Ben's Kitchen Tank Project Log

Being as I have GTDSTTTS (Got To Do Something To The Tank Syndrome) <does anyone else have GTDSTTTS by the way> and also as it seems I don't need to tear the whole thing down, an update is due soon.

Happy Easter thing by the way

After seeing the cool results of tests, I twiddled thumbs for at least two minutes if not less and decided to tear down the left side of the tank only as it is the side that has the majority of the algae problems.

Drained off the water right down to substrate level (or as near as I could without upsetting the bottom (bottom upsetting is generally not good IME ))

Then I went to work on removing the plants and ting: First to go was the Twisted Valis as I was not happy how that looked in there - it will be donated to my com tank, ta. Next out was the dark-green-grass-stuff-with-tuber-root-I-dont-know-its-name - nice plant soon to be my com tank also, ta. Out also with hairgrass plants and random planted HC and also the algae infested rocks. Left me with a bare left side (cheeky )

Then soaked the algae rocks in the hottest 'dam water this world has ever seen since hyperthermic vents (probably) whilst I engaged in my newly invented worldwide sport, anyone can join in, it's easy...

The sport is "algae on hairgrass removal plucking" it involves you leaning over a bucket of clumps of hairgrass with a pair of tweezers and identifying which strand of ubermicrofine hairgrass from said clump has algae growth on it. The aim is to pluck a strand of hairgrass with the algae growth on and dispose of it in the bin ASAP. You take your tweezers, miss the algae infested grass stem altogether then try again. After some practice and realising it's easier to grab the correct grass stem while the clump is underwater X 100, you win Most of algae on hairgrass is removed (the crowd goes wild)

Then comes the sport of hot rock scrubbing. The rocks are now scrubbed...

After my aquasports events, quick placement of scrubbed rocks + 1 more and a plonking of hari grass in there I have this: <in kind association with Cab-ernet & Sauv-ignon>

And so it appears that life is a peach once more. JUst have to see how it goes.

I have however two more things to "show and tell you"

The first is my ghetto rig for getting water into tanks without disturbing the inhabitants (be they scaly or green). It looks like this:



It consists of a bucket jammed in the top of a stepladder with a siphon

I never fancy upsetting the bottom (did I says that already) by pouring the bucket straight in. Wonder how other folks do it?

The second and last thing, for this morning at least, is:

I am well chuffed with Akadama as plant substrate All the plants I have had out of the tank tonight, after a few weeks of me fumbling with ferts, CO2 and what not have shown fantastic root growth. The Valis destined for my com tank was particularly good.

My biggest surprise was when I wanted to reposition a few bits of Blyxa Joponica. The root growth in a few weeks was fantastic to say the least:



The 2p piece is for scale (and the credit crunch) but these roots were just about as long as the 2p when I planted 3 weeks ago. Unreal. You can see the roots bound to the Akadama and also the peat moss I used on the very bottom of the tank. I know that Akadama has real value in root growth in potted trees, but if growth is like this after a few weeks sub-aqua, I will certainly use it again.

I'll try sticking a pic up tomorrow of the whole tank once the merk has cleared.

TTFN, thanks for reading.

Well that was lucky wasn't it. Imagine if you tore it down 2 days ago. Close one.

It sounds to me that you are a bit more happier now with the prospect of moving foward and not backwards with a tear down.

I think you might be on your own with the new sport you are trying to invent. I gave up on my hair grass and have about 5 % left of the original. Didn't have ferts and Co2 set right and had a big algae outbreak. By By hair grass

Well done Ben and I'm looking foward to the FTS.

Evening forumers, current tank after left hand side rebuild.
Full tank:


Right:


Left:


I know, I know, even numbers of rocks are a "no no" but can't you let this one slide, it's got plants and everything!

Thommo said:

...Well that was lucky wasn't it.

It sounds to me that you are a bit more happier now with the prospect of moving foward and not backwards with a tear down.

I think you might be on your own with the new sport you are trying to invent...

Click to expand...

Too right I'm happy Thommo, another day or too without the halt of blackout and the tank would have been torn down fo sho
Lot happier now so long as I can keep the algae problems back.
What no hairgrass algae picking sport! O noes and I dearly loved it so (honest)
Lets see how she sails now over coming weeks.
Cheers Thommo

Wootness

Algae is much much reduced now, a bit growing on HC but I guess it is still recovering from blackout. HC is creeping. Newly moved hair grass is creeping too. Blyxa Japonica is strong though having a melt in places probably due blackout.

Tank has been stable since last update (RE: Zero: A,Ni) so I lobbed in 9 cardinals from my comm tank. They have been in there 3 ish days now and look very happy. CO2 is hard to keep regular without a solenoid. Wifey is tasked with removing the blackout sheet at precisley 4pm and the lady is doing a good job

Overall much happiness in the kitchen now, pics incoming...

What do you think about adding a few Amano shrimp at this point to round up the last bit of algaes..?

should be ok. dont see why not.

azzaknight said:

should be ok. dont see why not.

Click to expand...

Me too, 3 amano's incoming from comm tank tomorrow then...

Have some pics (+ stubby camera fingers ):






HC growing in

looking good ben!! well done

Can't wait to see it when all the HC is grown in and a big shoal of cardinals Just having a few fish in there adds so much colour!

Love the tank though - I wish I could do something like that. I'm pants at aquascaping lol

News:
All plants have grown in well with Blyxa Japonica showing strongest growth - it pearls / pumps every day after 4 hours light The HC and hairgrass are growing, just not as strong as I'd like, I suspect my inconsisent CO2 / feeding regime to be culprit, still they are growing albeit slowly

The 9 Cardinals I have are looking beautiful, real rich red bellys and bright blue flash band. Tank params have stayed stable zeros (with heavy planted + fish-in recomendation from another poster) so I decided to go for more stock. Cardinals of course They were not so good quality at the LFS, fins could be better though they will grow under my care - anyway they looked a bit stressed, not weak just weak colours and timid. After acclimating them and introducing to the existing 9 in the tank, a few hours later they already look better than they did in the LFS and are colouring up nice
Some pics (though don't forget to read text after ):





Cool eh? Well I am happy at least, onto snails...

I have a snail problem. For the photos above I removed about 40 teeny snails, they come from nowhere and probably hitched in on plants. I remove about 50 each week but still they come. Anyway, besides my pickings is there a way to <ahem> kill all the snails off without using anything that will directly affect my shrimp like copper sulphate. All help appreciated.

Some fish such as loaches eat snails.

if you dont want to pick them out, weight a piece of cucumber in the tank and leave it in the tank overnight, then pull it out in the morning because it will be full of snails.