75 Low Tech

[aseradyn]

Water flow is pretty variable. In the front right, it's strong enough to keep the crypts bobbing and send snails rolling around if they lose their grip. By the time you get back behind and around the driftwood, it's just fast enough to keep small flakes of food moving horizontally. And I found a couple of eddies that have started to collect mulm (which I vacuumed out). The light is strongest in the fastest-flowing areas, and that's also where I'm getting algae.

I pulled out most of the hornwort, as it was trapping debris at the surface. I added material on top of the tank to shade the areas where I have anubias and java fern, and added some little bits of shade wherever I had to scrub blue-green algae off the wood. Trying to be careful not to shade the faster-growing plants!

As of this morning I've started dosing with macros and micros according to GLA's instructions for PPS-Pro (low light, with water changes, here).

 

[aseradyn]

Still it sounds as though the tank is still finding its feet in terms of biological balance. Things will improve over time.

Yup, I expect so. Every tank I've ever had has taken a year or more to get to a point where it felt stable

Thanks again for your advice - both direct to me in this thread, and elsewhere on all the threads I lurk on.

This is the first big tank I've done that didn't spend the first year of its life with just plastic plants! Until a couple of years ago, I'd never heard of putting sand in a tank, or dirt, or special substrates; I'd never considered fertilizers or CO2 or testing anything beyond the nitrogen cycle. I just put fish and gravel together, waited a year for mulm to accumulate, and then planted in that. It worked... but this is more interesting!

 

[aseradyn]

Found time today to stop in at my favorite fish shop. They had crinums! I picked up two - one for this tank, one for my 29.

Also bought a shoal (11) of pristella tetras. They're much bolder than the flame tetras were even when I still had 8 of them.

That brings the population of this tank to:

• 11 pristella tetras
• 5 peacock gudgeons
• 4 flame tetras

I'm still seriously considering a shoal of bronze corys. Though if the pristellas keep their habit of swimming in a group once they settle in, I might try khulis instead... choices, choices...

Have been dosing macros and micros daily. Plants all look good. Cut the wisteria way back and planted the tip nearby.

Algae still growing at about the same rate, which is manageable. Clado has mostly vanished - yay! Getting some diatoms and green spot on the end glass, right under the light, which will be solved when the snail colony matures. And, of course, the cyanobacteria on the wood and substrate, which I'm just scraping off as best I can. Have to remind myself that this is a low energy system and nothing happens fast

I'm pretty pleased with things right now.

 

[aseradyn]

On a hunch, I tried killing the lights for three days. I turned them on for a little bit in the morning to feed the fish and check them over, and then again in the evening for the same. Maybe a total of 1 hour per day. The rest of the day, it's just ambient room light.

Wow, what a difference that made! Little patches of algae that I missed on the driftwood and plants disappeared. After two days, I still had some on the substrate along the front edge of the glass, so today, I propped up some books along the front edge to cut off the room light... and this evening they are all but gone (kinda dull gray in spots, but nothing green or blue/green).

The plants are all, like, whatev. I think the anacharis actually grew a bit. It may be an alien.

I'm debating whether to do one more day without lights and see if that kills off the last few bits, or run the lights normally for a few days to let the plants recharge. The plants don't seem to be struggling, so I'm leaning toward the latter...

I'll be honest: I'm pretty freaking giddy about it at this point. And I am wondering if I need to reduce the light long term - it may be brighter than I thought it was.

 

[TMaier]

Khuli's beat Cory's any day in my book. Lol.

 

[aseradyn]

Khuli's beat Cory's any day in my book. Lol.

Heheh. I'm seriously considering it!

Gotta find a good supplier. My fave shop rarely gets them. The one down the road, where I do see them on occasion, is a bit shady [emoji57]

 

[Caliban07]

Khuli's beat Cory's any day in my book. Lol. View attachment 297054

That khuli would beat up a whole gang of Cory's

 

[TMaier]

That khuli would beat up a whole gang of Cory's

When I put the sinking wafers in, and the Amanos, snails and Khuli's come together...think mosh pit.

