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Ugly's Grindingly Long Yarn (or, A Dry Start Love Story [or, How Love Dies])

44K views 221 replies 42 participants last post by  EdWiser 
#1 · (Edited)

Having been out of the planted tank scene for five years, I'm starting slow, mainly because there is so much that I have forgotten.

Anyway, here's the hardware I have so far.

The Tank
My trusty old ADA Mini-M -- the same tank I used for Source.

Lighting 17W (LED)
Light will fall from an ADA Aquasky 361. When I left the game in 2010, LEDs were barely a thing and all of my tanks ran under compact fluorescent, so I have no idea how plants (and algae!) react to 17W of LED light. It's an uncertainty I can live with as the fixture is so pretty!

CO2
I've got several different CO2 systems laying around: two ADA Advance Systems and a large ten pound CO2 tank. As (Re)Source sits on my kitchen counter and my wife does not have the same affection for CO2-supplimented aquatic plants as I do -- how can you not love pearling, baby? -- I'll keep my marriage in tact an elect for the much smaller Advance CO2 system.

Filtration
In the past I've had great luck with EHEIM 2213s, but I'm considering going all in ADA-wise and getting the Superjet es-150. I dunno, I'll see. It'll all depend on how broke I feel like feeling.

Substrate
Aqua Soil Amazonia. It worked for me in the past and I see no reason to change now. I bought a bag of Colorado Sand, the decorative stuff for the front of the tank, but after thinking about it -- the algae that can form on it, the blowing around during trimmings and cleanings -- I'm probably going to go without it. If you have experience with decorative sand, I'd like to hear your opinions.

Hardscape
Seiryu stone and driftwood used in tanks past. I got them years ago from Aqua Forest Aquarium here in San Francisco.

Plants
I'll be dry starting Lilaeopsis nova mini, 'Mini Microsword,' for the first two months or however long it takes to establish a carpet. (Here is a primer on "dry start" for the uninitiated. I highly recommend the DSM.)
Other plants will include Anubias nana micro, Microsorum pteropus 'Java Ferns.' Bolbitis heudelotii, and some type of moss.
I want this to be a darker tank (color-wise) with slow-growers.
The flow of plants will be from left to right, with left being "upstream" with a denser concentration of plants.

Fauna
Dunno. Fish and shrimp are always an afterthought with me. I don't pick out fauna until after the tank has matured and even then it is not a sure thing that I will be any of either in the tank. I'll probably end up with at least some Cherry and Crystal Reds.

Anyway, this is the start of my seventh journal. I'm looking forward to any comments or suggestions that you may have.

Yours truly,
Ugly
 
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#139 ·
Thanks, KFry! That means a lot to me. It really does. I enjoy writing these posts and it makes me really happy to happy to hear that people like reading them.

You've got a really good eye! I don't know what that plant is. It just grew on the rocks from, I assume, something in the air or some plant that was able to lay dormant for five years while in the garage in a Tupperware container. Tomorrow at lights on I'll try to snap an close-up of it. It's probably a terrestrial moss of some sort. It's quite pretty.
It seems that many times that I do dry-starts I get uninvited-but-not-unwelcome guests. I got a fern of some sort one time. Pretty little thing, that one.
Actually, now that I think of it, I got that fern from these same rocks. Those rocks were purchased at a bonsai store in Japantown, if memory serves. Maybe it's some sort of bonsai store magic. (FYI: bonsai stores have really good aquascaping rocks; especially for iwagumi.

I will eventually get some Amanos. They are still my favorite shrimp. Classic. I just wish I could breed them.

Anyway, just a quick update on the abovementioned Fuval. I like it. It looks totally redonkulous on the Mini-S with an AC30 on one side and a C2 on the other, but the only people who would notice the redonkulousness is you guys. Normal people don't notice things like that. They just see a fish tank. All the crap around it is just noise.

I like the Fluval so much that the C3 that I had ordered on accident and was going to return was put onto the Do!aqua. That tank's running an EHEIM 2211 and a Fluval C3. I've probably got more water volume outside the tank than in it!

AquaClears are still great filters, though. If you've got one, there's no need to upgrade, but if you're in the market for a new one, I do recommend the C series.

