hour ago.

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

right after the sword was taken out:


Dr. Bonke attached this image:

half an hour later, after replanting

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

and just an hour ago, 2 days after replanting:

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

Ten days have past since I took the sword out, and yesterday I had to do some major weeding, I took out about half a plastic bag full of plants I also took out the Angel couple and re-homed them into the "fry-tank", since they started to rip into the new plants. Already just before I took out the sword I had brought most of the young angel fish I had to the LFS, except for one that my wife liked too much, and one which had managed to hide so well that I had overlooked him/her. Those two, together with the molly fry I had (about 9 or so) were rehomed to the big tank.

Now, a day later the plants that I replanted have settled a bit in their new location and the water is lovely and clear. Most of the fish are happy, except for two of the molly fry, which made the large black angel happy (he ate them ).

It's now about time that I start setting up the fertilization scheme for real, there isn't terribly much algae, but the spot algae grows a bit too fast for my liking and there's a hint of some staghorn here and there.

Here's the current look of the tank

Dr. Bonke attached this image:


Last edited by Dr. Bonke at 02-Dec-2005 08:16[/font]

Last edited by Dr. Bonke at 02-Dec-2005 08:17

Hi Dr.

I think it looks very nice. Glad you didn’t have any major trouble getting that Sword out .

I am the last one to suggest a solution for your Staghorn as I am battling it myself .

Say, you referred to a bright green plant that you added in place of the sword, but I only seem to see the Limnophila aromatica (which looks very nice, btw) in the place of the sword. Is it the small green plant almost in the front left corner?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I think the staghorn is usually contributed to low levels of CO2...I may be mistaken though.

Anyways, nice makeover Dr. Bonke. It's already started to fill in very well.

I had to get rid of my angels somewhat recently too, but it was because they were tearing at each other, not the plants. Did you keep any of the fry? I forgot if you said you had or not

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Ingo, the plants which you think are Limnophila aromatica are something else I think, as the plants which I bought as Limnophila aromatica are in the lower right (within the purple area). They're a bit hard to see as I split them in half just yesterday and replanted the tips, but I'll see if I can get a close-up of them tomorrow. They have a slightly pinkish color to the leaves and feel a little bit more solid than the bright green stuff. It is quite possible though that the two are related.

The small bright green plant in the front left corner is Hygrophyla corymbosa "Siamensis". That got completely destroyed by the Angels a couple of months ago, but a little bit of it survived in the fry tank. As I moved the worst grazers now to the fry-tank, I thought I'd give these plants a last chance and put some of it back in the big tank. Once (if) that has grown somewhat, it'll be moved more to the back. For now the whole layout is still quite preliminary. Only the position of the wood is certain at the moment

Matty, I don't think that CO2 is a problem in my tank, as pressurized CO2 is injected into the water continuosly. Bernard told me some time ago that my phosphate levels are probably a bit on the low side. I have a test kit now, and a preliminary test put it somewhere at 0.5 ppm I think. The test is a color reaction (I hate those) and it was a bit hard to see in the daylight that remained, I'll try again tomorrow, and will also do a Nitrate test. As for the angel fry, the only two that I kept I have encircled with red here. Also the big black is encircled.

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

Well thank you Dr.

You sure are right, I should have known that aromatica is not bright green.

But here is another guess: Tonina sp. of some kind.
Like in [link=These Pictures]http://www.greenchapter.com/eshop.php?cat=1&gp=13" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link].

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Another year, another update,

Since my previous post in this thread the tank has looked very beautiful and absolutely terrible It always surprises me again how fast it can shift between those two extremes. If I let some of the plants grow just a bit too long, so that they start blocking the light for the other plants, hell starts to break loose. within a few days the other plants start to compensate by bocoming etiolated and they lose their color. Give it one week of inattention and the tank is a mess.

After another of such a period I did some serious weeding this week, and then some nutrient measurements. Nitrate turned out fairly alright, at somewhere about 12.5 mg/l, phosphates were slightly on the low side, at about 0.5 mg/l and iron turned out to be way too low. So now I've started a tentative fertilization program. I've dosed some potassium phosphate and a mixture of nutrients that I bought from an online store, which supposedly has everything except nitrates and phosphates (Easy-Life ProFito). I'll try to follow the Tom Barr program, except that I am not quite sure how muchg of everything there is in the commercial fertilizer. I hope to see some effect within a couple of days.

Furthermore I have now taken the three angels I still had in my community tank to the LFS. No matter what I tried, they just kept on eating from my plants. I had enough of it. Even though I'll miss them, I just didn't want to look at half eaten plants anymore. Now I just have the breeding pair in the fry-tank. The LFS was doing a bit difficult about accepting the ones I brought there today, so I'm not sure whether I'll try to save any more of the young of the breeding pair, but I'll see about that in the future.

Well Dr.,

Congratulations on having been elevated to moderator status

Now you have the power to kick us all out

Anyway, how about a new picture? And you know what - I wouldn't mind a shot of the tank's bad days either. This way we can learn more about the things that can go wrong.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hi Martin,

Somehow I've completely lost track of this thread. Some glitch seems to prevent it from showing on my active threads list

Now the post dates are screwed up so I'm not sure how old some of tehse posts are

Any first up, congrats on the modship. Wise choice by the admin team

I've been thru the sword thing as you know, it's a shame but they are just too big for most tanks.

You need to get the fert routine sorted. With the gas going in now the ferts can really bite you.

The green spot and staghorn are a sure sign the tank is macro deficient.

Assuming you already have a decent liquid like TMG all you need is nitrate and phosphate. KNO3 and KH2PO4 or the Seachem equivilants.

1/2 tspn of KNO3 and 1/8 tspn of KH2PO4 3 times a week.
10-15ml of TMG or Flourish or whatever takes you fancy 3 times a week. Don't dose the macros and micros at the same time.

Keep the Co2 at 30ppm level. Don't assume because there's bubbles going in all the time there's enough Co2. Measure the KH and Ph and make sure it's where it should be.

50% water change weekly.

That's pretty much all there is to it.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Forgot to add, if maintenance is becoming an issue change the plant species somewhat. You've got primarily stem plants in there and some real fast growers. It's always going to be a lot of work to keep the shape.

