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6 foot planted tank


antwan

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  • 2 weeks later...
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The joys of a high tech tank :lol:

About a week or two ago I lowered the lights and increased how long they were on for by a couple of hours, all in the same day. Big mistake. I got a biiiig outbreak of green, black beard, and brown algae.

On Friday I got an FX5 and a new reactor and there's already a noticeable difference in water clarity and the response from the plants. I put the lights back to their original height and they are now on for 9 hours a day. (New 10,000k bulbs too! They are nice, much whiter).

Tomorrow I will do a haul-over (good deciding this at the end of the weekend eh?) and remove any leaves with algae, give the pieces of wood a nice clean, and rearrange slightly. Perhaps I'll lower the lighting to 6-7 hours a day til it starts pumping again too.

If anyone in Christchurch has any spare cuttings of fast-growing stems let me know :wink: I need sponges!

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Those plants won't be using many nutrients especially if they have been shocked from getting pruned or rearranged so you won't need to dose as much until they settle in (aka your CO2 and nitrate could climb to an unhealthy level for the fish).

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Woah! Bare tank! That is quite the change.

Those plants won't be using many nutrients especially if they have been shocked from getting pruned or rearranged so you won't need to dose as much until they settle in (aka your CO2 and nitrate could climb to an unhealthy level for the fish).

I've got this happening now - have disconnected the co2 for now, will reconnect and re-fert after a 50% water change on Thursday.

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I've got this happening now - have disconnected the co2 for now, will reconnect and re-fert after a 50% water change on Thursday.

If you don't need as much CO2, it is best to have a low constant level rather than none, fluctutations are a recipe for staghorn. :o

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's coming along slowly, my CO2 tank ran out on Friday evening so had the long weekend without CO2 but the tank didn't really suffer. I added 7 more oto's to the tank and they're doing a great job of eating the green algae on the sides of the glass (plenty left too).

When I stripped the tank down I had 7 pup green barclaya's and 3 pup red barclaya's which is always good. The red never seems to get taller than 20cm in there though, lucky it looks good in the midground. I'm going to try have a few large green's on the left hand side instead of just one because I think it might look a bit nicer.

Today I added a good amount of Cryptocoryne affinis and I think beckettii, Bacopa caroliniana (under-rated plant!), I have some Hygrophila corymbosa 'stricta' that's just starting to grow, and Ludwigia arcuata and Alternanthera 'rosaeafolia' converting from emersed to submersed.

Oh, also added a pair of Apisto agassizii :) which means I will thin down the T-bars to maybe just one pair.

Here's a pic, lots of growing to be done!

8611.jpg

Ps. The FX5 is a brilliant filter, coupled with a CF1200 it has the perfect amount of flow needed for the 'gentle wavy' look. :hail:

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Ahh thanks Artem, there was a lot in that package!

I'm still just adding Comprehensive, NPK mix, and Iron chelate every second day. I will start to up the dosing as the plants grow.

Lights are back up on the highest notch again, they will be staying there too.

The plants seem to be growing well though, I'll post another photo in a couple of weeks.

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