Totally off topic, I just pre-ordered Fallout 4. Super jacked about that one. I'm getting it for the PC because PC's are awesome! Actually, now that I think about it, I've got to check if nVidia has game ready drivers for this thing. Nope. Just for Black Ops. Maybe tomorrow.
 
#140 ·
I'm in love.


I am absolutely smitten with Hygrophila pinnatifida.


Texture, color, and shape-wise, it's perfect.

Its red matches the H'Ra/Ludwigia and its green matches the ferns. It's the final piece in (Re)Source's plantscape.

It's only drawback is that from what I've read, it can grow quite large. So frequent trimmings and re-plantings will be necessary. I'm willing to put up with that, though. It is exactly the plant I needed.

Once again, I got this plant from aquaticmag. Plants came quickly and there was quite a bit of it. A couple of hitchhiker plants to boot! (Most of the plants are sitting in my Do!aqua cube "bucket" as I gear up to start the Mini-L. [Don't tell my wife; she doesn't know yet.])
This is the same company from which I got the Mini Microsword that we're all watching grow for two months. It's actually one of the few places where you can find that plant.
Also, one of their Sales Reps wrote me a letter saying thank you for my order, indicated that he reads this journal, and sent me a coupon. That's pretty cool, if you ask me.

I'm not plugging them because of that.
I just thought that was a nice thing for them to do and nice things should be acknowledged because nice things make this world a nice place in which to live.
The only thing better than a nice world in which to live is a beautiful world in which to live.
To get there we need to nurture niceness in all it forms -- however humble -- so that it swells to dizzying proportions.
When this niceness hits its critical mass, it will explode like a thousand suns and radiate a beautiful and mighty solar wind (made completely of niceness and a couple of photons) that will sweep across this planet filling our hearts and souls though our skin (because that's how niceness permeates -- though the epidermis) and each of us will effervesce (like Alka-Seltzer except without anything to do with nausea) with an aura of beautiful niceness (it's kind of like a sunburn but it's not painful) that will shine like the stars that have exploded in the vast distances of space for eons past and will for eons to come.
As we stand together on the brink of eternity staring into the dark cold void of The Everything, we are not afraid, for we realize that it is our love that holds us to this piece of rock floating in space and it is this love that lights our own darkness.
And we stand there, like stars, twinkling into the heavens, we are filled with love and peace and finally, finally all is well in the world.

And all that started because Ugly got a coupon for some aquatic plants.

Yeah, you're welcome.

My new plant day does not end there, though.


Some Elatine hydropiper I picked up off the SnS from antbug. (From here on out, I'm going to call this plant "Hydropiper" as Elatine hydropiper is a b-tch ot write out.) It came quickly and was very healthy. (Meaning, if it dies, it's my fault.)

The thing is tiny! It's like Glosso and HC got it on and had a baby.


This is the first time I ever saw the plant with my own eyes and I know virtually nothing about its care. Heck, I didn't even know how to plant it until I looked it up. Even then, I'm not sure I planted it correctly.
I will say this, there is no way that I'm planting this one sprig at a time like Glosso. My kids would be out of college by the time I finished!

That said, it is a very pretty carpet plant and I hope it does well. I would love to do a new tank with this plant.

Oh, here is the redonkulous of which I spoke yesterday. Two big-ass filters on a Mini-S.


Friggin' awesome.

And speaking of over-filtration. Here's the Do!aqua nursery.


This thing's running an EHEIM 2211 and a Fluval C3. This photo was taken about thirty minutes after planting. During planting, the water column was filled with substrate residue. It was a total dusty mess. That my friends is the benefit of hyper-filtration. Thirty minutes to crystal clear water.

The downside is that you can't actually have any livestock. Except snails.

Here's a close-up of the moss KFry inquired about yesterday.


Looks like Star moss. I don't know. It's pretty and it will probably die when I fill the tank.

And here are today's shots. I'm noticing more red blades/dying blades than I'd like to see. I'll keep monitoring it, but if it keeps up, I may have to fill early. We'll see.




Anyway, Fallout launches in about forty-five minutes. I've got to update my drivers and...