Make life easy on yourself and work in a few other types.

There are few sword that won't get too big. The taller crypts are good alternatives. Anubias , grasslike plants are all low work.

I noticed at one stage you had water sprite in place of the sword. I can't see it now, I'd guess it became a bigger pain then the sword in no time ? Keep away from plants like that, they swamp a 'scape in a few days and are constant work.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Nice tank! What is the forground plant on the mid-right hand side? What size tank is this? I really haven't taken the time to read though everything (homework really cuts down on such things...) It looks like you have a lot of depth to your tank.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Ingo and Bernard, thanks for the thumbs-up, I'll do my best as a moderator, my word on it and consider not to lock too many of your threads

I'll get some new photos fairly soonish, maybe even this evening, or at least later this week. Ingo, unfortunately I have no "terrible" photos to show. The tank at its worst is not something that I'm proud off and taking photos of it has never really crossed my mind. Maybe next time, though I hope there won't be a next time

Bernard, thanks for the info on the fertilizing schedule. So far I've been doing it fairly close to what you said (only started with it last week though). I have KNO3 and KH2PO4 in powder form, I ordered them through my work... something I won't do again, it cost a fortune. So far I've dosed the phosphate and the micros twice, I haven't started dosing nitrate yet as that was in a pretty good range according to my test.

I do have some questions though. Why do you not dose the macros and micros at the same time? Is that to avoid spikes of nutrients? And secondly, what's up with 50% water changes? Somehow that seems a little bit over the top, especially with a fertilization schedule. Don't you end up washing half of your nutrients straight away?

You're right on the stem plants though, especially the bacopa, Limnophila aromatica, Tonnia sp., and Mayaka grow rather fast. However, the selection of plants I get to choose from at my LFS is terribly small. I'm also not going to mess around with Swords anymore. Every time I've had one they always grow out of proportion. Almost all plants I've put in the tank do well, take for example the Limnophila aromatica, according to the information I got with it, it was supposed to be slow growing and difficult. Yet in my tank it grows about 10 cm per week I'd say. Not particularly slow growing, and definately not difficult (even some terrible looking twigs of the stuff that I just put at a random location to increase my base of the stuff grew in two weeks halfway up the tank).

Wingsdlc, I think the plant(s) you mean is Hemianthus Micranthemoides. It's a very small stem plant that grows sideways and stays close to the substrate if it gets enough light. I treat it like hair whenever it gets too high, I take a pair of scissors and just cut it down to size. Usually I do that about three times before I take the old plants out and replant some cuttings.

Dr.,

Thanks for trying not to lock our threads

But on this topic, maybe you can put a word in (using your newly acquired super powers) that the thread page count issue is resolved. Our long threads have the middle pages inaccessible (in my case around 40 pages) and believe it or not, there are people out there that like to read through the entire logs. EDIT: And while I was posting this Adam must have been working on it, as I now see all 50 pages hyperlinked in my thread. Not pretty, but it works - Thanks Adam.

And you should make and post pictures of your tank at the "not so good" stages of it. It will help others to see what went wrong and they might be able to avoid this from happening to them .

Anyway, about macros and micros not together: Although I have not experienced it myself, the word is that there is a possibility for a chemical reaction between one of the macros and one of the micros (phosphate and iron, if I am not mistaken) when added at the same time. Since about two weeks I add macros and my TMG at the same time, so far to no ill effect (but I dose phosphates very lightly and only twice a week while K, N, and TMG are dosed daily).

About the water change: Washing the nutrients away is actually the point of it, we call it resetting the tank. It is based on Tom Barr's Estimative Index, a fertilizer schedule that is based on over-fertilization rather than running a lean fert tank. The basic idea is that nutrients should always be available to the plants in sufficient amounts, this way one avoids that one nutrient runs on empty and plants cannot take up the others either anymore, which in turn helps the algae. In order to avoid a build-up of nutrients you make a 50% water change. Tom made many tests that proof that with this procedure the nutrients would never accumulate to a point where they might create a danger for the fish in the tank.

Wings - Hemianthus Micranthemoides is also known as Amano Pearl Grass (or Weed). It is prettier than the "normal" Baby Tears - Micranthemum umbrosum. I have one batch in front of my Crypt Retrospiralis, if you want to take a closer look.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

My slightly younger by a couple of days student, Ingo pretty much covered it.

But he never takes my advice. The dosing of micros and macros at different times to avoid the phosphate reacting with the FE. It will cause a reaction which may oxidise the FE out of solution, rendering it useless. So while you may not see bad things happening doesn't mean that it's not You getting this LF ? A few hours between doses will help.

The water change is variable. As Ingo explained it's more of a safety valve to stop things building up as we dose more then the plants consume. You can do more or less. It's just a nice simple routine.

Don't trust the test kits, they lie, especially NO3. Dose the NO3 anyway, a little bit more won't hurt any even if the kit is right. At least when you dose you know it's there rather then trusting a color chart. The water change will keep it under control.

Don't be afraid of the nutrients, more is always better then not enough. These guys were a bit skeptical at first but I think they've come around. They'll probably confirm that nutrient shortages caused way more problems then an excess ever did.

Give the routine 2-3 weeks and guarantee you see a very noticable difference in plant health. It's not just about faster growth, it's healthier, lusher more colorful growth.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Hey Good Dr.,

Just wanted to chime in here: I've always admired your tank in months past, and I'm glad you brought this thread back into action. You started the whole Log trend afterall, it wouldn't be right for it not to be kept up

They'll probably confirm that nutrient shortages caused way more problems then an excess ever did.

Yup, as long as you're not dosing ammonia you really can't add too much of these nutrients just using common sense (now if you add a whole jar of stump remover then bad things might happen, but why would you do that anyway...) When i add KNO3 to my tank I just drop the powder in and my yo-yo loaches go afer it and eat it, and there's been no harm done

Your reward for being too cautious with nutrients - especially N and CO2 - will be ugly old leaves and slow growth.

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Back in the saddle!

Thanks for the replies, I just dosed Nitrate for the first time *crosses fingers* If I have an algae bloom in my tank tomorrow I will lock all your threads for the rest of the year

But seriously, I'll take a look at the problem with your thread Ingo and see what I can do about it, at least I'll mention it to Adam.

