Newly setup 3ft tank

[gseet]

Hi Guys,

Just wanna share the pics of my newly setup tank with the following equipments:

1) ADA 90P tank,
2) ADA garden mat 90cm x 45cm,
3) ATI 4x39W powermodul with Giesemann wall mounting brackets
4) Giesemann T5 tubes (2 x Aquaflora and 2 x Midday),
4) Eheim Pro3e 2076 canister filter,
5) ANS 3.5L CO2 cylinder with JBJ regulator c/w solenoid valve,
6) ADA pollen glass 30 & ADA bubble counter
7) Cal Aqua influx filter inflow and outflow pipes (set D)
Tank cabinet customised to ADA style (my own design)
9) Arctica 1/10 HP Chiller

The age of setup is about 1 week and the tank is still cycling and is beginning to show some signs of hair algae. C02 rate has been set at 3 bps while lighting is turned on for 4 hrs then turn off for 2 hrs then back on for 4hrs. I can see that the plants are sprouting out new shoots in a matter of days which is quite encouraging.

I've been dosing very cautiously with ADA brightly K and step 1 with less than the recommended dosage. PH is about 6.5 while KH is 4 deg, Ammonia is reading very high and could be reduced with more frequent water changes

All commments are welcome. Thanks for taking time off to view this thread.

[ranmasatome]

Im quite sure the growth of this tank will explodeeeeeeeeee...

[gseet]

Im quite sure the growth of this tank will explodeeeeeeeeee...

Hi Ranmasatome,

I hope this means something good and not the tank really crashing and exploding away

George

[Aquaria One]

I see your glosso is starting to grow upwards instead of spreading. Glosso requires stronger lighting in order to spread like a lush carpet.You have a chiller so dont be afraid to turn up the light a notch by replacing your light with something stronger.

[gseet]

I see your glosso is starting to grow upwards instead of spreading. Glosso requires stronger lighting in order to spread like a lush carpet.You have a chiller so dont be afraid to turn up the light a notch by replacing your light with something stronger.

Hi Aquaria one,

I think that is also partly because I've planted the glosso by a short string of plants instead of a single plant. I can see that the new shoots are actually growing horizontally now. My lights are about 156 watts now in total and that gives abt more than 3.5 wpg and all the plants are also bubbling when the lights and C02 are turned on. Let's wait and see how it goes....

Thanks,
George

[blue33]

Go for straight 6-7hrs photoperiod, dont break the timing, it helps in this way. First 2 week try not to dont dose anything except some potassium as the substrate will have enough nutrients supply. Hair algae is common, later send in Amano, Malayan shrimp or young SAE will solve your problem. Great stuff you have there! Enjoy!

[blue33]

You could have more slope, it looks better!

[PeterGwee]

Not dosing is a bad advice since you want the plants to do well. It is like not giving the food to a person. You need to get rid of the NH4 that is coming in since the bacteria colony is small or non-existent and no nitrification is taking place to convert the NH4 into less harmful NO3. What you need to do during this period (first 2-4 weeks) is to do lots of water changes to export the NH4 as well as planting in mass (lots of plants equal more NH4 removal if all other nutrients are non-limiting and that includes CO2).

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[gseet]

Guys,

Thanks for the helpful tips. Do you guys think it would be wise to do a '3 days black out' period to eradicate the hair algae? Looks like they are spreading now.

Thanks,
George

[PeterGwee]

You should trim it off if it is on the plants since the leaves would look bad overtime. Blackouts are fine if the condition of the plants are good now. I'll suggest you do more big water changes to remove the NH4 and add non-limiting nutrients as well as good CO2 (use a dropchecker with 4-5dKH standard solution) with good in tank mixing. I have not had hair algae for a several years already. It is poor CO2 or low nutrients as well as NH4 that triggers it.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[gseet]

OK Peter, thanks for the great advice.