Hello everyone, thank you for your comments.
As the night has gone on, the tank has settled and the plants have risen and come to life. I am now even more impressed. I am very hard to please, and for once i am happy with something i have done. Its just like i expected it.
I will post more pictures hopefully in the next few days. I am just building a lighting hood and buying an external flash for use with a 35mm SLR. I wish it was digital, but the next few months i will upgrade to the canon 350d anyway...i start with George. Its lovely to see so many questions and so much interest.
Sorry for these questions but I'm too lazy to search through the thread and my net time is limited.
1 Did you get your mulm in the end?
2 Is the filter mature?
3Are you planning EI from the outset?
4 What trace will you be using?
5 What CO2 bubble rate do you plan?
6 Are you boosting KH to deal with the Aqua Soil?
7 What make HO T5 tubes are they?
Look forward to the progress.
The hardscape position looks good to me BTW.
I hope you don`t mind, i have edited the quote to include numbers.
1) Yes, i went to a LFS and he gave me 2 filter flosses from a demo tank and i also rinsed my Eheim 2211 before i used it. I had about 1/2 cup full as you suggested to me. I also added a layer of some peat as recommended by Tom Barr. I used tetra aquatic compost, literally a sprinkling.
2) The filter is not new, lol but it isn`t fully mature. i say this in the sense that it has been running on my 9g holding tank with only 10 shrimp in it, therefore it is not equipt to sustain a decent bioload like it could get in the 20g. I don`t really know what you consider as a mature filter, but like i say, it has been running for about 6-8 weeks. Hardly mature.
3) I am planning EI from the onset as recommended by Tom Barr but supplimented by ADA Step 1 as recommended by CAU.
So i have mashed certain peoples ideas to get my own fert scheme.
Basically, the EI method in my opinion, seems sound. Absolutely perfect. However, when u see the CAU team and many other aquascapers, they dose with a huge variety/combination of lotions and potions. The idea behind this, is that what one fertiliser will miss out, another may contain.
I plan on twice weekly 40-50% water changes for a long time, not only due to my high CO2 levels, but also to correct any nutrient OD.
The jist of it goes, trace heavy; macro lean for a few months (EI bulk trace + TMG and ADA Brightly K) With around 10-ppm nitrate from bulk chem (potassium nitrate). Then after the initial growth, 2-3 months, start bumping up the macros, using straight EI, no ADA ferts other than brightly K and TMG Pluss!
4) I think i answered that above, 3 places to cover all bases!: AE bulk trace, Step One and TMG
5) Yea, we have spoke about this a lot in a few other threads you have wrote on. I am on 2 bps at present but in the next few days i am going to have it on 4 bps contrary to Tom Barrs advice and more inline with CAU. Basically saturate the water with CO2.
Water changes twice weekly.
6) No, in line with advice from Gary Wu, just sit out the heavy KH pH fluctuations for the first few weeks. After that, it should settle slightly, keep up with the water changes, should combat pH crashes and make it habitable for fish and shrimp.
7) They are the lightbulbshop.co.uk £3.90 a tube . the ones you recommended me a while back. Seem good so far and my rotala grew like mad with them in my holding tank.
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you also asked how much my plants were in total. i think my order came to £80, i spent £25 on tropica plants at a LFS and i also propogated lots of rotala rondfolia in my holding tank over the 6 weeks.
Basically, i had far too many. i have lots to sell in the next few days.
Hope that helps George and thanks again for your comments and questions.!
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Waterloo, i don`t really know what to say other than i disagree with you re: the bogwood placement. Time will tell, but for now i have not inclinded to move it, since i am happy with its position. If i moved it to the right, it actually lines up perfectly with the golden ratio, something that i did not want for both sides, since imo, it would then look symmetrical.
Again regarding the branch breaking the surface, this was intentional, i actually worked hard to make this happen. IMO, it give the tank a whole new angle, the hardscape is actually projecting out of the water. Just something else for people to think about.
People can make their own judgments of course, and in all ways i appreciate hearing your honest comments.
Thanks again guys, i`ll get more pictures posted soon.
Regards
Chris
