Garhan

Tortis and a jug of whiskey to aid in the accuracy :thumbs: ....right

Super Glues where originally used during the Vietnam conflict for stitching wounds. I keep a bottle in my first aid kit at all times. It works extremely well on large laccerations. It has a alchol base, burns some on the open wound so place it carefully on the epidermis layer only, but gets it closed. According to my doctor, he could not have done a better job himself. Garhan

Lukep77, both the Plant 101 and the C02 treatise are a must read. They are Pinned to the head of this topic. Popeye explains that a C02 system he uses is effective and it is likely true that it is. But keep in mind that your tank is a 90 gallon and this system previously explained is adequete for a 30 gallon or less according to the commercial literature that it comes packaged with.. With this 90 I would recommend a Pressurized system. You can purchase a 10 lb bottle for about 120.00 new or a used for under 100.00. You would need to refile this bottle every 4-6 months at a cost of 10.00 dollars. There is a C02 valve with a bubble counter and solinoid valve all in one for about 120.00 cdn on the market also. The nice thing about the solinoid is that it will shut off the C02 supply to your tank at night. After all you will be adjusting your PH with C02 input to get the desired ppm of C02 into your system. You need to target 30 ppm of C02 in your tank. This is measured via a KH vs. PH chart. My water in Edmonton has out of the tap a KH of 5 degrees and that is a good KH to grow plants. I therefore adjust my C02 to bring my Ph down to 6.7, but anything between 6.6 - 6.8 will give me enough C02 concentration to achieve the 30 ppm target for excellent plant growth. You can also do a DIY C02 bottle with a juice jug, this is also explained in the C02 treatise. The most important thing I feel in the treatise the C02 Powerhead diffuser. Personally I have used several different types of diffusers. From airstones to ladder systems. All will work especially on 50 gallon or less tanks. But it is strongly recommended that a Powerhead Diffuser should be utilized on tanks other 50 gallons with pressureized sytems. As for fertilizers there are approxamately 5 or 6 dry chemicals to purchase and will cost about 40.00. This will make in 500ml lots about 5-6 liters of the fertilizers you will need for your plants at a 50/10 ratio. So for every 50 gallons you would supply 10 ml of ferts every other day. Or you can purchase Seachem and /or others at 250 ml bottle for about 16-19 dollars each. Obviously the home brew is alot less money and in my opinion more effect. I say effective because after the first batch or two you can adjust the measured volumes of mix to your fertilzer bottles as required by the fish load, light volume and plant mass. Cheers, Garhan

I need to know your base water parameters to be able to help you out on a fertilizing program. You would also need to decide if you will make your own, use commercial product (expensive) or a combination of the two. Have you read Plants 101. In our tanks with respect to NH4/NO2/NO3, if you add enough plant biomass and plant heavy from the start like all the good plant enthusiasts suggest,and or seed with mulm from an established tank then there's no NH4 issues to begin with. Add enough CO2 and that addresses that issue anyway. Use the C02 quanity to lower your Ph and not PH up or down products that are usually phosphate based. If you begin to achieve the targets in the Plant 101 comments immediately after setup then all will grow well. Assume NO3/PO4/Trace "excesses" will cause algae, why would this make any difference and wouldn't these nutients help the plants to get on their feet and pump up their reserves better? You can then address any algae difficulties later. Crank up the CO2 and nutrients and keep up on water changes. Do 2x a week water changes for the first month seems like a better method and advice to me rather than "starving" plants for a any length of time. Garhan

Many people used to and still do use halogen lights. It is very expensive power wise and will generate a large amount of heat. With 600 watts of light over your tank, you are at 6.6 watts per gallon. This is very high as far as plant needs go. One light should be plenty. A friend of mine runs 90 gallon plant tanks and only uses about 2.6 watts per gallon. The lights are either T5 or U shaped Tubes on his systems. Will you be using C02 and do you have a fertilizing program designed for this tank. These are the next two critical steps you need to take to grow plants well. With this 6.6 watts per gallon you will likely need a very aggresive fertilizing program. Which means higher volumes per dosing, depending also on your plant load. Garhan

