Journal Quag's tank journal(s) - 45g + 120XH

[Quagulator]

Okay so nothing ever came from my 125 dream, but the Aquasoil just continues to collapse, algae will not let go, I’ve never ever experienced such rapid growth form algae before. I’m not upset about it, I knew if Aquasoil isn’t maintained correctly it will eventually turn into muck and need replaced, so I will likely be stripping this tank down and replacing the substrate. I’ve done this many times and it’s not a real concern for me. I think this tank has finally reached old tank syndrome (if you believe in such a thing). Regardless I’m convinced the organic load in this tank is just over powering the plants and water changes.

During the process I’ll salvage what I can from the plants, and possibly give them an H2O2 and Met14 bath. Not sure which direction I’m going to go with this setup for now, but it will definitely be in the realm of the Garden Style.

For substrate I will probably go with coal slag. If and when I do eventually upgrade this tank for a larger size, coal slag would be my go to. It requires less maintenance than an active substrate, and is good for the lifespan of the tank. Yes my Aquasoil was “easier” however plant growth compared to my last high tech tank (with inert substrate) was really no different. So if I upgrade to a 125 in the future, I’ll already have half of the required substrate here.


So, I’m expecting some challenges as the bio filter adjusts to an inert substrate, but keeping up on water changes should help with that. I think I will go ahead and finally take the 0dKH plunge in an inert tank. I wasn’t worried about it withy Aquasoil, but always a littler concerned about pH in an inert tank. I think I’ll try it out though.

I’ll keep this updated as I move along!

 

[GreggZ]

For substrate I will probably go with coal slag. If and when I do eventually upgrade this tank for a larger size, coal slag would be my go to. It requires less maintenance than an active substrate, and is good for the lifespan of the tank. Yes my Aquasoil was “easier” however plant growth compared to my last high tech tank (with inert substrate) was really no different.

You know I feel about the same way. I have had both active and inert substrates. If I was setting up a tank from scratch right now it would be a difficult decision which way to go. No question BDBS is MUCH cheaper, and it looks great and plants grow great in it as well. There are some plants that seem to do better in the Landen, but it's not that many that seem to really have a preference.

My Landen is now over three years old. So at some point I will be thinking about doing a complete reboot of substrate. Going to have to think very carefully about which one to use when that time comes. In the meantime I will look forward to letting you be the Guinea pig for zero dKH and sand. My guess is that it will be just fine.

 

[plantnoobdude]

So, I’m expecting some challenges as the bio filter adjusts to an inert substrate, but keeping up on water changes should help with that. I think I will go ahead and finally take the 0dKH plunge in an inert tank. I wasn’t worried about it withy Aquasoil, but always a littler concerned about pH in an inert tank. I think I’ll try it out though.

Is this an issue for livestock or plants? If it's plants you're worried about, there's not much to worry about really (very picky erios will prefer soil) . As for live stock I don't have much experience except my small school of ember tetra seem fine.

 

[Quagulator]

Rainbows in their holding cell for the time being... Display tank will be nuked hopefully soon and starting fresh!

 

[Immortal1]

Rainbows in their holding cell

LOL, I like it. Will probably be doing the same thing next week to my bows.

 

[GreggZ]

Is that a Melanotaenia Splendida Rubrostriata of some type on the right side? If so I've never kept them but that looks like a really nice Rainbow.

 

[Quagulator]

Is that a Melanotaenia Splendida Rubrostriata of some type on the right side? If so I've never kept them but that looks like a really nice Rainbow.

I believe it is.

I actually have 2 of them, under some good lighting they are full of every color of the rainbow. Certainly deserving of the name Rainbowfish.

 

[Quagulator]

21 Liters of ADA Aquasoil V2 out, 50lbs coal slag in. For whatever reason, this lot of sand needed a lot of rinsing, about an hours worth for the 50lb bag I used.

For reference, this tank is 48"L x 12"D x 18"T and holds 45 gallons of water.

