Squirrel's 72 Gallon Planted Tank

[SuperColey1]

My Rhinox 2000 is in the left rear corner, right next to the internal filter which sends bubbles out of the spray bar, so all OK.

You rich ******* going for ADA original. lol

Andy

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Hee-hee, no, not rich! It was a b-day gift to myself! I hope it does a much better job than the ladder did.

 

[Themuleous]

I want one!

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

It’s been four weeks since the re-do. Conditions are mostly good, although, I found a few small areas of algae – primarily on the HM. I think I planted it too densely at the start. It came potted and I only broke it down into 5 or 6 clumps. Consquently, there were some really thick areas not exposed to light. So… (sigh) I took it all out today and pulled it apart stem by stem and binned the stuff with algae. I replanted the same area with single stems. I think it will fill in nicely. It’s also easier for the otos to get at it.

I have two clumps of the Rotala walichii. The clump on the middle-right side is doing really well. But the clump on the front-left side has been struggling. It grows slower than the other clump and it’s starting to pick up a little bit of algae on the original part of the stems. I pulled it out and removed any stems with algae and moved the rest to the center area of the tank.

I added a couple of small swords – although, I haven’t ID’d them yet. The new leaves are red with dark red spots and then they turn green with red spots as they mature. (Echinodorus ozelot?)

I also added a couple of sags, two anubias and a java fern. All of the additions came out of the 55 gallon tank.

I changed one of the 65 watt bulbs in the power compact fixture. Definitely makes a difference. The light is much whiter on the left side of the tank now. You can see the difference when you look at the bulbs. (Probably not such a good idea to stare at 130 watts of light for too long B) ) Anyway, the older bulb has a brown-ish cast to it while the new bulb is very white.

I think I am going to change the CO2 tank today. The current tank is nearly empty and I’m afraid it will run out when I’m at work next week. Can only imagine what an entire day of no CO2 and high light will do.

Before the water change, these were the stats:

pH 6.4
KH 3-4
Nitrate 10ppm
Phosphate 0.50ppm

I dosed NPK twice this week. Just started adding Flourish on the off days. Generally speaking, does the Flourish provide enough iron so that I shouldn’t have to separately dose iron, too?

Also, based on the pH and KH, the level of CO2 is between 36-48ppm. Is that ok? The fish look fine and are not gasping for air.

-Sondra

 

[RadaR]

Wow! How on earth did i miss this!?
Very colourful and refreshing.
I dont think you would need to dose iron separatly. Regarding the CO2.. if the fish are acting fine and not gasping then all is good

 

[George Farmer]

Very nice, well done!

 

[lljdma06]

I told you you'd like the walichii. It looks great in your tank.

llj

 

[Castellop123]

Brilliant tank...

 

[Themuleous]

Lovely tank Sondra, nice to finally see a pic of it everything sounds good to me stats wise, my only comment (others feel free to disagree) would be to increase the PO4 dosing a bit. There are no hard a fast rules, but I tend to prefer to have 1-2ppm PO4 in EI tanks, perhaps increase the NO3 to 20ppm as well? You dont want to run low. Just a thought

Flourish should provide the tank with enough iron, the plants will tell you if they are lacking it.

Sam

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

George, RadaR, LLj & Corin -- many thanks for the replies! It keeps me motivated. I realize our creations should firstly and most importantly appeal to ourselves - nonetheless -- it's still rewarding to hear from others.

Sam -- thank you, too! I have a question about upping the levels of NO3 and PO4. When I test for phosphate and nitrate, it's obvious the plants are using whatever PO4 I'm adding, but the NO3 not so much. I don't know if it's the fish that keep the levels up or if the plants are not using the NO3 as they should because something else is deficient? (ie Potassium (K)? or maybe adding more PO4 will help with the NO3 uptake?)

--sondra

 

[George Farmer]

Sufficient PO4 is necessary to uptake NO3 in my experience.

I try to keep around a 4:1 NO3O4 ratio these days, and that's around what standard EI dosing is. Don't forget to include tap levels though, for instance I have 20ppm NO3 and 5ppm PO4 in my tap, perfect for plants and it means I don't need to dose as much KNO3 and KHPO4.

You could add some K2SO4, for extra K, a couple of times a week too. 1 teaspoon 2x week should suffice.

HTH

 

[mlawson]

That's an incredible tank! Such luscious plant growth and wonderful fish.

 

[Themuleous]

I agree with George, getting the PO4 up will likely increase NO3 uptake. Although I will add that I get the same thing in my low light 20g, just before a prune when the plants are big the PO4 drops. 1:4 ratio seems the current thinking

Sam

 

[Dave Spencer]

I love the subtle variation in the stem plants. They all have a similar look, but are sufficiently different from each other. Didiplis diandra in the mid ground would compliment and enhance this effect IMO.

Dave.

 

[wei0204]

Nice... hope to see m ore pics...