Potassium Deficiency

You can read all over the internet that potassium (K) deficiency often manifests as pinholes in older leaves.


In my tanks I find that Hygrophila corymbosa 'kompakt' is the perfect indicator for potassium levels in the tank. Its a K-Pig

Recently I removed all supplemental K from my fert mix and gH booster mix to test an idea that lower K would help kill off some filamentous algae (it didn't). I use KNO3 for my nitrate supply so there was still some K going into the tank daily.

These pics show the impact of low K on Hygrophila corymbosa 'kompakt'

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The pinholes developed on older leaves after the first week and later the affected leaves came off. I've been scooping handfuls of leaves that look like this from the water surface over the past few weeks.

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This photo was taken just after I added K2S04 back into my macro fert mix and gH booster (made similar to Seachem's Equilibrium). You can see the plants are poorly shaped as they have lost a lot of leaves but new growth is looking good again!

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I took this photo of a healthy plant today (not the same one)... you can see a couple of older leaves with pinholes still attached but the new growth is spectacular.

I also found significant pinholes and minor leaf thinning in Hygrophila polysperma 'rosanervig'. My Ludwigias started to look a bit dodgy also (blotchy colour, poor growth). Other plants didn't show any real stress.​

Madagascar Lace Plant - Aponogeton madagascariensis

from 2007


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Growing in DIY sand/laterite/zeolite mix.
Daily ferts... similar to PPS + a few DIY clay+blood&bone+osmocote fert balls at the roots.
Soft Water. kH 2, gH 4
CO2 and 8000K Halide lights.
27-28C (warm for this plant)

I bought this plant a while ago from an LFS (cost me around $40 after some sweet talking and waving $20 notes in the air... sticker price was $70!)

I was so excited to finally own *the* plant that typifies plants in aquaria in books when I was a kid. After I got home I googled up some info and read you should always buy one with a good bulb (mine had virtually none) ​ Friends suggested it was a tissue culture specimen grown in QLD and hense no bulb so no reserves to live on and it will surely die. ​ ...... that was 4 months ago (I think).

Reading on the internet tells me these plants need to be kept cool. My tank was at 24C then and this is really the top end of the range.

Last month I bought a school of threadfins that needed the tank to be warmer... so I increased the temp to 28C and started scheming on how I was going to get another big cool-water tank past Mrs Grubs in order to save Mr. Madagascariensis. That hasn't happened yet but the plant is still growing gang-busters!!! The leaf I'm holding has just expanded and in the top photo you might be able to make out a new leaf on its way up.

Every leaf that appears is bigger than the one before... The olive colour is the new leaves.. they then seem to go greener with green spot algae colonising the leaves as they age. Seeing as how there was very little bulb to start with at least I know that it must be loving my DIY laterite substrate and getting its own nutrients via the roots.

It is a real feature in the tank and I'm lovin' growing it... and I dont have to trim it!!! yay!​



​ The flower is starting to fill out.

The stalk behind the flower appears to aleady be going hard so hopefully the flower will not drop off prematurely! ​

The stalk of the second flower has done the same and it wouldn't surprise me if the second flower never opens...

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Not the greatest shot in the world but you can see a few seeds (swolen base with longer "spike") forming on this flower.


Note: this is flower #4. The previous photo was #3 and seeds formed but I put the flower in a floating chinese food container and it the whole thing rotted as I didn't change the water often enough.

Flower 5 is coming out now but the stem is rotting behind the flower before it will open fully.

Bud #6 is on its way up!!!

All of the flowers are suffering from stem rot behind the flower before/as it opens. I dont know why. I suspect they are growing too fast and are drying out under the halides before they have a chance to toughen up after leaving the water surface. I'll try and keep the next bud underwater...even if I have to stand there and hold it under all day!



2014

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Getting too big for the tank! Just noticed a bud forming tonight too. ​

Smaller plant on the right side is just finding its stride after sitting for 6 months at < 5cm high

Specs: 60x45x38h tank, DIY gravel/red clay. Osmocote/clay balls pushed under the plants every 3 months. No water column fertiliser at all. Room temperature. CO2 added. Single Up Aqua Pro Z. for 8hrs. KH <1, GH ~3 EC ~300 µS/cm using rainwater + DIY GH booster (for the cherry shrimp).

Tank was set up just to raise these so no focus at all on layout other than placing the plants under the light ​​

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Unlike other apon flowers I have not seen any free pollen on this flower spike. The entire spike is a little sticky, and I've been gently wiping it from tip to centre with a very soft brush, and occasionally dipping the flower head in the water (where you would normally see a cloud of pollen float away on the water surface). So far the brush has remained clean, and I haven't seen any pollen floating. Dipping the flowers is normally a great way to get pollen off the anthers and onto the stigma (as the flower moves through the water film the pollen that was floating sticks to the flower).

The little dots on the tips are the anthers that should crack open to release the pollen - I can see with a hand lense they are closed - wondering if I need bright light or a hot lamp to dry them out more.

Still.... there is some swelling in the centre of the spike suggesting some flowers have been pollinated *shrug*



​ ^ I never got any seedlings from that flower.... but today is moving day in the Grubs Apon world.

