Si's Low Tech Tank Journal

[JoshuaA]

I bought a Dernnele set for my Rio 125 and a TMC canister + Regulator, I can find some reasonably good stuff but I really want a solenoid valve and something that won't take up the entire tank.

 

[PDSimon]

hmm I've never seen small solenoids, but TGM do tiny canisters for nanos that look smart

 

[SuperColey1]

I went to look for compost first but was meant with a plethora of options at B&Q and got confused haha.

John Innes isn't a brand. Its a recipe. All the major supliers make a John Innes compost and then pay royalties to use the name on their product.

There are a few different JI recipes and thats why you see John Innes 1,2 and 3 on the bags

You want John Innes No3. In any garden centre you will find several different brands 'versions' of JI3 as well as the home brands. I say 'versions' because whilst they will all have the same NPK, trace content they may use slightly different ingredients to achieve it.

May sound strange but if it were a fixed 'you must use X, Y, and Z or you can't use the JI name then all of them would have stopped making them.

Prices on fertiliser ingredients are very temperamental. Expecially with some metals like Molbdenum/Molybdate and Phosphate. The latter is normally imported into Europe from the Middle East so you can understand that the price can fluctuate incredibly just like Oil does.

I used to buy the raw materials for a major UK manufacturer. We also made the home brand product for Wilko. B&Q and Homebase amongst others!!! Not all the same ingredients but all the same outcome. Some Home Brands don't want to pay the extra for the premium parts so they end up with the lower grade parts. Achieves's the same result though

So in essence I am saying go to any garden centre. You are just looking for a compost that has 'John Innes 3' on the label. doesn't matter which brand has made it. Just buy any.

The rock was "acquired" from Tre Cime in the dolomites.............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?

The dolomites are named so because they are made up mainly of dolomite (or maybe dolomite is named after the Dolomites.) Probs make your Gh rise a little. The stainig is more likely to be veins of iron within the rock rusting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomite

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

I doubt it will get affected. I've never seen BBA or staghorn on moss. More typically the green thread algae on moss and mostly when it is attached to something on the substrate. Its mainly caused by the debris collecteing in it and then you get localised ammonia within that area. Can also be when the moss is attached in too thick a layer and as the bottom layer dies off it causes the same problem.

The algae you have above is defo CO2. You need to move your bits around and perk up the flow. I used to get this (pre Koralia) is one or 2 places and not necessarily in position of low flow. Often in places where the flow was high (I assume this meant all the CO2/nutrient was being swept past to quickly. Try and get the flow within the setup so that it is as equal as possible everywhere. Thats why I use circulation pumps near the top of the water pointing horizontal rather than pointing at angles. I use it to boost the existing 'current' rather than push against it in a different position.

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?

All soils and muds and clays will release 'crap' in the early days no matter what the retailer/manufacturer tells you. Only inert substrates won't but then it s the non inert nature and CEC we are after in planted.

Yes the soil is similar to the Tropica in that it is pretty high CEC. The content will be different but the effect will be similar, just as the soil in your garden will be similar.

Don't worry about O IN the substrate. This is a myth to sell certain brands of substrate/heater cables. Not a problem in the planted tank. Plant roots are like Ocygen pipes. They push O into the substrate negating any worries. Plants roots develop very very quickly.

I'll not go into too much depth on the Nano CO2 setups as I don't want any litigation against me but I don't rate them. A few years back there was only one type of this sort of setup and it was pretty much slated everywhere. The problems with these small setups is not just that the bottles are teeny and are a waste of money but that the regs were not very reliable, the supply wasn't very stable (i.e. needle valve)

Think about it. If these small regs were good then they would more than likely go for something smaller on the larger cannister setups. However they don't which says something to me anyway.

AC

 

[PDSimon]

Hmm, thats interesting because the koralia was on the right panel of the tank, with the co2 released directly underneath it. I moved the diffuser to the back so it wasn't on show, and therefore moved the koralia back as well. There was still a good amount of flow in the tank even when I moved it though.. Since i've moved the koralia the algae on the java fern has started to take off. Maybe the java fern was used to that amount of co2 going across it constantly? What i don't understand is how much of that algae manages to grow on my filter output pipe. although its not directly in the flow its still a fair bit of flow on the pipe itself... infact, the set up which meant the koralia was at the back caused the motion to be more cirular in the tank, rather than pushing it as an angle like you said.

