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680L planted tank build (25/2/13 new pics)


Wellydave

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some good news! thanks to sophia i now have some dawf sag so today i removed the big sword in the middle of the tank and replaced it with a whole bunch of dawf sag and also the twisted val behind that sword had died off so i replaced that with some c.balansae that arrived as well. also planted the rotala wallichii and camboba that arrived in the back right hand corner of the tank so its starting to look good unfortunately the camboba that i brought from trade me was patheticly small (max 2 cm) so it has alot of growing to do but tanks starting to look how i want. getting good growth from everything hair grass is cranking! the small cripts around the rocks on the right are growing steadaly and so is the zelandae the water rose has died off and shed alot of leaves but is starting to make a come back and everything else is going nicely only problem realy is the widelof java which has leaves turning brown im hoping its going to come back in time now that im dosing fert and the co2 is right i currently have 3 guppies and two bristlenoses in the tank helping it cycle and added media and alot of water from the other cycled tank so the cycle is going well still havnt had any ammonia nitrate or nitrite rise yet tho :dunno: and it has been over a week but fish seem happy as larry so im not too worried. bristle noses have been the shiznet! theyve been cruzing round the tank keeping it spic and span so i couldnt be happyer at the moment :D now for photos!!

view from bed

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hipster shot

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left side

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right side

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male guppie

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all 3 guppies

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both bristlenoses and the stupidly small camboba

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bigger of the 2 bristlenoses and camboba again and some of the swords :)

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That is pretty pokey cabomba. How much did that cost you?

I did a cut back in my tank a few days ago and had stems that were twice the depth of my tank (120cm). It is actually grown in the depth of ponds and prefers lower temps and light.

What I have noticed about val is it likes direct light and water movement.

How long is your photo period at the moment?

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That is pretty pokey cabomba. How much did that cost you?

I did a cut back in my tank a few days ago and had stems that were twice the depth of my tank (120cm). It is actually grown in the depth of ponds and prefers lower temps and light.

What I have noticed about val is it likes direct light and water movement.

How long is your photo period at the moment?

yeah i was realy dissapointed :/ any chance youve got some more youd like to get rid of? :thup:

photo period at the moment is 9am - 9pm for the two life glos and 12pm - 6pm for the two power glos i think its a bit long but have no issues with algae yet and as i said some of the plants have started absolutely taking off

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got home today and disaster has struck! i think the solenoid on my co2 regulator has fried itself its making a hell of a racket and is very very hot. problem is i brought it from fish street so have emailed them but who knows how long it will be for a replacement :/ what should i do in the mean time in regards to lighting hours and ferts??

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problem is i brought it from fish street so have emailed them but who knows how long it will be for a replacement :/ what should i do in the mean time in regards to lighting hours and ferts??

If you've been following my AA thread you'll see I had the same issue. I emailed them 5 days ago and a replacement part has just arrived, going to go change it now and see if it works. I cut my lighting down to 4hrs and skipped ferts, got some mean brown hair algae in some places but it was easily removed. Plants grew slowly but well during this time.

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i have been watching your thread sam haha i was wondering if it was the same regulator. i suppose it surves us right for buying cheapo asian crap haha. i emailed them at 4.30 and got a email back at 5.30 saying if i pay $5 postage they will send me a new unit so ive payed it hopefully it will get here quick sharp but in the mean time i shall cut back lighting hours and stop using ferts

i did try to make a temporary home made unit but it dosent seem to be working haha. was also looking at just buying another reg from valray he said he can have it here by thursday and considering i need one for the small tank anyway that might well be my best option.

