[tylergvolk]

Great, now I've spotted more blue green algae...

 

[tenthe]

I know how you feel. I also have a 12 long with a Sat+ and did a dry start to grow a carpet of HC. Mine yellowed, thinned and died out in the months after submerging.

I was waiting for it to bounce back, since my other plants were doing very well. Unfortunately, after three months, there was no sign of a recovery and far too much rotting plant matter at the bottom of the carpet to ignore. I decided to pull it all up and start over. Hopefully yours doesn't get to that point.

My new HC is doing much better after making some adjustments. Here's what I've changed:

I put a powerhead (Hydor Evo-Mag 180) at the far end of the tank to push water toward the filter intake. That half of the tank was pretty much stagnant. I think the low circulation was the main thing that killed my carpet.

I increased the CO2. I've been slowly dialing it up beyond lime green on the drop checker. I'm trying to find out what is the highest concentration the fish can tolerate.

I'm also cleaning the tank as frequently as I can now to remove dead plants and algae. Cleaning the filter and powerhead helps keep circulation up and checking to make sure the reactor doesn't need to be bled keeps the CO2 consistent.

I upped the light to 10 hours, and put the Sat+ on its brightest setting. I think the sudden drop from 14 hours/day while dry starting to 6 hours after flooding was a bit of a shock for the the HC. Even with a 10 hour photoperiod, I have no BGA or hair algae, whereas before I had quite a bit. I'm attributing the lack of BGA and hair algae to the increased circulation.

Anyways, I hope some of this might be useful. You have a great looking tank, best of luck getting the carpet to thrive.

 

[tylergvolk]

I know how you feel. I also have a 12 long with a Sat+ and did a dry start to grow a carpet of HC. Mine yellowed, thinned and died out in the months after submerging.

I was waiting for it to bounce back, since my other plants were doing very well. Unfortunately, after three months, there was no sign of a recovery and far too much rotting plant matter at the bottom of the carpet to ignore. I decided to pull it all up and start over. Hopefully yours doesn't get to that point.

My new HC is doing much better after making some adjustments. Here's what I've changed:

I put a powerhead (Hydor Evo-Mag 180) at the far end of the tank to push water toward the filter intake. That half of the tank was pretty much stagnant. I think the low circulation was the main thing that killed my carpet.

I increased the CO2. I've been slowly dialing it up beyond lime green on the drop checker. I'm trying to find out what is the highest concentration the fish can tolerate.

I'm also cleaning the tank as frequently as I can now to remove dead plants and algae. Cleaning the filter and powerhead helps keep circulation up and checking to make sure the reactor doesn't need to be bled keeps the CO2 consistent.

I upped the light to 10 hours, and put the Sat+ on its brightest setting. I think the sudden drop from 14 hours/day while dry starting to 6 hours after flooding was a bit of a shock for the the HC. Even with a 10 hour photoperiod, I have no BGA or hair algae, whereas before I had quite a bit. I'm attributing the lack of BGA and hair algae to the increased circulation.

Anyways, I hope some of this might be useful. You have a great looking tank, best of luck getting the carpet to thrive.

At least I'm not the only one... I'm pretty bummed out because I really tried to put my best foot forward on this one and I'm really struggling now. I appreciate your input/advice.

I'm wondering which filter your using in your setup. I'm using an Eheim 2217 and the flow is great. I don't think flow is a problem for me. I think my problem is a combination of things noted in previous posts of this journal; however, I'm starting to wonder if my substrate is the main culprit.

I think I'm going to do a major water change, cleaning, and trim tomorrow, as a last attempt to bounce back. Wish me luck.

 

[tylergvolk]

I took out all the fish and transported them into my 20L. I did a MAJOR trim/cleaning. I did x5 100% water changes to get all the mulm and Floating HC out of this tank. After the filter ran for a few hours, I cleaned that out as well. After I was all done, I lightly sprinkled some more substrate over the top of all the HC. This took a really long time by the way...

At this point, I'm not really sure what to do and I don't even know if this aquarium is worthy trying to save. It's looking like a barren wasteland right now.

The plan:

1. Increase co2 till the checker is yellow!
2. EI dose
3. Photoperiod 8-10 hours
4. Cross my fingers and hope for the best...

