Journal Low and Slow

[Phish Tank]

Finally a journal.

I’ll soon be setting up two new tanks, a UNS 90p and a 50c. (Not so!) Patiently awaiting tanks and stands delivery.

They will both be middle energy tanks. I have lengthy periods of busy time and travel that mean the tanks need to survive without human intervention here and there. So plenty of automation is needed, and slow and steady wins over high energy. Or in BBQ smoking terms: low and slow.

Plans:

• Injected CO2, but less than 30ppm
• Inert gravel
• Tidal HOB filter and partial UGF plate.
• Less than EI ferts, but more than PPS pro.
• Tap water (my tap is 50 TDS and only 10ppm Ca) remineralized to 30ppm Ca and 3-4 dKH .
• Lower light levels: Week aqua L on 90p and Chihiros wrgb 2 slim on 50c.
• Easy slow growing plants, and a few fish. Thinking the 50c will be a shrimp tank.
• Some hardscape but nothing crazy

My last tank has had a rough year. Hurricane Helene meant two weeks with no electricity, and much longer without decent water changes.

Then last summer the tank developed a slow leak while I was out of town (ugh!). Had to fly home for a week to triage. Fish and plants have been in temporary tanks. Plants are struggling. Photo is when they had already been in temporary bin for over 6 weeks, I was surprised it didn’t look like an algae infested swamp.





Sooo ready for my new tanks! These are my first really nice tanks, I’ve only owned petco specials before.

For the new tanks I'm planning on over ordering plants since my surviving plants are clearly pretty weak at this point.

 

[Phish Tank]

Finally going rimless.

My only experience with rimless was a small aqueon cube I picked up with glass that is way too thin. The thin glass made me uncomfortable.

I was planning on a rimmed tank, a 60 breeder. But I was struggling to find a decent stand.

Recently on a trip to Portland I saw a really nice rimless tank with a nice custom lid. Somehow seeing it up close and in person filled with plants let me get comfortable with rimless. I can watch all the YouTube videos in the world with cool rimless tanks, but seeing it in person really helped.

And seeing a lid that works on rimless made me take the leap. My tank lives in the humid basement that really doesn’t need additional humidity. So I need a lid.


The lid I saw was split in half, which makes it more manageable. It had holes that could function as finger holds or as an easy way to drop food in. Corner cutouts for airline tubing/cords to enter the tank.


I'll wait a bit before getting a cover for mine, waiting until I'm more confident where the cutouts need to be. And not sure if it should be acrylic or polycarbonate, or how thick it needs to be.

 

[techman81]

The problem is, once you go low iron rimless, you never want to go back to the much more affordable rimmed non-low iron tanks. Ask me how I know.

 

[Phish Tank]

The problem is, once you go low iron rimless, you never want to go back to the much more affordable rimmed non-low iron tanks. Ask me how I know.

I have a feeling you are right.

 

[Phish Tank]

Sous Vide my Driftwood!

Like a lot of foodies, I have a sous vide lying around.... so I'm trying it on some new Driftwood. No idea if it will work, but I gotta try.


Tanks and stands delivered on a pallet yesterday. Neighbors coming over to help me wrangle them into place tomorrow. Excitement abounds!

 

[Phish Tank]

Sous Vide experiment went pretty well once I moved the bin inside to my warm studio, I was able to Sous vide the driftwood to medium well for a few hours.

Today I went a little nuts ordering plants from 3 places (including Burr Aqua, of course!). We've all done it, right? Oh, this one looks interesting. Oh, new variety. Oh, I wonder if I can grow this. Oh, thats a cool color. Oh, but it is on sale!

Now onward to the long list of things to do. I don't remember this setup routine being so hard when I set up my last tank, but maybe my brain politely forgot it was hard

 

[Phish Tank]

UGF and HOB


Yeah, I know, sooooo old school. UGF and HOB, really?


I plan to use under gravel filters over part of my tank, roughly 1/3 of the bottom. It's a great way to host a ton of beneficial bacteria, and a nice way to have redundancy in case my Tidal HOB dies or there is an extended power outage. I only do part of the tank, it gives me options for using root tabs in non UGF spots if desired. I use inert gravel for my substrate.

Years ago I had a fussy canister filter leak on me while on a business trip, so the appeal of hassle free Tidal HOB is appealing. This go round I’ve modified my Tidal to limit the water coming in through the skimmer, using pieces of black airline tubing to narrow the inlet on the skimmer. This should make it pull more water from the bottom inlet, and hopefully keep shrimp from getting in through the skimmer opening. I’m also adding blocking to the filter basket “windows” to force more water through the filter foam.

