My 2ft Setup

[aquarius]

My 2ft Non-CO2 tank which i setup 2 days ago.

Tank : 60cm (L) x 30cm (W) x 31cm (H)
Substrate : Seachem Flourite
Lights : 18w x 2FL tubes
Fert : 1ml Seachem flourish, some Ferka root tabs
Filter : Eheim Ecco 2231
Temp : 29 - 30C (without fan)
Plants : various Crypts species, Nanas, Valis, Echinodoras Bartii

Hope it'll be a success cos the plants in my previous 3ft tank just cannot do well despite my best effeorts. BY the way is my lights sufficient cos was thinking maybe a 36w PL would have been better?

[limz_777]

2 ft tank , why not go for t5ho ?

[aquarius]

If i go for T5HO it'll come with 24W x 2tubes. If i use the 2 tubes, it'll be overkill since this tank is a Low-tech Non CO2 tank and if i use 1 tube, i'm afraid it'll not be enough that's why i thought of going for 36W PL which will probably be just nice. Also if i were to go High-tech CO2 enriched tank in the future, i'll probably still be able use the lights without having to spend on a new light-set. Any bros/sis with more experience on the matter, plse do share your insights.

[aquarius]

Today i went and DIY my spare e-ballast for 2x 36W PL but i only install one tube. I can hear buzzing sounds from the ballast, is it normal to have buzzing sound? Another thing is the tube keeps flickering at a fast and intermitant manner. I've checked all the connections and the tube is new which i bought abt 1yr back which was not in use before. What seems to be the problem?

[|squee|]

Either tube or ballast. I'd suspect the ballast since it's buzzing then. It's a very old light set?

[Sufianjamal]

What is the background plant?

[aquarius]

Either tube or ballast. I'd suspect the ballast since it's buzzing then. It's a very old light set?

You're right... it's a very old e-ballast. Anyway i've changed it recently and it's working fine now - no more fast and intermittent flickering of light tube and no more buzzing sound. Most importantly the crypts are now growing well after a very bad melting phase cos previously my 2 18W FL tubes are quite old but after changing to the 36W PL tube, you can really see the difference.

Hi Sufian, the backgroud plant is a crypt (don't knw the variety) but it grows quite long as compared to most crypts. The interesting thing about this crypt is that when my friend gave them to me it was brownish green in colour but when i grew them in my Seachem Flourite sand it's green. BTW my friend grew them in ADA soil.

[Sufianjamal]

Any chance i can get my hands on them

[aquarius]

Any chance i can get my hands on them

I've seen them on quite a no of occasions at Colourful Aquarium. Not sure whether he still has them a not. BTW colourful aqurium has shifted to clementi.

[Numbskull]

I've seen them on quite a no of occasions at Colourful Aquarium. Not sure whether he still has them a not. BTW colourful aqurium has shifted to clementi.

huh?? since when shifted and which part of Clementi????? Thought of going down on Wednesday to buy some hairgrass. Lucky u told me that lol.

[eviltrain]

bro Numbskull, you long time never come in AQ liao la. haha. shifted last month to clementi west street 2, BLK721.

[aquarius]

Just to share my experience battling with algae problems in this tank......

I used to have very bad brown and green film-like algae all over the tank about 2weeks after my tank set-up in Nov 2009 until late Jan 2011. It was so bad that the surface of the water also got a bit of the green slime and water changes also did not help cos after a week later, it's there again. To frustrate me even more, i know i can't keep changing water (was changing 40% water weekly) because Low Tech Non-CO2 tanks are not supposed to change water too often - was afraid of the dreaded BBA.

Though i only had about 5 fishes and 2 yamatos in there and i also didn't feed much, i decided to change my New Life Spectrum food to Sera Granugreen food to see whether it helps in combating the algae problems a not cos i usually soke the NLS food with water then press it to make it into finner particles so that my small fishes can eat them. Inevitably there'll be very fine particles floating all over the place. Though i also soke the Sera food before pressing it into finer particles to feed my fishes, it was very much better cos there weren't much fine particles floating all over. It did help a little in addressing the algae problem and building on that improvement, i decided to change about 50% water and add in 2 otos and 10 more yamatos (total 12).