Hopefully the easycarbo will help remove it anyway. The filter doesn't seem to be 1000lph but I guess its difficult to tell!

 

[SuperColey1]

The way I had mine and suggested above was pretty much circular, however you have to understand that the flow isn't all going around the top in a circle. The water is deflecting against the water in front of it.

Flow is a pretty poor description really. We should try and just say circulation.

What I mean there is you can have 20x turnover but it may push all the nutrient away from an area.

We want to push it full circle. away and back again.

Are you using a glass diffuser? Is the front third of your tank quite open?

Pull the filter pipes (outlet and inlet should be side by side) to the front left, put the diffuser centre left and half way up not near the bottom.

Put the Koralia rear right pointing to rear left.

Reverse the above setup if needed. The diffuser should be on the side where there is least plants and the Koralia opposite.

Watch the bubbles.

This is what I am suggesting with my diffuser on the left:

AC

 

[JoshuaA]

Just going to hijack once more seeing as Coley is giving us some details explanations .

I seriously never saw any John Innes No3 formula but I can order it online now anyway so will get that, you say don't worry about the whole oxygen 'issue' as it isn't an issue. Am I therefore able to happily put my very fine gravel in or even sand on top in a reasonably thick layer?

I've had this tank running for about 4 months now before the glass broke, still yet to buy a new tank at the moment the fish + filter/heater are living in a massive brand new yellow laundry bucket. However I fear if I don't get this sorted quickly I may well have a problem with a bunch of dead plants.

I would go the tropica route again but I'm interesting in trying this route, I'm gutted because this tank had been absolutely perfect though, no algae all plants flourishing etc really annoying.

Finally, the crap it does release will a well seeded/matured filter cope with it fine?

Edit:

BTW, when I meant the rock had been in a few days that few days was a few months ago. The colours have changed since and it really cleared up to its original colour until recently and it seemed to coincide with when I started dosing TPN+.

 

[SuperColey1]

I seriously never saw any John Innes No3 formula but I can order it online now anyway so will get that

Don't waste your money on postage. Go in Wilinsons, B&Q, Homebase....ANY GARDEN CENTRE. They WILL definately have JI composts and in several brands. There will be choice (of price .)

you say don't worry about the whole oxygen 'issue' as it isn't an issue. Am I therefore able to happily put my very fine gravel in or even sand on top in a reasonably thick layer?

If the plants do well and root, no problem whatsoever. the tank in picture has a 1 inch layer of OLD used dirty Tropica (clay) (is like mud so pretty much rank) topped off with 2 inches of ultra fine playsand (plus sand from the beach when the flow thins out a corner. lol)

The non CO2 method/Walstad method works. Just much much slower than a hi tec setup. don't expect to see much in the way of results week to week. More like month to month.

Finally, the crap it does release will a well seeded/matured filter cope with it fine?

That and daily water changes for a couple of weeks should cover it. No point using the ammonia test kit whilst dosing TPN+. It will give false reading so just do 25% water change daily. (Not vacuum, just take water out)

BTW, when I meant the rock had been in a few days that few days was a few months ago. The colours have changed since and it really cleared up to its original colour until recently and it seemed to coincide with when I started dosing TPN+.

Probably just algae and the TPN+ and therefore the plant's growth has sorted that out

AC

 

[PDSimon]

The way I had mine and suggested above was pretty much circular, however you have to understand that the flow isn't all going around the top in a circle. The water is deflecting against the water in front of it.

Flow is a pretty poor description really. We should try and just say circulation.

What I mean there is you can have 20x turnover but it may push all the nutrient away from an area.

We want to push it full circle. away and back again.

Are you using a glass diffuser? Is the front third of your tank quite open?