If in fact this is a gill irritation.It sounds to me by the behavior that he may likely have "Gill Flukes", which is not that uncommon to discus. Check out the appropriate medication in a discus book. If there are no plants or other fish in the tank with him (or isolate him to a 10 gallon tank with original tank water) and raise the temp to 90 F. Flagasile will likely do the job and will also cleanout any intestinal parisistes. Garhan

Roger that.... Garhan

It is a native Hornwort. Milan if you use it in your tank, make sure it is bathed first and then well rinsed. Garhan

It is a good layout on the hardscape. But you might consider matching the grain angle in the rock to the log. Have both pieces angled at the same asmyth. Also do your hardscaping of the rock in goups of 3, or 5 and of the same type of rock. It will look much better when the tank is heavily planted and when some of your plants begin to grow in and fill the empty areas. Keep us posted as the tank comes along. Garhan

Sounds good on the ferts. Hold steady for awhile to see what happens. i suspect the P04 may climb further due to any decaying plant matter and algae. As for triming you may need to flush abunch or better trade with people on AA for other varieties. Trimming is straight forward on stem plants. Cut them back almost as heavy as you need too. I often trim them to within 2" of the substrate. This trim will also promote thicker growth. By the way VERY WELL DONE> Welcome to the joy of plants..... I am including a 10 gallon tank setup photo that has been a night mare on the chemistry, but it is slowly coming around. Cheers, Garhan

There doesnt currently seem to be a relationship due to rainfall entring the watershed at this time, we really havent had that much rain in the past 2 weeks.. We pull dailey reports from EPCOR our water suppliers www. site on the water specs and also tested the tap water prior to placing in the tank. Garhan

With the concern on the Schultz Plant Soil I have not found or noticed a P)4 issue, but it is a valid point to clarify, although a friend of mine and I are experimenting with it in a 130 gallon tank (Well more him than I, but you need to share the pain with your friends to see what rebounds back). The tap water has a 5 degree KH and we are beginning to believe that it is the cause of a severe KH drop to less than 1 degree. There is only water and Schultz in the tank currently. Right now we(he) is boosting the KH with sodium bicarbonate to get it back to the desired 5 degrees for this setup. Once stabalized he will run another gambet of tests and then begin a C02 hookup with bubble counter and solinoid shut off to adjust the ph using a Milwakee PH meter to mnitor it through out the day. He has also contacted Schults on this to see if they have found the same issues or if infact to see if we are even on the right track on what altered the KH levels in this tank setup. So far no response back on this issue, but I am sure they will respond. I am under the impression that they truly care about what effects there product has on water. Originally lower grades of this baked clay was used as a spill absorbent. This higher grade may have some of these properties of absorbing ***possibly*** specific chemicals in the water. Does that still make it inert....mmmmm, I think so, but we need to be aware of these discrepancy's to adjust our water accordingly to make target. Cheers, Garhan

Hi Milan, It is starting to look good. Still need more forground to grow in though. High nitrogen levels can eventually lead to potassium deficiency. Using KNO3 allows you to have a buffer of about four times the K+ above the need of NO3- when using KNO3. When using this product comparative to the plant’s requirements. This should mean that you have about ±75% of your NO3/NH4 coming from fish waste. Continue adding a little KNO3 for the remainder of the Nitrogen needs. And you will still have enough K+. Often higher light tanks such as yours with CO2 enriched, planted tanks are deficient more than what you might indicate in your tank. Adding KNO3 takes care of this K+ issue. If the fish load is very high(yours is not) or the tank is a non CO2 enriched tank (again yours is not). Then tap water with high NO3- levels, or K2SO4or KCl can be used in place of KNO3. I also still think in the back of my mind that your N cycle has not yet full matured because of the short time frame of the setup and low fish load. I would continue for a little longer to not add K2HP04. Use the phosphate free ferts for at least a week or three yet unless you begin to notice a P04 deficiency or serious lack of P04 in your tests. Cheers, Garhan

