Journal Experimental / learning tank with inert substrate

[JacksonL]

Is that L. brevipes growing alongside the blyxa? It has beautiful colours

 

[Aquajack]

Is that L. brevipes growing alongside the blyxa? It has beautiful colours

L. arcuata

The colors are much more vibrant in person. I really dislike the auto color rendering of the pixel phones.
If you look online they can get quite red too, either under higher light and/or nitrate limiting. Clearly not my situation lol.
However, I think there are enough red plants you can choose and I like how its basically a combo of colors. I want it to be a bit more vibrant and bushier but that will come in time I hope. Only started with a few small emersed stems but gradually coming around.

 

[Aquajack]

This large piece of drfitwood is confirmed...again, as being the most buoyant piece of wood I've ever experienced.
I decided I'd had enough of the large rock just sitting on top weighing it down so of course I just ripped it out.
Unfortunately, even after 4 months submerged, the driftwood floated straight up.

I still have it in there as per the pics below, but it is now literally floating. I could tap it with my little finger and it would move inches. I did my first water change on the weekend like that and you could imagine the chaos of that.

Anyways, It's obviously not sustainable medium term so I think I'll take it out completely in the next week or two.
Two main benefits:

• I'll gain nearly half my tank back and leave a lot more real estate for plants. I probably have enough plants in there now to full the tank, they are just crammed in currently.
• The drfitwood is slowly breaking down so bits of wood are over the substrate which I have to clean each week. So it will be a cleaner tank

One disadvantage is I'll lose the MC growing as an epiphyte which I really like. I think I have a small piece of driftwood hanging around. I could transfer the MC onto that as a substitute maybe.

What would you do? Get rid of the driftwood or persevere?

Anyways, this is how it looks currently.


Here is a better example of the driftwood literally floating for a full tank shot.










I think I like the L. Hippuridoides more than than the L. Aromatica. The colours seem to come out more.


Also, I'm glad the L. Cuba is finally showing up to the party. Can't tell from this pic but is starting to develop a red/orange tinge.

 

[FatPleco]

Too many cons with your current piece of wood. I'm in favor of taking it down, the fact that it's shedding pieces of itself is really a deal breaker for me.
To accomodate epiphytes while freeing some space, maybe something a bit smaller ? Would be cool to be able to add tall plants behind it.

 

[BranchScape]

As a last attempt. This could be a prime time to drill one hole in the wood towards it's center in an area that wont be visible. There might be a huge air pocket in its core. That said you already have such great plant growth and the tank is so plant forward, the wood might be a net negative.

 

[Aquajack]

Too many cons with your current piece of wood. I'm in favor of taking it down, the fact that it's shedding pieces of itself is really a deal breaker for me.
To accomodate epiphytes while freeing some space, maybe something a bit smaller ? Would be cool to be able to add tall plants behind it.

I think so too. I do have much smaller, skinnier pieces which would me much less intrusive and not really take up much space. So I might play around with something like that.

As a last attempt. This could be a prime time to drill one hole in the wood towards it's center in an area that wont be visible. There might be a huge air pocket in its core. That said you already have such great plant growth and the tank is so plant forward, the wood might be a net negative.

Yeh good point, never thought of an air pocket. It does take up a lot of room in any case and limits the areas I can plant. That's why I have stem plants in places they have no right to be lol.

 

[hamfist]

Lol, you have persevered so much longer with that wood than I would have !! However, its an interesting idea about drilling it. Certainly cutting a big hole out of the middle of it would make it much more interesting aesthetically too, and may of course also release trapped air.

 

[Beza]

I'd take the wood out as well, to me it doesn't look interesting enough to warrant all that space it is taking up. Though yeah, would be a pity to lose the MC growing so nicely, but if you have a (smaller) replacement at hand, I'd totally try that.

I have MC planted as epiphyte myself, but I am running way lower nutrients, and so it grows rather slowly. But at least it does grow.

Very nice looking tank btw!

 

[Aquajack]

I'd take the wood out as well, to me it doesn't look interesting enough to warrant all that space it is taking up. Though yeah, would be a pity to lose the MC growing so nicely, but if you have a (smaller) replacement at hand, I'd totally try that.

I have MC planted as epiphyte myself, but I am running way lower nutrients, and so it grows rather slowly. But at least it does grow.

Very nice looking tank btw!

Thanks.
Does seem a unanimous vote lol to remove the driftwood. This weekend out it goes. I had already organised a bag of pool filter sand to drop it where it was lacking once the wood came out.

My MC was struggling and slow, then I increased the macros and it took off, responding within a week.

 

[Beza]

My MC was struggling and slow, then I increased the macros and it took off, responding within a week.

Reading this thread made me re-think my macro usage, I have been dosing super carefully to try and avoid algae. But reading what @Burr wrote, namely that plants need nutrients to grow well, algae or no algae, I am going to slowly increase my levels. As I am using inert substrate too, I am trying to start low and go up slowly. Haven't had much algae yet, just a spot here and there. But my MC is definitely growing awfully slowly, and my Proserpinaca palustris is even slower.

Though from what you wrote - did you simply step up the macro levels, or increase them over time?

 

[Aquajack]

Reading this thread made me re-think my macro usage, I have been dosing super carefully to try and avoid algae. But reading what @Burr wrote, namely that plants need nutrients to grow well, algae or no algae, I am going to slowly increase my levels. As I am using inert substrate too, I am trying to start low and go up slowly. Haven't had much algae yet, just a spot here and there. But my MC is definitely growing awfully slowly, and my Proserpinaca palustris is even slower.

Though from what you wrote - did you simply step up the macro levels, or increase them over time?

