I took down my old scape and am rescaping, Calling it Paradise A New Beginning.
For much of the time the last scape was up, I had algae trouble. I finally figured out what was wrong. The solutions that I was using for NPK were super concentrated. I had not taken into account the molar weights while making the ferts and had actually heated the solution to dissolve the ferts. For eg: KNo3 - I dissolved about 500gms in 3 liters of water. I couldnt figure out what had happened as the APC tool didnot have a warning. I had tried a few times to get chuck gad's calculator however the links that I tried were broken. I finally got chuck gad's calculator and just wanted to check if I was dozing right when it promptly gave me a warning and I figured out what had gone wrong.
About 6 months I spent trying to battle GDA with lights outs and finally stopped fertilizing. I not only had GDA but BBA also. I lost all of my carpet and much of my plants and with lights out and no ferts most of the GDA died out but I could not get the bottom half of the tank rid of GDA. Finally went and got my self the cleaning crew - two bristle nose plecos. What I could not do with lights out and no ferts for 3 odd months - the plecos did in a couple of days. The algae was gone - like magic in two days.
I went about cleaning the tank out of the dead plants and I had lost all of the carpet. Glossos are demanding and due to BBA and lights out could not survive add to that I was not dosing. I soon realized that a good portion of the substrate was filled with debry and dying plant. I vacumed over 4 weeks and realized that there was too much debry and the moment I touched the substarte, the debry was in the water column and setting all over the leaves of the Corymbosa and the other plants. It was particulate and I could not get it off the leaves as it formed a thick layer and stuck to the leaves.
The tank was a year old, the substrate was incredibly dirtly and not much of help - aquaclay is inert. I was thinking of rescape and well it would be best if I cleaned out the substrate before re-scaping. If I was taking the tank apart, then why not new substarte and why not pack it with nturients and go for a complete system.
I also had to close out the stand to keep the ferts and other aquarium products. I also had he CO2 cylinder outside and wanted it to be hidden..
So there were two things I had to do, cover the stand and fix the substrate so that I didnt have to provide all the nutrients for the plants in the water coulumn.
From the 1 year of reading and being in differnt forums, I knew I wanted to use a combination a nutrinet rich substrate and something that faciliated the absorption and release of nutrients. I finally narrowed in on JBL aquabasis plus which is basically peat with macros and Aqusoil Amazonia from ADA which is one of the most nutrient rich substrates and was available more easily to me. The only draw back is that for atleast the first two years I have to use ADA ferts as it complements the substrate. I am told that I should not have much problems with algae this time and I hope so.
Here are some pics
The Old Tank
The New Beginning
For much of the time the last scape was up, I had algae trouble. I finally figured out what was wrong. The solutions that I was using for NPK were super concentrated. I had not taken into account the molar weights while making the ferts and had actually heated the solution to dissolve the ferts. For eg: KNo3 - I dissolved about 500gms in 3 liters of water. I couldnt figure out what had happened as the APC tool didnot have a warning. I had tried a few times to get chuck gad's calculator however the links that I tried were broken. I finally got chuck gad's calculator and just wanted to check if I was dozing right when it promptly gave me a warning and I figured out what had gone wrong.
About 6 months I spent trying to battle GDA with lights outs and finally stopped fertilizing. I not only had GDA but BBA also. I lost all of my carpet and much of my plants and with lights out and no ferts most of the GDA died out but I could not get the bottom half of the tank rid of GDA. Finally went and got my self the cleaning crew - two bristle nose plecos. What I could not do with lights out and no ferts for 3 odd months - the plecos did in a couple of days. The algae was gone - like magic in two days.
I went about cleaning the tank out of the dead plants and I had lost all of the carpet. Glossos are demanding and due to BBA and lights out could not survive add to that I was not dosing. I soon realized that a good portion of the substrate was filled with debry and dying plant. I vacumed over 4 weeks and realized that there was too much debry and the moment I touched the substarte, the debry was in the water column and setting all over the leaves of the Corymbosa and the other plants. It was particulate and I could not get it off the leaves as it formed a thick layer and stuck to the leaves.
The tank was a year old, the substrate was incredibly dirtly and not much of help - aquaclay is inert. I was thinking of rescape and well it would be best if I cleaned out the substrate before re-scaping. If I was taking the tank apart, then why not new substarte and why not pack it with nturients and go for a complete system.
I also had to close out the stand to keep the ferts and other aquarium products. I also had he CO2 cylinder outside and wanted it to be hidden..
So there were two things I had to do, cover the stand and fix the substrate so that I didnt have to provide all the nutrients for the plants in the water coulumn.
From the 1 year of reading and being in differnt forums, I knew I wanted to use a combination a nutrinet rich substrate and something that faciliated the absorption and release of nutrients. I finally narrowed in on JBL aquabasis plus which is basically peat with macros and Aqusoil Amazonia from ADA which is one of the most nutrient rich substrates and was available more easily to me. The only draw back is that for atleast the first two years I have to use ADA ferts as it complements the substrate. I am told that I should not have much problems with algae this time and I hope so.
Here are some pics
The Old Tank
The New Beginning