JBJ Pico Journal

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
6 week update

I've had an interesting time getting this Pico aquarium up and running. If you recall, I tried to cheat in the planting of HC. Instead of following Joy's advice (did anyone seriously think she'd give bad advice?) and planting individual HC plants, I decided to try planting clumps of HC that was still imbedded in rock wool. (I hate listening to the poor plants scream as I pull and tear them out of the rock wool.) So I removed the rock-wool-imbedded HC from the pots and then cut off 1/2 the depth of the rock wool. I then quartered each of those - yielding 4 clumps per pot. I planted the clumps directly in the Aquasoil Amazonia. In addition, I planted a couple of lava rocks on which HC was already growing. It looked real good, too:
19555-albums299-picture1863.jpg


But a week or so after planting, I began to experience a lot of die off of the HC. The roots were rotting. Curiously enough, the HC grown on lava rock was also dying back. I have a feeling they grow HC emersed, but I'm not sure. Anyway, this is how it looked a week or so after planting:
19555-albums299-picture1946.jpg


So I uprooted the rock wool imbedded clusters and carefully removed a bunch of individual HC plants, and replanted them in the Aquasoil (minus the rockwool). It's been 4 weeks since then and they are starting to look real good. They've greened up and are now beginning to thicken out.
19555-albums299-picture2118.jpg


I apologize for the haze along the bottom of the tank. It's GSP and I don't want to scrape it off until the HC has had several months to take root, for fear of uprooting the plants. I should have a a nice carpet of HC in a month or three.

New plants need to acclimate. It takes a few weeks before they do, and then they start to grow out. I'm not sure why I had so much die back. I can't blame it all on the rock wool because the HC growing on lava rock has no rock wool. One reason for the die back of the HC could be because I was having difficulty with my CO2 system for the first few weeks, and I was using relatively high lighting with a 14 hr photoperiod. High lighting and long photoperiods without good CO2 beg for trouble with algae growth. But what the heck. I love algae... right?

Well, my CO2 is now 30 - 40 ppm. I've cut back the photoperiod to 9 hours and reduced the light output a little by putting a very slightly frosted plastic film (Contact paper) on the light fixture's plastic cover. However, the hair algae keeps laughing at me and is growing quite nicely, thank you very much.

BTW, I discovered what Red Cherry Shrimp do when they know you are not watching them: they plant hair algae! They take it from one part of the aquarium and plant it all over the place. So I bought a few Amano shrimp because mythology has it that hair algae is the main diet of Amano shrimp. Maybe it's too early to tell (I have the Amanos for just a few days) or maybe my Amano shrimp are on a diet, but I see more hair algae now than ever before. - Two of my RCS are berried, so I've have even more algae spreaders in another few weeks.
 
Nice HC. Silly algae spreading over sexed shrimp. The "Microsword" looks good and starting to send runners out, too. Thats traditionally a hard plant for folks to keep BBA free.
 
The tank looks fantastic! Something for me to aspire to with my new setup! I was wondering how you are dosing CO2 and where you got one for a smaller tank. Any information on how you are doing that would be great!

Matt
 
I was wondering how you are dosing CO2 and where you got one for a smaller tank. Matt

Thanks for the kind words, Matt. The Picotope 3 gallon tank is sort of an experimental / learning project... although, isn't that true for any aquarium we set up? :)

I've been playing with CO2 dosing and here is how I am doing it: I have a 5lb CO2 tank set up with a Milwaukee Instruments MA957 CO2 Regulator - which comes complete with a Solenoid Valve, and with a Bubble Counter. I am running two tanks off of it so I replaced the original single bubble counter/needle valve with a 3-way splitter (but I'm using only two of the three as I have only two aquariums at present).

19555-albums316-picture2169.jpg


I started dosing using a simple airstone to diffuse the CO2 , but that did not work well. So I came up with this: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/showpost.php?p=930188&postcount=39

That worked (still works) well. But just to check and see if a ceramic micro-bubbler (similar to an ADA Pollen glass diffuser) would work better, I tried that... and you can see it in the latest tank update picture. That diffuser does produce very tiny bubbles of CO2, but I found that the bubbler didn't work as well as using my HOB filter. So I'm back to that method and I have removed the ceramic bubbler. One reason the bubble diffusers don't work very well in a 3 gallon tank is that there are only a few inches of water above the bubbler - so CO2 is not in contact with the water long enough for the gas to dissolve efficiently.

