My Story So Far...

All,

I just wanted to share my story so far...

I have a 29 gallon and have been using EI since the new year. At first I was using DIY Yeast reactors and upgraded to compressed about 2 weeks ago. The compressed CO2 is much better, althought the Milwaukee regulator is finicky on the settings. I usually have to check/fine tune it in the morning before leaving for work and setting it on the timer.

Cranked the CO2 up a bit today and... when I got back from work noted a fair amount of pearling! CO2, CO2, CO2! Everything else was constant in the past few weeks, only the CO2 has changed and it brought about some nice bubbles coming up from the plants! I'm going to try and hit this sweet spot more often and keep the bubble rate at this level, my regulator just seems to act up.

Anyway, my only issue I want to conquer is my brown algae. It likes to grow on my bacopa and hygrophilia difformis. The hygro grows nice new green leaves and in about a week the brown algae catches up. I am going to let it be and pay attention to the CO2 and see if the brown dies back.

I have been using test kits about 1/5 as much as I did before. My fish are much hardier than I thought fish were.

In other news... I have a digital scale which measures 20g accurate to 0.002g. I saw the KH reference solution posting and am going to try and make my own ref. solution in conjunction with a drop checker. Pulled out my old chemistry books and believe I can make a fairly accurate reference solution with the scale.

Just wanted to share and say thanks for the information throughout this bulletin board. Very helpful! Too much information on the internet which does not seem to be correct (I can't say for sure if it is or not but my findings are not consistent with a lot of it)!

 

All,

I sat down to admire my tank this evening, and I must say I am impressed with its progress. I re-planted all of my bacopa over the weekend and am much more pleased with the current arrangement. I can't believe how bright green and full the plants are growing in. Most of my plants would probably be considered "beginners plants" but they look very nice none the less. I have: Bacopa caroliniana, Egeria densa, Hygrophila difformis, Microsorum pteropus, Nymphoides aquatica (banana plant(?)). No plans to change this any time soon as things are very pleasant now (I'd like to see it remain this way for another 3 months).

Some things I am going to experiment with next:
1) I am going to slowly lower my phosphate ferts to see if that reduces my brown algae (it is already receding). My tap water is coming out with a fair level of phosphates to begin with (~2.0ppm). My measured levels are > 2.0 and < 5.0, and this is after an initial reduction.
2) Get a better C02 diffuser. I am using a RIO 180 with a Venturi connection. I routed the C02 from the compressed tank into the filter basket, and from the venturi connection back into the filter basket. I think I can do better here especially since there seems to be a lot of bubbles to make my drop checker go green.
3) Work on better layouts/design. My first goal was to get some good growth!
4) Eventually setup a 55 gallon which was just given to me by a friend. This is going to wait several months...

Thanks to all! This forum has more than paid for itself in the ~4 months I have been reading here. Huge amount of progress in that short time. I spend SO much less $$$ now than I used to, and with 10-fold the results. Exceptional information. Tom, I especially enjoy the occasional external article which you post in the forum for further reading.

Thanks!

 

I wanted to post some pictures... Hope this works, I uploaded my photos to PictureTrail for photo hosting as they are large files.

I know my arrangement/display is not that great but I am proud of the growth so far. And I will take the two power-heads out next time.

Taken March 22, 2007:
FRONT VIEW


Taken April 9, 2007:
FRONT VIEW



TOP VIEW


My fish can find all kinds of great places to hide, and there several babies in there too.

Cheers,
John