CmLaracy's 75P ADA

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by Badcopnofishtank

Very nice. Very well done. I cannot wait for it to grow in. Any plans for moss tied to parts of the driftwood? Which of the tenellus did you run out of, the narrow leaf or broad leaf?

I ran out of like two plants of each, no big deal, I'll wait until they grow enough for me to replant in the spots where I don't have enough. I'm thinking about getting some taiwan moss, but I kinda like the look of the bare manzanita. IDK, what do you think?

Originally Posted by MrJG

Lookin' great Chris. I know you had a blast getting everything planted yesterday! Now its time for water change fun for the next few weeks. Scape and plants are awesome. If you can you should get some fast growing plants to float in the tank for a bit to keep algae at bay until the initial cycle/ammonia burst finishes up. I really think thats the only thing that managed to get me over that post-setup nasty hair algae bloom that I started with... but you have a nice CO2 setup so it might not be as much of a worry.
Enjoy it man, I know you've been cramming for a long time to do everything right the first time.

I sure did, all seven hours!! lol. How many water changes should I do a day, and how much water? I don't think I'm going to need any floating plants as I already have a lot of plants in the tank, and my CO2 is going at 6bps at about 40ppms, I don't have any fish to kill with the high levels. Thanks a bunch

[MrJG]

I'm sure someone thats used AS in a larger tank can chime in on that. I was going a 40-50% every other day or two for about 3 weeks in my 20G. That might have been excessive but from what I read it was the recommended thing to do.

[CmLaracy]

I haven't done anything but a 20% water change yet, I guess tomorrow I'll do a 40% water change, then re-check my water parameters. How's your tank doing lately, especially the HC?

[dr.tran]

holly crap! 2 light fixtures? Man thats gonna hurt when u have to change the bulbs. BTW, a 75p? Is that about 40 gallons?

[CmLaracy]

Yeah, I won't really mind changing them, money isn't that tight. By then I will have probably updated to the 150w ADA MH though, so I may never have to replace the bulbs. Its 41 gallons with about 6 gallons of substrate, so about 35 gallons with 166w which is.... 4.8wpg

Originally Posted by dr.tran

holly crap! 2 light fixtures? Man thats gonna hurt when u have to change the bulbs. BTW, a 75p? Is that about 40 gallons?

[MrJG]

dr.tran the two light fixtures isn't terrible on the wallet esp if you stagger the bulb changes. I have the same deal on mine except its only a 1x65. It give you some extra wattage for a boost when needed and its nice to have 2 banks that you can separate.

C: the tank is doing ok. I actually just took some pictures for an update this evening. The HC all filled in nice and full... then I hacked it. On top of that the stargrass I had exploded into a large section of it that I ended up pulling up when I took the 'grass out. That stuff was crazy invasive.
What I have left is recovering but I'm not devoted to getting total ground cover with it anymore. After taking out some large portions it was nice to see the dark aquasoil again in places.

[dr.tran]

well i mean its more like a hassel to change that many bulbs. lucky there are a few options on the web that makes light bulbs easier on the wallet.

I have a 130 watts over a 29 gal. And man I love high light tanks but I guess I'm lazy when it comes to just changing the bulbs.

[CmLaracy]

How many hours a day should I have my lights running for right now during the cycling period?

[@marko@]

i suggest 10 or so.

[MrJG]

I'd say no more than 8 and possibly as low as 5 until everything is established. :P

[CmLaracy]

I'm running them at 7 right now, I'll see how that goes. The water is really nice and clear now so when the lights turn on at 2 I'll post some pictures, hopefully I can snap one of some pearling HC. The ones closest to the light yesterday were pearling already, I guess thats a good sign!

[Jens]

Looking nice! But why are you not showing pics of the whole setup including stand?

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by Jens

Looking nice! But why are you not showing pics of the whole setup including stand?

I'll post a pic of the entire thing in a bit





Water Parameters:

Date NH4+ NO3- NO2- pH
19-Jan 1.0ppm 10.0ppm 0.0ppm 6.2
20-Jan 1.5ppm 15.0ppm .50ppm 6.4

[garuf]

Lovely, You need to get some fast growing stems in there though.
Not to help the scape but to soak up as much nutrients as possible to help stave of algae, they can be removed one everything is grown in and stable.

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by garuf

Lovely, You need to get some fast growing stems in there though.
Not to help the scape but to soak up as much nutrients as possible to help stave of algae, they can be removed one everything is grown in and stable.

This of course would seem to be the intelligent route to take, unfortunately I lack in that department and want to try and tough it out without the stems. Good idea, but I'm way too stubborn, lol