Journal Harry's 18" Cube

[OmidNiav]

I have been eyeing potamogeton gayi from APF for a while. How has it been growing for you? A lot of runners?

 

[HarryL]

I have been eyeing potamogeton gayi from APF for a while. How has it been growing for you? A lot of runners?

They have been growing pretty well and sending quite a few runners nearby. Very minimal melting in the first couple weeks.

 

[HarryL]

Week 6

Bought 5 ember tetra last weekend and I thought their orange color would really fit in the style of the tank. I plan on adding another 5 next month to really get that group swim going.


The blue dreams have been doing quite well, spotted at least 3 out of the 13 I bought to be pregnant.


Potamogeton gayi are called pond weed for a reason, they send out runners fast and grow quite dense. I don’t have a before and after comparison, but I used to be able to see the slate at the bottom of the wood sticking out very clearly from this angle.


This white spot solid has been growing on the wood. Not something I’ve seen before, not spreading yet, only a couple in this area. Any idea what this might be?


Crypt. Nurii is growing slowly, but surprisingly better and faster than the ones I grow emerged. Might be because emerged grown ones rely on light passing through my window, and my room temp has been slightly lower than the water temp.

 

[HarryL]

Week 8

Maybe because I started this tank using dark start, the cycle was somewhat built enough to avoid the diatom phase. But other algae recently started to kick in. Staghorn and some filamentous algae creeping in different places. Hasn’t gone wild yet, so I don’t plan on doing much about them.



One day I came home to a few eggs at the bottom of the lily pipe, I’m assuming it’s Ember tetra’s, since they are the only fish I have in the tank.

But they disappeared later that night. Probably eaten by themselves when it fell off the pipe.

Exchanged some plants online today, hoping to receive them by early next week. Will receive Buce. Brownie Ghost, Brownie Ghost Mini, Green Godzilla, and Velvet Leaf Entikong. I will need to find spots for them to grow, might not plant all of them into this tank, but I love having lots of buce.

Overview of the tank right now

 

[HarryL]

Week 11

I have been front dosing the macros for a few weeks now, and I follow the PPS pro medium light method:
7ppm N
0.7ppm PO4
9.31ppm K
0.7ppm Mg
0.35ppm Fe(and other trace minerals)

And I'm curious as to how much nutrient the plants have been using throughout the week. I only have API test kits on hand and can only test nitrogen, so I gave that a try before and after water change and dosing. Before testing, I followed Gregg's calculation to find out theoretically how much nitrogen would be in the water column not accounting for any nitrogen generated and uptake, which is around 25ppm with weekly 20% water change.

Then I tested the water right before water change, and ~10 minutes after front loading the macros post water change. It was very difficult to read the color from the test kit. To my best judgement, before water change, we are sitting at around 10ppm. After dosing, the color was darker but i think would be somewhere between 10-20ppm.

Then I used the same chart that Gregg made again, this time putting in different numbers in Weekly Nutrient Uptake, to eventually match the number I had from testing the water. It was also difficult to adjust for plant growth difference, as the plant mass probably expanded I don't even know how many times.

Here's a comparison of week 1 and week 11 for reference:



Nitrogen generated in tank was probably on the lower side at this moment, I only recently added 8 fish in along with the few dozens of shrimp that are mostly newborn second generation, and a bunch of snails. I don't feed often and my best guess is maybe ~2ppm of nitrogen is produced weekly.

Accounting for all the various factor, it's hard to get a more accurate estimate unless I test for a few more weeks, and would probably need a better test kit as well. But I am guessing that they currently use between 5-7ppm of nitrogen weekly, and makes me wonder if I should increase my dose to "highlight", which will double what I currently dose.

 

[Count Krunk]

Your tank looks great. Id say your dosing regimen is working.

 

[HarryL]

I've been getting some holes on staurogyne repens and pinnatifida hygrophila, not sure if it's the snails/fish biting on the leaves because I don't feed enough, or some other reasons. On top of the regular dosing, I've started to dose some extra on every Friday, about 2ppm N. I also didn't quite like tripartita at the front, it doens't grow as compact as I'd like along the wood, so I removed it.