Pull the filter pipes (outlet and inlet should be side by side) to the front left, put the diffuser centre left and half way up not near the bottom.

Put the Koralia rear right pointing to rear left.

Reverse the above setup if needed. The diffuser should be on the side where there is least plants and the Koralia opposite.

Watch the bubbles.

This is what I am suggesting with my diffuser on the left:

AC

hmm... the general flow of my tank isn't enough to get the bubbles to circulate properly, they do spread around but not for long. Thats why the glass diffuser is underneath the koralia in my tank. If my diffuser was where yours is the co2 would probably just go straight up. Maybe the bubbles are too big?

 

[JoshuaA]

Well I felt I couldn't guarantee I would be there to maintain the walstad tank in the beginning weeks so I just put some play sand in for now in my now like 28 litre tank . Couldn't find anything on the spur of the moment so I will be looking on the want/buy to replace this once something good comes up. Felt sorry on the fish keeping them in a bucket, come the summer and I don't ahve to go to university I will probably set up a new one with a walstad theme. I found that soil you were talking about! Hidden away in the corner shelves out the back in the cold, wind and rain in B&Q.

 

[PDSimon]

Well this is how my co2 was diffused when things were seemingly ok, but it was ugly and thats why I moved the koralia to the back wall facing the same way as the spray bar. Its difficult to move the powerhead to the left side because the wire doesn't go that far but if its worthwhile i shall find a extension?

I'm not sure whether my "1000lph" filter is actually producing that much? if you take the spray bar of (was having a fiddle) it didn't seem like much flow to me:

If you put the diffuser even below the spray bar, the bubbles just go straight up. Thats why the diffuser is always below the koralia. Is it possible that it isn't flow and the diffuser is just producing bubbles that are too big?

If the idea is to see where the bubbles are circulating.. they certainly aren't everywhere... but the drop checker is that good colour. It doesn't really matter where I put the equipment the co2 just won't circulate in a full circle

edit: the intake pipe is in the back left corner incase i didn't note that!

 

[JoshuaA]

I would suggest attempting to clean the ceramic disc on your diffuser, it looks like it's caked in algae. I find mine doesn't disperse in the micro fine bubbles I want and comes out in larger ones when it's dirty.

If you want to measure the flow rate of your filter whilst doing a water change just drop a 1 litre jug infront of the outflow and count how long it takes it to fill it up. Work out how much it does in a minute then x60 for a hourly turn over rate.

I've found both my Fluval 205 and APS 1400 do a mere 1/3 of what they are rated at when packed with media etc. The spray bar really does disperse the flow dramatically I've opted to not use the spray bar on my APS now.

 

[PDSimon]

Hmm, my diffuser has never been good at producing really fine bubbles regardless of the algae...

Cheers for the info. I don't know why i didn't think of that

 

[JoshuaA]

Is it doing any better? After I commented that I ended up cleaning mine and the bubbles were a bit finer. I find there's a fine line between the diffuser producing large bubbles and fine ones, a tiny tweak on the regulator can make the world of difference, odd.

 

[SuperColey1]

Its a common thing to put diffusers under the source of flow. Never going to work under the spraybar as that is probably the calmest place in the tank.lol

Always try and find something in the direct line of fire. i.e. in the direct line of the Koralia or on the front glass opposite the spraybar.

AC

 

[PDSimon]

Is it doing any better? After I commented that I ended up cleaning mine and the bubbles were a bit finer. I find there's a fine line between the diffuser producing large bubbles and fine ones, a tiny tweak on the regulator can make the world of difference, odd.

Nah it always produces the same bubbles, the more pressure it has the more bigger bubbles it creates!

Its a common thing to put diffusers under the source of flow. Never going to work under the spraybar as that is probably the calmest place in the tank.lol

Always try and find something in the direct line of fire. i.e. in the direct line of the Koralia or on the front glass opposite the spraybar.

AC

I know! I just meant I tried it initially.. for 10 seconds! the diffuser has always been under the koralia.

I guess hopefully the circulation of co2 bubbles around the front of the tank will help now... plus 5ml of easycarbo daily