Ch4Rlies First High Tech Planted Tank Atttempt!

[Ninjouzata]

Looks beautiful! I prefer the wood you currently have than that other one. Are you going to put any fish in here or just plants?

 

[techen]

That carpet will spread fast and soon. That substrate is so light and good for carpets i had hairgrass growing with yeast co2 nevermind pure co2

 

[Ch4rlie]

Beautiful planting Charlie!

 
Yeah, cant wait to see when the carpet plant covers the entire substrate surface 

 
 

Looks beautiful!

I prefer the wood you currently have than that other one. Are you going to put any fish in here or just plants?

 
Glad you think so too, was umming and ahhing for a while but think chose the right piece of wood. As for stocking, hmm, think will just be shrimps and snails, no fish, thinking cardinal or rill shrimps this time, subject to change of mind though
 
 

That carpet will spread fast and soon. That substrate is so light and good for carpets i had hairgrass growing with yeast co2 nevermind pure co2

 
Excellent to hear that. Hope will be lush in a short while with the help of co2 and EI ferts.

 

[CoryFever]

Great job! The tank is absolutely amazing!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Great job! The tank is absolutely amazing!

 
Thanks, am happy with it myself, just hope all plants will be lush in few weeks time.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Am dosing the tank with EI fertiliser.
 
http/www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/dry-chemicals/starter-kits/ei-starter-kit.html
 
Am using as guidelines suggest and should will be good for the plants.
 
The LED lights are on for 7 hours per day on a timer.
 
Filter flow is on half power, am a little ensure how much flow is ideal for planted tanks, so may have to adjust as go along.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Its been nearly 2 weeks since set up the nano tank, have been dosing EI ferts and lights on for 7 hours a day.
 
Now it seems have a little issue with algae, more specifically, hair algae.
 

 

 
After some deliberations and discussion with fellow forum member, have concluded this is probably down to two reasons.
 
1 - Not enough water flow, the tank is designed as such that there is a small pipe coming out front he the powerhead that points directly at the front glass, so therefore the water goes round in circular motion, meaning the centre of tank not really getting the water movement it needs.
 
The wood is almost in centre of tank, so that does make sense that this might be the issue. The filter is already at full flow, so am going to add a small funnel type pipe in replacement to the standard output pipe, means the flow from the narrower part of pipe will force the water to come out faster therefore creating more water movement.
 
Hopefully this will work. However, i do have a backup plan if this fails, i did previously have a DIY spray bar made for this tank, so that would go in place, if the funnel type pipe fails to achieve the water movement needed.
 
2 - EI fertiliser. There may be a lack of ferts that might be contributing to this, a few plants are starting to show signs of deficiency of some sort as well as the hair algae starting, so going to increase the dosages of EI ferts from 5 ml to 6.5 ml daily in the hope that will help the plants as well as contributes toward less algae.
 
Also will try to remove as much hair algae from the wood before it gets any worse.
 
Fingers crossed this works out.

 

[daizeUK]

It's great that you are posting any problems that you encounter and ways that you are trying to fix them!  I'm really interested to see what pitfalls you might face with a high-tech tank and how easy they are to overcome.
 
Other things I can think of to try - I would have been a bit more cautious with the lighting and started at 5-6 hours for the first couple of weeks.  Also frequent water changes, perhaps every 2-3 days for the first few weeks.

 

[Ch4rlie]

It's great that you are posting any problems that you encounter and ways that you are trying to fix them!  I'm really interested to see what pitfalls you might face with a high-tech tank and how easy they are to overcome.
 
Other things I can think of to try - I would have been a bit more cautious with the lighting and started at 5-6 hours for the first couple of weeks.  Also frequent water changes, perhaps every 2-3 days for the first few weeks.

 
Thanks Daize,
 
Thats a good point about the lights. Did not even consider that, but since its on for 7 hours a day, I could try lowering the time but if i do that now, i'll never know if it was the flow/ferts or lights that solves or worsens the issue.
 
Thinking i'll do this step any step rather than all at once, water flow and ferts at same time, then if continue to have any issues, will consider the light timing .
 
More water changes? 
 
Was recommended to do 50% water change once a week from the EI website from this forum that i linked earlier.
 
Hmm, maybe thats step no.3 if step 1- ferts/flow and step 2 - lights do not work.
 
Process of elimination really.
 
I knew I  probably would have issues at one point or another with this high tech set up. A good learning process and pretty enjoyable if am honest

 

[daizeUK]

50% water changes per week is part of the EI dosing regime, but for a newly setup planted tank you want to be doing them 2 or 3 times a week for the first few weeks.  The reason is to try to get organics and algae out of the water so the plants have the best possible chance to get established.  Same reason to keep the lights low when initially starting out, to give the plants the best chance while they are converting from emersed to immersed form, then gradually increase lighting and decrease water changes once the plants have settled in.
 
I wouldn't treat these as factors to eliminate but rather good practices to employ when setting up the tank to ensure best chances of success.  Getting it right at the start is the most difficult part and makes everything after so much easier.  Personally, I'd apply every fix you can think of right now and try to fix any problems fast or it will get harder later on.

The other thing not mentionned so far is CO2 - how is your drop checker?  If there is no livestock you can crank this up to yellow during the setting up stage, again to give the plants the best chances initially.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Those are fantastic tips Daize
 
Now seeing your very well put and concise post, I'm changing my mind about doing things as I suggested in steps.
 
Ok, will increase flow via funnel type pipe, increase ferts to 6.5ml, decrease LED light time to 6 hours per day, and will start doing 2 or 3 waters changes a week for the next 2 weeks, then reassess situation again, hope all that will give my tank a chance of establishing better.
 
Thanks so much for your help. 

 

[Mamashack]

I am finding this fascinating, Ch4rlie.
Have been dosing my established tanks with APF premix which is based on daily dosing and not EI.
Had a problem initially with growth spurt in green algae on the glass and I was wondering if it might be due to phosphates.
So I'm slightly under-dosing at the moment and so far so good!
Can't wait to see how your carpet plant progresses!

 

[daizeUK]

I added this on to my last post as an afterthought but CO2 is crucially important too... make sure that your drop checker is a light lime green or even yellow, as long as you don't have livestock in the tank there's no harm in giving the plants an extra CO2 boost.  
 
Also you can try to remove as much algae as you can by hand and do a water change to reduce bits of algae floating around.
 
Hope it goes well!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Ah, i forgot to answer that about the co2, i have been doing just under 1bps on the bubble counter and the drop checker alswys been a lovely shade of free, pretty much exactly what it should be.
 
Right, spa light shade of green or even a shade of yellow, basically overdosing a bit. Ok, will try that too.
 
Just done the change of powerhead/filter output pipe, tbh I don't see any real difference, plants may be swaying a tiny bit more, not much though. We'll see though.
 
Also tried to get rid of as much of the algae as i could. I dislodged a few of the carpet plants while doing this, so had to replant them again, in some cases 2 or 3 times! Was a royal pain in proverbial, since doing that did loosened some tiny leaves from the plants itself and was floating around in the tank, took a little while to get all the floating leaves out!
 
Anyway, job done.
 
We'll see if anything changes over the next week or two, hopefully for the better.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Update, good news and bad news!
 
Good news is I now have new shoots and roots coming out of one of the plants 
 

 
Bad new, more algae, on tank glass, diffuser and a little more on wood, took wood out, scrubbed it and hot water over it and returned to tank (of course dislodging and having to replanting some carpet plants!!) 
 

  

 

  

 
Cleaned the glass, so hopping the changes i made yesterday, increased flow and co2 and ferts will take affect soon.
 
Really hope that will work.