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Journal Attempting a True Dutch
- Thread starter Kwyet
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- #62
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Thanks very much! That means a lot to me!
On thing that I am guilty of doing as well is to have very thick curtains on the sides. Usually one or two is all that is needed.
- Thread starter
- #64
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Thanks! I’ll thin those.
- Thread starter
- #65
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
I think I said somewhere in another thread that I had Staghorn algae in the moss on my lava rock again, and I was going to try reverse respiration on it. The steps are as follows:
1. Put plants in a bucket. I put the whole rock in upside down.
2. Cover with plain seltzer water. I used Happy Belly seltzer sparkling water. At my elevation, the first bottle I opened exploded everywhere. After that I put the bucket in the tub, and covered it all with a towel as I opened the bottles. I wasn’t sure it would work, since they fizzed so much.
3. Cover bucket with towel and leave in the dark for 5 to 12 hours. I checked it at 5, 8 and 12 hours, and it didn’t look like it had accomplished anything.
4. Rinse plants and replace in tank. I did that at 11:30 at night.
This morning, I saw that it had actually accomplished something:
All of that red is dead algae. I’ll fish the rock back out tomorrow and pull as much dead algae off as I can.
The question now is, do I want to keep fighting with this moss rock? The stuff just keeps coming back. I had a long fight with it in Florida too, and eventually won out when Monte Carlo covered it and I guess choked it out. I don’t want to put Monte Carlo on it now though.
This is how the tank looks without the rock. It needs trimmed, but I’ll work on that tomorrow. What do you think, rock or no rock?
1. Put plants in a bucket. I put the whole rock in upside down.
2. Cover with plain seltzer water. I used Happy Belly seltzer sparkling water. At my elevation, the first bottle I opened exploded everywhere. After that I put the bucket in the tub, and covered it all with a towel as I opened the bottles. I wasn’t sure it would work, since they fizzed so much.
3. Cover bucket with towel and leave in the dark for 5 to 12 hours. I checked it at 5, 8 and 12 hours, and it didn’t look like it had accomplished anything.
4. Rinse plants and replace in tank. I did that at 11:30 at night.
This morning, I saw that it had actually accomplished something:
All of that red is dead algae. I’ll fish the rock back out tomorrow and pull as much dead algae off as I can.
The question now is, do I want to keep fighting with this moss rock? The stuff just keeps coming back. I had a long fight with it in Florida too, and eventually won out when Monte Carlo covered it and I guess choked it out. I don’t want to put Monte Carlo on it now though.
This is how the tank looks without the rock. It needs trimmed, but I’ll work on that tomorrow. What do you think, rock or no rock?
If it is going to be a constant battle with a risk of it detracting from the whole setup, then remove the rock and move on. Making a competition Dutch is already a lot of work and no need to add more to it!
Your tank, actually all of your tanks look great! I like this blue heron print, too.
- Thread starter
- #68
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Thanks very much!
- Thread starter
- #69
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Here it is after trimming. The rock is gone. I put the moss in my hillstream tank. Does it look “too” manicured now? The Hydrocotyle is cool, but is it too unnatural? Maybe it looks odd to me just because all of my other tanks look more wild. Also, I feel like I need a low carpet plant of some kind between the Val contortionist and the Echinodorus aflame.
Anyway, I checked the par with my iPhone and a diffuser, in a plastic bag which I submerged. It’s 50 at the substrate, 80 at the top of the Hydrocotyle and 200 just under the surface. I guess that makes it a medium light tank? I’m doing halfway between medium and very high light pps-pro ferts as recommended on the gla website for weekly 50% water changes, although I’m doing a 2x dose right after the water change, so the weekly total is a little bit higher. The Rotala macrandra kochi is doing better, although not yet ideal. I replanted all the better-looking tops, so we’ll see what happens as it grows out.
