Adam Mcisaac's Tank Report

adam mcisaac

Junior Poster
Jul 12, 2009
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Well If Anyone Is Interested In The Tank. I Have Applied The New Dosing Scheduale For A Week Now And Have Reduced My Light By Half. So That Is A 5 Hour Block That Is 4 65 Watt 6700 K Coarlifes. I Have Decided Not To Use Gh Booster As My Gh Is Already At 7 Along With My Kh. I Got A Double Drop Checker From Green Leaf And They Sent Me Some Indicator Solution That Was Bad So They Are Re Snding Me A New Bottle So As Far As Co2 I Am Not Sure What It Is Yet But There Are Alot Of Micron Bubble Floating Around So I Think There Is A Fare Amount Of O2 In The Tank. I Am Stil Having Problems With My Old Growth,from My Research That Sounds Like Mobile Nutrients? The Old Growth On My Penny Wort Is A Bit Yellow And Has Wrinckly Edges And A Bit Spoty. My Anubus Barti Ihas Black Specks And A Bit Yellow On Only Half The Leaf. My Ludwigia Repens Still Is Turning A Bit Brown On The Old Leaves And Is Not Showing Much New Growth,it Also Has A Brown Flaky Build Up On It Like A Dust? I Am Thinking That I Need To Dose More Potassium And Magnesium? What Do You All Think?

Adam
 

Biollante

Lifetime Charter Member
Lifetime Member
Jun 21, 2009
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I do care

Hi Adam,

Yes, I am genuinely interested in you and your tank. I am new here as well, though as Tom Barr pointed out, I have been around the block a time or two, aquatically speaking.

The great thing about this system is you are free to choose. I claim no great expertise only my experience along with what I have read and absorbed.

Now as to what I think.

I think you likely have a CO2 deficiency; the drop checker will give a better idea. In your other posts, you mentioned a do-it-yourself CO2 diffuser you were unhappy with, have you made a change?

There was also some discussion regarding filtration and circulation. How are you filtering your water and moving the water around? If you are using a hang-on-back, HOB filter, that is fine, I personally do not like HOB’s for a number of reasons, but plenty of other people do just fine with these filters. My principle objection to HOB filters in planted tanks deal with circulation first and splashing (surface agitation) second.

My suspicion is that with a poor CO2 diffuser and a filtration/circulation system that essentially sucks the water up and splashes it back out in the same place, the CO2 and nutrients are not getting around to all the plants. Additionally the splashing output of the filter increases out gassing of CO2 and creates an opportunity for algae to flourish.

I would also clean out as much algae as possible from the tank, paying special attention to cleaning the algae from the plants, in particular the Anubis.

I really believe you’re on the right track. Once you get a handle on the CO2 issues you will be golden, I mean green!.:eek: Or at least well on the way.

Good luck,
Biollante
 

Detritus Mulm

Guru Class Expert
Jun 12, 2005
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Hi Adam,

Can you provide more details on your light, like total light and intensities; also how big is your tank? Do you have any shade happening, that might cause light defieciencies for the bottom dwellers? How much circulation/filtering do you have? How are you dosing/measuring your CO2? What's your PH?
 

adam mcisaac

Junior Poster
Jul 12, 2009
16
0
1
good to hear from you all.

well the tank specs are as follows.

55 gallon
light......4 65 watt coralife compact fluorescents,so that is 65 x4=260/55=4.7 watts per gallon.? i have 2 over the back filter one bio wheel and a penguin 60 that is just moving water i have no filter pad in it. circulation looks good as plants show lots of movement. my doseing is like this. i measure everything into a mason jar with some water and dump it in. 1/2 tsp kno3

1/8 mono potassium sulfate

1/8 csm+b

my gh was at 11 tonight
ph looks lighter then 7.4 witch is all my test kit goes to

kn03 at 20ppm

i received my new indicator solution for my drop checker today and the reading as of tonight was that i had to much co2 so i turned it down and i'll see what it says in the morning. so i think no C02 is out?

