Morcs

Someone able to shed light on why my Co2 isn't working. Cut my main tubing and fitted a t-piece, linked to a second bottle with its own check valve. See pic. bottle number 1 (left has been running about 3 weeks, had heaps of pressure, hissed nicely when I disconnected it. 2 days on and I have nothing at all still. A leak in the short line would mean a leak in the whole system. or because of the extra bottle, and the release of pressure from the first one, will it take that much longer to pressurise the system again? (especially with a ceramic diffuser), but then again ive got nothing going through the bubble counter either.. tempted to undo the lids to see if there is any pressure, but don't want to loose the pressure I already have? Ho hum. Might leave it an extra day and dose some excel in the meantime.

always go much bigger with your slopes than seems 'normal' ones you see in pictures that have big elevations and stuff don't always look like they are that high, until you see a side view of the substrate. I have used rocks under the substrate before to assist with building up slopes (saves on substrate as well as helping hold it together) Use wood and rocks together and amongst each other rather than separate, get plants right in there too and itll look great. what are you tank dimensions roughly? at a guess around 80x30x30?

Hi Michael, its currently sold pending pickup.

Took the beamswork off last night. Looks quite good running the green element. The problem I have I think is the black back of the tank - it gets that washed out look. If It were a normal tank, with no backround, it would look amazing with the current lighting. Otos have done a sterling job on my diatoms already.

Yes its another level entirely. The beamswork has 0.2w LEDs (6w total) where as green element has 3w LEDs at 6500k (18w total and much nicer white) I would be perfectly happy if I had two of them for the look I want. Planted tank.net is sponsorered by finnex so lots of reviews and par data. The fugeray r clip on light has red LEDs too and is a nice looking unit. I went with the 16 inch standard fugeray as its the same width as my tank, colour not as good as the new planted+ but thats higher light still. Will post up pics and stuff when it gets here.

depends if the powerhead part of the filter is usually submerged in water within the confines of the filter usually? If not then I wouldn't risk it. Internal filters are cheap as. Hailea probably make the best bang for buck units, or aqua one.

Bit the bullet today and ordered a Finnex Fugeray 16'' instead of buying a second green element unit to get the light spread that I want. http://www.finnex.net/index.php/fugeray_series/?___store=default So, if anyone is interested in 2 almost new LED units, in about 2 weeks they will be available... Beamswork 200 $30 Green Element evo 6x3W $40

:-? Meh if I was willing to spend that money id rather buy a decent skimmer and do another marine (tank is perfect for it) anyway I modified my filter outlet slightly to create a lot more surface area for degassing at night. Probably uncessary but it will make me feel better when I add another bottle. Lots of diatoms too, got some otos on the weekend, they are having a blast. Still thinking about changing the lighting. Its good, but I'm wanting better without going higher light. A finnex fugerayR is on the wishlist.

The green element was 60ish shipped from eBay. Quite a few varieties so make sure you get a 6500k without actinics and make sure they are 3w LEDs. They do clip ons too. Beams work in comparison was 40ish I think. Green element also do quad units, so 4 Rows but haven't found a supplier to ship to nz yet. Might just settle for another identical unit. The syringe with a check valve jammed into it create a bubble counter, so you can see how much co2 is being produced - I use it as purely an indicator of when I need to do a new mix. I found the method on line and had the stuff and gave it a go. Was easy and worked. You can do tubing to an air stone but diffusion isn't great unless you can have it feeding into a filter inlet. As a minimum make sure you have a check valve. I've seen a yeast mix flow into a tank and it wasn't pretty. For about 35 bus on eBay you can buy a kit with a ceramic nano diffuser, proper co2 urethane tubing, a bubble counter and a brass check valve.

Has moar light! looks much better being 6500K. still doesnt give the front to back spread needed for the cube, even at this power so using both units together. Still getting the 'beams' shining through the water which is just LEDs i guess. I dont like it. Co2 is all rigged up tidily with a proper bubble counter, rigid tubing and a ceramic nano diffuser - working really well. And scaping, combo of rocks and wood creates a frontal area, with a plateau behind it (substrate nearly 4inches deep there) Plant list currently: Cyptp wendtii's - needs more, want to do the front with crypts too dwarf sag ambulia rotundifolia ( i think) tiger lotus javafern (heaps of puplets appearing) indian fern (always kept a small cutting to grow, handy excess nutrient eater) and managed to find a parviflorus, buy the time i stripped off all the decaying leaves, left me with a tiny sword. Adding flourish once a week after 40%WC. Pictures dont give the sense of the different heights and elevations unfortunately.

