Noobs Ltlb 10

[Biulu]

Things have changed a lot Steve: for the good! I noticed that my sag does best with either a high bioload and no nutrient rich substrate or a mild nutrient substrate. These plants are ideal for people that neglect them a bit!

 

[pablothebetta]

Just read through the thread - looking great. The tank looks really green and natural

 

[Steve H.]

Just read through the thread - looking great. The tank looks really green and natural

Thank You!! Slowly but surely it's getting there

Things have changed a lot Steve: for the good! I noticed that my sag does best with either a high bioload and no nutrient rich substrate or a mild nutrient substrate. These plants are ideal for people that neglect them a bit!

Thanks Biulu! Welcome Back!!
I am truely losing my battle with the Sag, but I am facing some new challenges. Algae! Slight mis-calculations with my lighting. I actually have a High Lighting set-up, and now I have green spot algae attacking the crypt spiralis and aquartica. Also, a touch of BBA on one piece of wood. but only the one?

My Nerite snail takes care of the BBA pretty regularly, but does not seem to touch the GSA on the glass.

I am dosing with Excel right now hoping to stabilize CO2, and thus getting the algae under control. I am also thinking of starting an EI regement of ferts to cover all the bases here.

Just concerned about overdosing Excel...I don't want to harm any fish.

 

[Steve H.]

Today I will be starting EI dosing along with my carbon dosing.
I am a bit nervous about this...mostly because I need to trust my math, and also don't want to do any harm to the tank.
I was going to use the whole Flourish line, but could not find the Nitrogen or Phosphate. So, I purchased Aquavista...Seachem's premium line. My problem here is that this line of ferts is so concentrated that 7mL will treat 250 gallons. Breaking that down for my dinky tank comes to 0.2mL per dosing for the macros...the syringe I have does not even measure that small of a dosage. I had to measure and mark an approximate line.
This leaves me with a pretty big margin for error of either over-dosing, or under.

Dosing levels:

Carbon(everyday)
Flourish Excel - 3ml(sun) & 0.625ml(all other days of the week)

Macros(sun/t/th)
Aquavista Nitrogen - 0.2ml
Aquavista Phosphate - 0.2ml
Flourish Potassium - 1.0ml

Micro's(M/W/F)
Flourish - 0.5ml

50%+ w/c's every Sunday to re-set.

 

[FishFanatic04]

A little overdose probably won't hurt anybody. Don't dump in the whole bottle or anything though

 

[Steve H.]

Lol FF! I did manage to start my dosing without dumping in a whole bottle. But, with me that's still a real possibility.

I was pleasantly surpised the Aquavista ferts included a 1ml pipet divided by 0.25 marks....nice.

Currently I am concerned about my xmas moss and CPD's. Now that its summer I am not using the heater in the tank. Both the moss and the fish do best at 75d, but with the Peruvian thermostat Cop in the house I haven't been able to crank some decent a.c.
We are keeping the house 78 - 80d....Uhg killing me. So, the tank water has been ranging between 77-79d without having the heater even plugged in. The fish I'm sure will be fine. I just hope I can get the xmas moss to root at a temp higher than 75.

 

[Biulu]

I am worried about temperatures too... I have lowered my photoperiod and keep the feeding part of the top open to avoid temps of 28/29 on my tanks. Until now I have been doing pretty well, but I am worried about July/Aug when it can get up to 36/38 here and my windows are on the west side....

 

[Steve H.]

I am worried about temperatures too... I have lowered my photoperiod and keep the feeding part of the top open to avoid temps of 28/29 on my tanks. Until now I have been doing pretty well, but I am worried about July/Aug when it can get up to 36/38 here and my windows are on the west side....

I just have to have faith that summers happen everywhere, and this steady rise in temp is just telling my fish and plants its summer time

 

[Steve H.]

10 day update:
Just completed my first week of EI dosing. Tomorrow is a rest day, and then Sunday 50% water change.
Next week I will be upping the dosage of Excel. I am seeing improvement of the bba, but I still am having GSA issues. However, growth rate of both algae is noticeably slower.
Plants are growing like monsters with just a week of ferts.

Too bad the Endler got in the way and you can see one of the really bad crypt Spiralis leaves with GSA otherwise this would have been a pretty good shot of one of the male CPD's (they are really starting to color up)....and from my phone!!

The Monet shots. Looks good from a distance.

3- View

The Crypt Wendtii and Spiralis are becoming monsters in there.
But the Sag...

........Still doesn't like me very much.

 

[FishFanatic04]

That really is a lovely little tank. You've done amazing with the plants in there Steve!

You should get a good FTS and enter TOTM. It's so much fun to enter.

 

[Biulu]

Lovely tank Steve! What is the sword in the front? I have one like that and it stays that size but I do not know the name.....

Do I see it right that a big bowfront would fit on that cabinet?

 

[Steve H.]

Thanks Ladies!!!
Yes Biulu. Front right is a sword. It was marked as a "compact micro sword" at the store. I did a little research and the best match is called "Aquartica".

The stand is for my bowfront. I got done building it a week or 2 ago. It will also hold my 20 long

I think I will be returning the 37gl kit in order to free up some money for the equipment needed for these 2 tanks.

 

[Steve H.]

I've gone a little moss crazy.
From the beginning I wanted to have flame moss, but decided against it due to costs at the time. Then I got my CPDs and wanted to propagate some moss for a breeding tank. My lfs only had xmas moss at the time, so I picked that up. It is now just starting to take shape.
Well, my last visit they had some flame moss...$10.99!!! For a tiny clump only slightly bigger than a golf ball. Even though I thought this was a total rip off I had a gift card for fathers day, and I decided to treat myself.
Now the tank is on moss overload....or at least it will be when it all takes hold.

I've also built a DIY co2 generator

I was hoping to move away from using Excel, but I think I will use both for a bit. The Excel has the problems I was having with algae on the ropes. Not completely gone, but dramatically less and slower growing.

Generator seems to be working very well.
Tiny bubbles:

Lots!! I don't know if I'm very fond of the look. They flow up to the surface, and then get caught in the filter current where they ride the flume and are pushed all over the tank.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Pushed all over is what your after!

 

[Termato]

That is a nice stand you built there. Fits both tanks perfectly. I want to see a picture of it when it is done.

Do you have that DIY c02 system for the small tank?
Could you explain how that system works, if its that cheap I would love to make one for my two main tanks!

Thanks Steve, great job. Learning a lot from following your progress.