Out with the old - this tank is only 35cm high and two of the lace plants are now way too big.... and the tank and slab of wood and duct tape (over the polystyrene) under it are a bit too agricultural for my office.
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In with the new - Mr Aqua 45cm rimless cube - $50 second hand from a shrimp nut. I was thinking of going bigger - but this is low maintenance, low light, trouble free tank so I decided to keep it that way - but the additional 10cm height will be good, but only room for a couple of Lace plants. Tank is still filling via a piece of airline from a bucket perched on the bookcase. No aquascape. DIY magic red clay and gravel base with a good amount of osmocote. Capped with a 50/50 mix of Kaito aquasoil + 2mm midnight gravel from the LFS (raises PH, and KH) + a few handfuls of left over magic red clay and gravel mix.
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This is the biggest of the plants - the smallest is from the same batch of seed and is only a tiny 30mm high with 3 little leaves - it puts up a new leaf every now and then but never takes off. I'm hoping a replant into the new cube will give it a push. This big guy is a treat! ​
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Enough growth points? One day I hope to divide this plant up and when I do I might get 4 or more plants from it... but today I'm just pulling off the big leaves and replanting it into the cube.
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There are a number of varieties and the name depends on which naming convention you subscribe to... but here is the "narrow leaf" and the "broad leaf"
The broad leaf is A. madagascariensis and this narrow leaf A. henkelianus (not to be confused with the "other" narrow leaf that has more incomplete and irregular fenestrations)
From this article in TFM the broad would be A. madagascariensis var. major and the narrow is A. madagascariensis var. henkelianus and "the other narrow leaved one" is A. madagascariensis var. madagascariensis

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The tank is not heated - currently 19C. Small amount of CO2, Rainwater and a little DIY hardness booster. EC ~300µS/cm. pH ~6.5-7. No water column ferts. Every 4-6 months I sink a few DIY osmocote + clay balls into the sub. Tank is home to a small "gaggle" of common cherry shrimp only... and a few small other plants. Lighting has been a single 2ft Up Aqua ProZ - so quite low lighting. The new cube is getting a similar but hopefully slightly brighter cheap and cheerful HinterfeldHK Chihiros A-Series Aquasky Planted 27W (not arrived yet)... There is a massive hole in the 45cm light fitting market if you don't want a fan (Kessil 160 is perfect form factor but I dont want the noise of the fan in my office).​

​ An update on my new cube tank with the lace plants. Its taken 3 months for the tank to stabilise after replanting. On filling the initial nutrient release from the sediment/osmocote painted the sides a nice green with a hard encrusting GDA or GSA. I only cleaned the front glass and it was too much effort so I left the sides green to see if it would pass on its own. Over the three months a population of small freshwater limpets Ferrissia sp. boomed, cleaned the glass for me and is now declining from starvation as the tank is too clean (phew). They are the white specks on the side glass in the bottom pic. I also squashed every mini-ramshorn snail I could see whenever I could and now the tank is completely free of them.

The two little lace seedlings at the front are 2 years old and the same age as the big one in the back left. They just haven't taken off but are double the size they were last year. Perhaps they will always be stunted, or perhaps one day they'll get over whatever hump is holding them back and they will boom. The big one (left ) is just starting to pump out big leaves after the transplant. It is in the process of dividing itself up and has 5-6 growth points so its going to fill the tank. The narrow leaf (right) has grown strongly the whole time.

Tank is room temperature in my office, CO2, medium LED lighting. No fertilisers in the water. Rainwater and a little GH booster every 2 weeks. Cherry shrimp only.

The secret to these plants is high nutrient sediment, low nutrient cooler water and easy on the light.

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Adult Damselfly laying eggs 30cm underwater in aquarium

 

 
This damselfly adult flew in the window, landed on the tips of the Vallisneria nana and proceeded to walk backwards down the blades of the val to lay eggs a good 30cm under water. The body and wing cuticle repels water so it traps a thin skin of air around it making it look silver. It happily marched around for a good 10-15 mins while I took photos and poked it with a stick to interrupt the egg laying. Damselfly larvae are predators and I can do without them in this tank!

I always thought they landed on plants at the surface and just poked their bums underwater to lay the eggs. Its a neat strategy... as in the wild it allows for the pools to dry up a bit and the eggs remain underwater.

Another plus for open topped tanks.

(I'll recant those words if Damselfly larvae start eating fry!)

The fluffy plant is Limnophila brownii​

glutaraldehyde as an algaecide alternative to excel

2007 Aquariumlife forum experiments

I have a 30cm cube that is currently over-run - and I mean shockingly over run - with blue-green algae.

I was planning to sacrifice the crypts and moss and dump in chlorine but I'd like to contribute with a Glut test on this tank instead if possible.

I was looking at merck (www.merck.com.au) as they have 100ml of 50% Glut for $32... or perhaps Dave I can buy some from your drum?

I have a couple of 18" tanks I can use for paired treatment/control toxicity testing on various species too.

My Snag biotope has a fair dose of cladophora in the gravel at the moment and I'd be more than happy to begin a low-dose Glut test on it also (not too high as I dont want to upset the rainbowfish)

Maybe its time to order those Werneri Dave and get a big shipment from you with a little Glut?
Last edited by Grubs; 05-10-07, 04:05 PM.



11-10-07, 12:43 PM



I've also just sourced some. $48 for 250ml of 25% from Merck. They also have a 1l of 50% available as an order in item (3 weeks) for approx $100 which would be 8 times cheaper again but I didnt want to wait nor commit that much $ to an initial experiment.

A GUIDE TO SAFE USE OF
GLUTARALDEHYDE

This needs to be emphasised:

Glutaraldehyde is nasty, nasty stuff. Careful handling protocols are required. The most toxic form is vapour in the air. It is very poisonous and corrosive.

My plan is to store my 25% concentrate at the lab I used to work in at Monash Uni - and mix up a 1 litre bottles of 1% as required and dose with that.

Day 0



This has been an uncontrolled backyard experiment in blue-green algae now for a couple of weeks. The floating mat of blue green is covering a Java moss "mop" that is growing on a wine cork.

I've tried 1% tea tree oil (DIY Melafix) at the normal conc 5ml in 40l for a week (no change) and at 40ml in 40l for a week with no impact. I though the antibacterial properties of teatree oil might knock the blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) around. - conclusive failure IMHO.

I've also tried dosing NO3 at 80ppm to see if nitrogen excess did anything - what you see is after a week - no effect - if anything its worse.

Volume is about 25l of water. I dosed 5ml of 1% Glutaraldehyde (2.0ppm)

Life in the tank - 1 angry Macrobrachium australiensis, snails (added every couple of days to feed the Macro), Cryptocoryne petchii, Java Moss.

This is as uncontrolled and unreplicated before/after scenario. The tank has looked like this for about 5 weeks now with no major change.

