Journal Experimental / learning tank with inert substrate

[Aquajack]

I've been consuming tons of information from this amazing forum and decided its time to start my own journal.
One, to get constructive criticism/suggestions on how to improve which would be most welcome and two, just to show other approaches to starting a new tank as everyone thinks a bit differently and to see other peoples perspective.

I only started using pressurised CO2 about 18 months ago so haven't been in the hobby that long.

The first pic below was of said attempt starting with CO2. The other reason for showing that tank is I'm using the same physical tank and also starting off the new setup with plants from that tank.

Speaking of the tank, as you will see in the first pic of the new build it is an old second hand rimmed tank with less than stellar glass. In my list of planned upgrades one of them will be to order a low iron rimless tank so I can actually appreciate what's inside it. I can never get a photo to show a clear shot of the tank. Its not a great tank but it is definitely clearer than what the photos show. I think the camera really highlights how crappy the glass is lol.

No direct inspiration here apart from including a reasonable amount of hardscape and probably having a more nature style tank, so not so formal.

I've had a large piece of driftwood hanging around that I've wanted to use in a scape. I've used it previously in a larger tank but was a fish only tank. I do know after a year submerged (tied down) it still went straight to the top when released/untied so is basically unsinkable. Not sure of the type of wood though.

I also cut it in half depth wise as it was too large for a 4 foot tank.
After trying to glue it to rocks around it etc I filled the tank...and of course all went to hell. The driftwood wanted to get to the surface so bad it broke away from the glue LOL. So I had to start the scape with a large rock sitting on it and the driftwood in a different position from where it started. Temporary at first but now I plan to cover the rock with epiphytes etc so it should be ok eventually, just not so much right now. One of those it is what it is. I'm only playing around here anyways.

I'll also say, as per the heading of this journal, I'm treating this as an experimental tank, not even close to a show tank. I'll purchase a nice tank when I think I'm at a level where I deserve to bring it justice so not yet. Hopefully this tank will bring me a long way towards that point.

I've only previously used organic soil capped with sand (so the classic dirted tank). That provides good growth for around 6 months or so but if a lot of the organics start rising up and leaching into the water column, its not such a great setup for high tech tanks. Ask how I know!

I've never used aqua soil. I would like to try one day but for now decided to skip that and go straight to inert. Encouraged purely by some of you on here that have been using BDBS . That is what I would like to have used but not readily available in Aus so I'm using pool filter sand for this rendition.

Apologies for the rambling, onto the details.

Started around 5th January, did the full changeover from the old setup

Tank size:

• 122 cm x 47 cm deep x 45 cm high (uhmm so in imperial 48" x 18.5" x 17.5")
• Litres/gallons - 258 litres / 68 Gallons

Filter

• Just what I have on hand and had been using in the tank (Aqua One Nautilus 1100) so around 290 G/H so of course in reality a lot less than that. Only filled mainly with sponges though, limited the bio media.
• I have a perfectly working FX5 sitting in the shed gathering dust but I think too powerful for this size tank. That connected to a Yugang reactor though and one inch lily pipes could be a good combo. Will have to think about that for the future.

Wave maker / power head
- Aqua One 8000 reef sim (apart from obviously to help circulation - was mainly put in here to help with the CO2 distribution - so is now situated at the opposite end of the tank to the filter outlet/inlet) Flow from 528 G/H to 2113 G/H. Have it on the lowest setting and probably still too strong

CO2

• Aqualabs Pro dual stage regulator (recently added this, replacing a cheap chinese one from ebay - about 6 times the cost!)
• Aqualabs inline diffuser
• Gets to around 45 ppm but I need to do some more refined testing ( I only have the JBL CO2 kit but seems to be working ok)
• CO2 starts 3.5 hours before lights start and 4 hours before lights build up to their set level.

Water
- Tap (GH 7 KH 6), PH is around 7.6-7.8 out of the tank - at the moment

Substrate
- Pool filter sand only

Lighting

• Week Aqua L1200 (using Red preset at R - 64%, G - 71% B - 44% and UV - 90%) TBH not sure the UV light does much but it is what it is.
• So the lights aren't on that high, I started off the tank even lower but crept it up to what it is now.

