32 litre "Tree Scape" Tank!

[cherabin]

I have adopted this siesta method for my shrimp tanks with no CO2 nor Excel supplement. I'm crossing my fingers this will work as I have undergravel filters which consequently causes surface agitation that may reduce natural CO2 concentration. For my Excel tanks, I run hang on filters causing quite a fair bit of surface agitation with no lights off break in between and so far the plants are doing well. Hopefully all works out well on this trial attempt.

[bennyc]

Yeah, adjusting the height of the lily pipes everyday is quite a hassle... need to find a better solution.

Perhaps you can try reducing your Co2 injection amount? Or switching off the Co2 injection earlier, say 1 hour earlier?

I guess its possible that even when you switch off the Co2 injection, the remaining Co2 levels in the water are still too high and when the plants switch to O2-Co2 respiration in darkness, the combined concentration could be too much for the fishes so they start gasping for air.

Its abit odd though, this mostly occurs in tanks with Co2 injection that are constantly on for 24 hours... usually for scheduled Co2 injection, there is enough time for the remaining Co2 levels to lower on its own accordingly.

Thanks for the insight, did not think that is possible. Shall try your suggestion. Crossing my fingers and hoping it works.

[Shadow]

Do remember when your solenoid turn off, the CO2 supply will not instantaneously cut off. There are still quite some of pressure, you should still be able to see bubble in the bubble counter for quite a while depending on the pressure left.

[bennyc]

Do remember when your solenoid turn off, the CO2 supply will not instantaneously cut off. There are still quite some of pressure, you should still be able to see bubble in the bubble counter for quite a while depending on the pressure left.

I believe as suggested by Urban, leaving the lights on for 1 hour after CO2 off is sufficent to balance out the co2 level?

[Shadow]

probably yes, my suggestion since you have CO2 injection, why not just leave it on the whole 8 hrs or more.

[bennyc]

probably yes, my suggestion since you have CO2 injection, why not just leave it on the whole 8 hrs or more.

hmmm... co2 is on 4pm to 1130pm, Lights on are 4.30pm to 1 am.

Sorry Urban Aquaria bro, start to feel like i am hijacking your thread.

[Urban Aquaria]

hmmm... co2 is on 4pm to 1130pm, Lights on are 4.30pm to 1 am.

Sorry Urban Aquaria bro, start to feel like i am hijacking your thread.

1.5 hours should be enough time for the plants to use up the remaining Co2 before lights off... do update on the results if it works.

No worries about adding to the thread, its all useful info.

[bennyc]

Haha i shall try.

If there is no change. I do have a drop checker but not the solution, perhaps i should buy the solution you mention (oceanfree) and have a better gauge on the CO2 level.

[Shadow]

if your are talking about the CO2 concentration during this 1.5hrs where your light ON and CO2 OFF, I'm afraid drop checker will not catch it. Drop checker is not real time.

[milk_vanilla]

Myco2 off 30 mins before the lights off.

Co2 is fuzzy, very difficult to measure their exact concentration level. Even drop checker just giving you in color, no precision number, no immediate response.

I would rather waste the resources, by abundantly provided unto certain level, compare to keep find their turning point at light on/off

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[cherabin]

Anyone adopting the siesta approach for their low tech Excel tanks? Very keen to know as I have 3 such tanks and wonder if the 4 hours break in between will actually enchance plant growth. Walstad method is for a natuaral planted tank without Excel supplementation.

[lionelckg]

I've adopted this siesta method for the past 1week+. Noticed that my java moss are growing alot better. Greener and more lush.

[Urban Aquaria]

Anyone adopting the siesta approach for their low tech Excel tanks? Very keen to know as I have 3 such tanks and wonder if the 4 hours break in between will actually enchance plant growth. Walstad method is for a natuaral planted tank without Excel supplementation.

Excel basically acts as an additional carbon source, but your plants will still be using the majority of natural Co2 from the water to photosynthesize.

In an Excel supplemented tank (without Co2 injection), the siesta regimen will still be useful to help replenish the natural Co2 levels in between shifts. Every extra bit resource efficiency counts.

[Urban Aquaria]

I see shrimplets everywhere!



