Terra Incognita

Well this was certainly a great tank. I learned a great deal from reading over the whole thread last night, and wanted to thank you for taking the time to document it all.

AaronT

Thanks. You're quite welcome. Honestly, in the long run it's actually easier to document something like this in detail. After a while people ask how you did it anyhow.

strange_screams

ok, off topic question here..

I've been having problems getting tank stands or tables i feel are strudy enough and in the the first pictures i see the shelving unit your using, i have one in black, and you dont just have one tank on it but two, did it hold well without any bowing ect? and is it the 5 foot shleving unit or the 3 foot shleving unit of the same type? they are very sturdy, but it just hadnt occured to me to use it for my tanks.....

AaronT

I put 2x4s across the length of the shelf for extra support. There was only slight bowing. You'd definitely want to set it up on a solid floor such as hardwood, concrete or tile. This was a heavy duty gauge 48" x 18" shelving unit.

AaronT

For those that haven't seen it yet I wrote up an article on the process that I'm using. You can read about it here.

Tube

Aaron, did you ever find a need to add anything to the water column? I set up a tank very similar to yours with your help back in November. All plants have now filled in very heavily but their health is at a decline. Small pinholes and stunted growth have affected all of my Rotalas. I use straight RO water and dose excel regularly as ive opted to not use co2. Two weeks ago I began adding iron to bring out the reds in the Rotalas, it did immediately help, though now ive switched over to straight Flourish in hopes it may help with the pinhole/stunting issue. I do imagine I might need to add K at some point, though how much I am unsure. I also want to avoid overreacting and start adding all things at once. The tank seems very well balanced at the moment and I do not want to disturb that. Any insight or advice you could provide would be much appreciated.

AaronT

Yes, I found that the Rotalas need a boost after a little while, say 3 months or so. The potash that gets added in the beginning is the initial potassium source and does run out eventually.

Potassium seems to be the limiting factor in this type of setup. If I do dose potassium I only dose about 0.5 ppm twice a week. That doesn't seem like hardly any at all, but it's enough and anymore seems to lead to algae outbreaks.


Also, can I ask why you are using pure RO water? You may be better off using a 50/50 mix and tap and RO to give the plants the calcium, magnesium and potassium found in your water source when doing water changes.

hooha

have you tried adding more potassium in the initial setup? I'd like to see my setups lasting for at least a year without muss or fuss

AaronT

No, but one thing I did try when I moved back in December was to set up one tank with the Colorquartz cap and another tank with a cap of Flourite. The tank with the Flourite cap has not had any potassium defficiencies and the Colorquartz tank has. I may switch to using Flourite Black or Flourite Black Sand in the future for all of my substrate capping needs.

Tube

I use straight RO because i wanted soft water, didnt like the amount of K that was added using Seachem Equilibrium, and havent had any issues until present. Shrimp and fish appear to be fine, however, there are nearly zero snails in the tank even with moderate feeding.

To add to the last comment, I capped my soil with Flourite Black Sand, however, began to see potassium deficiencies 5 months after initial planting (apparently).

Ive heard that micro deficiencies take up to two weeks before you see a difference, unlike macros which can be almost immediate. With this in mind, i will continue with the flourish, if nothing improves, will add K at approx 1.25 PPM (pfertz) weekly.