New 29 Gallon Build - Journal

[samh2855]

Hey there I read through your whole journal yesterday and really enjoyed it. I've been setting up a pretty similar 37 gal over the past 2 months. I don't know much about lighting and algae timing but I got 6 oto cat recently and really do work on algae. I saw you had one at a point. Do you still just have one?

 

[TMaier]

Try 3 hours and an hour break and then another 3 of light.

 

[jfhrtn]

I'll have to see if I can hook up another timer to the Beamswork timer without resetting the time on the clock when the power cuts off.

Last night did my weekly 40-50% water change, dosed my weekly Thrive, removed some of the hair algae by hand, and cut the crushed coral/aragonite in half.

 

[UntimelyLord]

I've found that you can indeed connect a Beamswork with a timer to an outlet timer and it will keep the time correct on the clock when the power comes back on. Others online say it doesn't work for them though?

 

[jfhrtn]

24hrs after the water change the pH has come down from 7.6-7.8 to 7.4 and everything else has remained pretty normal.

Do you think that the cloudiness in the water could be coming from such a die off of diatoms? They were all over the plants, substrate, and rocks. Now my oto and nerites have made them all but disappear. Maybe is the byproduct of them dying or being eaten?

If not a byproduct of diatoms I am also leaning towards bacteria bloom also. Maybe a bacteria bloom isn't such a bad thing.


7/25/17

pH: 7.4

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrites: 0ppm

Nitrates: ~10ppm

Temp: 77.6

Photo period: 5.5hrs

 

[jfhrtn]

@UntimelyLord I am going to have find a timer that will fit in the limited space I have left on my power strip haha. I will certainly give it a try if I can find a small horizontal timer. If you have had success with it I am sure it is possible

 

[Fresh2o]

@UntimelyLord I am going to have find a timer that will fit in the limited space I have left on my power strip haha. I will certainly give it a try if I can find a small horizontal timer. If you have had success with it I am sure it is possible

I'm not an electrician but perhaps something like this can be used to allow you to plug in an awkwardly shaped timer into that power strip:

 

[TMaier]

Bacteria blooms aren't bad and usually clear within a week.

 

[jfhrtn]

@Fresh2o now that I can live with. I have never seen any of those but my next Lowe's trip I'll be looking for that and a timer. Thanks for that tip [emoji106]

@TMaier I am thinking that might be what it is. Hopefully it will clear up next few days

 

[jfhrtn]

Tested the pH and the nitrates to see where the ferts have put them. pH looked to be creeping back to 7.6 and the nitrates were up to about 10ppm. Also trimmed a one of the damaged leaves off the Java Fern from when I got it. Got a good bit of new growth on it and 2 new upcoming Java Ferns. I will grab some pics of them in the morning.

7/26/17

pH: 7.6

Nitrates: 10ppm

 

[jfhrtn]

Late last night/early this morning I did a water test to see what I needed to dose for ferts and where the pH was. pH was still around 7.4-7.6 and nitrates were still rather low <20ppm. Dosed Thrive again which is the 2nd time this week. Also planted some new Temple Compacta in the left rear corner. It has straightened up from being kind of crooked after being stuck in it's container for however long it was on the shelf. Also did a bit of vacuuming of waste and dumped the filter out to empty some of the gunk out of it.

FTS 7/30/17

New Temple Compacta

pH/Nitrate Test 7/30/17

 

[jfhrtn]

Here are a couple of shots of what I found in the bottom of the filter. It was nasty for almost 2 weeks. Took 2 gallons from the tank to set the media in while I dumped the filter and used he tank water to rinse out the filter. The water has cleared a good bit in the tank since I rinsed all the gunk out

 

[jfhrtn]

Last night and this evening I have been doing some work and a bit of tinkering here and there. Been clipping one of the old leaves off the Java Fern every other day and once it is clipped I will remove the baby ferns from the leaf then tie it to a small rock by the roots. Been taking me a while to get everything tied up and put in a place it won't fall over. I think my serpae's are nudging the small rocks looking for food and knocking them over. Only explanation I can come up with other than a snail maybe knocking them off. Not totally sure which one is doing it. Got a lot of new growth coming off the rhizome of the "mother fern" which is why I have been getting rid of some of the old leaves that have been effected by algae or we're just damaged from sitting in that package for so long. So far the Mudwort is doing really well and also seeing new growth on the Anubias. The sword I have in the front right corner is still pretty idle. Seems like the temple plants are finally trying to stretch their leaves.