Initial plant list (as mentioned just selecting some from previous iteration of this tank)

• MC as the front carpet
• Hygrophila corymbosa (restricted this quite a bit as it grows too fast with direct CO2 access) so hidden in the opposite corner to CO2 lol

-Blyxa Japonica (one of my favourite plants. Its easy to grow but I wish it would grow maybe slightly slower so it doesn't start to take over it surrounds)

• One amazon sword - I wanted to keep one in here to prove you don't need rich substrate
• Crypt wendtii brown - similar to above
• Ludwigia repens
• Helanthium bolivianum 'Quadricostatus (I think thats what it is or similar. produces runners like nothing on earth but a nice looking plant. Thats the one in the back right corner in the first photo of the new setup)
• AR Mini
• Hydrocotyle tripartite mini
• Limnophila Aromatica

I've deliberately not used what i call starter plants to kick it off as I find they can take over easily in a high tech tank, then you have to gradually rip them all out. I know a higher risk of more algae without them but lets go!

Ferts

• DIY Macros and micro mix - Rexolin APN (dosed for water tank volume)
• Started 9/2/20 now 10/2.5/20 (yes I know quite low for an inert substrate compared to most and will gradually increase this in time)
• Front load around 50% Macros, then the rest dosed throughout the week - only just started this method to try and limit the swings during the week
• Micros dose evenly throughout the week adding up to 0.45 fe / week

Water change
- Currently around 55% weekly (I will be refining this a bit more too. I have a TDS meter now so will be working out exact water change volume using Rocco's TDS method which will also help with refining the fert dosing)

Current fish list

• Around maybe 15 Rummy nose
• 4 SAE's
• Couple of oto's
• 4 Corys
• 6 Crimson spotted Rainbows ( i received these in a swap, plants for rainbows )

I plan to gradually increase the rainbow collection a bit too over time. Love the Boseman's

Other miscellaneous stuff

• Fluval SK400 surface skimmer (seemed like a little toy when I first set it up but does an ok job actually)
• Aqualabs pro skim lily pipes, and added quick release to the filter hosing to get to these easily. They are glass.
• Inkbird wifi heater control

Upgrades planned

• RO/DI - Just received but need a few more bits and pieces then I'll introduce the RO water over a 4 week period (25/50/75/100). I plan to remineralise to around 5dGH (4:1 for CA:MG), wont be adding any dKH , again following you guys lead here. I think this will be a huge upgrade as my tap water is sourced from a creek and is inconsistent. PH varies between 7 and 8 and KH has risen from 4 to 6 over the last few months.
• CO2 reactor - Looking at the Yugang of course. This will also I think make a big difference compared to inline diffusers. When setting up the tank I put in some work to try and determine the best flow to maximise CO2 distribution but still think I haven't got it right.
• New tank - as mentioned above
• Possible auto fert doser for the next tank

Ferts uptake and adjusting over time:

• The NO3 seems to provide a consistent 10 ppm before each water change which is the same amount I'm dosing now. Coincidence or is it only using what's readily available in the system. I know with slower growing plants and not a huge plant mass the uptake is obviously less.
• PO4 - similar story, test (which I'm not sure how accurate it is) seems to provide a consistent result of 2 ppm, again similar to what I have been dosing.
• I'll gradually increase both and see where I can find the sweet spot but may wait mainly till after the RO/DI is running.

My initial aim is to try and avoid the infamous diatom stage by using a slightly reduced light schedule and ferts to start the tank.

First impressions for me is the driftwood is too large for this tank but it is a different piece so will persevere whilst in this tank.

Anyways the pic of the tank before I pulled it down;


Start of the new scape.

You can really see the crappy condition of the tank here with the scratches, water stains etc. I'm not too bothered though. It will make me more look forward when I eventually get a nice tank.

Just after filling up and initial planting. You can see the big heavy rock on the right. Without it, the driftwood shoots all over the place.

Noting that entire lot of MC melted soon after this, it wasn't in the best condition when it started though. Hoping it will eventually start up again. I'm patient, uhmm kind of!

 

[Aquajack]

Updates.

Oh I forgot to say there are tons of lava rock under the sand in the back half contained in mesh bags so there are no deep pockets of sand either.

One thing I have avoided is the diatom stage somehow. There is other algae of course including green string algae across the MC and more recently a heavy dose of GDA on the glass.

For all I know, even though the macros aren't bottoming out based on end of week readings, the plants may not have full access to what's left? I just don't necessarily like too many coincidences. Particularly after seeing the levels of macros some are adding in for inert substrate tanks.

I will continue to take a tempered approach though and try and keep everything as consistent as possible. Also only trying to change one thing at a time. So when I am introducing the RO water, I'll probable keep everything else stable.

