jamesbarr

so is the auction at the hotel too or is it in the normal place?

im with fcg, whatcha bringin? any lights or filters?

5 gallon is done, needed the room for wood working projects. transferred my chain swords to my 30 gal along with the anubius and bocapa. hoping to get a good 36 in light at the coming auction

updates!

Day 35, 17 since filling. I trimmed the HM right after this picture, its growing too tall for my pygmy swords in the back, which are actually pushing their way into the HM zone of the tank. Survival of the fittest I guess Its been a while since I have updated my walstad. Today is day 51. Things have changed a lot since I get this one going

can we see pics of you diy overflow?

Went up to say goodnight to my son and came out of his room and thought 'man, this makes me feel so cool' So I thought it was a kodak moment Id share

Day 27 since start up, Day 9 since filling. Update photo for my DSM NPT. Things are looking great IMO. My Java moss got detached when I had a hand slip during a w/c. Its ok, I wanted to try this technique out anyhow. My Java moss is now on the rock 2nd from the right in the photo. Water parameters unknown, Im not really worrying about it at the moment. No algae so far, just strong tannin colour in the water. It will slowly get better, closer to the 1 month since filling mark.

so an interesting fact. Red Wrigglers can live aquatically. I just counted 3 worms poking their head out of the cap in my dsm. They eat rotting matter, so they must be happily living in the compost layer of my tank. Pretty cool.

+1 Fisher, also Big Als will take fish in too.

sweet. I was going to take the principles of this method at face value, but Im happy that Im digging deeper. Having a little more knowledge of how it all works makes me appreciate it more.

ok, I did some digging about this because I wasnt satisfied with the answer that I felt I was unable to give. I checked in Walstads book. I cant speak to the validity of the information past her PHD lol. I cross checked with wiki ( i know, I know) and feel satisfied that I can at least give an answer in very basic terms. So to expand on what I was saying earlier. The soil substrate has an anaerobic aspect to it. Anaerobic bacteria create a bunch of things but in keeping with the subject currently at hand I will talk about H2S and Methane. H2S is produced in anaerobic environments. Its produced during a process called anaerobic digestion. Organic matter must be present for this to occur and that is why there will be little if any measurable quantity of H2S in a tank with inert substrate. H2S is oxidized when it reachs areas of the substrate that are aerobic and this reaction leaves behind SO4 2-, sulfate. I gather that this is something that needs to be attended to in the early stages only because the O2 levels produced by the plants is not at its peak until things all get established. Its also the reason that artificial water current is recommended during the beginning stages and not required later on. I will not lie to you, I cant find any references at this time about what happens to these sulfates after this point. If I find any, I will be sure to update on this thread. Methane CH4 is another by product of anaerobic bacteria in the substrate. When oxidized its by products are Co2 and H2O. Good stuff. Aerobic decomposition releases carbon into the water column. Walstad says that Co2 is produced during this process. I seem to have missed the scientific explanation behind this in her literature, however I suspect that the carbon would react with the O2 in the water, bonding into CO2. Being that this would all be happening at a microscopic level I wouldnt be surprised if things then went beyond this and bonded into H2CO3 or carbonic acid. If Im not mistaken, this is the process that metricide or excel are trying to reproduce. Again, this last bit is largely speculation. As far as Walstad talking about DSM, I have a link below to an article detailing a couple of her experiences with DSM setups. http://www.bookmasters.com/marktplc/00388Shrimp.pdf

Thats what I understand. So Im only supplementing my co2 until I begin to see bubbles rising out of my substrate and they have no eggy smell to them. Eggy smell indicates H2S gas (a byproduct of anaerobic bacteria in an aquarium) and thats why I was poking the substrate in my first npt. At first the gas was stinky and once I had established plants (i define established as 'measurable growth') I noticed that the gas stopped smelling of eggs and became odourless. In another forum Im on, Im told that this means that my N bacteria are working and one byproduct is co2. Another benefit of a stable dirted tank is the abundance of DOC from decomposing organic matter in the soil. While Im not sure about the science in regard to the Co2, this is what Walstad touts in her literature. I also have the evidence in my 20 Gal that the method works and therefore receives a merit badge from me I didnt add co2 in my 20 gallon. Im just wanting to give my plants a boost from the dry part of this experiment. If my plants lag right now, I could have a serious amount of algae to deal with in this tank, and I dont want that. My 20 gal didnt have to deal with a transition period at the beginning being a normal plant and fill style tank. With a dsm there is typically a period of stagnancy while the plants adjust to lower Co2 levels and, especially with the high nutrient values in an npt, this is a prime time for algae to come in and pillage my tank boo

