[niko]

That's how otos are. Weird little fish. You can have one forever and one sunny day it decides it had enough. For no apparent reason they just die.

--Nikolay

 

[stuckintexas]

Have you seen the pearling yet?

yea, the rotala rotundifolia pearls daily.

 

[stuckintexas]

just built the new light fixture. the paint is drying and tomorrow night i will move the bulbs over to this new one. hopefully i see improved results in light coverage and plant growth.

the new fixture is 9 inches wide. it will only have two reflectors, two bulbs but this way i can space them apart more. this wider housing can also accommodate a third bulb and reflector should i choose to go that way in the future.

 

[supersmirky]

Oh...didn't know you were changing light. Did you just have a standard top or something and wanted a custom one so you could seperate and space the lights a little more?

 

[stuckintexas]

the light i have been using is custom. niko gave me the idea on how to build it. at the time i had never grown plants and i didnt think about how tall they would get, how that would effect the light penetration and coverage...i was more worried about the fixture hanging off the top of the tank. that is why i tried to make the fixture to not hang off the tank and then fit whatever bulbs i could inside those dimensions. the result was a nice looking very small fixture that holds 2x24W T5HO and only one bulb has a reflector and the otehr bulb is crammed next to it.

i hope it was worth my time and money put into changing the fixture config. what i do not know is how much impact adding a reflector has on the ammount of light into the tank. I assume it is significant. Also, I think that spreading the bulbs out from the dead center of the tank will help in growth of all the plants as a whole...also anticipating less shaded areas.

 

[stuckintexas]

little pic update here. this is the first day with the "new" light on.

its time for a trim, also need to space out the rotundifolia and vietnam a bit with a good thinning of the vietnam will need to be done. the aromatica is turning nice colors as it gets close to the light. the new belem is on top of the glosso right now, but not for long. it is just there while i try to figure out where to put it.

 

[CrownMan]

Tank is looking great. The belem looks very healthy and the new light ought to help keep it that way.

 

[supersmirky]

That looks great! Could you do a close up of the belem? Everything looks very healthy!

 

[JAXON777]

Stuck I gotta ask, Why is your drop checker so deep in the tank? I thought it was only supposed to be around 3 or 4 inches below the surface? BTW tank is looking good.

 

[stuckintexas]

i am moving the drop checker around the tank to see if there is a difference in the co2 at that point vs the top of the tank. so far the color is more green at the bottom and more yellow at the top.

i would do a close up on the belem if i had a proper camera. there are nice belem pics on the web though.

 

[stuckintexas]

comparison:

day 3:

1 month:

2.5 months:

 

[Tex Gal]

Sure looks like you're doing something right! I think you may have to get another tank. ;D (Did I say that?!)

 

[stuckintexas]

Yep, you are right about adding a tank.

I hope to do that within about 2 months. I think I am going to try and limit the number of species in this tank. right now there are just too many. the problem is i like all of them, tough decision.

 

[stuckintexas]

Hey. I have been away for a little while. Had to finish up some school projects and just graduated this Saturday. Just got a new camera today and it looks like it will take quite a while to master it. Here are a few noob photos with it...no macro lens yet.

 

[niko]

Dave,

Since this is a very long thread could you briefly summarize (bullets or something) what equipment you have and how did you bring this tank to what we see now.

--Nikolay

 

[stuckintexas]

Sure. Thanks for the interest.

Tank: 45G Hex

Lighting: 2x24W Giesemann Middays (7.5hrs/day)

CO2: Pressurized. Diffused by Niko's small internal filter Mod. CO2 is only on when lights are on.

Substrate: ADA Aquasoil Amazonia I

Filtration: Rena XP2

Ferts: EI method with 50% WC each week. I dose k2hpo4, k2so4, kno3, csm+b. 1/2 capful Seachem Flourish Iron daily. 1/2 tsp epsom salt and 1/2 tsp calcium chloride once a week immediately after WC.

Any comments are always welcome. Also, I am trying to learn DSLR photography and if anyone knows any good stuff for me to read on the net on this subject please throw me a link.

Thanks.

 

[supersmirky]

Congrats on graduating! Pics look really good to me! But I must have an untrained eye. lol.

Looks like your plants are really taking off and they are healthy. No algae either. I'm impressed

 

[Tex Gal]

I"m surprised you are dosing Espom salt and calcium chloride. Arlington water was pretty hard when I lived over there. Why did you decide to do that.

 

[stuckintexas]

Smirky,
Thanks! Actually i need to link the Picassa Album for the tank images, they are much clearer. Photobucket kinda sucks. Hopefully I will be taking even better pictures very soon and I will share them. Oh and I do have algae! I have green dust on my tank glass...no biggie.

Texgal,
I do it because it works.

I guess I could do an experiment and stop it for a month or two and try to note the differences but I probably wont do that. What I am doing now works for me.

I got the idea from Crownman's suggestions. I beleive he told me that the calcium was a bit on the low side and that magnesium was almost non-existent.

 

[chuck griffin]

very nice great pictures!!