Temp: 20C (no heater)
CO2: None
pH: >7.8 (off the scale) was 7.1 before the BGA took over.
Last edited by Grubs; 12-02-14, 08:24 AM. Reason: added pH and Temp





11-10-07, 01:35 PM


In Australia 2% Glutaraldehyde is a high grade disinfectant (ie kills all possible bacteria, fungi, viruses, and some spores unless resistance has occurred).

So the anti-microbial effects of glutaraldehyde isn't in doubt but the observations from your experiment, Grubs, should be helpful in laying the ground for questions regarding bioequivalency of Excel and Glutaraldehyde. Other factors you might want to record are temperature and pH which will effect the rate and extent of response.








The concentration in the bottle is irrelevent. Lower concentration in the bottle = less hazardous to your health. The dose to the tank is larger to compensate as it is the tank water concentration that matters. I'll gladly match the dose level of others if you think it will help.

13-10-07, 05:17 PM



Day 2



I increased the dose on day 1 from 2.0ppm to 2.5ppm Glutaraldehyde to match the APC thread linked to above. [side note: If I was doing this again I'd stick to 2.0ppm and only dose every other day to give time for dead cells to break down] Photo above is today (Day 2).

Good News: Subjectively I see a slight decline in the BGA it has begun to slough off the crypt leaves. Some of the mat on the surface has gone and I can see the moss again.

Bad News: Mr. Macrobrachium is dead. *however* - by the smell of him I think he's been dead for a few days and may have even died during my elevated NO3 period prior to dosing with glut. He'd dug his way under a log and as I could see the claw poking out I assumed he was alive until today when I put in some food and he didnt respond. As this "experiment" has no controls we cant say the glutaraldehyde killed him - especially given that prior to dosing with glutaraldehyde I had injected 10 times the prescribed dose of "Melafake" tea-tree oil soln and raised the NO3 to over 80pmm (way over the test kit limits).... not forgetting that blue-green algae is toxic also!

I've put some caridina in another tank and dosed them up to the same level and so far there is no deaths and no change in their behaviour. I'm also now dosing up my big 600l tank to knock the hair algae on the head and the shrimp in there are fine also.

This emphasises the need for well designed experiments!
Last edited by Grubs; 12-02-14, 08:24 AM.



15-10-07, 09:42 AM



Day 4



Continuing the 2.5 mg/l dose each day.

Glass surfaces have cleared up phenominally. The hanging moss (its tied to a wine cork) is now visible again..... and I can see crypt leaves!

I've done some more research into the toxicity and persistence of glutaraldehyde and have kept references. The expected "life" of each dose in the tank is less than 24 hours. Dow Corning state 50% loss in just 10.6 hours and some independent research seems to go wth this too (2MB PDF - fig.11) So its important to note that each daily dose is unlikely to be compounding in the tank to higher and higher concentrations.

I also looked up toxicity concentrations. There have been many tests on cultured algae, daphnia, amphipods and some on fish. My mental summary of the reading was that often no effect was seen until concentrations exceed 5ppm and for most tests more like 10-50ppm. Test on algae (free-living green water type algae) were showing lethal effects below 1ppm. This makes me feel pretty happy about the 2.5ppm dose I'm using. Note however that one study does show that most eggs of steelhead trout failed to hatch at 2ppm.... so you wouldnt want to be dosing your breeding tanks when the parents are spawning.... (I doubt anyone would dose their spawning tanks with algecide anyway - esp as greenwater is a good source of food for newly hatched fry!)

...And lastly - at least one Glutaraldehyde manufacturer guarantee's their product is pure enough to be viable when stored for up to a year at room temperature but industrial grade would degrade a lot faster due to impurities. Every other manufacturer says to keep it at 4C. I suspect that if you are using it all up in 6 months its probably fine at room temperature but I havnt found numbers to back that up yet. Maintaining the purity by doing any dilution with distilled water obviously is important to maintaining the effectiveness. With the 1% solution I'm chewing though a litre bottle in under 4 days so I'm not too worried about it breaking down! At 1% my doses for a 2.5pmm solution are 6.25ml in the 25l cube, 100ml in the 4x2x2 and 150ml in the 6x2x2 each day (yes they are all getting dosed now - no guts, no glory!). I'm thinking I'll move to a 2% dosing solution so that I'm handling the concentrate less frequently.





#74

15-10-07, 12:06 PM


No manual removal.
No water changes.
Just a little topup to re-submerge the BGA on the waterline on Day 3 (to kill it!).

Given the absense of any control treatment I wanted the only change to be the glutaraldehyde dosing.

The doses have been dosed into the water in the centre of the tank. I might drop the next dose onto some of the floating BGA mat for a quick kill.

The BGA is just slowly decomposing. I'm pretty sure at this point a siphon hose would clean up a lot of it as it is sloughing off the leaves.... but I'll let it run a few more days yet without touching it.

In my 6x2x2 'Dreamtime' - the BBA and Staghorn has gone a very pretty pink at all locations in the tank. Thread algae in the 6x2x2, and the cladophora in 'the Snag' look the same as before I started dosing. I have photos of all of these but I figured I'd wait until I had a weeks worth then post the sequences in one hit.

​ Day 6

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Continuing the 2.5 mg/l dose each day.

Front glass and left side are now 100% clean. All of the patches of BGA that are left are where the algal mat was extremely thick to start with (e.g. on glass facing the window and on top of the floating moss).

Visible decaying mulm in the foreground now.

Interestingly the pH has returned to 7.0. It was more than 8 when the BGA was in full swing.

Here is the top of the floating moss - This was completely smothered at the start

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​ Link to Day 0 post of BGA infested tank

Day 8 - FINAL

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As this is an unreplicated and uncontrolled "experiment" our inference that changes in the tank are due solely to commencement of daily 2.5ppm Glutaraldehyde dosing gets weaker as time goes on. I think after 8 days its pretty clear what trajectory this tank is on now so we've reached the end.

