Back to black

Probably won't need to bore you with too many more pics because its about where I want it now. I gave it a good trim over the weekend and will take it back to the same every week. I have had to change my strategy with the ambulia. I was going to trim off the bottoms as is usually suggested. As soon as I had done the first one Billy the bulldozer bristlenose wandered over to investigate. I decided solid root structures were a good idea so will keep lopping off the tops and only uproot when absolutely necessary . The only decisions I have to make are whether to leave the frogbit at its current coverage (a little over 50%) or let it go to around 80%. Either way weekly bucketloads of removal are probably less than a week away. I also can't decide if I should let the hygrophila all grow to one height or create a terrace - lawn on the left, hedge in the centre. Last night I posted about the effect the floating plants are having on my fish and have decided I will be adding some more pencil fish after all.

My new light arrived today. I'm a bit nervous about replacing this but my Aqua One unit is on the way out after 7 or 8 years. I can visibly see the colors changing while watching the tank and on closer inspection it has a lot of water in it - I hope I can get the balance right quickly. I was tempted to replace like for like but the Aqua One is £200 (out of stock for the last 6 months and nobody knows when / if they will come back), and the Juwel equivalent (which appears identical) is closer to £300. So I got an Hygger. Fortunately none of my plants are demanding and I do have mini light meters growing all over the tank.

Well the Hygger is in. Took one look at the instructions and decided that it was too much hassle to programme. The switch has no display and you have to use counted button presses and flashing LEDs to programme it. I just set it to 100% full spectrum with no timer and plugged it in to my existing Nicrew controller using the current profile. I guess I will have to change the intensities (36W light vs 54) but I will consult with the ambulia just before bed time to see if that's needed.

I do have a horrible feeling that when the built in switch loses power it will reset to default settings (i.e. off). If that's the case I will simply bypass the hardwired controller and stick with the Nicrew controller for a simple life.

Oh and I ordered 15 nannostomus marginatus to keep my 2 company at the surface. Since shipping was already paid I couldn't resist another 10 baby cardinals . Billy's also getting a breeding sized girlfriend. Assuming I can catch him without destroying the tank I will move them into another tank which currently only has 8 lambchop rasboras in it. I suspect if will be a lot less stressful for all concerned guarding eggs in there than in this tank with 30ish ravenous corys.

It seems the light was indeed (over???)due for a change. Visually the tank looks much greener. Initially it seemed almost unnaturally green. When I observed it changing colours it seemed to get more red, and was definitely mostly red during the ramp up / ramp down periods. Previously I had them on for 12 hours. The middle 6 hours were at 40% and the other 6 were at 20% or less - i.e. very long ramp and down times. This proved to be not enough light, so I am experimenting within the limitations of the built in controller. So far I have settled on 12 hours at 50%. This leaves my light meters in about the same state by the end of day and plants seem to be growing at a similar rate. I guess it will be a week or two to confirm I'm not seeing any algae.

It seems the camera (or phone) does not lie after all. On 4 March I posted this because I was struggling to make the photos look like my eyes saw the tank.

seangee said:

No special reason. Charged the bat on the SLR so I am able to get proper white balance rather than the overly blue rendition the phone insists on.

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By using a point inside the tank to set the white balance it did look natural but the frame (which is white) always ended up looking red. Today I pointed my phone at the tank and without making any adjustments I got this

It looks very close to what my eyes think they see and the frame was white. The tank is slightly less bright than the picture.
Moral of the story: If your phone / camera thinks the light in your tank is messed up it probably is
Oh and I have added some pencilfish

Very nice plants and fish looking great Sean. Im a big fan of the cardinals myself but the pencil fish are a nice addition

Frogbit seems to be growing well for you again. I find it soon covers the surface in my 180. I take some out weekly but its back within days.

AquaBarb said:

Very nice plants and fish looking great Sean. Im a big fan of the cardinals myself but the pencil fish are a nice addition

Frogbit seems to be growing well for you again. I find it soon covers the surface in my 180. I take some out weekly but its back within days.

