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13 Stones-Now Defunct, PT2 link up top

12K views 72 replies 18 participants last post by  talontsiawd 
#1 · (Edited)
This journal is now defunct...Please follow the link for PT 2

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?p=3568129#post3568129





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I have done a few journals here over the years. I stopped because I was bouncing around a lot, my recording studio was at my parent's house, I lived at my GF's apartment more often than not, couldn't keep things going the way I wanted. I just bought my first home, super happy, living with my GF, and hopefully will have time for both her, and my 2000 hobbies, lol.


Enter 13 stones. I am no Igwami expert. I love the style, to a point, but I also love mountain scapes. I really just love rocks with plants. I used 13 stones as 13 is my lucky number, it also breaks down to 4, a very grounding number. I did my best to make what I wanted, with limited stone. Don't get me wrong, I have 100lbs of this, it just doesn't have the same character as expensive Japanese stone.

My goal of this tank is to have something that looks nice and is interesting. My girlfriend may a requirement that it has to look good 100% of the time. I have done that before, but never with CO2. I have had plenty of lush non-co2 tanks. I have had lush CO2 injected tanks as well but every CO2 injected tank I have had in the last 3 years only gets about 48 hours per week of viewing, much less maintenance.

This will be my first "high tech" tank that I really have time to deal with in a long time. I really hope it works.


Equipment:
Standard 20 Long (top de-rimmed)
Eheim 2215 w 2217 impeller
Aquaticlife T5HO fixture (24x4) ((overkill))
Petco stand
Coralife UV Sterilizer
Fountain pump autodoser
Heater (if need be)
20lb CO2 tank (will be swapped out to a 5lb if I can fit everything under the stand)
Beverage regulator w/ Fabco needle valve
GLA inline diffuser

Plants
Thinking just HC for now


Initial picture (not all that interesting)





I would love any advice on arrangement. Not sure how fast I can get HC.
 
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#39 ·
I am having algae again. My tubing started leaking as it's really old at the check valve. Time to go get CO2 proof tubing as I have been using silicone tubing successfully forever and like it better but I haven't been using it at high pressure, guess that's not going to work. Still dialing in again, every time I have an issue, I start from scratch, just in case it was leaking when I had it right, don't want to gas the fish.

I thought the brown stuff was just mulm that came from another filter (and I would have seeded the filter, not the tank in retrospect). Now I am getting some fuzz algae, easy enough to deal with.

The other thing is I added more Featherfin Rainbows. I have 13 now. Debating if I want more or not. When they are all over the tank, it looks somewhat crowded, not bad at all, just not wanting me to add more. When they school, 13 doesn't look like much more than the initial 6 did.


Sorry for the horrible pic, my best camera is my phone and it only does well on grow out tanks. Growth is speeding up, I don't know if it shows in pics, now that everything is pretty solidly rooted. Still will be a while I think to fill all the way in.

 
#40 ·
Photo update..
Nothing new to report, algae seems to be under control, no issues outside of random green spot algae on the rocks and glass. I just trimmed as when I replant, many pieces grow upwards until the first trim. It was a bit more "lush" before but it will grow in faster this way.


Sorry, my best camera is my phone, I will take some pics with a tripod soon.


 
#46 ·
Ok, update time.

The good:
HC is filling in well.

The bad:
I thought I got rid of my BGA. Not the case. I am thinking it's because I had it really bad in my last tank and reused the substrate. I am considering nuking it with Maracyn or trying Bacter 100. Bacter 100 seems interesting because of other benefits and is around the same price. I also go to SF on a somewhat regular basis so taking a trip to ADA would be nice, been awhile.

I have also lost 3 fish. One was a jumper, the other two died in the tank. One died pretty early after acclimation which I can't get right for the life of me. I have tried everything and am successful maybe 2/3 of the time with no deaths. The non jumper was random so I don't know what's going on, I don't have a test kit. One of my goals of this tank was to be a better fish keeper, something I wish I was better at after 5 years. Hopefully it will be the last.


To do:
Get a better camera. I am planning to add some type of shrimp. Probably just RCS or fire reds, I actually like RCS better. I haven't kept any other shrimp but have had great luck with these guys. I would like to try something more exotic but the combination of budget, the fact the tank is high tech, high co2, my lack of skills, and local availability may keep me from trying. We will see. I do plan to add more feather fin rainbows as well, want to wait a bit to make sure everything is fine. Probably should get a master test kit. I think I need to bring the light output down as well, simple as raising the light or stopping the noon burst. Hopefully I clear up the BGA


Unfortunately my only camera is my Iphone so I could only get one pic that looks OK. Everything else was too blurry. I will try to get more angles but that's hard when the sun is up and I won't be around tonight. Again, BGA is pretty bad, HC growth has been good though.

