My 3ft Planted Tank

[BlessChwee]

Zerofighterx101: Initially, I was looking around for a 4x39w and BFG recommended me delightings which he mentioned was quite popular and I decided to purchase that. However, when I reached Razali's place, he told me he ran out of stock and he told me that the current 4x39w does not come with a tank stand and is meant for tanks with hood. He then recommended me the Maxspect 8000k which I quite like. I decided to get this due to its slim profile with a thickness of just 2.5cm. Initially, I am not sure how well can LEDs grow plants but I feel this light really does the job. My plants started pearling, and my buce, anubias, ferns, moss continue to grow, and sadly BBA which have never happen before!

flick, qngwn: yeah, I just reduced my lighting hours to 5 and increase CO2 to 2-3 bps. I will see how it goes. If it doesn't help, I might go and purchase a bottle of Excel. Today it pearls again, probably due to my lily pipe causing alot of air exchange on the surface yesterday. i have just topped up my tank water this noon.

May I know how much u pay for the led set and does it consume more electricty than the T5

[BFG]

Kohanson, if possible, do not use 100% light level. Start at 65% and increase from there. The Razor 160w marine version I can't stand the light at 90% intensity and use it at 75%.

[kohanson]

BlessChwee: Hi, I bought from the merchant delightings at Pasir Ris Farmway 3. You can check out the thread here. I will PM you the price. http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...for-freshwater

BFG: Bro, ok. I just reduced the lighting intensity to 80%. 100% is very glaring like afternoon sun

[mordrake]

Did you also increase your fert dosing? Plants don't just survive on co2 and lights alone you know

[kohanson]

Mordrake: thanks for the advise. I will increase fertiliser dosing also.

Updates:
I have further reduced the lightings to 60% and the plants are still pearling but not as much as 100%. I am also monitoring my glosso to ensure they are carpeting.

[qngwn]

Nice.. The beauty of high budget lights.. If only I would get one of them..

[flick]

flick, qngwn: yeah, I just reduced my lighting hours to 5 and increase CO2 to 2-3 bps. I will see how it goes. If it doesn't help, I might go and purchase a bottle of Excel. Today it pearls again, probably due to my lily pipe causing alot of air exchange on the surface yesterday. i have just topped up my tank water this noon.

Sounds like a good start. Please do update if your lighting and CO2 rate manage to control the BBA. I think it's better you get the Seachem Excel and start dosing daily, quite crappy to see BBA all over the tank.

May I know how is your CO2 added to your tank, via diffuser or reactor?

Really love your lights... wish I could get one too But I think the price is a bit heart stopping for me. haha.

[kohanson]

flick: ya I think I will get the seachem excel this weekend. How do you dose excel? Is it spot dose on the affected parts with filter off or just dose the whole tank? I am very new to planted tanks and learning everyday heh. The CO2 is added via diffuser and I place it below my intake tube, some will go into the canister while some will drift away. Hope it will not spoil the motor since only less than half the bubbles are going in.

[flick]

flick: ya I think I will get the seachem excel this weekend. How do you dose excel? Is it spot dose on the affected parts with filter off or just dose the whole tank? I am very new to planted tanks and learning everyday heh. The CO2 is added via diffuser and I place it below my intake tube, some will go into the canister while some will drift away. Hope it will not spoil the motor since only less than half the bubbles are going in.

I only dose daily into the tank. 4ml per day. I've never tried spot dosing before. I'm not very far from you either, I only started last July

Your method gives you a very neat looking tank. No doubt very efficient at mixing CO2 into your tank too! How do you know if there aren't any CO2 trapped in your canister..? If you shift your running canister, will it let out a burst of bubbles (CO2)?

I'm concerned about the motor so I use an internal reactor instead. Frankly, it looks rather messy to have that reactor in my tank. I try to hide it with my amazon swords.

[flick]

Mordrake: thanks for the advise. I will increase fertiliser dosing also.

Updates:
I have further reduced the lightings to 60% and the plants are still pearling but not as much as 100%. I am also monitoring my glosso to ensure they are carpeting.

If your glosso has pale green shoots, it could be iron deficiency. But probably your Amazonia soil is rich in iron.

[BlessChwee]

@flick: ok!

@milk_vanilla: ok, going to try raising my lily pipe tonight.

@benjidog: Thanks! I tried running 24/7 and the evaporation rate was quite high. Therefore I decided to on the fan every 30mins, off 30 mins and so on.

@zerofighterx101: Thats a nice overflow system and it is expensive! But I think my canister filter will not like it unless I install a sump.

I see many ppl on the fan 24/7 which myself do too but wonder does it make sense
to on it after lights off especially when the night is cool or set timer to off it from 12am-7am. Apart from this, is wavemaker need to on 24/7 just like fan or only 12 hrs is good enough ?

