Journal sudiorca's non-CO2 supplemented softwater tanks

Art said:
I love it! This is a great example of how knowing what to do can turn around a tank within a reasonably short amount of time. Tank looks beautiful!

The only treatment that I know works for spirogyra is Algaefix. My treatment is usually a 3 day blackout, followed by toothbrush removal and then Algaefix. The blackout is used to knock back the algae, mechanical removal to get a lot out of the aquarium completely and the Algaefix takes care of eradicating the weakened portions that are left.
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Thank you for your kind words. 🙏 😀
 
mn_aquascape said:
Oh wow! Looks great! You find it to be a consistent performer under these conditions?
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Thanks. I have found this to be more challenging than other plants. It struggles more in warmer temperatures and in dense areas. It is doing pretty well since I moved it to the front with high flow and good light, lower temperature is also helping it right now.
 
Sideview of the tank. Trimmed and replanted the tops of Ludwigia inclinata var verticillata Cuba and Meta yesterday (Jan 6, 2023).
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sudiorca said:
lower temperature is also helping it right now
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What temps are you running?

I think I see your preference is to strip the leaves from the bottom 2 inches of the stem before replanting the top?
 
Art said:
What temps are you running?

I think I see your preference is to strip the leaves from the bottom 2 inches of the stem before replanting the top?
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Water temp is around 70-72F right now.

Yes I do try to remove lower leaves before replanting but sometimes it gets very laborious when I do major trimmings, so I just plant most of them without removing lower leaves on those occasions.
 
Hello everyone,
I had the great privilege yesterday interacting with some wonderful people and now friends at the Chicago Aquatic Society meeting. I feel honored to present my work on non-CO2 supplemented planted tanks.
Here is the link of the recording if anyone is interested and have some time to spare. The passcode is

?nhp2@Rf

Thanks,

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Hello everyone,
It has been a long time since my last post here. I had to restart most of my tanks since I moved to a new place recently. I decided to use acidified tap water (using HCl) instead of remineralized ro-di water this time. I also decided to put a thin layer (about 1 inch) of base substrate (mix of potting mix, super soil and used Amazonia and Landen substrate) and a thick cap (2 inch+) of new Landen substrate. I let the filter run for couple of weeks in dark before planting.

(I used the plants from the same tank which literally stopped growing after couple of months of the first reset with Dennerle scaper's soil. So, I was kind of forced to restart again in September.)

Here is how the plants were looking when I planted them on Sep 23, 2023. This is a 20 gal tank.
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This is how the tank is looking right now (Oct 22, 2023). I did add couple of extra species and trimmed and replanted some. I am quite happy with the results so far. Plants are responding pretty well.
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Feel free to ask questions.
Thanks,
Sudipta.
 
Unexpected said:
These are the non CO2 tanks?
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I prefer to call these non-CO2 supplemented tanks as I am not injecting pressurized CO2 in these tanks. However, the plants are getting decent amounts of CO2, primarily from microbial activity in the substrate along with preferable water parameters. I will highly encourage you to read my previous comments in this thread to get a better understanding about my methods. You are more than welcome to ask questions if you are unclear about anything that I mentioned.
 
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Been taknig a lot of your advice and putting it to my big Non CO2 tank. Its definately helped the plants. Im at a point now where the tank is on autopiolet. Its too big to activelly experiment so might have to setup the UNS 90U and try some things.
 
So I once tried to experiment with vodka dosing to increase the bacterial population. The theory was that more bacteria in the aquarium would increase the available CO2 in the water through their respiration. The results were interesting to me although some may consider it a fail.

I initially had what I would call good but slow growth with the common plants I was using. Nothing that is known to be sensitive or that would definitely requires CO2 supplementation. Very soon, however, I started battling Cyano outbreaks. Curiously, I no longer had green dust or spot algae on the glass. No other algae issues.

I gave up on it as the growth was too slow for me and I prefer colorful stem plants that require CO2 supplementation to really show their beauty. That being said, I do see how someone with different goals/expectations may really find this to be a way of keeping a good-looking tank for a long time.
 
BigWave said:
Been taknig a lot of your advice and putting it to my big Non CO2 tank. Its definately helped the plants. Im at a point now where the tank is on autopiolet. Its too big to activelly experiment so might have to setup the UNS 90U and try some things.
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I am glad that it is working for you.
 
I restarted this 4 gal tank on Sep 2, 2023. Prepared about 0.75 inch of bottom layer with a mix of organic potting mix with super soil and old mix of Landen and Amazonia substrate. The base layer is capped (about 1.5 inch) with used Landen substrate (9 months old). I am using acidified tap water. pH of the tank water is about 5.4. I am using a heater to maintain 77-78F temperature for the betta. Plants are doing okay so far.

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