Journal Frank's Dutch Attempt

[FrankZ]

Plant health is better since I resolved my CO2 issue a couple weeks. CO2 has to be the most difficult and frustrating thing about a high tech tank, for me it is anyway. My @Yugang reactor parts were needed for an emergency repair at work so I’m back to the starting point with that. I am probably going to roll with bubbling the CO2 into the inlet of my FX4 for a while. With out getting into the weeds on it, I’m fairly certain what I’m doing with the FX4 is identical to what the reactor does.

As far as the plants go, the pearl weed is getting replaced once things slow down with life and worm. It’s too much of a PIA to maintain and trim. On the fence about the h salicifola on the right. Most of it looks great other parts are wrinkles and twisted again. It might need more time to straighten out from the CO2 issue.

The suction cups on my side panels flattened out and won’t stick so the panels were removed until I can get better suction cups. I will redo the moss and ricca on them since it didn’t seem to stay attached. For now I’m liking the look without them

 

[Yugang]

I’m fairly certain what I’m doing with the FX4 is identical to what the reactor does.

I believe you are right, looking at the flow path as below, most likely a CO pocket will form in the top of the FX4, between the trays and the canisters outer housing. It will probably have a limited capacity, but it will act similar to a horizontal reactor. I'll measure it next time I open my FX4 and estimate for what tank size it would work.



Actually with some minor modifications by the manufacturer, the FX4 could become a very powerfull horizontal reactor , sufficient for a 200 gallon (750 liter) tank

My @Yugang reactor parts were needed for an emergency repair at work so I’m back to the starting point with that.

The second build is usually better than the first

 

[FrankZ]

Update on my tank. 4 weeks ago I made the transition to RO/DI water for water changes to eliminate the variability of my tap water parameters.

I started with front loading everything based on 32 gallons of water change volume NPK is 20-5-26, Ca/Mg was 15/7.5. I say was on the Ca/Mg because after discussions on my h salicifola thread it looks like the tank is low on calcium. Today with my normal water change I increased calcium to 30 ppm that’s is probably more than enough to straighten out the h salicifola. I hope so at least. I like the plant but it hasn’t grown right yet to see how I can shape it. NPK is staying the same.

A couple other notes. I replaced the pearl weed with limno rugosa. It’s still mostly emergent growth. As the submerged comes in I plan to shorten the bunch up a lot.
I was going to use this plant for a street (right to left) going behind the ludiwigia red but I think it will be more impactful as a bush. So I started marking a street with the smaller hygro going (left center to right) behind the new sword

Cabomba was replaced with a green chamelon sword. I wanted a big leaf rosette in the scape for better contrast.

I also added some twisted chain sword in front of the chameleon sword as kind of a veil. Well that’s the thought anyway. There is myrio red as a curtain on the left, and jungle val on the right.

I also put some stems of rotala macrandra I found floating in one of my low tech tanks. I put these just to see if it will grow with RO/DI or if it still hates me. If it grows problem free it will let me know I have other plant options available now. Free test plants are great lol.

Did a major trim on some stuff so it has the fresh hair cut loom. I need to give it time to grow back then do some topping and replanting. I am ot sure if the bacopa is going to work in front of the salicifola or not but I need to let things get right before making any more major moves.

Left side is barely ok, right side needs to grow in.

 

[FrankZ]

I will fully admit that I am NOT good at art. I need formulas and some sort of guidelines to keep me from scribbling all over the paper. Back on 10/7 I decided to make some guidelines to help me color. Used a dry wall T square and wine glass marker to put up some guidelines using the rule of 3rds. First photo is my free styling the placing. Second is my “repairs” using the guidelines. The red line wiped right off with a wet paper towel.

 

[FrankZ]

Since then I’ve been sticking to my Saturday 32 gallon water change with 20-5-26 NPK and 30/7.5 Ca/Mg and 0.51 ppm Burraqua ferts. Tomorrow I need to do a big trim on the ludwigia repens and shorten up the limno rugosa. The chamelon sword has some old twisted leaves the same as the hygro but the new leaves seem much better in the sword.

The hygro is still trying to make up its mind. I’ve been trimming the ugly out of the hygro every few days. By that I mean I remove old twisted leaves as I see them not that it is still putting out new twisted leaves. It is fairly slow at adding new growth. The twisting has slowed down a lot so I hope it’s over the possible calcium issue. I thought it was supposed to be fast growing but its one of the slowest I have in this tank.

The pogo stellata is beautiful but is very chaotic with the filter going. I need to get a photo tomorrow with no flow so it doesn’t have top down hair.

 

[FrankZ]

I forgot to mention. If any of you use FX series canisters, you know they shut down to degass every 12 hours. Mine has been blowing gunk into the tank every time it degasses. I’ve cleaned the filter, hoses etc, and it happens every time. I’ve always noticed it but it seems worse lately but the plants are growing great so I don’t want to rock the boat at all with filter flow etc.

To combat the every 12 hour dirt storm, I changed out one of the bubble stone with a mediums size wall mount sponge filter. It’s only on 15 minutes every 2 hours during the photo period and then over night.