[limz_777]

I see many ppl on the fan 24/7 which myself do too but wonder does it make sense
to on it after lights off especially when the night is cool or set timer to off it from 12am-7am. Apart from this, is wavemaker need to on 24/7 just like fan or only 12 hrs is good enough ?

for my previous setup , i set fan and wavemaker same as light timing

[BlessChwee]

for my previous setup , i set fan and wavemaker same as light timing

Well so did it make any difference in temperature as well as algae problem since wm not circulating water 24/7. If not much change or the most 1 degree lower, then really make no sense and can save some electricity haha

[David]

This combine can be effective and 1 degree does make a difference. As far as algae is concern, heat is only 1 part of the equation and not the absolute.

On really warn days, get a Betta box, the type that hangs by fish tank and put a block of ice in ....

[kohanson]

flick: Shifted my canister and heard some bubbles inside, could be either due to washing of the canister last weekend or the co2 bubbles building up. Any photos of your reactor and will it require higher pressure than the diffuser? So far no pale green shoots, but there are 2 huge transparent leaf. Not sure why it grows like that.

BlessChwee: Not sure about wavemaker as I think it will grind my shrimps if I place one in it. But i think probably you can switch it off at night so the fish can sleep peacefully, haha. As for the fan, I switch it on for half an hour and off for 1 hour and manage to keep water temperature at around 28 degrees. I tried running it continuously and it manage to reduce by probably .5 or 1 degree but the evaporation rate is high and the fan runs a little hot. Therefore, I put the timer to set the timings.

Updates: After reducing to 60%, the 2 fans on the lightset did not auto switch on. Just gotten 2 meters from ebay, TDS: 448, PH: 4.3.

[kohanson]

Just bought 1 pack of sakura shrimps from seaview. tested their water and is at PH at 6.2 and TDS 130. Seems like the perfect condition for sakura shrimps. I think its time to do wc. Haha. How do i increase PH? By dropping in coral chips? I thought ADA Amazonia soil will maintain PH at around 6.5 or is it my CO2 reducing the PH?

[Urban Aquaria]

Just bought 1 pack of sakura shrimps from seaview. tested their water and is at PH at 6.2 and TDS 130. Seems like the perfect condition for sakura shrimps. I think its time to do wc. Haha. How do i increase PH? By dropping in coral chips? I thought ADA Amazonia soil will maintain PH at around 6.5 or is it my CO2 reducing the PH?

Its probably a combination of Co2 injection and decomposing organics in the tank that are lowering the pH further... shouldn't be a major issue as long as your fishes and shrimps are acclimatized to it and the changes are gradual.

For the new sakura shrimps, they can live in a wide range of pH levels, but as their pack water pH and your tank water pH is quite different, its best to do the drip acclimatization method to ease them into your tank's water parameters, helps increase the chances for them surviving the transition.

[flick]

flick: Shifted my canister and heard some bubbles inside, could be either due to washing of the canister last weekend or the co2 bubbles building up. Any photos of your reactor and will it require higher pressure than the diffuser? So far no pale green shoots, but there are 2 huge transparent leaf. Not sure why it grows like that.

I switched to your method of CO2 injection Although some bubbles are not caught by the inlet pipe and float straight up, those that got into canister seems to be enough to give me a bit of pearling (I think it's just as effective as reactor, much simpler and neater too). I have increased my lights to 4 x 39W for 4 hours, with an additional 3 x 39W at 4th hour. CO2 rate around 2-3bps.


I noticed a jet of CO2 bubbles coming out of my outlet pipe after I shifted my canister. Shifted a few times after that, but no more bubble jets. So I think it's minimal build-up. I can live with that, because I prefer a neater looking tank now.

I was using ISTA mix max reactor, which could be used externally. But I didn't want to risk a leak, so I set it up internally.

So I'm sticking to your method now

I previously hid my internal reactor behind my background plants, but the 16/22 tubing stick out sorely. It doesn't require higher pressure than diffuser.


Not sure about your transparent leaves, might be simply old and dying.


Why don't you try going for 27 degrees? See if it makes a difference to your moss growth. The moss at seaview are lovely, because they are in chilled tanks. My java moss can't flourish at 29 degrees at all. 29 degrees is all my fan can give at 24/7.

Clean water will benefit your moss too. Mr Chan from Nature Aquarium told me that is important for moss. He advised me that it wasn't necessary to get chiller either, fans were good enough. His shop is probably not as warm as my home.

TDS meter sounds interesting. May I have your ebay link?

[hann]

The pH of my tank was at 4.5 when I first started it with Ada and ans planta in the ratio of 2:3. Now it is at 5.0 after water changes twice per week. I also notice that there is a drop of 0.2 in pH when co2 is introduced and it return to 5.0 ultimately. I was advised not to use coral chip in a co2 set up coz the hardness will shoot up.

[kohanson]

flick: I went to read about the reactor and I think I won't go with it. Don't want to have additional equipments added to the tank. Not sure if I can hit 27 degrees, maybe I can give it a try. During the haze period, my tank could only reach 29 degrees and evaporation rate was really high.
The ebay link is here for the TDS meter. It cost me less than 10 dollars and I also tested my tap water and my drinking water, http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...obalID=EBAY-SG

hann: Noted on not using coral chips. After I did about 30% water change, PH went up to 5.2, TDS Drop to 325. Just measured and PH drops to 4.7. Probably the ADA soil is dropping the PH.