Nice tank. You use chiller? I think you can dose half amount of normal dosage of fertz after 1 or 2 weeks. Just need to do more WC, like 2-3 days for 20-30% of water to avoid algae bloom. Excel won't do harm, it's pure carbon and it's actually easier to absorb by plant than co2.

Also, does anyone know the name of the thread head of standard co2 for planted tank in malaysia (or whatever you call it)? Is it called M21.8? Or G5-8? Photo below:



This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Dec 10 2015, 11:29 PM

So, today I was doing the routine weekly WC. I was using a small hose to suck all the waste in the area below and suddenly, a little creature caught my attention.


Baby red cherry shrimp!!! Looks like it already few weeks old? Don't know how it happened though, I didn't notice my adult RCS carried eggs before.


And, there are 3-4 of them that I can see hiding in christmas moss! I'm sure there are some more hiding.


And now I hope they will survive, I have 4 cherry barbs, 2 siamese algae eaters, 1 oto, 4 neon tetras, 4 lamp eyes, 3 foxy tails, 2 rasbora galaxy and 7 adult red cherry shrimps in the 2ft tank, but the plant should be dense enough for hiding place.



This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Dec 12 2015, 10:47 PM

Yes. I dose quite intense co2 and fertz.

Congrats! I'm not yet a sifu, just sharing what I have learnt in the past few months. From the look of it, your tank is smaller than 60cm? 45cm? I think after 2 weeks and there's noticeable overall plants growth, you can reduce it to 1-2 bubbles per second. I don't see the drop checker, it's good to have a CO2 checker, so you can manage the amount of CO2 being injected into the tank.

1.
I have a 60cm tank with cherry barbs, neon tetra, foxy tail, lamp eyes, rasbora galaxy, SAE and ottos, it's mixed with 7 red cherry shrimps initially, now with additional 5-6 little shrimplets. They live happily together, my SAE is about 3cm long, and it never bother any of my RCS. And you have fair a bit of plants and hardscape too, that's a good hiding place for them. The thing you need to worry is the water stability. I bought a few batch of RCS and Yamato during the first month, they all died, but I have to admit that I fiddled with the plants and soil a lot, so the best bet is - buy a pair to test it. RCS is quite a hardy, my water temperature is around 28-30 degree, I turn on the fan once a while, that's around 26 degree. Grow some moss, they love it.

2.
Personally, I like RCS, quite a hardy, attractive red color and they eat algae too. Most efficient one are Yamato and Malayan shrimp, slightly more expensive RM3-4, Yamato is too big for my liking. SAEs and Otto are much more effective for sure. SAE eats algae but they do steal fish food, it can grow to quite a big size too. Otto will just look for algae most of the time and it's quite small in size.

3.
I'm using EI dosing method, dose everything excessively and do a water change in the end of the week to reset the water parameters, and then start dosing excessively again. That's to guarantee the plants have all the micro traces and macro they need, so the last 2 things I need to concern are CO2 and Light. Even though fertz are dosed excessively, it's actually much cheaper than buying off-the-shelves fertz and it's a proven method to grow plants. Some say High dosing = high nitrate will kill fish and shrimp, but I see it otherwise because my fish and shrimps are still very lively. More about this dosing method: http://www.barrreport.com/forum/barr-report/estimative-index

Hey mkcmeng, you're welcome!

Generally, there are three ways to stick them to the drift wood:
1. Use glue
2. Use thin string to wrap it
3. DSM method by using Use yoghurt and blender (I'd like to try this myself)

Yoghurt method: George's TMC Signature

Either way, you will need to take your drift wood out of the tank and attach it.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Dec 21 2015, 10:01 PM

I was looking for the same thing too for a while - the so called super dark red cherry barbs, but you won't able to find it. Those super red is actually normal male cherry barbs in its mature form. In the end, I bought those normal one, you can pick male which is more bullet-like shape instead of female has bigger belly and paler in color. I have mine for a few months, no way looks super red yet, but will see.

