36 Degrees - 900x580x450

7 hours ,,, probably around 200ml of CO2 funny how one remembers things only after looking at it for a while.



Need to go with a bigger mouth to get better exchange during the light period.


Later Ferdie

 

800ml available CO2 with a mouth that is probably 3 times the surface area.

Will fill both in the morning - see who diffuses the most tomorrow.

Later Ferdie

 

Skipp the flowering ... don't remember doing 24x7 RED lighting with just a 7 hour mixed light cycle.



Could be a total disaster ;-)

Later Ferdie

 

he he ... clearly this red light thing for 24x7 is not the first time I am thinking of doing it ... found a red LED roll in my light storage space.


Looking forward to a red light district in my own fishroom I am.

Later Ferdie

 

Does red light increase growth?
What about pink/magenta?

 

Well .. yes red light could mean that the plants stay in the vegetative state and do not go into the drark cycle or something like that. Trick here is going to be who does the best in this state, algae or the buce. Not all plants can handle 24x7 ... so this is a little unknown to me.

Grow lights are tricky when it comes to colours ... thanks to people wanting to cultivate crops at home - load of info is available. Now light in water, different story and the research is not really commercially funded for our hobby.

ggl is your friend and enemy ... so if you have some pink/magenta give that disco a spin ...


Later Ferdie

 

Nice to see you out of hibernation @f-fish!!

Keep the experiments and updates coming!!!

 

Hard to see on the pic on TASA ... but we have bubbles ;-)

Later Ferdie

 

30 minutes after lights out .. no more bubbles .. this is with just the red running.

probably around 600ml CO2 .. will top it up for overnight consumption.

Later Ferdie

 

2 hours later and prealling under the red only light is visible - but at a much much lower rate.

Tempted to see if I get pearling under just the two 12w Phillips lamps without the red running.

- Yeah lets do that for 3 hours.

Later Ferdie

 

Watching the tank over the lst 3 days ... two issues ... 1) buildup on the surface 2) these guys are all messy eaters and low current leaves things hanging around in the water column.




Aeration and HOB is back .. refilled the CO2 bells - dosed Ei KNO3 levels this morning. Light no longer 24x7 ( fish seem to get confused) - will look at stretching the light cycle.

Later Ferdie

 

maybe this was not a great idea ...

 

WIP ......


Why do I do this when temps drop ?

Later Ferdie

 

Nah - this is organic buildup ...

The plant load is just not good enough for the hordes of ancistrus so might try something else, looks like I am pulling 50% of the current substrate.



Water level was just under my thumb .. so one can the volume of material that is already out the tank.




And this is why I spread the substrate once it is pulled .. to pick some of these guys back up and put them in the tank.

Later Ferdie



PS I am leaning to Akadama as the replacement .... maybe a mix ..

 

Don't think I will need two bags ...


Lets go ...

Later Ferdie

 

Yeah -- since I am bad at planning .. This is from Octiber 2017 ... though I might need it at some point ;-)

Seems like it will only be 1 bag of akadam ... might want to add some red. maybe red jasper hmmm




As expected the Akadam has some plant material ..
Good thing I have that 150l of room temperature water to add to the tank ...



Tank has only dropped a degree since I started and now have added the bag of substrate. So everybody in the tank should be OK.

Later Ferdie

 

Have to say I've never had a new tank start as well as the one I have with Akadama - basically no algae ever, or very minor. Used 2 Seachem root tabs at the back as well though, and am using a 20W 6000K LED floodlight about 35cm above the tank.

 

As the sun is setting I get a glimpse at what the tank looks like ... not a full blank canvas but a nice start.

Later Ferdie