Nexstar
Fish Fanatic
I have just redone my 23g tank this past Saturday 6/26. It is an established tank of 6 weeks having gone thru the normal small cycle that plant tanks do, but I had a Hair algae attach and also wanted to make some plant changes anyway so I redid the interior. Everything else Substrate Flora Base remained and so did filter.
I did add about 1.5"'s of eco complete over the top of the Flora Base.
I took out several plants and replanted some Hornwort and Egaria Nijas, wisteria, anubias barteri, riccia, marimo balls and lobella along with the ludwigia Repens, Temple, red tiger Lotus and couple of dwarf sag. All are going like gangbuster. I see fine air bubbles coming up constantly and on many of the ludwigia and tiger lotus many, many bubbles on the undersides of the leaves. I believe I even saw some on the riccia.
Hornwort and Egaria Nijas are known to inhibit algae. Further I added 3 SAE's, 6 re cherry shrimp and 6 amano shrimp along with the Oto already in there.
My tank has co2 injection with a minim vortex reactor.
Ehiem 2126 Pro filter reverse flowing thru under gravel filter I don't like spray bars as too much agitation.
Turbo Twist UV sterilizer
Small Rio 50 to give surface slight agitation
Ph fluctuates between 6.7 and 6.8
Kh 6
Gh 6
Light volume is About 5w per gallon of light 11 hours a day. This is composed of
1 twin bulb 34w compact flour pink 8000K and white 6700K
1 twin bulb 34w compact flour blue 10K and white 6700K
1 13w compact flour pink 8000K
I built a special oak hood so the lights evenly cover the entire tank and are not concentrated centrally in one area.
Temp (I am in So Cal) fluctuates between 79-82
My question is my substrate is made up of the following two items Eco complete by Careb Sea and Flora Base by Res Sea and they indicate that they contain many nutrients in the substrate., I don't want to promote another algae outbreak so I have only added Flourish Iron about 1 ml a day yet It hasn't even registered on the Seachem test kit. But I don't want to over do it as eco complete has iron in the substrate. Also it is my understanding that cheleated iron is easier for algae to utilize.
The Egaria Nijas has grown about 1-1/2 " already. Seeminly in the last 24-36 hours.
Friday night I will be adding a another 2 bunches of it, Heteranthera Zosterifolia orStar Grass and Dila Diandra as well as seeding the open areas of the substrate with a good deal of Glosso and more riccia on the drift wood.
Should (since it appears that all of the plants are pounding away, vivid greens and the Ludwigia has beautiful shades of green and rose colors) I also be adding Fourish (as it contains the micro nutrients that I am afraid a few days of this will become depleated or should I continue to wait before adding them to insure that the plants are absorbing and using them completly?
I also have Flourish Photasium available but I have not added any of it.
I feel that Flourish and Iron should be adequate with the strength of the substrate. My substrate is about 3" thick.
Your thoughts. Tank is moving forward very well and I would like not to loose momentum, further with the new plants going in Friday or at latest Saturday morning I want to make certain they don't get the short end of the stick so to speak.
Plants like Riccia and Glosso I do not know how fast they rebound after travel and planting.
The stem plants coming should kick off like these quickly. I hope to be pruning and shaping in about two weeks.
Any thoughts and suggestions are very much sought and appreciated.
I have enclosed a picture of the tank on day two left side. You can just see the blurred shape of my Ram going by.
Tanks a bunch
Bob
I did add about 1.5"'s of eco complete over the top of the Flora Base.
I took out several plants and replanted some Hornwort and Egaria Nijas, wisteria, anubias barteri, riccia, marimo balls and lobella along with the ludwigia Repens, Temple, red tiger Lotus and couple of dwarf sag. All are going like gangbuster. I see fine air bubbles coming up constantly and on many of the ludwigia and tiger lotus many, many bubbles on the undersides of the leaves. I believe I even saw some on the riccia.
Hornwort and Egaria Nijas are known to inhibit algae. Further I added 3 SAE's, 6 re cherry shrimp and 6 amano shrimp along with the Oto already in there.
My tank has co2 injection with a minim vortex reactor.
Ehiem 2126 Pro filter reverse flowing thru under gravel filter I don't like spray bars as too much agitation.
Turbo Twist UV sterilizer
Small Rio 50 to give surface slight agitation
Ph fluctuates between 6.7 and 6.8
Kh 6
Gh 6
Light volume is About 5w per gallon of light 11 hours a day. This is composed of
1 twin bulb 34w compact flour pink 8000K and white 6700K
1 twin bulb 34w compact flour blue 10K and white 6700K
1 13w compact flour pink 8000K
I built a special oak hood so the lights evenly cover the entire tank and are not concentrated centrally in one area.
Temp (I am in So Cal) fluctuates between 79-82
My question is my substrate is made up of the following two items Eco complete by Careb Sea and Flora Base by Res Sea and they indicate that they contain many nutrients in the substrate., I don't want to promote another algae outbreak so I have only added Flourish Iron about 1 ml a day yet It hasn't even registered on the Seachem test kit. But I don't want to over do it as eco complete has iron in the substrate. Also it is my understanding that cheleated iron is easier for algae to utilize.
The Egaria Nijas has grown about 1-1/2 " already. Seeminly in the last 24-36 hours.
Friday night I will be adding a another 2 bunches of it, Heteranthera Zosterifolia orStar Grass and Dila Diandra as well as seeding the open areas of the substrate with a good deal of Glosso and more riccia on the drift wood.
Should (since it appears that all of the plants are pounding away, vivid greens and the Ludwigia has beautiful shades of green and rose colors) I also be adding Fourish (as it contains the micro nutrients that I am afraid a few days of this will become depleated or should I continue to wait before adding them to insure that the plants are absorbing and using them completly?
I also have Flourish Photasium available but I have not added any of it.
I feel that Flourish and Iron should be adequate with the strength of the substrate. My substrate is about 3" thick.
Your thoughts. Tank is moving forward very well and I would like not to loose momentum, further with the new plants going in Friday or at latest Saturday morning I want to make certain they don't get the short end of the stick so to speak.
Plants like Riccia and Glosso I do not know how fast they rebound after travel and planting.
The stem plants coming should kick off like these quickly. I hope to be pruning and shaping in about two weeks.
Any thoughts and suggestions are very much sought and appreciated.
I have enclosed a picture of the tank on day two left side. You can just see the blurred shape of my Ram going by.
Tanks a bunch
Bob