Haha. I actually saw it too. I asked if they willing to sell it.

16 hours of lighting is way too long. A planted tank is a contained ecosystem, therefore it needs to simulate day and night. We don't get 16 hours of sunlight for sure. Depend on your tank setup, a mature tank is usually between 9-12hours.

Well, personally I haven't tried 16 hours. but from other people experience, algae growth will be the main problem. How old is your tank?

It won't work to have lighting off during noon for 4 hours. It doesn't work that way. You will interrupt the photosynthesis. They don't take nap.

I'd say yes, nonstop, uninterrupted period of time for maximum photosynthesis, but not exceeding 10-12 hours. Plant need to rest too.

I also haven't tried timing change. The most I did before is moving forward from 10am to 8am, around that time range, a few hours plus and minus, nothing dramatic for the plant.

For your case, it's possible, but you need to give the plant plenty of time to adapt. For example, slowly moving from 7pm to 12am. I do read some really busy aquascappers who came back home at late night, they reverse the time so they can enjoy the aquarium when they're back from work.

That's a small tank with a lot of live stocks Do you use fertz?

There are a few notable characteristics for SAE:
- Black stripe run from tail to nose
- Fins are milky white
- Upper part of the black stripe is light brown-gold color.

I do notice some fish shop labelled it wrongly as Silver Flying Fox. Silver Flying Fins has yellowish/gold color.

I have an OTO and 2 SAE in my tank, they're doing just fine. The thing with SAE is - they do steal fish food. OTO doesn't.

Well, sometimes it's nothing wrong with your tank, maybe the fish is already ill when you bought it from the LFS.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 7 2016, 11:40 AM

hey mkcmeng, nice tank!

I have been trying to make my plant red, I had the same plant like yours, do you know the name of it? (red leaves on the right) Now I can see some result after switching from LED to 3 tubes T5. 24 watts each.

What light are you using?

What's the dimension of your tank and do you switch all 4 at the same time?

I got a stem of Ludwigia when buying rotala red. Just a short stem and it ended up a whole bunch of them. I have just replanted them.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 8 2016, 05:55 PM

Not really, unfortunately it's a myth. Iron is essential for all plants, but excessively dosing won't cause plant to become red. If you dig deeper into this how to make plant red topic, you'll be surprise by the result.

Based on my findings, here's how some people make the plant red:
1. Low nitrate - it's hard to control, need test kit and usually quite expensive. If not mistaken, by reducing nitrate will reduce the production of green pigment. But if it's not done carefully, it will affect other plants. That's why sometimes your red plants seems to be redder after WC.
2. Long hour of high light - Red color plants (and some green plants) possess red color pigment cells called Anthocyanin which serve as a "sunscreen protection" to prevent leaves damage when plant exposed to highlight. That's when you'll see your plant become red color. High light alone isn't enough, the photo period need to be lengthy enough to have the red pigments production.

Just recently, I switched my LED to 3 T5 24watt for my 60cm tank. I can see my rotala and ludwigia turn red day by day. But then, I have this Green dust algae bloom Did a huge cleaninig and WC and followed by a 3 days blackout routine for the first time to get rid any sort of algae. Wish my luck


This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 11 2016, 11:20 AM

Haha, my GDA was caused by something else, but the new high light accelerated its growth and hence the outbreak. It's a different challenge to deal with GDA, quite interesting.

Anyway, you definitely can have high light, red plant and algae free tank for sure.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 11 2016, 11:33 AM

Yeah, with CO2, more plant choices, but more maintenance. It's a 2ft tank but recently itching to setup a nano tank too.

I'm also quite into moss lately after seeing my christmas moss is doing quite well in my tank, CO2 does make a huge different for sure. I bought mini fissiden which to be arrived this week and also looking for coral moss.

Which moss do you have?

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 11 2016, 11:46 AM

I bought 2 for RM24, I think that's the cheapest I can find. 3cm diameter, tight on rock. I'll post photo once I got it this week.