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Post by Carl on Mar 5, 2016 20:45:20 GMT -5
I am at a loss as to the Seachem fert dosing. I have 14 Anubis plants, 4 Java lace plants, 2 Lily plants, 2 Blyxia auberti, Pellia and 2 jumbo banana plants. I just added 11 plants from aquariumplants.com and don't want to over dose or under dose. I think my plants out weight the fish now but do need advice... I backed off to;5.5 g Flourish every 3 days, 6.5g Excel every day, CO2 injected 1 bps prior to getting more plants. My tank is a 75 gallon but only has 65 gallons of water after driftwood and substrate. Richard Are you observing any issues, such as poor growth, yellowing of leaves, etc? If no notable problems are occurring, one way to tweak ferts (or chemistry additives for this matter) is to back off until to note undesirable issues (such as poor growth, yellow leaves). You also may not need much or any Flourish Excel if injecting CO2 Carl
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Post by childofiam on Mar 6, 2016 14:23:18 GMT -5
I am at a loss as to the Seachem fert dosing. I have 14 Anubis plants, 4 Java lace plants, 2 Lily plants, 2 Blyxia auberti, Pellia and 2 jumbo banana plants. I just added 11 plants from aquariumplants.com and don't want to over dose or under dose. I think my plants out weight the fish now but do need advice... I backed off to;5.5 g Flourish every 3 days, 6.5g Excel every day, CO2 injected 1 bps prior to getting more plants. My tank is a 75 gallon but only has 65 gallons of water after driftwood and substrate. Richard Are you observing any issues, such as poor growth, yellowing of leaves, etc? If no notable problems are occurring, one way to tweak ferts (or chemistry additives for this matter) is to back off until to note undesirable issues (such as poor growth, yellow leaves). You also may not need much or any Flourish Excel if injecting CO2 Carl I have a little yellowing on some leaf edges but these plants are new. I have yellowing between the leaf veins that started to develop a month ago when I was doing dosing by label amounts. I thought I had a iron problem but it didn't mater if I increased or decreased iron nothing changed. Seachem says that you can't measure Flourish iron with their test kit because of the type of iron it is so I didn't know if I had too much Iron or too little. Right now the older plants are growing new roots and leaves sense the algae problem has stopped. The green algae was covering their roots as well as on the leaves. I did a Excel bath 2 weeks ago but left the plants in the solution about 40 minutes so maybe I hurt them a little but the growth has started again. With Anubis plants that grow real slow it is hard for me to understand what is slow and what is fast. When I had the old LED lighting and fast growing plants I was having to prune the plants every other day and didn't really enjoy the exploded plant growth so this is why I like the Anubis and Java ferns. The green algae was real slow growing until something happened that caused it to just rapidly cover everything in no time at all. This could have been because I added new TMC lights and that I had positioned them 2 inches above the water surface. The black beard algae is gone and the brown diatoms are no longer an issue on the plants. I do have a bag of Florite that I am going to put under the Lilies and cover with sand. All of this is why I backed off to the basic fert of Flourish every 3 days. Richard
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Post by Carl on Mar 7, 2016 10:38:01 GMT -5
I have a little yellowing on some leaf edges but these plants are new. I have yellowing between the leaf veins that started to develop a month ago when I was doing dosing by label amounts. I thought I had a iron problem but it didn't mater if I increased or decreased iron nothing changed. Seachem says that you can't measure Flourish iron with their test kit because of the type of iron it is so I didn't know if I had too much Iron or too little. I honestly have rarely added liquid iron supplements, so I cannot claim too much expertise in this area. I have to admit this is a product I sell at AAP because persons have simply requested it. In fact what I usually did for yellowing or for better coloring of red plants (such as Red Ludwgia), was to use root tabs (containing iron) or even a nail next to the roots. I cannot say this was 100% successful (more like 50%), as lack of iron is not necessarily the problem Once new growth starts, both with leaves and roots, this often solves algae on leaf issues. I know when I would trim many older leaves, this would encourage new growth and improve algae issues. While I have only trimmed roots a few times, I know of some who claim some similar results doing this as well. Anubias is a plant I have many of in clients aquariums & I will will agree knowing what is fast growth could be rather subjective. This said, as I noted earlier, this is a plant I have often trimmed old tired looking leaves and this would encourage new growth in most instances Black Beard Algae is one that responds to lighting or better quality of light more than most. As well BB algae also is reported to be controlled by increased CO2 (I say reported as this is something I never experimented with) Reference: www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2008/04/aquarium-algae.html#bbaCarl
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Post by childofiam on Mar 21, 2016 8:43:18 GMT -5