Walstad update. Day 37. My tiger lotus is doing awesome. At the moment I am slowly thinning out the HM, I decided that I didnt really like them in there. I think they look too different from the rest of the plants. One of these things is not like the other Its going into my 30 to float around now that Ive transplanted enough into my dsm. I also filled my NPT DSM as well. Everything grew in as densely as I wanted in only a couple weeks. Today is day 21 from start, and day 3 after filling. Im starting it sans poisson. That way I can do fewer w/c. At the moment Ill be doing daily w/c until the loose soil from transplanting is gone. Contrary to typical npt dsm I am using diy co2 to aid in the transition from dry to wet. I want to eliminate as much die back as I can. So this tank will be transitioned slowly into a true npt later on. Once the nitrifying bacteria in the soil gets moving, they will product the co2 required by my plants. I intend to stock this tank down the road with a delta or half moon betta and some cherry shrimp. BTW the mass of gross looking stuff on the rock to the right is java moss, it just really likes to hold on to crude that floats by. Anyone know if that stuff will continue to grow on the rock and spread out, or will it just grow upwards now?

nope. im running a dirt sub in all my tanks and like the tannin color in my tanks so I just manage water clarity with floss and w/cs.

IYE are there any plants that they will leave alone? I reading in places that anubius and java fern are generally safe. The thing that Im seeing most is that peoples goldfish are ripping plants out of the sub when they are rooting around. So if any anubius or java fern were to be anchored to DW do you think they would be safe? Id be ok with avoiding sub anchored plants if there were some out there that could be attached to DW and be left alone. Hmm, I like the idea for going aquaponic if they decided to devour my plants. Java fern and anubius are the common ones people call safe, along with anarchis which apparently grows in fast enough that it will deal with nibbling. Ill keep digging for the mean time, hoping that they dont change into the fish who say 'Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke P'tang Zoo Boing Zowm' Ive been entertaining the idea of trying out a riparium in the even that I cant keep plants with goldies otherwise.....still thinking about that

sweet! at this rate youll have a tank running on it by thursday :p jk

So recently goldfish have gotten my attention. They are cheap, not too ugly and they are hardy. Only problem, they eat live plants. As a result they arent used in planted tanks all that often. When googled the results are pretty much a resounding no go. However, I like to try to push the boundaries and experiment a lot. That being said, Im not above asking for other peoples personal experiences to draw from and to help set the parameters of my experimenting. This definitely helps me to reduce the amount of capital lose if the plan flops and also helps me to find success. So I have been wondering, if there was an abundance of easy to get food like duckweed (i got some in a bunch of plants I got, and as expected its now growing quite well in my tanks) do you think that the goldfish would leave my other plants alone? Im imagining that I would let the duckweed grow in the tank, and supplement it with the excess from other tanks. This would create a shady/ low light environment which would be good for anubius or java fern. The duckweed would love the nutrient rich water column provided by the goldfish and would grow rapidly but also be managed by the fish who would use it for food. If it got out of hand, id just manage it with more fish I would go with a super basic looking tank. Maybe a piece of drift wood to attach my anubius and one for java fern. Otherwise just some big round river stones and a sand substrate (because I have those and Im cheap ). So thats my plan. Has anyone got any words of wisdom for me?

well that was fun! so did you dance on your stand yet?

Wie Vater mögen Sie Sohn! Ich bin ein Punk auch! Fröhliche Ostern!

amadeus! amadeus!

looks good! did you see any sag?

On a side note. This is my dsm Day 9. Started on the 13th of March Long way to go yet but so far so good

Front view Side view Day 28. Just about a month in. Added more fish 5 days ago. Anticipated spike didnt occur. Things are looking really good imo. Ive decided that the HM that I was so proud of was a better addition to my dsm so Im slowly removing it to allow for more pcs growth. They have really been filling in the left side of the tank. Fish appear really happy in there. Really happy I dove in and tried this out. Its hard to see, but one of the plants I am the most excited about is a lotus. In the side view picture you can see it a little bit on the bottom left of the pic. It was pretty tiny when it was added to the tank but its grown 4 leaves and they have reached the size of one of those chocolate turtles (mmm, i love turtles ) I think it looks awesome and cant wait for it to grow in more. Anyone know if there are any ill effects of letting it go to flower?