Game on,
Ugly
 
#143 ·
Thanks, ant. Not only did you send me some beautiful plants, you've saved me some time typing out Hydropiper. From now on, EH it is. Speaking of which, EH is a pretty fast grower. It's already thrown out a couple of runners. It's only been one day! I think this is testament as to how healthily you grew it. I've never seen a plant adjust so quickly to a new tank. Let's just hope my luck holds.

Hey, Josh! Missed ya, buddy. I'm getting some die-off, too. It's not bad, but it's enough to put me on yellow alert. I'll have to check through my old Source journal to see exactly how much die off I had, but I don't recall it being too bad. What I may do if the die off continues in my tank is to lessen the light duration. You might want to try that and/or you might want to dose potassium. I dosed K and micros in the original Source -- to good effect -- and I started K about two weeks ago in this tank. (Just a little bit, though.)
I just looked through my old journal to see if I could answer your question and it looks like I had very little die-off. Here's where I was at at about the same length of time as I've been growing here. In addition to no die off, you can see that I had better growth that time around, too. Perhaps I should start dosing K and micros more regularly.
I also saw from my old journal that I listened to Takashi Amano's advice to leave space at the glass to give the carpet room to grow. That was a lesson I forgot this time around. (I forgot so much! [I'm also impressed with how much I knew back then. I've gotten dumber!])
Josh, while you're here, let me ask you a question. Does CO2art have a regulator like this? I'd like to get my next regulator from you guys -- on account of you being so cool and all -- and if you guys have a regulator with a two block manifold for CO2 injection to two tanks, I'd like to buy from you guys. Let me know.

I'm really digging Fallout 4 so I've got to keep this short.
Everything's going well. I'm more or less settled plant-wise. I've now got to get the equipment side situated. Besides the abovementioned regulator, I'll also need a heater and filter. For the heater, I'll probably get a Neo-therm because it's cool. As for the filter. I don't know. I'll either get another EHEIM 2211 or a Fluval C3. I'm also not opposed to the idea of the small , but I don't know much about them. If anyone has any experience with that one, let me know yay or nay.

Anyway, I'm going to post my photos and get back to the post-apocalypse.




War...war never changes,
Ugly
 
#145 ·
Ugly, yes an no concerning the regulator. We can most certainly build multiple outlet regulator but are not quite ready to offer the block type manifold gla is using. We will be offering something very comparable to it in our next production run, but that is a ways off yet. If you could go to co2art.co.uk and click on 'contact us' at top left of the screen and just let us know exactly what you need, we can make it happen.

I dosed some K and some micros today. Fingers crossed.

I'm also going to remember to not plant right up to the glass the next time I start a carpet.

I should also mention that I am oldpunk78. The reason for the lack of posts from co2art lately is because I'm trying to not use the sponsor account as my personal account. Apparently, it was confusing to some so I'm trying limit the confusion until I figure out what it is that's creating the problem.
 
#146 · (Edited)
So you're punk?! Mind blown. That would explain why I never saw you and you in the same room at the same time. That's a Clark Kent/Superman thing you just revealed to the world right there. I can't take the blame for that one.
Speaking of which, why did Superman need a secret identity? I get it if you're Peter Parker. You need a job to eat so you can't reveal you super hero powers lest you lose your job. But if you're Superman, why bother? You can hunt better than anything. You can fly to someplace warm when you're cold. You've got no need for money so what's with the secret identity?
It makes no sense.

The only thing to say today is that I took off the Planted+ Cliplight off the Mini-S nursery and went back to the 13W Ott-lites that I started using way back when. I don't know what it is with the Planted+ series of lights, but I don't like them all that much. This is not to say that they're not good, they're just not what I'm used to. The color is too blue and finding that perfect height requires much more precision than with CFLs. As little as a quarter of an inch can spell disaster when using LEDs. With CFLs, I think the margin of error is about double. I'll keep looking around to see if I can find a good LED fixture, but so far with the Aquasky and Planted+ series, I'm less than impressed.
Maybe once I'm in the game for longer I'll give them another go, but for right now, being so "new" to all this, I'm going to stick to what I know and grow slowly.

