100 gallon 'Dutch' tank controlled by a profilux III

[Gilles]

This is where i will be posting my progress on my tank from now on. I am going to start with some history, starting 3 years back from now.

So some information about my tank, which is basically 80% DIY, the other 20% being the glass tank which i bought and the equipment like the Profilux.

It started out like this:

 

[Gilles]

Then it was time for the concrete:

And epoxy:

 

[Gilles]

This colour scared me a lot! So i threw in some sand:

 

[Gilles]

I went crazy with the electrical stuff, various designes passed the floor....

 

[Gilles]

 

[Gilles]

Then i thought about ditching my Profilux and creating my own aquariumcomputer (which upto today still controls my lights...)

15w computer running on linux:

1-wire hub:

Power supply:

Light controller (up to 8 lights, which switch off below a certain treshold)

Console

 

[Gilles]

I wrote the software myself and it even has graphing capabilities:

What i managed to get running:
- Light control including fully automatic summer and winter time adjustment.
- Temperature monitoring
- Socket switching
- PH monitoring

But since it took so much time i ended up only using the light control

 

[Gilles]

So now the electrical stuff was like this;

But i had to hook up my computer, so i decided to make it even better with a 'fake' board, covering all electrical stuff

 

[Gilles]

So it looked like this (after some adjustments)

 

[Gilles]

So by that time, my tank started to mature and look like this:

But then... i moved to a new home (2,5 years ago) and the shit hit the fan;

 

[Gilles]

So i covered my tank, got time to finish the stand which ended up like this:

Then i got lucky and the algue was gone (after 6 months!)

 

[Gilles]

So i started hooking up my dosing computer, but that was not working as expected (pumps ran to hard)

To make things worse, i got algue again:

And decided to ditch my sump, about the same time i received my PIII. Here is a cabinet picture

 

[Gilles]

p.s. this was my sump and flow pattern:

... with a central heating pump (2000 liter / hour) driven sump (a bit common in the Netherlands), as you can see it also had UV light in the circuit, Aqua Medic 1000 on the right of the flow panel.

The flow was like this:

(A) = normal outlet
(B) = normal outlet
(C) = CO2 enriched water
(D) = spraybar, just below water

I cleaned my AM1000; you have to do this every once a while

 

[Gilles]

But like said, i ditched this all and went for a Eheim 2080.

This gave me good results:

But for some reason i can't get my Blyxa growing

I will post some recent pics tonight, because i switched to black gravel and have new fish, rainbow fish to be precise.

My current weekly trace dosing (168ml) consists of these ingredients, which i dose on each day, expect on saturday (so spread in 6 doses)
- Seachem Flourish: ~25ml
- Seachem Flourish Trace: ~73ml
- Seachem Iron: ~70ml
- Potassium: 5ppm

Meaning i end up dosing 28ml of this mix daily.

p.s. i am finishing up on the Seachem products, i have allready Ferrounous gluconate and CSM+B in house.

 

[ibanezfrelon]

Man , that looks like ''Enterprise''.

Don't you think you got a little too much light goin' on in there?

I know someone who's really gonna like this tank... ...Majstor , you see this?

 

[Tom Barr]

The sump was degassing and messing with the CO2.
I know the alga that you got and know it's correlated well with the sump.
Hair algae is another, a bit here or there of BBA.

Blyxa likes some current and more CO2. It will dominate if things are goign well in the tank.
I cannot stop it from growing. If you keep the other plants pruned and allow enough light etc, it should do fine.
This(pruning more) will also help with the CO2.

Topping, not up rooting should help, particularly with the stem plants you have.
ADA As would also make dosing much easier and the plant grow a bit better, but it's not cheap.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Gilles]

Here are some new pics, which clearly show some sort of deficiency. Pearling is almost non-existent. I can't up CO2 more because of the rainbow fish, so it must first be sought somewhere else.

I renewed my lights last sunday (cleaned them, cleaned reflectors etc) which clearly shows in the new growth.

Didipis:

Limpnophil aromatica:

My 'won't grow any higher then this' blyxa:

Stauro planted like this 1 month ago:

p.s. micromol at the bottom (near the front of the glass) is +/- 75, however my sensor does not stay flat so i am not entirely sure.

 

[Gilles]

p.s. i am currently dosing this (automated, every day at thesame time, for over a month now), in a 400l tank
- Flourish Excel 20ml/day

And my current trace mix (since i got some bottles from someone)
- Flourish 16.67ml/week
- Flourish Trace 50.00ml/week
- Flourish Iron 70.00ml/week
» which adds up to 19.52ml/daily of the above solution. An additional 5ppm K2SO4 is added, no extra Mg or GH booster.

So changes i want to incorporate are:

Ditch Excel, maybe that has an impact on my fish / plant growth as well.
» Good idea yes or no?

Start dosing iron seperately from trace mix, for instace 10ml/daily
» Good idea yes or no? More / less? Dose weekly or daily? etc.

Switch to CSM+B instead of my flourish bottles. Calculation show that i need to add 21ml/week for current equivalent of Flourish, which is 3ml daily.
» Good idea yes or no? More / less? Dose weekly or daily? etc.

Increase current? I can also reinstall my vortex MP40 but that gives a lot of current to be honest...
» Good idea yes or no?

Anyway, all tips welcome!

 

[dutchy]

When I see your list, I thought of this statement Tom made.

Required reading before any nutrient questions: Tropica's CO2/light article
http://www.tropica.com/article.asp?t...aristic&id=142

I know you can't raise your CO2 because of your rainbows, but did you carefully try where the limit is or are you assuming this is the limit? If that's not possible, then lower your lights more to 40 to 50 micromols. To me it still looks like a CO2 deficiency. My Blyxa grows 10 inch high and very dense. Also my Aromatica's are wider in diameter and denser. Especially the fact that my plants get wider in diameter is, at least to me, a CO2 giveaway.

Why is it so dark on the left side?

regards,
dutchy

 

[Gilles]

Because of the huge bush of Rotala Macrandra i have there
I'll try to measure my NO3/PO4 using a reference solution, and get a good reading of the KH. PH is now 6.8

p.s. 40 to 50 micromols at the bottom near the frontend of the glass?