Video Journal: 75G Community Tank

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so my potassium problem still exist but I am closing the gap to where things should be good. I will be upping my k2so4 dose to 1tsp 2x a week for a total of 24ppm of potassium (K). In conjunction with the 7ppm of K from kh2po4 that I dose each week I will be at a total of roughly 31ppm of K vs the 20 or so that I am at now. I am hoping this will resolve the issue completely. If not I will continue to up my dose.

Make note, hygro's are a very demanding plant when it comes to potassium and to under estimate this will result in what I have been going through. Pin holes that grow larger and larger with yellowing around the hole, leaves eventually get so weak they fall off. Old leaves degrade first as new leaves suck up the potassium from older ones.

This deficiency have an negative effect on growth and overall tank balance/health.

I also dropped my lighting back down to 8 hours a day. The benefit of running a longer photo-period was not showing to be worth the additional headaches. Growth didn't change that much but what did change was the demand for nutrients. This lead to GSA and what I believe to be BBA beginning to show its ugly face on my plants. I quickly caught wind of what was happening and rather than fight a battle of continuing to dose more and more I simply decided to lower it back down to 8 hours.

In terms of my scape, I have decided to look at other options for a foreground plant instead of the dwarf sag. I picked up some Crypt Nurri and I really love the look of this plant. Depending on how this go with this plant in my tank I may opt to use it to completely cover the foreground with it. It seems like it stays very low and I love the colors in the leaves.

I will keep you all posted :)
 
Anyone know if there is a way to prevent melting of new crypt that was just recently planted?

My nurii doesn't seem to happy right now, some of the plants have leaves going yellow and falling off. Others seem to be doing fine. Anything I can do?
 
philipraposo198 said:
Anyone know if there is a way to prevent melting of new crypt that was just recently planted?

My nurii doesn't seem to happy right now, some of the plants have leaves going yellow and falling off. Others seem to be doing fine. Anything I can do?
Click to expand...


I don't know much about the crypt you have, but the 3 crypts that I have always melted some when I moved them within the tank or moved to my daughter's tank. As long as I had a root tab under them, the cripts always came back and with more leaves. In one case, one "bush" melted down to stubs, and now its the largest of the bunch. These were wendtii.

Hopefully in your case, it could be the same.
 
Hey man great looking tank. How do you like the safe t sorb? I want to try it in a new scape I'm thinking about doing. Pro cons?


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Hi pittbully13,

This tank is my first ever fish tank / planted aquarium. With that said I don't have experience with other substrates so its hard to see its true con's or pros against others.

Things I like about it. Its cheap, high cec, looks nice, easy to plant in, easy to uproot plants.

The only con I can think of would be the initial dust, but with a good rinse prior to first time use its fine. I did a 10g for my father in-law about a week ago and the water was 80-90% clear he first day within hours of setup.

I say try it :)

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pittbully13 said:
Thanks for your insight on the safe t sorb. I seen pretty much


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Click to expand...


Every video on YouTube about it. I only seen a couple of negative reviews. So i just wanted to get your experience. I also have limited experience on substrates. I've only used fluorite, but just like you said about STS it's cheap and thats what attracted me to it. I'm going to use it in my new scape. Again thanks for the response.


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philipraposo198 said:
Anyone know if there is a way to prevent melting of new crypt that was just recently planted?

My nurii doesn't seem to happy right now, some of the plants have leaves going yellow and falling off. Others seem to be doing fine. Anything I can do?
Click to expand...

just got back from my vacation in cayo coco (7 nights) and was worried what my new C. Nurii would look like.

Good news is hardly any additional leaves melted, and ever better news is that most of the 15 plants have a new leave already starting to grow!

I suspect everything will be fine from this point going forward, thanks for reassuring me :)

Video update will be coming soon!
 
Beautiful tank. I really like the water movement and wanted a similar effect without breaking up the water surface too much. Is that black device on the left a submersible 'power head'. Some info would be useful. Cheers. Steve.


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yes its a koralia nano 425. They are IMO some of the best powerheads you can get.

Water flow is critical in distribution of nutrients in the water column to all plants. also provides a great way to keep the bad stuff in the water so that it can be filtered out. rather than building up too much on the substrate.

Thanks for the kind words too.
 
FTS from today



So I haven't been updating things for a bit due to school being absolutely crazy (final year, engineering program).

I won't be able to do a video till exams are over (2 weeks), but wanted to share some pics with you guys.

Also wanted to share some of my recent findings with everyone in hopes to help others from making similar mistakes.

Things that have been working:
- having a solid WC schedule. Not only foes this replenish vital minerals in the water but can reset from dosing. It also prevents pH swings due to things in the tank that can lower ph (Driftwood). You will see your fish and plants respond well to a WC as well.

-clean up decaying plant matter. This helps prevent algae, keeps toxic organics lower, and is good practice. A clean tank is a happy one.

-clean your filter. I have gotten to the point were I can begin to see changes in my plants and algae growth the moment the filter becomes too dirty. Its not about loss of flow, as I can still maintain good flow while having a dirty filter. Keep en eye out for dust ball looking things on your leaves and surfaces. Could be mistaken for diatoms.

-maintain a good ferts schedule, and don't over compensate to try and resolve issues that are not clear. So for a tank like mine where you have a full stock (not overstocked, but a healthy amount of fish), quality diet, no co2 or excel and is all under low light here is what I have noticed. Nitrates more than likely won't need to be dosed, same goes for phosphates (assuming nitrates are being met). Aim for 1-3ppm phosphates and 5-20 nitrates, ideally not much higher by the end of the week. You will likely want to dose potassium and micros. Good targets are 10-30ppm potassium (depending on plants) and .5 iron via a micro mix. This should be sufficient.

What I mean by overcompensating is this; if you are dosing and still having plant problems the reason is likely due to lightings or co2 levels. I made the mistake of thinking more ferts will solve everything. I was wrong. I spent a month worth or WC, twice weekly trying to reset my tank. Finally back to normal levels.

-pick the right plants. This means if your low tech, then pick some good low tech plant. Once the tank is esyablishdd and you want to attempt more challenging species you will still have s thriving tank. Less likely to allow algae to take over.

- rosette plants are great, too many stems can be a pain. Pruning and replanting is not horrible but it causes time were plants are not growing at full potential. Once a stem is cut, new roots must develops. This delay if all you have are stems or most of your plants are stem could cause for algae to find an opening.

I have some other great tips too but this will be all for now. I will get some new pics tomorrow.

Currently focusing on growing plants and sorta ignoring the scape. The less I move things the better the plants do. Introduced some new plants as well. Will have an updated plant list with the pictures.

Had a scare where one my cardinal tetras was breathing quicker and heavier than normal for about a week. Color was a bit off too. He appears to be all back to normal now, still trying to figure out what caused it.

Anyways check out my next post for pics and some more info.

Here are my 2 male gouramis.

 
New video coming soon, promise :)

here are some updated pics from today. Water change and filter cleaning is coming tomorrow.





 
Plecos all like.." woods clean, can I have some real food now?!?"

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Lol, she loves that driftwood. Her favorite veggie has to be cucumber. When I got her she was about an inch, that was only like 7-8 months ago.

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