New World 90gal Low Tech- a Pictoral Journey!! 56k 8/9 Cleaup Begins

[ikuzo]

i like the grassy feel around the wood. i might make a scape like this someday.

[lauraleellbp]

Thanks, Ikuzo- that's a big compliment

Last update before I head to GA for a long weekend camping with my family-

I hit Petsmart today and decided to try an 18k Hagen "Power-Glo" bulb out. Has peaks in blue, green, and orange, and some red as well. I swapped out one of the actinics. It DEFINITELY made an improvement; the top of the tank doesn't look so cloudy and the oranges in the Tiger barb and clown loaches are finally coming through more.

I'm still getting a Geisemann 6k to replace one of the 10k bulbs though. This will leave me with a 10k, and actinic, one 18k and a 6k- I think I'm going to like that balance! Somewhere between 108-162 watts of individually reflected T5HO for the plants...

I'm thinking I may need to do my first trim when I get back? The Bacopa caroliniana has grown 2-3" since it was planted, and the B. 'pantanal' is already taller than I want it to stay. Time to start trying to make these plants into "bushes"

I also added a good quantity of Salvinia that came in today from Python; I think the hatchets-to-be will love it!

[@marko@]

nice wood (why is everyones wood so much better then mine!?), its full of knots and its nice an long. my only suggestion is to put some moss or something where the wood connect on the top to make it look less like a campfire in a flood (sorry its just what jumped into my head and i couldnt think of a nicer way to put it).

[Jace]

I'd also like to see more elevation changes in the substrate. Thats my :twocents:

[fshfanatic]

Looking good!

[lauraleellbp]

Marko- yes, Willow moss is going to go on the driftwood one of these days...

Jace- the substrate actually is very sloped; it's about 5" deep on the right side of the tank and 2" on the left side. The pics don't show it very well, however. There's also a slight front-to-back slope.

Thanks fsh

Mon. 5/5/08 Update

Well something went awry with my light timer settings while I was gone (according to my hubby they were on too much) and I came home to lots of brown algae. Also the fish seem to have uprooted most of the Bacopa 'pantanal' and several of the E. africanus as well *sigh*

So tomorrow I'll do a good PWC, clean some algae, and replanting. On the bright side, there are some new leaves finally coming out of a few of the E. tenellus 'narrow'.

Found an Amano molt. I never can see most of my Amanos, so I really hope the fish aren't finding and eating them after molting?

[Torpedobarb]

I like the tank setup. I can't wait to see how it grows in. good job

[lauraleellbp]

Tues. 5/13/08

Got my specimen E. 'Kleiner bar' from god91234- it's huge and looks awesome!

Was a major ordeal planting it though... in the process I lost both of my clown loaches and the tiger barb

I'm still not sure why it happened but it's got to be related to the 50% PWC.

I tested my parameters and everything still looks great (0ppm ammonia and nitrIte, 5ppm nitrAte, 7.0 - 7.2 pH, I still need to get hardness test kits but that really shouldn't be an issue b/c I'm still using the same water I started with and I've maintained regular PWC 25 - 50% since the tank startup.)

Temperature is a slight possibility, since I don't have a thermometer on this tank yet (keep forgetting to buy one), but I did the old "hand test" and the waters felt good. The tank is at room temp and the water came from our well on a sunny day...

All the rest of the livestock look great- it was just those three, which is also odd. I'm wondering if I disturbed some hydrogen sulfide when planting the sword (I did have to move around a ton of substrate b/c the thing is so big), but would that really have had time to build up this quickly?

Would having well water high in sulfur content promote the formation of hydrogen sulfide pockets??

I'm really leaning towards it's got something to do with my green water.

Up till now I've been thinking the green water is tannins from the driftwood and peat. However, I put the leftover Manzanita wood in my 46gal and that tank is staying crystal clear... which leaves the peat, but I only used a very small amount... so IDK what's going on?

The plan I've come up with so far is to keep doing PWC, 25% every other day now, and I'm going to switch this tank to Prime and add some Purigen to the XP2. There's AC in the AquaClear but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I may also buy a media bag and replace that carbon with new... I think I can use all the toxin absorbtion I can get ATM...

I had to do some moving around to make room for the sword, and I didn't get to finish replanting last night, so that's on the agenda for tonight. I'll also try to take and upload some pics afterwards.

[rasetsu]

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

Tues. 5/13/08

Got my specimen E. 'Kleiner bar' from god91234- it's huge and looks awesome!

Was a major ordeal planting it though... in the process I lost both of my clown loaches and the tiger barb

I'm still not sure why it happened but it's got to be related to the 50% PWC.

Awww....I'm sorry to hear that Those are hardy fish too and clown loaches are lots of fun. Could be something in the new water that the fish did not adjust to.