You'll also note a bubble checker on the right wall of the Aquarium (the out of focus blue/green blob). That is used as a simple, and fairly accurate way to indirectly measure the CO2 ppm in the aquarium water. If you need more info on how bubble checkers work, let me know.

Anyway, I keep my CO2 level at about 30 - 40 ppm, use my HOB filter as a CO2 diffuser, and use about 15 CO2 bubbles/minute coming out of the CO2 tank. The CO2 controlling solenoid is on a timer. CO2 is turned on about 45 minutes before the aquarium lights come on, and is shut off about 1/2 hour before lights out (10 hour photoperiod). - Keep in mind that you can use a yeast CO2 generator. You don't need a CO2 tank and regulator... but I like the convenience and control afforded by a CO2 tank and regulator.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks a lot for the information! This looks very similar to how I have my calcium reactor for saltwater hooked up!

A couple questions-

The bubble checker... How does it work?

Also I have heard negative things on the yeast CO2 generator. Have you had success with it? Is it difficult? And does the inconsistent CO2 production hurt anything?

Thanks,

Matt
 
How Drop Checkers Work

What I referred to as a bubble checker is actually called a "Drop Checker." Follow this link to one of the best posts on the subject: Drop Checkers/CO2 Indicators-Why and How - Aquarium Plants - Barr Report

I used a yeast CO2 generator for a while and it worked OK. There are many reports of success using them. I just prefer to set it and forget it.

As I understand it, CO2 is not absolutely necessary for good plant growth - depending on the plants one choses and the lighting one has - but CO2 injection will enhance plant growth in almost all settings, and it helps control algae by promoting plant growth over algae growth. I've also read that the higher the light used in an aquarium, the more critical CO2 injection becomes.

I've never ran side by side comparisons myself so I'm just passing on what I've read. As for consistency of CO2 administration, my sense is that doesn't matter much as long as the CO2 levels are somewhere in the range of 25 - 45 ppm: much lower levels don't work as well and higher levels might harm fish.

I ran a poll here asking folks if they ran CO2 24/7 or only when the aquarium lights were on. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f98/poll-do-you-run-your-co2-24-7-a-109356.html Of the 14 people who replied, 6 run CO2 24/7 and 8 run CO2 only when the lights are on... so what does that tell you? :)
 
Thanks for the information! I read that and it is certainly interesting!

I think I may try the DIY. I tried doing a search on it but came up with nothing. Is there a specific forum or thread that has all the info about it?

Thanks,

Matt
 
Here you go Matt:

DIY CO2 Generator - Easy setup @ petfish.net

DIY $5 Co2 Generator [Archive] - HomeGrownBud.com

DIY CO2 System for Planted Aquarium

The basic formula is about 1 cup of granulated sugar to 2 cups of water, 1/2 tsp of dry activated yeast and 1/2 tsp of baking soda (not baking powder). Get yeast for baking - like Fleishman's dry activated yeast sold in supermarkets. Don't buy the garbage yeast sold in LFS as it doesn't work as well as Fleishman's and costs more. Baking soda (called the "stabilizer") is sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3).
 
If you have hard water to start with, often the baking soda is not necessary and can completely kill the reaction.
 
10th week - update

After a bumpy start, this little 3 gallon tank is now going great. I removed the Endler's live bearers. So now it's a shrimp only tank - and only RCS. The Amano shrimp didn't like this tank. They all died... which suited me fine as I didn't like them. They kept digging up the HC. I added a few plants since last time.

10 week summary
19555-albums299-picture2318.jpg


At 10 weeks - looking good after a bumpy start
19555-albums299-picture2312.jpg


Close up
19555-albums299-picture2313.jpg


There are 7 RCS in this photo. Most are only a week or so old and are not is sharp focus.
19555-albums299-picture2314.jpg


RCS love the thick carpet of HC... and so do I
19555-albums299-picture2317.jpg


GSA on the glass... only a part of my algae collection
19555-albums299-picture2316.jpg


Cladorpha Algae (on tree): another part of my algae collection.
19555-albums299-picture2315.jpg
 
You have some really cool setups can you start a thread where you post all of your scapes youve created either in the past or ones you have today ... All of em in their most flourishing moments?
 
Great, great tank. Your HC is ridiculous... I want.

Its pretty hard to keep R. wallichii looking like that long term -- once established it goes fast and to get the long leaves it seems to want space around it. Then again, its a plant that changes so much from tank to tank that I'm not sure it could do anything that would surprise me. People who get it to look good long term get automatic props for maintaning a tank, imo. I only get nice periods then hide it behind other stuff until it looks nice again.
 
Back
Top Bottom