New plant list ordered and planted about a week and a half ago

• Limnophila Hippuridoides (emersed)
• Bacopa salzmanii purple (emersed)
• Ludwigia Cuba (emersed)
• Hyptis Laciniata (emersed)
• Syngonanthus Macrocaulon (submersed)
• Pogostem Erectus (emersed)
• Ludwigia super red (emersed)
• Ludwigia Acuata (emersed)
• Hygrophila Lancea Araguaia (emersed)
• Limnophila Vietman (emersed)

I was a bit premature ordering some more plants already before the system got settled but I figured the earlier I get them in the quicker they can /melt/adjust and regrow according to my environment. I should have waited till I switched over to RO/DI but only decided on the latter after plants were ordered.

MC all melted 100%. I grew it really easily in the old setup and although slowly growing back its much more pedestrian than what I had before but this is an experiment and I think two things are contributing to this slow uptake for MC, being slightly lower light but more likely way less ferts as the old MC had the full benefit of organic soil. However, it was getting flooded with GSA towards the end though.

GDA on the glass has really picked up. Its easy to clean and would still much rather it on the glass than the water column at this stage.

So plants are growing slowly and not all looking spectacular I know, AR Mini i'm looking at you for one!

Anyway some more updated pics:

About 3.5 weeks in.


About 39 days after starting


Oh and here is my 150g farm tank I can use as an extra resource to drop in spare plants etc

 

[Aquajack]

Straight after i added the 10 new plants - just more than a week ago. After a water change hence the bubbles on the front glass.
I'm waiting to see how the new emersed plants melt etc.



....and here are a couple pics of what the current state is like




Again after a water change from yesterday

 

[Koan]

What a great start to a journal!

I wish my farm tank looked that good

still went straight to the top when released/untied so is basically unsinkable

One thing I've had some luck with on big pieces of driftwood, check out ebay.com.au for large pieces of drilled slate, ask the sellers if they can drill additional custom holes for you.

A couple of fat pieces of slate screwed onto the bottom of big driftwood go a long way to saving your sanity. Easy to bury in substrate, and much more permanent than gluing to wood surfaces that are going to progressively decompose over time

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Awesome tank, really love to see that blyxa! What a great plant.

 

[Aquajack]

Awesome tank, really love to see that blyxa! What a great plant.

Thanks part of the inspiration for all that blyxa scattered around was an earlier iteration I saw of your 140G. I thought that was a great setup.

 

[Aquajack]

What a great start to a journal!

I wish my farm tank looked that good



One thing I've had some luck with on big pieces of driftwood, check out ebay.com.au for large pieces of drilled slate, ask the sellers if they can drill additional custom holes for you.

A couple of fat pieces of slate screwed onto the bottom of big driftwood go a long way to saving your sanity. Easy to bury in substrate, and much more permanent than gluing to wood surfaces that are going to progressively decompose over time

Thanks Koan, that 150G is kind of doubled up as a farm tank and fish tank (its full of tiger and other bars along with some clown loaches and bristlenose)

Nice idea on the slate. Like the thin profile too. I'll keep that in mind for the next build.

 

[Aquajack]

Bit of an update, it probably hasn't even changed that much looking at it from 4 weeks ago, but I've trimmed/chopped down a lot, particularly blyxa, I've taken out so much of that. You may not think looking at the latest pick but was starting to smother/take over other plants particularly on the left.

Of the emersed plants I've added maybe 70% have continued on ok, just starting to adjust more now.

AR mini is one plant that struggles a bit for some reason.
There is still a few plants mostly hidden but I need more room lol. That size driftwood was a bit of a mistake as it takes up so much real estate. But I'll persevere with it for now. I'm treating this as a learning tank anyways and fine tuning equipment etc.

Last shots before I add RODI. I'll gradually introduce over 4 weeks, with the aim to bring down the dGh to around 5 and dKH to 0-1. Currently 8 & 6. Really looking forward to see what changes will occur once implemented. Everything else I'll keep the same for a while.

Just focusing on stability, lighting hasn't changed lately, either has CO2 and nutrients are stable as I'll ever have them (50% front loading after 50% W/C then spread the rest over the next 5 days . Currently at 12/2.7/26 & 0.45 Fe. Will definitely look into the auto dosers before this experiment is done. May need to increase light gradually and also ferts but one thing at a time. Only short light period of 7 hours which includes half hour ramp up and down and not on that strong either.

Also have a flow meter on order. CO2 will be my next target to improve. I like to do things gradually and methodically though but I'll get there in the end.

Still getting plenty GDA on the glass by the end of the week and bits of GSA on the MC (which to be honest is not flying along - maybe it does move quicker with a rich substrate, not sure).