I had moved the aggressive fish out of the 75 and put them in the 37 because I want to breed Sterbia Corydoris. Both of my tanks have the same heater, the "Aquatop Aquarium Digital Dual Display Heaters". Last Wednesday, when I woke up I noticed a dead female tiger barb in the 37 and when I was netting her out I realized something was wrong; the water was hot. I looked at the heater and it said 92 degrees. I ended up loosing a male and a female African leaf fish and all seven tiger barbs. I had looked at the reviews when purchasing the heaters and this was a issue reported in the reviews two years back so I thought... "Well they fixed the problem by now". I have had these heaters about a year and had no problems until now...So, they have not fixed the problem! Do not even think about buying this heater!!! I added 20 Neon tetras to the 75 and am in the process of lowering my KH to 5 dkh and GH to 6 dkh. Both the Neon's and Cory's like the soft water. I turned the 37 gallon tank into a RO collection tank. I marked off the glass at 5 gallon intervals in order to know how much RO was in the tank for buffering. I then move the RO unit to this corner in my Aqua room with the tank that I blacked out with black poster board to prevent light from entering. I also have a air line inside a 1 inch tube to lift the water from the bottom to the surface for stirring and oxygenation. I covered the tank with a glass hinged lid to prevent evaporation. I did a 25 gallon water change yesterday in the 75 by pumping the water out to the pond and then moving the pump to the RO tank to fill the 75 back up. This took less than 2 minutes to do... the next stage is to plumb everything in so I won't have to move the pump from one tank to the other. I will use the canister filter's to pump the old H2O out of the 75 by simply opening a valve on the return. New pics of the tank: and a Water Iris Richard Attachments:
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Post by Carl on Mar 21, 2016 9:02:47 GMT -5
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Mar 21, 2016 11:18:25 GMT -5
So much green I love your aquarium corner! The RO station looks clean!
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Post by childofiam on Mar 21, 2016 12:12:49 GMT -5
This is why I ordered new heaters from AAP because I know I can trust your research. I can't take a chance of this happening to my 75. I will use the one I have now for a back-up until I purchase another one from you as a back-up. I almost purchased the Sunsun heater but decided on the Viva Aqua because you listed it #1 on the page. Richard
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Post by coco on Mar 21, 2016 12:49:40 GMT -5
Sorry about the loss of all your fish. I had a heater fail on me years ago. Same thing, temp was in the 90's. I ended up with a massive columnaris outbreak due to the fact it loves high temps. I was very unhappy. I use the Viva Aqua's in both my tanks now, and have had them for years. They work well.
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Post by Carl on Mar 22, 2016 9:19:30 GMT -5
This is why I ordered new heaters from AAP because I know I can trust your research. I can't take a chance of this happening to my 75. I will use the one I have now for a back-up until I purchase another one from you as a back-up. I almost purchased the Sunsun heater but decided on the Viva Aqua because you listed it #1 on the page. Richard I have been using the Via Aqua Heater for about 25 years now with problems well under a fraction of a percent. The Sunsun is admittedly new to us, so while not problems as yet, I cannot give it the back I have for the Via Aqua Carl
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Post by childofiam on Mar 28, 2016 18:43:00 GMT -5
I had noticed that the FSB filter had really slowed down. The sand was only fluidized a third of what it should be so I serviced it to day. The small stones that came with the filter had lodged themselves in the fins that cause the water to twist as it rises from the bottom. They where so packed in there that I had to use a long knife to get them free. I replaced the rocks with what Carl recommends, Ceramic Pre-Filter Media. After firing the filter back up the sand now fully fluidizes to where it needs to be. I installed a small valve I purchased from AAP in the corner of the elbow that holds the pre filter on the Pump for the CO2 line to be inserted. You cannot see any CO2 bubbles floating anywhere in the tank now. Before, with a defuser the tiny CO2 bubbles where all over the water column. I did have to back off the CO2 to 2bbs because the drop checker was moving to the yellow side. I have a Redox of 259, RH is 30.29, TDS is 366, PH 7.3, KH 89.5, GH 196.9, Ca+ 100, NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 10, CU 0, PO4 0 I just did a 50% H2O change yesterday and this accounts for my NO3 a bit low. I am working on a slow transition of lowering the KH and GH as to not stress out the fish. I am lowering the KH down to 89.5 and the GH to 107.4 This is the preferred softness for my fish. I have a goal to be able to keep Discus but right now I need more experience in maintaining a soft water environment for $1.50 neons before I move on to Discus. Richard
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Post by Carl on Mar 28, 2016 19:56:10 GMT -5
I am happy to read you got this worked out I do not think your KH and GH are all that bad even for Discus, although a little lower might be worth experimenting with for specific wild caught fish I had friend in the LA area who bred Discus in much more hard water than this; both KH & GH Carl
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Mar 30, 2016 16:05:46 GMT -5
That's been the usual cause of the FSB filters slowing down. We also found, sometimes, just hitting the base of the filter, lossens the rock and everything starts fluidizing again. TMC even upgraded the size of the rocks for the filters, but some still have some issue. The rings have helped a lot.
