New Tank

[rabbut]

Photos of the first lot of plants in

enjoy

rabbut

 

[Themuleous]

Good start, nice compact planting of the plants, that'll help ensure the plants grow compact and give you a decent shape Nice bit of wood too

Sam

 

[Merithyn]

Can't wait to see this grow in. You've really taken your time to plan it out, and it look fabulous so far.

~Mary-Ann

 

[joecoral]

looking good!

 

[rabbut]

Thanks to all who have replied. I too can't wait for these to grow in a bit more. I have been having a few problems with the fishless cycle, as the pH keeps crashing KH in our area is very low, and tap water can't seem to support more than 50mg/l of nitrate without the pH dropping rapidly. I have, this time added a full tub of bicarbonate of soda (baking powder) to raise the pH to 8. Hopefuly this time it will stay there till the end of the cycle. Looks like I may need to use RO with mineral retopic to keep things stable, but we'll see how things go......
Still got some more ludwigia repens to go in on the left hand side, and also the carpet. Possibly glosso??? Anyone know how this will fare at 30 degrees centigrade??
Belive it or not, I got the wood for free!!!!!

Best regards and thanks
rabbut

 

[Themuleous]

I run my tank with 1dkh and Ive never experienced a pH crash. First off, how do you know its crashing? What does the pH crash too?

The only time I experienced a so called 'crash' was when I had a piece of bog wood that was sucking the KH out of the water. I bet you anything if you took that bit of wood out kit would stop. 50ppm NO3 shouldn't do this you your pH.

If you do decide to use remineralizing salts, why do you need to use RO? if your tap water is soft why not just add it to the tap water and save yourself the hassle of an RO unit.

Also, I would kill for soft water!

Sam

 

[rabbut]

I run my tank with 1dkh and Ive never experienced a pH crash. First off, how do you know its crashing? What does the pH crash too?

The pH is falling from 7 to less than 5 in the space of a few hours, once the tank has been running the cycle for a few days....liquid tests and re-tested each time to eliminate false readings. I use the Tetra liquid tests, and have had a friend check the readings with an API kit. Both agree on results.

The only time I experienced a so called 'crash' was when I had a piece of bog wood that was sucking the KH out of the water. I bet you anything if you took that bit of wood out kit would stop. 50ppm NO3 shouldn't do this you your pH.

You may well be onto somthing there. I haven't soaked this pice of wood for any length of time, so may well be the problem

If you do decide to use remineralizing salts, why do you need to use RO? if your tap water is soft why not just add it to the tap water and save yourself the hassle of an RO unit.

Though we have a low KH here, we also have a moderate GH, of 8 gd from the tap. Using remineralising salts will also boost the GH to less than ideal levels, assuming the reading on discus I have been doing is correct.

Thanks Sam for your input

rabbut

 

[lljdma06]

Thanks to all who have replied. I too can't wait for these to grow in a bit more. I have been having a few problems with the fishless cycle, as the pH keeps crashing KH in our area is very low, and tap water can't seem to support more than 50mg/l of nitrate without the pH dropping rapidly. I have, this time added a full tub of bicarbonate of soda (baking powder) to raise the pH to 8. Hopefuly this time it will stay there till the end of the cycle. Looks like I may need to use RO with mineral retopic to keep things stable, but we'll see how things go......
Still got some more ludwigia repens to go in on the left hand side, and also the carpet. Possibly glosso??? Anyone know how this will fare at 30 degrees centigrade??
Belive it or not, I got the wood for free!!!!!

Best regards and thanks
rabbut

Now that's awesome, wood for free!!! I have never done a fishless cycle. Never needed to. Have been keeping plants for a while now and planting densly from the onset and adding livestock slowly negated the need for cycling in my situation. Personally, however, I don't see how Discus would have a problem with a pH of 5. Many fish in South America are often harvested from waters with insanely low pH and very low gH and kH. If I were you, I wouldn't tweak the water and let nature run its course. My guess is that the wood is leaching and bringing everything down, but Discus like soft water, so it shouldn't be a problem for that fish. That being said, I'd wait for things to mature a bit, like six months or so, before I add the Discus anyways. Start off with some tougher, Discus-friendly species and make sure that the water parameters are stable for some time before adding the Discus. They are expensive little guys, so I wouldn't take any chances.