I messed up the CO2 settings when I had to change it out, so I’m working on getting it set right again. I’ve got some diatoms in the Limnophila wilsonii and something reddish in the pilo moss. I hope when the CO2 is back to normal levels it’ll straighten that out.
I really like how the Rainbowfish and the gourami look in there. I think they’re a good combo. I also really like that crypt and how it’s raising up. The Stargrass is working on filling in. I like how it looks a little more messy, lol! That’s it for now. Thanks for reading!
Anyway, I checked the par with my iPhone and a diffuser, in a plastic bag which I submerged. It’s 50 at the substrate, 80 at the top of the Hydrocotyle and 200 just under the surface. I guess that makes it a medium light tank? I’m doing halfway between medium and very high light pps-pro ferts as recommended on the gla website for weekly 50% water changes, although I’m doing a 2x dose right after the water change, so the weekly total is a little bit higher. The Rotala macrandra kochi is doing better, although not yet ideal. I replanted all the better-looking tops, so we’ll see what happens as it grows out.
I messed up the CO2 settings when I had to change it out, so I’m working on getting it set right again. I’ve got some diatoms in the Limnophila wilsonii and something reddish in the pilo moss. I hope when the CO2 is back to normal levels it’ll straighten that out.
I really like how the Rainbowfish and the gourami look in there. I think they’re a good combo. I also really like that crypt and how it’s raising up. The Stargrass is working on filling in. I like how it looks a little more messy, lol! That’s it for now. Thanks for reading!
I like it. I wonder if crypt pink flamingo would look good there?
- Thread starter
- #71
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
I don’t think I can have any more red/pink plants according to the Dutch guidelines.
- Thread starter
- #72
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
I think I have my CO2 figured out again. It comes on 90 minutes before the lights and turns off an hour before the lights. Using the Hanna 3818 CO2 Test Kit, it’s a steady 90 ppm through the day. I think that would be like a 1.4 pH drop? That’s using the Yugang Horizontal Reactor set a little less than max and on overflow mode. That seems good to me for this kind of tank. The Rainbowfish were at the surface for awhile, but I raised the outflow about an inch and they adjusted pretty quickly. The other fish didn’t care at all that I could tell.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
I like it better without the rock.
- Thread starter
- #74
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Thank you!
The hydrocotyle bush looks great to me.
You could get away with another red but I do not think crypt flamingo would be good between the val and the aflame for a couple reasons:
- Being because of two shades of red next to each other does two things:
- creates an over bearing vocal point
- they would detract each other
- Similar leaf shape on opposite ends of the between the crypt flamingo and the crypt sindoor
- I think moving the aflame more in between the hydrocotyle and val would be a good look and then do a foreground plant in front of them.
- Which one? I am not sure because you need a contrasting shade from the val and hydrocotyle. I think you could do elocharis or bylxa japonica there if you switched out the val.
- Elocharis would need some herding to keep it from taking over tho. Blyxa would be a much bette option but gets a bit larger then some of the elocharis
- Which one? I am not sure because you need a contrasting shade from the val and hydrocotyle. I think you could do elocharis or bylxa japonica there if you switched out the val.
Overall the tank is looking great and you have come a long way already in the department of trimming, well done!
- Thread starter
- #76
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Thank you! I’ve already ordered some platinum glossostigma elatinoides. I’ve read platinum plants don’t retain their color long, but glossostigma is supposed to be an exception. I’m going to try it and see. I’m not averse to switching out the Val for something too. I still have Erio Featherduster way back in the right corner. It’s up to about 6 blades now, but if it ever gets tall and looks good, that could be a possibility. I’m waiting to see. I actually wanted Blyxa when I first set this up, but I couldn’t find any at the time.
There isn’t any Crypt Sindoor in the tank anymore. The only ones that survived are in my low-tech farm tank. I have 2 from the original batch that converted successfully, but they’re dark green and growing very slowly. All the ones from the new batch have either died or are struggling, and haven’t converted yet. They still might, but they seem to do better for me in low-tech, strangely.