Like your co2 DIY intake. So, is your Co2 going into the sterilizer then? Mine actually does and have not thought there was an issue. I still do see micro bubbles even with going through the Ista co2 reactor.
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Post by childofiam on Mar 31, 2016 3:06:29 GMT -5
That's been the usual cause of the FSB filters slowing down. We also found, sometimes, just hitting the base of the filter, lossens the rock and everything starts fluidizing again. TMC even upgraded the size of the rocks for the filters, but some still have some issue. The rings have helped a lot. Like your co2 DIY intake. So, is your Co2 going into the sterilizer then? Mine actually does and have not thought there was an issue. I still do see micro bubbles even with going through the Ista co2 reactor. The CO2 is only going through the FSB and I am maintaining 25 ppm after slowing the CO2 down to 2 bbs. I believe that the pump size has everything to do with me not seeing micro bubbles. When the CO2 bubble hits the RIO 1100 it is so pulverized that 100% is dissolved in the FSB filter with the help of the sand. Going from 3 bps to 2 bps is a savings of 1/3 CO2 as I see it. That also means that 1/3 of the CO2 I was injecting hit the surface and evaporated. I read somewhere that the good bacteria in the Aquarium utilizes CO2 as well, so I don't think this method will hurt the FSB filter at all. Do you or Carl have any insight on this? I love to tinker with things... The other thing I am tinkering with is Redox and lighting, how lighting effects Redox. I have my lights 8 inches from the surface and am measuring the ORP daily. After a week I am going to raise the lights up 1 inch to see the effect it has on the Redox. Then I will goo back to the 8 inch level for a week and then the next time I will raise the lights 2 inches. I want to do this as well going the other direction with the light closer to the surface. You never know what you will find when you tinker around with things... On the lighter side... a coworker of my wife is retiring this year and he said that he was going to give up on this hobby to travel. He has 4...! 210 gallon tanks. He said he was going to give everything away so I might be getting a 210 gallon tank or two in the near future. Well it is 4 am here, time for some shut eye.... Richard
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Post by childofiam on Mar 31, 2016 14:43:53 GMT -5
Any suggestions on how often I should change the 4dkh water in my drop checker and how many drops of low ph solution I should use. This is my Drop checker, it holds 1 ml of dkh water plus drops Richard
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Post by childofiam on Mar 31, 2016 16:39:59 GMT -5
I had a whole house porcelain Iron filter installed today. It is a Kinetico Iron filter seen here, www.kinetico.com/water-filter/It is designed to remove all iron from tap water. My RO water TDS went from 9-11 to a 2 That my friends is a big difference. Now the RO water flows as a steady stream instead of a drip drip drip drip type of flow. Before it would take about 10 minutes to get 250 ml of RO water.... now it is about 1 minute to get the same amount... Richard
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Post by Carl on Mar 31, 2016 18:00:02 GMT -5
I had a whole house porcelain Iron filter installed today. It is a Kinetico Iron filter seen here, www.kinetico.com/water-filter/It is designed to remove all iron from tap water. My RO water TDS went from 9-11 to a 2 That my friends is a big difference. Now the RO water flows as a steady stream instead of a drip drip drip drip type of flow. Before it would take about 10 minutes to get 250 ml of RO water.... now it is about 1 minute to get the same amount... Richard GREAT! This made a big improvement, a product I should note to readers of my RO/DI article I would suggest a change every two weeks Maybe because I am tired as heck, but I do not understand the second part of this question? Carl
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Post by childofiam on Mar 31, 2016 18:15:21 GMT -5
I cleaned my ORP meter with PH 2.0 water I made with Seachem acid buffer as per the video posted under the Ecosense ORP meter; www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL_hyqChpRo&feature=youtu.beThat was the first time I saw the ORP meter when fired up drop down to -630. After I calibrated it again to +350 in distilled water the distilled water showed a +352 mv when I left calibration mode and put it in the distilled water again. Im still not sure if I have it calibrated right yet even tho I have watched Devons video about 10 times. I entered calibration mode and placed the meter in distilled water then set the meter to +350 and hit the saved button that took me out of calibration mode. Devon... did I do this right? Richard
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Apr 1, 2016 12:32:57 GMT -5