Instead of putting all those eggs in a tank. Place them in a pilsner glass or some type of a jar that is narrow at the bottom. Put in a few drops of methylene blue or a fungus cure and set an airstone in the bottom. Turn on the air so that it is fairly turbulent in the jar. Place eggs in the jar and keep it warm, but in a dark area.Egss should hatch out within a few days. Once hatched reduce the turbulance of the air stone to a light flow, but still have reasonable flow without damaging the fry. After the fry hatch begin feeding bbs or micro worms until 10 days of age and then beging to mix in crushed flake until there is only flake being fed. Feed at least 3 times per day. You can begin water changes after about 2 weeks at 10-20% every few days. :thumbs: Garhan

Most sandblasting wholesalers, distributors and end users in Alberta purchase there product from Target. With each and every product any of these companies sell, the product is accompanied with a WHMIS report. On the WHIMS data sheet you will find all the information and then some that you are looking for with respect to inert product, ph , weight, etc... I personally have purchased from Dad's, Silica Sand in the past (Target Product) at 10.00 per bag. Which is a fair price. But I also purchased the same product at 7.00/bag. Several years ago. Not that Dads shouldnt make a living and it is very good to purchase from your LFS of choice. But I choose to go more direct for the same product because I purchased a very large volume and I saved myself 70.00 dollars (almost) Garhan

It sounds like you are doing everything right. I would keep up the water change and also do a vacum of any mulm or detrius in the tank. Algae sounds like hair algae (maybe). I found that if you grow hair algae you are still close to balance. Also calibrate your test kit by using 10 ml water sample and add regents based on 10 ml volume. So if you would add 3 drop of a regent per 2ml in test tube, then add 15 drops of regent in a 10 ml sample. Also take a water sample in and let LFS do a test to see if it compares to your findings. If it is accurate, then start using the Phosphate Free Solution until P04 has come down and keep up those 30%- 50% water changes. Let me know how you make out. I will also be in Calgary this week until Wednesday or Thursday Cell 780-499-1263. So I can save you money on your postage. Also looking at the photos of your tank I think the plant volume or density is to light for your fertilizing program. You may wish to cut the volume by 50-75%. You need more plants Garhan

Here is the chemical chart from PPS Chemical_Chart.doc

Dry Chemicals Volumetric vs. Mass units conversion 1 tsp 1 tbs Form 5 ml 15 ml gram gram CaCO3 Calcium carbonate powder 1.2 3.6 CaCl2 Calcium chloride anhydrous CaCl2.2H2O Calcium chloride dihydrate pellets 3.6 10.8 CaCl2.6H2O Calcium chloride hexahydrate CaMg(CO3)2 Calcium magnesium carbonate, Dolomite powder 5.2 15.6 Ca(NO3)2.4(H2O) Calcium nitrate tetrahydrate pellets 4.8 14.4 (CaSO4)2.H2O Calcium sulfate hemihydrate powder 3.1 9.3 MgCO3 Magnesium carbonate KH2PO4 Monopotassium phosphate crystals 5.6 16.8 NaH2PO4 Monosodium phosphate anhydrous MgSO4.7H2O Magnesium sulfate heptahydrate crystals 4.0 12.0 K2CO3 Potassium carbonate, Potash KCl Potassium monochloride KNO3 Potassium nitrate pellets 5.2 15.6 K2HPO4 Potassium phosphate dibasic anhydrous K2SO4 Potassium sulfate powder 6.4 19.2 NaHCO3 Sodium bicarbonate, baking soda powder 4.8 14.4 Na2HPO4 Sodium phosphate dibasic anhydrous TE mix Trace elements powder powder 2.6 7.8 PPS™ Copyright © 2004 Edward

If you like I can mix you up 500ml bottles of TE with 7% FE both EDTA @ 5% and DPta @ 2% for 10.00/ 500 ml. That should give you 50 doses for a 50 gallon tank at 10 ml per dosing every other day. Can ship Canada Post in 2 days or UPS /Fedex. Your tap water water changes is the source for your Mg. because each chemical has a different density it is difficult to say that 1 tablespoon is 24 grams of KN03 or KS04, etc.... I went to a friends place and calibrated my plastic spoons with all the products with 1 tablespoon measure on his gram scale. It also makes a difference in weight if the chemical is in powder form or pellet form. Somewhere I should have a chart that breaks this all down. Garhan.

