[BennisTheMenace]

So I've learned a bit about my tank in the last few weeks. Mostly about dosing and balancing. The more ferts I put in the more I get diatoms. Even on the fast growing plants.

So less ferts for success in my case.

I tried upping the light too to get more fert usage, but I think again, I was overdoing it with ferts. So I'm trying out higher light still, with less ferts to see how it goes.

 

[BennisTheMenace]

No pictures today, but some interesting learnings from me.

I noticed that after dosing lean again, stems look much much happier, and there is a stunted section of the stem with smaller leaves and diatoms on them. The pink colour is coming back and growth looks better as I've been dosing lean.

One thing I am still trying to figure out is the GSA. Still there on old crypt leaves, but none of the glass. I have no problem snipping old leaves off as I need, and honestly they are producing keaves faster than I need to remove the under performing leaves, so still net good.

I've been messing with the light spectrum as I've read on a few occasions that the green spectrum doesn't really contribute to photosynthesis, and also has a lower efficiency converting electricity to light. So I've dialed it back.

I'm not sure if this is the right way forward. If plants have a hard time using green light, won't algae as well? If I like the look of the light better with green light, how much will that affect plant and algae growth?

I've got some more research to do on this topic, but hopefully it will improves my understanding.

Another interesting article I read was from the 2hr aquarist. Topic was the affects of light levels and co2 on plant growth, and the key finding was in both cases more light yields more plant growth... duh! But it is a little confidence booster to up my light output. I've had it so low for so long and have no experience with anything more than 10 par really...

I think I had 6-8 par at substrate level (in the middle, directly under the light). So bringing that up to 15 or even 30 is still considered low. But is 3X what I had initially so I'm re-learning how to balance.

It's far as I'm concerned the low tech balancing methods for the plant mass I have is changing the light intensity, and fertilizer together to find what works best in the system.

My plan however, is to keep increasing the light without changing my fertilizer dosing routine and see how far I can take it before there are negative effects.

Par will go up bit by bit, with duration still at 8 hrs. Let's experiment!

 

[pseudomugil]

Alright, did some 3d modelling today. I have a few nozzles that I want to try and print. I took some inspiration from some reef nozzles to get some turbulence. I maybe jumped the gun, because I don't even know if I can get them printed but we will see. My goal is to get a few options to try and see what kind of results I get. Any 3D printers reading this, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

The 'faceplate' I have for the corner filter in my 10 gallon is 3d printed from PLA and I've not been having any problems with it so I'd say that PLA is most likely fairly aquarium safe at least from my experience.

As far as modelling goes you'll have to modify most if not all of those designs unless you're printing with a scaffolding material to support overhangs. Basically you're printing in layers from the bottom up, so any unsupported material won't print where you put it. I would go talk to the person in charge of the 3d printer at your library and see if they can print using a scaffold material and if they can help you design scaffolds if you want to print those models, elsewise you'll need to either design overhangs as very shallow arches or design nozzles without overhangs in the orientation you print them.

 

[BennisTheMenace]

The 'faceplate' I have for the corner filter in my 10 gallon is 3d printed from PLA and I've not been having any problems with it so I'd say that PLA is most likely fairly aquarium safe at least from my experience.

As far as modelling goes you'll have to modify most if not all of those designs unless you're printing with a scaffolding material to support overhangs. Basically you're printing in layers from the bottom up, so any unsupported material won't print where you put it. I would go talk to the person in charge of the 3d printer at your library and see if they can print using a scaffold material and if they can help you design scaffolds if you want to print those models, elsewise you'll need to either design overhangs as very shallow arches or design nozzles without overhangs in the orientation you print them.

Thanks for the insight. I've never printed in more than 2 dimensions before.

I've been thinking about buying a random flow generator nozzle and 3d printing a line loc for the filter. Regardless I think I'll need to revisit CAD.

This will be quite the engineering problem to reduce inner diameter without much overhang... let's see how it goes!

 

[BennisTheMenace]

I was out of town for 2 weeks and returned to a little brown diatom algae on the glass, and some green dust algae. From what I read that means I had very little fertilizer in the water. So maybe this means my theory of having only nitrogen in the water at the end of my water change period.

Still figuring things out and getting balanced with the new light. Plants are a little overgrown but happy.

 

[BennisTheMenace]

Update! Life gets so busy sometimes.

Anyways, after having some time away for work and coming back, things are more jungly and wild than before. Not super unruly but grown in.

I've also added some crypt parva to the back left corner to try a different carpet plant. The Monte Carlo is no doing super hot, but it's not dying. Just stagnant.

 

[Count Krunk]

Looks good!