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Around lights out is my favourite time for watching this one. Just as the cories start to buzz into life the cardinals park themselves amongst the foliage (heads down like little lanterns) and it looks like a fairy garden. The pencils hang out at the surface completely motionless while I try to catch their colours changing.

seangee said:

Around lights out is my favourite time for watching this one. Just as the cories start to buzz into life the cardinals park themselves amongst the foliage (heads down like little lanterns) and it looks like a fairy garden. The pencils hang out at the surface completely motionless while I try to catch their colours changing.

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They are a perfect choice for a planted tank like yours, they really pop against a green background.
Seening your big group makes me want to up my group again as mine are down to 12 now.

Arrived home today after a few days away and found the frogbit cover has now reached 100%. It looked a bit dark in there (darker than usual ) - so I cranked the lights up to 80% and aimed my phone at it.

I have decided to give the Hygger 24/7 programme a go. Its a shame they don't say what their programme is and you can't adjust what they have chosen. But I have been running at 50% for 12 1/2 hours so as long as they have a decent ramp up / ramp down period I hope it works. Their programme is 14 1/2 hours but hopefully no more than 6 hours at 100% (midday setting). Fingers crossed. Next week it will be back to throwing out bucketloads of frogbit weekly - but for now its a good coverage and not too dense.
Update: Its 3 hours before lights out and noticeably dimmer than 5 minutes ago

Looking great! Have you ever thought of adding a bit of red, like a bit of Ludwigia?

Wills said:

Looking great! Have you ever thought of adding a bit of red, like a bit of Ludwigia?

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Not enough light in there for red plants. Since they are all forest fish iI'm happy to keep it that way. There is actually a red tiger lotus on the right, but its currently in a dormant phase. Been that way for a while so not sure it will come back ...

Too much light is not going to be an issue. This is 75 mins before lights out - not much photosynthesis going on beneath the frogbit

With 20 minutes to go I can barely see inside. Looks really cool though.

seangee said:

Too much light is not going to be an issue. This is 75 mins before lights out - not much photosynthesis going on beneath the frogbit
View attachment 316059
With 20 minutes to go I can barely see inside. Looks really cool though.

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Will you keep your frogbit coverage at 100% or take some out? I find i have to take some out at that stage else crypts dont grow as well

AquaBarb said:

Will you keep your frogbit coverage at 100% or take some out? I find i have to take some out at that stage else crypts dont grow as well

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I'll see how it goes. Don't want it to get too thick or dense. There is a small patch of clear water caused by the spray bar. The reason I originally added the spray bar and air stones was to ensure circulation on the surface when it is covered over. I discovered today that light is really quite bright at 100% (for a low light tank), so may let it get a little denser to diffuse the light a bit more. The cardinals seemed a little skittish when I checked on them at luch time.
I re-read the instructions and the 24/7 programme is actually 16 1/2 hours not the 14 1/2 I thought, so when I set it last night it had already started to ramp down. Not sure how long it stays at 100% - its set for 08:00 - 00:30 and it had already started winding down by 20:00. (Maybe earlier but I have not been in this room since around 3).

Well the Hygger was nice while it lasted!
Got a notification this morning that my heater was offline so went to investigate and that circuit had tripped. Flicked the circuit breaker and everything came on except the lights. Connected the lights up to an old power supply and it worked. But seriously 5 weeks!!!

Aquasky 2 on order and refund processed by Amazon. Sure its twice the price but has a 3 year warranty, and Fluval is a household name. Aquasky is 30W compared to 36 of the Hygger but that may not actually mean anything. Thankfully I bought if from Amazon. (At least in the UK) customer service is fantastic and I don't have to waste time quibbling with suppliers over warranty. They even offered to collect from home - I said no because it is currently working so I will get the new one up and running before I send it back

Seems I would be no good as a QA tester. Yes it works, but it doesn't work correctly. The lights did come on, pressing the programming buttons appeared to make things flash in the correct sequence, but it has never left sunrise mode. When I try to set it manually 100% seems to give off about 20% of its previous output. I know its a low light tank but ...
Oh well - new one arrives tomorrow, and I don't think I'll be buying another Hygger.