Angus

Nice dead carpet KP! I dose 2x the recommended dosage Godly. In my 75G, i use an initial dose of 70ml, then a 12ml dose on the 2nd and 3rd days, although the awesome red colour starts to show after the 1st day on most occasions, and the 12ml dose isn't often required. Let's see everyone's Red is Dead photos! :thup:

Dead!! :happy2: Go Flourish Excel Go!! :happy1:

7 hours - the lights come on at 2.30, go off at 9.30pm. If I was to offer my two cents Glenn, give pressurized a go. You're going to need to get a carbon source into your tank if you want healthy plant growth. And with a tank that size, i'd suggest that dosing with Flourish Excel will be more expensive than cutting your lights down to save money. The other positive, is that you learn what works and what doesn't in your particular set up. If you're keen on a planted tank, then from my experience, there isn't any half measures in terms of the equipment. But having got the gear, tinkering is the name of the game until balance is achieved, and that is a great learning process. I'd agree with the previous posts though - clowns and planted tanks don't get along... :-?

It depends on the amount of light you've got pumping in i think... I had a photoperiod of 6 hours (2.30 - 8.30pm) and got good growth with 4 x 36W CFL's in a 70G tank (i know watts/gallon is an unfavoured term now but i don't own a PAR meter...). This was in response to battling (and losing) an algae war with 4 x 55W CFL's on for 12 hours. I read that light drives the ecosystem in the planted tank, so I dropped things down (period and wattage) to the lowest point I thought would still achieve good growth without the imbalance. I have pressurized CO2 and dose using the EI method. I then slowly increased things to a point where I can now report, that aside from the occasional BBA appearance, I now have a balanced happy tank, with good growth. :happy2:

I add conditioner while the tank is being re-filled. Never had any issues, but then i'm also not sure what the level of chlorine etc is in the water supply. Would rather condition than take a chance.

I converted from buckets to a hose to/from the kitchen sink about a year ago. Huge time saver! Can't believe I ever did buckets. While the water empties into the kitchen sink, i'm busy pruning, scrubbing, pruning, cutting, pruning etc. Connect the end up to the mixer tap and away ya go! Look Ma - no hands! :happy1: I use a cannister filter outflow u-pipe with plastic guard on the end to prevent any curious fish getting sucked up while i'm not watching.

Gotta admit this made me chuckle. Guess all i've got to do now is pretend to want to grow algae, and it'll go away

nice to know - thanks!

So a couple of tiles supplying 8000 lumens each, over a 4 footer would probably be ok? What do people here think about the LED option? From what I can gather (low tech minded!!) they seem to be talked about as the way forward...?

Drool.... !drool: http://greenleafaquariums.com/products/aquaray-grobeam-1000-nd-led-natural-daylight-solid-state-lighting-tile-6500k-with-powercontrol.html A couple of these tiles, attached to a frame, suspended over my 70G.... !drool: !drool: Time to redirect those pennies (Apologies if someone's posted this before me and these are old news)

Been said before but deserves repeating.... AWESOME tank!!! I bet it's satisfying lying on the couch admiring your efforts

This is basically what flourish Excel is doing. Its a carbon alternative so doing the same thing CO2 will do. My reason for offering that advice, was that adding Excel can be an expensive way of combating BBA if you're already injecting CO2. Sorry for not clarifying that.

I double dose with Excel every so often when the BBA gets unsightly. For my ~70 gallon tank, i dose 70ml on the first day, then 12ml for a few more days. The BBA turns red and dies in a few days. It always comes back after a while. I'm not bothered by it too much. I've read opinions by planted tank experts that a highish level of consistent CO2 supply will help prevent regrowth, but i haven't managed to replicate that in my setup...

thanks Antwan! ~270 litres, four 55W compact fluoros under AH Supply reflectors (they rock!) on for 7 hours currently (slowly building up).

