Bert's 60g Planted Tank

[KingKoopa512]

Well my experiment with not dosing macros for a week has back fired in a big way. Basically all my plants have been crippled again. Curling leaves, bottom sections are dead, growth is at a stand still, cupping of leaves, GSA is stronger than ever. The last time this happened I lost a full tank worth of plants as they never recovered. A few tops are still good so I need to make a decision and I need to make it fast.

Considering removing all the Eco and recapping the soil with sand or normal gravel and doing a complete replant. The plants I currently have will need to be trimmed back to just the top 4 leaves and replanted. (2 months of solid growth down the drain.)

Might tare it down today but I'm not sure yet. Big decisions to be made. I'll get some pics of what I'm talking about today. It's micro toxicity again I think.

Not dosing macros has caused the plants to only have micro's available so they have drawn in far too much and caused them to melt and curl etc.

Completely gutted about what's happened but hopefull if I replace the Eco I can finally see the back end of this issue and finally start growing plants. After all that's the idea isn't it? TDS was over 350 without dosing any macros. That's a lot of ppm of micro's.

Srry to hear that bert . Your tank will bounce back like nothing ever happened

 

[KingKoopa512]

Chaos is the word of the day! I've stripped out all the plants and replaced the Eco with sand. I've decided planting in sand is what dreams are made of! So much easier than Eco.

I'm keeping the Eco for future builds as it cost me a pretty penny, just hit the 5 hour mark but I'm almost finished.

Here's a teaser! http://pho.to/AgXJL

Nice Bert . An yea sand is way easier to put plants in.

 

[brendenscott]

I love sand also. Uses bdbs in my 20 gallon. Interested to see the tds difference from the eco to sand. Did you do a tds reading before pulling eco out? Then do another with the sand in. To see how much the eco was holding onto and releasing.

 

[Bert2oo1]

I love sand also. Uses bdbs in my 20 gallon. Interested to see the tds difference from the eco to sand. Did you do a tds reading before pulling eco out? Then do another with the sand in. To see how much the eco was holding onto and releasing.

I was at 350 TDS with Eco and I'd be down to around 120-140 now I recon after completely draining the tank. Pretty hard to gauge the build up due to the Eco because of all the excess ferts that wouldn't have been taken up once the plants started to suffer.

I check the TDS when I get home

Actually now that I think back, the resting TDS of the tank was about 120-130 when I first had the toxicity issue but my water from the tap is only 40ppm. The readings were taken after 60% water changes and before dosing any ferts. So it is possible that I had give or take 40ppm+ of micro's and macros absorbed into the substrate. That's a hell of a lot. Will be interesting to see what kind of readings I get today

Also note I have no rock or DW in the tank to effect my readings as its full Dutch

 

[flchamp89]

Imo most everything roots better in sand

 

[Bert2oo1]

Imo most everything roots better in sand

Yea makes sense really. Not as dense to navigate in looking forward to seeing the difference between the 2 as I've never used sand with plants[emoji16] I had it once in my Oscar tank but he moved it around too much so I went back to gravel lol

 

[Bert2oo1]

Looks heaps better today. TDS is at 138 after dosing. So I've added 15ppm ca
5ppm mg
5ppm N
1ppm P
4ppm k

So that's about 30ppm worth.

Puts the resting at 108. That's 32 ppm lower than it was with the Eco.

http://pho.to/Aga5o

 

[Caliban07]

Nice. I think you might have cracked it this time. I'm hanging on to my eco in the hope I can bring the fert content down with consistent 50% water changes.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Nice. I think you might have cracked it this time. I'm hanging on to my eco in the hope I can bring the fert content down with consistent 50% water changes.

Hopefully! Time will tell but the plants were nice and perked up today when the lights came on.

Ive decided I'm going to pull out the back of the S repens and put the pogo there and plant more blyxa on the right side to match the left. I think it will give a better look once the tank grows in.

Haven't heard anything about my plants order [emoji35] might be next week now [emoji36] hate having all the big holes lol

I think the overall scape when it's grown in will be my best yet! The colour and leaf shape contrast should be on point [emoji108] I've even come up with a name for it!

It will be called "the Dutch sun"

The way I've set it out it has the circle in the middle with triangles all around it so sort of reminded me of a cut in half sun. Plus I've got a lot of colour.

Hopefully good things to come!

 

[Bert2oo1]

New plants arrived today! Whoo!