I dropped down to 2 x 2217 Eheim filters, and swapped a Powerveg for a brand new 6500K - it was time for a new "look" and I think it brightened up the tank nicely.

Back - Front:
Full Spectrum + UV
Powerveg
Actinic
6500K Sunblaster
Zoomed FloraSun

I basically scrapped all the plants I had, kept the Cobomba furcata, Rotala "mini butterfly" and some other rotala species. The rest I just picked up at a LFS, basically anything they had. Selection online for me was pretty poor, and I needed something in the tank to get it going. This should work for now while I build up some mid and for-ground plants over the next weeks / months, and see what plants like my fert mix.

I'll leave the fish in exile for now, 2 more water changes over the next week, and then transfer them back into their planted tank home. I also bumped CO2 from 25cc's / min to 30cc's.

Still planning the 1 x 65% - 70% weekly water change, front loaded to 15-5-25 and daily micros (Burr's "standard" mix minus the Fe Gluconate) for now.

Plants are just tossed in there with little to no thought for now. I want to experiment with spacing this time around. I have lot's of time while I wait for them to transition to submerged growth, and shed their old growth for new, healthier tissue.



Discus tank is doing very well, plants are growing very slowly but are showing no signs of struggle. Fish are doing well, eating well, and I'm changing water every 3 days. The sump is all ready to go, I have everything on standby while I wait for some return loclines, hopefully in a weeks time I will have it going. I'll post some photo's when the sun sets and the glare from my south facing windows is gone!



Initial fill:

Couple hours later:

24h hours later:

 

[GreggZ]

I love where this is going!! Nothing like the excitement of a new tank build.

Keep up the updates coming.

 

[Quagulator]

Finally got around to grabbing some photo's of the Discus tank without any glare. I can't wait for the sump to remove all this exposed equipment from inside the tank.

 

[Quagulator]

Garden scape algae woes continue. Explosive algae growth, I figure it down to dirty filter media, too much light, loads of algae spores from the reno and being a "new" tank again. So I ended up doing the 1-2 punch using double the H2O2 3% rate, followed by a triple rate Met14 dose (triple the rate of Excel's "after a major water change" recommendation, at the FULL Met14 concentration). No livestock to worry about, and I shut the filters off to perform the act, and used a circulation pump for mass flow during the treatment. I also cut lighting back to 5 hours per day and will continue using Met14 until everything settles.

1 more water change this week + cleaning out the filters before I bring the fish back over. Slowly picking through what a few LFS's have to offer for plants. Need more plant mass still. I've had to trim 2 times already, plant growth is not an issue, just need more plant mass.

Sump us fully set up on the 120g. It was a bit noisy so I had to play with it, and re-do the overflow plumbing + added some sound deadening material to keep the sloshing noise at ease. No gurgling from the overflows. It's not too bad now.

The pump I bought can easily overpower the sump's flow, which I thought wasn't possible, but it's okay. I have the pump turned down and the flow dialed in nicely in the tank. I have tested both a power outage and a full siphon break, and in both scenarios the sump or tank can handle the additional water. I am getting 5-7 days before having to top off evaporation which is nice for when I am gone for work / vacation and have to rely on a non-aquarist to watch over things. Once the rainbows are swapped back into the display tank, my quarantine tank will be available and I can pick up more Discus. I will be using the same supplier as this last batch who has confirmed to me he only imports from 1 farm in Vietnam, so hopefully no cross contamination issues will come from the next batch. Regardless, I will be quarantining them for 2-3 weeks minimum, and then introducing a "tester" fish from my display tank to see if there will be any issues for an additional few weeks just to be certain. Only after there is no signs of illness and everyone is eating / enjoying my water I will move them to the display tank.

The plants are growing slow and steady, nothing crazy but it's a good trade off, slow healthy growth with little no no maintenance required. A few more months and they should fill in nicely and hopefully give me the tropical island jungle look I'm after. I still need some dwarf crypt varieties to fill in the gaps, but all in good time.