By posting daily photos, I've been trying to document what a dry-start may look like so as to allow others to compare my growth to theirs.
What I haven't shown you is what a real dry-start looks like as I've always wiped the glass prior to posting photos. This time I did not wipe the glass so that you can see what it looks like to see a dry-start. Meaning, it's even worse that what you've seen up until now.

This is what an actual dry-start looks like.

And you thought it was boring before!


If you look closely, in the top center between the growth of "belem", I planted a sprig of EH to see if it will grow emeresed up there. The stuff is going quite quickly in the Mini-S and Do!aqua nurseries and I'd like to see how it'll do emeresed.

Anyway, I've got to give my daughter a bath.

Splash, splash,
Ugly
 
#147 ·
I see why you like the Hygrophila pinnatifida. That's a beauty reddish or greenish.

What I haven't shown you is what a real dry-start looks like as I've always wiped the glass prior to posting photos. This time I did not wipe the glass so that you can see what it looks like to see a dry-start. Meaning, it's even worse that what you've seen up until now.
Ugly
Why is it called a dry-start anyway. It's obviously far from dry. Should really be ESM (Emersed Start Method). :rolleyes:
 
#148 · (Edited)
Hey, house. Yeah, it's a pretty plant. I'm really digging it.
And, yes, they should call it ESM. It won't happen because old habits die hard, but EMS is much more accurate.

I have no idea how, but I've got a Red Cherry Shrimp in my Do!aqua nursery. I didn't put him in there. There shouldn't be anything in there but snails. But he's in there.
I just noticed him now: a tiny little thing -- several weeks old, maybe.
My only thought as to how he got in there is that he was in the bunch of EH that antbug sent me; making that little guy an immigrant from Sacramento. The thing is, there wasn't much water in that package. Just enough to keep the plants moist. It shouldn't be possible that he survived that.
However he got in there, he's in there and he's got the tank to himself. Pretty cool. As Ian Malcom said in Jurassic Park, "Life, uh, finds a way."

Nothing else to talk about today. I had to do a lot of writing for work today, so I'm a bit burnt out of writing.

So I'll post my photos and be on my way.




Hold on to your butts,
Ugly
 
#149 ·
Amazing as always! Your journals inspired me to go with the 20cm Do!Aqua back in the day.

Seeing you and a few others come back to the hobby has inspired me to do the same. I should be up and running in a few weeks if all goes well. I'll be sure to start a journal for sure!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#150 ·
Thanks, Nooob! I just took a look at your old Do!aqua. That was a nice tank! Really well done. I can't wait to see you back in the game. Definitely start a journal here. I'll be a regular reader for sure.

Oh, suvrajit, a couple of days ago you welcomed me back to the hobby, but I failed to thank you. Thank you, man. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I appreciate it.

I have to choose between two loves.

When I came home today, I saw the most exquisite pearling in the Do!aqua nursery.




Pearling was off the chain! It looked like an unflavored Slurpee was dumped in the tank there were so many bubbles.
So out of control was it that the EH had buoyed itself out of the substrate to the surface of the tank with the oxygen bubbles beneath it's leaves. (You can see three clumps floating in the second photo.) It also revealed to me that I didn't plant well enough and why dry-starts are awesome.

I was super proud of myself because last night I changed the angle of the spray bar and I figured that this must have increased CO2 saturation in the water column and this in turn caused an increase in plant respiration, and et cetera, et cetera et cetera; meaning I was awesome for doing that.
And then I noticed that I had forgotten to plug in the Fluval C3 this morning.
The reason for the significant increase in visible pearling was because I was forgetful, not smart.
So this means that the increase in visible pearling was the result either of the decrease in water column flow allowing the bubbles to stay situated on the plant mass or the absence of surface disturbance from the Fluval HOB reduced the CO2 degassing from the WC.
Either way, I'm going to have to choose between my two loves: over-filtration or pearling.
Since the Do!aqua and the Mini-S are both nurseries, I'm going to keep those over-filtered.
But for (Re)Source, I'm leaning towards a canister. And just one.

I've got three choices: the EHEIM 2211, the Sunsun 602B (or 603B), or the Finnex PX-360.
Right now, I'm leaning towards the Sunsun as it can go next to the tank as the pump is below the water level. It's also a bit larger, I think, than the Finnex.
The EHEIM is solid, a perfect filter, but it's pump is above the water line in the Mini-M and there's no way for me to put it below as it's on the kitchen counter and my wife would not approve of cutting into the granite countertops.
My question for anyone is do you have experience with the Sunsun 602/603 or the Finnex? Would you recommend it?