In any case, it looks like this weekend I'll have to do a bit of DIY and make a movable unit on which I can place the 40 L bucket that I use to refill the tank. The past few months I have been terribly bad with the water changing regime, one of the reasons being that I don't quite trust the cat-scratching pole to hold forty kilos of water. The pole is mostly made of that compressed woodchip material, and if it suddenly falls apart I have all that water in my living room. I don't think my wife would appreciate that terribly much. So, off to Bauhaus this weekend.

Then, by request from Ingo a "bad" picture. It's taken just an hour ago, and basically shows that I'm still having algae growth, mostly spot algae on the windows.

Attached Image:

Then I did a bit of maintenance, cleaned the window, moved the half-eaten hygrophila and cut away some longish sprouts of Mayaka. Here is a close-up of the lower-right corner, with nicely pearling tiger lotus, a closeup of the Hemianthus Micranthemoides (below) and the Limnophila aromatica (left).

Attached Image:

Finally a photo of half an hour ago, just after maintenance.

Attached Image:

Doc,

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but how much light do you have over this tank? I went through from the beginning but I didn't find the info

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Back in the saddle!

Dr.,

Green Spot Algae on the glass is not all that bad; some even say that it is a sign of a healthy aquarium. I think it is a sign of a nutrient imbalance.

And your tank, even when you think it is not at its best, still looks wonderful. There is the one area, right in front of that piece of driftwood, which looks very empty. What happened there?

About water changes: I assume you know that Python system we have here in the US. Don't you have something similar? You hook it up to a sink and fill the water into the tank straight from the tab while making sure that the temperature is pretty close to the tank temperature. This would only work though if you have an outlet that combines warm and cold water. I use a product called Prime to de-chlorinate the water while it is filling up my tank.

You say you added Nitrate, did you add anything else as well? Like K and P, and maybe micros? Don't blame us if it doesn't work out if all you add is N - not enough of a reason to lock our threads .

Ingo

PS: I mentioned in the other entry that it seems that Adam is already working on the page issue. At least we can see all pages again (plus some extra ones that are empty (). I am confident that he will get it under control eventually.

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

NowherMan6, there is currently three tubes of 36 watts over the tank, with reflectors that "supposedly" double the amount of light (I don't quite believe that, but they do have a visible effect). I'm still considering of getting 4 tubes of T5 lighting instead, but that will require me totally rebuilding the lighthood, so that may take a little while.

here is the one area, right in front of that piece of driftwood, which looks very empty. What happened there?

That spot looks empty from this angle, but it actually quite covered with Cryptocoryne willisii. Those did not like the low light that they had while the tank was heavily overgrown and as a result have become rather small and are very much flattened against the substrate. Also, the cories that I have move the substrate around quite a bit, I used to have it sloped, higher in the back than in the front, but they weren't quite happy with it and equalized the place, burying the ctryptos.

I assume you know that Python system we have here in the US.

I've seen pictures of it, but I have not seen anything like it for sale over here. Besides that, I don't think that the taps we have in the apartment would fit to a system like it, and taking them apart is not really an option. I'll just stick to lugging those buckets around... it's good exercise anyway

You say you added Nitrate, did you add anything else as well? Like K and P, and maybe micros?

Yes, since last week I've started dosing all of the above. I have KNO3, KH2PO4 and a mixture of other stuff called EasyLife Profito. This is what is supposed to be in there:
"Easy-Life ProFito is enriched with iron, potassium, manganese and many other vital nutrients. Dozens of ingredients are ideally mixed together. ProFito even contains various rare minerals which specifically promote cell division and thus plant growth. This well-balanced ProFito formula means an extra complete plant nutrition for a strong, healthy and lush plant growth in freshwater aquariums.
ProFito is very economical to use: 1 fl oz per 78 gallons of aquarium water. It is a multiple stabilized fertilizer without any nitrates or phosphates."

It's a bit vague, but I think it'll do if I add the KNO3 and KH2PO4 separately. Dosing has been as suggested by Bernard, once every three days, except that I only started dosing Nitrate today. It's kind of ridiculous how expensive all this stuff is. I was in my LFS the other day to drop off the angelfish, and they had a small bottle of 200 ml of some unknown brand of fertilizer, which was supposed to cost 20 €! This Profito stuff came in a 2l bottle for 28.90 €, still expensive, but affordable, and it should last me at least a year I think.

Finally, Bernard, the water here in Finland is very soft, with KH and GH at about 3 or less, my pH generally is around 6.5 I think (haven't tested that in a while). I should still check that out and look up one of those conversion tables´- and figure out how that works

Dr.,

It seems like you have all the fertilizers that you need, although (and that is rather common) the micro nutrient bottle doesn't disclose all the goodies that are in there. If Bensaf himself gave you a dosing routine then I have no further suggestion (because any derivative would be wrong anyway).

Your water is great and actually similar to mine. 3 GH is perfect and 3KH is better than mine, I have to add baking soda to get that much. With a ph of 6.5 you should have about 30ppm of CO2, which is a good range.

Instead of a Python you could also simply use a gardening hose that you can attach to the sink. Just get a handle piece that allows you to close it, even better if it has one of these heads that adjust the water stream to shower instead of full blast (forgot the proper words in English, but I hope you know what I mean). Believe me, once tried you will never go back to logging water to your tank in buckets, in particular if we can convince you to make 50% water changes.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Martin,

Just went back and checked the size of your tank. Bit smaller then I thought. !/3 of a tspn of KNO3 will do rather then a half.

But don't worry there's only about 3ppm difference so you haven't overdosed anything.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Alright, today I actually did a pH test (one of those color strips) and it is a bit lower than I thought, hanging somewhere around 6.2 - 6.3. KH & GH are indeed at about 3. Can I just mention that I really don't like color indicator strips? I think I'm going to borrow the electronic pH meter from work at some point to get a somewhat more precise measurement.

The good thing is at least that my water is still totally clear, even after dosing half a teaspoon of KNO3 . I even got the feeling it is a bit clearer than before, but maybe I'm just wanting to see that And Bernard, I'm not sure howw big you thought my tank was, but it's supposed to hold 240 liters (63g) when containing only water, keeping into account that I have a lot of substrate and a rather thick background, it's probably closer to 50-55g. This weekend I'll try the 50% water change. How soon after the change do you dose your ferts btw?

