120L Juwel Lido - 'eternal Cycle'

[Ch4rlie]

Trimming moss is a PITA to be honest, as when you trim the moss the offcuts float about everywhere!
 
Do try to get hold of the parts of moss you want to trim off so you can keep under control the offcuts then straight out of tank.
Takes a bit longer but worth it.
 
This is how I learned, the hard way!
 
If offcuts allow to settle into substrate, they will start to grow where they land!
Have pulled out missed offcuts after a week or so and already they grip the gravel and when you pull the moss out the couple of gravel the moss is attached will go along with the moss trimming like its stuck on with glue!
 
Hope that makes sense, hard to describe! 

 

[daizeUK]

Yeah I know what you mean!  I've had bits of moss colonising various areas of the tank already.  I was planning to try a scissors & siphon combo and see if I can suck the trimmings out as I go.
 
It looks like I jinxed myself saying the fish were fine, one of my harlequins has serious problems today.  I don't expect him to survive the evening.  Bummer.

However on a higher note I tested my water parameters and they are perfect - better than perfect in fact.  My nitrates in this tank are reading 20ppm and I have 40ppm coming out of the tap.  That's incredible to me, I've never had nitrates that low!  Explains all the mad moss growth I guess!

 

[greenmumma141]

That's great, Daize!! (about your water parameters)
 
 
I have moss coming out of my substrate everywhere!! It's such a pain, it really ruins the looks of nice clean sand

 

[daizeUK]

I tried the George Farmer method of attaching a siphon tube to the scissors while you trim today and it worked a treat!  Only problem is I drained the water before I could finish trimming   Need more practice!

 

[daizeUK]

This tank is progressing with good plant growth, but suffering from diatoms as you can see on the sand and rocks. I always seem to get diatoms in new tanks. I'm currently playing with EasyCarbo dosage and photoperiod to try to get rid of it.

I had to remove what was left of the monosolenium tenerum, sadly it never recovered. I think it may have been the ammonia I added for cycling that killed it.

The yeast CO2 system seems to be working well. I now have three reactors which I refresh in turn so that each lasts for 3 weeks. I use about 225g of sugar and about a 1/4 teaspoon yeast in each reactor. This is giving a constant stream of bubbles and a green dropchecker after some adjustment to the spray bar to reduce surface agitation. I'm pretty satisfied with the system at the moment.

All the fish are doing well and seem happy. I wouldn't be without my platies to be honest, they add so much interest by interacting with the plants and exploring all the nooks and crannies. The threadfins and harlequins are beautiful but they don't interact with the hardscape much. I want to add more harlequins as there are only five remaining after the one who died apparently of external injuries.

By the way that's not a yellow leaf in the foreground, it's a pebble holding the anubias down

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looking stunning Daize, plants are lush and both thread fins and harlequins looking healthy and happy 

 

[Rak9378]

Looks amazing daize! Loving the moss covered limbs!!

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks guys! I try to trim the moss on at least one or two branches each week (I trimmed the branch on the far left today) to keep it under control. I find a small pair of scissors with a narrow hose attached for siphoning works really well. By the time I've trimmed a couple of branches I've usually drained half of the tank into the bargain!

The other end of the hose goes through a sieve over a bucket so I can collect the trimmings. I've got an ice-cream tub full of Taiwan moss offcuts, no idea what I'll do with them!

 

[Rak9378]

 I've got an ice-cream tub full of Taiwan moss offcuts, no idea what I'll do with them!

 
Easy solution....time for a third tank!! 

 

[greenmumma141]

Daize, this tank is beautiful! I really love it.

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks Greenmumma!

 

[daizeUK]

I'm currently having a nightmare with the CO2 system on this tank.

The airstone disintegrated in my hands when I tried to clean during maintenance this week. Okay not a huge surprise, I knew that airstones might crumble due to the acid action of CO2 gas but I was hoping it might last a bit longer... clearly not.

So I removed the airstone and plugged in my Fluval ceramic diffuser. I was hoping that the extra yeast reactor bottle would provide the pressure necessary to push gas through the diffuser. No such luck. I've left the system alone for several days now to allow the pressure to build back up and the diffuser is doing diddly SQUAT. I can't seem to get the pressure needed to activate it.

Drop checker has been blue all week

Do I go back to airstones knowing that I will need to replace them every month or so before they crumble?
Or add more yeast to try to increase the pressure to get the diffuser working?
Or maybe there's a gas leak somewhere that I should be looking for - all that pressure must be leaking out SOMEWHERE!

 

[KirkyArcher]

Get a bubble ladder or even the JBL taifun (bit on the bulky and expensive side) but very effective at dissolving gas

I had a little more life using this bubble curtain than with air stones

http/galleryplus.ebayimg.com/ws/web/150846178517_1_0_1/1000x1000.jpg

plus you have a long length of tubing that you can cut down into 2" sections and replace if and when required.

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks Kirky. I may need to try out a ladder diffuser. It would mean I can't keep feeding the bubbles into my filter intake though.

 

[daizeUK]

Okay I've spent the evening researching diffusers

First I've been looking at the JBL Taifun. Since it works by keeping the gas in prolonged contact with water so the good news is that it's guaranteed to work with low-pressure yeast systems, the bad news is that the passive dissolution method doesn't sound very effective in hard water.

The standard 10-module taifun costs about £22 plus delivery. It's intended for aquariums up to 400L in size at 4dKH. This is reduced by half at 10dKH. Unfortunately my water is pretty hard at least 15dKH so I don't think one of these is going to cut the mustard by itself.

So I can get height extensions which increase the effectiveness by 50% at the cost of £9 each. Fortunately my tank is a tall model so I've got the vertical space to stack 2 or 3 extensions on top if I needed to! But it's starting to sound really expensive (and horribly bulky).

So this is just my theory - I suspect it will cost me £34-£43 or more to make one of these effective in my tank and it'll probably look awful into the bargain as I've got nowhere to hide it! I don't think the ladder method is going to be a good option for me.

I've heard that a few yeast-users have had luck with certain ceramic diffusers so I've decided to try a few different types and see if I get lucky. I've started by ordering this http/www.amazon.co.uk/Aquarium-Plants-Diffuser-Dioxide-Reactor/dp/B00AKVGKN0 which cost me just £3.60 and has a good review from a yeast-user so I figure it's well worth a try for the price!