treker5

Hi Members

I have a 125 gallon (tall) high tech planted Discus/Altum angel fish tank (pic. attached) I have Co2 injection, overflow and I have the dosing of ferts down to a science. Dosing Excel 20ml every other day, 15 ml of K 2-3 times a week, and sometimes 5-10 ml of multinutrient 2 x weekly. This regimen kept the algae in check.
With this said I was on vacation for 1 week without any tank assistants and my tank went to hell and back when I got home.
Has anyone experienced this phenomenon? Does anyone have a suggestion how to maintain a high tech tank when you're on vacation...? I really like the planted tank look but I'm looking at other ideas perhaps go barebottom.

Replies will be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Treker

Octavusprime

I'm very curious about this as well. I have a trip in August and am not sure what I'll do. I'm thinking of doing a heavy trim before I leave, lowering the light-cycle and intensity and having premeasured fertilizers layed out for my friend to dose every other day.

I guess automatic dosing and feeding machines exist. I don't want to really spend the money on them.

mudboots

You could step the "tech" down a notch. I had a 125 before we moved a while back that was semi-low tech (or pretty much no tech compared to most systems here). On vacations I usually came home to a little issue here or there, but I don't recall major problems.

I did not dose CO2, but on occassion when someone would offer some Excel to try I'd chug it in from time to time. I think the main thing was moderate lighting, which I lowered while away. The plants seemed to be happy. I don't know what species are happiest in the warm waters of a discus tank, but my main plants were a few Crpyt sps, 2 medium sized Amazon swords, red lotus, and stems were Rotala and Hygro sps that I recall, with H.tennelum on the floor and lots of experimentals along the way. Lighting ranged from 156 - 234 watts T5HO when at home (depending on whether I had done a trim or the plants were creating lots of shade) and from 78 - 156 watts of the same when away with the same considerations in mind (more plant mass = more light and vice versa).

I used a siesta regimen of 5 on, 4 off, 5 on mostly so the lights were on when I was home, but they adjusted easily to the schedule and it is the one tank I really miss. I plan on a very similar "tech"-ness when we finally settle down, though I will add much more filtration volume with a pre-intake screen to allow for a more stable and maintenence-easy system.

sandeepraghuvanshi

I have a smaller 45 g tank with pressurised co2 nearly 4 w/g of lights and fertilization.
I often have to go outstation and there is nobody to watch the tank.
I cut down the number of lights to half, cut down co2.
This I have been doing for last 6 months, and it seems to be working for me at least

jart

As already suggested, lower light is the key.
Do you know what your lighting is (low, medium, or high) with respect to PAR? If you don't, check out the sticky thread on light and PAR in the lighting section at TPT. If you have high light, you might want to consider a step back and see if you still have good success. Lower light setups tend to be more forgiving when you are unable to dose the tank.


Most people dose Excel daily rather than every second day... it doesn't last that long in the water column. In any event, it looks like you are having good success with your present regimen. Nice tank.

treker5

Thanks Jart for referring me to the sticky on lighting, good information and reference point. After reading Newt's post I would say my light is high. I am running 6 T5 HO: (1) 420/460 NM Dual Actinic 54w, (2) 6K 54w, (3) Roseate 54w. I will definitely consider cutting down the amount of lights and or reduce the lighting time...

Daniil

Hello,
I have a few ideas that could help with the appearance of your aquarium. These are only my opinions and you don't have to agree, but I would like to share them with you.

1) First of all, you've got a big leafy plant to the right of your tank and (I don't mean to offend) but it looks a little out of place there. The reason is because of its thickness. You've got thick decorative wood, the rocks would contribute to the thickness as well, and so does the ground sand. Now I understand that all this stuff is necessary, but it would look better if you would move the big leafy plant directly behind your crypts. and in front of your background plants. That would kind of smooth out the contrast and diminish the vividness in your aquarium just a bit:



2) Next, you should let your ground plants grow out and cover the floor where they are planted (now I know that you might have already had all this in mind and were going to do this, but just in case). To make it look neat, keep it short and manicured like someone would keep their lawn (with scissors in stead of a lawn mower of course)



3) Also, those nice long stem plants next to the big leafy plant could be moved directly behind the spot that I suggested you move the big leafy plant (sorry, I know this is worded a bit weirdly). This would make a group of nice long stem plants that need to be organized a bit and, but you decide the way you would like to do that and my one suggestion about this is to spread them out a little and give them room to breathe:




4) Another improvement would be to move the anubias to the places where I have marked with an "X". This would give your aquarium a more natural look:



5) Lastly, I would put white background or something to cover up the big black thing in the back of your aquarium.

~Katie (Daniil's daughter)

treker5

I'm always open to constructive criticism I always wondered about the placement of that giant sword. It's been growing there for almost a year now and I'm afraid of how much the roots have grown into the soil (might get messy if I uproot it). I can see the balance of thickness in your rendition and I like it Thanks Daniil.

Daniil

You can gently pull the plant up about an inch above the sand, stick the scissors lower and snip the roots a bit. This way you will be left with about an inch and a half of roots for the plant to live on. It will be fine for the plant because the roots will grow back.