I got a gift card for my birthday a while back and I used it to buy AZOO Flexi mini LED. This was after reading this thread by Tom Barr. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Tom, so if he gives a thumbs up, I trust that.
Of course, I didn't read the whole thread until after the light had shipped. By the end of the twelve page thread, you can see Tom waver on his initial enthusiasm for the light. Specifically, the PAR might be somewhat lacking and the data on its R&D was never publically released.
In any event, the light'll be here tomorrow and I'll test it out and if it sucks, I'll return it.

Anyway, I can't find that little shrimp in the Do!aqua nursery today, but there are a ton of hiding places so I hope he's still around. I'm going to name him Sí for Statistical Improbability but pronounced as the Spanish word meaning "yes" because that's just what he is. The chances of him surviving what he did are significantly lower than successfully navigating an asteroid field (which is approximately 3,720 to 1!).

Anyway, that's all I got for tonight. The wife and I just finished watching last week's The Walking Dead. But that's all I'm saying about that because I don't want to piss off house.

Anyway, here are today's shots.




Anyway, that's where I'm at.

Just got paid,
Ugly

P.S. I'm playing. No party hunting, body shaking for me. I'm going to bed. Even if I did get paid today, that's all the more reason to rest. I'm tired.

P.S.S. Sorry if that song's now stuck in your head. If I were to hyperlink to a video about money, it should have been this cool ass old grove.

P.P.S. But, hey, it could have been worse. It could have been this one, too.

P.P.P.S. Sorry about that last one. Couldn't help myself.
 
#152 ·
Hey, Bob. I'm the wrong person to ask that question. I can't recall the last fish I kept. An Otto, maybe. There are quite a few that do well in small tanks like these, though. There's a nano fish sticky at the top of this sub-forum that lists many of them out. I'm more of a shrimp/snail guy.

So the AZOO Flexi Mini arrived.


My fears about it were unfounded. This light is great! For a Mini-S, I would say it's perhaps the best in terms of spectrum and spread. It's too soon to tell how well it does with plant growth, but I'll keep you updated as time progresses.

AZOO lists this light's spectrum as "around 6700k", but I think its closer to 7000 to 8000 -- ADA's -- and my -- favorite spectrum.


If this light grows plants as well as it's marketed to, they have a definite winner with this fixture. In terms of build quality and ease of use, it's much better than the ADA Aquasky. (And the Finnex Planted+ Cliplamp with its unturnoffable blue lights is not even in the same ballpark.)
This is a very, very good fixture. If you're on the fence about getting this light for a smaller tank, get off the fence. You look silly sitting of the fence. What do you think you are? A cat--?

Here's a picture of a shrimp that I got a few days ago at Petco; I bought four.


It blows my mind that Petco sells RCS. Five years ago they had ghost shrimp and that was it in terms of invertibrates. Now they have RCS and Nerite snails. They also have some semi-decent tissue culture plants.
In the beginning of this journal I remarked that not much has changed in this hobby, but this, in my mind, is a pretty big change.

I found the filter I was looking for. I picked up a Shiruba XB-305 from AFA today.
I'd never heard of this brand until today. I had seen it in passing at AFA but paid it no mind as it seemed like a knock-off brand of some sort.
This morning as I was researching the Finnex PX-360, I recalled that AFA sold one. When I looked it up online, I realized that they actually sold the Shiruba XB-303 that looks exactly the same as the PX-360. A rebranded filter, then.
I then noticed that they had a larger version, the XB-305. As I read about it, it seemed perfect for my needs. It can sit next to the Mini-M as it's exactly the same height and is designed to sit next to or hang on back of a tank. It has an included short spray bar that will allow me to have flow from right to left rather than back to front. And it's fairly large for lots of filtration media.
I'd reckon that it's about two and a half times larger than a ZooMed 501 and about the same size as a EHEIM 2211, albeit shorter by an inch or so.
So I picked it up this morning and, as of this writing, that makes me just about ready hardware-wise to fill the tank.
The only thing I need is a heater and a regulator. I have a spare ADA CO2 Advance System that I can use that until I figure out what regulator I want to use.

