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Jaguar's Low Tech ADA 60-P (Celebrating 6 Years of Failure!)

40K views 202 replies 41 participants last post by  Jaguar 
#1 · (Edited)
LATEST FTS Jan 20 2018:



TANK: ADA 60-P (17 gallon)
SUBSTRATE: Flourite mix - original, black, onyx sand
FILTRATION: Eheim Ecco 2234 w/ knockoff Lily pipes
LIGHTS: 12 3w Cree XPG LEDs, cool white, dimmable, 8 hrs a day on a dawn/dusk cycle

Scape will be very lush and natural, lots of leaves, texture, mostly green with a splash of red. Spider wood hardscape. Dosing EI light twice a week. Excel when I remember to. Some Osmocote+ capsules in there too.

FAUNA:
6x albino corydora
1x ember tetra
1x bristlenose pleco, longfin
1x assassin snail

FLORA:
Java fern windeloev
Java fern narrow leaf

Crypt wendtii green/red
Crypt walkeri
Crypt lucens
Crypt parva

Hygro sunset
Rotala rotundifolia

Anubias nana
 
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#84 ·
Tank's looking OK, a bit of the HC is dying off... still lots of bright green growth though, I think it'll bounce back. There are still a few small spots around the tank with cyano - cm x cm patches... but they are not spreading... or they are spreading VERY slowly. I will do a bit more manual removal tonight :)

The good news is, I am getting a CO2 cylinder tomorrow! My dad sent me a bit of money for Christmas and I decided it would be my present to myself this year. It is an aluminum tank, just hydrostat yesterday, he said some kind of valve had to be replaced on it?? So it is more or less a brand new tank. It should be here tomorrow morning, full too! Whee!
 
#85 ·
if the bga persists, you can do a small round of erthyromycin (maracyn) and it should clear up.
bga is actually cyanobacteria, a bacterium, and antibiotics can kill it.
as long as you treated the underlying cause.
otherwise it just comes right back in a few weeks.
 
#86 · (Edited)
Yeah, I know, if you read back on my thread I really haven't established an underlying cause yet, I lowered the power of my lights quite a bit, my flow's good, I dose ferts including nitrates, and so on... I tried hydrogen peroxide and it seems to have worked really well so far, fingers crossed that when my CO2 gets hooked up today it'll be enough to keep it gone for good!

Also yeah my CO2 cylinder came today! Early Christmas present to myself!

 
#89 ·
Bit of good news, bit of bad.

I left the tank unattended for the first 5 days of my holidays. Good news is, not much growth in the cyano department. Bad news is, my HC is basically dead. I am taking it all out tonight and putting it in some potting soil under the light before I leave. Hoping a little of it will bounce back so I can replant it when my CO2 is going.

On that note I still have no clue why my CO2 regulator is acting up. Will have to deal with it get back. None of my other plants are growing. Hopefully that will work itself out when my regulator gets fixed.
 
#91 ·
Bad. Within a matter of days the cyano exploded and came back. The HC didn't survive, nothing's growing. I don't know, on the fence about draining the tank and selling it. I'm pissed beyond belief about my regulator being broken, and it's REALLY hard for me to get it somewhere to get fixed in the middle of winter with all the snow and no car.
 
#92 ·
Hang in there bro.

If you cant get co2 going, cover the tank with blanket for three days absolutely no light. That'll kill the algae, then don't use fertz and run the lights a shorter period. Itll keep the plants alive, but not provide a suitable growing environment... for anything. Then you can go back to normal once your co2 is fixed.

Ps. Can you please take pics up close of your stand especially corners ect. Also, what kind of finish was done? I am trying to make one or have one made for that matter but without having the seams like when formica or something similar is used. Thanks in advance.
 
