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

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Cugio

Hey Tony, I have the same Red Sea co2 reactor and it does a very good job. But you have to keep it clean which means washinging it out every 3 weeks. Since you haven't done a water change for a while, i'm sure it's efficiency has been minimized.

Actually I do keep the reactor reasonably clean. It's more a question of being forced into it - I have these little snails (ramshorn maybe? But tiny) that get in there and jam it up otherwise, so I have to take it apart completely to get those things out of there.

When I reset the CO2 initiative, I soaked it in a mild muriatic acid solution because it was covered in algae. Hair algae is the bane of this tank's existence and scraping it off wasn't cutting it (well, poor choice of words, it was ONLY cutting it, only for it to come back quickly). After its little bath there it was spotless and shiny and remains so still luckily.

Actually, a lot of plant people are moving over to sumps. You do have to crank up the co2 a bit but it should still be measureable (unlike your circumstance). Tom Barr (estimative index - plant guru) has a thread on his site going about his own tank with sump. It's been doing very well and he has no problems optimizing the co2 levels.

This is good to know, thanks. It's funny but I totally took this FW tank and applied a reef tank mentality towards it. It's been reasonably fun except when I had itty bitty fish keep going over the overflow. Between adding mesh to the overflow and not getting too small a fish it's gotten better.

I would keep that Tunze turned on, just don't point it towards the water surface. You just want enough surface agitation to move a few circles around. With your overflow, there is no need to worry about any scum build up.

Yes this is a nice benefit to this approach.

How is your drip plate setup? Is the water tumbling into a filter pad and then dispersed via a drip plate?

Exactly as you describe - filter floss and drip plate.

Try cleaning the reactor first. You can completely dissassemble the clear plastic part. the bottom round circle needs to be pulled off with pliers. You need to take the impeller out and give the motor a good rinse too. Then dial your co2 to 2 bubbles per minute. I like to put vegetable oil into my bubble counter verus using water. Refill your co2 drop checker/indicator and check with again in 24 hours.

2 bubbles per minute? I don't think I can dial back my regulator and needle valve that much.

Water flow and movement is very important. The more circulation the faster the co2 can spread. It sounds like you don't have a drop checker and are measuring with a test kit?

Er .. no, I'll say no since I have no idea what a drop checker is. For testing pH I've used both a pH test kit and a pH meter. Had the pH meter from the days of running a calcium reactor on the reef tank, same reason I have the 20lb cylinder actually.

What is a drop checker, can you post a link by any chance? (I'll google for it too in the meantime but please and thank you anyhow )

whops, I meant bubbles per second.

http://greenleafaquariums.com/co2-drop-checkers.html

[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?

[cale262]

Originally Posted by Cugio

Tom Barr (estimative index - plant guru) has a thread on his site going about his own tank with sump. It's been doing very well and he has no problems optimizing co2

Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember reading that Tom was having issues with co2 and corrected it by sealing his sump, making it mostly air tight utilizing plastic sheets and duct tape...which may be worth the effort if you are keeping the sump.

[cale262]

I totally agree with the black fluorite, really makes things pop...

Here's one on my planted system pics with the blackflorite sand on the left side...

Originally Posted by cale262

Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember reading that Tom was having issues with co2 and corrected it by sealing his sump, making it mostly air tight utilizing plastic sheets and duct tape...which may be worth the effort if you are keeping the sump.

Just looked into it and yes you are correct. He sealed the wet/dry trickle part.

[Delphinus]

Got a link to that by any chance? I'd love to read up on that.

Awesome looking tank btw, I like the look of the two different substrates. I wouldn't have guessed it would look so congruent but it has a nice flow to it.

Those cherry shrimps - I'd love to try them but I fear they'd be clown loach food. Is this a baseless concern, should I try some?