 
#47 ·
Sooooo...since last update. After a heavy trim, BGA just blew up. It was show up here and their but over 2 days, my tank was covered. Went ahead and treated with Maracyn. I have read on hear to stop dosing at the time. Well, that was a week without dosing and the HC is a bit yellow and doesn't look as healthy. It's bouncing back though. I got some brown algae in the process, I attribute it to either lack of dosing, or the fact I put a HOB filter which messed with the CO2 levels. I still have the HOB filter on and have to inject about 3x or more CO2 to get similar levels.

Unfortunately, I have less HC than the last update. The reason is increably simple. Between trying to pull up some of the BGA, and the brown algae I now have, I pull up some HC as well. Not a big deal, most of the tank has at least some solidly rooted HC which will spread quickly.

I have a philosophical view of this tank, and others I have had. Even on my most low maintenance tanks, if I don't "love them up", they tend to go south. I have been very consumed with other things and just not paid attention to this tank. Not that it has been an easy tank but it's lacking so love. One of my favorite/easy tanks that was high tech just got a through look over every day with some random dosing. I personally feel that the hours of attention it got during the week just made it work, even though I never had a real formula to it.


Next to do:
-Thinking about adding some color with stems as I am kind of bored of the layout.

-Still need a camera, I can't even find my old camera that sucks but atleast I can use a tripod.

-Search for the balance. I my light level is OK if I does consistantly but a missed few days can really mess things up. I find the HC grows better compared to when I have raised the lights and skipped the noon burst but I have to stay on top of things.

-Love up the tank, see above

-Still planning to add shrimp, just haven't had time or thought about it.

-Maybe change up the diffuser setup. I have one inline that does about 80% of the CO2. I then do 20% through the in tank one. It is cool because I can just turn the in tank one when I get new fish but I am wondering if it may be causing issues.


That said, here are some cellphone pics. I did minor editing, only to reflect the real colors. I didn't not clean the glass enough but I am exhausted so it is what it is.





 
#50 ·
Non-photo update...I forgot to do this:

I have a philosophical view of this tank, and others I have had. Even on my most low maintenance tanks, if I don't "love them up", they tend to go south. I have been very consumed with other things and just not paid attention to this tank. Not that it has been an easy tank but it's lacking so love. One of my favorite/easy tanks that was high tech just got a through look over every day with some random dosing. I personally feel that the hours of attention it got during the week just made it work, even though I never had a real formula to it.

Life got a bit ahead of me and I wasn't dosing ferts. I still haven't setup my autodoser yet which will be a big help. I know it's been months but, yeah, major changes in live makes that 30 minutes hard to find.

Hadn't looked at my tank in 2-3 days or more, dosed some ferts when the lights were off. Found out my CO2 was out. Don't know how long.


So, refilled CO2. Raised light about 6 in. No noon burst. I have more brown algae, some green string algae, some green slime, and some green spot algae. It sucks when you set a goal and go backwards.

I think the changes will give me much more margin for error which I need right now. Will post some pics when I get things moving.

On the plus side, I cleaned my inline diffuser which is more of a task than it should be, due to the way I plumbed it. I also cleaned my lily pipes. I am not jealous of those who have high end ADA stuff, I would have broken these so bad. I really hope that we see some high end acrylic lily pipes someday because these are so durable. Hopefully I set myself up for better luck and a bigger margin of error.
 
#49 ·
Thanks. I think I need to quit battling and start loving, lol, like I said. I think the true cause of most my problems was reusing an algae ridden substrate without rinsing, much less letting it dry out. I know shrimp will eat the brown algae so that may be the next course of action. High tech was much easier in my college years, outside a few weeks, I just could pay so much more attention. Even though I work at home ATM, or more so have my own business, I get really caught up in what I am doing and just don't "respect" my tank enough.
 
#51 ·
So, I have another non photo update. I was doing all my philosophical stuff, loving the tank up, giving it more of my time. Things were improving...for a bit.

