[SpringHalo]

Hello all!
I plunged into the hobby last year with my ages-old 20L, and eventually moved up to a high tech 40b seeded with plant packs from Burr and Herns. The 40b never quite got the fertilizers and attention it needed, so after moving houses, I decided to start fresh with a 20x20x16, 28 gallon rimless cube tank.

I built the stand with 3/4" pre-finished maple plywood, and trimmed it with more maple for a nice clean look. Door has yet to be mounted.

7/22/19 - Total rescape, dosing pump finally added

Plants came in a big package from Rare (5-09-18). There were a couple species that didn't survive the journey, but for the most part everything came healthy and ready to re-establish in my extra hard 7.8PH water.

Flora List:

AR Mini (From Burr)
AR Variegated
AR Ocipus
Erio sp. Vietnam
Erio sp. Malayatoor
Lindernia India
Limnophilia Belem
Ludwigia sp. Red
Ludwigia Tornado
Ludwigia sp. White
Pogostemon Heidelberg
Poaceae sp. Purple Bamboo
Rotala Mini types 1, 2, and 4
Rotala Mini Butterfly
Rotala Magenta
Rotala Mexicana
Rotala Indica
Styrogene Purple
Gratiola Viscidula

And the main course: Thread Algae! I pick off a toothbrush or two full every other day, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to get rid of it.

Fauna List:
A couple generations of Dalmatian Mollies. Great for picking off dead plants, but seemingly ignore the hair algae. Shucks.

Equipment:
Aquaclear 50 with CO2 chopstick diffuser and 100ml Purigen
CO2 at 3-4bps getting a 1.0 Ph drop from 7.8 to 6.8
Fluval 100W heater set to 76F
2" BDBS Substrate
Koralia Nano 240gph


Lighting:
DIY Light fixture tuned to a pink-purple hue
(2) Cree 1304 5000k led (50%)
(2) Cree 1304 2700k led (20%)
(8) Semileds Deep Red (20%)
(4) Semileds Royal Blue (20%)
Set to a 7 hour photoperiod at ~60PAR. Full brightness is 220PAR, which I hope to ramp up to once everything gets established.

Fertilizers:
My old bottle of Thrive just about ran out, so I decided to start DIY EI ferts. Since Burr's tank is so successful, I wanted to emulate his fertilizer regime with a 3x Macro dose after water changes, and 2 doses during the week. Each dose gives 6 ppm KNO3, 0.5 ppm KH2SO4, and 2 ppm K2SO4. Micros are basic EI-dosed CSM+B for 0.15 ppm Fe daily.

Here's a comparison shot right after the last water change. The water gets cloudy the day after 50% water changes, and hasn't cleared up in the past 3 water changes. When I started the tank I kept the bio-media from my prior tank, and testing shows zero nitrites and ammonia. I got a bag of purigen thinking that it would clear up the water, but no dice on that front. Could it already need re-charging after only a few weeks?

Current plans are to wait it out while pulling algae out every few days, keeping with the 50% weekly water change schedule. Plants are almost ready to trim and re-plant! All plant locations are tentative right now, since it took roughly 5 hours of trimming and planting to fill the tank originally. I think I'll move the central rotalas further back, and the bushier green plants can be more centralized. The main goal is to grow these enough to transplant into my work-in-progress 75g, where they'll all have much more room to grow out.

Edit: Here's a bird's eye view of the layout. Should I uproot and spread out the erios?

 

[SpringHalo]

Update: Now algae-free!

The end-all fix? Reduce light by 20% to ~50PAR and reduce photo-period to 4 hours. I also got inconsistent with fertilizer dosing, so instead of doing lump-sums at random intervals I just reduced it to post-water-change. I just got a Jebao doser, so I'll start back up with 1/2 EI and begin bringing the light back up in 1/2 hour intervals weekly.

In other news, the Ludwigia white perished due to what I believe is lack of light (stems kept rotting). The Ludwigia Tornado is also struggling. The rotala mexicana 'green' could also probably benefit from more light, but I want to keep it steady so the hair algae doesn't come back.

The 75g is nearing completion so hopefully I can reduce the number of plants in this tank down to 3~5, as it still seems very cluttered aesthetic-wise.

Until next time!

 

[SpringHalo]

9-month update! I've neglected the tank quite a bit, but nature finds a way.

50% Water changes approx every 3-4 weeks
No consistent fertilizer schedule, mostly just nitrates from fish
600% more fish! The local Meijer fish department closed down with 11-for-$10 sale, so I got 15 platies of different shades to accompany my mollies.

Attempts to increase light intensity were met with water column algae blooms, so my current plan is to increase light duration. At the moment I'm running from 4PM to 9:30PM, but reading the 2hraquarist suggests it should be more like 7-10 hours, so slow weekly increases may work out.

Many of the plants couldn't handle lower light and scarce nutrients, so only a few are still thriving:
AR Mini
AR Variegated
AR Ocipus
Erio sp. Vietnam
Limnophilia Belem
Rotala Mexicana
Rotala Indica
Styrogene Purple

Progress pictures:
Dec 12, 2018 (water change bubbles)

Jan 18, 2019

Feb 05, 2019

Mar 05, 2019

 

[ipkiss]

Amazing. Benevolent neglect at it's best.

 

[SpringHalo]

I couldn't get rid of green water and attributed it to overfeeding over the past year. The tank is right near my desk so it's easy to just throw some food in when the fish are begging. Copious siphoning wasn't the answer, so I completely tore down the tank and hosed out the sand. I decided to go with a more green 'scape this time. I also need to get more female platys because there's only two and only one or two babies survive the first couple days after birth.


Pic 7/22/19, things have gotten unruly in the month since and I'll picture that once I trim tonight!