The glass on the tank is pretty much spotless.
Snails are dropping eggs all over the place.
There are a few copepods and other planktonic critters in the water too.

Glutaraldehyde is used as a preservative because it penetrates cells and mineralises the protiens. So while it may be killing the algae in the tank it also retards any decompositon. There are places in the tank where the BGA mat was more than 10mm thick so these will take a very long time to break down. Time for some intervention - a water change and some manual removal. I'll probably then keep the daily doses going for another two days just ensure any freshly exposed algal cells get nuked. I still see occasional bubbles from the thickest part of the mat suggesting that algae in the middle might be alive (protected from the glutaraldehyde by the sludge above and below perhaps).

I will rescape this tank when I get inspired.

I'll post the pics of the other tanks a bit later

THE END​

'Dreamtime' - the life and times of my 600l showpiece.

Goals:

* I want this 6x2x2 planted tank to be a showpiece in the Grubs house.

* I want it to be a conversation stopper and starter.

* I want my kids to be enthralled by it.

* I want Mrs Grubs to love it so much that she thinks it was money well spent!

This is the biggest and best equipped tank I've ever had the fortune to own.

This is [was!] my dream tank.


Equipment:
6x2x2 AquarWorld USA tank
Custom Cabinet
Halide lighting
Pressurised CO2 - DIY reactor
2x Eheim 2217 canister filters
2 x Jager 250W heaters in DIY external enclosures
DIY laterite/gravel mix + plants + fish


The development of this project parallels my other big tank, 'The Snag'. I set out from the start to built two big tanks around the same time.

'The Snag' satifies my native ecosystem recreation needs.

'Dreamtime' is the realisation of my childhood dreams from drooling over pictures of planted tanks in brightly coloured Tetra fish food pamphlets at the LFS 30 years ago.


The Cabinet

I'm a DIY nut, but this time around I decided to get a cabinet custom made for me to my specs. Years ago I had a 5x2x2 in my lounge room on a pine stand I made from offcuts and it was always a sore point with Mrs Grubs because the stand "made the room look crappy" and my lame attempts to cover it up with black cloth and staples .. were just lame. I can make functional cabinets that look pretty good - but they are still a step away from classic furniture. This time around it has to look schmick!

In May I comissioned Mastercraft Specialty Furniture in Melbourne to make my cabinet. Dean at Mastercraft specialises in aquarium and reptile cabinets. I found him via the Melbourne Trading Post. Top bloke and a good price. The cabinet is veneered chipboard, MDF and pine. Double thickness on top and all stained and sprayed with an epoxy clear-coat inside and out to provide extra water resistance.

For the look I was aiming for I wanted a cabinet to be bigger than the tank. I had it made with a solid top so that later on I could use it for a different sized tank, or perhaps two smaller tanks. I was originally planning a 5x2x2 braceless tank sitting on a 7ft cabinet but the quote on the custom build was just too expensive. I had the cabinet made 2100mm long (7ft) and 700mm wide to be big enough for a 6x2x2 with some extra in case the braceless 5x2x2 wasn't a go-er.

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Inspiration for the galvanised ripple iron on the cupboard doors came from pictures of Eddie's DIY stand in the Feb07 comp on this forum. Care for a glass of red? ​

I picked up the tank in the first week in June, but didn't get the cabinet until July (i.e. the cabinet was a long time in the making and I told them not to hurry as all my free time was spent assembling 'The Snag' anyhow).

All up I waited from March to June until the tank arrived in the country, and May to July for the cabinet. Then July to mid-August (now) until I had the time to assemble it all! You just can't rush a big tank build... even if you want to!

Lights!

Lights are 3 x 150W shoplighters in a DIY kit form. When Corallights.com.au voluntarily closed shop and I got a runout deal on electronic Osram Powertronic control gear units. An ebay lighting merchant got the shoplighter housings (pre wired). I ordered 8000K globes from watergrass.net in Hong Kong.

I wanted an open top tank - so the lights are mounted on square-tube poles.

From my good mate Mr Bunnings I got some galvanised metal gate parts.

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The parts with angled ends were cut in half to make the top section that the lights mount onto. I then painted them with Dulux metal epoxy "aluminium" hammertone from a rattle can.

The long tubes were bolted using U-bolts to the back of the cabinet. I spaced them out from the back so that a magnetic cleaner could fit between the tank and the light poles. I don't really like painted backgrounds in tanks - but I could slide a backdrop between the tank and the poles if I wanted to in the future. The polished cabinet top is removable and I took it off so I didn't wreck it while messing with tools fitting the lights.

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Wiring is threaded up the middle of the poles. Lights are mounted directly onto the poles (not suspended on wires), so to adjust how close the lights are to the water surface I can loosen the U-bolts and slide the poles up or down.

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On each light head there is the 150W halide fitting plus a low-voltage (12V 20W halogen) for sunrise and an extended sunset period - so we can enjoy the tank late into the evening in subdued light.

Here is a tip for you. Getting the cabinet level on an uneven slate floor with 8 feet is a PITA. Get adjustable leveling feet. I didn't. I bought some 75mm wide 3mm thick latex rubber from Clark Rubber. Under each foot I put two pieces of rubber to build up the thickness - this spreads the load of the foot over the uneven slate tile surface. Then as the floor itself wasn't level, ​ I used 75mm squares from 5mm and 3mm MDF - sprayed the visible edges black, then packed each foot accordingly. It took the whole morning to get it level.

Now bring in the Aquar-World 6x2x2 with polished edges and black silicon goodness imported all the way from the USA for $400. How do they do it! The tank is sitting on 19mm polystyrene. I wrapped black waterproof gaffa tape around the edges of the foam as it is visible under the tank. This blends nicely with the black silicon so you don't really see it.


With sunrise/sunset lights only (photo taken during the day)

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LET THERE BE LIGHT!

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I have always planned to enclose each lighting head in a metal cover that will also extend down a little to reduce light spillage into the room. Now that I've made the lights I actually like the industrial look of them as they are. I think to reduce dust buildup I'll end up covering them up but there is certainly no rush to get that done now.