 

[Immortal1]

Sumps are so versatile - really like the look in your Discus tank. I just finished re-doing my tank and hoping I don't run into a new tank algae issue.

 

[Quagulator]

Small update a few days into the 1-2 punch and the sump installation:

1-2 punch with 2x the H2O2 rate and 3x the Excel rate using the Met14 concentration will stunt plants. I don't think I killed anything, however over the last 2 days the plants looked a little sick, and only start to pearl after 4-5 hours of light and CO2. The tank has also gone a bit cloudy, but nothing a few good water changes shouldn't help fix up. Algae hopefully has been knocked back and I am ahead of it.


The discus tank was looking a little cloudy also, and overall just didn't look as calming as it usually it. The cloudiness went away after a 50% water change and the vinyl tubing I used shed some of its shaving pieces from manufacturing, which took a full week to finally stop and then get caught by the mechanical filtration. I figured the discus were stressed during the whole process, but I think it's safe to say they are doing just fine:

Finally, I am dosing the incoming water in the discus tank to:

5-5-25-5Mg

Most plants are doing very well, but I made up a few 50% O+ / 50% Ammonium Magnesium Phosphate tabs that I will be using to supplement the plants that are clearly lacking nutrients. A couple swords, aponogeton and nymphoides hydrophylla, besically the nutrient hog species in this tank. I was trying to get away with relatively lean water column dosing, but why struggle? That isn't what this tank is about. Relatively lean water column ferts and some supplemental tabs seems like a simple way to check all the boxes.

 

[Quagulator]

Discus tank is progressing nicely. The plants responded well to the substrate tabs, so I will continue to add a few 1x month probably. Next purchase I will be also grabbing some assassin snails to quarantine with the new fish, this tank is absolutely overrun with snails. I don't mind a few, but there are hundreds in there, they are super tiny and make the substrate look dirty 24/7. The sump life is nice as well, took me all of 10 minutes to re-arrange some equipment in the sump and clean it out.


A few pics of the garden scape-to-be:

 

[Immortal1]

Looking good! Also love the bow pics

 

[Quagulator]

I've been a bit absent lately, but not to worry, I am still around!

45g Rainbow tank was never really taking off like I thought it would. I ended up creating an algae farm again, and then i ran out of CO2 for a few days, and noticed my auto doser was dosing way less than I had thought.... anyways, I ended up abandoning my attempts at running with 0dKH and reverted back to my 25 gallon high tech tank's water specs:

1.0dKH
20ppm NO3
6ppm PO4
30ppm K
35ppm Ca
12.5ppm Mg

Taret dosed incoming water to these specs, 70% weekly water changes (sometimes I will get to 10 day or so depending on how busy I am). This tank is pretty messy right now, once it starts bouncing back into shape I'll start sharing some photos.


As for the discus tank, I picked up 5 more fish and quarantined them for 2 weeks, then added an old "tester" fish from the main tank, and finally an additional 2 more weeks of quarantine before I moved them all up into the main tank.

Final Discus 12 total:

1 x Blue Tiger
1 x Blue Leopard
1 x Blue Diamond
1 x Red Panda
1 x Red Marlboro
1 x Red Alenquer
1 x Yellow Marlboro
1 x Pigeon Blood (circular pattern)
1 x Pigeon Blood (squiggle pattern)
1 x White Platinum
1 x Eruption
1 x Unknown Leopard Mix

Plants are growing very slowly under lower light conditions, but there is virtually zero algae. I have just finished turning the LED's up to 100% power on all channels, and they are on for 7 hours per day. I will continue to bump this up every few months by 1/2 and hour each time until I am happy with the photoperiod (unless I add more light or CO2).

The sump is working fantastic, zero issues as of now.

 

[*Ci*]

I keep thinking about discus for my 84g … can I ask what temperature you are keeping your discus tank and how did your plants initially handle the transition to that temp?

