Journal Open for kind suggestions

[PeerUnk]

Hi all, loving the journal threads the most, so maybe it’s nice to share my own stuff. It’s way out of my comfort zone, but hey, learning is all about doing stuff outside it, so here it goes!

People like pictures, so this is my display tank this morning.


Some specs:

• non CO2 injected, using two Eheim 400L/h air pumps to keep the CO2 out of the depletion zone.
• non heated: 17-18 *C during the winter and up to about 26 in the summer.
• Livestock? 15x Tanichthys micagemmae and as janitors 200-300 Neocaridinas and countless snails.
• Using K1 micro as biological filtration in an in-tank DYI PVC circulation device.
• For flow: 3 flow / wave makers, total roughly 7500 L/h. And a big DYI muffled Czech air lift.
• Currently it's somewhere between 1-2 dKH , CO2 fluctuating daily between 1.2 and 2 ppm.
• water changes? every 1 or 2 weeks, 15% (= 75 liters) with RO and 5 liter tap water. The added water gets targeted nutrients: N=2.2 K=4.2 P=0.5 Ca=8.7 Mg=3.9 S=10 Cl=1.5 Na=1. Conductivity is 180 uS/cm (TDS would be 90-120 mg/L?).
• daily added tracemix 0.004 Fe as proxy.
• 2 professional grow tubes (LED 3000K, both 24 watts / 2600 lumen) and a Daytime Onex Color 40 watt, 6400 lumen. This would mean roughly 20-25 lumen/L, or medium light according to Tropica.
• Substrate-wise: 80% inert black gravel (quartz?) 2-4 mm and 20% ADA Amazonia V2 for buffer capacity and earth worm casting as substrate supplement.

Commenting my own tank:

• The water is still a bit hazy/ white cloudy. It's like that for a year now. I didn't use any mechanical filtration for like for 3 years, so this week I did a 24 hour test run with a pre filtered 5 micron cartridge filter, which helped tremendously. My assumption such a low stocked tank might not need it, so not sure to to progress with it.
• I might introduce a new fish species, I like Dario, which likes the temps and are no food competitors for the T. micagemmae. Not sure whether the shrimplets are safe though.
• As a self claimed 'aquatic gardener', I'm trying out some plant options in my layout. The Bolbitis is getting too big at the right wall, blocking the view too much. The back left side is still under consideration. I'm growing Pogostemon deccanensis, Limnophila aquatica and Myriophyllum matagrossense there to see which works best for me. But it might take 6 months to grow them big enough to make any conclusions. And I might swap the Ludwigia 'Mini Super Red' for Ludwigia repens for a bigger V shaped bush in the background.

As a temporary side hobby I'm developing my DIY Tank Monitor, with some devices which currently measure 24/7:

• air pump intake CO2
• CO2 and oxygen of the water via diffusion in a gas pocket (like a drop checker)
• water conductivity
• water temperature
• light intensity
• ambient air temperature and pressure
• humidity and temperature in the hood
• An upgraded pH sensor is in the making and my broken oxygen sensor is being replaced.

Things are slow and steady in my tank, which I like. But it's size (and some other smaller tanks) keeps me busy!

 

[Phish Tank]

Nice looking tank! The DIY tank monitor sounds like a fun project.

 

[PeerUnk]

Nice looking tank! The DIY tank monitor sounds like a fun project.

Thanks! Yeah, it's a very nice project.

To see an actual CO2 trend in the tank and getting to understand how CO2 behaves in and outside my aerated tank really was my goal. Monitoring is mere a tool. Took some hard effort, but learnt a lot getting to this point where I open a webpage and getting this result on the fly:
(Y-axis is removed as calibration was needed, but you get the picture)

I never thought of starting such a project, until on another forum I came across a nice guy which built a CO2 and oxygen monitor. His entire project and code is documented: GitHub - gaborturu/aqua-gas-monitor

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

This is such an awesome tank.

 

[Burr740]

Beautiful! And quite impressive to be non-co2. I laughed one part you said "but itd probably take 6 months to grow.." On one hand I can imagine how nice itd be to know you can look at something for 2-3 weeks and it wouldnt change much (compared to everything hitting the surface and having to redo) And holy smokes is that a coffeefolia street? Lol nice!

Maybe I missed the size but from water change data its about 500 liters right? What are the dimensions? It looks very deep front to back but not very tall, like perfect Dutch size

 

[gjcarew]

Lol wtf

How does one control the size of anubias to the point you can turn it into a street? I imagine you must've been working on this for years

 

[PeerUnk]

Thanks you all

I laughed one part you said "but itd probably take 6 months to grow.." On one hand I can imagine how nice itd be to know you can look at something for 2-3 weeks and it wouldnt change much (compared to everything hitting the surface and having to redo)

True that. As I've done a couple of years of high tech, it was too time and effort consuming. But another con for me was the short timeframe the scape looks like just the way I wanted it to be. Nowadays I can enjoy my tank for long period, but yes, growing in a new plant really takes time.... Can't have it all!

And holy smokes is that a coffeefolia street?

How does one control the size of anubias to the point you can turn it into a street? I imagine you must've been working on this for years

Not sure what this Anubias kind is, but yes, it took years. But again, trimming the street is become super easy!

Maybe I missed the size but from water change data its about 500 liters right? What are the dimensions? It looks very deep front to back but not very tall, like perfect Dutch size

I estimate the tank net 540 liters (140 gallons US) . It's a custom built tank from 2008 with outer dimensions are 160cm (64'') wide, 80 cm (32'') front to back and 50 cm (20'') bottom to the internal braces. The water column is 40 cm high, so yeah, more optical depth to work with. But the mid back is hard to reach though.

Cheers.

