Rimless 48 Gallon Manzanita Scape

[CL_]

I'm not sure if this is exactly the correct forum to post this in here, but I think it is after seeing a journal in this sub-forum. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I got the wood from Tom Barr. Good stuff. Shipping was worth it, IMO.
I'll save you all most of the long string of pictures.

Here are the specs:

• Equipment:
  Flow/ Filtration
  ___Rena XP2
  ___Koralia 2
  ___Eheim 2213
  Heater
  ___Hydor 200W inline heater*
  Lighting
  ___Catalina 4x39W T5HO
  CO2
  ___Victor Dual Stage High Purity Regulator
  ___5 lb. Aluminum Cylinder
  ___Rhinox 5000*
  Substrate
  ___4-Aquasoil Amazonia 9L bags
  Hardscape
  ___Old & Weathered Manzanita
  Tank
  ___GLA 91L- 48 Gallons (36x18x18 inches)
  Stand
  ___DIY
  ___ADA 90cm Garden Mat
• Flora
  ___Still Undecided
• Fauna
  ___40 Rummy Nose Tetras*
  ___3 SAEs*
  ___Otos*
  ___BN Pleco*
  ___Snowball Shrimp
  ___CRS
  *Still Not Purchased

And the costs thus far
$450 on tank and shipping
$75 on DIY stand
$90 on wood and shipping
$135 on Aquasoil
$35 on Koralia 2
$20 on light bar
$230 on light
$15 on Garden Mat
$100 on XP2
$160 on Victor Regulator and accessories
$100 on CO2 cylinder and two refills
$35 on CO2 diffuser and CO2 tubing
$100 on plants and counting
$60 on fish so far, only about 1/3 done buying fish
$80 on Eheim 2213
$50 on ferts and chemicals
$25 on Python water changer
$15 on heater
Total- $1775

Definitely the most money that I have ever spent in my 18 year life, though it did take me several months to earn/ spend the money. Good thing I have college tuition covered with scholarships

Stand before painting, and after wishing that I hadn't used a hand saw to make it. My arms were sore.

Light installed on light bar

After the beginning planting stages

Starting to get GDA on the glass (2-07)

2-13

Right now I am waiting for the GDA to start dying off. I'm just beginning to get the E.I. started now that ammonia levels are down and the plants are settled in. Still working on getting CO2 up to the prime level for this tank. I am running two bulbs on the fixture, which is about 8 inches above the tank.

Now I am trying to get the plants I want in the right spots. I need to get rid of the hydrocotyle foreground in favor of eleocharis 'belem'. Going to add more crypts, etc. The rotala colorata in the back is bright green for some reason unknown to me. Any ideas? I've got plenty of plant fert spikes right under it, in addition to the AS. Need to start dosing more iron for one thing, I think.

 

[Left C]

That's really nice, CL_.

What are the dimensions of your aquarium? Does it have a 36" x 18" footprint?

That is some very nice driftwood!

I like your regulator choice too.

 

[CL_]

Thanks, leftc. Long time, no see!
Yes, the tank does have a 36x18 footprint. 18 inches tall. I figured I would do stuff right this time. No messing around! I wanted a good supply of co2 going in there that actaully doesn't fluctuate. I got the metering valve that you were recommending, too. Parker, I believe.
Thanks!
-Chris

 

[Left C]

Thank's Chris! Your regulator assembly should do well.

I really like your tank's "po-hesion!" That's what an elderly lady that I knew used for the word potential. She was a very funny lady.

 

[CL_]

Thank's Chris! Your regulator assembly should do well.

I really like your tank's "po-hesion!" That's what an elderly lady that I knew used for the word potential. She was a very funny lady.

haha. Thank you. I have really been stumped over why I can't get plants to turn red anymore. I have tried lots of stuff in previous tanks (mainly my old high tech 20 gallon tank, which I used to be able to get rotala rotundifolia to get dark pink, practically red in until I upgraded my CO2 to pressurized, started dosing EI (a lazy version at that, wasn't too faithful with water changes for a while, and upgraded my light from my DIY CFL fixture to compact fluorescent)
I've tried
increasing flow to a 2217
pumping lots of co2 into the tank (no fish)
dosing lots of CSM + B (though, never tried chelated Fe)
starving NO3
and Blasting with light.
I can't get the rotala colorata in this tank to turn red. It's about 3 inches from the surface now, but it's still bright green. I have lots of circulation (almost 20x turnover) to circulate CO2 well. I have some surface rippling, and do weekly 50% water changes, and dose ~5 mL of excel daily. Still no dice.

