Learning In Utah

[Lance]

Hi, Im Lance. I've always had aquariums and have always been into ornamental gardening and plant propagation. An accident with my aquarium 2 years ago made me take all of my fish to my moms house and I was without a tank till three weeks ago. I would watch youtube videos of Aquariums in the background while working to make up for no tank. It wasn't till then that I even knew what was possible with planted tanks. I was hooked and finally set up a new tank.

I have a 60 gallon with a 24/7 finnex custom light, ecocomplete substrate, with filter sand area, rock collected locally, and driftwood Ive always had but never in water. Most of my plants are tissue culture because Im terrified of algae. But Ive also tried some others and have learned the hard way about emersed growth and the new submersed growth is coming back strong. I have co2 going and the drop checker shows green. I have supplemental lights in the back rim of the tank but just turned them off when I noticed my first spot of algae. My canister filter is still new and cycling.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Hello Lance and welcome, nice tank

 

[Kyalgae]

Hey Lance, nice tank, I like the rock layout and positioning.

 

[Phishless]

Right now Ive been dosing flourish 2 times a week and iron once a week.

Keep in mind with decent lighting and CO2, Flourish Comp & Iron may not be enough with inert substrates.

 

[Lance]

Keep in mind with decent lighting and CO2, Flourish Comp & Iron may not be enough with inert substrates.

Do I need to do more than 2 times a week or do I need to do a different product? So far things look good. but Im still figuring things out. I had to dial back the lighting because I was getting algae. The Alternanthera, S repens, ludwigia repens and rotala hra are growing really well and getting lots of color. the Cryptocoryne Parva tissue culture plants are growing painfully slow.

 

[Allwissend]

Welcome to the forum, nice rocks there, Lance. The flourish line is a little bit diluted making it expensive to provide a large aquarium with EI fertilizer levels. Since you have them already maybe you can increase the dose a little and see how plant react. You might also want to read this article:
http://www.barrreport.com/forum/bar...tive-index-of-dosing-or-no-need-for-test-kits
Some algae is alright in the beginning phase of the tank while tuning things in, they will go away once the plants fill in.

 

[Lance]

Welcome to the forum, nice rocks there, Lance. The flourish line is a little bit diluted making it expensive to provide a large aquarium with EI fertilizer levels. Since you have them already maybe you can increase the dose a little and see how plant react. You might also want to read this article:
http://www.barrreport.com/forum/bar...tive-index-of-dosing-or-no-need-for-test-kits
Some algae is alright in the beginning phase of the tank while tuning things in, they will go away once the plants fill in.

Thanks for sharing that article. Im a bit overwhelmed but read it all. Still have a ton to learn. Ive been noticing brown algae on the white sand and panicked and started cutting things. Looks like cutting nutrients is not recommended. I will keep reading things till I understand it better.

 

[Allwissend]

I can understand how the article is hard to understand at first read. When I first read it, the first reaction was shock>what the ... is he saying , then confusion>no way increasing stuff would work against algae . Stopped here for some months trying old ways and failing. Then, well look at the plants he is growing, maybe worth a try, moved to uncertainty> let's see maybe he is right and we need to just focus on growing plants well, then to approval> it works, it makes sense, how can I improve it for my aquariums.

Read it as many times as you need, if you understand it well it is a huge time (and plant) saver when compared to trying and failing until you come to the same conclusions. Some terms might need additional searching and if something is confusing feel free to PM me or ask on the forum. Speaking for myself, I killed a lot of plants, grew kilos of algae and tore down more setups than I can remember all part of the learning process. Not all fun at the time but can look back and smile.