About 2 weeks later, NO MORE algae problems!! It was really VERY SATISFIYING to see the yamatos pinching and eating the thick brown and green film-like algae.

When the algae was under control, i then started to add fertilisers
1) Seachem Flourish - 0.25ml (twice a week)
2) Seachem Pottassium - 3ml (once a week, recently change to twice a week)

Best of all, now i also feed more food to my fishes and some more got NO algae problems except for a little algae on the glass.

[blue33]

good to hear that. cheers

[aquarius]

Here's some updates.





I don't know why the smaller crypts in the front left hand side of the tank is not growing well. The crypts on the front right hand side is doing a bit better. My Vallis which is at the back left hand side is also not doing well. The leaves are turning yellow near the bottom of the plant. Not enough light for them?? By the way those parts of the tank where there are crypts and vallis has Wondergrow root tabs. What seems to be the problem? Plse help...

[jeffteo]

Crypts will grow will in shaded lights. Under direct lights they will still grow just not as good.

[aquarius]

I thought Vallis is supposed to be quite easy to grow as i've also seen it grown well in tropheus tank presumbably without any base fert or liquid fertilisation. Just don't seem to be working in my setup otherwise it would have been great to see the back left hand side with very long leaves. I tried it on my 3ft tank with the same substrate, same root tabs, No Co2 and with 39W x 3 tubes before and it also didn't do well......

Anyone knows what's the problem otherwise do suggest another alternative plant for the back left hand side of the tank that will do well for the setup i have.

[jeffteo]

39W x 3 and thats 117 W and 3 ft should be around 50 gallon and that will be 2.34 wpg which is consider medium light tank and will need some form of CO2 source for the plant to grow.
For your current tank I guess the wpg is still quite high for a 2 ft and you will still need to provide CO2 if not it will not grow and suffer due to nutrient being used up too fast. If you want plant to flourish, you will need to provide it more nutrients and light and not just light only. Since you want a low tech tank, it will be good to keep the watt per gallon below 2 wpg, preferably around 1.5. With too much light and not enough nutrient for the plant, this will throw the tank parameters off balance thus casing the algae problem that you had. If you do not want to inject CO2, you can try dosing Excel. It helps. Dosing Potassium will help the plant photosynthesize also.
My 2 ft only have 1 x 24 W and with CO2 injection and EI dosing, it is flourishing already.

[aquarius]

I remember reading somewhere that for tanks smaller than 3ft, the WPG rule don't really apply. Meaning you can or should increase the light output a little more than whats recommended. Can anybody verify it?

Looking at my slow growing plant mass and my feeding of fishes regime, i presume that there should be enough NO3 and PO4 from the fish food? What i do notice is that after i added the potassium, the plants seems to do better, especially my Nanas roots are growing well. Anyway i'll add a bit of NO3 and PO4 into the tank and watch what happens first before adding Excel.

Anyway thanks for your inputs.

[jeffteo]

Yes, i also read that wpg don't apply to smaller tank and I think it should be lesser as there is a smaller area to cover. Potassium will help in photosynthesis but carbon is still needed if you do not have any fish load. Let's see how and looking forward to your update.

[aquarius]

Here's the update after 1yr. I added in the stem plant a few months back cos the left hand side of the tank looks bare. I planted the extras on the right hand side cos i don't want to waste it and also i wanted to see whether will it die off a not becos previously a similar looking plant die off slowly.


Here are some photos of the previous stem plant that had it's bottom part rot off slowly. Right now the present stem plant is doing well with no such issues. Until now i still don't understand what went wrong cos i'm using this present light (36W PL) from last yr until now.