#93 ·
I've had it blacked out for 3 days now (just turned it on for pics) so I've got a head start :)

I don't have a proper camera but I took some seam pics of my stand. Apparently I need to take some nail polish remover and clean up the glue! The laminate is Pionite in Banker's Gray. The closest Formica color is Mouse. My stand was custom made so there's a few flaws like the door isn't quite flush with the front of the stand and the side holes are upside down, but it still looks great from viewing distance and it's incredibly sturdy. I love the look of the laminate and I don't mind the seams. It's super easy to clean too.



 
#95 ·
Hi, I am sorry to hear about ur issues with the cyano. It might be the water or the spctrum of ur Light or the light too strong. I suggest to get RO system so fo r sure eliminate the problem with the tap water. I got mine for cheap from e-bay an it is very effective. Start all over again with the dry method following this http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2255889 I start according this article and it is all good so far. Develop a good bacteria may be add from bottle. May be add purigen in ur filter. It was too long waiting for that HC to fill in, to give up righ now. "Those who learn from it`s mistakes is smart, but those who learn from other`s mistakes is even smater!" Wish you luck from all my heart, and never surrender.

Kind Regards
Nikolas
 
#96 ·
Thank you for the encouragement, I really appreciate it. It's been a rough past 2 years trying to find the right balance in my tank. I was told low tech was easy, but I've had SO much trouble with it! I can grow algae very well though...
 
#97 ·
Okay... I spent some time tidying things up in the tank and it's not AS bad as it looked. The cyano was mostly spread on top of the dying HC - it was very easy to vac off and I think if I stay on top of cleaning it up, it will stay gone. After vaccing and cleaning up the HC I noticed that some of it is actually still alive, so for now I'm going to leave it and see if it bounces back. I think the H2O2 may have been what killed it like that, not the lack of CO2. We'll see how it does.

I also put some of the driftwood in there - it's still a bit floaty so for now I tied it to rocks and will properly arrange it when it's fully waterlogged. I tied some peacock moss to it and hopefully that fills out nicely.

 
#99 ·
Tank as of today. It's looked better, but it's also looked worse... I don't know, maybe things are starting to balance out now.



I added 2 bulbs of aponogeton undulatus, I really like the crinkly tall leaves, we'll see how those do!
 
#103 ·
My Aquasoil is fine, just all the vaccing the cyano off the top mixed up my powder and normal types so it looks bad... I hope to have very little or no substrate showing eventually, so it doesn't matter a whole lot to me.

Cyano's still there, I just did a water change last night and vacced most of it off. There's still some growing on the driftwood (which is STILL not 100% waterlogged yet I might add).

I looked at 2 LFS for some plants the other day but they had very little for fast growing/stems, lots of cabomba but I hate the stuff!

Dosing more P seems to be helping, I am dosing ~1ppm weekly. My fish are very happy, other than the one harlequin rasbora that died... but the cardinals look great. I was worried they were going to be stressed out from the move but they settled in really well.
 
#106 ·
Cyanobacteria needs a lot of nutrients... which unfortunately aquasoil provides. Cyano thrives on both phosphates and nitrates alike so like others have suggested get some fast growers and let it take it's course. Doing water changes and other attempts to reduce it won't do anything but make it more out of balance.
 
#108 ·
Pulled out the old rotten HC... I literally got a softball sized fist full of old root structure... crazy. Did a slight rescape too - definitely need some more plants on the left and the java fern on the right is just temporary.... would really love some downoi or a nice crypt variety...

 
#109 · (Edited)
Wow I cannot believe the difference in my tank since I started dosing P. I don't know why I just didn't "get it"... For some reason I was thinking fish food/waste would provide enough P for my plants, but the difference in just 2 weeks since I've been dosing it is astounding. My cyano is gone, there is very little other algae present (a bit of green dust on the glass and some diatoms on plants), and my plants are finally GROWING - my rotala is sending down those ugly sideroots but I don't care - they're GROWING!!! Now I just need more plants! :)

There are a few guppy fry hiding in the plants, and also the biggest snail committed suicide by trying to crawl in the emergency hole drilled in the intake pipe.... stupid freaking thing lol
 
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