The new batch shrimplets have grown large enough and started to surface out of the HC carpet to graze on the top layer... previously they were hiding inside the HC carpet enjoying all the nutritious microscopic foods that grow there and only popping out occasionally to check for predators.

The dense HC carpet offers alot of protection against fishes, this ensures a very high survival rate for the shrimplets (especially in community tanks with a mix of fauna).

I would estimate from their size and colors that these shrimplets are probably around 3-4 weeks old, large (and brave) enough to move around the tank on their own without getting bothered by the fishes.

Here is another photo of two more skipping along the tank glass...



In total, i have counted around 25+ juvenile shrimplets separately scattered across the tank so far (there are probably alot more smaller ones that i still haven't spotted yet), quite a good breeding rate considering that i only introduced in a batch of 30+ adult shrimps 8 weeks ago and there were no special attempts to breed them.

I guess once tank conditions are favorable, they'll multiply like rabbits.

[cherabin]

Thank you Urban Aquaria for the advice on siesta regime for Excel tanks. Ill be tinkering with my timer a little later.

And as usual, beautiful pictures of updated shrimplets and HC lawn. Seems that HC grown without CO2 injection us feasible and I can't wait to try for my next new tank.

[cherabin]

Hi brother UA, any updates on your HC lawn?

[Urban Aquaria]

Hi brother UA, any updates on your HC lawn?

No significant updates so far, the HC is maintaining its carpet and still looks the same, only trimmed a few odd plantlets to keep it tidy.

This tank has become sort of a shrimp tank now, as the tank environment seems to be very conducive for shrimp breeding.

I recently added a few more otocinclus into the tank to condition them for another new tank, so the lighting period was increased slightly over the past 2 weeks to boost algae growth... now the walls of the tank are all covered in nice green algae.

[cherabin]

Thank you for the update

[cherabin]

Is this tank still running?

[Urban Aquaria]

Yup, its still running... here is a photo i took of it today after doing some tank maintenance and cleaning the front glass panel (nowadays i leave the sides and back glass panels with abit of green algae for the shrimps and otos to graze on).

Tank at 16 weeks / 4 months.



The main area of HC carpet on the left and middle of the tank still looks good, but the HC under the fissidens tree on the right side has mostly thinned out, from this experience i can see that any blockage of light to HC plants will affect their growth and they'll eventually wither away and disappear (you can even see the bare patches mirrored directly under the shadow of the bogwood branches). The flow is also relatively weak on the right side (almost no circulation there) so that also affects the HC growth in that area.

Next time i'll position the majority of my plants in areas with more flow and less plants (or just plain open spaces) in areas with less flow.

The slope has unfortunately started to flatten out over time too, without additional rocks or wood pieces to support the back section of the tank, water movement and constant shrimp picking gradually shifted the fine powder type aqua soil. As a result the HC at the back of the tank ended up with exposed roots, which looked rather unsightly, so i removed them to let newer growth spread back properly.

Moral of the story... always support and reinforce slopes from the start to counter natural erosion, especially for fine grained soil.

So far, i've still not dosed any fertilizers yet and the plants still look okay, no nutrient deficiencies spotted yet, most likely the ADA aqua soil still has enough nutrients for the plants at the moment... i guess once the soil's nutrients run out, then it'll be time to start dosing fertilizers.

No significant algae issues so far (fingers crossed), only the usual green algae film in the glass panels.

Although my fish bio-load is kept low to balance the waste/nutrient cycle (currently only 8 x Danio Margaritatus and 2 x Otocinclus which are all very small fishes), there has been a population boom in cherry shrimps, so much so that i have to keep transferring them out to other tanks or it becomes abit overcrowded.



Oddly, those few small pieces of rocks in the tank turned out to have some pH increasing properties... the tank's water pH is now around 7.2-7.4, up from 6.4-6.6. As the pH change was gradual, the fishes and shrimps didn't display any visible problems so its not a big issue.

It seems even with aqua soil's pH reducing feature, just a few small rocks can still move pH up over time. I'll probably remove those rocks soon and test if the pH drops back down again.

Overall, the tank is quite easy to run and not much maintenance required, its been an interesting experiment. But i'll likely be taking it apart over the next few weeks as i'll need the soil and plants for another new tank project.