ashappard

for this journal I'm going to select one of my acrylic growout / collectoritis tanks.
This one is nearest the west wall of my fishroom, and I call it '04'.
Not worthy of an ADA poem, but I like it just the same.

I'll discuss what I do to maintain my collection, what I'm keeping, the specifics about the dosing for the spp. mix
and of course try to encourage discussion about these kinds of tanks.
I got into plant keeping, loved all the different plants and quickly became addicted to collecting.
But there are some challenges to maintaining a collection :

• organization : losing something (literally) in dense plantings
• the species mix makes dosing difficult, all plants do not reach potential
• running out of room
• develop a routine, staying focused
• budget, calculating cost

without much more blather heres the starting point, this is the tank today :



dimensions 24x24x17" tall (custom built)
light fishneedit 150W HQI pendant; 10K coralife bulb
substrate ADA aquasoil
filtration none
CO2 method pressurized, solenoid kicks on with the lights
CO2 delivery OTP 1000 needlewheel pump, inside the tank
photoperiod currently 8 hours
additional flow mini powerheads
dosing more or less EI dosing
water changes currently every 5 days - 20% taken out, replace with with RODI and add GH
GH no more than 4
KH no measurable KH
pH I have no idea

there are no fish, but there are some snails.

plants :

Nesaea 'triflora'
Bacopa sp. 'japan'
Bacopa sp. 'araguaia'
Bacopa madagascarensis
Limnophila 'vietnam mini'
Limnophila 'sulawesi'
Limnophila punctata Blume
Limnophila 'guinea broadleaf'
Limnophila aromatica 'broad'
Limnophila aromatica
Limnophila 'wavy'
Hyptis sp.
Ludwigia senegalensis
Ludwigia inclinata
Lindernia rotundifolia 'variegated'
Aciotis sp.
Erio 'goias'
Erio 'sulawesi'
Syngonanthus 'lago grande'
Syngonanthus 'rio negro'
Pogostemon stellatus 'fine/narrow'
Rotala mexicana 'goias'
Rotala mexicana 'araguaia'
Rotala mexicana 'belem'
Rotala mexicana 'green'
Rotala sp. 'sunset'
Rotala sp. 'araguaia'
Rotala sp. 'green narrow'
Rotala macrandra 'japan'
Rotala macrandra 'super red'
Rotala macrandra 'green'
Rotala macrandra 'green narrow'
Rotala macrandra 'mini butterfly'
Rotala macrandra 'variegated'
Tonina fluviatilis
Tonina fluviatilis 'santos' / 'lotus'
Tonina fluviatilis 'carapanal mini'

prBrianpr

wow great collectoritis

ashappard

thanks Brian

So today I changed RO filters, and recently have arranged (almost) all of the components into one location to make more efficient use of space. My RO unit is my prized possession in the fishroom, not because it is expensive or fancy but for the way it helps me with dosing and my general routine. The water out of my tap is very hard and high in carbonates, not friendly with many of the plant spp I keep.

my first RO unit was overpriced, low capacity (25GPD) but it did have a good waste to product ratio (1:1). Typical product TDS was around 2-7, and I looked into an external DI addon to get it to 0TDS. Rather than do that, I bought a new unit which has 5 stages and makes 0TDS water for quite a while. The product to waste ratio is not as good, around 1:2.5 once it settles in.

I've been using this unit for about 2 years.



four stages on the bottom, RO membrane is horizontal on the top. Last stage (far left) is color changing DI resin. to the right of the sink you can see 3 20G stainless tanks. These are connected to the RO unit and end up at line pressure once they are all full. There is another 10G stainless tank about 10ft away also connected to the system giving me 70G of RODI at line pressure. The outlets on the tanks are reduced from 1" down to 3/8" hose. The lumber and general mess is me in the middle of building a countertop over the holding tanks. when that is finished, it should look nicer and give me some much needed work space.

I will normally change the filters when TDS reaches 3, which takes a while to happen. I have not changed the membrane yet and figure I have maybe 2 years left until it needs it. So how much does it cost to get water out of this thing? I'll calculate it as I do water changes, then add filter cost for a final number. Between this and some other costs that I'll be presenting, we'll eventually see how much it takes to run this tank as $ per square foot of substrate per month

taz81

Do you also have to add more ferts and other assorted minerals to the water once your done. If my memory serves RO removes pretty much everything from the water right, even helpful stuff? Do you have to take special consideration for that?

Tex Gal

I'm trying to find all those varieties in there and can't see them all. How in the world do you keep them all straight?!

(It's a good thing that thieves don't know how valuable this collection of plants is! What a find this tank would be!!! )

bigstick120

That is a nice collection of plants!

ashappard

correct, it removes pretty much everything. I get a pure base to rebuild to suit my needs, in my case I want a GH of around 4 and zero KH. At water change time, I add enough GH booster (Ca/Mg/etc) to bring the added water to around GH 4. Then I begin fertilization with macros and micros according to my regime until its time for another water change. I cant rely on my product water for micros, but thats ok. I just have to keep up on dosing.

ashappard

thanks guys. TexGal brings up a good point, and something I struggle with in my collection tanks. Not the roving bands of plant thieves, but not being able to find all the plants. As tangled as it looks, this one is my most organized collection tank. right next to this one is a very disorganized collection with even more spp.

so what I'm working on, hope to work through here is organization. Not being able to find the spp is a problem not just for aesthetics but when I lose sight of something it may slip my mind - get overgrown and wither beneath more aggressive plants. I cant count how many times I've done a major trim and found something I forgot I had.

tangle also creates flow issues and thats another good reason to tame it. management of flow is pretty important to me, and I've noticed that layout helps as much as trimming there. when flow is not optimal, my stability starts to suffer.

ashappard

this little Limnophila 'vietnam mini' foreground plant continues to spread and fill in.
the size is nice, and I like the way it creeps. here are a couple pics.



note the stripes along the stem. Wish I'd cleaned up debris before taking pics
see that little red worm? whats he doing in there?




tangle!

getting a little out of control. putting extra stems of R.butterfly in the right corner
has ended up not being such a good idea, and between it and the Lindernia rotundifolia,
the other stuff there is getting seriously crowded. tomorrow is water change time,
I'll take the opportunity to trim and re-arrange.

Veloth

Your plants seem to like what you're doing! I like the Limnophila.