Hi guys, a big thankyou for everyones various advice and tips throughout this forum- I have learnt a great deal from reading through it all and been inspired by the great planted aquaria I have seen.
So, as the title suggests I have set up a planted system with Co2 injection (I say injection but really its an airline with bubbles coming out of it) and would appreciate some feedback (good or bad) on how it is looking.
The Set up; It's had water in it now for roughly 4 weeks.
Trigon 190l with the filter media supplied with it minus the carbon- so nitrate sponge and another sponge with larger holes. No floss yet apart from some old bacteria infested (and I mean REALLY brown) floss from my parents well established tank which im using to mature the rest of the filter.
silver sand as the substrate with a generous sprinkling of laterite underneath it and underneath that a good inch or so of some compost from B & Q containing john innes as its the only one that did. After reading a bit about composts and peat from an article in PFK I knew I was after something with john innes in it and so far it hasnt disrupted the water quality as far as I know.
Lighting is 2 x 18w T8's one of which I replaced with an arcadia freshwater bulb, im due to replace the other with the same very soon.
2 x Hagen natural Co2 systems with the Yeast & sugar mix formula described under the sticky- having used the packets provided I would get 1-2 bubbles a minute tops! With the DIY system im getting 1 bubble every 5-7 seconds from each unit which is not as much as recommended but for now it seems to be doing the job. I used a little less than a tsp of yeast for the last two weeks and will probably try a bit more when I replace the mix tonight, the water level inside the canisters is about 1cm lower than they say to put in just in case I put too much yeast in! Using the very handy calculators on the pfk website I have a Co2 content of around 6ppm and would like to see that rise to at least 10ppm. If the yeast increase doesnt produce the desired effect i'll look into placing the canisters in a heated tub to see if that does the trick!
Water changes are made every week, I do a single bucket which works out to be about 20l and so is about 10%
Dont plan on using any liquid fertilizers, have put in each of the bottles you get free with the co2 units for the last 2 weeks (you only get enough for 1 water change as they are complementary) but am open to opinions on this.
Not really sure what plants I currently have as I bought the under the names 'potted plants' from my local fish store-I know they are true aquatic plants though as they do not hold their structure out of the water and all seem to be doing ok. I do know I have some cabomba and an aponogeton bulb which looks like ulvaceus- will post a better quality pic soon but you can easily see its curly leaves from my phone pic.
12 cardinalia japonica's in there for the last 2 weeks and all seem to be doing fine. None of the plants look like they are starving or browning which is a first for me!
Heres a pic taken from my phone cam- will look to taking some with a much better camera soon.
Any thoughts on any of the above most appreciated, i'd like to know where I could improve and how so that one day I can produce a tank worthy of this forums moderators praise! haha
Ta
So, as the title suggests I have set up a planted system with Co2 injection (I say injection but really its an airline with bubbles coming out of it) and would appreciate some feedback (good or bad) on how it is looking.
The Set up; It's had water in it now for roughly 4 weeks.
Trigon 190l with the filter media supplied with it minus the carbon- so nitrate sponge and another sponge with larger holes. No floss yet apart from some old bacteria infested (and I mean REALLY brown) floss from my parents well established tank which im using to mature the rest of the filter.
silver sand as the substrate with a generous sprinkling of laterite underneath it and underneath that a good inch or so of some compost from B & Q containing john innes as its the only one that did. After reading a bit about composts and peat from an article in PFK I knew I was after something with john innes in it and so far it hasnt disrupted the water quality as far as I know.
Lighting is 2 x 18w T8's one of which I replaced with an arcadia freshwater bulb, im due to replace the other with the same very soon.
2 x Hagen natural Co2 systems with the Yeast & sugar mix formula described under the sticky- having used the packets provided I would get 1-2 bubbles a minute tops! With the DIY system im getting 1 bubble every 5-7 seconds from each unit which is not as much as recommended but for now it seems to be doing the job. I used a little less than a tsp of yeast for the last two weeks and will probably try a bit more when I replace the mix tonight, the water level inside the canisters is about 1cm lower than they say to put in just in case I put too much yeast in! Using the very handy calculators on the pfk website I have a Co2 content of around 6ppm and would like to see that rise to at least 10ppm. If the yeast increase doesnt produce the desired effect i'll look into placing the canisters in a heated tub to see if that does the trick!
Water changes are made every week, I do a single bucket which works out to be about 20l and so is about 10%
Dont plan on using any liquid fertilizers, have put in each of the bottles you get free with the co2 units for the last 2 weeks (you only get enough for 1 water change as they are complementary) but am open to opinions on this.
Not really sure what plants I currently have as I bought the under the names 'potted plants' from my local fish store-I know they are true aquatic plants though as they do not hold their structure out of the water and all seem to be doing ok. I do know I have some cabomba and an aponogeton bulb which looks like ulvaceus- will post a better quality pic soon but you can easily see its curly leaves from my phone pic.
12 cardinalia japonica's in there for the last 2 weeks and all seem to be doing fine. None of the plants look like they are starving or browning which is a first for me!
Heres a pic taken from my phone cam- will look to taking some with a much better camera soon.
Any thoughts on any of the above most appreciated, i'd like to know where I could improve and how so that one day I can produce a tank worthy of this forums moderators praise! haha
Ta
