56 Gallon 1st Planted Tank

[BellinghamFish]

This was when we first set up the tank it is a joint project between my girlfriend and I. Next day we planted it

We didn't know anything about aquariums or plants just planting plants with tons of light as suggested by our lfs. We ended up with 6 24" t5 HOs hair algae

of course. Only one small spot of cyano since we set up. My gf didn't believe fish could live without the bubbler in there but after some convincing I got her

to turn it off.

A short month after I stumbled upon plantedtank and found a co2 set up on craigslist for $100 including 5lb tank. Matheson MA957 and some needle valve.

None of its is great gear but it seems ok. At this point my gf was also dead set on not turning up the co2 more than 1bps because that's what the lfs does

and she thought it would gas the fish. The Vals in the back were slowly melting and we went for seachem flourish and iron as advised by the lfs but no luck.

At this point got an Eheim 2213 and aquaclear 50 running on the tank with about 2 bps the most my gf would allow haha. The stem plants grew much better

but our attempt at glosso and hair grass were failures. There was still rampant hair algae in the myrio which ended up choking and killing it. Also the gf

shoved some java moss in the nooks of the wood and we bought a pre covered log with marimo moss.

Recovered the log on the left with java moss and got a ista mixmax reactor and hydor inline heater to get some equipment out of the tank. The vals got so

ratty and covered with hair algae I ripped them out and replaced with "bacopa" on the right and "creeping Charlie" in the center with "Purple Cabomba" on

the far left and Rotala Wallichii . Im not sure what species these actually are as the lfs uses common names. We were still at 2bps and our new attempt at a

HC carpet slowly failed over a month or so.

Here it is currently. Running many many bps with the Ista on a Eheim 2217. Now we have two canisters and lily pipe set up and the tank seems much

cleaner. Only problem now is BBA and still some light brown dusting on the Ambulia, diatoms I think? I think this is due to the cheap co2 equipment maybe

but advice would be appreciated. Other then the tops the Ambulia seems wilted a little? We are dosing with the full aquavitro line according to rota.la. We

tried to get some Rotala Macandra ordered from the LFS but what they got was those two small stems in the front right.... pretty weak so hopefully Ill be

able to find some at the up coming GSAS auction =] Anyways thanks for reading my rant.

Jeff

 

[BellinghamFish]

Also I'd like to note that we have turned the light down to 4 24" t5 running 11:45-7:15 with co2 coming on at 10:30 and off at 7. I'd like to get my co2 ramp up time down and Im thinking another 2217 and ista mixmax along with a dual needle valve setup. Any thoughts on this?

 

[BellinghamFish]

Argh... Got a little to cocky and upped the co2 a touch, came back to a very fast full stream of co2 and a dead pleco =\... Lesson of the day, get rid of cheap needle valves and regulators. Im going to be looking for an upgrade with a dual stage regulator and a quality needle valve. Looking to spend about $200 at the end of the month any suggestion? Definitely willing to buy a second hand setup if anyone has one kicking around at the end of the month.

 

[BellinghamFish]

Ok so I have two toms aquarium surface skimmers coming soon so hopefully I will be able to raise the co2 after I get rid of the surface film. I got some Ludwigia Repens and Ludwigia Repens x Arcuata from the GSAS auction and some Flame Moss, Subwassertang, and Fissidens Fontanus for our shrimp tank. I hope I can keep this Ludwigia alive. Also I got some dry fertilizers in, the ones that I was running low on, KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, and CSM+B from aquariumfertilizer.com. Do I have all my macros covered? Also does CSM have everything but the iron required? I know it has some iron but was planning on spiking my CSM+B with some Fe gluconate and EDTA Iron. Also some GH booster as my GH is 1. Everything will be dosed according to rota.la. CO2 is about 10 bps@ 20 psi but that's a poor judge. Still have some diatoms and I dipped the main log in an excel bath to kill the algae off it and thoroughly rinsed it prime and water


Also if someone knows do I have two male Apistogramma Macmasteri?

 

[puopg]

As for CO2 regs, hit up bettatail or oldpunk. They can help you there.

 

[BellinghamFish]

Ok thanks, waiting till I get the money before I look too far into it

 

[BellinghamFish]

Ok so I got the toms surface skimmer on the last few days, it really makes the surface glass smooth. I moved the lily pipe outlet with co2 down to aim the co2 deeper into the tank and lower the surface movement and also increase bubble rate by about 20% fish seem very happy still it must be the extra o2. One think I've noticed is that the tank does receive some ambient light early in the morning before the co2 is on. I wonder if this in part caused the BBA, on the other hand all the BBA is gone from the middle log since the excel bath. Also with the MA957 I have gotten a much more consistent bubble rate since I cracked open the needle valve more. I read a thread saying that you only want to limit the bubble rate 20% with the needle valve on a MA957 or it creates too much pressure after the regulator leading to inconsistent levels. Anyways, I hope this brings the tank that much closer to being in balance and growing healthy algae free plants. Ive been dosing macros every other day and micros everyday. Any other suggestions on how to improve?

Thanks, Jeff


Oh yea the plants have been pearling like crazy since the co2 increase, since im already doing full strength EI I won't have to increase ferts more will I?

One more thing, my Macmasteri's have laid eggs about 20 hours after I added the Toms skimmer, is there any correlation to this or just fat happy fish?

 

[BellinghamFish]

I've almost got the plants growing the way I want them, thanks plant guru team I would not have got this far without this website.

I still have a little diatoms and hair algae, but I recently switched my eheim 2213 for another 2217, I'm now hitting a decent turn over rate and the co2 makes it much further around.

I want something to replace the Purple Cabomba in the back right any suggestions? That corner seems to be the lowest co2 of the tank

 

[BellinghamFish]

Just ordered an Ideal v52-1-12 can't wait for it to get here, now on to find a decent dual stage reg off ebay. Im only using 2 of the t5hos now and all the plants seem to be growing just as good, and there is less algae but my Macrandra is definitely green now. Oh well maybe when it gets near the surface it will redded up I did just trim it. When the needle valve gets here I think I'm going back to 4 t5ho and going to really try and get that perfect co2 balance I'm hoping in those 24 turns I will be able to find a happy spot.

 

[BellinghamFish]

[attachment=1552:name] Reset the tank using MTS and Fluval stratum I hope the grass fills out this time.

 

[Solcielo lawrencia]

Make certain that the substrate in the front is straight and level. Any kind of undulation causes the eye to focus on it instead of the plants.

The first pictures of all those undulations is distracting. The last is good with the Stratum.