Blue's Pfk Nano+50g Journal

[blue acara]

hey ppl, so this is my pfk nano journal.

i will be using the filter and light that was supplied with the tank.

additional equipment will be: Arcadia 11w little light. Nutrifin yeast based co2 system (1/4 teaspoon of yeast). 50w heater-probably should have got a 25w but i had this one spare.

The substrate im using is eco-complete, i used basically a whole 20Lb bag on the tank. Substrate thickness: 3 1/2 inches at the back, 2 1/2 at the front

i will be doing the e.i method. im using RO water with Kent ro right and bicarbonate of soda set at about 6 degrees each.

fast growing stem plants are hopefully being delivered on wednesday-cant wait!

the rocks will be taken out when the plants come to make room-they dont look so great anyway.
the nutrifin co2 system suprised me-i was expecting a big bottle but its really small and fits on the tank nicely. the co2 mix in the pinned section(cheers george) is working great-the ladder is clogged but this hopefully will clear.

now for the 50 gallon journal. this is too see how much difference co2 can make to a tank

the veils are spreading but not growing tall, algea is also a problem
This is a tank without co2. i use JBL the 7 balls root tabs and plain gravel. Nutrifin plant gro fert.

as i am quite impressed with the nutrifin yeast i will be getting 2 more of these for this tank-keeping everything else the same so i will see what improvements in plant growth are made from the addition of co2

 

[illusion54]

good luck! it's always fun to see the development of a nano.

 

[wei0204]

Yeah, just try to add a CO2 kit in the tnak and you will see the plants grow very rapidly. Enjoy

Hope to see update pics after the nano tank is being planted.

 

[Themuleous]

Both look good and the nano sounds promising One tip, I would reduce or even not use any lighting on the nano until the plants have arrived. Without the plants and a fair bit of light you'll probably get algae problems, so best to leave the lights off for the time being, they dont do anything at the mo anyway.

Sam

 

[nry]

How do you find the water flow with the little filter? I haven't ran mine in the tank yet as the sponge is maturing in my other tank, but when I ran it in a bucket to check it worked the water flow was really fast, I'm concerned it may push the plants around too much? The little slider for flow rate seems to do nothing at all! I have changed the outlet tube to the *cough* larger one though...vaguely wondering about a DIY spray-bar....

Rock wise, I think they would look better if you swapped their places...left one to right and vice-versa, or simply rotate the left rock 180 degrees?

 

[blue acara]

Thanks for the comments!

Both look good and the nano sounds promising One tip, I would reduce or even not use any lighting on the nano until the plants have arrived. Without the plants and a fair bit of light you'll probably get algae problems, so best to leave the lights off for the time being, they dont do anything at the mo anyway.

Sam

Thanks. the lights were on just for the photo-im probably going to have to make a shield for my eyes cos its bright and will get annoying while im on the computer

How do you find the water flow with the little filter? I haven't ran mine in the tank yet as the sponge is maturing in my other tank, but when I ran it in a bucket to check it worked the water flow was really fast, I'm concerned it may push the plants around too much? The little slider for flow rate seems to do nothing at all! I have changed the outlet tube to the *cough* larger one though...vaguely wondering about a DIY spray-bar....

Rock wise, I think they would look better if you swapped their places...left one to right and vice-versa, or simply rotate the left rock 180 degrees?

the flow is reasonable, id say not that powerful. ill see tomorrow how much it effects the plants-it is positioned on the edge of the tank so hopefully wont be too bad.

when i add fish i will cut some of the foam in the filter away-2 inches or so and add some of the eheim ball things from my mature filter.

i will move the rock around when the plants come-may take them out and swap for some twig like bogwood-if u know wot i mean..

 

[three-fingers]

Sounds cool, I'll be following closely. I'm waiting for my pfk cube and stuff for Christmas so i can start my nano planted, i've been making lots of doodles on ms paint since October and i know all the plants i want for it . I'll also be using the filter that came with it and a nutrafin unit with Georges c02 mix, but I'll just be using the light that came with it and ADA Malaya substrate.
Until i can set up mine, i've always got yours to watch progressing .

 

[blue acara]

bet you can wait three-fingers, its a nice looking little tank

ok so heres my e.i dosing

ill be using ro water in 500ml volvic bottles. the bottle caps hold about 8 ml so all doses are 8 ml.

KNO3- nitrate 11.6 grams gives 5.2 ppm is this enough or should i go higher?
KPO4- phosphate 1.4 grams gives 0.72 ppm
Trace 8.6 grams

im guessing that the tankafter displacement is approx 22 litres

also is it worth adding K and Mg, im not sure what they do but they were mentioned in pfk. i have them should i add them?

pics will be added tomorrow after planting.

 

[George Farmer]

Our first PFK nano journal. Looking good too!

I like the 50 also.

 

[RadaR]

Oooooh, very nice. Looking forward to updates.
Your Arcpod doesnt seem to give off much of a pinkish glow. Is that due to the camera or that you've changed the original tropical bulb that comes with the Arcpod?

 

[blue acara]

that might be due to the original lamp which is a very white lamp-it mabie drowns out the pink from the arcadia

 

[nry]

I'm surprised at using an entire bag of Eco-complete, I have some ordered for my cube and was hoping to have some spare...ah well!

I am spotting a common theme with eco-complete here, there'll be three of us using it in our cubes at least!

I'm not personally going to go for CO2 initially, I am going to use Seachem Flourish Excel, which I am using in my other tank. The built-in light will also have to do me for now aswell, though it gives a supposed 2 wpg which is twice what my other tank gets, and the plants in that one are doing pretty well. I'll be dosing with Seachem Flourish though I won't be going heavily planted, so the light levels and fertiliser will hopefully be sufficient

 

[George Farmer]

The built-in light will also have to do me for now aswell, though it gives a supposed 2 wpg which is twice what my other tank gets

2wpg over a 5G is not necessarily more usable light than 1wpg over 50G. This is the issue with the wpg guide and smaller volumes.

These links may help explain -
http/www.rexgrigg.com/./mlt.htm
http/www.fitchfamily.com/lighting.html

 

[nry]

The built-in light will also have to do me for now aswell, though it gives a supposed 2 wpg which is twice what my other tank gets

2wpg over a 5G is not necessarily more usable light than 1wpg over 50G. This is the issue with the wpg guide and smaller volumes.

These links may help explain -
http/www.rexgrigg.com/./mlt.htm
http/www.fitchfamily.com/lighting.html

Time will tell then! So my idea of adding 700 fantails to the tank like the picture on the box is also a bit clouded aswell then? (Joking of course!)

 

[Sibelius]

I'm looking forward to watching this progress! Similarly, this will stop my waiting for my nano, from driving me insane. What do you think of the filter? I read somewhere that it was quite noisy.