updates on my tank...

[rmicroys]

Still working on the details on the cabinetry on the Den side.  Lighting, no worries there.  I have the Cadillac Coralife lights, hailides and the two CF tubes, and the night time blue LEDs.

Algae... heh, that's a whole other story.  I had a good battle with single cell algae and got a UV filter.  Not a problem with clear water anymore.  The algae does like to grow rather quickly on the sides of the tank - which requires weekly cleaning to keep sharp looking.  One can see the plecos work on the glass, but they just don't keep up.

[rmicroys]

Picture taken today of the tank.  The plants are not doing as well as I'd like but it's a battle that I'm winning, slowly.  A lot to learn about water and what the plants don't like about it.  Oddly enough, the fish don't seem to mind at all (well, they don't talk much, you know) so it's hard to tell. 

The Den side of the tank isn't finished yet, so one of these days it will look nice from both sides.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[rmicroys]

Well... it's been a while.  Here is some new photos of the healthy tank.



Photo album with a few more:

http://rmicroys.isa-geek.com/house_photos/Fishtank/Sep.8.07/

[charlie]

WOW, good job.

[rmicroys]

WOW, good job.

Thanks.  The water quality is a real pain though.  I'm on a well and it has a kH of 16 or something.  It makes keeping the pH down challenging.  The CO2 does a good job at that, but it doesn't deal with the kH - so I'm constantly at it with acid buffer to take care of it.   The plants have finally rooted after months of care and and feeding.  The plants now take care of all the nutrients in the water and all my algae problems have gone away - considering the amount of light the tank gets from the windows around on the ground floor, this was a relief.  In the early spring when the tank went in, we had to clean the glass off every week for the green that was stuck to it.  So I'm pretty happy with it.

[fischkopp]

... I'm on a well and it has a kH of 16 or something.  It makes keeping the pH down challenging.  The CO2 does a good job at that, but it doesn't deal with the kH - so I'm constantly at it with acid buffer to take care of it ....

Very nice tank! It can still use a bit more green 

Acid buffers usally adjust the pH around a certain value and buffer this value by increasing KH. KH is know as pH buffer: high kH quite stable pH, low kH (<3 ) may cause the pH to change dramitacally. So if you keep using acid buffers your KH will stay very high.

I would suggest you try contolling the pH with CO2 only. Google the relation pH, disscolved CO2 and KH and try to adjust your CO2 injection in a way to stablize the pH/KH relation you would like to have in your tank.

[rmicroys]

Very nice tank! It can still use a bit more green 

Acid buffers usally adjust the pH around a certain value and buffer this value by increasing KH. KH is know as pH buffer: high kH quite stable pH, low kH (<3 ) may cause the pH to change dramitacally. So if you keep using acid buffers your KH will stay very high.

I would suggest you try contolling the pH with CO2 only. Google the relation pH, disscolved CO2 and KH and try to adjust your CO2 injection in a way to stablize the pH/KH relation you would like to have in your tank.

Not sure I get you.  Ya, my well water with a high kH has a stable pH, up over 8+.  I use Seachem "Acid Buffer" - it converts kH to CO2 and allows the pH to come down to a more normal level (ie not 8+).  I also have the controlled CO2 system, but that has no effect on the kH of the water.  I know the kH will affect how much CO2 you can have dissolved in the water at a given pH.  My kH from the tap is 18d - the problem is that the pH is high from the tap and takes a lot of work to get it down to where the tetras like it.  The plants originally didn't like the water at all until I got the kH down.  The only thing that would grow was the java moss... everything else would just dissolve or wilt.  Now, if I just left my water alone without treating it, and just relied on the CO2 system to keep the pH down near 7.0 - 7.25 with a kH or 18dH would result in a dissolved CO2 content of something between 51 - 28 mg/l.  That's pretty hard to maintain, and a lot higher than what I understand is recommended.  I'm good if you show me something that references that I'm off base.

[fischkopp]

I am not familiar with the Seachem product, but the one I used to adjust the pH for some time actually increased the KH quite a bit. So from what I read read under Seachem's product site its actually supposed to lower the KH as well - just like you said. You can try a higher dosage, but this is not really a long term alternative i would like.

Most people try to adjust the CO2 system to maintain a pH between 6.5 .. 6.8. Keeping the CO2 table in mind that would mean that if the KH doesnt drop the dissolved CO2 may reach deadly levels for your livestock. Anyway, I would try to lower the pH slowly into this range but at the same time increase the CO2 uptake by adding more (for the beginning fastgrowing) plants.

[rmicroys]

I do my best to keep the kH around 6.  The tough part is that as soon as I do a 20% water change it just jumps right back up to 9 or higher.  I am eventually going to likely go to a RO system that just fills a rubbermaid bin in the basement, and then have a top up pump that just takes the water from the bin to the tank via a transfer pump.  Then the water management becomes much easier and it's not a big battle to maintain the water to keep reasonable levels of hardness, minerals, etc.

[fischkopp]

RO systems are definitely the best way for lowering the KH if you dont mind the setup. And when you are on well water you dont really need to care much about the wasted water. The second alternative using peat and/or driftwood is not nearly as efficient. Hard water is no fun if you go South American ...

[jodes22]

Nice looking tank!!!

[renadia]

Nice looking aquarium, must be very nice to be able to enjoy it from both rooms! Are you planning on adding more plants or fish?

[rmicroys]

Ya, it's nice to be able to see it from more than one room.

I'm not adding any new fish any time soon, they're doing a perfectly good job on their own displacing the water through their own means.  The platy and swords are very prolific. 

I have a hard time keeping SAEs or Gouramis.  They all die after a few weeks to a month.  I'm wondering why... I really liked my gouramis, and the SAEs are really helpful to control the red bearded algae... but if the fish don't last in my water, there's not much I can do.