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it looks like a different regulator going by the pictures of the ones he has on trade me :dunno: just had a email back from fish street its being sent out today but could take up to 2 weeks to arrive :tears: trying to talk my gf into being the shiz and buying one from valray for me haha

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IME, I wouldn't worry about it. My plants did fine, no reason yours won't 8)

its just the tank is still settling in so a little gutted as the plants had just started really getting decent growth!! so frustrating lol any hints on where i can source a decent reg in nz? like somewhere i can go in to the store and buy one so if anything happens i can tank it back in and get a replacement straight away insted of having to wait 2 weeks haha

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  • 2 weeks later...

quick update been a while. replacement solenoid arrived on thursday so back on the fert and co2 tanks coming along nicely pretty shure its nice and cycled now heres some photos of the newest additions from todays trip to the lfs.

current stock:

2 female guppies and 3 babie guppies (all will be removed once i get the big school of gold harlequin rasboras)

3 german rams 2 females 1 male who seems to have claimed the top of the diffuser as his teritory and wil not let anyone else near it at any time haha

2 bristlenoses

1 white crown tail fighter

1 gold nugget pleco (added today)

1 green phantom pleco (added today)

4 ottos (added today)

waiting to be aclimated

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green phantom (bad pic)

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4 ottos (another bad pic)

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gold nugget

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gold nugget checking out his new home

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two of the ottos checking out the new home

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fighter

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whole tank

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thanks! not a hell of a lot of algae at the moment have had a bit of bba and green spot but its settled ive got 1 male apistogramma cockatoo arriving thursday next week and plan to put 60 gold harlequin rasboras in there as well then 3 or 4 more rams and a female apisto and i think that will do it for now

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yeah everything was sending out runners and new leafs like mad but then the co2 reg broke and i had to cut lights down and stop ferting so it all kinda slowed down but its all back to normal now as of thurs and everything seems to be picking up again so hopefully should start going nuts again haha

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Wrong choice of plecs. Both require high levels of oxygen coming from areas where rapids are abundant and considering your use of co2 i doubt you will have very high surface agitation, while they will not directly damage your plants they will break stems and uproot them with very little trouble. The gold nugget will dig it's own hide which will end up being your back corner by the look's. They will both fight and compete for food which will require you to feed each end of the tank, also being a plec they are renown for going without food becoming extremely under weight but from view-able positions looking healthy and fit. Both produce large amounts of waste that by the look's will not be removed by your filter, meaning constant manual removal. Heavy lighting will not be tolerated leaving relatively expensive fish reclusive. There overall size i would assume you have taken into consideration.

I don't mean to come off as overly aggressive but these facts will inhibit the growth of your plants and joy of your fish.

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Wrong choice of plecs. Both require high levels of oxygen coming from areas where rapids are abundant and considering your use of co2 i doubt you will have very high surface agitation, while they will not directly damage your plants they will break stems and uproot them with very little trouble. The gold nugget will dig it's own hide which will end up being your back corner by the look's. They will both fight and compete for food which will require you to feed each end of the tank, also being a plec they are renown for going without food becoming extremely under weight but from view-able positions looking healthy and fit. Both produce large amounts of waste that by the look's will not be removed by your filter, meaning constant manual removal. Heavy lighting will not be tolerated leaving relatively expensive fish reclusive. There overall size i would assume you have taken into consideration.

I don't mean to come off as overly aggressive but these facts will inhibit the growth of your plants and joy of your fish.

well thats a bit crap. oh well will see how it go's worst comes to worst it gives me an excuse to get another tank :slfg: both seem quite happy at the moment and have found them selfs homes at opposite ends of the tank in the caves provided but we'll see how they go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

quick update tanks going well. since the last update have added two black line flying foxes. have been getting a bit of green hair algae throughout the tank and its starting to get on my nerves

two of my lights blew so currently only have the two power glos running for 6 hours a day but b4 that i was running the life glows for 12 hours and power glos for 6 in the middle. really need to upgrade to the metal halides but cant find anything suitable in wellington :an!gry.

using reccomended dose of ferts from valray and co2 is on 1 hour b4 lights and off 1 hour b4 lights go off

did a 50% water change last night and tested the water levels are as follows ammonia 0, nitrates 0, nitrites 0 and ph around 7

all the plants are growing apart from the java basicly all of my java (needle, normal and widelov) is going brown and dyeing off any idea why? also the camboba is quite yellow but its still growing it just dosent look that great

all the fish seem happy but its not really growing like i would like it too. any recomendations on what i can do to get premium growth and less algae would be awsome thanks!

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