 

[aseradyn]

So, been crazy busy with life stuff, so haven't done much with the tank other than feed the fish and dump in fertilizer once in a while.

On Saturday, I finally installed the new filter. I'm trying the Hydor Pro 450 on this tank. It has a nice set of features, but dear lord is it big. Wasn't too bad when it was empty, but once it filled with water... well, sucker is heavy! I think I'm going to have to get one of those rolling plant dollies to get it from the sitting room to the tub so I can dump it out. I love the long spray bar and the media trays, though. About a month ago, I filled one of the internal filters with Eheim Substrat that I had laying around the house, so now I've dumped that into the filter along with the ceramic tubes it came with. I'm watching the chemistry, but so far, no sign of a cycle.

Overall, the plants seem to be doing pretty well and I've not had much of an algae bloom. I'm not sure if it's the shorter photo period (running 6 hours + ambient room light), tannins dimming the light, or increased ferts. Maybe all three. I've got smudges of diatoms on the glass here and there, and along the substrate, but that's it. At this point, they just make the tank feel a bit... lived in.

(I really need to get my real camera out to get pictures - these from my phone are awful this morning) Tannins have built up in the tank, so it is distinctly orange

The crinum has absolutely taken off. At this rate, another week may put it at the surface.

I cut back the anacharis pretty hard a few weeks ago, but it's formed new growth and is finally showing substantial new growth. Same with the wisteria. The cabomba is... not dead. It is growing, just very slowly.

The crypts down in front are starting to show signs of some kind of deficiency. New leaves, especially, are coming in with yellow margins and green centers. Based on Googling, I'm thinking potassium?

I've been dosing a mix of macros weekly, but I'm going to mix up some KNO3 to dose on top of that.

The vallisneria is slowly getting taller (I think... maybe it's just wishful thinking...), but it's mostly just spreading across the tank Going to have to do some gardening to keep it where I want it. And the mother plant has kind of fuzzy white stuff clinging to the leaves - doesn't really look like algae, but it doesn't want to come off, either. It's not spreading, and it doesn't seem to bother the plant much, so I've just been ignoring it.

And then I need to go shopping for more plants for the back corner. It's so empty! I need to spend some $$$

Oh, and the fish are doing fine, too

 

[aseradyn]

Found an old packet of Purigen that was dark brown but not yet black. Threw it in the filter, and the water is now a bit lighter than it was last week.

When I dosed ferts last week, I added some extra (dry) KSO4. Hard to say if it's helped - the crypts grow slow, especially under low light. Nothing is any worse than it was, at least. Counting back on my fingers, I think it's time to add more root tabs, which may help as well.

Fish are happy and healthy. Water chemistry seems stable. A few stringers of clado here and there, and a few patches of diatoms (especially on the front glass under the sand), but nothing major

The filter change has resulted in less dramatic surface-to-substrate currents, and that has let the duckweed start to collect again. I threw in some frog-bit as well. My hope is that by the time the tannins disappear, I'll have a good surface layer of plants to help cut the light. Duckweed is not my favorite plant in the world, but it was free and available, and it's doing the same job well in my 29.

I just placed an order with Buce Plants for some additions (they're running a free shipping promotion right now), mostly to fill in the back corner. I haven't ordered from them before, so we'll see how they do! Some swords, a few taller crypts, an anubias variety I haven't seen before, some moss, and of course some buce.

And because I'm insane, another bolbitis fern. The last one melted and never came back, but I had stuck it in a brand new tank. I have some vague hope that it might do better in an established tank... we'll see.

 

[aseradyn]

I'm too impatient to wait on my plant order!

Stopped at LFS yesterday and picked up a few plants for this tank. Added 3 crinums in the back left corner, behind the wood. Well, kind of 4, because one is two plants on the same bulb. And I picked up an Amazon sword "compacta", which I thought would stay small, but more time perusing forums implies that, in time, it will get just as big as the regular kind, it just takes longer to get there... so I went ahead and planted it in the the middle of my wood pile. It's not visible from normal viewing angles right now, but hopefully, in time, it will fill in that open space.