How soon after the change do you dose your ferts btw?

Personally, the day after the water change. But I don't think it matters too much. My reasoning is that during thw ater change, maybe there's already some N in the water that you just added, the amount of CO2 in the water has gone down since half of it has been removed and replaced with tap water (so nothing will be exactly limiting), plus there's always lots of bubbling etc. going on. The day after, things have settled down and it's easier to go back to normal routine. Just my opinion, but I can't see it mattering all too much

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Back in the saddle!

How soon after the change do you dose your ferts btw?

Interesting question, I never thought of that.

For me it was clear that I add ferts right away after the tank is refilled.

Reason: removing 50% water removes probably 50% of the existing ferts as well. Waiting a day would mean that I risk running on empty on one of the nutrients, ergo - I add them as soon as I can.

That's what I do

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I am with LF on this one. I add my right after I do my water change. I haven't had any problems yet and it doesn't seem that Lf does either.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

And Bernard, I'm not sure how big you thought my tank was

For some reason I thought it was a 75 gal. I wasn't too far out.

Add the ferts whenever is suitable for you. Timing is not critical. It's more a case of building an easy to follow routine. I usually add the first dose directly after the water change. I add every day in the morning before I go to work, macros and micros on alternate days. Saturday is a day off. You can do in the evening if you prefer. As I say it's just a matter of developing a habit.

Some dilute, I just throw the powders straight in. Gotten used to it now I don't even really measure anymore.

Don't know why the chems are so expensive there ? I got a 25kg bag for $10 here which will last 265 years there or thereabouts. And yes I do plan to live that long

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

It's now been 6 days since I started with the "new" approach. Since then the tank has received all fertilizers twice (Just added the second dose of Nitrate). I think I am starting to see some changes, most of them good. Even after nearly a week the front window is still very clean of spot algae, with only some in the areas that I didn't clean very well last week. The water seems a bit clearer than it used to be, and the plants are looking good. I think part of that is also because I removed the Angel fish, which means that a light green Mayacca is now actually starting to grow again and the Hygrophila and Lobelia cardinalis now have some leaves that are not shredded down to the veins. The Bacopa, which I just gave a haircut two weeks ago, has a lot of new growth as well, I'll post a photo in a minute, but first an overview, this is how it was last monday.

hmmm removing a photo and replacing it by another doesn't seem to work, another try. This was last monday

Attached Image:

and this is 4 days later, not a great difference, but definately better, wouldn't you agree?

Attached Image:

There is a small thing that worries me a little though, and it is illustrated by the photo below. Some of the older leaves of plants, here the Bacopa, but alos on some of the larger Anubias there is some green hair algae. Now I'm not quite sure how much of it there was before I added the ferts, but I think it has increased somewhat since then. I will have to monitor that a bit and hope it's not going to explode.

Attached Image:

Definetely

Just looking at the bacopa, rotala indica and stargrass, they all look more upright, little fuller, little punchier - just happier in general. Doesn't take much to make a difference!

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Back in the saddle!

Yup Dr.,

It looks nicer

But it also seems like your second picture has more light to it and as such does not create a fair comparison as the first one is slightly on the dark side .

About the algae: I don't think it would develop to this stage in only 4 days, my small hairy algae takes a long time to grow. But I guess we should wait for our "older" relative to evaluate the situation.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Ingo, bot photos were taken at approximately the same time, at the same distance and exactly the same camera settings. I did not change anything about the pictures, except for cropping and resizing. I think the difference in light is purely the result of clearer water (the first one was taken quite soon after maintenance, which clouded up the water a bit).

Dr.,

You might be right

But I wouldn't be who I am (hell, who am I) if I wouldn't have to come up with at least one more possibility why the second is lighter (besides clearer water):

It is the focus point(s) of the camera. I can create completely different light effects in pictures of my tank by shifting the focus point (I usually use only one point - my preference) just millimeters from one target (let's say a bright green plant) to another right next to it (shaded).

If the change in your image is purely from the water then you must have had some pretty bad water beforehand .

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Well Ingo, when you look up to the photo above, then there is all the algae on the window. I scraped all of that off and the stuff basically falls apart as powder, clouding up the water quite a bit. The photos have been taken from pretty much the same spot. I hold the camera at about chestheight, with the screen turned upwards so that I can actually see what I'm taking a picture off. Then with the camera fully zoomed out, I walk up to the tank untill it fills the screen. *click* *click* *click* Three photos, usually all just fine

Looking at the time that I posted the previous photo, that was one hour later than the one from today. Maybe that just made a slight difference, but I'm still leaning towards the clouded water theory

I am thinking that the plants have just grown enough to catch more light. Thus making it look like there is more light on the tank.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

The first picture clearly has a different exposure time than the second, very slight, 1/3 - 1/2 stop under. The camera's meter must've picked some outside light source up, maybe a lamp or something. Ot maybe it gave more weight to the dark bogwood in the second, I dunno. Both pictures look fine, but that's not the issue The plants have definetely perked up some in the second.

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Back in the saddle!

Hi Martin,

Yep, everything is definately looking better. New growth is bigger, stronger healthier looking.

I'm with you on the difference in brightness. The difference just cleaning the inside glass makes can be huge, there's always more stuff there then we think, like a grey haze, even without the green spot.

The clearer water you mentioned after adding NO3 is probably not your imagination. Healthy plants = clearer water. They produce more oxygen when healthier and working harder. Highly oxygenated water tends to have more clarity. The NO3 probably gave them the kick they need.

It'll take 2 weeks or so before you see the full benefits of this fert routine but I think you'll be happy with it. Better sharpen those pruning scissors, you're gonna need 'em

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

*starts spinning up the whetting wheel*

I am quite pleased with the result, I just hope I will be able to keep up the maintenance in the future. Knowing myslef, there will be times when I just won't feel much like it and will postpone it "to tomorrow" for several days/weeks. The tank will start being an absolute mess when that happens. Currently I'm all excited about it again, I hope it'll last.

