mahko's Ohko Stone Journal

[sidefunk]

Great tank and your growth looks super healthy. As to your staghorn i find it only happens when my water quality is not great. Usually a few good water changes clears it right up. Keep up the great work.

[gotplants]

How were you able to keep algae off the rocks so well? I do 2-3 wc a week and scrub the rocks with a toothbrush and the algae still always comes back!!

[gotplants]

Originally Posted by mahko

3-4 bps still. I've been swapping out my CO2 diffuser every 7-10 days to avoid algae build up.

Oh nevermind.. What does swapping the diffuser do? lol

[sayurasem]

Beautiful!

[Anhvu]

Nice tank man. I'm searching for Ohko for a month already, but no luck

[green_valley]

any pics/?????

[mahko]

Originally Posted by gotplants

Oh nevermind.. What does swapping the diffuser do? lol

I swap the diffuser for a clean one. The algae build up on the white ceramic plate seems to affect the CO2 output. Bubble's aren't as fine after about 10 days.

Pics in a few min..

[mahko]

To the comment about clean rocks. I clean mine with a toothbrush as well. As you'll see in the next few pics, they get nice and green.

Here's a shot of the large trim I did. Siphoning out the water, Protecting fish/shrimp with the net.


After trim.


11 days later (today)


To help with algae... a new light fixture. Sun Blaster 1x24W T5HO 6400k. I decided that raising my 2x24w Glo fixture another 6 inches would be ridiculous. Can you say light spill?


I tried a 10000k bulb, but the colour was a little too blue. I bought the reflector as well, which snaps on easily. Total cost from my local hydroponics store was around $40 CAD. Bulbs are around $8, and if they only last 6months, it'll be still be worth it.

This is currently hanging about 6" above the tank = ~18" from substrate. I swapped it out a day or 2 after the trim and everything is growing great.

[gotplants]

Very nice. I just did a cleaning/trimming today too haha. I just hope my HC carpet gets as good as yours.

+1 on the toothbrush. It's quite a lot of work though. I spend about 15-30 mins brushing the rocks during every water change 2-3 times a week. Have you have any issues with the rocks moving while you brush them? I don't think I packed my rocks in tight enough when I did my hardscape and the rocks move a bit which makes it harder to brush.

[mahko]

They rock back and forth when I brush them. It's a balancing act with the hose in one hand and the tooth brush in another, all while looking through the front of the glass to see what you're doing!

I'm considering another trim of the HC as it seems to be growing back too fast. Been about 2 weeks and it's looking thick already.

[mahko]

Whoa. Almost 6 months without an update.

As previously warned, the HC started to lift off the aquasoil in large sections and had to be either cut out completely or stuffed in the substrate with my finger. I think where I failed was keeping the HC trimmed enough. I kept leaving it grow thick and the bottom layers of plant were dying.

I trimmed the best I could and added some dwarf hair grass in the bald spots, as well as around the rocks. Pics tonight...

[AdamF]

LOVE the tank mate! Just nailed it!

With the HC issue you have and trimming, I assume same goes for UG? I will make sure Im on top of the trimming to keep it squat. Although I do notice the UG grows right from the bottom of the substrate - see pic




does HC grow more on top of the substrate? Or in a simlar fashion to the pic of UG?

[orchidman]

looks fantastic!

[mahko]

Sorry about the delay.

The pics I took were in RAW and i realized that I no longer have Lightroom to process them, so I'm retaking them in jpeg.

I also added some backlighting with LED strip light and white foamcore board. It looks amazing IMO.

[mahko]

Full tank shot.

White foam core is slightly damaged when I was trimming it. I'm going to see about getting a blue to white gradient image and using that as a background.

Also the picture of one of the spots where the HC had dead undergrowth and floated up. DHG has been planted here and throughout the tank in 'bald' spots.