Pics So Far

[Rodders]

Cheers all!!! B)

 

[EliteFishy]

How many gallons is that tank?

 

[lljdma06]

That tank's huge! I love it. It's symmetrical, but if I know anyone who posts in Planted tanks, they'll be tweaking with it in a heartbeat and change it all around. It looks very nice. I actually see the rocks having a lot of potential.

 

[Rodders]

How many gallons is that tank?

Approx 145 UK gallons.



I've put 5 danios in as levels indicate the tank has cycled fishlessly. They seem to still be alive which is a good thing so all is going well.

Only problem is that the plants have taken all the CO2 out the water, the indicator had turned blue this morning when I finally woke up. So I've turned it up and will get it back to a constant level again.

 

[Rodders]

Dont know if any of you have had problems, but my lights kept resetting my electronic timers when they turned off, all down to the ballast.
This ment lights not coming on etc... as they should be and with CO2 pumping in not a good thing.

So I didnt want to go and my mechanical timers as I already had bought electronic ones, we made up a relay switch at work.

Lights plug into the extension socket, one plug into the timer and the other to a permenant feed. So the timer switches the coil and the relay does the main switching of the lights, so therefor the timer is isolated from the ballast shuting down.

So hopefully now I can wake up and all is well through the day.

 

[Rodders]

Not the best pics, but I have streams of oxygen bubbles coming off all my plants.

They are really growing quite fast...

 

[akudewan]

Wow, looks amazing 0_0

 

[George Farmer]

Nice start Rodders.

I hope you like your swords! If you ever want to lose them you will probably need to do an entire strip down. Their roots will soon cover the entire substrate area. I had 2 Echinodorus blehri (same as yours I believe) in my 33G and their roots grew to over 3 foot!

Similar with your Crypts to a lesser extent.

How do you dose/intend dosing liquid ferts?

 

[jimbooo]

great idea with the timers rodders. i've experienced that first hand. not only does it not start up when it's supposed to the ballast trips the timer and clears the programmed timings. major pain in the rear

 

[Rodders]

I havnt looked into ferts yet.
Dont really know much about it, read a little.
Plant growth is really good with CO2.

Being such a big tank, how much do you recon ferts will cost and what should I be doing.
I dont want to be doing 50% water changes a week, thats over 300 litres......!!!!

 

[George Farmer]

I dont want to be doing 50% water changes a week, thats over 300 litres......!!!!

You don't have to follow the EI "rules" rigidly at all.

Do you have nitrate (NO3) and phosphate (PO4) test kits?

If so you will only need to dose NO3 and PO4 if your levels test less than approx. 10ppm NO3 and 0.5 ppm PO4. Your lighting isn't that high and you don't have a massive amount of fast growers so you may be ok for a while.

If and when you start to get low NO3 and PO4 readings then dosing Potassium nitrate (for NO3) and Potassium phosphate (for PO4) will be necessary for your plant's health and the prevention of algae. Dosing dry ferts is fairly straight forward. Read through zig's EI article for more info and useful links. Ask any questions you have here, there's plenty of good advice if you need it.

You may also need to think about dosing micronutrients.

 

[oldwhitewood]

Listen to the dude above! *nods*

 

[solidshark55]

NICE FORUM

 

[Danno]

Fantastic! Heh....your mechanical timers look like a bunch of futuristic video game things, im jelious!

Keep updating us on the pictures!

Edit:~

The leaves in the bubble o2 picture make the swords seem yellow. Im deffinatly not an expert at plants but might that be an iron defiency?

 

[littleimp]

Dont know if any of you have had problems, but my lights kept resetting my electronic timers when they turned off, all down to the ballast.
This ment lights not coming on etc... as they should be and with CO2 pumping in not a good thing.

So I didnt want to go and my mechanical timers as I already had bought electronic ones, we made up a relay switch at work.

Lights plug into the extension socket, one plug into the timer and the other to a permenant feed. So the timer switches the coil and the relay does the main switching of the lights, so therefor the timer is isolated from the ballast shuting down.

So hopefully now I can wake up and all is well through the day.

What type of lights are you using?? Unless you are using halides I'm surprised you need a contacter?

Unless you have tons of tubes on one socket??