Yep its the way to go. I'm a big fan of using aquaclear media (made for aquaclear filter) as they come in good size ranges for using for other things, and are well priced. In the past I have just used a lot of their sponges as they act as effective bio media as well as mechanical. Then I would use bulk filter wool as the first stage and just replace that piece weekly or whenever dirty. Hope this helps.

Good units. I liked the e25

Cool. Also you can try sloping your substrate, a squeegy makes this easy. Start with 1cm or so at very front and go from there. You can either go front to back or slope up towards the right corner. Helps give some perception of depth

Change in anything will do it. Sometimes quite delayed reaction too.

Haha yes already done. They were from the garden before I could be bothered going to a rocky beach :)Co2 now is much better with polyurethane tubing and a ceramic diffuser, surprised I could get enough pressure! Lighting is probably still 2 weeks away so I will do an update then. Crypts will enjoy it in the meantime before they no doubt will melt

Place the heater vertically on the Left side so next to the filter intake. That'll look heaps better and less cluttered, you want to avoid it looking like a load of big stuff in a small tank if you know what I mean. Try to find angular stones rather than using the smooth river stones Then have a play around. Google iwagumi and you'll see the sort of shapes that look good either spread out or piled up. Hope this helps

Faulty circuit board probably. Could be something screwed up with the shutdown and purge sequence and its randomly turning motor off.

Have you stripped down the impellor housing and had a look?

Any suggestions on dosing? With stronger lighting on the way, might add another diy bottle. I should be about medium light. Plan will be to ditch the augustifolia and indian fern once sag microfolia and crypts start growing and multiplying and filling the tank up with them, would be nice to add some macaranda or another decent splash of red and some polysperma. Flourite substrate, and doing 40% weekly WC. Im thinking liquid dosing once per week after WC would be sufficient?

Possibly. Will see when new light arrives, managed to get new unit swapped for one without actinics. So 18w white LEDs. Stoked

livingreef.co.nz http://www.livingreef.co.nz/p/162/aquanano-aquarium he also has the 30. SO CHEAP TOO!

tank update. bit of brown algae appearing, but still a new tank so cut feeding and photoperiod and will wait it out. water also still doesnt look crystal clear. Cannot figure this out and WC dont help. some purigen might be in order.

Fair to say I can comment on the Beamswork 200 LED unit fully now. Great light unit but undersized for this size tank - the next unit up would be too long, a square shaped unit even with these strength LEDs would give a better spread of light on a cube of this size and id probably be content. My weeds (stems) are growing well, and my low light plants such as JF and crypts are coming along nicely. However, the dwarf sag in the foreground isnt responding at all and i feel at this depth the level of light (as well as forward/backward spread) is inadequate for slightly higher light plants. That said, on something shallower and narrower, such as a 90x30x30 i would be quite confident the appropriate sized unit would look good and grow most things too. Other thing is the LEDs are 10000k. Not the ideal place in the spectrum and also gives quite a cold look to the tank. I have gone and ordered a new unit today. Quite hard to find something suitable i must say. No good options in NZ really be it LED or tube. Couldve done a HO T5 2ft unit, but i wouldve had to make mounts to suspend it (did this on my marine tank) but much $$$ and work. Buying units from the US is difficult as they are 110v mains - the beamsworks come with a 100-240v transformer so at most i only have to buy an adaptor. New unit is also a beamswork. Their newon ultra bright unit using 3w leds at 6500k. PAR ratings are around 300 at 12'' but start dropping once you get toward 18'' depth. Quite confident it will give me a better spread of light as well as more power. Not liking the fact that 1/3rd of the bulbs are actinic however. I should be able to use both lights together if needbe with the timing staggered.

No still running DIY. just got some better equipment coming - brass check valve, co2 tubing, ceramic diffuser and a proper bubble counter. what im running at the moment was what i found in a blueplanet air set for $6 then i might get one of the bottle cap sets to tidy it up

Added some diy yesterday. Using a syringe with a checkvalve jammed up its bottom to act as an effective bubble counter. Using an airstone for diffusion beneath the powerhead intake - not doing a great job but got some proper gears on the way.