NowherMan6, I would agree if the camara had been set to automatic, but when I take photos from my aquariums I always set it to manual with a fixed exposure time. In this case 1/20 of a second. Now maybe the camara still changes some other settings automatically, but that goes a bit beyond my knowledge of the thing I've now had it for 1½ years and keep telling myself to read up on all the finer things of photography, but in the end I just play around with settings until I like how it looks and keep it that way.

Taking photos of the tank I optimized some time ago, and I have all the settings saved in a program, just a turn of the wheel and I can start clicking away with the same settings as previous time.

Yesterday I examined the water tap in the bathroom and figured out that I can actually connect a hose to that particular tap. So yesterday I went off to a DIY shop to buy myself a 20 meter hose (60ft). And yes, it is almost that distance from the tap to the tank. While I was there I thought I'd looks around for some materials for rebuilding the aquarium hood so it'll fit one or two more fixtures and lamps, as the current setup is not quite as much light as I would like (108 watts over 65 g). The reflectors I have installed help, but it isn't optimal.

As the water temperature already is rather high from the three tubes that are hanging just above the water, I'll need to install a fan in order to keep the temp down if I want more light. With the current hood that isn't possible. So, at the DIY store I found nice aluminium corner profiles, 40 mm high, 20 mm wide and 2 mm thick. It is nice and rigid, and very light, it seemed like perfect material to elevate the fixtures a bit and it won't look too terrible I think. Probably next week I'll start with making the drawings for how it will be put together. If all goes well, then I'll order some new T5 fixtures within two weeks

Today I did the water change, I think I changed about 55-60% of the tank volume. To be honest, I was a bit nervous about dragging the hose through the living room. I fitted it with a garden sprayer that can be closed off. All in all it worked quite well, though getting the temperature and water pressure right was a bit of a hassle. I also removed most of the Hemianthes, as it had become quite a thick bush. Only a few sprouts were replanted, but they should be back to a thick carpet in a few weeks.

Here's a photo of how the tank is right now

Attached Image:

And here is a close-up of the Hemianthes, right after replanting

Attached Image:

Dr.

Nice pictures

Did the hose eventually make the refill easier?

I was going to ask you about how you plant the Pearl Grass, now I have seen it. Single stems, wow. I actually bunch about 5 to 7 together and then plant them as a group.

I guess I would have to go to single stem as well in order to get the carpet effect, right?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hey Ingo,

I planted single stems mostly because they tend to stay in the substrate better than groups of plants. My cories and Yoyos like to rummage around quite a lot and the substrate is very light, so if I plant many stems at once they often are floating a few hours later. I don't think it will matter carpet wise much, except that your larger groups should fill the area quicker than my single stems. In the beginning the single stems look a bit odd, but they grow fast, I expect to have to trim them in two or three weeks at the most. In a month or so they'll probably have formed a thick carpet again.

The hose did indeed make the refill quite a bit easier, once I had the correct pressure and temperature I did se an unusual amount of "fake-pearling" (to give it a name) due to highly oxygenated water. That worried me a little, but the fish seemed alright with it and none died.

Oh, I got another surprise when I removed the Hemianthes; I saw quite a few black molly fry escape from it. It seems like the mollies have been busy, and with the lack of any real predators (except for one betta female) I will end up with lots of them very soon. I think I'll go on the lookout for something that actively hunts. I'm considering a school of Sumatra barbs - I'm not quite sure whether that's the correct name, if I recall correctly the latin name is Barbus tetrazona. I've always kinda liked them, but they're a bit nippy, so I'm still not sure.

Dr.,

Glad the hose helped

Don't worry about too much oxygen in the water from the water change, I have not heard ever that it would harm any fish, actually I observe the oposite as my Espei really get in the mood after each water change.

How do you go about trimming the Pearl Grass?

I know nothing about the fish you mentioned, sorry. But yeah, you might have something to do about all the fry as your tank has soooo many beautiful hiding places that even with the addition of a predator some will survive.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

The tank is going very nice at the moment; the plants have never looked this lush and healthy before. Some time ago I had put second species of Mayacca in the tank, but the stem had been stripped of leaves by the Angel fish. Only one or two stems remained and they looked terrible, basically they were just twigs covered in spot algae. I was about to remove them last weekend, but there were a couple of bright buds, so I left it for a few days more. Those bright buds have now grown into healthy looking stems. I'll post a photo later today, when I get home. Also the green algae I was worrying about does not seem to get a strong hold except on the bogwood and the older plant parts. I think it arrested a bit after I did the water change during the weekend (which was the first water change in a very long time by the way). So, the main tank is going strong, but there still is the fry tank.

The fry tank is a mess. It still contains my breeding pair of angel fish, the only ones I have left after returning the three from the main tank to the LFS. I am planning to start a fertilizing/water changing program with that one as well, but since the angels had a set of eggs again last week I've been postponing that for a bit as they are always quite stressed when they have eggs. Since then the eggs have hatched and two days ago I started a bottle of brine shrimp. It was the first time I ever did that, but as the bottle of eggs I have already contains salt it is just a matter of "add water and air". Yesterday the fry was swimming freely, and I added some of the first hatched brine shrimp. There weren't all that many yet and the amount of fry is near 150, so I've also added some very fine dry food for fry. It was quite amusing to see the little fish chase the shrimp and flakes. Most of them ended up with nice round bellies. I'll be interesting to see how these little fish will fare. Until now every group of young angels has been gone after a few days, I don't really expect this brood to survive much better, but it is the first time I'm really trying to feed them, so who knows. I must note that my wife found it rather sad to hatch the shrimp just to feed them to the fish

If they survive until Saturday I may try doing some work on the fry tank then. As I said it's a mess, plants are either not growing or very slowly, I think there's at least three different kinds of algae thriving there. The new bioload of the fry is not going to improve it much either I think, so something will have to be done soon before it collapses into chaos completely. I'm considering of adding DIY CO2, even though I hate having to refill the yeast mixtures, but getting a second CO2 tank is out of the question, and the tanks are too far apart to split a hose and get it there that way. I will need to think on this for a bit.

Dr.,

This are great news about your main tank and the Angel fry. I hope that you will have more luck this time around and the feeding helps. Just wondering though, what would be your plans if all 150 make it ?