i rinsed my anibus in a 20% bleach solution today and it took care of the black beard and the black spots on the leaves. my abnibus grows a new leaf ever week,it is growing great. my horn wart is all nice and green and bushing out all over it is doing well. my amazon sward is not so good infact i pinched all the old leaves off ,so well se what comes up,but i think i am going to take it out and fill in with something else. my repens is still the slowest growing plant, i think i am going to get rid of it as well and try some sort or reed grass? my chain sward is taking over the front on my tank and doing great. my penny wort is growing good but still shows some signs of yellowing and brownish slime but not to bad. i am cleaning out all old leaves that show any signs of distress and rubbing off any slime so everything looks pretty good now after this weekends cleaning. my aquascape is a little crowded and i need to work on it, but i have just been concentrating on what plants like me and what they look like when growing right. i will concentrate on the scape latter.

thank you all so much my tank is 100% better then a a month ago

adam
 

VaughnH

Lifetime Charter Member
Lifetime Member
Jan 24, 2005
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Sacramento, CA
Are you dosing any phosphate, like KH2PO4? Without that, the plants will not grow nearly at the rate that they should. Also, if you reduce your lighting to a pair of 65 watt bulbs you will still have high light intensity, but a lot less problem keeping algae away.

Are there any fish or shrimp in the tank? If not, you don't need to reduce the amount of CO2 you are using. There is no achievable upper limit on CO2 for plants. It is the effect on fish that makes us keep the level down around 30 - 40 ppm.

Your description of how the plants are doing sounds like the CO2 level is much too low, or the missing phosphates are preventing the plants from growing well. With that much light, both the Amazon sword and the repens should be growing very fast, with the sword plant quickly taking over the whole tank. But, you need enough of all of the nutrients to maintain that growth rate.
 

VaughnH

Lifetime Charter Member
Lifetime Member
Jan 24, 2005
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Sacramento, CA
adam mcisaac;38999 said:
is kh2p04 the same as mono postasium phosphate ? i was told it was?

adam

Yes, it is the same. Your post mentioned "mono potassium sulfate", not phosphate.
 

Detritus Mulm

Guru Class Expert
Jun 12, 2005
147
0
16
adam mcisaac;38978 said:
well the tank specs are as follows.

55 gallon
light......4 65 watt coralife compact fluorescents,so that is 65 x4=260/55=4.7 watts per gallon.?

i received my new indicator solution for my drop checker today and the reading as of tonight was that i had to much co2 so i turned it down and i'll see what it says in the morning. so i think no C02 is out?

thank you all so much my tank is 100% better then a a month ago

adam

Still seems like way too much light, can you cut it back to 3*65?

You said at one time that your KH was 7, so if PH is 7.4 that is not much Co2. (Puts on flame retardent suit for inaccuracy of KH/Co2) My KH is 9+ and I had my Co2 down to 6.6 at one point and nobody cared. DC was a little too yellow for me, so I bumped it up to 6.7 on average.

Cleaning is always good, keep up the maintenance.
 

Panda

Guru Class Expert
Jun 14, 2008
123
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Puerto Rico
adam mcisaac;38978 said:
light......4 65 watt coralife compact fluorescents.......... i measure everything into a mason jar with some water and dump it in. 1/2 tsp kno3

1/8 mono potassium sulfate

1/8 csm+b

--> just a reminder: do not dose macros on the same day as the micros....at least not at the same time.
-->Mono Potassium Phosphate = KH2PO4 .....I understand you are you using this,right?

So KNO3 + KH2PO4 together then csm+b next day

About those lights: Maybe you can use only 2 of the 65w compacts for the moment ( 130w) until you learn a little more on CO2 and how you will diffuse it.

hope this helps!
 

adam mcisaac

Junior Poster
Jul 12, 2009
16
0
1
adam tank

hey.my tank is looking great there is plenty of new growth all around,and almost no algea,i havent had to clean the glass for a week. i didn't know about the micro macro thing but i will starte dosing seperate. i seem to be getting good co2 my drop checker is across the tank and reads yellow,my fish are doing fine so i think i will run the o2 hight it seems to have made a difference.

my co2 diffuser is built out of a gravel vacuum i have a 600 power head at the top and a air line down bellow with a air stone. i have blocked off the bottom of the vacuum with a sack of fine gravel and caped it off with the top of another vacuum and attached a 90% elbow that shoots the co2 inriched water across the front of the tank. i am getting a very fine mist inside the tube and small micro bubbles shooting across the tank.

what i would like to do now is run my light longer or at least run them in pairs so i can enjoy the tank longer as i am in the shop for 12 to 15 hours a day,and now i only have the lights on for 6 hours. also what type of canister filter should i try?

thanks adam