 

[OmidNiav]

I like your tank and I like all the tech you have built into it! The plant used for the street reminds me of piptospatha ridleyi but it looks like you know it is an anubias. Also something I noticed (that I'm guilty of doing as well) is that your curtains on far left and right are very prominent and have reduced your tank to one half of its actual potential. Not saying it is bad but everything is compressed in the mid section.

Pretty nice for a non-co2 tank.

Omid

 

[PeerUnk]

I like your tank and I like all the tech you have built into it! The plant used for the street reminds me of piptospatha ridleyi but it looks like you know it is an anubias. Also something I noticed (that I'm guilty of doing as well) is that your curtains on far left and right are very prominent and have reduced your tank to one half of its actual potential. Not saying it is bad but everything is compressed in the mid section.

Pretty nice for a non-co2 tank.

Thanks for the compliment.
Never heard of Piptiospatha, nice of you to mention its existence. I’m aware the bolbitis is getting too large in my tank, the leaves are getting 20-30 cm easy. On the right I’m thinking about a somewhat smaller Microsorum. But on the left the Bolbitis is covering up a mesh with the K1 micro filter, a big airlift and a LEGO meets filterfoam shrimplet refugee. And covering up 80x50 mesh with a different species will be a challenge. I might try to get my hands on Bolbitis Heudelotti Mini, and take a couple of years for the transition….
Cheers.

 

[PeerUnk]

Copied my input from What's your fertilization standard operating procedure?? into this thread for the sake of completeness...

Just changed my fertizer routine and slightly my solution.
I work with 100% RO water I get in jerry cans from a water supply at my gas station, so after I taken out 75 liters via a 1'' hose I pour in the RO. Straight after I add the remineralizer and front load macro mix (25 ml) so the new 75 liters would contain (slightly adjusted) a baseline of:
Ca 10 ppm, Mg 5, NO3 15, K 4.0, PO4 2.1, SO4 35, Cl 2.3, Na 1.0, 2.6 dGH, 0 dKH .
That 1000 ml premixed solution is DYI with:
20 gr of KNO3,
68 gr of Mg(NO3)2.(H2O)6 - MagnesiumNitrate,
9 gr of KH2PO4,
10 gr of sea salt,
83 gr of Magnesium Sulfate (MgSO4.7H2O) - Epsom Salt
I overlooked something and was a bit short on K, so added 13 ml of 3M KCl.

When I skip a water change out of lazy-ness (Yes it happens ) I want to make up for the uptake of that period. So I found some uptake figures of high tech tanks and made an unscientific educated guess my uptake will be 10% of that. So I created a separate 'uptake solution' (based on Marschner and some studies on compositions of dry aquatic plants) and will dose accordingly for that skipped week: N 0.35, K 0.35, P 0.05, Ca 0.12, Mg 0.07 ppm.

For micros: I have a dry mix of
1 part of the much debated CSM+B (which will be phased out sooner or later)
1 part Tenso cocktail
1 part Ciba Librel FE-DP (Fe =7.0% w/w + Fe DTPA = 6.7% w/w)
From this I take one small spoon (0.11 gr) and mix this with 450 ml of microwave warmed RO water.
The 600 liter tank is getting daily 100 ml of this mix and would result in:
Fe 0,003666 ppm
Mn 0,000683
B 0,000087
Zn 0,000131
Cu 0,000094
Mo 0,000028
I think it's pretty lean and I leaned it a lot the last few years (it was 20 times more)
Not sure the ratios are balanced enough...
Limnobium and Phyllantus as floaters are not able to reach the soil and ain't complaining, so I guess It's all good for now.

 

[Art]

Interrupting this conversation to say that you can link directly to a post in another thread. All you need to do is click on the post number in the very right of the post you want to link to. For example, #10 above.

Copy that URL and then paste it here either as a link:
PeerUnk's post

Or simply past the link and it will unfurl like this:

Journal Post in thread 'Open for kind suggestions'

Apr 21, 2025

Copied my input from What's your fertilization standard operating procedure?? into this thread for the sake of completeness...

Just changed my fertizer routine and slightly my solution.
I work with 100% RO water I get in jerry cans from a water supply at my gas station, so after I taken out 75 liters via a 1'' hose I pour in the RO. Straight after I add the remineralizer and front load macro mix (25 ml) so the new 75 liters would contain (slightly adjusted) a baseline of:
Ca 10 ppm, Mg 5, NO3 15, K 4.0, PO4 2.1, SO4 35, Cl 2.3, Na 1.0, 2.6 dGH, 0 dKH .
That 1000 ml premixed solution...

• PeerUnk

 

[PeerUnk]

For the summer, I'm trying out some plants, now that I've heavily trimmed the Bolbitus. Layout is a bit messy now:


I'm skipping water changes the last two months out of laziness, no negative effects so far.
I've introduced an internal UV-C filter, to pinpoint whether the white haziness was cause by heterotrophic bacteria. It cleared up quite a bit in a few days, so likely it's a yes.

Until the next update!

 

[Art]

I wonder what was causing the heterotrophic bacterial growth? I had that when I was dosing vodka so I knew it was coming from the additional carbon in the water.

 

[PeerUnk]

I wonder what was causing the heterotrophic bacterial growth? I had that when I was dosing vodka so I knew it was coming from the additional carbon in the water.

I haven't got a clue Art. According stuff I read on the internet , It might be elevated organic carbon. But honestly, this is out of my expertise.

Everything I come up with, is mere speculation. My best guess is deteriorating leaves (exudates, leachates, cellular leakage, DOM) of Bolbitis or Anubias, as those older leaves are the only ones prone to some algae. But again, just guessing here.

After two weeks, I have shut down the UV-C filter, to see whether the haziness appears again.