I inserted a fresh round of fertilizer tabs, especially around the crypts that are yellowing, around the vals, and under the new plants.

I found a few baby vals coming up in the middle of the crypts, so I uprooted them and moved them to better locations.

I freaking love my multi tool for inserting fertilizer pellets and moving small plants around - I can actually see what I'm doing.

Got a shipping notice for the plants today. Looking forward to that!

 

[fishenthusiast]

This will look great when everything grows in! Patience is key of course. I had a Crinum once in my 30 gallon, but it got too big. It's a great plant though.

Get some activated carbon to get rid of the tannins if that is your goal. I had the same problem, probably worse than what I can see from the pictures, and it cleared my tank is one day. I used this product: http://m.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4136+28155&pcatid=28155

 

[aseradyn]

This will look great when everything grows in! Patience is key of course. I had a Crinum once in my 30 gallon, but it got too big. It's a great plant though.

Get some activated carbon to get rid of the tannins if that is your goal. I had the same problem, probably worse than what I can see from the pictures, and it cleared my tank is one day. I used this product: Aquarium Filter Media & Phosphate Remover | Blue Life Clear FX Pro

Thanks!

Not too worried about the tannins. I actually think they've helped with my algae problem by keeping light levels low. I've added some frogbit, which should add shade, so I'm going to work on reducing the tannins and see how it goes.

Life got crazy and I haven't had time to do much more than throw in the new plants I ordered and feed the fish once in a while.

New plants include:
Huge bag of buce from a guy in my local aquarium club
Small clumps of assorted buce ordered online
Red rubin sword (this may be a mistake - if it does well, it will probably take over that end of the tank)
Bolbitis fern
Anubias congensis mini (seriously, as cool in person as it looked online)

I'm done adding plants for a while! We won't see the new crinums for a while - they're behind the wood pile, but when I poke my head back there, they seem to be doing fine.

Here's what it looks like tonight:

 

[aseradyn]

So, uh... hi!

About a week after my last update, non-aquarium things kind of went to hell, and the tank has mostly been on auto-pilot the last year. Daily feeding, occasional water changes, but rare ferts and no gardening except to occasionally pull out bigger clumps of clado. I just kind of let everything grow or not as it would. The only major changes have been repeated filter replacements, which I finally tracked down to an electrical problem. Nothing else on the circuit was bothered, but boy, it kept killing filters.

Here's a confession, which I add not to advocate neglect but just to make a point: This tank went 6 months without a water change. (I've restarted, though!) I topped up the water occasionally, but never took any out, and everything just kept trucking along without me. No algae explosions, no fish die-off, no clear symptoms at all. The resiliency of this type of setup always amazes me. I think it's mostly possible because it's a large water volume, the water is reasonably hard, light levels are fairly low, and the tank is lightly stocked.

And... I'm actually rather pleased with where things are at, considering how little I've done with it this year. Not magazine-cover-perfect, but healthy and still fascinating to watch.




Good:

• The larger buce are thriving. They've grown enough that I am going to divide them up. Love the colors and textures they add.
• Fish are all healthy and seem happy. No losses as far as I can count.
• Water chemistry has remained stable. Nitrate levels are still acceptable.
• Algae, while present, is not overrunning the tank

Middling:

• The vals never got as tall as I had hoped, and they keep heading for the front left corner of the tank - closest to the window. That's where they grow the tallest and greenest. Too little overhead lighting for them. I weeded some out, but I'll let them keep growing in the wood pile because A) I like the contrast against the wood, and B) they're hard to pull out when they're tucked way in there.
• Too much light for the java ferns, I think. They still have narrow, dark leaves. Keeping a few for now, as I want to try a natural-light aquarium soon, and I think they'll be happier there.
• The smallest buce are not a good fit for me. They're fragile and break off easily to float around and clog up the filter intake. Their numbers have been steadily reduced as I scrape them off the filter intake and throw them in the compost pile. I am NOT going to re-tie all those tiny little plants.