I’ve always had great success with using sponge filters to clear water of the fine milky/mist like particles so I hope this works. I don’t want to have to stuff the FX4 with more media and slow down the flow or increase cleaning frequency.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

I’ve cleaned the filter, hoses etc, and it happens every time.

Are you using the original Fluval hoses? It’s near impossible to clean those ribbed hoses and recommend you switch to vinyl instead. That issue will go away for the most part of your filter itself is free if any gunk.

Also kudos on using MTS, nice to see someone else on here trying it out. That’s quite the recipe though lol. I’d say all things considered your tank is doing quite well, the beginning is always the hardest.

 

[FrankZ]

Are you using the original Fluval hoses? It’s near impossible to clean those ribbed hoses and recommend you switch to vinyl instead. That issue will go away for the most part of your filter itself is free if any gunk.

Also kudos on using MTS, nice to see someone else on here trying it out. That’s quite the recipe though lol. I’d say all things considered your tank is doing quite well, the beginning is always the hardest.

Thanks for the suggestion about the hoses. I will see about swapping it out to nyla-braid hose since I use it for work a lot.

With the MTS I figured anything and everything could help increase the nutrient content and since it was going to go through the wet dry bacteria cycle very little if any of the nastiness would be left. For what it’s worth duck ponds can grow some amazing AR mini. I’ll be pulling some out this weekend so I will post a photo of them.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

For that amount of time I’d have to agree, most of the “hot” nutrients should have mineralized. I personally used a bag of black kow top soil (best bag I’ve found, completely black soil with little impurities), and mixed it with some worm castings to add some extra nitrogen. The soil was mineralized but the worm castings I added fresh, only added 10-15% of the overall mix. The soil is in fine mesh bags, enough to keep it down but still allow the roots to anchor into it. It helps A LOT with uprooting, I don’t get any nastiness to the surface. The only difference I’d say to AS is that the plants in our case need to find the soil through their roots, where as AS they are touching the whole time if that’s your primary substrate. I’ve had good success the past couple years with MTS so it’s something I now know and will likely stay with.

 

[FrankZ]

For that amount of time I’d have to agree, most of the “hot” nutrients should have mineralized. I personally used a bag of black kow top soil (best bag I’ve found, completely black soil with little impurities), and mixed it with some worm castings to add some extra nitrogen. The soil was mineralized but the worm castings I added fresh, only added 10-15% of the overall mix. The soil is in fine mesh bags, enough to keep it down but still allow the roots to anchor into it. It helps A LOT with uprooting, I don’t get any nastiness to the surface. The only difference I’d say to AS is that the plants in our case need to find the soil through their roots, where as AS they are touching the whole time if that’s your primary substrate. I’ve had good success the past couple years with MTS so it’s something I now know and will likely stay with.

I never though of using bags. I might have to try that the next time. They pottery clay I put over the soil was supposed to sort of seal in the dirt below it and keep the mess to a minimum. It does a good job of that but creates a god awful mess by itself when I uproot anything. Pink cloud of “4 x water changes”. Not using that again. I’ve been slowly scooping it out when uproot an area. It’s kind of easy to uncover by swishing the BDBS gently. But my word is it a mess.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

I never though of using bags. I might have to try that the next time. They pottery clay I put over the soil was supposed to sort of seal in the dirt below it and keep the mess to a minimum. It does a good job of that but creates a god awful mess by itself when I uproot anything. Pink cloud of “4 x water changes”. Not using that again. I’ve been slowly scooping it out when uproot an area. It’s kind of easy to uncover by swishing the BDBS gently. But my word is it a mess.

Yes I was going to add some clay powder to the mix but I just never got around to ordering it. And yeah you can use the bags or something like mosquito netting over the top, a permeable barrier for the roots to get through but ultimately hold the dirt down. I like the bags because it allows me to “place” the dirt instead of pouring it in.

Tank looks good btw

 

[FrankZ]

Did my trim, vacuum, and water change this morning. Cut the ludwigia a tad to short but it grows fast so I won’t even notice it by Tuesday.

I need to mix up a new batch of Burr Aqua micro mix and measure out my dry ferts for water changes. Youngest boy wants to help, should make for legendary mess but worth it.

 

[Burr740]

I turn those grids on with my phone camera and look at it when I need to see the third points

Placement looks better. Id move the Lily to a focal point, its a great focal plant and will command focal attn when it gets bigger anyway.

The Helanthium and Rugosa both are awesome plants with really unique leaves. But they need to be in front of something red or non-green to show up. A green thats in front of another green disappears no matter how strong the leaf contrast is (same applies to red in front of red)

Do the squint test, step back 10-15 feet and squint your eyes until it blurs slightly. This will tell you where the contrasts fails are. You can also edit a pic to black and white and see it. You want every group to distinctly show itself

You could run the rugosa more left to right towards the L repens and put the L super red in the Lily's current spot, or thereabouts, in between the Hygro and rugosa. Things would stand out better

About the L repens. I would avoid having any big group in the dead center. Even though its not a focal group it commands too much attn right in the middle. Bart Laurens told me the same thing about my Didiplis here when he critiqued my 2016 Entry.

