Stan's freshwater 240 gallon extravaganza. Trials and tribulations of a sunlit aquarium

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I just read someoplace Colin that one sign of Rainbow TB is the fish swims vertical. That's what my NOID female did for 2 months before passing. So far all my M. bozemanii have thrived with none being lost to TB or any other disease in three years plus now.
 
Just to report that I am now growing Hydrocotyle tripartita. My first attempt went down a gullet of something. Well,I did have a Roseline die months ago and I suspect it was the eater. The larger surviving Roseline hasn't touched that delicate new plant. Makes a great contrast to large leafed Sword Plants.
I'm getting to where I have a more plant tank than fish tank and the fish seem to like it..swimming under and around the plant growth.
The "new" Tripartita, I grew out emerged in a Metaframe aquarium of 2 gallons. Old! Just in case the new one would be eaten like the old plant was. Now,I Have enough of the plant to use for trade with LFS.
btw,The Tripartia took to being submerged easily. I don't know why its said to be hard to acclimate to underwater. Easy as pie.
 
I just read some place Colin that one sign of Rainbow TB is the fish swims vertical. That's what my NOID female did for 2 months before passing. So far all my M. bozemanii have thrived with none being lost to TB or any other disease in three years plus now.
I have never seen rainbows swim vertical and doubt it would be TB. It might be but I would think there is either a swim bladder issue or a neurological problem with the fish.
 
We had a ferocious heatwave that shot up the temperature in my aquarium to 84f+. BGA showed up. Now that I have it down to 76f,BGA is spotty and I can see not spreading. Of course I removed what I could find so it's looking good again.
Something about warm water is a trigger for BGA,keep that in mind.
 
A photo. Java ferns doing well. I don't use potassium anymore. Just iron for the whole gang.
 

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We had a ferocious heatwave that shot up the temperature in my aquarium to 84f+. BGA showed up. Now that I have it down to 76f,BGA is spotty and I can see not spreading. Of course I removed what I could find so it's looking good again.
Something about warm water is a trigger for BGA,keep that in mind.
I had more issues with bga in coldwater tanks or tanks that got cooler during winter, than I did in warm water tanks.
 
You might have had some kind of cyano but BGA for sure wait for warm nutrient water to come along. Even in local waters the cyano are no problem in winter but once warm water comes along, come the warnings to stay out of the water. It seems to me cooler water gets the aquarium plants an edge over BGA,as when it gets very warm? I just know BGA will show up.
 
That photo is my last attemped!..got to wait until early morning or sunset for the flash. Without it,everything looks low def. Wouldn't you know it,my Canon camera wont let me use flash unless its dim lighting.
 
Just to report I havent made a water change since the end of July/start of August-I should have wrote it down,and this might be the longest I've ever gone. Aquarium and fish look fine..algae is way down.Not even needed to wipe the glass down. So what's the motivation to change water,right?
I still dose about 2 tablespoon of iron every other day *(for 240 gallons/920 liters). Sometimes less,never more. I go by my "spidey sense" I guess you could say. hee.
 
So what's the motivation to change water, right?
You do water changes for a number of reasons.

1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.
3) to keep the pH, KH and GH stable.
4) to dilute nitric acid produced by fish waste and food breaking down.
5) to dilute stress chemicals (pheromones/ allomones) released by the fish.
6) to dilute un-used plant fertiliser so you don't overdose the fish when you add more.
7) to remove fish waste.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

Imagine living in your house with no windows, doors, toilet, bathroom or anything. You eat and poop in the environment and have no clean air. Eventually you end up living in your own filth, which would probably be made worse by you throwing up due to the smell. You would get sick very quickly and probably die unless someone came to clean up regularly and open the place up to let in fresh air.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and harmful micro-organisms, and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.
 
To think- you can skip all that if your water is filtered by 8' of solid plant growth including the rootage of a huge Syngonium vine that is in active growth all year. I also constantly prune it too.
I have no "tint" to the water even with a white background. "I see the light" on natural growth with a modicum amount of fish biota in that 240 G/920 liters.

This Colin is my first ever all out planted big tank. I had previously had kept large fish in it and no plants and was in that 40-50% once a week routine.
The point of my posts is biology is a wonderful thing on how it can run without much input of human effort. Lights on,feed the fish,add for evaporation. Works.
 
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How many backyard ponds planted up never get a water change? Just rain or hose water to keep it filled.
All I do extra is add the iron for the plants.
 
Most backyard ponds have more water and fewer fish compared to an indoor aquarium.
 
My newest plant add is Ludwigia Super Red Mini. What's ridiculous is sellers offer it as L. repens 'Super Red'. L. palustris 'Super Red' and even L.natans..blah blah. The aquarium plant industry is so...amateurish despite that connoisseurs spend more on an aquarium of plants then they do on their own yard plants. Just the fact latin names are not used in discussions...makes people guess what you have. btw,this plant is said to turn red with no Co2.

The houseplant / nursery dealers are just as bad, fwiw. They stick standard name stickers on weird varieties, or call standard plants odd varieties. Bleh. Garden plants, aquarium plants, buyer beware!
 
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