[lescarpentier]

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

The plan I've come up with so far is to keep doing PWC, 25% every other day now, and I'm going to switch this tank to Prime and add some Purigen to the XP2. There's AC in the AquaClear but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I may also buy a media bag and replace that carbon with new... I think I can use all the toxin absorbtion I can get ATM..

Are these the only filters that you have?

[eyebeatbadgers]

I'd really doubt you'd find H2S in a tank as new as yours. The roots growing in the substrate should oxidize and and keep the H2S at bay.

The green water conditions you are getting are triggered by ammonia presence. I've fought with it in the past, and overcame it with a blackout, and proper filtration. I'm using an XP2 on my 29 gallon tank now, and have not had green water since.

Sorry to hear about your barb and loaches. I know you were attached to those fish after having them so long.

[rekles75]

Soooo Sorry to hear about your Barb and loaches. I can hardly remember too many posts where you did not mention them so I know you were attached to them.

Will this change your plans for the pond outdoors?

[lauraleellbp]

Yes, the XP2 and AquaCear 110 are the only filters on this tank. I have to keep both of them turned on the lowest setting to avoid the tank being a swirling vortex... LOL

No, I'm still working on my hubby for that pond... I've wanted one since before we built this house, and we're already making some landscaping plans to implement once the rainy season kicks in.

The area where I planted the sword actually didn't have many other plants (a few E. tenellus 'narrow'), I only had to move plants around b/c this sword is so large the leaves were shading some of the other plants. I didn't think this would be enough time for H2S to buildup, but perhaps if there's lots of sulphur in the water column this could make a difference??? (grasping at straws here)

My ammonia test kit is only a few months old- and it's stayed steady at 0ppm this whole time; perhaps the issue is ammonium not ammonia? I suppose I'll need to read up on API and see if ammonium shows up with their tests...

The green water is not algae. The water is actually yellow when the tank lights are off, but shows green b/c of the blue actinic bulb I'm running reflecting off the water, plus the light shining through the floating salvinia.

I thought it was mostly from tannins, but now I"m thinking sulphur. We're in a drought, they just closed the dam and drained our canal (prolly to keep the water levels higher in Lake Okechobee to help fight the fires up there), so I'm really thinking something changed with our well water (something that doesn't show up in my current tests) that mixed with something in this tank.

It's not JUST the well water, though, b/c I did a test 25% PWC on my 46gal today and all of those fish are perfectly fine and the water remains crystal clear...

This is frustrating!

I really hope the Purigen will make a difference... till now the green (yellow) water was just aesthetically annoying, but now I'm actually concerned about it.

[lauraleellbp]

Fri. 5/16/08

Still haven't gotten around to taking any pics. I will sometime this weekend, though.

I've given up on the Salvinia. No matter what setting I have the filters on or how I play with the water level of the tank, the AquaClear pushes it down below the surface and it blows all over the tank. Keeps completely clogging both filter intakes and is snagged in all the plants and driftwood... so it's got to go tomorrow. Haven't decided what I want to try in its place- maybe Pistia?

The Bacopa caroliniana is doing fantastic; it's doubled in size since I added it to the tank, I think it grows about an inch a week. I've debated trimming and replanting it, but I'm leaning towards just getting more instead. I really like having some height at the back of the tank.

I wish the B. 'pantanal' were doing well, but it's lost most of its lower leaves and looks pretty scraggly. I'm hoping that it was just from the clown loaches uprooting it constantly and since they're now gone ( ) maybe it's got a chance?

I finally pulled the Didiplis diandria. Started getting some algae and it just wasn't doing anything. I'll be putting some stargrass in its place.

I'm starting to wonder if my E. angustifolius may really be E. tenellus? It's growing new leaves, but they are not looking like they're growing very tall, instead they're growing outward and look identical to my regular E. tenellus.... I may be on the lookout for an E. angustifolius mother plant to give that back corner a jump-start and help balance out the tank.

I wasn't sure that my E. tenellus 'narrow' had been doing anything... but was very happy to find lots of new runners on the plants I relocated to plant the big sword.

The sword puts out quite a bit of shade... I'm not sure what to try and grow underneath it that would do OK?

In addition to the plants already mentioned, I still plan to add some Indian red swords and hydrocoytle. I also think I'm going to replace the gravel just in the back left corner with a bag of black Fluorite to extend the plantscape, and just leave the front corner bare.

I emailed API to see if their ammonia kits register ammonium. I do want to get to the bottom of this yellow water issue.

[god91234]

still waiting on those pics ::taps feet:: =) i want to see how the sword is doing. that sword was huge shaded like 1/2 my tank tried to grow HM around it failed i got ET 'Pink' to grow but was always green not pink under it ...but pink everywhere else .. i miss the sword but nice to have ALLOT more room.