 

[csmith]

Is the light bar DIY? If so, how'd you do it?

 

[CL_]

Is the light bar DIY? If so, how'd you do it?

Yes. I used conduit and 4- 90 degree elbows.

 

[Left C]

... I have really been stumped over why I can't get plants to turn red anymore. ... dosing lots of CSM + B (though, never tried chelated Fe) ...

There have been quite a few posts concerning different chelated iron products. Maybe one of these may help.

Here's a recent Fe calculator that I saw last night: http://wet.biggiantnerds.com/fe_calc.pl

 

[CL_]

There have been quite a few posts concerning different chelated iron products. Maybe one of these may help.

Here's a recent Fe calculator that I saw last night: http://wet.biggiantnerds.com/fe_calc.pl

Hey, that's a really useful calculator! What would be a good ppm to have?
-Chris

 

[CL_]

According to Tom Barr, (http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/6847-Iron?p=45656#post45656)
I should aim for around 6 ppm to make sure I am not going to suffer any deficiencies?

 

[Left C]

Hey, that's a really useful calculator! What would be a good ppm to have?

According to Tom Barr, (http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/6847-Iron?p=45656#post45656)
I should aim for around 6 ppm to make sure I am not going to suffer any deficiencies?

Wouldn't you be traveling in the ironosphere with 6.0 ppm Fe dosing? .... Just trying to make a funny.

Which Fe product are you planning on using? The various forms of Fe, different chelators, suggestions on the amount to dose, etc has me confused.

 

[CL_]

Oh, haha, you're right. He said that 6ppm was the max uptake, but we don't even need one tenth of that. I read it wrong. lol, thanks!

 

[Left C]

Oh, haha, you're right. He said that 6ppm was the max uptake, but we don't even need one tenth of that. I read it wrong. lol, thanks!

I had a really stupid boss one time that was a real a-hole and didn't know what he was doing. Sometimes we would tell him that we are traveling in the "moronosphere". LOL

I keep dosing iron simple. I use Seachem's Flourish Iron and dose it per their instructions. I bought a bunch of it when PetSmart was discontinuing it. When this is gone, I'll check out the playing field.

I'm sure that you've seen that Tom is selling a dry version of F. Iron. It can be mixed to be like F. Iron and dosed the same way or whatever strength that you want.
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/6865-Fe-gluconate-equivalent-to-SeaChem-flourish-Iron-(dry)

 

[CL_]

I had a really stupid boss one time that was a real a-hole and didn't know what he was doing. Sometimes we would tell him that we are traveling in the "moronosphere". LOL

I keep dosing iron simple. I use Seachem's Flourish Iron and dose it per their instructions. I bought a bunch of it when PetSmart was discontinuing it. When this is gone, I'll check out the playing field.

I'm sure that you've seen that Tom is selling a dry version of F. Iron. It can be mixed to be like F. Iron and dosed the same way or whatever strength that you want.
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/6865-Fe-gluconate-equivalent-to-SeaChem-flourish-Iron-(dry)

Yes, I saw that, and I was considering buying some. I just still have plenty of CSM+B, though.

Money comes slow with no job, and the grass doesn't grow in the winter, so no mowing haha.

Still need to buy a few misc. plants before I would consider myself done planting.

According to that calculator you posted, I would need to dose 1/4 tsp. of CSM+B to get 0.38 PPM in my tank. I would just dose that much every other day with a 50% W.C. at the end of the week like regular E.I., correct?

