My 170l Planted Tank Diary V6 03 12 05

[AndyTaylor]

Well, it's Tuesday after a bank holiday weekend and the entire 3 days was spent getting the tank started.
I'll keep this short for the moment because i've no photos and that's just boring!

I've used a layered mix of sand, Tetra CompleteSubstrate, some more sand, and gravel for the substrate.
The Glosso is planted (will we have a race, Zig?) mostly in the sand as that seemed to be where it did best for others, 1 clump of it is dead already so i'm not sure what's going on there but i'll watch it for a while.
I've started a forest of Vals at one side with Vals. Torta and regular straight Vals, waiting on my order from Java plants to finish that.
I had spent the last week looking at various arrangements of bogwood in the empty tank only to remove one halfway through the planting. It's funny how things look good without plants and completlely wrong when planted! Looks much more natural now though.
I've covered some surfaces in Riccia Fluitans (tricky little job that!) and it's looking good so far.
I've moved some Crypts over from my 70L along with some other Crypts that I found locally and planted them in the most shaded areas I could find and along with some Babytears and Elodea Densia that where i'm at now.
I've got about 70L of water in, the Eheim 2213 is up and running (After a minor disaster with an airlock and a slightly wet tv!.. must remember to close BOTH taps the next time) and the first of my CO2 systems is just starting to make bubbles.
Picked up a few more plants at luchtime today that i'll ID and plant when I get home.

I've left the hood lighting as it was but changed one of the lamps for a 30W Hagen 16500K one. I've got very green water today so maybe i'll have to look at changing something.

Watch this space for photos later. All comments welcome!

Andy

 

[lljdma06]

Watch this space for photos later. All comments welcome!

I await with bated(sp) breath....

 

[simonbrown403]

Watch this space for photos later. All comments welcome!

I await with bated(sp) breath....

Pics pics pics

 

[zig]

Good to see you up and running Andy look forward to the pics

Is the tank cycled ? im just wondering about the green water.

 

[AndyTaylor]

Thanks zig.... I doubt if the tank has cycled yet, TBH, I didn't even test yet as i've been topping up the water and moving plants from my 70L so i figured the results wouldn't be accurate yet.
I haven't deliberately tried to seed the filter so except for the few plants i've moved across no bacteria have been introduced.
I'll be doing a water change in the 70 later, any point in using that water in the big tank?
What are you thinking about the green bloom?

 

[jimbooo]

Good to see you up and running Andy look forward to the pics

Is the tank cycled ? im just wondering about the green water.

I've left the hood lighting as it was but changed one of the lamps for a 30W Hagen 16500K one.

that may explain it. how long has that tube been in there and has the green water appeared since adding it?

16500K is a marine tube. too high for most planted tanks (although there are exceptions if you have massive growth rates but unlikely at this stage) 3000-8000K is generally the range you should go for.

cant wait for pics i look forward to reading your journal on a regular basis as i've missed the first half of a lot of others and i'm a lazy sod and cant be bothered to catch up on 40 pages...

good luck

and by the way i've just planted glosso in two of my tanks last weekend. the race is on.... B)

 

[AndyTaylor]

Thanks jimbooo,

The tube went in before I put anything in the tank... There were 2 standard Phillips 30W tubes in the hood when I bought it and the 16500K was the ONLY tube of the right size that I could find in the city. I'll take it out and put the other one back in later.
I probably had the lights on for too long over the weekend while I was working on it. They're on a timer now, 5 on 3 off 5 on.
I kinda knew that 16500K was too hot but I thought i'd try it! It lights the whole room (and heats it too, nearly)
Is that all I can do about the bloom? Bear in mind there are no fish in yet and my CO2 units are only building pressure...

Andy

 

[jimbooo]

Thanks jimbooo,

The tube went in before I put anything in the tank... There were 2 standard Phillips 30W tubes in the hood when I bought it and the 16500K was the ONLY tube of the right size that I could find in the city. I'll take it out and put the other one back in later.
I probably had the lights on for too long over the weekend while I was working on it. They're on a timer now, 5 on 3 off 5 on.
I kinda knew that 16500K was too hot but I thought i'd try it! It lights the whole room (and heats it too, nearly)
Is that all I can do about the bloom? Bear in mind there are no fish in yet and my CO2 units are only building pressure...

