CmLaracy's 75P ADA

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by Hilde

Did you ever find out what caused the ammonia to spike. Perhaps another nominal that caused the algae bloom.

never found out, and there was no ammonia spike. The tank was ammonia free for the 3 months prior while I had it running with no light. And the tank cycled two months prior to that, fully. All of this happened almost 5 months AFTER the cycle. The AS had no ammonia left in it, and my bio-filtration was fully established. Still a mystery. As well as the BBA while running over 40ppms of CO2 very consistently, go figure.

[Hilde]

Well, I am sorry I irritated you. I am positive I saw readings where you had 0 ammonia and 10 nitrates, then the ammonia rose.

What page is the last picture of the tank? I searched and searched for it last night and couldn't find it.

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by Hilde

Well, I am sorry I irritated you. I am positive I saw readings where you had 0 ammonia and 10 nitrates, then the ammonia rose.

What page is the last picture of the tank? I searched and searched for it last night and couldn't find it.

Oh I'm sorry, I'm not irritated I hope I didn't come off sounding abrupt. I'm simply frustrated I never figured out what happened. The second shot at this scape was way after the tank had fully cycled. I posted almost nothing at all about my second attempt as I was frustrated, you are correct though that the first attempt did experience some problems related to ammonia

[CmLaracy]

I'm looking for some recommendations here.

I'm going to be raising the light up a lot, I dn't know how much, but I'm thinking somewhere around 18", with the photoperiod being around 6 hours.

The plants are going to consist of

Lilaeopsis brasiliensis in the foreground
Eleocharis vivipara in the background
Needle leaf java mid ground
Anubias nana midground
Anubias nana petite tied to the branches
Taiwan moss tied to the branches
Random crypts low on the sides

Now these number for height and photo-period at the start are very rough, and I'm really unsure about them. I won't be dosing at all for at least the first 2 months, and I'm going to run my CO2 at about 1bps. The light is 150w MH if you didn't already know, and the tank is about 40g. Prior to this I've hung the light at about 10-12". I'll be using AS 2 as even though I complained about it, I find it more controllable.

So, what are your recommendations for starting height of the light, and starting length of the photoperiod. Let me hear em! Remember, this is a low tech STYLE tank, with high tech gear I guess. I want SLOW consistent growth, algae=enemy. Thanks guys

[MARIMOBALL]

sounds like a good plan im thinking of raising my MH pendants also. my photoperiod is 5 hrs. 4pm to 9pm, but I will gradually icrease to 8 once the algae goes away. Im keeping my tank High light.

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by MARIMOBALL

sounds like a good plan im thinking of raising my MH pendants also. my photoperiod is 5 hrs. 4pm to 9pm, but I will gradually icrease to 8 once the algae goes away. Im keeping my tank High light.

thanks!

any other recommendations?

[@marko@]

i reccomend some floaters. they will serve a dual purpose: they remove nutrients by growing kinda fast, but they are very easy to remove, no shaping into bushes like with stems; and they help block out light so you can have a longer photoperiod so you have time to actually SEE your tank.

and maybe try out some Lileaopsis mauritius instead of brasillensis. it spreads and carpets faster (i know you dont want fast, but dont worry, its still lileaopsis and it will be monthes before you have a thick full carpet). the leaf shape is also a bit more appealing (they have narrower leaves).

also, could i suggest a moss wall? they look cool. but, idk if they take a lot of maintanance. id think not since it is moss, but i cant say since i never had one.

[CmLaracy]

I'm kinda in a bad spot here, I forgot that Charley at Lowcaster would have to order my plants then send them to me, so I ordered a bunch of plants from people on the forums so I could rescape on saturday, but now my largest order of plants won't be here in time... I guess I can the plants that come in time floating while I wait for lowcaster's plants...

DARN

[Phil Edwards]

Hey man,

I can't really give any recommendations, but I can commiserate with you. I'm having horrible algae problems in my 75 w/ADA substrate. It seems that the stuff's a unpredictable as it is good at growing plants. Keep us updated, I know you'll get it figured out.

Oh, and for what it's worth. I've got 2x 250w metal halide bulbs 8 inches above a 90g tank with Flourite. There's very very little algae; it's there, but it's in hiding. I just upped the photoperiod to 7 hours from the 5 I had going for the first month.

I'd 2nd the notion of using floaters to help mitigate some of the light and excess water column nutrients.

Regards,
Phil

[@marko@]

why scape all at once? plant what you have where you want it if you have a plan. if you dont have a plan, then of course you need to see each plant and how it looks where. but you sound like you know what you want and where.

[CmLaracy]

anyone have any floaters? lol

[resowner92]

i got some duckweed but u probably dont want that lol

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by resowner92

i got some duckweed but u probably dont want that lol

OH TEH NOES, NOT TEH DUCKWEED

lol

[@marko@]

ive got some hornwort, but its kinda sinky for hornwort. it doesnt fall, but the stems go down vertically instead of horizontally. if you want it you can have some, but idk if you do.

i have some duckweed too. courtesy of aquariumplants.com (wasnt too happy when i saw it). but among the duckweed was a single plant of salvinia minima. i like it and would recomend you try to get some, but i only have 1 plant ATM

[CmLaracy]

Here's a cool photo of the original scape. It's a later stage that I just realized I never posted. Just dug it up out of my hard drive and I thought it might lighten up the mood