If you have built an in line system then that is the better of the two diffuser. Use the Pinned C02 Calculator to achieve you desiredd ppm for the C02 input. Use the C02 volume to adjust your ph. Try not to mess with the KH. Garhan

Also that TE cost seems out of line. Look for Plant-Prod Micronutrient Mix, should be allot cheaper. Garhan

Milan post some pictures and I will respond to your plant needs. We can also do the free travel thing and sometimes I go to Calgary on buisness myself. Thanks Garhan

I have a list and a mix you might try. I would not buy the MgS04 because it is intented to boost you GH and somewhat your KH. In Calgary and Edmonton we are good out of the tap witha slightly hard water. This is based on Edmonton water and for a 50 gallon tank. So the dosing ratio is 50gal/10 ml. So for every 50 gallon each formula is dosed at 10 ml. And again based on a heavily planted tank and it recieves a 30 to 50 % water change weekly. The targets for each are averages; PH 6.5-7.2 adjusted with C02 P04 .2 to .5 ppm adjusted with K2P04 or fishfood or both KH 3-6 degrees and GH 2-8 degrees, I dont fool with because our tap water is already in those ranges. Here is where you adjust with MgS04 and/or Baking Soda, CaC03. FE I use products that are absorbed at a Ph of 6.5-7.5, do some research here on your own for now at your hydroponics shop of choice. Chelates are very important and there are different types.I use Plant Prod (Product Name) Iron Chelate 7% is effect if you buy the correct type ifor use in a ph of 6.8-7.5 There are three basic formulas: all are mixed in 500 ml bottles Stock Solution dose on alternat days to TE/FE solution ratio is N03 to P04 to K at .75 to.25 to 1.00 Kno3 using 20.38 grams KH2Po4 @ 5.97 grams K2S04 @ 15.74 grams NON Nitrate Solution ratio of NPK @ 0:.25:1.00 KN03 @ 0 grams Kh2P04 @ 5.97 grams K2S04 @ 33.30 grams This I use if my nitrate levels get to high but not to the point were I need to do a water change NON Phosphate Solution ratio of NPK @ .75:0:1.00 KN03 @ 20.38 grams KH2P04 @ 0.00 grams K2S04 @ 19.56 grams This I use if my P04 levels begin to climb. Most TE solutions have amply FE content at 7%. But is it with the correct Iron Chelate for your ph level to be absorbed effiently into your plants. I also use Plant and Fern Jobe Sticks on most of my heavy root feeders.. You can use Plant Prod Chelated Micronutrient Mix at 23.81 grams per 500 ml.

The uptake of the C02 into the water will probably be fairly slow. It looks like you just get a bubble that is held in place until it is absorbed. Building a reactor that is powerdriven is quiet easy and will have 90-100% saturation to the tank water reasonably quick. Although they are difficult to hide in a smaller tank, and therefore some people opt to use the diffusers that are laddered, airstone or like the style you posted. I use the C02 to adjust my ph level in the tank. Our city water comes at a 7.2-8.0 ph, so therefore I prefer the powerdrive system because I get more C02 into the water quicker. I have used several other types of diffusers from airstones to ladder systems. All the feed to contact systems work but not very effiecently. The powerhead drive system I have seen in several other aquarists systems and all are extremely effective. I will post a photo for you as soon as I go take a picture. Done Garhan

Your targets are fine. Garhan