Minor setback - 2 of the 3 electronic halide ballasts are buzzing - not too loud, but they are supposed to be silent. To their credit I rang Osram Australia to ask a tech how much noise I should expect. They were happy to replace the units immediately after I explained that I bought them from a business that closed its doors. Excellent service indeed.

Planting and plumbing coming soon!​



​ No worries guys. I dont want you to think that I over-analyse everything ​ - but I found data on CO2 permeability for tubing.

Summarising the ones I know (permeability measured as cc-mmsec-cm2-cm Hg x 10^-10)

Silicon 20,123 (leaks like a parlimentary press room!)
Tygon R3603 (lab; vacuum) 360
Vinyl 360
Polyethylene 280
Polypropylene 90
Nylon 20
PVC 6.8

so PVC is best.... but these rates are x 10^-10 so the differences are pretty damn small and I suspect anything other than silicon would do just fine.

4mm Flexible irrigation hose for micro-sprays made from plasticised PVC (pPVC) is only $6 for 10m

The stiffer polyethylene micro-spray hose is only $3 for 10m.

I'm going to lay out $6 at my local sprinkler shop and do a little test. If I put a bubble-counter at each end of the 10m run and the rate is the same at each end with a little back-pressure applied then I'm not sure of any reason not to go this route. Alternatively I guess I could pressurise the whole length to 20psi and see if it holds pressure. Rex Griggs sells polyurethane CO2 tubing for 70c/foot and its a bit more flexible than the other stuff so it might be good too.​



​ Plumbing!

Nearly ready to plant out - but in the meantime its another $150+ down at the irrigation shop for plumbing.

I want to minimise hardware in the tank as much as possible so CO2 reactor and heaters are all external under the tank.

I'm using 2 x Eheim 2217's each with a 250W Jager heater in a DIY external enclosure. Each filter loop is independently plumbed and located at each end of the tank. One system can be taken off-line for maintentance or repairs. Redundancy is a good thing.

Various taps and screw-up fittings allow me to dissassemble and remove any one component without breaking the siphon or flooding the floor. I've tried to keep the pipes all bigger than the standard for the Eheims (16mm ID inflow and 13mm ID outflow) so I used 20mm inflow and 15mm outflow. Bigger pipes = less flow resistance. The various hose barbs are 19mm irrigation fittings.

All the plumbing is on the suction side of the filter - if any leaks did eventuate the filter would suck in air and I'd be alerted to the problem by the filter burps - this is a whole lot better than having a leak on the return side where water would spray out under pressure!


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The CO2 reactor is 450mm long 90mm stormwater pipe - I cut holes in the end-caps with a hole saw and glued in 3/4" tap spiggots. There is no media inside. CO2 bubbles will be injected into the inflowing water stream and they will be trapped in the top of the reactor and dissolve in due course. The filters are 1000l/h but with a 90mm diameter the flow downward in the reactor should be slow enough that all the CO2 bubbles stay trapped at the top. I'm using transparent hose between the CO2 injection point and the top of the CO2 reactor so this acts as the bubble counter. The reactor is oversize but I wanted to minimise the leakage of any gas into the canister filter to prevent "burps". If any CO2 did escape it will then have to get through the canister filter. ​


The DIY heater enclosure is a design based on this thread on plantedtank.net but I've chosen bigger diameter pipe to keep the flow resistance low. The Heyco 1" Watertight Cordgrip carries an IP68 rating which in english means "allow for continuous submersion in up to 2m of water" - its a perfect fit on the Jager heater (and any other 25mm glass heater). I couldnt find white PVC bushes to go from the 25mm thread to the 50mm waterpipe so I had to use the black threaded poly "T" and reducing bushes which were more expensive. I think all-up each enclosure is around $40 in parts.

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My little improvement on the design is clear in the photo below - I added an optical prism to allow the heater light to be visible. This is just a short length of 5mm transparent acrylic rod pressed into a drilled hole using a vice. The acrylic rod cost me 45 minutes in the car for 1.8m at a whopping $1.30 and I have 1.75m left over! It was just luck that the heater light in the Jager heater lines up exactly with the hexagonal collar of the Heyco fitting. With a single heater it possibly isn't so critical - but I want to ballance the two heaters to ensure they are sharing the work equally so I wanted to know when the heaters are on or off. I must say I'm pretty happy with this.

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FWIW - you can buy Pentair brand external heater enclosures from aquasonic.com.au though I dont know the price. If they are only $20 then I'm a goose.

I specifically chose 2 x 250W heaters because I wanted two heaters for redundancy but not too big so that if one heater ever gets stuck on permanently then hopefully it wont raise the tank temperature too high too fast. I think with modern electronic thermostat heaters the probablitly of one sticking on is actually pretty minimal (old/cheap heaters that use a bi-metalic strip for the thermostat are more prone to this). In our house 500W should be enough.

I have the base layer of laterite "brew" in the tank and have played a bit with wood positioning but I'll save this for the next post. I need to complete the substrate, hardscape and planting in one step as I dont want the driftwood drying out - it is currently sunk in the bottom of our spa.​

​ Planted at last!

After a 3 week delay with plants in tubs, buckets, vases and tanks....the lighting control gear finally came back from OSRAM as warranty replacements.

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Substrate

The substrate has been sitting in the tank for a week - is really three layers.

Bottom layer is a mix of 6cm gravel and 5cm zeolite coated with red soil 'pseudo-laterite' collected from the Jameson River valley in Victoria. I also threw a small bag of smashed/blended vermiculite into the mix for good measure. I put about 50-80mm of this base layer in - less at the front.

The next layer is about 20mm thick and has a small amount of red dirt (a couple of cups) mixed into 40kg of fine 2mm gravel - this made a slightly dirty fine gravel layer.

Capping is only a thin - 10mm of clean washed 2mm gravel (another 25kg).

