120 Litre Open-top Planted Aquarium Journal

[mark4785]

120 Litre Open-Top Planted Aquarium - Journal​

This particular aquarium underwent a thorough fishless cycle (pure-ammonia was employed) throughout August and September of 2012. At the end of the fishless cycle in which all water parameters were within normal range, the aquarium was stocked with a shoal of Black Neon Tetras who instantly started to gasp; two passed away and the others were saved by transferring them to an established aquarium. The deaths occurred prior to co2/plant introduction, so the o2 issue appears to be related to the huge oxygen demands of the filter bacteria. Because of this rocky start, this aquarium does not contain fish as o2 levels are still below 2 mg/L. However, the aquarium now contains several species of plants which have been growing very well.


Aquarium Details

Capacity: 120 litres (custom-built Aquarium)
Co2: Yes; Dennerle Comfort Range with replaceable 500g CO2 cylinder
Lighting: Will get these details shortly.
Plants: Ceratopteris thalictroides, Cryptocoryne x willisii, Echinodorus 'ozelot', Echinodorus 'red special', Echinodorus quadricostatus 'magdalenensis', Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'
Inhabitants: Nothing, although the intended stocking will either be a Dwarf South American Cichlid (recommendations are welcome).
Substrate & Decoration: Regular play sand sourced from China. Huge blue coloured rocks of varying shapes and sizes.

Aquarium Pictures

Overview

Hemanthius - growing well, but no sign of pearling

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Due to the newness of the aquarium, it is not fully planted and the plants have yet to grow and spread (i.e. the Hemanthius has not formed a foreground carpet). Any suggestions for further plants to fill up the gaps will be much appreciated.


Mark.

 

[Sharpy1987]

It looks good mate. Do you have any fertilizer under the sand?

 

[mark4785]

It looks good mate. Do you have any fertilizer under the sand?

I don't sadly. It's just pure play sand. I'm surprised to find that the Hemanthius carpet plant is actually spreading without substrate-based ferts so I think I may be able to avoid having to put fertiliser tablets in.

 

[mark4785]

Hemanthius plant is growing well although it's not quite formed a carpet yet. Do the new leaves/runners always look really small initially?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah they do mate, have to keep an eye on that as well, HC is very buoyant and sand not being the best rooting media means if it's not a very thin carpet, it will end up floating on top of the tank.

 

[mark4785]

Yeah they do mate, have to keep an eye on that as well, HC is very buoyant and sand not being the best rooting media means if it's not a very thin carpet, it will end up floating on top of the tank.

It is spreading quite well and rooting itself as it does so; seems like I've got luck on my side atm. Some of begun to turn yellow because I've now had an issue with the bubble counter for this tank (the bubble-counter for my other tank exploded if you remember) involving it leaking and gas escaping (thus, there's been little co2 in the tank which this plant is fussy about). I bought a new glass bubble counter thinking it would be more robust but the bubbles are coming out much slower so may have to get rid of it. May also have to plant a new batch of HC if they all start to decay.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

It'll bounce back providing it gets the CO2 mate.

 

[mark4785]

It'll bounce back providing it gets the CO2 mate.

Looks to be 'bouncing back' as predicted .

There is a white film covering the water surface after I added anti-bacterial med to stop the growth of yellow solids within the water column and filter media. I'm guessing this surface film is an indication it is dying in response to the med?

While this white film / yellow solids are in the tank I can't stock it

 

[mark4785]

Just a quick update to say that, as the white film on the water surface keeps recurring and their is a yellow gunk in the input/output tubes, on the substrate and in the filter, I have opted to remove everything from the tank (plants, substrate, rocks etc). I have put the filter media, tubes, rocks and other parts that have come into contact with the water in a powerful disinfectant. For extra measure, I'm going to let all of these objects, including the tank itself, completely dry out to ensure the gunk/film dries up and dies.

I have ordered a new bag of play sand (25kg) which will be the first thing I put into the tank once it's completely dried out. I may replace the input/output pipes as dry air may not get to the inside which may support the gunk/film being able to replicate. I will be putting a similar array of plants in.

 

[Questions?]

do you know what it is?

 

[mark4785]

do you know what it is?

I think the white surface film is excess protein build up even though I am not adding food to the aquarium.

The formation of yellow gunk in the filter is a result of me doing a fishless cycle for 5 months without cleaning the filter media; I think some sort of bacteria colony other than nitrosomonas and nitrobacter has formed which is visible to the eye. It usually forms on the rotary component of the pump and then spreads into the filter media, up the pipes and then settles on the aquarium glass; it doesn't survive in moving water, hence why water disturbance during a weekly water change and filter clean disturbs it and prevents it from forming.

As I'm sure its a bacteria, it would have been great if I could have just added some disinfectant detergent to the tank to disinfect the whole system in one go, however this can cause the silicone which holds the tank together to become looser over time so I opted to remove everything rather than sow the seeds of a disaster!

Mark.

 

[Questions?]

oh, ok, sounds good to me

 

[mark4785]

oh, ok, sounds good to me

Yes it sounds really good to me too lol.

When I start afresh with new sand/plants, hopefully this predicament won't come about again if I keep up with filter maintenance and water changes!

 

[mark4785]

Update: [background=rgb(252, 252, 255)]30th December 2012[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 255)]- Added fresh sand and filled the aquarium with tap water (not dechlorinated) to hopefully kill off any remaining bacteria.[/background]
[background=rgb(252, 252, 255)]- Now using new Fluval heater, intake strainer, intake pipe, output nozzle and external filter hoses as others were infected with yellow/orange gunk[/background]
[background=rgb(252, 252, 255)]- All accessories (nets, syphon, filter media) has been disinfected with bleach and 100 degree C tapwater.[/background]

 

[mark4785]

Update: 15th January 2013

I am now in the process of doing a fishless cycle on this aquarium. I intend to make the tank a low-light, low CO2 and low-nitrate environment exclusively for a German Blue Ram pair. I have repositioned all of the rocks.

I will be adding CO2 but as GBR's are fussy about CO2 concentrations too, I'll be using a Dennerle computer/probe to ensure the CO2 levels are just right.

I hope to keep the GBR pair for 4/5 years in a pristine, non-challenging (no tank mates getting in their way) environment.

If anybody has any advice as to what plants I could use in a low-light environment I'd really appreciate that as I often struggle to pick suitable plants.