Learned a valuable lesson in the last 2 days. Maintain your equipment. My CO2 levels compared to BPS seemed off. My tank ran out pretty fast as well, not crazy fast to where it was obvious, just a little to fast. I had two leaks. One leak was at my GLA diffuser. I broke the plastic nut and never dealt with it, was using a zip tie. The second was where I didn't replace some silicone tubing after I switched to the GLA diffuser. The silicone works fine at low pressure but was pulling off the check valve. Replaced the tubing. I replaced the nut on the compression fitting...wow, I didn't know this thing worked so well.


I then noticed that my O ring wasn't sealing on my canister. I hear it pulling in some air so no surprise, leak wasn't very bad so no damage to stand, floor etc. Well, about a year ago, I broke the top nipple off the pump housing cover of my Eheim 2215 and was using a hose clamp. Worked fine but in the process of of moving things, it broke worse, to the point I couldn't use it. Again, I was planning on buying a new cover for about a year, just didn't get around to it.

Lesson learned, buy everything when it breaks and use the make shift fix temporarily.

I have fixed the CO2 but can't run it because I can't run my canister until I get the parts. What a day I had, fun stuff.

The only cool thing that happened was when I place my order with Amazon, I found out I had a gift card I forgot about so I have a "free" pump cover coming to me.

Now I just have to figure out how to put the media in the tank or something to keep it going. I figured the LFS is closed and me being a bit defeated, I had 2 beers. Now I realize Petsmart is open still. I guess it doesn't matter because my fiancee is having a client over for a few hours and I can't work on it anyway.


Sorry, sort of a rant but I do find some humor in this. One problem just lead to the next and at each one, totally my fault for not being proactive.
 
#53 ·
While waiting for new parts, I have spent the week really going through everything. I get my pump head cover tomorrow which I can't wait for.

I started with cleaning my diffuser. Being inline and only having one, it's not so easy to give it a deep clean. When I last cleaned it, I injected excel into it with an oral syringe. It helped but I did bleach this time since I had a lot of time. After I was done, I did a little excel for fun. This works so much better. I can actually push air through it with just the syringe so I think that will work a lot better.

I also found a brass fitting for where it was leaking. I used some teflon tape and didn't crank too hard. Because it was not inline, I could test it for leaks using a pitcher. No leaks, super stoked.

I also thoroughly cleaned my filter, something I had not done in awhile. I rinse the sponges but not the bio media. This filter has been in use for about 4-5 years so their was a lot of gunk in it. I rinsed in tank water, hopefully I didn't loose what bio filter I have left. Luckily I had the HOB filter so I do have a seeded filter for the time being.

I also cleaned my lily pipes. I will struggle tonight to get the suction cups on. They are a real pain on the outside of the tank.

Lastly, I did some major algae removal. I tried to suck up some of the brown algae in the past but would pull up some HC. I just trimmed it like crazy so it didn't have as much mass per roots. I was able to pull it up much more easily. I still have quite a bit and am planning for frequent large water changes for the future. Hopefully I can get ahead of it.

My CO2 has been out of wack so that is my priority once I get my canister up and running. I still need to clean the glass really well but that's about it.

I lost 2 fish from jumping. I kept the water level higher with the HOB, my mistake. I can't find the things though haha.

It was actually pretty nice having the time to do each bit, a little at a time. I have reduced my photoperiod to 6 hours since my CO2 really wasn't where it was supposed to be. I also raised the light up. I will continue that for awhile, even though my HC grows upwards.

I will take some pics after I clean the glass. Hopefully my mistakes will keep me diligent and turn around the tank.
 
#58 ·
#59 ·
Probably should update as well. I have had just about every type of algae now. I had this weird brown algae that almost looked like mulm. Never had it before, I really doubt it was just mulm but maybe. The bottom parts of the HC started to rot a bit. So, I was getting decent growth but the bottom yellowed. I tried to remove it by siphon and by just stirring up the substrate which worked but my HC would float up. I finally added some more substrate to hold down what was their. I have a bit of it left and some regular green spot algae. Will take pics at some point.
 
#62 ·
Non photo update...I am just struggling with this tank. My brown algae cleared, only to get a lot of green dust/green slime algae. I also got hit with some BGA again but I am totally convinced this stuff can remain dormant without water as every time I have added old substrate that had BGA in it, I get it within 24 hours badly. BGA is gone now, just green algae.

I am having some trouble with my HC melting at the base. I am thinking that it may just be algae choking it out but I would appreciate some advice. It is perfectly healthy on the top parts but melts at the bottom. Every time I do maintenance, I loose about 10-25%. Basically, my tank is starting to regress. I did make a thread here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=343162

I have removed all live stock so I can up my CO2 well above what would be reasonable with livestock. Sort of my last resort. Any advice would be fantastic as I am about to give up. I will likely add a photo update later on this week.
 