I'm very tempted to fill the tank now, but the one thing holding me back is the EH I planted in the back earlier this week. While that plant is not important for this build in terms of plantscape, intellectual curiosity to see how it grows emersed stays my hand.

So I'll stay the course and wait until December 7th to fill this little guy.

And here's where we are on day 38 of that 60 day course.




Keep on keeping on,
Ugly
 
#156 ·
bereninga, it really is nice that chain stores are getting into the hobby. Anything to get people into planted tanks is a good thing, if you ask me. I think a lot of people will agree.

nips, the one I have is not the one that just came out this month. That one has aluminum screws instead of plastic as the plastic screws are prone to stripping if you over-tighten them. To the best of my research, the rest of the fixture is more or less the same. Either way, even this "old" fixture is very, very nice.
Also, I think AZOO might be pulling an Apple Inc with the Flexi Mini line in that they will make incremental upgrades that will compel its customers to feel that they have to have the latest version as it can do so much more. (Even the packaging and some of its marketing is very Appleesque.)

Julie, seriously, get off the fence. You're going to fall and hurt yourself. It's a really good light. You should have no problems with it. On my Mini-S, about 3.5 gallons, I'd consider it high light. Over my Mini-M, 5.5 gallons, I'd say its closer to medium to the higher end of low light.

Well, I don't have much to say today as I didn't do all that much with the tanks. I did remove the AquaClear from the Mini-S nursery as I finally came to the conclusion that it was filter overkill. I'm now only running the Fluval C2.

Anyway, here are the pictures.




Today is the first day in a long time where I thought growth looked pretty good.

I took a photo of the 'belem' and EH so as to help me keep track of growth.


Word to your mutha,
Ugly
 
#158 ·
Thanks, tangelo. I love hearing things like that. Keeps me going.

Today I want to talk about dads and the things they say.

All dads have a set of often repeated phrases -- for lack of a better term let's call them "catch phrases" -- primarily used in two situations.
The first situation is when the kids (and possibly wife) are moving more slowly than the dad in question feels is appropriate given the situation at hand.
The second situation is any situation involving money (specifically dad giving us money).

My dad used, “Look alive" for the when-we-were-dilly-dallying and "When I was young I didn't have money!" for the latter. (As I child, I took my dad at face value on that second one and really thought he hunted for his food and carved toys out of wood on account of him having no money. I also wondered if he had a boomerang. I don't know why, but I always thought poor kids with no money would be like that wild kid in The Road Warrior.)

Your dad probably had a catch phrase or two, too.
It's just a thing that dads do.
Kind of like how dads think their farts are funny. There's no reason why a fart is funny, but when you become a dad, you instantly find your own farts in front of your children incredibly funny. (But when they do it, it's rude.)

Anyway, when dads use their catch phrase – which is not nearly as frequently as moms use theirs – they generally mean business. (Interestingly, I’ve noticed that moms do not have catch phrases so much as very specific, oft-ignored warnings/threats. Such as: “Stop jumping on the couch or else!” “All right, but no dessert.” “Wait until I tell your father/your father gets home!” “Are you out of your flipping mind?!” But I digress.)

When I became a dad I knew that I would need a catch phrase of my own. Something with kick.

After several months of pondering this very issue, I came up with my own.

Let’s do this like Buddhists!

I know, I don’t know what it means, either. All I know is that I say it when I want my family to do something – to get into the car, for example – and I need them to do so more quickly than they are currently doing it. Which is to say, very slowly, and with very little gusto.

It does rhyme if you say it right. Kind of like how you can make the unrhymable “orange” rhyme with “porridge” or “door hinge” if you say those words with a particular inflection.

Let's do this like Buddhists. See?

So what’s my point? My point is that I’m twenty-one days out from fill day and I’ve got lots to do. No more dilly-dallying.

