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Matt_L

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Hi.

I'm in the process of setting up my first tank for several years. It's a Fluval Duo Deep 1200. Just put some bits of bogwood and a few plants in. Looks ok for now, fingers crossed. I hope the plants survive this time as I've never been very aquaticly green fingered. Currently fishless cycling and hoping to get first fish in 3-4 weeks time.
 

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do you use any co2?
i use nutrafin natural plant system and it seems to work for me. i only have one set up in my tank,4 foot, which aparently is not enough but it seems to do the trick with my plants and is very cheap to run(about £4 a month).
nath1
 
nath1 said:
do you use any co2?
i use nutrafin natural plant system and it seems to work for me. i only have one set up in my tank,4 foot, which aparently is not enough but it seems to do the trick with my plants and is very cheap to run(about £4 a month).
nath1
Click to expand...

I've just set up the Nutrafin CO2 system today, but I haven't seen any bubbles coming from it yet, after about 6 hours. It says it can take upto 10 hours to get going so if it's not working tomorrow I'll try remixing some more. I'm pleased to hear that it works for you, hopefully it will for me aswell.
 
dont worry, mine took over night to push through, i guess this is because it has to push the air all the way from the pot thing the first time you set it up.
it took several attempts to get the bubbles to travel through the maze but i got there in the end.
nath1
 
Are you using a DIY mix or what the reactor comes with? Throw away the packets, they are rubbish, and it is also much cheaper to buy your own yeast and bicarbonate.
What's your WPG? You have some lovely plants in there, but some of them look to me that they are plants that demand a lot of light. Especially the flowing looking one on my left. The red one, it looks like a myriophylum to me.

I like the aquascape and I apologize for baraging you with questions, but I am curious.
 
looks great so far......i have the nutrafin co2 thingy too on a 4ft, i think its making a diiference but might get another too. :D
 
lljdma06 said:
Are you using a DIY mix or what the reactor comes with? Throw away the packets, they are rubbish, and it is also much cheaper to buy your own yeast and bicarbonate.
What's your WPG? You have some lovely plants in there, but some of them look to me that they are plants that demand a lot of light. Especially the flowing looking one on my left. The red one, it looks like a myriophylum to me.

I like the aquascape and I apologize for baraging you with questions, but I am curious.
Click to expand...

I'm using the packets at the moment. The first lot failed to produce any bubbles after 24 hours so I threw that away and mixed a new lot but slightly increased the water temperature and cut down the length of tubing by about half. This time it seems to be working well and is producing 2 or 3 bubbles every 5 minutes.
When the packets are finished I'll start mixing my own, from what I've read it seems more effective and a lot cheaper than buying the packets!
WPG is just over 2. 40 watts of lighting, one Aquaglow and one Powerglow and water volume once displacement from gravel, bogwood etc is taken into account is probably about 38 uk gallons.
Yes, the red one is a myriophylum. Most of the plants were ordered online and came as a selection but they weren't labelled so I'm not sure what some of them are. I'll just have to wait and see how they grow and then change things if necessary.
 
Matt_L said:
I'm using the packets at the moment. The first lot failed to produce any bubbles after 24 hours so I threw that away and mixed a new lot but slightly increased the water temperature and cut down the length of tubing by about half. This time it seems to be working well and is producing 2 or 3 bubbles every 5 minutes.
When the packets are finished I'll start mixing my own, from what I've read it seems more effective and a lot cheaper than buying the packets!
WPG is just over 2. 40 watts of lighting, one Aquaglow and one Powerglow and water volume once displacement from gravel, bogwood etc is taken into account is probably about 38 uk gallons.
Yes, the red one is a myriophylum. Most of the plants were ordered online and came as a selection but they weren't labelled so I'm not sure what some of them are. I'll just have to wait and see how they grow and then change things if necessary.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your answers. 2-3 bubbles every five minutes is not so good. Try 1 bubble per 3-4 seconds or even a bubble a second! That's what I have to do to get 30ppm of CO2 to fend off algae and give my plants a head start. I got your bubble rate when I used the packets. The yeast in them tends to be very old and ineffective. When you do decide to get your own yeast, follow this recipe. It's from Jimbooo over at the planted section and it has helped me finally achieve 30ppm.

1/2 tsp of yeast
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of bicarbonate (I don't use it, my tapwater is moderately hard, so I have enough buffering to stabilize the reaction).

Dissolve 1/2 tsp of yeast into 1/2 cup of luke warm water and stir until dissolved. Pour 1/2 cup of sugar into canister. Then pour water/yeast mixture into canister. Then fill with lukewarm water until about 2 cm below the final notch, and stir well. You should have bubbles in a matter of minutes and at quite a clip too. That mixture lasts about a week, but I have to supplement with Flourish exel by the end of the week because it's rather cold in my apartment and the reaction is not quite as fast.

I have myriophylum as well, the green variety in my tank, which has 3.7 WPG. From what I've read, the red variety demands bright light, but there are so many conflicting opinions and so many different varieties that look the same but have different requirements, that you may be fine with the lighting you have.

Keep us posted with your tank. It really does look great so far. :)
 
lljdma06 said:
Matt_L said:
I'm using the packets at the moment. The first lot failed to produce any bubbles after 24 hours so I threw that away and mixed a new lot but slightly increased the water temperature and cut down the length of tubing by about half. This time it seems to be working well and is producing 2 or 3 bubbles every 5 minutes.
When the packets are finished I'll start mixing my own, from what I've read it seems more effective and a lot cheaper than buying the packets!
WPG is just over 2. 40 watts of lighting, one Aquaglow and one Powerglow and water volume once displacement from gravel, bogwood etc is taken into account is probably about 38 uk gallons.
Yes, the red one is a myriophylum. Most of the plants were ordered online and came as a selection but they weren't labelled so I'm not sure what some of them are. I'll just have to wait and see how they grow and then change things if necessary.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your answers. 2-3 bubbles every five minutes is not so good. Try 1 bubble per 3-4 seconds or even a bubble a second! That's what I have to do to get 30ppm of CO2 to fend off algae and give my plants a head start. I got your bubble rate when I used the packets. The yeast in them tends to be very old and ineffective. When you do decide to get your own yeast, follow this recipe. It's from Jimbooo over at the planted section and it has helped me finally achieve 30ppm.

1/2 tsp of yeast
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of bicarbonate (I don't use it, my tapwater is moderately hard, so I have enough buffering to stabilize the reaction).

Dissolve 1/2 tsp of yeast into 1/2 cup of luke warm water and stir until dissolved. Pour 1/2 cup of sugar into canister. Then pour water/yeast mixture into canister. Then fill with lukewarm water until about 2 cm below the final notch, and stir well. You should have bubbles in a matter of minutes and at quite a clip too. That mixture lasts about a week, but I have to supplement with Flourish exel by the end of the week because it's rather cold in my apartment and the reaction is not quite as fast.

I have myriophylum as well, the green variety in my tank, which has 3.7 WPG. From what I've read, the red variety demands bright light, but there are so many conflicting opinions and so many different varieties that look the same but have different requirements, that you may be fine with the lighting you have.

Keep us posted with your tank. It really does look great so far. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice lljdma06. I didn't realise that there should be so many bubbles per minute! I've never added CO2 or plant food in any previous tanks I've had which have all been planted. The plants tended to do ok, but only grew slowly and some plants gradually died off. I'm putting a lot more effort this time in trying to creating a healthy aquarium for the plants aswell as the fish.

I'll post another pic in a few weeks when I get the first fish. :)
 
cant wait for the next photos.

gorgeous tank set up :drool:

what fish are you thinking of? :thumbs: :nod: :wub:
 
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