20 20’s 75 gallon - update 11-09-2008

[mpodolan]

That gh reading is in ppm. To convert to degrees, divide by 17.9. So, you have a gh of 125.3/17.9 = 7 degrees. This is generally considered to be reasonably soft in our hobby.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/wa...-question.html
http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

[20 20]

Ah, thanks for that info. So, are a KH of 5 and GH of 7 acceptable? I think so, but I'm just a newbie, so bear with me.

[mpodolan]

Yea, they're both fine for most fish/plants. There are very few species (ie. toninas and erios) that can't adapt or grow well in these conditions.

[20 20]

Great, thanks!

Now to figure out what the heck is up with my PH. PH controller says 7.1 this morning. The output gauge on the regulator has been at about 25 since yesterday morning, the bubble have been fairly consistant, I would guess that's why the drop in the meter reading. I just gotta figure out why the test I did read 6.6...

[20 20]

Figured out what was wrong with my PH readings. Doh. Controller was calibrated incorrectly. I went out at lunch and got some 7.0 calibration fluid, the meter was set .6 above that. I've calibrated PH probes before, and never screwed up like that. At least now I know.

Things are growing, so that's pretty exciting. In addition to plants, however, snails and some algae are growing. Small snails that are easy to squish, but I'm a bit worried that I won't be squishing enough, and I'll get 'overrun'. And not a lot of algae, but I've got some green hair algae (that's my newbie identification, wouldn't be surprised if it's wrong ) on my ludwigia repens:



It's on other stems of the plant, in addition to what's circled in red above. Quite a bit of the plant has it. Anything I should do about the algae? Throw out the plant? I'd hate to, it's starting to get some good growth. Just leave things as they are, and hope I've got the conditions right so the algea will starve? It's not starving so far, as you can see!

[eyebeatbadgers]

Is the algae slimy or coarse? If it's slimy, it's hair algae, if it's coarse it's cladophora. Hard to tell from the picture.

Manually remove the algae, you can leave the plant, and adjust tank parameters as necessary to keep the algae away.

[20 20]

I haven't touched it but it looks more slimy than course. Is it possible to just remove the algae? Must be, since you suggested that, eh? I'm not sure if I could do that with this stuff, it's all over most of the stems, short so you can't see it in the picture, but it's there.

[20 20]

I pulled out the stems with the worst of the algae, now I'll just wait and see what happens.

I would like some advice on my lighting period. I've got the 40 watt normal flouresent set to come on at 10 AM, and off at 11 PM, 13 hours. The 260 watt PC fixture is set to come on at 11 AM, and off at 10 PM, 11 hours. Is that time period OK, or should I cut it back some?

[pweifan]

I would keep the total photo period around 12 hours, but the "peak" period (the additional lighting) about 6-8 hours. From what I've read on this lately, people are saying that a "blast" of 4 hours of high light is enough to make a tank happy.

I really like the layout of the tank so far. You'll almost surely move things around as plants grow in, but it's off to a great start

[20 20]

Thanks for the reply! As far as lighting, I've got two sets, one at 40 watts, the other at 260 watts. Are you suggesting to have the 260 watts only on for 6-8 hours a day? I've seen some of the 'blast of high light' posts/suggestions also. I would think that would be feasable if I could split the 260 up, but with this fixture it's all or none. I could possibly see doing this if I could have 130 watts for 10-12 hours, and 260 for the peak time, but since I can't, I don't think that would be a good idea. But, being new to this I'm open to all suggestions and opinions, so if anyone else can weigh in on this issue I'd appreciated it!

[CrimsonKeel]

I know your not going ot like my suggestion really but I'm giving it anyway.
take out two of those 65 bulbls so they dont even come on.
with that little amount of plants and in an unestablished tank your just asking for a outbreak of some sort of algae. You can adjust accordingly if your not getting enough growth with the bulbs missing but at this stage you will want some baby steps to get established. I made the same mistake you are with dumping tons of light on my tank before the plants got dense and i had a huge bad case of green water and am still fighting off hair algae.
my current tank is a 55 and is running 2 65 watt pc bulbs instaed of the 4 i started out with. Only issue with the 75 maybe with less light will be the HC not forming carpet. Up to you if you start getting bad algae i would cut your lights.
at the very least cut back your photo period. full bore for 4-6 hours then run your other light for the rest of the time. (my preferance is blast at end of day when your home to see the tank)

[20 20]

Interesting point of view. I'll watch the algae, and cut back the 'full bore' if it gets any worse. Thanks!

[20 20]

Question about my fish stocking. No fish in the tank yet. My original thoughts on stocking was:

Cardinals - 18
either rummy-nose or rasbora - 18
silver hatchets - 6
Angels - 4
oto's - 6
Cories - 2

I'm contemplating doing without the angels, and getting another set of smaller fish. I know tiger barbs are active and 'nippy', would they be ok if I added 10 or 12 of them? The list would then be:

Cardinals - 18
either rummy-nose or rasbora - 18
silver hatchets - 6
Tiger barbs - 10 or 12
oto's - 6
Cories - 2

[eyebeatbadgers]

I'd leave out the cories, or add a few more. You'll rarely ever see them if there are only two, but seem to be much more active in groups of 4-5.

Angels can be nippy, and of course tiger barbs can be too. I've kept both, and enjoyed them both quite a lot, but perhaps the angels more so because I got them to breed, and sold a lot of extra-long tailed varieties for some extra cash

[20 20]

I can add 3 or 4 more, I've always liked cories. Not looking to breed, at least not for a long while, if at all. I'm just thinking that without large fish in the tank it will have more 'depth', and sense of size. Just wasn't sure if tigers, if kept in groups of 8 or 10, would leave the other small fish alone. Anyone have any other recommendations for small fish? Would harliquin rasbora's go well with cardinals and rummy noses?