Andy

yeah swap it back for now but keep hold of it. when the plants are booming (and i mean really going some) put it back and see what happens. should send the growth through the roof. the problem at the moment is it is having the same effect but on the algae rather than the plants. (green water is algae in case you didn't know but i'm sure you did).

for now water changes should sort it and dont over do the photoperiod.

ask zig where he gets his tubes from. if you can find them i would reccommend arcadia freshwater and dennerle special plant (7500K and 3000K) they mix well together.

 

[AndyTaylor]

I'll order some from aquaticsonline later. Better get a bigger bucket on the way home for these water changes then! I wasn't expecting my first experience with algae to happen so soon! Ah well, better now that after I move the fish in, i guess!

 

[jimbooo]

I'll order some from aquaticsonline later. Better get a bigger bucket on the way home for these water changes then! I wasn't expecting my first experience with algae to happen so soon! Ah well, better now that after I move the fish in, i guess!

a 24 hour blackout will help as well and shouldn't effect the plants much.

 

[zig]

Hi Andy

Just before i forget dont seed the filter until you have some fish to put in the tank, but you should be allright anyway if you have enough plants in the tank to begin with, just add fish slowly and this way you wont have to cycle the tank at all.

As regards the lighting id follow jimbooos advice and stick the old tube or tubes back in for the moment, the green water is unfortunate but these things happen we all get algae in the beginning, a baptism of algae as it were, the green water should be easy to get rid of with no fish in the tank, water changes and clean the filter, if the water changes are not working do a blackout this should definatly work.

I havent a clue where to look for lighting for tubes that size, i presume they are 36 inches, i use T5 power compacts that i bought in the UK from Aquatics online, but im sure if you ring around you will find something, i have never seen Dennerle lighting over here as jimbooo suggested, you should be able to find Arcadia and Interpet tubes easy enough, in the Arcadia range i would go for the Freshwater tube and in the Interpet range the Daylight plus tube.

You will need more than 60 watts though for a tank this size particularily if you are trying to grow glosso or other highlight plants, id say you would need double that at 120 watts this would give you about 2.6 WPG or if you go with 3 x30 watts this would give you 2 WPG and id say you would struggle with certain plants, although gf225 one of the mods here is growing glosso with 2 WPG at the moment.

btw Tesco sell nice buckets for a Euro sorry mate couldnt resist, but if green water is the only algae you get you will be doing well, this section of the forum is littered with algae veterans, me included.

 

[AndyTaylor]

Right, the old tube is back in and did a big water change, it seems to have made a difference, the water seems less green this morning.
Next stop, 24 hour blackout, hopefully that'll sort it.

Zig, they're 36" tubes and i tried all the usual spots with no luck. I bought an additional T8 controller/Ballast but I have no space in the hood for any more tubes. It looks like the only way i'll get over 2 WPG is to upgrade to T5...that's one for the next credit card bill! I know i'm way under lit at the moment but it'll have to wait for a while.. I'll go to aquaticsonline in a couple of weeks..

' tell ya a funny story about buckets. I called into Homebase on the way home yesterday to get a decent size bucket to cut down on the endless walking to the bathroom for water.
Found a stack of 50 litre gardening buckets on a high shelf in the garden centre, was in a rush so I didn't bother waiting for the guy to come back with the ladder, jumped up and grabbed top bucket of stack intending to tip the stack forward and grab the top one. Did I remember that it had been raining all weekend? Did I Bo&^*%Ks!
50 litres of lovely rainwater straight down on top of my head! Had to walk back through the shop, queue up to pay while a lake formed at my feet and sit in my car in traffic for 20 minutes soaking my seat!
Fishkeeping, eh? What a laugh!

Andy

Sorry about the lack of photos, camera issues. Soon, i promise.

 

[jimbooo]

ha ha, you've made my morning. how funny.

i'd have loved to see the guys face when he came back with the ladder.

good luck with the algae it shouldn't be hard to shift.

 

[AndyTaylor]

Yeah, his face was priceless alright. I think he thought I was going to sue or something until I started laughing! Nothing else you can do! I asked them for a copy of the CCTV footage but i'd say they've worn out the tape from watching it!

 

[jimbooo]

i know what you mean i was in a rush in tesco's the other day with leather soled shoes on. i was rushing past the basket checkout to get to the fag counter and stuck my left foot straight through the cage thingy next to the till (which you put your baskets in) needless to say i ended up on the floor with my basket strewn around the feet of everybody else in the que.

within seconds i had 3 managers and a first aider at my feet asking if i had any pain in my back, have i hurt anything blah blah.

the look of panic on their face was hilarious. i just laughed it off and got out of there as soon as i could. really hurt my butt though.