Tks Rupert for the sharing. Silly me, should have known there are 5 pages to this thread!Newbie to not only planted tanks but forum lah.....I can't pm you, but my email is [email protected]. Once again, tks. Best regards.
I have reduced the lighting on one light unit down to 3 hours and kept the other at 9 hours as the lights just seemed too bright.
I found this General information article [PDF] on Philips ‘T5 and T5 HO lamps one of the best sources of information available. It explains and contrasts the luminescence of T5, T5 HO and T8
http://home.zonnet.nl/rsetteur/aquarium/tl5_manual.pdf#search='Philips%20AND%20Tl%20%275%20HO'
I was away for 30 days and came home to find the tank looking ok, quite a bit of Staghorn / green spot algae but other than that everything looked ok, not bad at all for no water changes in the last month. The nitrates were high when tested, but this is not unexpected so did the usual and change the water and started to clean everything.
It was when I was cleaning all the hoses and pipes this morning that I dropped one of my glass Lillie pipes, broke at the bend, really annoyed at myself, now I have this big green Ehiem Lillie pipe that just stands out!
The lighting duration has remained at 8 hours for 108w T5 Ho set and 3 hours for the second 108 w set and this seem to be ok. Certainly growth is slower and the Japonica has lost the copper hue that had before, but life in the “slow lane” is paying off with as I will be away again for a couple of weeks, so am quite please at the transition away from dosing and CO2. I still add micros and PO4 when I am around.
The only thing of interest that I have bought from Hong Kong is some small crabs, in Chinese called “Wild Red Crab”, not sure of correct name, but bought twenty, 4 perished in getting them to Singapore and acclimatizing to my quarantine tank. These little crabs seem to want to stay submersed, however I put a grill on top of the tank to prevent any escapes.
The crabs are not red, rather a light brown colour and they seem happy eating algae wafers at present, I will see how the crabs behave before they go into my big tank. Big risk, they are probably fish eating / plant destroying monsters, but want something different. Even through there are 16 in the 2 foot tank they have virtually disappeared so might have to get some more or see if I can breed them.
Next year I am going to make some refinements to the aquascape, the guppy’s are going, to be replaced with schooling fish, probably Cardinal Tetra. The Aponogeton Longiplumulosus might go, and have been thinking about some additional wood that I saw at my local LFS [Biotope] that will add a new dimension.
Thanks for the lighting link info. Still waiting for my 2ft Solarmax which will probably come in Feb.
Was wondering to go with 10000k x 6500k combo or 8000k x 6500k combo.
Those crab of yours will surely tear down any scaping of yours plus any fishes or shrimps will easily become part of it's diet
The crabs didn't make itOriginally Posted by spinex
Those crab of yours will surely tear down any scaping of yours plus any fishes or shrimps will easily become part of it's dietprobably the hard water vs soft water change? Anyway they passed away one by one, they seemed to be eating and didn't want to escape except one which I found to late. I never did find out what king of crabs they were … which reminds me there is still one being preserved deep in the freezer somewhere!
A quick CNY update - Not much to say after 2 months and 3 weeks of not CO2, I then decided to turn the CO2 back on the as the plant growth was next to nothing. In fact the B. Japonica was thinning out to almost nothing, which is not unexpected with only 108 watts on most of the time.
The only thing growing quickly was the staghorn algae, so in conjunction with turning on the other T5 HO set the CO2 went on as well. Somewhere between 360 watts of MH intensity and 108 watts there is a moderate path, hopefully 216 watts?
Anyway the setup is nearly 12 months and generally stable, the itchy hand syndrome being satisfied by focusing on another tank, but this 4 footer will still go through a few future changes with the addition of the odd plant or two and cardinal tetras expected to replace the guppies.
Cardina Tetra will definitely look much better on your tank !