There isn’t any Crypt Sindoor in the tank anymore. The only ones that survived are in my low-tech farm tank. I have 2 from the original batch that converted successfully, but they’re dark green and growing very slowly. All the ones from the new batch have either died or are struggling, and haven’t converted yet. They still might, but they seem to do better for me in low-tech, strangely.
That is strange, the ones I have all of them have almost died back. I am going to but the best one in the farm tank with aquasoil and may try the next best in one of my other tanks.
That is interesting. I have never tried a true platinum but have anubias pinto and the new leaves it has thrown out have been exclusively white with no variegation
- Thread starter
- #79
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
Good to know!
- Thread starter
- #80
Kwyet
After every new tank—“This is my last one!”
I had to go out of town to help my mom after surgery, so the tank was left to its own devices for 2 weeks. I came back to this:
I actually would be pretty happy with that if my goal wasn’t to have a Dutch tank. Five hours later:
Some of that time was spent staring at the tank and trying to figure out what I should do. I’m sure you can still see things that need done, but I still had 9 other tanks to maintenance so I stopped here. I did a really severe trim because I’m leaving again this Saturday to go help for another 1-3 weeks depending on how things go. I’ll do another water change on Friday, and then my daughter will just top off with RO water as necessary.
I moved the Stargrass and the Taiwan Lily to the back corners so I would have bright green on both sides. I moved Erio Featherduster to the right front so it wouldn’t be near the Echinodorus Aflame and I could still keep an eye on it. I put bacopa (colorata?) on the left front, but I don’t know that I’ll keep it. I’m afraid it’ll be too pink. I put Platinum glossostigma next to it before I left. It’s tissue culture and not growing very fast, but I’ll leave it until I come back and hope to see better results. I replaced Rotala macrandra kochi with Rotala blood red. I decided I didn’t want to keep dealing with a picky plant while I’m going to be absent so much, and I wanted more red. Blood red has been growing just fine in the low-tech farm tank, so it should be even happier in this one. I actually pulled the whole street up and replanted it. You wouldn’t believe how dirty it was underneath it!
A generous portion of Pilo moss arrived from @Mr.Shenanagins while I was away. I had my husband put it in a mesh bag and hang it in the tank until I came back and it did really well that way. I plan to make a 3rd background panel with it tomorrow. That’s it for now!
I actually would be pretty happy with that if my goal wasn’t to have a Dutch tank. Five hours later:
Some of that time was spent staring at the tank and trying to figure out what I should do. I’m sure you can still see things that need done, but I still had 9 other tanks to maintenance so I stopped here. I did a really severe trim because I’m leaving again this Saturday to go help for another 1-3 weeks depending on how things go. I’ll do another water change on Friday, and then my daughter will just top off with RO water as necessary.
I moved the Stargrass and the Taiwan Lily to the back corners so I would have bright green on both sides. I moved Erio Featherduster to the right front so it wouldn’t be near the Echinodorus Aflame and I could still keep an eye on it. I put bacopa (colorata?) on the left front, but I don’t know that I’ll keep it. I’m afraid it’ll be too pink. I put Platinum glossostigma next to it before I left. It’s tissue culture and not growing very fast, but I’ll leave it until I come back and hope to see better results. I replaced Rotala macrandra kochi with Rotala blood red. I decided I didn’t want to keep dealing with a picky plant while I’m going to be absent so much, and I wanted more red. Blood red has been growing just fine in the low-tech farm tank, so it should be even happier in this one. I actually pulled the whole street up and replanted it. You wouldn’t believe how dirty it was underneath it!
A generous portion of Pilo moss arrived from @Mr.Shenanagins while I was away. I had my husband put it in a mesh bag and hang it in the tank until I came back and it did really well that way. I plan to make a 3rd background panel with it tomorrow. That’s it for now!
