2017-04
new plants, new plants! new angle! Doesn't the tank look longer with this angle?
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April brought on a renewed focus on the tank. I've been spending more time with it and spending more time lurking around here. You guys inspired me to make changes. The pull of red plants has once again drawn me in. For those who don't know and haven't read the past entries, I've always had a problem growing red plants for random odd reasons. Some limited success with tissue culture alternanthera reineckii has me daring again. Plus, it was looking a little lonely in a sea of green. That dude, wheezo, sold me some pretty nice plants and packaged them awesomely. They showed up with no melt whatsoever. Thanks, @wheezo! The new additions are rotala macarandra type iv, ludwigia sp. red, and hydrocotyle japan.
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The fiddling continues through the weeks and I finally put together that cerges reactor that I've been planning from since 2 years ago. The suction cups on the ista reactor inside the tank started to harden and lose effectiveness. As a result, it kept on floating up and while I tried to pull the cups off to soften them back up or replace them, one of the suction cup holding arms broke. I get it. It's tired and it told me as much. And I'm getting tired of hiding and scaping around it, so I told it as much. So here it is, its successor, born through trials by fire by the local community, through much interpretation, via much hand wringing and hair pulling!
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Heh, Heh, please excuse the hyperbole. There was some hair pulling on my behalf about the parts though. That T junction involved some internal and philosophical debate and much hardware store scouring. I've come to the conclusion that retail has changed greatly. The internet marketplace has the niche market in such a monopoly that no one else can even come close. It's practically economically impossible to expect a brick and mortar store to stock the parts I needed. Anyway, there's one player in the game right now and it's USPlastics. Despite all my attempts to avoid them and their exorbitant shipping fee, I ended up only able to find all the arcane parts that I needed through them. They're not at all a bad company. Pretty good, actually, but I was just trying to be cheap with shipping. Anyway, the T is built upon a PVC junction with 1/2 NPT female connectors all around. 5/8 hose barb to 1/2 male NPT adapter one side, 1/2 male NPT to 1/2 male NPT nipple on the other, and 3/16 hose barb to 1/4 male NPT adapter into a 1/4 NPT female to 1/2 NPT male adapter on the co2 input. It is then mounted to the ubiquitous clear Pentek clear slim housing with a PVC "output" pipe inside and a male 1/2 NPT to 5/8 hose barb elbow for the output. I also toyed with various other connection ideas but decided that this route was the cleanest looking one I could assemble short of 3D printing a custom adapter myself. Here's the main Cerges Reactor thread for more information.
The retiree and its successor in comparison:
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Larger size means "moar" CO2!!
Fully plumbed with a piece of 5/8" ID tube:
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"Reactor, online .. Sensors, online .. Weapons, online .. All systems nominal.. <bip>"
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As I half expected, I realized after the water started flowing that I had too much flow and undissolved bubbles were escaping. Probably the proper way to do this according to above Cerges Reactor thread is to plumb in a bypass, but I barely had enough space in the cabinet already and I don't need that additional mess of tubing. So, enter the cheaper method. I jammed up the bottom with poret foam that I had lying around. Other items usually used for this include pot scrubbies, bio-balls, ceramic rings -- anything to block the bubbles from jumping straight to the bottom of the downpipe and escaping. It does a pretty good job and only very minuscule bubbles get past. The other downside of this cheaper method will be more maintenance for it as no doubt, whatever escapes the main filter will end up in here. We'll see as time goes on. The upshot is more homes for beneficial bacteria!
Well! That brings us into May... 'til next time!
And now for some replies:
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Look at that difference in 40 days! Imagine what that does to an impressionable mind!
new plants, new plants! new angle! Doesn't the tank look longer with this angle?
April brought on a renewed focus on the tank. I've been spending more time with it and spending more time lurking around here. You guys inspired me to make changes. The pull of red plants has once again drawn me in. For those who don't know and haven't read the past entries, I've always had a problem growing red plants for random odd reasons. Some limited success with tissue culture alternanthera reineckii has me daring again. Plus, it was looking a little lonely in a sea of green. That dude, wheezo, sold me some pretty nice plants and packaged them awesomely. They showed up with no melt whatsoever. Thanks, @wheezo! The new additions are rotala macarandra type iv, ludwigia sp. red, and hydrocotyle japan.
