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[Delapool]

Not sure if these flower stems have some sort of racial memory. When I tried one out the side of tank, subsequent ones seemed to crab sideways to follow.

Now with one out the front, the second has just about hit the same spot (just slightly off the gap in covers). Wondering if some sort of pollination thing or just coincidence .

[Delapool]

Went into the fish shop and bought another pair of young yoyo loaches to give the surviving one a playmate. The older two are really too big for him. Bought replacement t5ho bulbs (almost got another LED to replace instead but anyways). And these caught my eye so a pair are in the tank as well. Pretty good, only one impulse buy. Forgot fish food though 🙃

Edited by Delapool, 08 November 2016 - 08:22 PM.

[Delapool]

Couple of tank shots. The right side is packed out now with plants. Aiming to keep it still fairly open so think that is it.


Left side I'm not quite liking. Re-planted some plants on weekend.


GSA largely gone away.

[Delapool]

Thinking about trying to glue some Java fern plantlets to the canister pipe outlets. Or maybe some seperate suction caps. Unless maybe into glass at tank back?

Edited by Delapool, 22 November 2016 - 05:41 PM.

[Delapool]

Had my birthday on the weekend and got told the present was 3ft across. Straight away guessed a fish tank and got pretty excited, only to open it to find a scooter so I can catch some exercise with the kids......

[Delapool]

Spent almost an hour trimming plants yesterday (somehow). Replanted tops of red stem plants on right side, pulled most of the ambulia and hygro I could find out and combed through the java fern for plantlets. It's all looking like a carpet at the moment but should be good for xmass.

The Aponogeton got thinned a bit and retaliated by covering over the par meter with remaining leaves. Hopefully they shift around. Was hoping to get readings this weekend but pretty flat-out.

The central back remains a mystery. I think crypts are growing there mainly plus a few I can't remember. The central front still has some ambulia and hygro growing.

Next week I'll prune the red stem plants on the left side to tidy that up and that should be it for a few months.

The bumblebee catfish is liking the java fern carpet and starting to venture further out.

[Delapool]

Did a water change yesterday and some plant pruning. The val has also latched onto the idea of sending out runners so starting to prune it back. Last weeks replanted cuttings are nicely sending up new shoots.

Also found the third young yoyo loach that I thought had gone missing so all good. Feel like some mother hen worrying if they have found a gap and jumped.

Tempted on getting some more plants, just having trouble finding room - it's a shame you can't buy tank extensions.

Today hopefully I'll get some water chemistry readings.


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[Delapool]

http://scifun.chem.w...r/fallcolr.html

Just came across this link on leaf colour which I thought interesting. I've been trying java fern in the betta tank which is high light, no co2, no ferts, no substrate (erk) and watching the leaves go from dark green to mottled, light green.


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[Delapool]

Finally got around to testing the tank chemistry. Picked up a calcium test kit for the pool. Tried it out on the fish tank and seemed to make sense but was a little hard to follow instructions to get the right end colour.

 

Nitrate - 5ppm (had increased potassium nitrate ferts, might have to lift again as this is after a few weeks of plant pruning and has been low for a bit now. Still plants seem ok).

 

Phosphate - 2ppm (also a little low to normal).

 

Gh - 8 (143ppm).

Calcium - 5 (100ppm).

 

KH - 7 (125ppm).

 

PH - 6.5 (matches ph probe with CO2 injection so all seems good).

[Delapool]

The LED light over the betta tank failed. Yet another LED light off to the bin. Going to hunt around for a low powered one and try a low-tech system. See if Java Fern can survive. That should be a good excuse to go to a few shops


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[Delapool]

Finally got the PAR meter hooked up. So far it's downloaded 300 readings (sigh) so hoping that stops soon so I can get a reading today.


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[Delapool]

Still downloading! Sigh.

[Delapool]

Ok, its a little tentative but this PAR reading is 67 (best=68, worse=59). The reading from August is 89 so quite a drop. The plants are probably blocking light a bit but it looks like last time I wasn't running the second bank of blue lights on the LED and am now running that at 50%.

Kelvin has shifted from 6525 to 5625 degK. I guess this suggests a shift to a more reddish light but looking at the spectrum loss it looks pretty consistent across blues, greens and reds. If anything I would of said I have lost more red light so idk on sprectrum shift as lights age. Anyways got 4 bulbs sitting there for the t5ho so might start swapping them out. I think the bulbs are bout 9 months old now.

[Delapool]

The angelfish have laid eggs!! No idea what to do next? I'm hoping they will fend for themselves as have no spare tank but the eggs are right where the congo tetras like to hang out. Can I just leave them on the leaf? I'm assuming I should cut out glut and carbonate dosing?

 

That's assuming they are even fertile as this would be the first time. One previous pair did lay eggs but they disappeared.

 

 

 

Edited by Delapool, 26 December 2016 - 11:26 PM.

[Delapool]

Sadly all eggs vanished over night - sigh. Don't need any more fish but it was exciting for a few hours.

[Delapool]

Yoyo loaches - sleep anywhere. No idea why this one is wedged in the filter bracket. I'm kindly assuming it was chasing pond snails and afternoon nap time rolled around.

 

Found all three young ones (one looked rolled over dead on substrate but was also asleep). They look a bit skinny to me still but seem to be doing ok. 

 

 

Edited by Delapool, 29 December 2016 - 09:51 PM.

[Delapool]

Water test results after new filter are done. I thought it would be interesting as replaced filter makes up probably 2/3 of filtration.

Ammonia is 0.25 or bit less. Nitrites are 0 and nitrates 5ppm. So pretty happy with ammonia. Nitrates I'm going to start specifically dosing for and lift a little.


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[Delapool]

Tank looking blah, you can see the giant hygro stem plant on the left above angelfish has dropped all its lower leaves. Started dosing nitrates and waiting for light to cool down to swap over bulbs.  

Edited by Delapool, 09 January 2017 - 06:15 PM.

[Delapool]

PAR reading on light at 1ft depth was 67. PAR reading on surface float (so light not blocked by plants) is 83. These are on the old bulbs which are < a year old.

New bulbs show PAR of 139. Will see how it goes and might not change all bulbs at once next time.

One bulb failed so actually only replaced 3 bulbs and kept an old one. Was all excited about a spectrum shift until I checked and found I changed the bulb type Guess at least I know that does work somewhat.

Ideally I'd have the PAR meter on the substrate somewhere but I need a special little stand for it or can try the suction cap on glass maybe next time.

[Delapool]

Got fed up with driftwood shifting and trying an underwater glue (except tank mostly empty so in air). So far almost stuck my fingers to tank. It seems to set really slow to everything except my fingers.


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Filled tank back up. The glue has dried white and more visible than I was expecting so hoping it gets a little algae or something to tone it down.

Next time I'll have more than one packet as could of done a little more while the water level was so low (only had a couple of inches of water in tank).

All fish looked ok this morning. Hoping the plants don't get too upset with me and drop leaves. Usually I find they don't like being out of water for too long and this was a lot of buckets but fingers crossed.


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