really beautiful and healthy plants
very well maintained tank
Thanks everyone for the encouragement and advice ~
Yes, I have replanted the right side a couple of times, thinking I should just fill it in with L. arcuata so that its more uniform. I find that the ARs get red with generally rich ferts/CO2, doesn't require much nitrate limitation to bring out the color. They don't like being moved though, I generally prune them in the same spot. Also they grow slowly compared to other stem plants, and thus can be vulnerable to algae on the leaves. Other than AR mini and Rosanervig, other varieties have a paler, more olive leaf surface, even though the undersides are purple as well. Reducing nitrates does seem to make L. arcuata more orange/redder.
These are the plant names;
really beautiful and healthy plants
very well maintained tank
Fancy seeing you here! Great scape by the way keep up the good work.
-=I work in the dark to serve the light=-
Wow! It's like a painting. Well done. How do keep the plants looking so bushy? Is it constant trimming? What fertilizer are you using?
Cheers
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Chiller used?
Yes, its by trimming, but not all stems take trimming the same way, so its partly choosing the plants that can be trimmed into bushes. I use dry fertilizers? K2HPo4, K2SO4, CSM + B, MgSO4, and a nitrate fertilizer that one can't buy in sg i think. There is no chiller in this tank, but its in bedroom where there is air-con while I sleep so the temperature dips to 26/27 over night.
cephelix - Ah yes I remember you from plantedtank forum. The guy with the ludwigia sp. red haa. Hope your plants are doing well too~
Fantastic!
Agree with shadow... somewhat the reds are scattered, better off grouped I guess. Anyway I will take it... because I cannot produce something like this
Hey come on, share you tank specs please. And your dosing please. Thanks!
Haa okay, didn't realize people will be so interested. The tank is 35 inches long, 16 inches wide, 23 inches tall.
The tank used to be lit by 2 X 150w industrial metal halides. 1st hour right side one turns on, next six hours, both, last hour only left side.
Now using 2 X BML Led fixtures, 1st fixture runs for 8 hours, 2nd fixture only runs for 4 hours. Because visually I find the color still a bit cool, I suspend a 20w CFL on top of the tank as well.
The filter is some Eheim Ecco, rated for around this tank size, I forgot exact model. Using ANS's CO2 system with an inline diffuser. Using 2 very small pumps(smallest pump in shops) to circulate the water, one of them blows upwards for some surface agitation. CO2 starts 1.5 hours before lights come on.
The substrate is a layer of peat about 1cm + red iron rich clay, followed by dirt (1 inch in front of tank, 3-6 inches at the back), and topped off with ANS planted substrate.
This is a shot of the tank side; the dark band on the bottom is the peat/red clay, followed by dirt/garden soil, then ANS substrate. I used some of the ANS substrate from the previous tank, so the older substrate is lighter in color. In this shot the ANS layer is quite thick, whereas for most of the tank, its around 2 inches or less; perhaps only 1 cm in front glass. Basically the ANS substrate's purpose is to cap the dirt.
Water parameters-wise, the kH keeps rising because of CO2 reacting with the stones, so kH fluctuates between 6-9. (6 after a 25% water change, 9ish after a few days)
This is my exact dosing sheet for the first 2 months:
1st column is date. The next 5 columns for tests done on that date. (usually only test N, PO4, and KH) WC % indicates water change on that particular date.
The 6 columns after that are what I dosed in PPM.
So for example, in the 3rd row 28/7 - 25%WC is 25% water change. Followed by dosing 7ppm(3+4) nitrates, 0.7ppm PO4 (in the form of KH2PO4), 5ppm K (K2SO4) and 0.3ppm Mg (MgSO4)
Excel, TDS, or other notes are in the last column. Fe & traces I dose in the form of CSM + B, and Iron chelate 11% EDTA
There are many water changes in the first few days; prevents algae from gaining momentum and suppresses KH, allowing plants that come from normal tap water to adapt more easily.
Eventually I adopted a 5 day schedule, where 25% water change is done every 5 days to keep the kH fluctuating in an acceptable range. After I spotted an Mg deficiency in Hemianthus glomeratus, Mg dosing became more frequent. After spotting spot algae appearing, I increased PO4 dosing. So in some sense my dosing is reactive rather than fixed.
