Si's Low Tech Tank Journal

[SuperColey1]

You can wash the DC weekly but no need to.

I'll leave the ferts advice to Ian I have noe experience with all these seperate bottles. I just add from EI mixes so I always know there is excess in the tank.

Lol. I had 2 amazon swords (or rather Bleheri) in this 125ltr at the start very long roots yes.

AC

 

[PDSimon]

So you reckon altering the water flow is my best bet?

 

[SuperColey1]

From the algae you have and experiences I have had I would say so.

You can have perfect flow, way over the 10x but as the plants grow they become deflectors/obstacles and the flow alters. You may need to reposition filter pipes and powerheads every now and again to maintain good flow.

Thats one reason why I suggest intakes should be in the open visible area. They can pull much easier there. Hiding them is aesthetically pleasing but means that they have to pull the water through all the plants they are being hidden by. Glassware help aesthetically there although most think that we put the glassware at the front to show it off it is actually there because that is the best position for it

AC

 

[PDSimon]

From the algae you have and experiences I have had I would say so.

You can have perfect flow, way over the 10x but as the plants grow they become deflectors/obstacles and the flow alters. You may need to reposition filter pipes and powerheads every now and again to maintain good flow.

Thats one reason why I suggest intakes should be in the open visible area. They can pull much easier there. Hiding them is aesthetically pleasing but means that they have to pull the water through all the plants they are being hidden by. Glassware help aesthetically there although most think that we put the glassware at the front to show it off it is actually there because that is the best position for it

AC

ok, will have to have a change around! cheers

 

[JoshuaA]

Glassware help aesthetically there although most think that we put the glassware at the front to show it off it is actually there because that is the best position for it

AC

The best position to show it off of course.

I found moving my powerhead around after a few weeks of vigorous growth helped a lot to keep green spot algae off my glass. I imagine in the next few days it will be due another move.

I just bought a Crinum calamistratum the start of this week to pair up with my Thaianum, I just love the bulb plants. My Thaianum has leaves over a metre long... love it.

 

[PDSimon]

Got some easycarbo today...gunna do some mega overdosing. Don't know whether its worth getting some dwarf oto's once i get things back in the balance?

 

[JoshuaA]

My staghorn all died pretty fast and especially after dosing Easycarbo... now I have some weird fluff algae and it's mostly where the Staghorn was... very interesting.

Bad news is my 10G tank leaked and the seal broke at the bottom, I had to frantically drive home from liverpool to fish them out and put them in a massive laundry bucket till tomorrow when I'll go out and buy a new tank. Unfortunately the tropica base wasn't salvageable as it was so badly mixed in with the gravel. Oops

I have the urge to do a Walstad tank though

Edit:
Rhizoclonium seems to be the algae I am suffering from now... Oddly it's apparently related to Low flow/low nutrients/low co2.

my tank is turning over more than ever, my Co2 is now stable and a sign of that is that the Staghorn has gone and my dropchecker is reliably light green at the same time each night then I "guess" my nutrients are alright as I have really altered them that much.

Only one thing is my water changes are either every 6 days or 8 now due me moving back and forth.

Grr

How's it going now Simon?

 

[PDSimon]

Nice clean fishes?

Yea the Walstad tank is interesting... I am tempted to a do a a walstad nano tank with a variety of shrimp

I do water changes every week and always have, so my algae is just evil... I will give the filter a good clean out, and move the power head me thinks.

 

[PDSimon]

Algae overtaking

New growth

Couldn't take a good picture of the whole tank to save my life. Normal cameras battery seems to have ran out.

 

[JoshuaA]

It's amazing because that moss you sent me was in PERFECT condition so healthy and absolutely nothing but moss. I always found moss was the first one to suffer algae.
Well my Nano shrimp tank is like "medium tech", dosing TPN+/EasyCarbo with LED lighting and TMC Aquasoil... it's going ok one of the shrimp has a basket of eggs and 2 of them have already shedded and I've had them in there less than a week.

Since my 10G split apart last night and water was actually all over the floor I went to get a tank today but wasn't satisfied with the sizes, I wanted something of similar size. I went to look for compost first but was meant with a plethora of options at B&Q and got confused haha.

Edit:

Here is my Nano tank

I was going to go for a Walstad method on it but when I thought about how the gravel and compost would look I didn't really think it was the best option. My Glossostigma elatinoides has do some severely retarded growth, it started off fine and initially started spreading the first few weeks and then it clumped itself in the corner and started piling ontop of each other. It's really weird, unfortunately Aqua soil is the worst thing ever to plant in as it's almost impossible to place plants in without damaging it. It's like trying to plant into a sponge, sure once the roots are in great but to get them in an anchoring position is just horrible.

The rock was "acquired" from Tre Cime in the dolomites, I believe it is sensible to believe that the rock may of once been home to sea life thousands and thousands of years ago. Due to my actions it is once again living its rocky life as a home, forfilling it's destiny. However after a few days of being in the water there were weird colours forming on it... I have a feeling the the TPN+ is staining it weird but is it possible?

Tre Cime ^

 

[PDSimon]

my moss doesn't seem affected by it (yet)!

What shrimp are in there?

There are some well known brands that they use for the walstad method but I cannot remember the names! Its all on the interwebz anyway.

 

[JoshuaA]

What shrimps?

There are 5 red cherries, the quality of them suggests they are just cheap rip off chinese copy red cherry shrimp, no M&S quality shrimp. I know "John Innes" was one brand but I dont think they do that in the UK or at least around here.

Edit:

Oh it looks like the moss on that last picture has collected or is growing brown/fluffy algae.

I hear that the soil will release a lot of crap during the first few weeks on a Walstad, is it possible that after a certain time we could use this is as a substrate similar to the tropica stuff? Or does it need a healthy supply of oxygen?

 

[PDSimon]

I've seen the john innes stuff here I think http/www.grosvenorgardencentre.co.uk/index.html i can double check if you're interested

They had blue shrimp at TGM..quite tempting but my rams will munch on expensive and small shrimp I want some of those african filter shrimp...

I thought the brown stuff was a part of the moss, some of them have it even in the shade...

Not sure about the staining, sounds odd though. Not sure about the substrate either I'm sure one of the others will know

 

[JoshuaA]

It would help if I even called it the right thing

Its TMC Nutrasoil not Aquasoil hehe, bloody expensive stuff and it's awful, lowers the pH apparently but I haven't really noticed that. Just my two big gripes with it are... almost impossible to plant in but once plants establish it's remarkably better... it's even harder to siphon the substrate without sucking up a ton of it.

If you could double check that would be fantastic, if you were just going by don't want you to go out your way. I would no doubt use that as an opportunity to finally visit TGM.

I kind of really want to get into the Nano Co2 zone as well but I can't seem to find a suitable kit.

 

[PDSimon]

You could always phone cos I'm just going to ask my mum

I got a couple of things from germany for my co2, i think they may do smaller co2 canisters as well? it was off ebay