You can read his full article here - Dutch Style Aquarium. | Bart Laurens He breaks down several top Dutch tanks, it is extremely informative



You can read his full article here - Dutch Style Aquarium. | Bart Laurens He breaks down several top Dutch tanks. Its a must read for anyone trying to learn Dutch style

 

[FrankZ]

Weekly maintenance is complete. I moved stuff around following @Burr740 suggestion and also used @GreggZ advice about plants. “If you do not like the soup I’m serving, get out of the kitchen “. Hygro salicifola is gone from this tank. I have some stems in my low tech tank where it can twist and curl to it’s hearts content.

I need to improve spacing by reducing stem count in the groups in the left. I think the downoi, crypt wendtii brown, limno rugosa, and pogo stellata will make for a nice contrast of color, shape, and size.

The middle group of ludiwigia needs to be reduced and I think more front to back than sideways.

Right side is a work in progress. The meebodi green is purple red which I don’t think will work. I have bacopa something behind it, followed by rotala macrandra (variegated I think) and some newly added prospernaca palustris. The curtain of Val’s is spreading nicely over there. Trying some stuff out to see what looks best before reducing species count.

The only lagging issue is the green chamelon sword has twisted curled leaves but it’s getting better so I’m not that concerned. It just needs time I think.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

View attachment 3345
Weekly maintenance is complete. I moved stuff around following @Burr740 suggestion and also used @GreggZ advice about plants. “If you donot like the soup I’m serving, get out of the kitchen “. Hygro salicifola is gone from this tank. I have some stems in my low tech tank where it can twist and curl to it’s hearts content.

I need to improve spacing by reducing stem count in the groups in the left. I think the downoi, crypt wendtii brown, limno rugosa, and pogo stellata will make for a nice contrast of color, shape, and size.

The middle group of ludiwigia needs to be reduced and I think more front to back than sideways.

Right side is a work in progress. The meebodi green is purple red which I don’t think will work. I have bacopa something behind it, followed by rotala macrandra (variegated I think) and some newly added prospernaca palustris. The curtain of Val’s is spreading nicely over there. Trying some stuff out to see what looks best before reducing species count.

The only lagging issue is the green chamelon sword has twisted curled leaves but it’s getting better so I’m not that concerned. It just needs time I think.

That’s parawitota in the front right? Looks nice, better than the wildness of Salicifolia we got stuck with. Only place I’ve seen it for sale is from Dustin, is that where you got it?

 

[FrankZ]

That’s parawitota in the front right? Looks nice, better than the wildness of Salicifolia we got stuck with. Only place I’ve seen it for sale is from Dustin, is that where you got it?

Yes that’s the stuff and I got it from Dustin along with the downoi

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Yes that’s the stuff and I got it from Dustin along with the downoi

Nice, I think I’ll give it a go when I’m tired of thinning out this hygro. I chopped some of mine down to see how the new growth comes in, because topping just kept producing the ridiculously long leaves.

The downoi is growing nicely too

 

[FrankZ]

Nice, I think I’ll give it a go when I’m tired of thinning out this hygro. I chopped some of mine down to see how the new growth comes in, because topping just kept producing the ridiculously long leaves.

The downoi is growing nicely too

Thank you.

I now have the salicifola in three different low tech tanks. One is with big cichlids and low light due to a massive duck weed mat, so it gets abused and not much light but is growing, one is a small pea puffer tank where it’s twists and curls worse than the Dutch, and one is in a shrimp/Gertrude rainbow tank and is in very little flow due to placement. That one is growing slowest and has the least amount, almost no, twisting and curling. All three are tap water and straight up EI low light once weekly dosing per rotala butterfly.

This hygro is weird

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

How’s the tank lookin?

 

[FrankZ]

How’s the tank lookin?

I think it’s looking decent. Did my weekly water change early this week because the weekend is going to be chaos. I wanted to do a more major trim and shaping of the groups but my shoulder wouldn’t let me do much more than a quick biomass reduction trim. PT twice a week to recover from a car accident coupled with work and two boys has slowed me down way more than I want to admit.

Plant wise the sword is still putting out twisted leaves but “I think” they are slowly straightening out. I’m leaving them until I fills out more, it also gives me an instant visual comparison of the leaf shape rather trying to do it from memory.

The crypts on the left are lying down flat like crabgrass. I was afraid they would do that, it ruins the contrast I was going for using them. Maybe if I let them crowd each other the leaves will come up more verticals and I can trim the flat leaves out.

Limbo rugosa is awful leggy and I’m not sure why so I’m trying to trim and replant to make the bush more thick.

Right side is still a work in progress. The bacopa next the ludiwigia super red isn’t going to work so I need to address that at some point. I think the leaf shape is way to similar.

Behind the bacopa is the rotalla max and mermaid weed fighting for a spot on the team. I like both but I can’t keep them.

I wish the langenadra would get its act together and grow green and flat leaves like it’s supposed. The roots on those are massive and I don’t want to deal with the colossal mess it will make taking them out.

That’s all for now, time to check the RO tank in the basement. It has a float switch to shut it off and prevent flooding I just like to valve it off, after all I do have two gremlins, boys I mean boys, living here.