 

[yellabelly]

just that time.

As I have read thousands of the journals in the past few months ive come to realize that the life of carpeting plants is a short one. I have tried carpeting DHG with no luck as I jumped in head first before researching anything. Since then I have found little to none lasting more than a few months. Please someone prove me wrong. After 3 months of slow growth with some improper equip, my DHG just slowly melted away no matter what I did. This includes ALL new equip, changing photo periods, increasing co2, etc... However, I picked up a new small pot of dhg and it's doing great in the last few days in comparison to the originals. Just my thoughts... these carpeting plants are similar to some typical weeds found in turf grass. They reproduce like crazy but then slowly die off only to reappear weeks/a month later. Which if in a tank, we would surely rip it out and start over by then. Just time to try something new and thats ALWAYS exciting. With that badas$ setup and equip all you need is plants and their the cheapest part. Good luck my friend!

 

[tylergvolk]

Researching and starting to plan a new scape that's low light and dirt.

 

[tylergvolk]

Reinvented!

Today, I decided to rescaped this tank using dirt, rocks, wood and plants I had laying around.

 

[tylergvolk]

So the idea here us to get a dense carpet of dwarf sag on the right side.

On the left, I might rescaped; however I plan to keep the same general idea.

1. Might change out the wood for something else more scraggly looking.
2. Keeping the slate ledge look.
3. Want to add a lot more fern
4. Want to incorporate some hydrocotyle strip in the front left toward middle

Dreaming... lol

 

[tylergvolk]

Plants are overgrown
MGOCPM Bubbling
Added 6 Neon Tetra
Added 1 Otto
BBA.

I'll get some pics soon...

 

[minority]

Yes please, pics would be nice. It's hard to imagine what it looks like. That, and the photos you've already taken are good photos.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[tylergvolk]

I've been very busy lately. I'll see what I can do for photos.

 

[tylergvolk]

Dirty!

Here is a really bad picture of the tank. You can see how dirty the tank is due to the bubbling of the MGOCPM. There's a huge bulging of the substrate near the middle that I've been working on.

Water change tomorrow.

This tank is doing pretty good though. nice thing calm down. I'll get going on making things look tip top!

 

[tylergvolk]

Having fun with the panoramic option in my iphone 5.

 

[tylergvolk]

I recently temporarily removed the slate and narrow java fern, cleaned the MGOCPM off the top of the substrate, and added about an extra inch of Black Diamond cap. After, the white fungus has formed again. This should go away eventually.

The dwarf sag was growing high. I got impatient with it and mowed the lawn. It may take some time to bounce back. The stems plants are growing like crazy.

Eventually, I want to rescape the left side of the tank, but first everything needs to stabilize.

Dirt is great because it's cheap but using sand like cap makes it much easier to manage.

 

[tylergvolk]

Today, I made some adjustments

10 Neon Tetra
3 Otto's

Light:
PAR Estimation: [email protected]"
Full Spectrum; half power
Low-medium

Ferts:
Kno3 1/32 Weekly
Khpo4 1/64 Weekly
K2so4 1/64 Weekly
Trace 1/64 Weekly
1/2 ml Metricide a Daily

Water Change Weekly

 

[tylergvolk]

This tank is doing well. The dwarf Sag is starting to send out runners. I hope to get a nice thick rug of sag. The repens and other stems are doing well too. Over all, the tank has stabilized.

One issue is the tetra are always hiding for some reason only to come up to the surface for food. Otherwise they hide in the stems or sit in the sag along the bottom where the flow is lowest. Any thoughts?

 

[tylergvolk]

 

[ChemGuyEthan]

Looking good!

Looks like the tetras decided to stop hiding. Maybe they just needed time adjusting to their new home.

 

[tylergvolk]

Looking good!

Looks like the tetras decided to stop hiding. Maybe they just needed time adjusting to their new home.

Yeah man. They love it in there. Especially when I bust out the blood worms.

 

[tylergvolk]

I retired this tank today. I pulled and ungodly amount of dwarf sag from this tank. It was stocking...

All the plants, equipment, and fauna are going in my new 125G.

+1 for the sat+ on a 12L. You can't beat it. What an awesome combo!