I've already learned more from this site than I've learned in a long time over at TPT

 

[Left C]

Don't forget that you are also dosing the other trace nutrients in CSM+B at that same rate along with the iron. I don't know if you would be OD'ing anything. One of the pros from Dover will have to answer this question.

 

[CL_]

Don't forget that you are also dosing the other trace nutrients in CSM+B at that same rate along with the iron. I don't know if you would be OD'ing anything. One of the pros from Dover will have to answer this question.

Yeah, I think that there is actually more copper in CSM+B than there is Fe.

BTW, Tom or Greg, can you move this to the advanced aquascaping and design section? I think that it would be more appropriate there.
Thanks,

 

[Wet]

Moved this for you and left a redirect in the old forum for anyone following this thread, Chris.

Your plan for micronutrient dosing is fine and within levels used many times by many hobbyists. You are adding lots of other nutrients and this is not the same thing as ading Fe individually, and there are some hobbyists who feel we must take better care of other micronutrients. You should feel comfortable playing with your micronutrient levels as this is relatively low risk to our plants (we tend to see impact relatively quickly and recover from mistakes just as fast -- say, couple week samples). CSM+B is about 1.5% Copper and 6.53% Fe.

FWIW, I prefer less overall traces than you're dosing under high light while supplementng DTPA chelated Fe alone for Iron similar to your target levels. If you're more interested in this, you should pick some DTPA or other chelated Fe from the usual online sources when you get around to it.

 

[CL_]

Thanks for the info, Wet, and thanks for moving my thread. My concern about the copper was my shrimp, though, Tom has had great success with shrimp in his 180 gallon tank, but IDK if he doses as much CSM+B as I would be due to the fact that he probably doses Fe gluconate, or whatever it's called, to get his iron levels up.

 

[Wet]

Tom's dosed heavily in copper.

Just for what it's worth, I've bred and traded cherry shrimp in a sump I dry dosed similar levels of Cu from Plantex as you're proposing. Maybe I could have bred more. I've killed plenty of shrimp but it wasn't during these moderate amounts of Cu from Plantex.

Nice tank, by the way. I love the Hydrocotyle sp foreground but I think the Eleocharis sp will look nice in front of the Blyxa. I think the Hydrocotyle foreground makes the tank in that last pic, though.

If it were my tank I think it's good to address traces but for lack of color with green glass I would first increase PO4. I associate more PO4 (like Fe) to better color, not necessarily reds. I wouldn't worry too much about the Rotala rotundifolia 'Colorata' not being red enough yet. Sometimes they just take a minute and a few trimmings with Rotalas. Your Blyxa looks good. Notice it's bronzier by the CO2 diffusor.

Hope this helps.

 

[CL_]

Tom's dosed heavily in copper.

Just for what it's worth, I've bred and traded cherry shrimp in a sump I dry dosed similar levels of Cu from Plantex as you're proposing. Maybe I could have bred more. I've killed plenty of shrimp but it wasn't during these moderate amounts of Cu from Plantex.

Nice tank, by the way. I love the Hydrocotyle sp foreground but I think the Eleocharis sp will look nice in front of the Blyxa. I think the Hydrocotyle foreground makes the tank in that last pic, though.

If it were my tank I think it's good to address traces but for lack of color with green glass I would first increase PO4. I associate more PO4 (like Fe) to better color, not necessarily reds. I wouldn't worry too much about the Rotala rotundifolia 'Colorata' not being red enough yet. Sometimes they just take a minute and a few trimmings with Rotalas. Your Blyxa looks good. Notice it's bronzier by the CO2 diffusor.

Hope this helps.

Thank you. I will see if po4 helps things as well. I have never paid much attention to phosphate dosing, even though I knew that phosphates are important in plant growth. I was mainly worried about crs being in the tank, but if they won't work out, I'll just keep them in one of my other tanks. I'm still slowly increasing the bps going into the tank as well. Maybe once I get all the levels right things will start looking more vivid.
The hydrocotyle sp. is more of a weed than hairgrass, imo. Not only does it invade plants laterally, but vertically as well. It was nice to try something different for a forground, though.
Thanks for all the tips. They are a bit more helpful than people just saying "looking good" etc.