#64 ·
On a good note for me...bad note for the journal...if anyone is still following...tank is torn down.

I had really bad GSA. Every time I added old substrate (not rinsed), I got BGA immediately (within hours). I am totally convinced that BGA can remain dormant without any water, etc. I looked it up and though I couldn't find anything from fellow aquarists, I did find some scientific journals. I bleached my substrate and rocks, probably should have bought new substrate and I may today but I had the same problem in my nano and this worked.


Good news, I just finished my "new" layout, based 100% on my old one. It's not exact by any means and I like some of it better, some not but these are all the rocks I have now (I think, I may have like 3 more). I will start a new journal soon, off to AFA in a few. Need a few drinks before hand (fiance is driving) so I make sure I impulse buy a few things HAHA.

If people want me to start a new journal, let me know. This one was incredibly boring so I may take pics as I go and wait until it works out, or never tell you guys it didn't:icon_mad::icon_mrgr
 
#65 ·
Everyone struggles with aquariums at some point. I had a tank full of hair algae for months that I had to manually remove the algae from every other day. I hope you restart your journal; it is always nice to see people's struggles and then the success that they finally achieve. One thing that did help me was starting with just the plants and getting the co2 dialed in. I found it was a lot easier to worry about just the plants first and not have to worry about fauna. Good luck with your tank
 
#66 ·
I did restart to the same idea I had. I know the struggles of a planted tank but this just has been a hard road for me. I have successfully used the same light, plants, etc. I did decide to do a few thing differently though on restart. Not because I wanted to, because I felt I could do it better with less maintenance. Lets hope it works.
 
#68 ·
I wasn't planning to update unless I started another journal but here you go. I don't like the layout quite as much as the last but the slope is taller and more defined which makes it look a bit more massive so it's give and take.

New plants are Glosso, HC, Micro Sward, DHG, and I have some Fissidens I plan to add in small patches. The coolest part is that almost none came up during filling/overnight

I am aware I have yet to clean my lily pipes and other, even the glass isn't totally clean.

Layout



Filled
 
#69 ·
Your glassware and heater looks to be in the same condition as it was in the old tank. Shouldn't you clean as much algae as you can off of those? Otherwise you'll just be reintroducing that algae to the tank again.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=168012

looks like people use bleach.

edit - oh, it looks like you already filled it up with water and put the glassware in - might be too late as far as introducing it then - but hey, can't hurt to start now, right?
 
#70 ·
Your glassware and heater looks to be in the same condition as it was in the old tank. Shouldn't you clean as much algae as you can off of those? Otherwise you'll just be reintroducing that algae to the tank again.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=168012

looks like people use bleach.

edit - oh, it looks like you already filled it up with water and put the glassware in - might be too late as far as introducing it then - but hey, can't hurt to start now, right?
I got a bit ahead of myself but yes, I should have bleached everything. I wasn't planning to plant last night but got excited. I actually plan to clean the filter out top to bottom as well.
 
#71 ·
I 2nd the notion to clean your glassware. Let them soak in a diluted bleach solution overnight then rinse with hot water. You can do the same for the c02 diffusor. You will probably want to clean the tubes too, I'm assuming you have cleaned out your filter and media by now too.

Looks like you raised the light up, good move. If you are keeping the c02 levels sufficient with a side of appropriate fertilizer then you're bound for success. It's a great scape and that light looks more than bright, I am jealous! Goodluck!
 
#72 ·
Looks like you raised the light up, good move. If you are keeping the c02 levels sufficient with a side of appropriate fertilizer then you're bound for success. It's a great scape and that light looks more than bright, I am jealous! Goodluck!
Thanks for the compliment. I think my problems were more from having too much organic matter in the substrate. I had a similar problem in another tank where I consistently got BGA until I nuked it as well as residual algae. It was a low tech tank with not much light. I bleached the substrate their, had no issues, did it again here, hope I get the same results. If I had not already tried, I would have replaced the substrate.

I did raise the light quite a bit as well. I am hoping that the glosso will carpet at a lower light amount and I will adjust it down if need be. It's nice to have it this high as I often don't have any room lights on and this tank goes off pretty late at night.

I was about to bleach my glassware and just realized I used it all when bleaching the substrate. May have to wait until tonight. Not too concerned, the algae on the pipes had more than a few hours to dry out.
 
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