I've moved the pogo to the center of the tank and planted bylxa on the right side. New plants are in,
Rotala bonsai
Liminophila hippuroides
Liminophila sassifolia
Ludwigi "tornado"

Still have a few bare patches but I think I'll just wait till I get cuttings to fill them out. May get another stem variety for in front of the tornado but not sure yet.

Plants are looking good, I've got new growth already!

Happy days!

Pics: http://pho.to/AghML

 

[KingKoopa512]

New plants arrived today! Whoo!

I've moved the pogo to the center of the tank and planted bylxa on the right side. New plants are in,
Rotala bonsai
Liminophila hippuroides
Liminophila sassifolia
Ludwigi "tornado"

Still have a few bare patches but I think I'll just wait till I get cuttings to fill them out. May get another stem variety for in front of the tornado but not sure yet.

Plants are looking good, I've got new growth already!

Happy days!

Pics: http://pho.to/AghML

Awesome bert bouncing back like nothing even happened

 

[Bert2oo1]

Awesome bert bouncing back like nothing even happened

Thanks KK [emoji16] yea I must say they plants are looking really good so far! Hopefully it stays that way and I can enjoy the tank again lol 3rd time lucky!

 

[Caliban07]

Thanks KK [emoji16] yea I must say they plants are looking really good so far! Hopefully it stays that way and I can enjoy the tank again lol 3rd time lucky!

Only on your third attempt? Lucky you [emoji6]

If your issues reside I'm ditching the eco too. I think it was a bad move putting it over soil the more I look in to it.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Only on your third attempt? Lucky you [emoji6]

If your issues reside I'm ditching the eco too. I think it was a bad move putting it over soil the more I look in to it.

Haha yep only 3 yea I've been thinking that myself. Especially since it was full of micro's before I even put the soil in. As u said its like a battery. Every time u get it down abit it pulls more up from the soil.

However it may not be the substrate yet but I'll certainly let u know lol if I disappear for a long time then u know it wasn't the substrate and I've dragged myself out onto the back lawn and done myself in lol [emoji23]

Nah signs are looking really good so far. I have faith!

 

[Caliban07]

I've put i request for advice on the planted tank forum on the toxicity thread. The eco cost me the best part of £100 so I'll need more convincing to chuck it out on the lawn.

Having said that. The last algae covered batch I threw on the front lawn did this to the bluebells.





Whereas the ones a couple of feet away look like this



Could be many reasons for this though.

 

[Bert2oo1]

I've put i request for advice on the planted tank forum on the toxicity thread. The eco cost me the best part of £100 so I'll need more convincing to chuck it out on the lawn.

Having said that. The last algae covered batch I threw on the front lawn did this to the bluebells.

View attachment 298887

View attachment 298888

Whereas the ones a couple of feet away look like this

View attachment 298889

Could be many reasons for this though.

Interesting! I've used some old Eco from the last tare down in my nano and I've got some pretty bad algae issues at the moment with it. I've got green hair algae on the glass and the Eco is covered in green dust. Could just be lack of co2 and too much light tho. I've got 13w of LED's over 2gs but the s repens I've got in there has an inch between leaf nodes and the leaf size is tiny.

I really need to get it a pressurised system but I'm reluctant to spend any money on it lol if I was to spend the money I think I'd get 2 more tanks and have a nano rack with a 3 way splitter for co2

Maybe when I win lotto I can make this happen [emoji848] I'm moving house next year most likely so I'm reluctant to start anymore projects.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Ahh the wonders of high lighting! Since removing the Eco the results have been obviously better! Considering turning my light down further (I'm at 60%) as everything is turning red! New growth on the bylxa, hygro compacta, polysperma are coming in with pretty strong colouring.
The new sassifolia I got has grown a new set of leaves already and check out the different in space between the nodes!
All new growth is looking great so hopefully I've finally ended my issues.

Here's a few pics of what I'm talking about: http://pho.to/AgpTx

 

[Caliban07]

Nice one Bert! What you dosing now? PPM please [emoji2]

 

[Bert2oo1]

Nice one Bert! What you dosing now? PPM please [emoji2]

Currently dosing:
5.62 no3
1.27 n
10.1 k
2.33 po4
0.76 p
2.35 s

15 ca
5 mg

No micro's and no iron.

I get these ppm's from:
2.8g kno3
0.8 kh2po4
3g kso4

11.5g calcium chloride
12.5g Epsom salts.

So far so good [emoji106]

 

[Caliban07]

Nice. Is that a typo on po4?