My tank is currently at 76F and plants include aponogeton crispus, aponogeton madagascariensis, crypts, java fern, vals, a sword and weeping moss (might remove the moss and the wood it is on to accommodate the discus with more swimming room).

Do you have any advice on what plants do not do well at discus temps in your experience?
Thanks for your insight - I am very inspired by your work!

 

[Art]

It's a beautiful aquarium showcasing the discus. I think when that island grows out to provide a nice focal point for the size of the aquarium, it will be stunning.

I tried discus once in the 90s. It was an epic, costly and painful failure. I've never had the nerve to try again. I think I will enjoy vicariously through your setup.

 

[Quagulator]

I keep thinking about discus for my 84g … can I ask what temperature you are keeping your discus tank and how did your plants initially handle the transition to that temp?

My tank is currently at 76F and plants include aponogeton crispus, aponogeton madagascariensis, crypts, java fern, vals, a sword and weeping moss (might remove the moss and the wood it is on to accommodate the discus with more swimming room).

Do you have any advice on what plants do not do well at discus temps in your experience?
Thanks for your insight - I am very inspired by your work!

It's a beautiful aquarium showcasing the discus. I think when that island grows out to provide a nice focal point for the size of the aquarium, it will be stunning.

I tried discus once in the 90s. It was an epic, costly and painful failure. I've never had the nerve to try again. I think I will enjoy vicariously through your setup.

I'm out of the house right now, but I'll make sure to respond when I get a chance. Thank you for the kind words!

 

[Quagulator]

It's a beautiful aquarium showcasing the discus. I think when that island grows out to provide a nice focal point for the size of the aquarium, it will be stunning.

I tried discus once in the 90s. It was an epic, costly and painful failure. I've never had the nerve to try again. I think I will enjoy vicariously through your setup.

Thank you, I was really hoping to have a nice bunch of plants, but mainly focus on the fish.

I agree, the jungle island theme I am going for will look much better as the plants grow in more densely. It's a fine line when working with a discus setup because 1 false move, and you've got some nasty algae (higher organics from feeding several times a day and warm water typically = algae).

This is why I have been running low light with this tank since I set it up, I did not want to push my luck. After 6 months I am finally running my lights at full power. Next step is to purchase an actual glass lid (not the clear poly plastic I am using now) that will allow a little more light into the tank, and I will be purchasing an additional 24" light to place over the island only. Eventually I will probably go with CO2, but I have made low tech work beautifully in the past, and I would like to have that again (it was super rewarding).

I keep thinking about discus for my 84g … can I ask what temperature you are keeping your discus tank and how did your plants initially handle the transition to that temp?

My tank is currently at 76F and plants include aponogeton crispus, aponogeton madagascariensis, crypts, java fern, vals, a sword and weeping moss (might remove the moss and the wood it is on to accommodate the discus with more swimming room).

Do you have any advice on what plants do not do well at discus temps in your experience?
Thanks for your insight - I am very inspired by your work!

Thank you for the kind words.

My heaters thermostats are set at 84, most discus keepers I have talked to stay warmer than the 82 degree "low end" of where they are comfortable.

Plants definitely do not like the transition to warmer water, I typically see quite a lot of melt back, before they slowly bounce back. Once they get some roots and are growing, they grow just as good as in cooler water. Algae is much more likely to pop up though because of the organics and water temperature.

Plants I have that are doing well: crypts, swords, aponogeton crispus, vals, various dwarf tiger lilies, java ferns, bolbitus and hygro kompact -- but even some crypts and some swords just melt back, stunt, and never recover. If you are setting up a warm water tank, but lots of differing species from different suppliers - some do well, some do not - so if you have lots to start with, you have a better chance at finding some that can handle the warmer water.

Anbubias worked well for my before, staurogyne sp. porto velho too.

Part of my problem is running a lean water column, with root tabs as needed. The new plants probably don't appreciate that as they do not have a root system and rhizosphere set up yet. Not to mention low light for only 6 hours per day (at the time).