Here's some of what I have to do and/or figure out:
I need a regulator, CO2 tank, and heater. That’s not so bad. All items are orderable online. Except for the CO2 tank that I'll get from Airgas.
I’ve got to get the plants ready. My stems of Rotala are not growing quick (or vertical) enough so I’ll have to figure out what do to there.
The Bolbitis that I’ve been growing is not as pretty as I’d like it to be. I like it when the bolbitis leaves are clearly translucent without the old leaf dustiness that so often happens to them. All the new leaves that I grew in my tanks are looking fine, but they are not yet big enough to be an effective back piece in the plantscape and the old ones from AFA have that dustiness that I just don’t like.
I need to attach more moss to the left-hand side driftwood and make a decision very soon as to whether or not I’m going to cover the right-hand side of the driftwood with moss, MP, fissidens, or what-have-you or leave it bare.
I need to figure out how I’m going to diffuse CO2 into (Re)Source. I’ve never done inline, and I’d like to try here, but I don’t need tubing with the Shiruba filter as it can pipe directly into the intake and outflow pipes, so do I really want to add tubing just for CO2?
I’d like to have a thriving bio-filter going in the Shiruba filter on the fill date, so I’ve got to set that one up on the Do!aqua nursery a week before filling so as to have it ready.

I know to you that these things don't seem all that worry-worthy. Trivial.
And you're right.
Please remember, though, everything is relative.
And up until now, all I've had to do with this tank is turn on and off the light and mist it.
Relative to that, what I've listed above is, like, a thousand percent increase in tank responsibility!
So when you think about it, what I'm about to do is quite phenomenal. Heroic, really. A true father figure.


Anyway, that's what I'll be doing for the next three or so weeks. And while it is a thousand percent increase in responsibility, things are about to get fun!

And without further ado, here is the tank looking just like it did yesterday!




Let's do this like Buddhists,
Ugly
 
#161 ·
Good point about the regulator, bereninga. In today's instant gratification world, a week is a lifetime. Heck, I got impatient when Amazon shipped me something two-day instead of next day! Said to myself, "What is this--? 2008--?!"
After some thought, I probably won't go inline on (Re)Source as I don't want to add tubing if I don't have to. I'll stick to an old school diffuser.

punk, I have a couple of those catch phrases, too.

The Do!aqua nursery still has hair algae. I've done a lot of mechanically removing it, but it just keeps coming back. Does anyone have any advice as to how to get rid of it? I'm pretty sure CO2 distribution is sufficient and I dose one pump of Green Brighty Shade once a day. I also change a half a gallon to one gallon daily. Anyone got any tips?

Anyway, I can't write all that much today, so I'll post my photos and be on my way.




Oh, before I go. I needed to exchange the Flexi Mini because the light cover was coming loose. Amazon sent me a replacement, but that one had a cracked on/off switch. They're now sending me out another replacement.
So just be warned that while this light is really very, very good, check your fixture carefully for any damage or defects as I've never ever had to return a product twice.
Other than that, though, it's a perfect light for a Mini-S. It's too low for anything bigger if you want high light, but for a Mini-S, there is no equal.
A perfect color temperature and while its still too soon to comment on growth of plants, I can say that there is no algae from it.
Shen I tear down the nursery and retiring this cracked Mini-S, I will be getting a new Mini-S tank just to be able to use this light with it.
It's that good.

Peace be with you,
Ugly
 
#163 ·
The Do!aqua nursery still has hair algae. I've done a lot of mechanically removing it, but it just keeps coming back. Does anyone have any advice as to how to get rid of it? I'm pretty sure CO2 distribution is sufficient and I dose one pump of Green Brighty Shade once a day. I also change a half a gallon to one gallon daily. Anyone got any tips?
What is the current light cycle on that tank?
 
#162 ·
Glad you like the light! I have the exact same one on my Mini-M and I love it. So far plants have been growing really well, I have it on for a six hour photoperiod, low tech.

And I know this is from yesterday, but I have to agree with your dad, farts are funny. Especially from the kids and then they make those "ooh" faces and cover their wide open mouths with their hands.
 
#164 ·
Just a quick little question, I've decide to get the flexi mini (Thanks Ugly!) But, I will probably be getting the mini M or the Do!Aqua 45-F 4.6g Do you think the light will still be enough for the size or should I just put it on my mini S (it currently has the AquaLigher Nano)
 
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