As for the inhabitants everyone is doing well. Knock on wood. Snails seem to be pretty active especially after lights out. Oto is definitely a nocturnal little guy but has been loving the side glass I have left uncleaned for him. Serpae's are doing good with some nice color coming out. The neons are really skiddish but they are starting to build up some courage the older they get. They have all grown pretty from just a wee little creature to a good sized juvenile. The one Glofish I have is really comfortable in the tank and surprisingly comfortable with me being in the tank trimming plants or vacuuming when everyone else freaks out.

The water has really cleared up since I dumped the gunk out of the filter last week and did the water change on Monday.

Here are a few pics of everything

The Java Fern procedure:

 

[jfhrtn]

Switching from a store bought media bag to a panty hose/stocking media bag

A FTS from this evening 8/2/17

 

[jfhrtn]

Early this morning before work I did a 50% water change, a good vacuuming, and dosed ferts again. I will check the water parameters this evening. I did some clipping and replanting of the Mudwort and clipped some old leaves off the Java Fern so it could concentrate on the growth of the new leaves.


About half through the fill up process. Was in a rush this morning and snapped some pics a little late.

New growth on the Java Fern

The newly planted clippings from the Mudwort. I removed most of the Temple plants and replaced them with the Mudwort. The temple plants now reside in a flower pot outside.

 

[jfhrtn]

Tested the water parameters this evening while I was working on my 10 gallon. Everything looked to have come out pretty normal.

8/8/17

pH: 7.4

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: <10ppm

Temp: 77.7°f

 

[jfhrtn]

Pic from 8/8/17 water test

 

[jfhrtn]

Did my weekly 50% water change last night along with dosing ferts again. I have started dosing ferts twice a week now and the Java Fern has seemed to really appreciate it. Also I have now removed all the Temple Compacta plants from the tank. Trimmed and replanted some of the Mudwort.

 

[jfhrtn]

Hey all haven't posted in a while but thought I'd give an update and try to get back into a more regular posting schedule. The tank had been doing really well and has gone through a few rescapes plant wise. Growing a lot of what seems like slow growers now but looking forward to getting them established. Still looking for some stem plants now but I'm not in any real rush. Added some Cholla wood and waiting for a piece of spider wood to get water logged so I can add that to the tank and get some plants up in the mid level of the water column.

Got to get some more ferts for the tank. Just about have an empty bottle of thrive. Any suggestions for ferts? I was thinking Nilocs mix your own micro & macro.


Been thinking about upgrading my lightning but not sure if a Finnex Planted+ 24/7. Since I can get a 30" for less than $100 shipped I am on the fence. I am currently running a 30" Beamswork DA 6500k .50w light and it has done pretty well over the past year. Any thoughts on upgrading lighting or just sick with what I have?


Still not running CO2 but have been reading up on it a lot lately. Just waiting to find a decently priced used regulator.


I'll have to get some pics of the tank tonight when I get back to the house. Even chopping my pics way down it says that they exceed the size limit by 274kb. I'll have to see if I can get some lower res pics this evening. Trying to upload it through the Tapatalk app.



---> Stock:

1 Dwarf Gourami

5 Harlequin Rasbora's

5 Serpea Tetra's

1 Otocinclus Vittatus

2 Neon Tetra's

2 Nerite Snails



---> Plants:

S. Repens

Anubias Nana

Anubias Nana Petite

Anubias Frazeri

Cryptocoryne Undulata

Amazon Compacta

Amazon Sword (echinodorus bleheri)

Rosette Sword

Java Fern Windelov

El Ninó Fern (experiment to see if it can be grown submerged)


---> Latest Water Test (last night & water change is Wednesday)

pH: 7.2

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm (no visible color change)

Nitrate: 10ppm


---> Fert Schedule:

Dosing 5ml Thrive every Wednesday


---> Lighting/Photo Period:

8am - 2pm

 

[jfhrtn]

Test for pic upload. Let me know if you can see them. Trying links from Google photos. Only way I can think of right now.



https://photos.app.goo.gl/LC8eqnm1K5hHdq953

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xEhHDfEGEutt5BFE3

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tnBx2xKYFe29e4S03