Ben's Kitchen Tank Project Log

[BenPursglove]

Thanks for the feedback thommo. It's my first time setting up a tank as intended as planted and I was going for a "scape". It's also the second tank I've ever set up and first at attempting to use CO2 and ferts so it's more of a "getting my feet wet" experiment for me I guess - albeit trying to do it in an attractive way

I do take your point about the possibility of the scape getting lost once it grows in - I was limited on the rocks I had available to me when I got them and I don't fancy attempting to replace one fearing that I'll undo my efforts lol. Hopefully, I've selected dwarf enough varieties that won't take over too much...guess I'll just have to let it get established a bit and see what happens...

 

[Carter]

sorry to be a pain, but... what lighting are you using?

HC... i think we may call that duck weed here...


ahhh stress coat... good ole stress coat... If you can, i would try and get some sera stuff... amazing that is... simply brilliant...

 

[BenPursglove]

sorry to be a pain, but... what lighting are you using?

HC... i think we may call that duck weed here...

Not a pain at all, I'm using a Glo luminaire unit: 60cm, 2 x 24w T5 tubes, it's got a built in full reflector and sits on the the left and right edges of the tank. Bulbs are both the Glo ones rated at 6500K. I think these units are good because they have adjustable slide out bars that allow you fit it to different tank widths, and adjustable seatings that allow you to sit it on different glass / rim thicknesses.

Hemianthus Callitrichoides looks a bit like duckweed in the leaf shape, although duckweed is the name given to a group of plants which float on the surface, usually don't have roots or much else in the way of structure. Whereas Hemianthus Callitrichoides does have roots and grows on the bottom (on the substrate), hopefully carpeting the whole bottom of the unplanted substrate as it grows (or at least that's what I'm hoping in my case ).

 

[BenPursglove]

Acquired Hydor Koralia Nano to help create a better flow round the tank - a lot of people in plantedFW seem to be using them so I thought I'd give it a go.

Very impressed with this small unit in aiding flow around the tank - it's silent and pointed across the spray bar at a slight downward angle creates great flow without breaking surface. With the spray bar and the koralia there is much better distribution of filtered / CO2 rich water around the tank I think

Have also posted a question in here - can you help please?

 

[iihay]

Lovely work, really looking forward to seing that with the tetra's in.

Iain

 

[BenPursglove]

Lovely work, really looking forward to seing that with the tetra's in.

Hey thanks Iain me too, read on for why not yet.

Progress, although not much looks to have happened, much did happen actually (mostly in terms of my learning)

Being the wise guy I am I plunged the tank into a fishless cycle adding 5ppm ammonia. Woot me thinks, fishland here we come. But out of curiosity I saw my Nitrites were off the scale too for some unknown reason so this post directly ensued...as I am using a fair amount of light along with high ammonia it seems that I created a recipe for our old friend algae. I can confirm I have some green stuff growing so...

I have reduced the ammonia, by water changes, to zero and have also took out of my other tank some Elodia (many thanks RadaR) hoping that these, along with the other plants will out-compete the now growing algae for the good stuff and die off, I hope

In doing the water change I also learned a lesson in taking out a gravel cleaning sypon from the water when using a light substrate like Akadama - don't take it out unless shielded beneath with a plate or some such - I did and was greeted with a splurge of water destroying the akadama scape and plants below it, hehehe, why didnt I think of that already . Sorry no pics for you to giggle at but I ended up adding some more substrate to fill in what got blown all over the gaff I think of this as a needed little re-scape

Also managed to ID the plant that populates the back right quarter of the tank as Blyxa Japonica - the LFS did not know the name only that they had cultivated it themselves a lot. It's a lovely plant.

Pic with Elodia hopefully doing it's thang - it will be removed once the plants bed in a bit...


Thanks for reading

 

[BenPursglove]

Did the water changes to get Ammo's to zero but...

The tank as you see set up has two major symptoms after a couple weeks setup and running:
A. Nitrites are SERIOUSLY off the scale - reference card for Nitrites does not even have a colour for deep purple which is what it reads (smoke on the water anyone?)
B. Humongaloid (very big) green soft hair algae growth. Looks foul and I don't mean like a chicken.

Probable Reasons:
A. I stuck in some peat moss and slow release fert pellets, you may recall, before adding the Akadama. I think one or both (probably the slow release) are keeping the Nitirite high.
B. Got to be the direct natural light that hits the tank early AM and later PM. The same area gets beamed twice a day, MyBad for not spotting this problem before it arose (ahh the benefit of 20/20 hindsight). Lights are on in the evening when I'm home, in the kitchen, on this here forum or working or some such (D'oh)

All plants seem to be doing well despite this (apart from the algae bit of course ). Hairgrass sending up more sprouts of fresh grass around each plant clump. HC is slow but pearls and has sent a few leaves out that are establishing root. Valis, rooting in. Wotsit japonica (I forget the wotsit part) well rooted, no algae growth here.