The idea here is that shallow rooted plants could get some benefit from a bit of clay in the near-surface layers of gravel (maybe one day I'll plant glosso or HC). Of course this means that moving plants around could be a dirty operation, but the amount of red clay used in this fine gravel layer was really not a lot so the cloud that puffs up from pulling shallow stems is really quite manageable. All the photos in this post are 2 days after planting, and I moved plants around a fair bit while planting so you can see that it didnt make a lot of mess.

Plants!!

Planting was a 7hr marathon. 7pm to 3am ​ I think it took 3 hours just tying stuff to wood. I used thin fishing line so it was a little fiddly.

The water is still a bit cloudy but its clearing. The internal filters and heater are only temporary - the filters have fine kitchen cloths wrapped around the filter core to catch suspended clay particles to clear the water faster - works well! In another day or so I'll add a pair of eheim 2217's and the external heater modules down into the cupboard below - these filters have been seeding on a small 70l tank for the last 3 months so are fully colonised by nitrifying bacteria.

The planting plan and plant selection is more of a dogs breakfast rather than following a particular style or theme. No origami or shitake here ​. Rather this is where I indulge my collectoritis and just have a bit of fun. I have another natural tank were rules are to be followed.

A couple of important points...

1) the surface layer of gravel is homogenous 2mm grit. The emphasis for this tank is on the plants - not the gravel and I want to be free to move things around a lot willy-nilly without worrying about terraces or rock features. The occasional pebble is just scattered on the top and can be moved around freely. I want this tank to remain very flexible so I can try different plants out over time. This is a primary reason for not investing heavily in hardscape. No white sand Amano rivers for me!

2) the two pieces of wood are just sitting on the gravel. I can lift them in and out freely for trimming/rearranging.

3) Plants are a mix of high and low light, ferns and stem plants - because they are simply plants I wanted to grow. I've never had a tank with java fern and moss tied to wood. I do now. I've also never grown chain-sword and blyxa...but now I am.. and I'm happy about it! - self-indulgence is such a curse... pass the chocolate!! ​

4) Plant heavily up front and re-scape/prune later.

Plant list!

Blyxa japonica
Echinodorus tenellus - pygmy chain sword
Heteranthera zosterifolia - star grass
Hygrophila corymbosa 'kompakt'
Hygrophila polysperma 'rosanervig'
Ludwigia repens
Ludwigia palustris
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Microsorum pteropus 'Narrow/needle leaf Java Fern'
Microsorum pteropus - Java fern
Nymphaea sp. 'Tiger Lotus'
Pogostemon stellatus
Rotala mexicana
Rotala occultiflora - Rotala green
Rotala wallichii
Vallisneria nana - thin val.
Vesicularia dubyana - Java moss


A little more on the lighting.

My lighting schedule is this.

8am - 10am 3 x 20W halogen "sunrise/sunset" lights
10am - 3pm Two outer 150W halides
1pm - 6pm Inner 150W halide
6pm - 10pm 3 x 20W halogen "sunrise/sunset" lights

...so each halide is on for only 5 hours but staggered to give me 8 hours of bright daylight with a 2 hour period in the middle when all 3 halides are on at the same time. The sunrise/sunset time gives extended twighlight viewing. As the plants grow in and the tank settles into an algae-free masterpiece ​ I'll extend the lighting period a bit more.

It looks like this......

3 x 20W halogen "sunrise/sunset" lights

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Mid-morning - 2 outer halides

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Noon - all three halides

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Late afternoon - single halide

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Evening twilight
....same as sunrise - 3 x 20W halogen "sunrise/sunset" lights


When the two outer halides are on (mid-morning) the light across the tank is surprisingly even - certainly duller in the middle but not as much as you'd think. Plants in the middle of the tank are pearling at this time too.

A couple of closer views


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Fish!!

Currently planning for big schools of little fish.

14 x Corydoras sterbai
40-60 x Iriatherina werneri
75-100 x Pseudomugil gertrudae

Possibly some Oto's and some shrimp!​



​ Just a small update with clear water.

During the day...

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^ Photo curtesy of Cloudy ​


During the evening...

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This last one is a pretty realistic of the light levels with the 3x20W Halogen "sunset lights". Its easily enough light to see the twighlight happenings in the tank. Currently 4 Oto's and 14 Corydoras sterbai all come out to play as the sun goes down.

The corner filter will go soon - just havnt had time.​

​ OK then... ​

Pre-fish update!

Years ago I had a 5x2x2 with a single breeding pair of Cichlasoma manaquense. He was big and rough and there was domestic violence in the tank whenever they were not breeding. Beautiful fish, but not always relaxing to watch.

Now I'm after BIG schools of little fish!!!

I've ordered 50 Iriatherina werneri and 70 Pseudomugil gertrudae from Dave @ Aquagreen and if things work out ok I may have them next week! YAY!!

I also ordered some "Davo Shrimp" (Caridina longistrostris) which are desperately needed...

So....back to the tank.

I finally completed the under tank plumbing and removed the internal power filters. External plumbing is working a treat!

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Water comes into the Eheim 2217 - out to the external heater chamber and on the right side it goes into the CO2 reactor before going back to the tank. I used 25mm clear tubing between the heater and the CO2 reactor as a bubble counter. I tried to keep the pipe diameters BIG to reduce flow resistance. The bubble counter looks like its full of bubbles but those are bacteria colonies that grow on the inside of the tubing. I drilled a hole and glued a 4mm irrigation nipple into the ball valve at the exit from the heater chamber to inject the CO2. The bright yellow cable ties are just some extra security on the gas line.

I'm glad I plumbed all this on the pressure side of the filter - not the suction side as I was intending originally. With all these threaded connections I used about 5 rolls of teflon tape and still got a couple of leaks at first (dissasemble and use more tape!). By shutting off the ball valves (blocking all the flow) it allowed me to pressure test for leaks. All rock solid now.

I thought about plumbing in a water change drain - but decided against it to remove the potential catastrophe of a visiting child or well-meaning vacation fish-feeder turning the wrong tap and draining the tank!