I know very little about raising Angel fry, but I have a feeling that messing with the tank right now is not a good idea, except if it is a death trap in its current stage. Two reasons:

- There are quite a few species of animals that will eat their children when threatened or stressed. It's an instinct that kicks in and basically means something like "hey, all seems hopeless, let me at least regain the protein so I can survive and try again later."
- Your algae in the tank might very well serve as fry food.

I got nothing to back this up though.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I'm considering a school of Sumatra barbs - I'm not quite sure whether that's the correct name, if I recall correctly the latin name is Barbus tetrazona. I've always kinda liked them, but they're a bit nippy, so I'm still not sure.

Tiger barbs! Yes, they are indeed nippy, at least amongst themselves. Keep in a large school and the chances of them messing with other fish goes down. The common thought on these guys is not to keep them with slow moving, long finned fish like bettas and angels, could shred their fins. IME they'd rather shred each other

Nice to hear the tank is doing so well, and I'm shocked that you found molly fry. I would think the yo-yos would have eaten them early on...

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Back in the saddle!

Ingo, at the moment I have no idea what I would do with 150 angel fry if they would all make it. I think I'd have to beg some fish stores to take them But I seriously doubt I'll have as many as that in the end. The tank itself is a serious mess, but not yet a death trap. During the weekend I'll decide whether or not I will do something about it, here follow a few shots of the fry tank. The first one is an front shot. The glass is covered with some algae, I'm not quite sure what it is, as it comes off rather easily.

Attached Image:

As you can see in the shot above, the plants are doing absolutely terrible in there. It's part because the light is bad and part because I have not done any proper water changes or fertilization of the tank. It should improve in the near future though.

Here is a shot from the side of the tank, which was still algae free, mother came up real close to chase me away, father is in the back, guarding his little ones.

Attached Image:

Finally the promised shot of the Mayacca from the main tank. Yes, that dark green ugly stick in the middle was all that was left of it before I removed the Angels. They thought it was a lovely side dish for with the occasional molly fry, mosquito larvae and flake food.

NowherMan6, I think the Yoyos have been too preoccupied with the trumpet snails, they really love digging those out. Besides that, up until last weekend the Hemianthes was so thick that anything small could hide in there and survive, the yoyos could not worm their way into it. small fry definately could.

Attached Image:

Time for a bit of an update. it's now been about two and a half weeks since I started the fertilizing/waterchanges program. I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical at first, but I'm turning into a believer. The tank water has never been clearer, except maybe when I started the tank now nearly two years ago. All plants are showing very nice growth, almost too much to keep up with Just to give you a bit of an idea what has happened in just two weeks, here are the photos, they speak for themselves:

Day 0, the start of fertilizing:


Day 4, water clearing up:


Day 8, first water change:


Day 15, plants need weeding (shot taken during daytime, a bit of reflection on the glass):


Day 16, weeding done, tips replanted, old plant parts removed:


At the moment the scape itself doesn't look particularly good, but I'm not too worried about that. I'm currently mostly trying to get all plants in such a shape that they look good and healthy, before trying to actually put them in places where they suit best. The Reineckii for example was in quite a bad shape, the leaves very curly and ugly. In the two weeks since I've started fertilizing it has started to recover quite nicely, the new growth looks very good and I think I can do something nice with it soon.

I've also noticed that the sunset Hygro is not nearly as red as it used to be. I saw Bernard mention somewhere that low nitrates often makes plants redder, I guess that was the case with the sunsets then. It's a shame really, as I liked the very pink variety better than the way it looks now, but I guess it is a tradeoff I have to make for healthy plants

Then there is still the story of my Angels. I wrote last week that I had started a brine shrimp culture. Well, that worked fine for two days, though not nearly as many seemed to hatch as I would have liked. I fed the Angel fry with it for those two days, and added some fry flake dryfood as well. Then during the third night I heard a bang, went to look and found the brine shrimp culture on the floor. The vibrations from the airpump had moved the whole contraption to the edge of the table and finally over it. Needless to say that I wasn't very happy.

Since then I've been feeding the fry just with dry food, and did not really expect to find any of them after day four.

As it turns out, now, more than a week since hatching, still close to 100 fry survive Slowly I'm starting to wonder what the heck I'm going to do with them if they all survive. The ones still present all are very active and seem to grow while I'm watching them. Already a few of them are over half a cm long, getting closer to 1 cm. I expect to see some of them to start taking on the V-shape sometime next week.

As the front window was completely covered in some slimy algae, I yesterday decided to clean it up a bit and scrape off the excess. That went rather well, though it created large sheets of algae floating around in the tank. This was one time I was happy to see that my angels have developed a love for green stuff, as they gobbled up those sheets of algae with pleasure. I've now started dosing with smal amounts of fertilizer to see if it helps with getting the algae under control. If all goes well with the fry, I think I'll try a water change coming weekend. Here is the happy family:


Attached Image:

Dr.,

Slowly I'm starting to wonder what the heck I'm going to do with them if they all survive

Welcome to my world .

I am a little worried about your algae that comes off in sheets (and is green). Can you eliminate that it is BGA? If it is then this would be bad as I have heard it is supposedly poisenous to fish, eating it might not be a good idea. If it is not then I am gald I voted for NOT cleaning the tank and predicting that the fry might like a snack of algae.

And your plant growth in the main tank: SPECTACULAR

It is awesome to see how fast your stems were shooting up. Good thing you became a Moderator here at FP - this forces you to log on more often and as such we have the pleasure of getting to see more of your tank

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

at first I was a little skeptical

Oh, ye of little faith. Welcome to EI Nirvana

The curled ugly Reineckii leaves were the plant stunting due to lack of nitrate, as was the pink color on the Rosenverg.

The pic before the trim is a testament to the difference feeding the plants make. With growth at that level algae will become a distant memory.

Yep the lack of pink is a trade off , but a worthwhile one.
You can force the pink a bit more with added micros, especially Iron or more light. But with more light the growth will speed up further, so be careful what you wish for

You're a very heavy trimmer

---

Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

I am a little worried about your algae that comes off in sheets (and is green). Can you eliminate that it is BGA?

