FresH2O's 20g planted rescape

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"The cell walls of all living organisms contain free amine groups (lysine and arginine) that serve as the reactive site for glutaraldehyde attack. Complex crosslinks are formed on the cell surface, and as essential cellular functions are disrupted, the cell dies. With increasing pH, more reactive sites for glutaraldehyde attack are formed, and the cidal reaction accelerates. While glutaraldehyde kills most quickly at alkaline pH’s, it is still effective under acidic conditions. It is also effective against anaerobic bacteria, notably sulphate reducing bacteria, since it is not inactivated by sulfide."


 
Looking in from the outside dosing glut in to our fish tanks does appear ludicrous especially if it's just for controlling algae. At present I'm just following the crowd with this stuff but I'm really looking at ways to avoid using it.

I know there are many other unnatural risks we take when running a planted tank but this stuff really doesn't sit well with me. During my rescape I only found 2 of my 5 red cherry shrimp so they are either in the canister filter chilling or something else killed them off. I did dose way to much easycarbo about a week ago because someone said it was fine. Never again. Could have been something else though.
 
Caliban07 said:
Looking in from the outside dosing glut in to our fish tanks does appear ludicrous especially if it's just for controlling algae. At present I'm just following the crowd with this stuff but I'm really looking at ways to avoid using it.

I know there are many other unnatural risks we take when running a planted tank but this stuff really doesn't sit well with me. During my rescape I only found 2 of my 5 red cherry shrimp so they are either in the canister filter chilling or something else killed them off. I did dose way to much easycarbo about a week ago because someone said it was fine. Never again. Could have been something else though.
Click to expand...

I agree with the idea that is bad but I'm yet to hear of any long term dosing concerns or issues with glut? For fish at least, shrimp and snails a good question.

However I don't know how people do discus (especially young discus) and a planted tank - seems a contradiction.
 
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Apparently the sensitivity to glut varies. The Amano is an aquatic cockroach.
Prior the this rebuild, I had stopped dosing glut for some time. Is there a benefit to lower volume dosing on a long term basis? Not sure. I might hold off on it an increase the WC volume or frequency and see if the BBA returns in a few weeks.
 
Fresh2o said:
Apparently the sensitivity to glut varies. The Amano is an aquatic cockroach.
Prior the this rebuild, I had stopped dosing glut for some time. Is there a benefit to lower volume dosing on a long term basis? Not sure. I might hold off on it an increase the WC volume or frequency and see if the BBA returns in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

Might be light dependent as well maybe?. Under very high light I found the BBA grew faster than the glut could slow it down.
 
Update: I did not kill my shrimp with glutaraldehyde! Finally got around to cleaning my canister and found 4 of them in there. I started with 6; one became berried so I moved it back to the shrimp tank. There is ONE unaccounted for though. Still, nice to know that they are still alive. They are going back into the shrimp tank.
 
Week 9: I did the third trim on the carpet today:
YaR0oCt.jpg
Here is a closeup:
nU0XP4B.jpg
Oto photobomb:
nU0XP4B.jpg

Yeah, cleanup is still a pain but it's worth it.
As for the HC growing on the hill, it has become detached and not taking root. I may have to remove the big clumps, break them up and plant it as very small groupings.
 
I must say fresh you certainly know your way around tour tank! You have carpeted and almost filled out your tank in the time I set my 60 up and mine doesn't even come close lol. It's truely inspirational. As for the BBA why not push your pressurised abit more and not worry about the glut? I'm sure your plants will use it and not gas put your shrimp or fish.

I've been following your thread a long time and I know you are a little sparing on the co2. Why not go to 25ppm? I think I remember you saying you have low co2 in this tank. Clearly everything else is in order because your tank health is amazing, the only possible cause of the BBA could be low co2.

Do you wave your hand over everything at water change and clean your filter monthly?
 
Thanks for the encouragement. It has exceeded my expectations. Getting a truly flat carpet requires meticulous pruning. I start at one end and work my way across. One of the reasons I ditched most of the plants in the previous scape was to get away from continuous maintenance.
What is not seen in pics is the patches of yellow where I've nearly scalped it. From what I've observed, those areas will green up and fill in. I'm not seeing as much algae as before either because I've trimmed it or because of other factors (reduced micros, increased water changes, glut).
Why am I running lean CO2? Not sure. I could try increasing it. I do hate the mist in the tank. I think it is effective though. I could not tell you what the CO2 ppm is; have not measured the KH since 2015 and checked the pH once this year. Not that I hate testing but I am going off of direct observation mostly. Drop checker gets more green than lime green; never yellow. I did let it get yellow before the fish were in there.
Still thinking about building a Cerges style reactor. It will fit in the bin where the filter is housed. It's just a matter of ordering the parts.
 
Fresh2o said:
Thanks for the encouragement. It has exceeded my expectations. Getting a truly flat carpet requires meticulous pruning. I start at one end and work my way across. One of the reasons I ditched most of the plants in the previous scape was to get away from continuous maintenance.
What is not seen in pics is the patches of yellow where I've nearly scalped it. From what I've observed, those areas will green up and fill in. I'm not seeing as much algae as before either because I've trimmed it or because of other factors (reduced micros, increased water changes, glut).
Why am I running lean CO2? Not sure. I could try increasing it. I do hate the mist in the tank. I think it is effective though. I could not tell you what the CO2 ppm is; have not measured the KH since 2015 and checked the pH once this year. Not that I hate testing but I am going off of direct observation mostly. Drop checker gets more green than lime green; never yellow. I did let it get yellow before the fish were in there.
Still thinking about building a Cerges style reactor. It will fit in the bin where the filter is housed. It's just a matter of ordering the parts.
Click to expand...



Yea the reactors are awesome! I'm really happy with mine. You still get micro bubbles but that's from all the pearl! [emoji16] I thought some bubbles were making it through but my flow rate is that good I don't get big streams of pearling it tends to get carried away with the flow lol
 
Naked hill again:
q7lZNOy.jpg
The HC decided it did not want to stay rooted and slowly lifted itself off the hill. It's a fist size clump and rather than throwing it out, I put it into the shrimp tank. They enjoy grazing on new things. I may plant more Staurogyne repens in its place. That plant is growing laterally (used to always grow vertically). Some of the shoots are growing into the HC lawn. The lighting must be ideal for this to be occurring.
The Ammania bonsai is growing slowly (yes!) and staying healthy. The limnophilia aromatica is also displaying a more slanted growth pattern. The pogo erectus just grows straight up.
 
Can you take a close up of the Aromatica when you get a moment?

I love Cegs testament to this plant here.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/limnophila-aromatica-the-rice-paddy-herb.1690/

Also the ammania bonsai. Another plant I need to try yet cannot get over here readily. Looks like I'll be taking a list to the LFS to see what I can get ordered.

If however, the L.Aromatic is too large for the 20 long it will almost certainly be too big for my tank. That's put me off somewhat.
 
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