I currently have a school of 14 Corydoras sterbai in the tank - along with 7 Oto's and 3 Whiteclouds (aka canaries!).

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Plants are doing really well but I am battling with hair algae and residual BBA. When I first set up the tank I ran it for a couple of weeks without the reactor. I just plumbed the CO2 into a powerhead but it was a bit low and BBA reared up and sprouted all over. Since increasing the CO2 it hasnt spread any more and has declined in some places. I'm starting some direct application of dilute Gluteraldehyde on pieces to get rid of it (lifting wood from the tank and squirting it on).

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Shot above - really healthy Blyxa japonica. Going nuts. Hygrophilla corymbosa 'kompact' showing fantastic lime-green new growth.

And a new addition - Madagascar Lace Plant in the background. I've always wanted one since I was knee high and I found it at my LFS! Its just now throwing up its first new leaf since I put it in the tank.


The damn Oto's keep stealing the Corydoras food. They seem to love the New Life Spectrum H2O stable wafers. Which is good because when this tank is algae free they need to eat something. I've switched to Hikari Sinking Wafers now which the Oto's leave alone - so they should bloody well get hungry and go back to WORK!!!

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​ Hair algae is getting the best of me at the moment. Davo shrimp are coming. I'm really glad I set up the tank with the wood just sitting on the sand - I can remove the whole thing from the tank easily, scrub then chemically bomb it. Most of the algae got a foothold before the plants really got going. I'm kidding myself that I'm winning - the wood below hasn't been scrubbed yet - can you tell?

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Above - you can see the worst of the BBA fringing the needle leaved java fern... but its on the way out and I picked off a fair bit since this was taken. Its weird that most other plants dont have any BBA at all - even the big Java Fern at the other end of the tank. More importantly - check out all the new growth!!! These guys are lovin' it under the halides. The upper clump with the 3 new shoots against the wood is windelov. It didn't like living in a bucket while the lighting control gear got replaced and the old growth became an algae magnet (staghorn) and was really tatty so I've been cutting it all off. The new growth is coming on fast and without algae.


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Once the algae is under control and the shrimp are in to help control it I'd like to increase the light duration - currently each halide is on for only 6 hours though with staggering the entire light period is 8 hours. The plants are very green - not much red - even in the sunset hygro (pic above). I've cut down on the NO3 in my daily dose (I'm doing a PPS-PRO'esque dosing) but I may lower the lights a little - or extend the duration to give that extra light punch - not until the hair algae is under control though!


The stem plants had shoddy old growth but most have now been trimmed at least once - removing the pre-tank old growth and replanting the new growth.

next stop.... fish!​

​ Why I have open topped tanks. ​

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New camera! Canon A720IS.
No more red lines 1/3 of the way through every shot!

Takes a nice macro too!

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Might be getting some little fishies next week.​

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I gave the tank a pretty massive prune. All the stems at the back came out and were soaked in potassium permanganate solution for 20 mins to burn off the filamentous algae that was plaguing me. It worked a treat and the plants didnt suffer at all. I then lowered the light to 4 hours a day and added 20 "Davo Shrimp" Caridina longistrostris and I'm now getting it under control.

Finally got some fish!!!

There are approx 60 Cadell River Iriatherina werneri from Aquagreen.

I've built the school in installments with a number of shipments from Dave.

I made a tragic mistake with my first shipment of fish by having the tank too cold at 24C. I acclimatised the fish OK over many hours, but in the next 3 weeks the death rate was very high and a surface fungus/velvet/discolouration was visible on many of the fish before they died. I was a total noob. These fish live in warmer water. Raising the temp to 27-29 and the deaths stopped. I simply forgot that these fish live naturally in much warmer water... so I failed in my duty of care and lost 30 fish because of it. ​

I made damn sure my water parameters were spot-on and the new arrivals have been very healthy.

I posted a bunch of pics to show they school brilliantly and drift from one end of the tank to the other. Feeding time is a real treat.

I have been planning to add 40-50 spotted blue-eyes to the tank also but now I'm starting to think a massive threadfin school is pretty damn impressive by itself. I'd like to breed a few more and lift the population up to 100 if I'm able.

I wasn't prepared for how big they get. All the one's I've seen in shops are tiny. I'm stoked with them. Most of the school are young but there are a couple of bigger males. They are gaining colour every day and when they display it gets the whole room talking. Just gorgeous fish.

I'm currently feeding them frozen brineshrimp nauplii, grated adult brine shrimp, some crushed stinky pellets from Dave and a few baby freshly hatched mozzie wrigglers. These fish have tiny mouths and need tiny food. I'm thinking I might introduce some blackworms to my wifes Bamix soon. ​

Sorry I dont have a better camera and there are reflections of me in some pics ​

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Last shot is a juvenile waterhouse snail Notopala waterhousei from Dave @ Aquagreen. I think they will struggle in this tank as I'm keeping it very soft for the threadfins. I do add a fair bit of CaSO4 inmy hardness booster so I'm hoping they can grow their shell.​

​ Update!!

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Stem plants in the tank are green and leggy and I've cut all the moss back to bare bones.

I recently did a massive light reduction to kill of spirogyra (filamentous algae) - pics of the bugger and more detail here.

Over christmas we went away for a week and I cut the lights to 1 hour per day for that week. On return I turned the lights off altogether for another 3 days. After a few days of normal lighting we went away for another week and I set the lights back to 1 hour a day again.

Then when I got home I did a massive prune and some rearranging that included soaking all the stem plants in potassium permanganate just in case there were any residual spores of the algae.

I'm cautiously declaring victory. ​

Now due to the extended low light I have a bloom of BBA... but I'm not worried as that will subside now that all the lights and ferts are back to normal.

So...

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A. madagascarensis and the lotus dominate the centre of the tank still. The A. madagascarensis is defying the massess by *thriving* at 28C. Its a monster. I love it!