I have had BGA in a fry tank before (some 15 years ago) and this looks quite different. For one, there are not the tell tale air-bubbles trapped inside. Also, this is definately green algae, not blue-green, and thirdly, the way it grows is somewhat different; on the free-water exposed side it forms long threads that wave in the current. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the angels ate everything that had come off and what they could reach They seem just fine and it's been two days now, so I'm not too worried about them.

The pic before the trim is a testament to the difference feeding the plants make. With growth at that level algae will become a distant memory.

I hope so, there is still a bit of the green hair algae showing up. On the plants it is mostly establishing itself on the reineckii, but maybe the contrast against the red makes it just more visible. If you look at the series of photos above, then you can see that the bogwood has turned quite a bit greener. It is pretty much completely covered with the algae. It doesn't look awful, but it wasn't really my intention to have a piece of green wood in my tank. I'll try to get a close-up later today when I'm home.

Well, the problem of what to do with 100 angels is gone. This morning mother angel suddenly lost interest in her babies and instead saw them as really nice snacks . I think she's eaten about 95% of them while a very excited father was trying to hold her at bay. There is now about 5-10 left, and I expect those to be gone pretty soon as well. I'm still not sure what triggered it, but maybe 10 days is as far as her attention span lasts. It's sad, but maybe it's good in a way as well, I think that a hundred angels would have been terribly difficult to get rid off. At least now I can use this weekend to get that little tank a bit more organized.

Here is a shot of the driftwood as it is of this day:


And a close-up shot of the algae:


Some suggestion on how to get rid of that would be welcome. It really seems to grow mostly on the slow growing plants such as Anubias and the reineckii, but that can be just a percetion because the others are replanted all the time, leaving the older parts closer to the bottom of the tank and thus less exposed for the algae to settle upon.

Just to give an idea how well some of the other plants are doing, here is a close-up shot of the resurrected Mayacca. it is growing exceptionally fast and each afternoon it looks something like this:


And now that I'm posting photos anyway, here are some random shots of my fish, first up rummies:


and one of the Yoyos:



finally, one of the cories:

Dr.,

Sorry to hear about the Angel fry

When I was a child I has some mice in a cage, a girl and a boy. Of course they started to reproduce and from the first litter 3 made it to adulthood. Now, with 5 mice in a small cage, they bred all the time and each time there was a litter it was taken care of for a few days/weeks, but eventually the babies were eaten. The explanation I was told (and I never researched its validity) was that the lack of space causes the adults to realize that there will never be enough space/food for all of them (natural instinct - they don't know that the owner can increase the amount of food) and that is the reason why they ate the babies. Maybe something similar happened here in your tank.

About the algae: yeah - you got a nice base for additional algae with that driftwood. Can you take it out and treat it? I would first scrub off as much as you can and then dip it in a bleach solution, then rinse it and scrub again. Maybe place it in a bucket with water in it for another day (dark - no light) and then repeat before adding it back to the tank. BTW, it looks like a severe case of brush algae to me.

Mayacca Fluitans: Bensaf uses it as an indicator for his Iron level. And the way I see it yours is too low as the tips of your plant are white. They turn a bright green when Iron levels are sufficient.

Rummie picture: I see that your Pearl Grass is growing straight up. Is that intentional or is it not doing the lawn thing anymore?

Otherwise - Nice fishies

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Mayacca Fluitans: Bensaf uses it as an indicator for his Iron level. And the way I see it yours is too low as the tips of your plant are white. They turn a bright green when Iron levels are sufficient.

Somebody was paying attention in class

The color will vary anywhere from white to dark green depending on FE. It's very iron hungry.
Does look a little pale, so more micros It will help color up the red plants too.

---

Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Somebody was paying attention in class

Yeah, you can be proud of your slightly younger student

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Well then, another two weeks along the way. In general I'm fairly happy, but there is still room for improvement. First some pictures and then a silly question. Here is the tank two and a half weeks ago, februari 14:


Since then I've been following weekly waterchanging schedule and have switched to a slightly heavier dosing of nutrients: more nitrate and more micros. The increase in nitrate was to stop the green brush algae from taking over, this seems to have worked... it doesn't grow nearly as much as it did two weeks ago. The micros were increased as the Mayacca seemed to indicate a lack of iron. I've added 50% more every other day.

Here's the current look:


One thing that is really starting to bug me is the staghorn algae, it is so far only present on the older leaves of some plants, but it definately is on the increase, here is a very clear photo of some of it.:



Now it is time for my silly question, so far I've been assuming that a tspn is a teaspoon... but as the staghorn is supposedly due to a lack of phosphate (right, Bernard?) then am I mistaken and is it actually a tablespoon? I really want to get this staghorn under control before it becomes a mess like it was 1½ years ago. So any suggestions on the matter are highly appreciated

so far I've been assuming that a tspn is a teaspoon... but as the staghorn is supposedly due to a lack of phosphate (right, Bernard?) then am I mistaken and is it actually a tablespoon? I really want to get this staghorn under control before it becomes a mess like it was 1½ years ago. So any suggestions on the matter are highly appreciated

Nope, tspn means teaspoon.

As for the staghorn, I'm not sure how it relates to phosphate, but I would push CO2 some more. Also, Flourish Excel is known to kill it. Use as directed.

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Back in the saddle!

Hi Martin,

Staghorn is usually an indicator of low macros, this would be N and P. Getting those right should stop new growth , but it really won't do anything for the algae that was already there (the nutrients don't kill algae they just prevent it from growing).

Certainly Flourish Excel will kill it , easily. Apply the Excel directly to the alagae via a syringe or something and it'll die off in a few hours.

Once you have Co2 and Macros good, it shouldn't re-appear.

But you do have to harass the old stuff.

---

Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

So flourish excel is the miracle tratment then. Does anyone know an online shop which sends stuff across the globe? I've never seen any flourish articles in my LFSs and the online shop in Germany, where I usually buy my things doesn't have it either.

Over the last week the staghorn has grown quite a bit, but part of that could be because my CO2 reactor wasn't working the way it should have. I think that due to dirty cablings from my filte not enough water was coming through it to effectively mix the CO2 into it. That has since been remedied. The new lights should be coming within the next two weeks I think, so then I get to do some DIY to get it all fixed into the hood. I'll probably also have to adjust the fertilizing schedule a bit again. For some 7 days I've now been dosing Nitrate every day and phosphate and micros on alternative days. Maybe I should still up the amounts a little to get algae growth further reduced.