Yuck:

• The small crypts in the open area don't like this tank. I think it may be too bright for them, because they're growing low and flat against the sand. Or maybe they just don't like the water chemistry? Whatever it is, they're not happy and I'll be looking for a replacement.
• The crinums grew like crazy when the tank was new, but they started losing their roots a couple of months ago, and floating loose. I have one left, which I pulled out of the sand and planted in a net pot with fine gravel and a fert tab. It may be too far gone, but there's one more in another tank I might try.
• The red rubin sword is still alive, but very sad-looking. I've tucked in a couple of root tabs and stirred up the sand around it. Also pulled out a bunch of wood and other plants that might have been shading it. Maybe it'll bounce back?

Anyway, I still don't have loads of time to dedicate to this hobby, but I thought I'd stop back and say hi and give an update

 

[Caliban07]

So, uh... hi!

About a week after my last update, non-aquarium things kind of went to hell, and the tank has mostly been on auto-pilot the last year. Daily feeding, occasional water changes, but rare ferts and no gardening except to occasionally pull out bigger clumps of clado. I just kind of let everything grow or not as it would. The only major changes have been repeated filter replacements, which I finally tracked down to an electrical problem. Nothing else on the circuit was bothered, but boy, it kept killing filters.

Here's a confession, which I add not to advocate neglect but just to make a point: This tank went 6 months without a water change. (I've restarted, though!) I topped up the water occasionally, but never took any out, and everything just kept trucking along without me. No algae explosions, no fish die-off, no clear symptoms at all. The resiliency of this type of setup always amazes me. I think it's mostly possible because it's a large water volume, the water is reasonably hard, light levels are fairly low, and the tank is lightly stocked.

And... I'm actually rather pleased with where things are at, considering how little I've done with it this year. Not magazine-cover-perfect, but healthy and still fascinating to watch.

View attachment 310412
View attachment 310413

Good:

• The larger buce are thriving. They've grown enough that I am going to divide them up. Love the colors and textures they add.
• Fish are all healthy and seem happy. No losses as far as I can count.
• Water chemistry has remained stable. Nitrate levels are still acceptable.
• Algae, while present, is not overrunning the tank

Middling:

• The vals never got as tall as I had hoped, and they keep heading for the front left corner of the tank - closest to the window. That's where they grow the tallest and greenest. Too little overhead lighting for them. I weeded some out, but I'll let them keep growing in the wood pile because A) I like the contrast against the wood, and B) they're hard to pull out when they're tucked way in there.
• Too much light for the java ferns, I think. They still have narrow, dark leaves. Keeping a few for now, as I want to try a natural-light aquarium soon, and I think they'll be happier there.
• The smallest buce are not a good fit for me. They're fragile and break off easily to float around and clog up the filter intake. Their numbers have been steadily reduced as I scrape them off the filter intake and throw them in the compost pile. I am NOT going to re-tie all those tiny little plants.

Yuck:

• The small crypts in the open area don't like this tank. I think it may be too bright for them, because they're growing low and flat against the sand. Or maybe they just don't like the water chemistry? Whatever it is, they're not happy and I'll be looking for a replacement.
• The crinums grew like crazy when the tank was new, but they started losing their roots a couple of months ago, and floating loose. I have one left, which I pulled out of the sand and planted in a net pot with fine gravel and a fert tab. It may be too far gone, but there's one more in another tank I might try.
• The red rubin sword is still alive, but very sad-looking. I've tucked in a couple of root tabs and stirred up the sand around it. Also pulled out a bunch of wood and other plants that might have been shading it. Maybe it'll bounce back?

Anyway, I still don't have loads of time to dedicate to this hobby, but I thought I'd stop back and say hi and give an update

It’s amazing what happens when you leave things be. [emoji846]