Caliban's AquaOpti 85L

[nirbhao]

We switched to Safe because of how expensive Prime is. $15 treats 60,000 gallons.

Nerites live in coastal areas and so are often out of the water during low tide. If they are closed up, keep smelling them. If they open up and don't react to being touched, then you have your answer.

 

[Caliban07]

Thanks I'll bare that info in mind.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Any updates on the tank and dosing etc? How is it all coming along?

 

[Caliban07]

Switching to sand destroyed my tank. I lost my snails, shrimp all my ottos, two cherry barbs and one harlequin Rasbora. All my plants melted, all the algae melted and the tank remained cloudy for about two weeks despite water changes. New plants I put in melted too. Some instantly. Chlorine dip test came back negative, no ammonia either. The only thing I can think is either heavy metals or low oxygen but I'd have expected the snails to climb out.

I've not been here much lately. As you know I joined an aquatic plants science group with some other members of various forums. They have been conducting fertiliser experiments on different plants to help identify deficiencies.

I decided to change out my substrate once again. I went back to just eco complete. Although I swear by soil, I will understand a lot more if I use an inert substrate and dose my own mixes. Not knowing what exactly is in the soil would make this more difficult. I'll be doing my own experiments soon so I'll keep you up to date.

As of today the tank is very bare. A couple of crypts remain. Crypts tend to be more forgiving and this one survived the meltdown although it was planted much later on.



I'm just waiting for the tank to settle and the bacterial bloom to subside than I'll be planting again and mixing up my first batch of trace mixes for testing.

 

[TMaier]

Mad scientist with a tank. Party on. Can't wait to see what you do.

 

[toolman]

Sorry to hear that, sure you will get it looking awesome again.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Switching to sand destroyed my tank. I lost my snails, shrimp all my ottos, two cherry barbs and one harlequin Rasbora. All my plants melted, all the algae melted and the tank remained cloudy for about two weeks despite water changes. New plants I put in melted too. Some instantly. Chlorine dip test came back negative, no ammonia either. The only thing I can think is either heavy metals or low oxygen but I'd have expected the snails to climb out.

I've not been here much lately. As you know I joined an aquatic plants science group with some other members of various forums. They have been conducting fertiliser experiments on different plants to help identify deficiencies.

I decided to change out my substrate once again. I went back to just eco complete. Although I swear by soil, I will understand a lot more if I use an inert substrate and dose my own mixes. Not knowing what exactly is in the soil would make this more difficult. I'll be doing my own experiments soon so I'll keep you up to date.

As of today the tank is very bare. A couple of crypts remain. Crypts tend to be more forgiving and this one survived the meltdown although it was planted much later on.

View attachment 299736

I'm just waiting for the tank to settle and the bacterial bloom to subside than I'll be planting again and mixing up my first batch of trace mixes for testing.

Geez no good mate! I must admit my plants struggled for a week or 2 after going to sand. I didn't have any losses or anything tho. Seems strange?

The soils working great for me now everything has settle. Did u end up making a specialty micro mix?

 

[Caliban07]

Thanks guys.

@bert it wasn't the sand. I took the top layer of soil off when getting the eco out and because the substrate was my only biological filter it had disastrous consequences.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Thanks guys.

@bert it wasn't the sand. I took the top layer of soil off when getting the eco out and because the substrate was my only biological filter it had disastrous consequences.

Ooh that's right! U were running an empty canister weren't you? Bugger. Oh well atleast once you figure out your ferts you will be able start a fresh [emoji106] I bet you've lost a few $$ worth of plants now tho [emoji20]

 

[Delapool]

Ouch! Good luck though with the re-build, sure it will bounce back

 

[nirbhao]

Ugh. How frustrating. It sounds like you have a good opportunity to rebuild with a great deal of intention.

 

[fishenthusiast]

What bad luck! On the bright side, you can buy new goodies.

 

[Autumnsky]

So heartbreaking. Had been wondering how it was going. Thank you for sharing the ups and downs of the adventure, and the educational & annecdotal parts of the processes.

Interesting to learn, especially about the changes in dosing a little way back.

You obviously can keep and will have once again a lovely tank.

Is this brand new EcoComplete?

 

[Caliban07]

Thanks for all the support guys.

Autumn this eco has been reused. It's been rinsed in tap water so it may already have some metals now present which my skew my findings however.

Test batch one has been completed.



There is no iron or cobalt in this mix. I couldn't get my hands on cobalt unfortunately and I'll be dosing iron separately.

The targets are

2 micrograms per litre boron
2 micrograms per litre copper
3 micrograms per litre molybdenum
6 micrograms per litre manganese
6 micrograms per litre Zinc

These may be too low. It is my first attempt so fingers crossed.

None of the metals have been chelated.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Thanks for all the support guys.

Autumn this eco has been reused. It's been rinsed in tap water so it may already have some metals now present which my skew my findings however.

Test batch one has been completed.

View attachment 299807

There is no iron or cobalt in this mix. I couldn't get my hands on cobalt unfortunately and I'll be dosing iron separately.

The targets are

2 micrograms per litre boron
2 micrograms per litre copper
3 micrograms per litre molybdenum
6 micrograms per litre manganese
6 micrograms per litre Zinc

These may be too low. It is my first attempt so fingers crossed.

None of the metals have been chelated.

It's like a chemistry lab in the picture lol looks like your underway, can't wait to see the results. Have u decided what to do about CA and MG? Personally I'd say they are more of an issue than trace elements in terms of dosing.

 

[Delapool]

Wow, got some gear there - are you dosing micros separately in there or as a mix out of interest?

 

[Caliban07]

I'm not dosing any. A 20l water change will provide 0.4ppm magnesium. I have reason to believe this might be enough as many metals are very low.

 

[Caliban07]

Wow, got some gear there - are you dosing micros separately in there or as a mix out of interest?

I've mixed them in to a litre of pure water.

Boric acid
Sodium molybdate
Copper sulphate
Manganese sulphate
Zinc sulphate

 

[Caliban07]

Been dosing the new micro mix for about 5 days. Having a bit of solubility/precipitation issues in the bottle. It's impossible to tell which compound it is.

Been hit with a major and I mean major diatom bloom so most of the plants are caked in brown. They are knocked off easily and the plants look well underneath.

Growth is slow though because co2 and nutrients are lean. Most likely that some element is limiting the speed of growth. Could be anything. I'm dosing approximately 1.5ppm No3 a day which is little N. the remaining fish seem ok and the plants are growing. The crypts in the last picture I posted have melted probably due to diatoms or the 100% water change but noticed new shoots yesterday. I've turned up co2 a touch and reduced the photoperiod from 10 hours to 8.

I think iron availability is a problem at the moment since easylife ferro apparently use iron sulphate which can be gone in minutes due to precipitation/oxidation in to non plant available form of iron. Probably why the instructions call for 7ml a week which equates to around 0.9ppm in my tank. I'll probably have to increase the iron dosing over time. The trace mix seems to be working well though.

The two nerite snails I bought have their work cut out with the diatoms though and I'm considering adding some ottos again. Was really going to add a single betta to the tank and some Amano shrimp. Still might yet.

Really enjoying the fact that I don't need liquid carbon anymore or any form of unnatural chelation. From the things I've read lately I really won't be using EDTA or water conditioners. My water is now left to evaporate for a few days and I am doing smaller water changes.

I hope to move to rainwater at some stage in the future too. Will post pictures in time. Tank is going through all the usual start up events at the moment.

 

[Bert2oo1]

He's back! What kind of plants are u growing now? Have u braves the rotala yet?

Why rain water if u don't mind me asking?