What I'll do next:
A. Not a clue. A recent 80% water change saw the Nitrites up at deep purple again within 30 mins of the change and it remains the same even after a 50% water change 3 days on the trot. I am unable to remove the slow release ferts or peat moss from below the Akadama without a tear down which I don't want to do just this second. One thing I will not be doing is adding any type of livestock till this is sorted of course
B. Purchasing black out cloth (used for curtain linings) tomorrow. Am then going to go for a 3 day total blackout as I think the plants are just about established enough to handle it. Hopefully this will have away with a lot of the algae growth. I will then use this cloth again no matter what happens to cover the tank during daylight hours.

Best case scenario:
I think that I won't be rid of the uber high Nitrite probem anytime soon. The slow release ferts (which I think is the cause) now seem like a daft thing to have stuck in there (theres the hindsight kicking in again). I think best case scenario would be to black out to get rid of the algae and see how it goes for a bit. Failing that, tear the tank down and start again Sounds bad but will give me a chance to come up with a different design layout.

Worst case scenario:
Blackout does not go according to plan, plants die, algae still thrives = messy, smelly teardown. Will give me the "opportunity" to pay out a shed load more on new plants lol.

Either way, I think you know where this one is probably heading...

Any thoughts anybody?

Cheers for reading / replying.

Ben

 

[BenPursglove]

Sorry but BUMP! Any planters in the know willing to lend their knowledge and check out my plans as last post please?

 

[azzaknight]

loking great! cant wait to see it with some fish in. what will be your stocking list?

 

[BenPursglove]

loking great! cant wait to see it with some fish in. what will be your stocking list?

Thanks azzaknight

After I get rid of the algae hell and have Nitrites readable somewhere on the chart (Nitrites registering as zero actually which I think would be a miracle right now) I'm going for a large shoal of either Cardinal Tetra, Galaxy Rasbora (or whatever they are now defined as) or Harlequin Rasbora. Undecided as yet. Defo having some Amano shrimp in - love em. Maybe other shrimps too.

Stable tank first, livestock last.

In lieu of any feedback at all, tank is now in black out awaiting algae death and hopefull re-introduction of lighting after 3-4 days, will let you know what's occuring.

 

[Thommo]

Hey Ben,

I did much the same thing with you and added plants during my fishless cycle and lets just say the nitrites took a fair while to come down. Also algae was everywhere on the drift wood. But due to the high nitrates the plants went balistic.

Was the Nitrite reading high before even adding ammonia? You can fishless cycle a planted tank but I know the most planted tank enthusists heavily plant their tanks with stems etc to uptake ammonia and nitrite (with fish in) and then slowly over time remove bunches of stems and create scape as desired. I cannot comment on this however as I did a fishless cycle but this did take a bit longer than the average cycle and had a bit of cleaning up to do when I was finished.

Do you have any ammonia and Nitrates or just nitrites? If it is just nitrites you maybe having to look into a substrate replacement

I'm abit confused as I don't know what your other stats are e.g. ammonia, nitrate, how much ammonia are you adding etc.

You maybe better looking into the planted tank cycle and seeking some advice on how to do it that way? Not sure

Good luck.

 

[BenPursglove]

Yep it's just very high nitrite. I started doing a fishless cycle but was advised by an experienced user on here that with heavy planting the best way to go would be to water change out the ammonia to zero ppm and add a small shoal as the plants would deal with any ammo's and nitrites produced during a lightly stocked fish-in cycle. Thats when I noticed the high nitrite.

Tank is currently on day 2 of 3 a day blackout to try eliminate the algae that had infested the tank. Then I'll see where the nitrite is and probalby tear the tank down, rinse out the fert pellets from the substrate and start again with the same plants the joys of aquariums.

 

[Thommo]

HMMM sounds like its your ferts. Me thinks you mights be tearing down. Sorry to say that. I was really looking foward to a pic of a whole bunch of cardinals swimming around. It is/was looking quite good too.

Good luck

 

[BenPursglove]

HMMM sounds like its your ferts. Me thinks you mights be tearing down. Sorry to say that. I was really looking foward to a pic of a whole bunch of cardinals swimming around. It is/was looking quite good too.

Good luck

Me too and thanks for the encouragement. I'll (hopefully) be building it back up to look better

 

[BenPursglove]

Removed blackout cloth about an hour ago and saw that the aglae growth was halted and died back somewhat from last rememeberings (seems like weeks ago). Algae is still around but no where near as prevelant.

Also noticed HC an hairgrass had put on still some growth! A shock reaction to no light I assume.

The biggest revelation is in the test results:
Amnonia: 0 (was expecting to see some from algae / plant die-off)
Nitrites: 0 (AMAZED how this can be)
Nitrate: 20

I then went on to test Nitrite again, thrice altogether. All results read zero. I am at a loss how this can be. Can only think that whatever was leaching Nitrite to produce previous high readings stopped doing so right around the last water change before the blackout! Amazing.

It looks as though I can continue with plan C (the original plan )

I'm going to have a rearrange of plants and as algae seems to be more in check now will be applying blackout between lights on to keep the sun out and hope this along with CO2, TPN+ and some Flourish Excel dosing helps to kill the algae off through attrition

Overjoyed at the prospect of noes tears downs

Will see how it goes a few days and post back with progress...

Cheers for reading