The CO2 is only going through the FSB and I am maintaining 25 ppm after slowing the CO2 down to 2 bbs. I believe that the pump size has everything to do with me not seeing micro bubbles. When the CO2 bubble hits the RIO 1100 it is so pulverized that 100% is dissolved in the FSB filter with the help of the sand. Going from 3 bps to 2 bps is a savings of 1/3 CO2 as I see it. That also means that 1/3 of the CO2 I was injecting hit the surface and evaporated. I read somewhere that the good bacteria in the Aquarium utilizes CO2 as well, so I don't think this method will hurt the FSB filter at all. Do you or Carl have any insight on this? I see. Ok. Well you'll be testing this one. Since the filter is aerobic, I'd be afraid of driving out the needed o2. I have a hard time thinking this could be a real issue, but it could be less than optimal. Never tested it though. I love to tinker with things... The other thing I am tinkering with is Redox and lighting, how lighting effects Redox. I have my lights 8 inches from the surface and am measuring the ORP daily. After a week I am going to raise the lights up 1 inch to see the effect it has on the Redox. Then I will goo back to the 8 inch level for a week and then the next time I will raise the lights 2 inches. I want to do this as well going the other direction with the light closer to the surface. You never know what you will find when you tinker around with things... We jut rant this experiment at our fun Broken Aquarium Site. We found that light would be a reducer, but there could be certain nm of light, that are oxidizing. www.brokenaquarium.com/2016/03/23/experiment-2-light-and-fish-health/On the lighter side... a coworker of my wife is retiring this year and he said that he was going to give up on this hobby to travel. He has 4...! 210 gallon tanks. He said he was going to give everything away so I might be getting a 210 gallon tank or two in the near future. Oh really! Now what would you do with that awesome giant tank! I had a whole house porcelain Iron filter installed today. It is a Kinetico Iron filter seen here, www.kinetico.com/water-filter/It is designed to remove all iron from tap water. My RO water TDS went from 9-11 to a 2 That my friends is a big difference. Now the RO water flows as a steady stream instead of a drip drip drip drip type of flow. Before it would take about 10 minutes to get 250 ml of RO water.... now it is about 1 minute to get the same amount... Great news! I cleaned my ORP meter with PH 2.0 water I made with Seachem acid buffer as per the video posted under the Ecosense ORP meter; www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL_hyqChpRo&feature=youtu.beThat was the first time I saw the ORP meter when fired up drop down to -630. After I calibrated it again to +350 in distilled water the distilled water showed a +352 mv when I left calibration mode and put it in the distilled water again. Im still not sure if I have it calibrated right yet even tho I have watched Devons video about 10 times. I entered calibration mode and placed the meter in distilled water then set the meter to +350 and hit the saved button that took me out of calibration mode. Devon... did I do this right? I had this issue too... First, we need to calibrate to +250mV, not 350. Then yup, it should fire up a -XXX...Ours has been starting up a -1000mV. You have to press mode for 2 sec to get into calibration Place in solution Press Hold to change ORP Value Pres Mode or scroll to increase values Press Store for 2 seconds to return to Measuring mode HERE'S THE PART I MISSED UP ON Press MODE to display the ORP Values Sorry I run though it quickly in the video. I wish I could have a better close of the screen as I read the directions... Hope this helps.
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Post by childofiam on Apr 1, 2016 20:36:34 GMT -5
I fired up my RO unit this afternoon and WOW... I did not have to flush the unit as I did before the Iron filter addition. The TDS started out at 9 and after about 5 minutes it was down to 2 TDS's Devon, thanks for the ORP Info. It was unclear weather I calibrated at 250 or 350 because it was hard to understand your northern accent.... I'm a southern boy who has lost his accent but still have to talk realllll slooowwww to his kin folk or they don't understand me. LOL I reconfigured my filtering system today to remove one pump from inside the tank. I moved the FSB inline with the Other two filters. It goes like this:Inlet- Sponge pre-filters to FSB to Sunsun 304b to Fuval to V200 UV to discharge. Video to come... Richard PS... Didn't think about driving out the O2 from the FSB with the CO2. I broke the plastic elbow today so I have put the defuser disk back in for now.
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Post by Carl on Apr 2, 2016 10:12:52 GMT -5
Not much to add other than thanks Devon for the well thought out, in depth response!!!! Carl
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