I was stepping them up over time. Doubled from when I first started. But then after following @Burr740 advice, I went up to my current 18/5/25 full volume dosing soon as I could. I was under the impression that slowly increasing would be best as less disruption but makes sense that rather than plants continuing to adjust based on smaller increments, to just do it at once. Plants have one change, more ferts, they take it up. Good to go.

The other benefit of the increased ferts is 95% of the algae went away. I think the only algae that resulted from the increased ferts was GDA on the glass which wasn't great. That persevered for a month or so then mostly reduced within a week. Still a bit there but no issues.

 

[Beza]

Cheers, I'll bump my macros up later today then. I'll still stay a bit below what you are using, since I have a fair few mosses, ferns and buce in my tank who from what I understand don't appreciate too high levels of ferts. Now to find the happy middle ground for everyone...

 

[Burr740]

I was stepping them up over time. Doubled from when I first started. But then after following @Burr740 advice, I went up to my current 18/5/25 full volume dosing soon as I could. I was under the impression that slowly increasing would be best as less disruption but makes sense that rather than plants continuing to adjust based on smaller increments, to just do it at once. Plants have one change, more ferts, they take it up. Good to go.

The other benefit of the increased ferts is 95% of the algae went away. I think the only algae that resulted from the increased ferts was GDA on the glass which wasn't great. That persevered for a month or so then mostly reduced within a week. Still a bit there but no issues.

Excellent, very glad to hear it worked for you too! Making gradual changes is good for co2, or when adjusting macros down. But when plants are sitting there hungry for macros best to do it all at once

GDA on the glass from increased macros is temporary, soon as the bio population adjusts itself itll go away, typically 2-3 weeks max

 

[Joel Armstrong]

GDA on the glass from increased macros is temporary, soon as the bio population adjusts itself itll go away, typically 2-3 weeks max

Hi Joe,

During this period, do you suggest scraping the GDA during each water change, or leave it be for a while?

 

[Aquajack]

Hi Joe,

During this period, do you suggest scraping the GDA during each water change, or leave it be for a while?

I 'll just tell you what I did. I scraped it off just before the weekly water change (thought process being i would suck up all the rubbish straight afer). Then after about a month, i scraped it mid week, and then at the water change and it basically never came back like it had. Pretty sure that was just a coinicdence though.

 

[Burr740]

Hi Joe,

During this period, do you suggest scraping the GDA during each water change, or leave it be for a while?

Im familiar with the "dont touch it" remedy but I think it presumes some things that are not relevant to a little bout of it from raising macros, and in general

I always just wipe it at water change, or whenever if its an eye sore, and I dont worry about it. It always goes away in a week or three just like Jack described above

I actually think keeping it wiped is an effective strategy regardless. Its not the water born fragments that keep growing, its new algae being generated. The new has to stop for it to go away, what gets wiped off is effectively killed and/or becomes irrelevant, ime. Soon as the tank balances out in response to the higher macros the catalyst for it doesnt exist

 

[Aquajack]

Quick update as I removed that large driftwood to open up the tank. I expected there would be a bout of algae or something but it was generally OK.
I replaced it with a much smaller bit of wood to basically drop the MC on. I haven't added any plants, just spread them out with the extra room lol.

I was going to rip that basic sword out and I will eventually but as long as I keep it well contained it can stay for the minute. There is a wendtii brown crypt sitting nearly behind it which you can't see in the pic but weirdly it has the growth pattern very similar to the sword. Yet the very same sword (offshoots from this one) I put in another tank and is like a completely different plant, hugging the substrate.

Anyways the current state of the tank. A bit messy but It'll keep rolling.

 

[Phish Tank]

Tank looking nice, and I even like the sword.

 

[Aquajack]

Thanks. Made a few minor changes in the last couple weeks. I've added a tightly controlled bunch of pearl weed below the MC (in hindsight not overly smart as not enough contrast but it will do for now). I know its only a very common plant but tightly controlled and bunched up I like the look of it. Removed some more of the blyxa from the front as it was taking over. I completely removed the L.Aromatica from the left corner and bunched it up next to the sword. Can't see much of it as I chopped it down and put them towards the back so they haven't grown out yet. For that corner I just dropped in some rotala colorata I think it is which I had on hand from another tank. The hygrophila lancea araguaia, near the front left, you can't really tell from the photo but its basically turning into a slowly curving street that now goes towards the back of the tank. I think it is more of a stem plant but I've trained it to now grow horizontal.

Most of my time lately has been spent on building a DIY aquarium controller. The interface/dashboard is built, the hardware is sorted/wired up and interfacing with the software but still need a final adaptor to fit the hardware. With DIY builds there is always one more adaptor you need lol.
I'll briefly document or at least summarise it here and show a screenshot of the dashboard etc if anyone is interested once I've completed the initial proto-type. It will initially do the basics including turn off/on the filter, wavemaker, Co2 solenoid and heater/inkbird, maintenance mode to turn off/on all that together, ph and temp live readings/charts. Currently have a 24 hour chart for both and a 7 day chart for both. the live line is color coded depending if its in the sweet spot, towards the outer limits etc so you can see at a glance whats happening, ph controller functionality, the heater controller functionality of an inkbird, leak detection which turns off certain things like filter etc, sending alerts to phone for all kinds of stuff, status of a lot of the equipment. Future editions I'll possibly include is auto-dosing, ATO, EC probe if I think it would be useful in analysing nutrient uptake etc, and an auto system setup to measure NO3 to start off with on a schedule you dictate and record the ongoing data. Anyways, for another day.

Here is the latest pic after a trim yesterday, I just took it now which is 11am and the co2 is on (inline still) so apologies for the reflection, noise etc. My lights don't turn on until 1pm (4 hours after CO2) so I just clicked the maintenance custom mode on my week aqua app which is like 20% power. Enough to see the tank lol.