The fiddling continues through the weeks and I finally put together that cerges reactor that I've been planning from since 2 years ago. The suction cups on the ista reactor inside the tank started to harden and lose effectiveness. As a result, it kept on floating up and while I tried to pull the cups off to soften them back up or replace them, one of the suction cup holding arms broke. I get it. It's tired and it told me as much. And I'm getting tired of hiding and scaping around it, so I told it as much. So here it is, its successor, born through trials by fire by the local community, through much interpretation, via much hand wringing and hair pulling!
Heh, Heh, please excuse the hyperbole. There was some hair pulling on my behalf about the parts though. That T junction involved some internal and philosophical debate and much hardware store scouring. I've come to the conclusion that retail has changed greatly. The internet marketplace has the niche market in such a monopoly that no one else can even come close. It's practically economically impossible to expect a brick and mortar store to stock the parts I needed. Anyway, there's one player in the game right now and it's USPlastics. Despite all my attempts to avoid them and their exorbitant shipping fee, I ended up only able to find all the arcane parts that I needed through them. They're not at all a bad company. Pretty good, actually, but I was just trying to be cheap with shipping. Anyway, the T is built upon a PVC junction with 1/2 NPT female connectors all around. 5/8 hose barb to 1/2 male NPT adapter one side, 1/2 male NPT to 1/2 male NPT nipple on the other, and 3/16 hose barb to 1/4 male NPT adapter into a 1/4 NPT female to 1/2 NPT male adapter on the co2 input. It is then mounted to the ubiquitous clear Pentek clear slim housing with a PVC "output" pipe inside and a male 1/2 NPT to 5/8 hose barb elbow for the output. I also toyed with various other connection ideas but decided that this route was the cleanest looking one I could assemble short of 3D printing a custom adapter myself. Here's the main Cerges Reactor thread for more information.
The retiree and its successor in comparison:
Larger size means "moar" CO2!!
Fully plumbed with a piece of 5/8" ID tube:
"Reactor, online .. Sensors, online .. Weapons, online .. All systems nominal.. <bip>"
As I half expected, I realized after the water started flowing that I had too much flow and undissolved bubbles were escaping. Probably the proper way to do this according to above Cerges Reactor thread is to plumb in a bypass, but I barely had enough space in the cabinet already and I don't need that additional mess of tubing. So, enter the cheaper method. I jammed up the bottom with poret foam that I had lying around. Other items usually used for this include pot scrubbies, bio-balls, ceramic rings -- anything to block the bubbles from jumping straight to the bottom of the downpipe and escaping. It does a pretty good job and only very minuscule bubbles get past. The other downside of this cheaper method will be more maintenance for it as no doubt, whatever escapes the main filter will end up in here. We'll see as time goes on. The upshot is more homes for beneficial bacteria!
Well! That brings us into May... 'til next time!
And now for some replies:
Of course! No need to apologize. For me, these journals are entirely for such connections. I used to think it was just a bragfest, but I understand now that it's a time and place to give a shoulder or find a shoulder to lean on, to marvel at some creations, to share in life's lessons, to have a laugh and even a cry sometimes.
But then think of all the CO2 fun I'd missed! Nah, I think it's when you're new, and these forums are so diverse, that you don't know which way to go. So, if I recall correctly, I saw suggestions of adding CO2, and I just flew with it. Might I remind you, that hagen ladder had this picture!!
Look at that difference in 40 days! Imagine what that does to an impressionable mind!
. The rotala macrandra has been swapped in position in the corner with the alternanthera reineckii -- first to give it more light, and second because the replumbed setup with the new reactor has greatly increased flow and was just blowing those thin macrandra stems all over the place. Java fern windelov is shaping up nicely and performing a better foreground duty than I originally intended. If anyone cares to recall, it was a BBA nest previously before it got some time out in a low tech tank. The new hydrocotyle is just nicely sprawling along, but more surprisingly, my dwarf hairgrass is finally growing somewhat. Maybe it's rewarding me for this stronger light cycle so I'll stick with it for a little. I'm still messing with GSA due to the extra lighting -- always too much light, right? Extra phosphates against GSA like everyone said seem to be helping too, but I think the bigger issue is that ambient light is giving me a much longer lighting period than I've set. I stubbornly refuse (read, am too lazy) to set up a nice black background to block the light coming in, but am equally curious to see and practice how well I can address this via various other means. I feel the extra growth of the DHG and the proper reddening of the red plants is worth my GSA troubles for now. I think I'm hooked on strong light again. I make excuses to keep my light levels high. Something along the lines of, "Well, I just put in this new reactor that's pushing in more CO2, so err, it should be okay!" Will it? Guess we'll see in a month! This super fueled plant growth, this massive pearling.. it's such an addiction. 
