Not Reallly A Journal

[2pods]

After rubbing along with my Juwel Rio 400 for a couple of years, I made an attempt to actually plant it with aquatic plants (as opposed to "Wheat" "Aluminium", and all the other non-aquatic plants that some shady mail order companies foist on you!), 'cos I found a good plant outlet.

After planting etc (this was about a year ago) I was using Flourish and Excel and everything was looking alright, not great, but alright.

I then doubled the lighting with an additional Juwel ballast, which gave me 2 x 36w Arcadia Freswater T8s and 2 x Arcadia Original Tropical 36w, still quite low/medium lighting.
Substrate was the very fine decorative gravel picked by my SO. Plants really started to pick up by dosing Flourish twice a week and Excel daily. This also took any Algae I had completely away.

Unfortunately, 'cos the majority of my stuff is mail order, the Seachem regime was also taking what little money I had away too ! (at this point I was dosing the Rio 400, a Rio 240, a Rekord 60, a PFK cube, and a plastic thing from the local garden centre.

Plants at the time were Hygro, Rotala Macarandra, Java Fern, some Amazon Swords, Vallis (Straight, Giant, Spiral), Hydrocotlyte (sp?), and some crypts.

I then sold the Rio 240 and invested in a Aquamas Co2 system

Unfortunately, some time had passed between stopping the Seachem treatment and starting (three days ago) the Co2 system (which was only possible because of the help I've had from the members of this forum - you know who you are ), so most of the plants are in a right state

So, I'll take this as the start, Here's my algae collection.

I'm using the internal Juwel filter after removing the carbon, a Rena XP3 external but with no Biochem zorb, into an external CO2 reactor, then into a TMC Vecton 15 watt UV, and finally back into the tank.
I'm also using a check dropper

It's not worth me going down the EI route with this, so I'll try to get my weeds grown out properly and get rid of the algae, and then try and make it look a bit better.

The main bugbear for me at the mo' is setting the right bubble rate, and the fact that the online plant company have stopped deliveries due to flooding at their suppliers.

Peter

 

[Dave Spencer]

That`s avery nice looking set up. I would love a Rio 400.

 

[2pods]

That`s avery nice looking set up. I would love a Rio 400.

Thanks Dave

I actually got the Rio in a swap with one of my nephews.
He had moved into a new flat with his SO and was short of all the usual stuff (TV, DVD +DD setup,vCR ).
We had just bought the house and wanted new stuff, so the deal was done.
The Rio hadn't even been unpacked and filled, which was just as well, as his mum's was on the 4th floor

Peter

 

[BINKSY]

Looking good peter, glad things are starting to work out for you.

As for plant ferts i use the trace mix (dry powder mix) from aqua essentials which i dose about three times a week, and plant pro bags from plants alive, and i have to trim some of my plants on a weekly basis, i have found that this mix of ferts is working very well for me, and i have also overcome the battle for algae after quite a few months, so stick with it is well worth it when things start working well.


Heres the link for the plant fert bags

Plants Alive


Cheers Gordon

 

[2pods]

Cheers Gordon

Everytime I look at that gravel I can feel a divorce coming on

Peter

 

[BINKSY]

i use a quartz gravel, which is a very fine gavel, the plants seem to do well in it, its been in there since i first had the tank, about 3 years now, i think quartz gravel is supposed to help stabilize ph too, not sure on that though.


Cheers Gordon

 

[2pods]

i use a quartz gravel, which is a very fine gavel, the plants seem to do well in it, its been in there since i first had the tank, about 3 years now, i think quartz gravel is supposed to help stabilize ph too, not sure on that though.


Cheers Gordon

I quite lke the feel of ours, and it's good for the plants to anchor in, it's just the colour <shudder/>

Peter

 

[2pods]

Well that 2kg bottle of Co2 didn't last long, apparently I had a leak, but thankfully the fish were OK
Fire extinguishers were the answer.

After adventures in purchasing, one of my two FE arrived.

This was £40 delivered for a 2kg.
It was a bit over the top pricewise, but the guy is local and will be doing my refills @ £13 a pop, plus he said he'll see if wherever he takes them will fill my Aquamas bottle, so thats not bad.

My second FE is a 2kg from The Sharp Edge, and is apparently on it's way back to them without being delivered for no other reason than the Parcelforce guy is raving mad
I'll try and get that back.

After hooking up the Co2 (and checking with Dave everything was in the right place) I discovered a leak from the adaptor.
This was one of the red fibre rings, practically in bits.
So I substituted one of the black rings that was on the reg originally.
All now seems well apart from the bubble rate now seems to miss the odd bubble and give me two bubbles at the same time occaisionally.

So thats the situation at the moment.
I'm still watching the dials on the reg to make sure it's OK.
If I get through the week and still have some bottle left, I'll stop worrying and move on to my next bit.

Peter

 

[2pods]

double post - sorry

 

[2pods]

Well, that's nearly a fortnight with no Co2 leaks (touches wood) though it feels as if I've lost a bit of fine control on the needle valve,
It's not the tubing as that was OK before.
I wonder if it could be because I'm using a fibre ring that's slightly bigger than the wrecked one ?

Anyway, here's the start of Co2

and these are the weeds two weeks later at 2-2.5 bps and Flourish twice weekly

Though I am limited by the lighting (4 x 36w T8) I had to cut everything back last week, and I'll have to do it again this week.

Little victories, eh ?

Peter

 

[Liam]

Beautiful tank and plants, the rotala M is wow.

 

[wei0204]

Wow, the plants are growing so rapidly and healthy...

 

[Themuleous]

The tank has really come on, keep it up

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

That R. macrandra is something else. Have you thought about taking photos with the room lights off and tank lights on with no flash? It gives a better impression of what the tank really looks like. Those are nice angels. Not my favorite color variety (I like regular silvers), but they look really nice and healthy.

 

[2pods]

Thanks everyone

The camera has been driving me nuts for a while.
It complains the light levels are low (and hence auto focus suffers) in a normal living room
I think next time I'll get the tripod out and see if it still complains. Its a Fuji S304, so it shouldn't be that bad.

I've just given the tank a severe haircut.
I'm trying to get rid of all the algae-ed plants and leaves, which has left it a bit lopsided.
Pics will follow, but I think I may have overdone it.

At least my crypts are starting to wake up.
They had gone flat and brown, but the leaves are starting to stay upright.
This happened before in my PFK cube and they are now looking great in that

Peter