awesome stuff, i continue to love the set up here. Im also on my first planted tank and its a seriously addicting part of fish keeping. if you were still wanting to hide the power head why not try behind the manzita wood where the piece is upwards towards the surface you might be able to hide it behind there, and it could blow water towards the intake.
Reginald James' First Planted tank
- Thread starter octavusprime
- Start date
I dose C02. Right now it is just a Fluval ceramic diffuser straight into the intake of the canister filter. The idea was to use the canister as an inline diffuser. It works at lower bubbles per second but at the higher end that I'm going for it tends to build up gass in the canister. I have to shake the canister 2-3x a day to "burp" the gas out. This is not ideal so I purchased a used DIY inline diffuser from someone on APC. I also purchased a magnetic solenoid valve so the gas turns off at night when the plants no longer use CO2. Currently the CO2 is on 24 hours and I run an air pump to gas off the CO2 at night and increase the O2. At night the plants use oxygen and compete with the fish to breath. Once I get the solenoid valve I'll hook it all up and post some pics.
I use dry ferts bought from AquariumFertilizers.com. My fish bioload is high enough that I don't have to add Nitrogen (Potassium Nitrate) or Phosphorus (Potassium Phosphate). I dose liquid C02 (Excel) daily, Micro nutrients (CSM +B) every other day and also Potassium Sulfate 3x a week. I do a weekly 50% water change and add one teaspoon of Baking soda + one tablespoon of GH salts (kents R/O right or Barr's GH booster). I live in Sacramento CA and the water is very soft. I will add Iron if I see my pogostemus erectus get too yellow, maybe once every two weeks.
Lighting is now on 9 hours a day with a 4 hour "burst" cycle (additional 108 watts of T5 lighting). Initially I had them on 12 hours and had some algae issues. Now that things are grown in I plan on lower the lights to only 8 hours a day. Instead of one 4 hour burst, I want to do 4 seperate one hour bursts. I'm hoping by doing this I can further increase my C02. The idea being that the C02 will increase during the lower light times then the burst will suck up the excess before it gets too high. I'm sure it will take some tweaking.
I use dry ferts bought from AquariumFertilizers.com. My fish bioload is high enough that I don't have to add Nitrogen (Potassium Nitrate) or Phosphorus (Potassium Phosphate). I dose liquid C02 (Excel) daily, Micro nutrients (CSM +B) every other day and also Potassium Sulfate 3x a week. I do a weekly 50% water change and add one teaspoon of Baking soda + one tablespoon of GH salts (kents R/O right or Barr's GH booster). I live in Sacramento CA and the water is very soft. I will add Iron if I see my pogostemus erectus get too yellow, maybe once every two weeks.
Lighting is now on 9 hours a day with a 4 hour "burst" cycle (additional 108 watts of T5 lighting). Initially I had them on 12 hours and had some algae issues. Now that things are grown in I plan on lower the lights to only 8 hours a day. Instead of one 4 hour burst, I want to do 4 seperate one hour bursts. I'm hoping by doing this I can further increase my C02. The idea being that the C02 will increase during the lower light times then the burst will suck up the excess before it gets too high. I'm sure it will take some tweaking.
I may try to hiding one of the power heads but I really need two to get proper circulation. Not sure what to do with the second one. Next step is a vortech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLJcpQnL3RE
I agree with the idea of burst lighting, and will be adding a siesta period during the day to my new 180 g to allow CO2 levels to replenish.
In your first photos, was the floating plant amazon frogbit? If so did you remove it to increase light penetration?
O
In your first photos, was the floating plant amazon frogbit? If so did you remove it to increase light penetration?
O
Ya I pulled out the amazon frogbite. It was a bit of a weed. I would have to cut out 50% per week just to keep it from covering the entire water surface.
I've been slowly increasing the CO2 levels to find the right balance for the burst. My drop checker now fluctuates between green and lime green indicating a fairly high CO2 concentration. The fish haven't changed their behavior and seem quite happy. I think the key to that is I have a power head that is pointed towards the water surface creating a strong rippling effect (O2 exchange) without any splashing that would allow C02 to gas off.
It is a constant balancing act. The increased CO2 has really helped the plant health and more importantly the black beard algae and green hair algae are finally starting to melt away... CO2 is quite the algae killer.
I've been slowly increasing the CO2 levels to find the right balance for the burst. My drop checker now fluctuates between green and lime green indicating a fairly high CO2 concentration. The fish haven't changed their behavior and seem quite happy. I think the key to that is I have a power head that is pointed towards the water surface creating a strong rippling effect (O2 exchange) without any splashing that would allow C02 to gas off.
It is a constant balancing act. The increased CO2 has really helped the plant health and more importantly the black beard algae and green hair algae are finally starting to melt away... CO2 is quite the algae killer.
You have a beautiful tank. I have a newbie question concerning co2. Do you maintain a pocket of co2 under water or is their a seal or does it just bubble up and out
very nice tank. I've been thing of converting my 240 to planted, your tank might just give me the push.
