[hubbahubbahehe]

C., you are not a newb in my book :!: you are the man in my book! Whatever you are doing, it is working.... If it ain't broke, don't fix it is what i always say..

how many gallons is that cube? i mean heck, you got glosso growing in there with no co2!! wow!!

 

[C_perugiae]

I just meant that I'm a newb relative to the knowledge represented by this site. Plant nutrition is very new to me... I'm just starting to learn, like within the last couple weeks. Of course, I don't have much time or energy to sit down and read about this stuff because I'm a college student, but I do think about it when I get a chance (every few days )

I didn't do anything special with that nanocube. I just put the glosso in there and crossed my fingers. It's a small tank and very short, so I think the lighting was adequate for my purposes. That tank is no more; I had to tear it apart and replant it a couple weeks ago. I used the same plants and they're pretty much recovered by this point. I still don't know what I'm doing, although I've started to add Flourish Excel to the tank and a little Flourish so that the tank grows back quickly.

The substrate in that tank is 100% Eco-Complete... that's why I'm such a fan of that stuff. The other tank I used Eco-Complete in is growing just as well... that gravel runs circles around Flourite.

 

[hubbahubbahehe]

*Should I be adding stem plants to this tank? Right now, it's the hairgrass, Anubias, a little Bolbitis, and a couple onions (C. natans). Oh, can't forget the water lettuce
*I am kicking around the idea of trying DIY yeast just for the experience. Does anyone have any tips besides the usual recipes that are all over the internet? Anyone have luck adding a check valve to the line, or am I asking the bottle to blow up if I stick one on there?

Yes, add some fast growing stem plants to help battle the algae and suck up nutrients before them...green hygro will do the trick.

diy yeast is pretty cool. To me, working on it is more fun than a chore. The basica method uses sugar, yeast, and water. there are several methods that include adding baking soda, or gelatin... i don't know if those are worth the time, but perhaps someone else can chime in.

you can add a check valve if you want...make sure that it allows the co2 to flow in the tank and keeps the tank water from flowing into the bottle. honestly though, you don't really need a check valve.

 

[C_perugiae]

After helping a guy whose CO2 bottle was knocked over by his cat under the stand... yes, I'd be adding a check valve; the yeast backed up into his tank and the water was opaque by the time he got home from work.

 

[Corigan]

After helping a guy whose CO2 bottle was knocked over by his cat under the stand... yes, I'd be adding a check valve; the yeast backed up into his tank and the water was opaque by the time he got home from work.

You really want the check valve going the other way. So the water can't come back into the co2 bottle. If you are paranoid about yeast spill-over into the tank the best thing you could do would be to put a gas seperator on the setup. With a gas seperator (usually a 20 oz soda bottle) if you do get an overrun of yeast it would use that as a spill-over instead of your aquarium. This also lets you use the check valve the other way to prevent water from siphoning back.

Matt

 

[hubbahubbahehe]

Where do you place your co2 bottle?

I have mine underneath my tank and I don't see how a suction could be made so strong that it would suck up yeast mixture all the way up the tube and then into my tank..... is that possible?

 

[C_perugiae]

The guy with the DIY nightmare had his bottle under the tank. I'm not sure how it backed up into the tank and neither is he; it was on its side under the tank when he came home to find the mess.

Thanks for the idea for the extra 20 ounce bottle. That makes a lot of sense to me; that's what I'll try if I decide to do the DIY setup. I might be moving sooner than I thought, so I may just be able to get a splitter for current CO2 tank... a much more idea situation IMO. I also realized tonight, after rereading my post, that a check valve to prevent backflow doesn't make any sense. It wouldn't let the gas through, even. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking... yesterday was a long one for me.

Yes, I deserve a big "DUH" for that one.

 

[C_perugiae]

An update on the tank...

I turned the lights off on Monday and did my 50% water change on Tuesday morning. The algae pulled off the hairgrass beautifully; I didn't realize that stuff was all that light-dependent, but apparently, a 24 hour blackout makes it a ton easier to remove. My tank had four days of almost complete darkness (there was some ambient light from the room) and I didn't feed the brand of fish food that I suspected was contributing to the problem. I put the lights on today and when I got home, still didn't see any cyano starting back up again.

Like I said above, I won't be doing the CO2 and high nutrient thing until after I move so I can share the tank between my two big aquariums. I really didn't want to do the DIY thing, so I'm going to skip that for now. I'll also cut down on feeding that one brand of food to a couple times a week instead of everyday and my fish will get switched to a different staple flake.

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll start a new thread if I have any additional problems.