My 1st DSM

[dc88]

This is my first attempt to try the Tom Barr's Dry Start Method.
I plan to do a weekly progressive update to show how it goes.

Start with a 1.5ft (30L) tank, lighting is PL 18Wx2 on timer 10 hrs/day.


Some left-over Aquatic Compost soil.


And some lapis sand (or some call it "river quartz sand" ?) to top it off.


Mix 1L of Aquatic Compost soil and equal amount of sand as the bottom layer.


Top with 1.5L of plain lapis sand. Shape a gentle slope from the back to front.


7 rocks in a row. Lets see: there is Oyaishi, Fukuishi...
can't tell the Soeishi from the Suteishi... anyway Iwagumi is not the prime objective of this experiment.


Rocks formation after several trial-n-error. Hope this is pleasing enough


Wet the graval with aged tank water plus some extra ingredient to give some kicks. BB in a bottle about 2.5ml of it.


Let the gravel settle a little. Meanwhile go hurt for some HC !


Stay tuned....

[dc88]

My 1st DSM (continued)...

Bought back a bag of HC and a spray bottle sooner than expected.


Nice & healthy Hemianthus callitrichoides. Lucky to find this sample is growth from soil and not on wool-foam (which would be hard to remove).


Closed-up view confirmed this is from emersed-growth, and plenty of healthy roots underneath. Just the right form for DSM.


Planting in DSM is really a piece of cake !!! Able to finish within just 30min, unlike those day when planting in water, took hours and bending back...


This purple bottle is going to be their life-line for a while !!! Water is from a matured EI tank with loads of NO3/PO4 and trace.


Mark this as Day 0 and start counting.
- plan not to cling-wrap the tank for now (given our tropical climate here), see how it goes.


Stay tuned for weekly update. No guarantee for success, learning as it progresses...
Cheers !

[dc88]

My 1st DSM (continued)

It is drying up faster than I thought. Decided to partially cover the top with Cling Wrap. Leaving about 2" gap on each side.


Monitoring the temperature of the gravel - around 28 C due to the water evaporates (outside ambient temperature is 32 C with humidity 62% according to Google.)
If this can sustain would be great....

[dc88]

From this online calculator the relative humidity in the tank is probably about 75%.

http://www.ringbell.co.uk/info/humid.htm

[sateman]

Looking good bro....Good luck!! Hope it'll work out well.
Nice step by step info plus pics

[cherabin]

I guess this will be CO2 injected upon flooding?

[ZackZhou]

Hi, I'm not here to dampen your first dsm. However, dry start hc will be much more successful if the temp in the tank is low. That means you need to do this in an aircon place. If not, growing it the normal way will be more efficient.
No offense intended.
On top of that, you really need not dose any EI when dry start, and with initial long duration of lighting period (10 hours), algae will be growing faster than your hc.

[felix_fx2]

Dry faster when you not using cling warp not the issue. Is spraying some water daily

Cool but humid with ample lightings.

[dc88]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice !
This is solely to experiment the DSM. I have success before doing the normal method e.g. with HG. Hence not a problem if this fail. Just learning any way.

"I guess this will be CO2 injected upon flooding?"
Yes, as mentioned in Tom Barr's note. Once flooding it is better to maximize the CO2 injection so that the plant can transit to submersed form easier. Otherwise they might get "drown" and melted for not getting enough CO2.

"you really need not dose any EI when dry start, and with initial long duration of lighting period (10 hours), algae will be growing faster than your hc".

I did not dose EI directly to this dry start. Basically I take the tank water form another matured tank which has been dosing EI for a while already. The water in that tank usually around 10ppm NO3, 1ppm PO4 and some good amount of trace (dosing with Seachem Flourish).
I need to spray this DSM tank with fertilized water because I am using plain gravel at the top layer. Although there is a layer of Aquatic soil at the bottom but I don't think the HC's roots can reach there yet. I could have used ADA soil (Amazona) instead then I would not need to spray fertilized water to it if the HC were planted on to ADA soil directly.
This advice to dose NO3/PO4 on plain gravel for DSM is also mentioned in Tom's note at his Barr's Report website. And there will not be algae since I do not flood the plant, only keep the gravel damped. (The plants are emersed) This is another advantage of DSM start up.
[btw dosing NO3/PO4 will not induce algae. It is the ammonia that cause algae bloom]

"when you not using cling warp not the issue. Is spraying some water daily
Cool but humid with ample lightings."
The challenge I faced is to keep the tank cool. My house is very hot these day and the tank seems to dry out faster than desired. And I can only spray it twice daily (once in the morning before work
and once in the evening after work).
I try adjust the Cling Wrap to cover most part of the top and leaving about 1.5" air gap on each side seems to be a good balance.
Temperature inside the tank can reach 29.5C at the gravel, and 30C in the air. I have also adjusted the lighting period instead of straight through 10 hrs of light, it is now 4 hours than a 2 hrs break then another 4 hrs. This allow the tank to cool down in between.