Nitrates are generally very safe so from the start to the end I try to keep levels between 10-30, dropping to the lower range to get more reds if taking photographs
Phosphates can exacerbate algae if present, so I usually aim to dose heavily only after plants have stabilized, and aim for a 5-7ppm range. (tank dependent, some tanks have species that require more or less, dose till no more improvement is seen)
Potassium is safe, but I get K from K2SO4 and my nitrate fertilizer, so dosing of K2SO4 is at lower levels.
Fe & traces could exacerbate algae if present(although a higher level can kill algae & Plants), so similarly I dose more heavily only once plants are settled in.
Ca - because of limestone in the tank, there is an abundance
Mg - Ca/Mg ratio gets skewed because of limestone, usually only a low level 1-3ppm is needed, but in this tank I dose it to about 5-10 ppm. (only seen in very late stages when I spotted magnesium issues in plants)
Thats about everything I guess. For the geeks that actually measure PAR levels, each BML Led strip gives about 100 PAR within a 6 inch distance from center-line at 18 inches depth. At the peak 4 hour window when both lights are on, there is about 200 PAR at substrate level, about 300 PAR at 12 inch depth and around 600 PAR at 6 inch depth. Its actually alot of light and I'm still raising/lower the lights to find a balance. So far the downside of running too much light is spot/dust algae on glass and stones, but if the tank balance is good, this should be the only issue. Frankly, I still think that 80-100 PAR on substrate can grow anything, but I was rushing to complete this scape in 2 months cos I know I'll be busy in octobe; higher light does achieve this.
What a beautiful scape showcasing healthy plants!
Plants are doing well, but my fixture just decided to give up on me.so now i'm looking to use a pendant lamp as a substitute.
That's a very detailed list.do you have your own PAR meter or are the values taken from the spec sheet?
What do you use to dose Mg? And what are the telltale signs of Mg deficiency??
-=I work in the dark to serve the light=-
thank you~
I don't have my own PAR meter, but BML has very accurate PAR sheets. I dose Mg with MgSO4, you can buy them from horiculture shops or guardian pharmarcy as Epsom salts. In my case, I had about 10-15% of new growth on the hemianthus glomeratus appearing with dead shoot tips. This symptom is quite specific to either Ca/Mg issues or severe trace deficiency in HG/HM in a fast growth stage (for slower growing plants/conditions Mg deficiency manifests as yellowing of leaves instead, as Mg is mobile in the plant). Given the limestone and high calcium content in the water, mostly likely culprit is Mg; I tripled the dose or so and no longer see the issue anymore.
Thanks for that!! Will keep a lookout for the symptoms in my plants.how much did the bml cost you if you don't mind sharing.
-=I work in the dark to serve the light=-
Wow! Didn't expect such detailed info. Thank you very much, it was very interesting reading it (a few times really). Very technically capable on the chemistry and dosing, makes me feel lost for a while, mostly one will just falt EI done, like me.
And the result.... such a beautiful tank.
Then I read that this tank is in your bedroom. Wow.... Say if it was in mine, I cast a small blue led moonlight at lights off sleep time, I can imagine the beauty... counting leaves to sleep... no sheeps required.
nice tank!
All the prices are in their Buildmyled website. The LEDs are nice, but in general I find that many LEDs on the market may have problems with color rendering (visually), or if they don't have PAR data available, then there are many poor quality ones on the market. Its a minefield for new customers. T5HOs still have a good balance and predictability though I think LEDs will eventually overtake.
Haa... the downside of having fish tank in room is that the wall can get mouldy ! Although I think newer paints are quite resistant.
Very soothing feel...thanks for sharing. Very nice scape with good colour contrast
Added some photos of a low tech DHG tank I'm growing as a gift to a friend. Waiting for the AR to peak out from the back a bit more.
This a 3 gal tank, DHG foreground, HM/HG on the right, java fern spread around, some crypts in shaded areas, some moss on the rocky areas, and AR cardinalis at the back. Substrate is dirt capped with fine gravel/sand.
Cool! Very nice growth! I don't see any lights. Are you just using the ambient light from your main tank?
Cheers,
JJ
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