The transition back from Low Tech to high tech with T5 HO’s wasn’t as smooth as desired. I managed to get BBA on my hair grass and the Blyxa Japonica really suffered. The change from MH’s [360 watts] to T5 HO’s [216 watts] and the depth of the tank [30 inches] meant the Japonica withered rather than grew; even the B Japonica high up on my wood was not able to outgrow the Java Moss.
I replaced or should I say filled the B Japonica gaps with Cryptocoryne undulata Red. The different shaped leaves have taken a while for me to appreciate [possibly a mistake] but for certain all the shrimp didn’t like the change and hid or gathered in groups as a sign of distress. The new plants must have had something on them as I had to catch as many shrimp as possible and put them in my small 2ft tank. It took probably 4 weeks for the environment to settle down and to see all the critters happy again. Of course by that stage I had seen Cryptocoryne Nurii and want to add that as well, but now have reservations on any more plant additions until I find a better way of doing this
45 Cardinal Tetra have added to replace the Guppy’s and the CO2 is now turned on with a vengeance to combat Staghorn algae and BBA. It was pleasing to see the BBA almost go away, yet Staghorn algae still persists.
Lastly I had these big planarian always on the glass at night. The planarian were the sort of 2cm planarian that people go “wow they are big” when they were first seen. The Planarian had been a growing problem and what I didn’t realize was that I had no snails, except for a couple of big snails that I almost knew by name. I expect that hundreds of cheery shrimp had literally staved the snails out of existence so when the new plants were added, a new supply of small snails were added and the snail population has bounced back to the point that the planarian are no longer seen.
Water changes are about 1 per month, a real change from the weekly ones I use to do before. Dosing is mostly Micros 2 times a week with PO4 on a weekly basis.
So almost time to take a picture of two
I should be working not posting
that's weird...the blyxas must have some problem with your water...i find them easy to grow in some tanks but not others.
lighting was never the issue. they actually look greener with lower light.
You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung
An update, not much has changed, still have to borrow my wife’s camera, the plant growth has slowed down with the T5 HO’s, especially the Hair Grass and the B. Japonica. Cleaned the rocks the other day so that they stood out a bit more as I found the Java moss was taking over.
Shrimp population in the hundreds, keep the water filled with small debris to the joy of the woodshrimp that sit in the water current with their fans open
From left to Right
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Rupert!! its looking better and better!! thats the way it should be..
those tied crypts are great!! Gives a nice colour splash and pulls the eye up..
Last edited by ranmasatome; 17th Apr 2006 at 00:24.
Finally a front on shot….
here is a link in case the picture cannot be seen
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/galle...Tank0006-2.JPG
Last edited by Rupert; 17th Apr 2006 at 15:38. Reason: added a link in case the picture cannot be seen
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
it doesn't come on Rupert..
You cannot see picture or the layout isn't any good?it doesn't come on Rupert..
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
i cant see anything..
i love your foreground! Nice!
I just came across this thread and spent a good 45 minutes or so reading every single post and article. It's a truely awesome tank you've got Rupert!
Btw have you got any tips on rearing guppies in planted tanks? I've never had any success with them. I'm not sure if there's a problem with my tank conditions, but I never had any problems with other fishes in my 2ft densely planted tank.
Kemp – Thanks but the foreground has a bad infestation of Staghorn algae at present which makes it denser that it really is, plus I am struggling to find the right programme of activities to remove it, but such is life.
Hi Axela11, thanks for the complement I started this thread with the intention of documenting my journey which has not been too bad, got something’s right and something’s wrong. Guppy’s are a joy they are hardy, constantly want food and have a strong desire to reproduce. The only thing that I can think is to try again.
Rupert,
Your tank seem to do quite well even with just dosing of micro and KH2SO4.
I'm also using T5HO and also combatting from staghorn algae.
So your dosing routine is just KH2SO4 once per week and 2 x Micro ?
Ok now i'm really tempted to try again
can i just check with you though, do guppies prefer water that are more stagnant? the guppies i used to keep seem to have trouble swimming against the current caused by the filter in my tank.. i don't know if it's their big tails that are giving me that illusion or they're really trying hard to keep still.
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