Planted FW tanks, substrate, pH and CO2 questions ..

[Delphinus]

Oh ok, that makes more sense, thanks

Thanks for the link too - very interesting stuff. Do you use one?

You bet. I sort of thought everyone did. They are really cheap. I got mie for 5 bucks shipped on ebay.

[StirCrazy]

I say get rid of the sump personaly, you don't want the surface to be turbulant as this will off gas the co2, but ypou can modify it to work. I was actualy thinking of going with a sump for my next one. just going to take a lot to make the surfce still.

If you have a PH meter you don't need a drop checker, they are neat but just for people who don't want to spend the money on a PH meter. I got a PH controler for my tank when I set it up.

the reactor you are using isn't the best, I would go to a proper reactor style I got a bunch of new stuff to set up my freshwater tank just befor I moved.

if I am allowed the mecca of freshwater parts and supplies
http://www.aquariumplants.com/

I used 100% florite for my tank but I like the black look, makes the colors of the fish and plants pop, but this shouldn't be a problem for you. something is raising the PH.. a planted tank will always tend to drop in PH so you have something that is adding hardness and PH to your water so that is where I would look.

what are you adding for food, fertalizer, you putting any calcium based rocks in there for display? any rock that will fizz when you put vinager on it should not be in your planted tank.

Steve

[Delphinus]

If I move up this tank I'd probably lose the sump. For now it's pretty much kind of stuck the way it is. At some point I'd like to move the loaches over to a bigger home (they're about 12 years old now, I got them at 1/2" sometime in the 90's ) so it's on the horizon at some point.

When the tank is cleaned up it actually looks really good with the black substrate (I have black Fluorite or whatever it's called as the top 1" or so) and a black background. Right now though what happens is the hair algae is growing too fast so it only looks nice for about 3-4 days after a massive tank cleanup. I've swapped over the driftwood to new pieces because I just couldn't scrape the old ones clean so for now the old ones are out on the deck getting the algae freeze-dried into oblivion (hopefully anyhow, I don't want to toss them, they're otherwise fairly nice pieces)..

I'll change out the reactor and see what transpires. I kind of think that the one I'm using just isn't up to the job for this particular tank.

Oh .. fertilizer. Right .. Umm .. unfortunately I've fallen behind on that. I used to get all my FW stuff from one shop in town which closed down and I need to do a better job of looking for FW planted supplies when I go LFS hopping.

Do you use a liquid fertilizer or the tabs that you shove into the substrate? Any suggestions for a kind to look for next time I make the LFS rounds?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I've swapped over the driftwood to new pieces because I just couldn't scrape the old ones clean so for now the old ones are out on the deck getting the algae freeze-dried into oblivion (hopefully anyhow, I don't want to toss them, they're otherwise fairly nice pieces)..



Oh .. fertilizer. Right .. Umm .. unfortunately I've fallen behind on that. I used to get all my FW stuff from one shop in town which closed down and I need to do a better job of looking for FW planted supplies when I go LFS hopping.

Do you use a liquid fertilizer or the tabs that you shove into the substrate? Any suggestions for a kind to look for next time I make the LFS rounds?

ok couple things I see, are you using real drift wood from the ocean or are you using the mopani wood? If it is drift wood, thats probably leaching into your tank and raising your hardness.

I could never grow algae in my planted tank, do you have a nice mix of fast and slow growing plants? I did both fertalizers, jobe sticks in the substrate and home made pmdd. there are plenty of sights for home made reactor style co2 difusers that use bioballs, I am just using a media reactor (red one from my excess salt water stuff, can't remember who makes it) and a bunch of bio balls. I have it set up to hang on the outside of the tank. I used a fuval canister filter for my fresh water tank, so the ouput of that is going to feed the reactor then I use a subsurface spray bar to put the water back to the tank. the top of my water is dead calm but there is quite a bit of flow under the surface.

Steve

[Delphinus]

Hi Steve, it's actual Mopani ... er, I think. Come to think of it it might have been labelled Malaysian driftwood. I'm not sure if that's the same thing or not. At any rate it's purchased and not collected. Many years ago I did try using pieces of wood I collected out of streams in the mountains but the stuff would get moldy so that experiment didn't last too long.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Hi Steve, it's actual Mopani ... er, I think. Come to think of it it might have been labelled Malaysian driftwood. I'm not sure if that's the same thing or not. At any rate it's purchased and not collected. Many years ago I did try using pieces of wood I collected out of streams in the mountains but the stuff would get moldy so that experiment didn't last too long.

are you running carbon? Mopani should stain the water and drop the PH, your introducing hardness somewhere....


Steve

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Do you use a liquid fertilizer or the tabs that you shove into the substrate? Any suggestions for a kind to look for next time I make the LFS rounds?

Here is what i use but not regularly

Tony, you can buy from green leaf aquariums. It's much cheaper than any hydroponics store in Calgary.

The only Seachem that I buy is the iron. We have hard water so the iron chelate that you can buy in the fertilizer does not last as long.