So far 2 days have passed. Majority of the HCs are adapting well with some sign of growth (can see the stems are straightening up). Except at the 2 corners at the highest point of the gravel slope the HCs there are drying up with some stems turn dark already probably not getting enough water. Again I think if using ADA soil the result could be better than using lapis sand. I guess ADA soil might retain water longer than sand.

keep my fingers crossed... if things go well by end of the week would be a quarter of the journey before the flooding...

[dc88]

RED ALERT !!!

Encounter heat wave today. Came home late missed the misting session.
Quite a number of HC branches show darken tips and dead stems. Temp was as high as 31C. Need to find a way to cool it during the day. May try put in ice bottle as some suggested.
Last resort may be to do flooding earlier and cool with fan ? .... stay tuned.

[Darylyap]

hi dc88, dropped you a pm but not sure you receive or not.

it's regarding, what's your tank size, how much & where you got it.

what lighting you using?

[dc88]

Sorry I might have click the PM reply wrong so message didn't send out.
Thanks for the interest. Here's the spec:
Tank size: 18" x 12" x 12"
Bought from NA many years back (2006?)
Can't remember how much I paid.
It came with the light set of 2 x 18w Compact flourescent
with conventional ballast I modify it to electronic balast.
I use Osram PL tubes (18W Daylight)

[Darylyap]

thanks for the info.

hope your dsm will be successful.

[dc88]

Cooling method update :

To beat the heat, I am trying out the ice bottle method borrowing idea from this thread :
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...-a-cooler-box)

Using a plastic hang-on container from IKEA to hold the ice bottle in the tank.



The cool part is not only it keeps the tank cool, also dew will condense on the container and slower drip down to water the plant Temperature drop to 27.5C

Overall still no sign of growing/spreading. Hopefully underneath the roots are working hard.

btw one idea I think of what if putting pieces of dry ice in the container instead ? Dry ice will become CO2 gas which the plant can use, and the cool surface can generate dew to moist the plant... where to buy bulk of dry ice ?

[ZackZhou]

Cooling method update :

To beat the heat, I am trying out the ice bottle method borrowing idea from this thread :
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...-a-cooler-box)

Using a plastic hang-on container from IKEA to hold the ice bottle in the tank.



The cool part is not only it keeps the tank cool, also dew will condense on the container and slower drip down to water the plant Temperature drop to 27.5C

Overall still no sign of growing/spreading. Hopefully underneath the roots are working hard.

btw one idea I think of what if putting pieces of dry ice in the container instead ? Dry ice will become CO2 gas which the plant can use, and the cool surface can generate dew to moist the plant... where to buy bulk of dry ice ?

Hi bro, I think you should be asking where do I store my dry ice?

[dc88]

Ok, where do you store your dry ice?

[dc88]

A few more days to reach the 1st week.

Couple of adjustment for "climate" control :
- Lighting period adjust back to 10 hrs continuous but switch on at 6pm through the night till 4am, taking advantage of the cooler hours of the evening/night. Light off in the day time. Because the light fixture is generating quite an amount of heat to the tank.
- Also think this continuous 10 hrs light period is more "natural" to the plant.
- Continue with ice bottle replenish 12 hours cycle : 6pm when light is on, and 7am before the start of the day.

So far no more new casualty of dead stems and leaf. Temperature is average around the range of 28.3-28.9C.

[dc88]

Update: Temperature is now in the range 27-28C even when light is on.
I think I have the climate inside the DSM tank in control now.
btw Hemianthus callitrichoides comfort zone is 18-28C according to some website bios.

[Shadow]

In my opinion no need to worry so much on dsm temp. I try before on the container, outside balcony with direct sunlight at certain hour. Temp is roughly 30-32 or maybe hotter depending on Singapore whether at the time. Spray water 2 timer a day. HC have no problem growing on that condition.

[dc88]

Thanks Shadow. Good infor & reassurance.
Did you use ADA soil?
I suspect my case because of the plain gravel top layer too thick it can't hold water so dry up too fast.
Also the light fixture may be giving up heat baking the plant. As you said letting the tank in the open area with natural sunlight could be better.