I've installed a few home made substrate fertilizer balls (laterite clay, blood and bone, Aussie native osmocote) at its base recently but otherwise it has been a set-and-forget plant for me. more pics

... and its about to flower!!!!!! ​ (below)

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A. madagascarensis bud (centre). The stalk was 4cm long yesterday afternoon. Today it is 24cm long!



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I currently have about 60 I. werneri threadfins in the tank along with 16 Corydoras sterbai and about 20 Caridina longistrostris. I'm looking to add about 40 spotted blue-eyes soon.

Lots of live food, lots of displaying by the werneri but no eggs being produced as yet. Apparently the two weeks I was away and not feeding the fish at all were not appreciated!

You can see that Rotala macrandra has started to go red on the new growth now the lights are back on! In the tank shots above and below you can see it turned rather green.


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This is the left side of the tank. Thats Rotala wallichii at the back screaming for more light in front of some star-grass. I removed all the E. tennellus and moved the blyxa into the corner. This was to give me "play space" where I could try new plants and maybe.... just maybe... get Rotala mexicana a little more light so it could come back....

After reading some posts on APC regarding soft water and Rotalas I have now cut back Nitrates (< 5ppm) and increased Magnesium. I've given up on adding Baking Soda and Melbourne water is very soft. Normal parameters for me are KH 1-2, GH 4, pH 6.4. CO2 is "many" bubbles per second on a timer 8am-6pm. (GH boosted with my home brew GH booster made to be like Seachem's Equilibrium).

With more Magnesium and lower Nitrates I'm now seeing definite improvements in both Rotala occultiflora and Rotala mexicana.


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This is a close up of the recent new growth of Rotala mexicana. It still looks pretty shabby as this is the red variant! however its better than the rotting sticks I had previously! ​ I have put a few DIY fert balls under this also.


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This is the right side of the tank. Not a lot going on here. There is a load of Pogo behind the wood and java fern that really didn't like the low light period at all. But it is storming back now..

You can see I'm still persisting with Ranunculus inandatus (far left) but its a lost cause at 60cm depth - esp with the lace plant shading it so much and 2 weeks without light!! I was aiming for a ground cover.. it won't happen in this tank.

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Came back from christmas hols to find a lovely star-grass flower (Heteranthera zosterifolia).

Made my day at the time! ​​

​ Just a wee update as the tanks will be pulled down in a 6 weeks (moving house)

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And from left to right....

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These photos are the very green looking start point after a massive trim. I've been running with just 5 hours of light (staggering the middle light to be on 1 hour later) in another attempt to beat spirogyra (green filamentous algae). Over Easter I did a total blackout for four days. Never again. My Aponogeton madagascariensis melted completely...every leaf... even new ones that were on their way up just decomposed. As you can see its making a recovery now...albeit slowly (middle of tank). I nearly lost my Rotala mexicana and Rotala occultiflora completely.

I've also been running a nutrient deprivation attack on spirogyra. No macro ferts and trace since Easter!. Just CO2 and water changes. The result is that I have less spirogyra than before, but nearly all plants in the tank went white and stopped growing and the algae kept on truckin' along albeit with reduced vigour and in less numbers.

Looking at the poor health of the plants was enough to make baby Jesus cry so last week I turned on the ferts again and plant recovery has been explosive... I expect in a few weeks I'll be cursing the algae some more but at this point I dont care.

Since I'm pulling the tanks down to move in 6 weeks I want the plants as healthy as possible so as of yesterday I'm back to 10 hours of light and daily ferts. ..... I put 4 rosey barbs in to see if they can chew off the filamentous algae as it grows. I'm watching them closely because there are 70 Threadfins and 40 Spotted Blue-eyes in the tank too... but so far the rosey barbs are too busy bossing each other around and are leaving everyone else alone. Its too early to see if they make any inroads on the algae.

When I move I'll be putting the fish and shrimp into plastic Bunnings bins for a month or more and at that time I'll nuke the plants and gravel with copper and start the tank again.... maybe with a bit of aquascaping this time!

Lastly - I'm finding a few baby Corydoras sterbai in the tank now. I had a school of 16 in there (now 20+) that I rarely see apart from dinner time - they hide in the shade under the wood and plants near the back of the tank most of the time. Maybe the new generation will be more adventurous.

Oh... and I have a single Pennyfish that I saw yesterday for the first time in 4 months. He snuck in with some threadfins from Dave (Aquagreen) and has been lurking at the back deep in the jungle ever since!​

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​ I always get a kick out of plants flowering in the tank. This is my third time growing Ottelia ulvifolia. In the past I've killed the plant before ever seeing flowers from battling BBA and spirogyra with blackouts and gluteraldehyde. This plant is sensitive to gluteraldehyde and melts away. This time around I've only done the odd spot dose of peroxide and otherwise the tanks been well behaved.... and therefore...so are the plants!

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Aponogeton crispus doing its thing too
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End of the road...

Tonight doing a water change I discovered both top braces on the tank had separated from one side allowing the long side glass to bow.

This has put stress on the end joins and they have lost grip at the top too.

Looks like Sat morning will be spent doing the phone around to buy a new 6x2x2 tank ​

on the plus side... caught in time and not a drop spilt on the floor and no loss of life ​ I was half way though a water change... so I dropped the level to 50% and braced the top with wood while I develop a plan.

.. if anyone knows where to purchase a quality 6x2x2 with polished edges in Melbourne... please advise!

now I start the bucket brigade out to the shed to try and rehome plants and fish in smaller tanks and tubs.


Wooden braces holding the tank so I can keep it half full for a bit.


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See the corner silicon - dodged a bullet tonight... could have been a very wet wake up if I hadn't chosen to trim a few plants tonight.
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​ No luck finding a replacement tank this morning.. but feelers are now out.

I think the tank will hold in this configuration for a while so that takes the pressure off a bit.

My shallow garden. The monster Ottelia ulvafolia in the middle might have to go as its shading a lot. I've already cut off 30% of the fronds. Might be a good opportunity to get some flowering as many plants will see the drop in water level as a natural wetland drying experience that is often a trigger for flowering. (silver lining!)

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