Further increasing the amount of CO2 will mean that I'll have to install a second powerhead, I think. In the current setup part of the water flow from the filter is directed to my CO2 reactor, but that will have to be increased if I up the bubble per second rate, and that would leave not much to keep up the current through the tank.

Does anyone know an online shop which sends stuff across the globe?

http://www.Gregwatson.com should. He has Flourish Excel.

-P

I personally found that Excel works much better on Brush or Beard algae than it did on Thread or Staghorn. The only time that I saw the Excel take some effect on Staghorn was the very first time I treated my tank. Maybe it developed a form of immunity after that.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

How does flourish excel actually kill the algae, according to the description it's just organic carbon?

One of the ingrediants is also a mild dis-infectant which seems to have some effect on certain algaes.It also has some de oxidising properties so expect pearling to diminish when using.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

I'm doing something wrong

Over the last two weeks or so, things have slowly started to deteriorate in my tank. Even though plantgrowth in general is still good, the staghorn now has gotten a solid grip and is showing up all over the place. In the week after the previous installment I figured that maybe I had been dosing too much of Nitrate and phosphate, and created some sort of imballance. The dosage that Bernard had suggested had not been really making a difference in the algae growth, I was still getting quite a bit of spot algae on the glass and slow growers such as Anubias and Lobelia, and so I had been dosing a bit more phosphate that prescribed (about 1/4 of a teaspoon every other day) and as my Alternanthera was still growing stunted I also increased the Nitrate dose, and was dosing about half a teaspoon every day. Now one thing I have to say and that is that I find the teaspoon measurements a big pain. Here in Finland foodstuffs aren't measured in teaspoons and so I'm just working with an ordinary teaspoon and guessing that what I'm adding is about 1/2, bus as I don't know how much of a pile you need on your spoon to have a full spoon full it is a bit of an wild guess really. Therefore it is quite possible that I'm not really adding quite as much as I think I am (it's a small spoon).

In any case, the staghorn did not diminish but actually got bigger, so I thought I was overdoing the phosphate thing. For a week I dosed a minimal amount of phosphate in the hope that would do the trick... Alas, a week later the staghorn has spread even more and it is slowly starting to look like the mess I had 1½ years ago...

I've now reinstated the previous fertilizing scheme, as then it at least didn't grow quite as fast. I opened the CO2 a tad more (pearling had diminished a lot during the week I didn't have as much phosphate). But I'm still looking for some answers.

- how much is one tablespoon?
- should I add even more nitrate?
- more phosphate?

I feel like a beginner again

Oh Martin, Martin,

You've made the classic mistake of letting the algae force you into meddling with dosing.

If you are having trouble with the teaspoon (teaspoon NOT tablespoon)download a nutrient calulator here http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm it will allow you to work out dosages in grams if that's easier.

Dosing the nutrients solves the root cause and prevents new algae growth. But it won't kill or reduce existing algae - you have to do that manually. Or nuke it with Excel. If you have access to hydrogen peroxide at the lab, you can also use this to nuke the staghorn by injecting small quantitites driectly onto the algae.

Keep at the dosage rates I gave you ( remember teaspoons the little 'un for stirring your coffee !), keep Co2 good and you will beat this.

No problem with adding more Nitrate, especially if the tap water is low. Can be a good idea to add a double dose after water change to get the level up and then a normal dose during the week to maintain.

Increasing Co2 is always the place to start, especially if pearling has decreased.

Also check and keep an eye on GH, don't let it get below 3dgh.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Another two weeks further along. Since last time I've downloaded Chuck's calculator and based on that made liquid solutions of my Nitrate and phosphate. The dosing is a lot more controlled this way and at least it seems that the staghorn is no longer growing as hard as it did before. It's not gone, but there is some improvement.

Also, this week my new lamps arrived. two 55 watt T5 lamps, which will raise my wpg from about 1.8 to nearly 3. I haven't installed them yet, as I have to rebuild the hood a little to make it all fit without getting the water to a boil. the last few days I've been working mostly on that in the evenings. In practice it means that the lights will be raised about 4 cm, giving more air volume and with some extra holes in the back I hope to get enough airflow that the temperature will stay below 30 degrees Celsius. If not, I may have to install an active ventilator, but there should be room for that as well with the new setup.

Meanwhile I've been neglecting the plants a little, and everything is BIG at the moment. The stargrass is crawling on the surface, the Mayakka as well. I may do something about that tonight.

I wish you the best of luck with your aglae issue. To make you feel a little better. I really like how your tank is set up. You have a great virity of colors and everything looks great where you up it.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Dr.,

Good to hear that things are improving .

Now you will have to be very careful with the new light. That most likely will mean that you will have to up the nutrients and CO2 as well (but I am sure you knew that). I would suggest (as many others do as well) to have the new light on only for a short period at midday, like maybe 3 hours.

And before you start the trimming of your tank, please take a picture as I find overgrown tanks very pretty.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Yeah hang on to your pants with the new light. As LF said it might be a good idea to slowly add it in. Although I am running 3.25 for about 12 hours a day. No major problems. I did start out that way.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Nearly a month since the last update, The past few weeks have been a bit hectic in life and on top of that the motherboard of my PC decided it was time to die, which has limited my online activities quite a lot. Scanning the threads in these forums to see what was going on while I was at work has been pretty much the only thing I've been able to do lately. Currently I'm working on a temperary solution until the computershop gets my replacement motherboard (it still had guarantee so they had to replace it with the same model, which of course they did not have on stock).

In any case,I now have a series of photos that show quite nicely what has happened to the tank over the last few weeks. When I last posted I was having lots of trouble with the staghorn algae and the new lamps had just arrived. After I installed the lamps I hung in there for a week and hoped the algae would halt. At first nothing really seemed to change much, except that it did not seem to appear much on the new leaves. The patches of algae that were already there however, kept on growing bigger and bigger. After that week the bottom part of the tank looked like this, with staghorn covering lots of the anubias and cryptos there:

Attached Image: