Aqua Garden - Mr G's 40ltr Oddball Tank Journal !

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

Nice looking tank..

all you need now is the authentic moquitost to go with it...

 

[Themuleous]

Great job Mr G, that looks cool one thing I would say is what lighting did you end up with, I cant remember ? It'll need to be high to get the HC and glosso to grow (sorry if you've already been told that, probably by me!)

Also, both will do better if you plant individual plantlets rather than clumps like you've done Takes sodding ages and is best done with tweezers but its worth the effort, trust me on that

Other than that what other plans do you have for things coming out of the water?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Great job Mr G, that looks cool one thing I would say is what lighting did you end up with, I cant remember ? It'll need to be high to get the HC and glosso to grow (sorry if you've already been told that, probably by me!)

Also, both will do better if you plant individual plantlets rather than clumps like you've done Takes sodding ages and is best done with tweezers but its worth the effort, trust me on that

Other than that what other plans do you have for things coming out of the water?

Thanks for the comments .......


The lighting is a single 36W compact T5 (interepet daylight plus) running for 12 hours, with CO2 at
about 28ppm (latest measurement). The light is about 10" above the water level (this cant change due to the tank design).

I'm not sure about anything extra above the surface, there is a rock in the rear right corner that is just under the surface, i may raise it an inch or two, but no more. I did try another piece of wood breaking the surface, but it looked really cluttered (it's only a small tank/water volume).
The tank is 14 inches from front to back and I've tried to use the wood and some space to create a feeling of 'depth' - can't really decide if it worked or not.

I have another marginal plant that I might try and also more Christmas moss ..... I think I need to just leave it for a day or two and see how I feel about it.

I may try breaking the HC up into single plantlets (if I get time), I'm looking forward to seeing how/if the HC and Glosso spread.

Luke_e = The tanks holds 40 - 45 ltrs of water once the substrate, rocks and wood are in place.

Fozzy = I think i'll skip the insect life !

Mr G

 

[JArtiles305]

Beautiful tank. Keep us updated on the progress.

 

[lljdma06]

That looks great Mr. G! I love the look, it's coming along, especially for your first planted tank. I'd love to see a bromiliad or airplant of some type when you begin to add the marginal plants.

Uh, if you get mosquitos in the summer and one happens to go into your house, then it could be very likely that they'll use your tank to breed, I get the occasional mosquito larva in my tanks in FL. Fish tended to eat them before they hatched, though.

Is there a reason why you have a UV sterilizer? Careful, I hear that as great as they are at zapping away bacteria and other things, they can also remove nutrients, making your fertilisation regimen pointless.

 

[demonmagus]

lovely tank, where did you get it from?

I've seen them around, and now I want one!

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Nice work Mr G , for the shady part you mentioned, how about crypt sp "Parva"??

 

[MoreCoffee]

All: Thanks for the comments, this was my first real attempt at a planted tank and I wasn't sure how it
would go. I had to have a go after seeing all the tank pics and advice posted on here.

I'm fairly happy with the look so far, but looking forward to see how this develops and eventually get some fish in there. I may end up reworking some of the HC tonight after advice from Themuleous and I've got a bit of work to do adjusting the filter outlet pipe, then hopefully I can leave it to settle for a while.

lljdma06:
mosquito's are not usually much of a problem where I live in the UK.

The UV steriliser is only in there temporarily. I had to do a temporary setup (just water and substrate) a
few days ago as I had some plants that were in need of a home.
A day later I had what looked like a bacterial bloom (cloudy white water), so I thought I'd add the UV for a few days. This morning the water is looking nice and clear after settling down from all the
planting activity, so I think I'll take the UV out tonight.

demonmagus:
I'd never seen one of these before. I just happened to go into LFS for some filter media and it was sitting there just begging me to take it home.
The shop owner said it was the last one and he couldnt shift it .... a quick
chat and a 50% discount later and it was in the back of the car !

I've done a search on the web and still can't find them. I could get supplier details from my LFSp if anybody wants them .... Just PM me.

Moody:
Thanks. I've just done a search at Tropica on 'Cryptocoryne parva' and it says
...."It needs more light than most other Cryptocorynes because it almost loses its leaf blade under water. So it must never be overshadowed by other plants."

I think I must have the wrong plant, I'll have another look later.


Question regarding algae control:
As there isn't much room in there for fast growers to help counter algae, would the UV help in beating off the initial algae blooms, until the tank stabilises ?
The floating plants were only added as a temporary measure to help with this, but I think the actually suit the setup quite well. I'll be keeping them well under control, so they dont start blocking out light.


Mr G

 

[MoreCoffee]

Got a bit of a rework to do on this tank today....

I've decided that the experiment with the marginal plant has not worked ... actually failed miserably would be a better description !

The 'Scirpus Cernuus' (Slender Club Rush), growing out of the water at the rear of the tank had started to rot and has been removed.

Above and below the waterline it looked OK, but at the waterline the plant stems have all gone brown and rotten, this only happened over a 24 - 36 hour period. I wasnt really sure it would work as it's sold for outdoor ponds in the UK, I guess it doesnt like the warmer water.

It was also having a big impact on the water quality (at least I think that's the cause), this morning there was a 'smokey/cloudy' film on the water that wasn't there last night. Apart from Flourish ferts & CO2, the only thing I've been adding to the tank is a very small pinch of fish food every 2 - 3 days.

Some quick water tests show:

ammonia = 0.25 mg/l
NitrItes = 1.6mg/l The Test should turn yellow for a reading of zero ... mine is Red !!!
NitrAtres = 12.5 mg/l (maybe a bit higher - not a perfect match on colour chart)

The PH has remained at about 7.2 (stable since adding CO2)

I dont think there is any real need to panic ..... there are NO fish in the tank yet. I have a feeling that if there had been, they wouldn't be there now
The only thing I'm not sure of is how these levels will affect the plants

Just doing a 50% water change and will probably do another one tomorrow and take more readings.

I'm going to get a few of the fast growing stem plants from my other tank in there to try get things
balanced a little.
I've also got to do a clean on the filter in my other tank (fully cycled), so will try using some of the old
media in the external filter on this tank to try give things a boost.


So my current recovery plan is......
1. Water change, water change, water change (the solution to pollution, is dilution !)
2. Get some fast growing stem plants in there
3. Try Boost the Good bacteria by using some mature filter media


Any other suggestions !

 

[MoreCoffee]

Sounds like it's cycling. Sorry to hear about the giant hairgrass! I was going to 'experiment' with it myself, but you've just saved me from trouble. At least something good has come out of it, ya?

Yeah, I was expecting the tank to start cycling over the next few days .... but wasn't expecting a NitrIte reading quite that high and quite so quickly !!

As for the experimental marginal plants ...... there are a couple more I was contemplating trying, not so sure I should now. But once the tank settles down, ya never know.
Not planning on 'experiments' once I get fish in there though !


Mr G

 

[lljdma06]

When you add the fast-growing stem plants (we should really have an abbreviation for this, I propose FGSP, sick of typing the long version), they should reduce your ammonia and nitrite build-up. Still not quite sure why you added fish food, though? IMO, it wasn't really necessary to cycle your tank in the traditional sense. Have a read of this for next time. Somebody here was nice enough to show me this a while back.

http/rexgrigg.com/cycle.htm

I have adopted this philosophy when I set up planted tanks, and I don't really have ammonia or nitrite readings. I don't add all my bioload at once and often I wait to add the more fragile fish until the tank is over 6 months old.

 

[MoreCoffee]

When you add the fast-growing stem plants (we should really have an abbreviation for this, I propose FGSP, sick of typing the long version), they should reduce your ammonia and nitrite build-up. Still not quite sure why you added fish food, though? IMO, it wasn't really necessary to cycle your tank in the traditional sense. Have a read of this for next time. Somebody here was nice enough to show me this a while back.

http/rexgrigg.com/cycle.htm

I have adopted this philosophy when I set up planted tanks, and I don't really have ammonia or nitrite readings. I don't add all my bioload at once and often I wait to add the more fragile fish until the tank is over 6 months old.

lljdma06,
Thanks for the link ... I'm happy with cycling a tank, but there are some usefull articles on that site.
I like the one for the inline CO2 reactor. I've been thinking about trying one of those on my 130Ltr tank.

The FGSP ( ) will be going in later today to help the tank cycle.

As for adding the fish food .... well I really wanted to do a fishless cycle on this tank.
In the UK it seems to be hard to get hold of suitable source of ammonia, so I've been trying this method
Practical Fish Keeping Fishless Cycle. (See the "How do I get started?" and "What happens at first?" paragraphs)

As the tank seems to be cycling, I'm assuming it's working OK, certainly better than using

Mr G

P.S. FGSP gets my vote !