Its Been A Long Road.... Flyhawks Journal

[flyhawk]

also should i turn my aerator off
im worried my fish wouldnt have enough o2

 

[Truck]

also should i turn my aerator off
im worried my fish wouldnt have enough o2

air pumps add very little oxygen anyway, waste of money IMO...surface agitiation is enough.
your fish will be fine without an air pump.
you dont need to turn it off but its not really doing anything beneficial

 

[flyhawk]

well i just realized it might take co2 out
and about the gravel size...?

 

[flyhawk]

heres pics of the plants in the tank

more pics
look at how big the gravel is

 

[mbsqw1d]

sorry i didnt read the full thread. can someone delete this post plz. or can i?

 

[flyhawk]

its ok...

 

[waterdrop]

i dont have the money for co2
so should i lower the lighting?

yeah lower lighting to about 50 watts and you should find with a little NPK and trace dosing, and maybe a bit more iron and magnesium you will find they grow better, also some flourish excel will help too!

Was just reading this thread and I think truck is right on. I have a sword that has just been going crazy with beautiful growth. It grows a new leaf frequently, taking about 3 days to go the 17" to the surface and then making a huge leaf that sits on the surface almost like a lily pad. Its mostly dark green and just seems great. My water is extremely soft, with zero KH. I use tap water and do 50% changes weekly, the pH ranges between 6.4 and 7.4, usually somewhere inbetween. I only use around a watt per gallon and I dose excel. It felt like irony reading the thread because I use Seachem Flourite and put a Flourish tab directly under the sword every now and then. I very lightly dose N,P,K and traces in little bits across the week. Hope this helps somehow.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[flyhawk]

thanks a ton water drop that sounds just like my tank that i would like to do
it really gave me confidence to do the flourite
i just did my first water change tonight with tap instead of soft water
im so excited

thanks for the help every one-especially you radar!! i should have listened to you in the first place

oh by the way i already brought my lighting down to 1.2 wpg

and if its okay with you guys, maybe ill keep updating this post to see how the swords do

i have posted so many times on hese darn swords, i i think this should
finally be it!!!

oh and water drop, where do you buy your swords???

 

[Rlon35]

DIY CO2 will never be effective in a 55 gallon...its too unstable...pressurised is your only option, or you can add loads of floating plant

let me re-assure you, aaron would give exactly the same advice as radar!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Truck is absolutely correct. I always had algae problems with over 2 watts per gallon in my 55g tank, and I was using 2 fermentation kits. They seldom work optimally past the first day or two, and you have to change them constantly. I switched to pressurized co2, and there is no comparison. Pearling is a beautiful thing...

Why are you doing water changes so often? Why not just change 50 percent once a week? Are you keeping discus or something?

 

[flyhawk]

no, ive just been taught to do lots of water changes or the fish will die
it would be nice to only have to do one water change per week!!

 

[flyhawk]

oh and, just in case those swords are so bad they cant rebound
i will be thinking of getting some new swords
what are some sorwplants that grow under lower light?

 

[aaronnorth]

gravel size shouldnt make a difference, it is allowing fish waste to fall through to the roots, and it can root properly so its fine,
i fond with rossette plants they will grow massive roots sytems before actually growing any leaves,

bringing the light down is a wise idea, it makes things so much more manageable,


all echinodorus species should be fine with 1.2wpg,


one 50% water change per week will be fine.

 

[waterdrop]

The swordplant was a tiny little baby from petsmart just to put something in during fishless cycling for my son to look at.

I don't particularly attribute any success to the flourite. I think of it now as possibly providing some backup if I miss dosing. I got it at first knowing I couldn't learn what I really needed fast enough and so was hoping it would be better than plain gravel. I wanted black substrate and they had a black version, which I like. One thing I don't like, that I didn't anticipate, is that its so sharp-edged that I can't have corys.

I thing getting your light down to 1.2 should do the trick for you. For me, I think the trick was realizing that the new tank was to "sterile," that the plants needed some nutrients. Those, including the carbon from the excel, made a difference. After many months of this however I really keep wanting pressurized as so much obviously depends on it. It would be the complete game-changer for me.

WD

 

[flyhawk]

well, i think im going to get i bag of flourite and put it in the spots where
my swords are going to be. iwill but the seachem tabs i still have under them

will the lowered light make the anubias leves green againg?
they have dark green around the veins but it is a lighter green for the rest of the leaf
my tiger lotus keeps sending up those leaves that are more like water lilys
haow do i stop this i have no real 'pretty' tiger lotus leaves
i will dose seachem flourish and excel

 

[RadaR]

haow do i stop this i have no real 'pretty' tiger lotus leaves

If I'm not mistaken, you prune off the lily shape leaves just before they reach the surface. Over time, the plant will learn.