arowanaman

impresive. It is always more fun when you make a setup piece by piece especially if you make it from scratch. Cant wait till you are planting it curious to see what you do with it.

Six

Great work. I too am going to follow your softscaping

FelixAvery

looks good so far thomas! cant wait to see it finished!

davidsu0630

It looks good really.for you will have a lot to prepare ,take your time.
I am a bit interested with the soil you are using now.can you tell me the descriptions shown on the bag?

teacherthomas

Ran a test today on the tank:

Ph 7.2
Ammonia (NH3/NH4+) = 0.5 mg/l
Nitrates: NO3- = 0.0 mg/l, NO2- = 0.0 ppm
Phosphate PO4 3- = 0.25mg/l
Kh = 3 degrees
Gh = 6 degrees

First time I ever used test kits on a tank so it it interesting to watch how it goes.

Plants quickly about 50% of tank and a piece of driftwood, no layout yet so no pictures. Just wanted to get something in the tank to go with the soil and help establish it as I was using everything new.

What I am considering now is how I will fertilize this tank. Just over the counter premixed stuff common in Taiwan as with a 110L tank the cost won't be that high. Follow the PPS-Pro method or EI Method.

EI for my tank would be:


KH2P04

20-40 Gallon Aquariums
+/- ¼ tsp KN03 3x a week Potassium Nitrate
+/- 1/16 tsp KH2P04 3x a week Monopotassium Phosphate
+/- 1/16 tsp (5ml) Trace Elements 3x a week Plantex CSM+B
50% weekly water change

(all time 1.5 for my 29 gallon tank as the info is for a 20 gallon tank and you double it for a 40gallon) though if I assume I am running a little lean on the light (I will have less then 3 watts per gallon), then I would start of with the above information and adjust it as growth inproves.

EI target ranges
CO2 range 25-30 ppm - Hardest to maintain with temperature raise
NO3 range 5-30 ppm
K+ range 10-30 ppm
PO4 range 1.0-2.0 ppm
Fe 0.2-0.5ppm or higher
GH range 3-5 degrees ~ 50ppm or higher
KH range 3-5

PPS-Pro is very simple

Need to dose 1 ml / 10 gallon daily before lights come on so I would need to dose approx 3ml daily

That would mean a 90ml bottle of solution would last me one month!!!
And to make that all I need is:
KN03 = 6g = have it
KH2P04 = 1g = have it
MgSo4 = 4g need to get it
K2SO4 = 5g need to get it
TE = 7grams

according to this Introducing the PPS-Pro Solutions Recipe http://ca.geocities.com/pps@rogers.c...ipe.01.xls.zip

That sounds easy, cheap and not a lot of work, and uses a lot less chemicals then EI.

Great article on the changes in dosing methods and it makes sense to me:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...c-pps-pro.html

davidsu0630

I had been using DIY liquid fertilizer.(KN03+KH2P04 +water solution with DUPLA 24hr) the result was all my red bee shrimps died within a few days( maybe it was because of the NO3 rising.) the fishes was fine and the plants had growed quickly and larger than ever.I can tell that to fertilize waterplants with EI method is a really efficient way for plant growing.
but with my little 61cm tank,the plants seem too big to fit in with such a small tank.

teacherthomas

Well it has been a while since I posted any pictures so I should post them now. I started everything off slow.

Lights = 48 watts T5 using a Fishline Light Fixture. Very bright. One tube is a Philips Master 865 and the other is the Philips Master 840. So I get a mixture of more reddish light with more white/blue light. So that is 1.65 watts per gallon, very similar to what Tom Barr suggests a tank should have and he give an example with the low light ADA tank. http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ght=plantbrain

So

Filter is the Eheim 2215 of course with just the standard course green filter media and one layer of white filter floss.

Soil was a test version of soil I mentioned previously. One bag of 9l which really wasn't enough soil but I made due.

Problems or issues = only two, the glass pipes get dirty fast and need to be cleaned as you see in the picture. Two, the soil wasn't enough to easily plant so I made do.

The tank was setup from scratch, so no mature filter, etc.

Day one put in soil and ran filter, no lights no co2
Day two drained all water and refilled
Day three drained all water and refilled
Day four planted the tank
Day five drained half water and refilled
Day six drained half water and refilled
Day seven added shrimp (50 or more small ones)
Day eight drained half water and refilled
Day nine added 5 Rummy noses tetra, One oto
Day ten added fish, what are the called...... I forget orange color suck agea off glass and plants.
Day eleven drained half water and refilled
Day twelve added 5 more rummy nose tetras and two corys
Day thirteen watched fish
Day fourteen drained half water and refilled
Day sixteen watched fish
Now Day 21 drained half the water and refilled

Test results:
NH4 gradually rose for the first 6 days to 1.0mg/l then dropped by the 8th to 0.5mg/l and down to 0 by the 9th day and has been that way since.

Po4 has been a stable 0.25mg/l , the same as my tap water

NO2 stayed 0 until the 9th day, rose to 1.0 then 2.0 on the 13th day then dropped sown to 0 by the 18th day

No3 stayed 0 until the 9th day where is went to 5.0 and has stayed that way until I added ferts.

KH has been a stable 3
Gh was a 6 and in the last week rose to 7

Started ferts for the first time 3 days ago and now levels are

NH4 = 0.0
PO4 = 1.0
NO2 = 0.0
NO3 = 5.0
KH = 3
GH = 7

Dosing is 1.4tsp Kno3 X2 a week, 1/16 Tsp Kh2Po4 X 2 a week, 1/16 tsp Plantex CSM + B X 3 a week

These has been no issue and no algae. Tank is responding ok. I was not able to start CO2 until 3 days ago as I was running tests on the soil, natural buffering level and nutrient levels, and couldn't have the CO2 or ferts mess with that. OH well. Results have been fine.

Here is the picture:


The plants in the two front corners are just there as I haven't had time to do anything with them yet.

Please don't judge the layout to strongly as this setup wasn't really about a layout but rather comparing the soil to ADA soil and water cloudiness, easy of setup, buffering level, quality of soil, downsides, etc.

Good news is have a tank with no algae for 3 weeks and no problems. The soil is good, easy to use and will be a great product, with no water cloudiness.

Bad news is I am dismantling the tank tomorrow. I have been asked to test out another version of soil (this time I will have the proper amount for planting as I have 2 bags) and see how it compares.

Shouldn't be bad, take out all plants, and hardscape. Catch all the fish, remove the soil. Clean the tank. Clean the pipes, etc. Add new soil and start over.

Suggestions on layout welcomed.