Hello all!
I just realized that my tank is a little over a year old, and decided to come back here and post an update for everyone.
This is a very low maintenance tank, work and studying are my top priority right now, so I don't trim it as much as I should. I do water changes every couple weeks, and dose ferts a few times a week based loosely on the EI method.
The biggest thing I learned with this tank has been that root fertilizers make a big difference to rooted plants like crypts, and that Eco Complete is not nearly as complete as it advertises. I would honestly not use this substrate again, I had far better results in the past with Florite, and even better results with regular old potting soil.
I also learned that some kind of a splashing filter in addition to the canister filter seems to make a huge difference in the health of the fish, it seems this is even more important with a tall, narrow tank like this one.
And,.. injecting the CO2 as low in the tank as possible really helps with keeping the levels consistent through the tank.
The setup is simple:
1X55W PC, and 1X18W NO about 12 inches off the water in a hood I built myself.
Pressurized CO2 on about 2 hours before the lights - about 1.5 BBS
Fluval Canister, Aquaclear 30, and a Maxijet 1200 handle the flow.
The Maxijet runs an external DIY CO2 reactor, that goes to the bottom of the tank, and injects the CO2 through a spraybar running the length of the tank, at the substrate level.
Initially I had the aqua-controller running ph controllers and all that jazz,.. but it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth,.. I ended up with an expensive temperature controller and light timer.
This is the tank when it was setup,.. I think the date is 3-4-10
And this is it today:
Thank-you for all the great help and advice I have gotten here! It has made a world of difference
J~
I just realized that my tank is a little over a year old, and decided to come back here and post an update for everyone.
This is a very low maintenance tank, work and studying are my top priority right now, so I don't trim it as much as I should. I do water changes every couple weeks, and dose ferts a few times a week based loosely on the EI method.
The biggest thing I learned with this tank has been that root fertilizers make a big difference to rooted plants like crypts, and that Eco Complete is not nearly as complete as it advertises. I would honestly not use this substrate again, I had far better results in the past with Florite, and even better results with regular old potting soil.
I also learned that some kind of a splashing filter in addition to the canister filter seems to make a huge difference in the health of the fish, it seems this is even more important with a tall, narrow tank like this one.
And,.. injecting the CO2 as low in the tank as possible really helps with keeping the levels consistent through the tank.
The setup is simple:
1X55W PC, and 1X18W NO about 12 inches off the water in a hood I built myself.
Pressurized CO2 on about 2 hours before the lights - about 1.5 BBS
Fluval Canister, Aquaclear 30, and a Maxijet 1200 handle the flow.
The Maxijet runs an external DIY CO2 reactor, that goes to the bottom of the tank, and injects the CO2 through a spraybar running the length of the tank, at the substrate level.
Initially I had the aqua-controller running ph controllers and all that jazz,.. but it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth,.. I ended up with an expensive temperature controller and light timer.
This is the tank when it was setup,.. I think the date is 3-4-10
And this is it today:
Thank-you for all the great help and advice I have gotten here! It has made a world of difference
J~