Your wish is... Here is the external setup, with the cylinder, regulator, needle valve and bubble counter stacked next to the tank: A close up of the reg. and the needle valve (dial just tucked in behind the leaf) :facepalm: : The bubble counter, with the brass screw caps: The under the stand equipment, with the reactor plumbed into the Eheim filter. You'll notice the outflow from the filter goes into the top of the reactor, and the outflow from the bottom of the reactor then heads north to flow into the aquarium: A close up of the home-made reactor, using pvc piping and some end pipes: You can see in the photo above that the CO2 tubing (blue) is piped into near the top of the reactor. The water flow is from top to bottom in the reactor, so the CO2 bubbles are introduced into the water and are fighting to rise against the current. In doing so, the CO2 is dissolved into the water, which flows into the tank. You'll also notice a non-return valve in the CO2 line just before it joins the reactor. And just a little chance to show off.... :roll: the tank as it stands tonight...

I can attach a solenoid into the line if i wanted (have one sitting here waiting) but i haven't got around to it. I'm one of those who are happy with CO2 24/7. To do it, i need to take the reg etc into a gas plumbing shop i've found locally who previously plumbed the needle valve in for me. They'd be able to do the same for the solenoid should i want to. I'm surprised at BOC's comment about the regulator, but then i'm not sure which type you're after. If it helps, i've got a D sized food grade CO2 cylinder, with a BOC 6000 regulator. It feeds into a needle valve i found locally ages ago, but you could find heaps either on ebay or elsewhere on the web. The solenoid if wanted, would fit in between the reg and the needle valve. The tubing comes off the end of the needle valve and feeds into a bubble counter i purchased off ebay. The bubble counter has brass screw caps and a plastic jar. I made my own too once, but it looked unprofessional so i went for a bought one in the end :roll: I built an inline reactor which hides underneath the stand. The CO2 line from the bubble counter feeds into near the top. The water outflow from the Eheim cannister filter flows into the top of the reactor, and water flow, enriched with CO2 flows out the bottom of the reactor back into the aquarium. I'd recommend (if you haven't already) doing a search on pressurised CO2 aquariums and you'll find some good stuff. I'll post photos if you want of my setup but i've left the camera at work so it'll have to be next week if wanted... :roll:

Sorry - can't comment on the Ubarns reg, but fwiw, I have a BOC reg with a BOC rental cylinder. Downside is the monthly rental etc, upside is the peace of mind after each replacement. I think it's a 9.35kg cylinder. Last one lasted close to a year on my 270l planted tank. Pros and cons :-?

Cool - ta! If I end up trying this with any success i'll update the topic. Then again, do we want planted tank freaks all running off to the streams carrying nets? Any other personal experiences still welcome!

One way is to try i suppose, which i'll have a go at, depending on the legality of collecting shrimp from the local rivers? Was hoping for some personal experiences before potentially harming any locals...

Awesome! Were they a good clean up crew for your tank?

Not convinced about that argument. Proof being a mate's native tank which regularly gets in to the high twenties during summer, with no ill effects to the inhabitants. Granted, it's not sustained high temps like a tropical tank. But critters have the ability to cope with change in environments, otherwise a single high temp. summer with severe drought would kill off all inhabitants in a localised habitat. And as a reference noted, "When acclimated to warmer temperatures native freshwater shrimps, as do most species, exhibit higher preferred and lethal temperatures than previously. These are due to slow, finite, but reversible adaptive changes in body chemistry and physiology." Anybody with a personal experience?

I read they prefer 20 degrees water, but can be acclimatised. Not keen on low oxygen, or ph swings, but a stable well oxygenated planted tank shouldn't pose a problem i'd hope.

Hi all i constantly read in overseas forum topics of planted tanks with shrimp used as part of the clean up crews, Amano shrimps etc etc. I've never seen any tropical shrimp for sale in the lfs here. A thought occurred, how about our single native species of freshwater shrimp? I read that they can be acclimatised to higher temps. Has anybody attempted this with any success in a planted tank scenario?

Safety or toughened glass, as the name suggests, is a bugger to break. As Alan writes, it has to be cut to size before the toughening treatment because if you try to cut it afterwards, not only is it tougher to cut, the whole pane will break into diced cubes (anybody seen a broken bus shelter window?). Not sure of its suitability for aquarium purposes.

When I accidentally broke my drop checker washing it, i thought I could rely on the same principle, but I found that something changes, like amount of plants, cleaning out the filter and piping, which required turning off the gas, or whatever, I couldn't do that. Peace of mind = drop checker...