In my last tank I used traditional uplift tubes with powerheads on top. I'm tired of looking at uplift tubes in the tank, so this time I am mounting a sicce nano pump at the substrate to power the UGF. I'm also going to try reverse flow: pushing water down under the UGF plate and up thru the gravel. My last UGF did have a crypt root that found it's way to the uplift. It was a really happy crypt, but I'm hoping having the water flowing the other direction keeps roots from slowing down the flow. We shall see.

 

[JuJuFish]

I have a Tidal that I wasn’t using because it’s not shrimp/fry safe. I just added this part from Aquarium Coop, put a sponge over the intake, and it is now back in operation.

 

[Phish Tank]

@JuJuFish I was thinking about getting that part as well, but I was wondering.... Does it made the bottom of the filter stick out more or made it look bulkier?

 

[JuJuFish]

I can’t really see it as there are plants in front of it. I can get a picture for you tomorrow.

The other issue it solved for me was that I was using the Tidal 55 on a 20 long and the intake nearly rested on the substrate. The new part raises it up and the sponge is horizontal so there is more clearance.

 

[Phish Tank]

Dark side start

Since I was starting new tanks, it was time to dark start me some beneficial bacteria! I knew I had planaria in my old tank, I wanted to do a clean dark start (not seeded with old filter bacteria).

So 6 weeks ago I dumped 60 pounds of alum dipped gravel in a plastic bin of water with an air pump and occasionally added fish food. It is now pumping out nitrates, at 50 yesterday when I measured.

Today I played with hardscape. Plants are now FINALLY all here, planning to plant tomorrow!

 

[JuJuFish]

This photo probably doesn’t answer your question. At all. But I don’t think the Tidal “optimizer” is any bulkier than the original intake. And I can’t see it all through this jungle. I do have a baffle on the output which is the funny looking horizontal cylinder with holes.

 

[Phish Tank]

@JuJuFish nice tank!

 

[Phish Tank]

Soooooooo many plants. Couldn't get them all in today. After a point I stop caring and just start cramming stuff in wherever. So I stopped and will finish tomorrow.

 

[Phish Tank]

CO2 max for new plants

I'm still sorting out what I want to do for CO2 injection. Since I'm not running a canister filter, can't do an inline reactor. So want an open spray bar/ co2 bell type thing.

But in the mean time I jammed a co2 line at the inlet of a powerhead and dropped it in.

I have read that newly transitioning plants benefit from excess co2. I don't yet have any inhabitants, just plants.

Question: what would be the max ppm co2 i should run with no fish in the tank? I was over 50ppm today (using hanna test kit) with my Sprite temporary diffusion powerhead.

And still kinda burned out after yesterday's planting fest, so I just jammed in the rest willy nilly today. To be fixed up once I have a better idea of which of the new plants like my soup.

 

[techman81]

Some of our local experts can chime in and correct me if I'm wrong, but a concern might be, if you blast co2 in at high levels for extended time before adding livestock, then cut way back after adding livestock, the plants may show signicant stress from that change, at least for awhile.

 

[Phish Tank]

Yeah, I tend to think that too. I think I'll probably turn it down a bit tomorrow. Long term I'll probably be keeping it 15-20.

 

[Phish Tank]

Running plenty of water thru my Jebao dosing pump before recalibrating it. I use it for dosing macros, micros, and top off water. I’ve been able to adjust the top off water ml per day based on season, since the basement is more humid from June-September. It ain’t perfect, but since I already had a dosing pump with a spare head, it was free!

I’ve also been dinking around with CO2 delivery, currently testing a co2 bell that is actually a black silicone ice cube tray tucked under my Tidal HOB outlet, tray cut down to size based on Yugangs reactor sizing.

Does anyone know how accurate the Hanna CO2 test is at non zero KH? My KH is at 3.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

It should be very accurate at KH3. It wouldn't be an issue until perhaps KH8-10 or more, and even then might not be an issue.

 

[Phish Tank]

Thanks @Naturescapes_Rocco , thats great to know. That Hanna test is really helping me with dialing in CO2, it's so much better than trying to read ph tests or a drop checker.

One tank was 30 today at the end of the light cycle, the other was 15. More tuning tomorrow.