My 2009 AGA Entry

October 6, 2009 by Phil Edwards

90g Cameroon Biotope

Plants:
Anubias barteri v. nana
Bolbitis heudelotii
Crinum natans

Fish:
10x Norman’s Lampeyes
2x pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus
5x Microsynodontis sp.

Light:
2x 250w Metal Halide 5hrs/day

This was an experiment and have since changed lights. I wouldn’t recommend doing this. Although there was very little algae maintaining proper nutrition for the plants was almost impossible, especially Iron. Some of the more exposed or higher up plants went chlorotic quickly or were otherwise harmed by the intensity of the light. Prior to switching to PC lighting I was supplimenting a tablespoon (3tsp) of KNO3, 1/2 tsp KH2PO4, 1 tsp CaSO4, 1 tsp K2SO4, 3 tbsp Epsom Salts, and 1/4 tsp CSM+B every other day.

Substrate:
Quartz sand (Paver Base from Home Depot)
Flourite in spots underneath the sand in the rear for the Crinum
Stream pebbles

Left oblique

FTS

Lower Right Side

One of my females feeling brave

Read the original thread on Aquatic Plant Central!

Comments

Page 1 of 2

Phil Edwards

Senior Member

Re: My 2009 AGA Entry

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdinh04

Phil! Finally good to see you around again! The tank looks nice! I love how dominate the look of all those Anubias give. Good luck to you!

Hey John, thanks! It's good to be posting again rather than lurking.

I hope you're doing well.

Regards,
Phil

10-06-2009, 10:20 AM Phil Edwards is offline

MrSanders

Senior Member

Re: My 2009 AGA Entry

Really nice looking tank, Brave move to try so much light! but seems to have worked well. Just curious i noticed your dosing a lot of Mg, and a small amount of Ca... almost in a 6:1 ratio Mg:Ca sort of the opposite that is usually recommended. Do you have really unusual tap water, or have you found a high Mg level to work out better? I also noticed this on the 75 gal. you wrote the article on for TAG that just came out. Curious to find out

10-06-2009, 11:22 AM MrSanders is offline

Phil Edwards

Senior Member

Re: My 2009 AGA Entry

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSanders

Thank you for the compliments. We have really soft tap water where I am so I dose Ca and Mg to harden it as well as to benefit the plants. I added all that Mg in order keep enough in solution for the plants to make Chlorophyll with. I noticed a quick response to increased Mg supplementation and kept up with it until I removed the halides. As far as the 75's concerned, I've been dosing a tablespoon in all my 75s and 90s over the years and it's worked out pretty well so far so I haven't changed it.

Regards,
Phil

10-06-2009, 11:57 AM Phil Edwards is offline

trackhazard Senior Member	Re: My 2009 AGA Entry Wow. That's a butt load of really nice looking anubias! It looks very lush. Do you have any problems with circulation? Is the anubias in the center of the plant mass tied to driftwood? Charlie
10-06-2009, 09:54 AM	#6

Phil Edwards

Senior Member

Re: My 2009 AGA Entry

Quote:

Originally Posted by trackhazard

Wow. That's a butt load of really nice looking anubias! It looks very lush.

Do you have any problems with circulation? Is the anubias in the center of the plant mass tied to driftwood?

Charlie

Trackhazard,

I have two powerheads in the tank providing extra circulation. One moves water on the far (right) side of the tank and another provides cross-tank current from the right rear to the left front.

All of the Anubias, except for the stuff in the very front and sides along the bottom, are tied to wood. The rest of them were secured to rocks so I could place them most effectively.

Regards,
Phil

10-06-2009, 10:17 AM Phil Edwards is offline

vancat Senior Member	Re: My 2009 AGA Entry Very nice! And different! are the kribs very shy?
10-06-2009, 10:05 AM	#8

Phil Edwards

Senior Member

Re: My 2009 AGA Entry

Quote:

Originally Posted by vancat

Very nice! And different!

are the kribs very shy?

Vancat,

Thank you for the kind words. The Kribs aren't normally very shy fish, no. Since there's so much cover for them in this tank they don't really need to leave it in order to get food or anything else. Since the halide light was so bright they tended to stick to the cover and didn't range out very often.

Regards,
Phil

10-06-2009, 10:19 AM Phil Edwards is offline

Chris Noto

Member

Re: My 2009 AGA Entry

Ah, so this is the tank with the MH 250s! Your images do seem to show either overexposure of some of the higher positioned Anubias, or the yellowing that you referred to. The Bolbitis, though, is amazingly dark green.

Your brief discussion of light intensity on Sunday touched my own wondering, which was set off by an article at The Advanced Aquarist, which compared the PAR in a MH lit tank to a Hawaiian reef, and found the maximum intensity in the tank to be about half that on the reef. Since reading that article, I've been wondering what would happen in a planted aquarium at anwhere close to "full sun conditions". Your experiment reveals one answer, but I'm guessing that Anubias, with its slow growth rate, is a shade-adapted genus. I'd really like to see the density of some stem plants under your two 250s. I'm guessing that the internodal lengths would be microscopic, compared to what we see in the average aquascape.

I've really got a soft spot in my heart for the genus Pelvicachromis, and that female is a nice one. I see some quite spherical looking objects under her... could she be guarding eggs?

All the best,
Chris