Hmmmmm. Discus friendly ground covers...Lilaeopsis braziliensis pops into my head. How much lighting do you have?

llj

 

[rabbut]

Now that's awesome, wood for free!!! I have never done a fishless cycle. Never needed to. Have been keeping plants for a while now and planting densly from the onset and adding livestock slowly negated the need for cycling in my situation. Personally, however, I don't see how Discus would have a problem with a pH of 5. Many fish in South America are often harvested from waters with insanely low pH and very low gH and kH. If I were you, I wouldn't tweak the water and let nature run its course. My guess is that the wood is leaching and bringing everything down, but Discus like soft water, so it shouldn't be a problem for that fish. That being said, I'd wait for things to mature a bit, like six months or so, before I add the Discus anyways. Start off with some tougher, Discus-friendly species and make sure that the water parameters are stable for some time before adding the Discus. They are expensive little guys, so I wouldn't take any chances.

Hmmmmm. Discus friendly ground covers...Lilaeopsis braziliensis pops into my head. How much lighting do you have?

llj

Hi, thanks for the reply. I am aware of the low pH being fine for discus, but I'm not shure if my intended plecos would be suited to that type of acidity. Do you know how tolerant L66 and L18 to low pH's?

Thanks for the tip on lilaeopsis braziliensis, I have 156watts over rughly 75 gal, so thats about 2wpg The tubes at presant are all 14000K, and I am contemplating replacing two of them to lower temporature tubes.

Thanks to all posters once again
Rabbut

 

[lljdma06]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I am aware of the low pH being fine for discus, but I'm not shure if my intended plecos would be suited to that type of acidity. Do you know how tolerant L66 and L18 to low pH's?

Thanks for the tip on lilaeopsis braziliensis, I have 156watts over rughly 75 gal, so thats about 2wpg The tubes at presant are all 14000K, and I am contemplating replacing two of them to lower temporature tubes.

Thanks to all posters once again
Rabbut

Well, according to Planetcatfish, L66 tolerates a pH as low as 5.8, but possibly lower will be ok. With water changes, which both Discus and L66 enjoy on a regular basis since they are both sensitive to nitrates, the pH will probably not be as low as 5. L18 can go down to as low as 6.4, which is a bit more bothersome, but again, if it is acclimated well, it may not be a problem. Again, I think it's the wood leaching, so your current problem may solve itself once the wood cures. It is better to acclimate the fish to the lower pH than potentially mess things up by trying to adjust the pH yourself.

For the color temp on the tubes, it's a matter of preference, anything between around 4500k-9000k is IMO, alright for plant growth. I tend to like a cooler looking light that emphasizes reds and purple tinges, but my water is tannic and it supplies a nice contrast. I use 6700k, but I tend to mix it with colormax bulbs, as the 6700k on it's own is a bit too yellowish for my taste. I have another bulb which is 7100K, and I like the look a lot. I even have a 10000k in one tank that is growing plants well, too, so go figure.

llj

 

[rabbut]

Thanks llj,

Mebe I'll see how the 14000K tubes do untill I'm due to replace them then... Good to know that the plecs will tolerate a pH lower than what I expected. With your advise in mind, I'll stick to my origional plan of using strait tap water once the fish are in. Will keep the KH high till the fishless cycle is finished, and see if things stay stable once I've given things a chance to settle on their own.

Thanks again
Rabbut

Edit; will hopefuly be adding more snapps tonight, if I remember to get the cammera out..

 

[rabbut]

quick photo update

Strong growth over the last week, and have puchased a few more plants. Have also managed to track down some Lilaeopsis braziliensis at a LFS, in one of the display tanks......One of the assistants promiced to save some for me next time they trim it

Anyhow, enjoy

Rabbut

EDIT: the fishless cycle has finished, so the big waterchange will be done tomorrow evening, and hopefuly it will be up-to-temporature and ready for fish by Wednesday

 

[Themuleous]

Tank looks great, if you keep them pruned the plants along the back should look great when they've bushed out a bit. The wood fits into the scape perfectly.

Keep us posted, its a great start and can only get better as it matures

BTW how long did the cycle take? Im currently cycling a tank and its been years since Ive started from scratch so haven't a clue how long it takes!

Sam

 

[rabbut]

Tank looks great, if you keep them pruned the plants along the back should look great when they've bushed out a bit. The wood fits into the scape perfectly.

Keep us posted, its a great start and can only get better as it matures

BTW how long did the cycle take? Im currently cycling a tank and its been years since Ive started from scratch so haven't a clue how long it takes!

Sam

Took about three weeks without a filter clone (added fish to existing tank without quarenteening and had a whitespot outbreak at the time), but can take as little as a week with a bit of mature media added to help the cycle along. Have got my fish in now, so will be uploading some more pics shortly. They are still setteling in though, so I won't go too close with the camera for a few days.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[xmarksdaspot]

Tank looks great so far!
Can't wait to see fish in it!