# Marko's High-light Eclipse III Journal: Update- 11/9/08; R. Vietnam trim.



## chadly (May 17, 2005)

sounds cool! get some pics up of the light, I'm curious to see what you did with it.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I look forward to it  Just dont put an sae in this one, no matter how small it is


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

thanks. well, the light isnt in the hood yet. me and my dad still need to find/make a splash gaurd for it. but thats it. we plan on going to home depot today to try and get some kind of clear plastic tube. 

thanks. well a store near me sells really small SAE (like 1-1/5 inches), i could maybe fit one in there for a month or so. lol, jk. this is for my betta.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

here is a pic of the lighting just on its own:









the little black circut box is where the ballast is (took some soldiering). its going to be out of the hood since the eclipse already runs hot enough as it is. ill probably still need to raise the hood on legs (make that legos, lol).


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## fish_fasinated (Mar 30, 2006)

this should be really interesting. iv always liked the elcipse systems but was never sure about how much light they have.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

well me and my dad found what we can use back on sunday. tomorrow we might work on it, but may not. 

im starting to think of which plants im going to put it:
glosso for the foreground
microsword "narrow leaf" for the midground
and rotala wallichi for the background
and moss on the wood, im thinking fissidens maybe; any ideas?

no matter what, it will be a pain until the plants take root, since i have a male betta in there, and he likes to swim through the plants on the bottom, and will deffinately be kicking them up.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

the hood is done!
here are pics:

the hood:









the bulb connector:









whats holding it, velcro:


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## fish_fasinated (Mar 30, 2006)

are you concerned how well the velcow will hold?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

no. the bulb is very light. to velcro patches is more than enough. 
i pulled it off and put it back on and its pretty strong.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Hey, Marco. Looking forward to seeing this tank.

Is the velcro placed where there is minimal heat? It is possible that should the bulb get hot enough, the glue attaching the bulb to the fixture will melt and loosen. Just something to keep in mind.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

no, its not that hot. i have seen bulbs attached with velcro before, and they were bigger bulbs.
besides its not on the bulb, its on the plastic gaurd i made, and it acts as an insulator.


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## MarioMaster (Jul 31, 2008)

i'd also want to caution you on the velcro, I've used some of that self adhesive stuff for various items, and what seems to hold just fine now - will end up falling in your tank about a week later, i wouldn't recommend it

my 2 cents


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Maybe you could use super glue to make sure it holds


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

i will of course keep checking to see if it holds, but this is a little 9 watt bulb. its like 6 ounces or less.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

well, redid the tank today (but not planted).
first i removed my amazing betta that i spawned myself (im pretty proud of him, deal with it). then removed my moss carpet, wood, ferns, and anubias. the wood was boiled, ferns and anubias bleached. heater was bleached. intake of the filter was bleached. then i added some more flourite. and then took forever filling it up so as to not raise all the dust. put the wood back in and the ferns and anubias. here are the pics:









Eclipse 3









With the 9w light









Wood with fern and anubias


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

here is the plan i have for the tank. any suggestions/comments?


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Sounds like a plan, now hop to it


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

lol
i hope to have the rotalas by wednesday. the glosso and microsword, will be a while. i will take the microsword from my 20L, but i need to finish the treatement for parasites on it first, which will be 3 weeks. idk when i will get some glosso in there.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

i got the rotalas a while ago; and now until i get the glosso from dr.tran, i have the stems lined up front where there is the most light for grow-out mode. along with the rotalas i got 2 other stems, some floaters, and what i think is a bolbitis (pics of these for you guys to help with ids on the bottom). NOTE: the original 3w bulb was off when i took the pics, and the contrast in lighting for the sides of the tanks looks more drastic then it really does when the bulb is on (which is 80% of the time). here are pics:
FTS:









rotala mini:









rotala vietnam:









a. petite growing a new leaf:











ok. here are the plants id like ided:

#1 bolbitis?

















#2 didiplis diandra? stargrass? idk









#3 idk, the leaf edges are slightly serrated, though it doesnt really show up. any clues?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

oh and yesterday night i added CO2. i used some yeast that was labeled "highly active". let me say: WHOA! it was bubbling by morning. and a bubble in each row. heh, thank god the betta had a labyrinth organ, that may have helped him survive the 56 ppm. plants probably liked it though. i added a drop checker and lefted the output up a step, and now it looks better. anyway, this stuff will probably peak and be used up in a week, but it is great for tanks with pressurized for if the CO2 runs out and it takes the person a few days to get around to it. 6 hours and this yeast is producing like normal, where as the normal one doesnt do anything for the first 12 hours, and after that i usually dont see this kind of activity for 3 days.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

plant #1 Is 'oak leaf' water sprite, great plants, incredibly fast growing


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

good. i like fast growing. fast growing = nutrient sponge = algae starvation = :biggrin: .
are you sure its a water sprite? could a water sprite grow a new plantlet off of its leaf tip, cause this one is? but yeah i doubt its a bolbits (colors wrong) but i never heard of anything but a fern growing leaf plantlets, and it sure isnt a java fern.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

@[email protected] said:


> good. i like fast growing. fast growing = nutrient sponge = algae starvation = :biggrin: .
> are you sure its a water sprite? could a water sprite grow a new plantlet off of its leaf tip, cause this one is? but yeah i doubt its a bolbits (colors wrong) but i never heard of anything but a fern growing leaf plantlets, and it sure isnt a java fern.


yes, this plant grows like crazy


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

oh. ok. ill keep it for a while, then move it to my 20L (which im going to be completely redoing in a few weeks) for start-up. then sell it.

i really like my rotalas, they look awesome. big (but late) thanks to cardinal fish who sold them to me. really nice plants.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Watersprite gets big. Twice I have had one grow 5 inches out of a 29 gallon tank


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

no problem. it wont get big enough to not leave any room for my other plants in my eclipse 3 in two weeks since it was just introduced, and still hasnt adapted. then it will be moved to my 20L, where it will only be used in start-up, and then given away for free + shipping (unless i can sell it, but i doubt it).


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

the plants are growing!
and so is the algae 

today i noticed a glass nicely dusted with cyano:









so i took out my algae scraper pad and scraped it off (the good thing about the pad is that it captures all the cyano so it doesnt float back into the water column). then i went to treate the root causes: not enough N and low flow. i dosed some more N, and bought one of these little powerheads (set it on min which is 30gph):









i put it in and took the opportunity to move around the plants a bit:










anyway, the R. vietnam is growing like mad. its up to the surface already! and its not even established.

















R. mini is growing a tiny bit, but nothing nearly as dramatic. maybe it has a longer adaptation time?









and here is a pic of the powerhead:


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Hopefully that powerhead will solve your problem. Any chances of a 2213?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

hope so too.

thats 116 gph. you think i need a 38.67 times an hour turnover? that filter could just about blow the polyps off of an SPS coral in such a small tank. 
besides, the powerhead has a min of 30gph, but a max of 50gph; almost double. so i can always increase it if i need too (though i hope not to, for the bettas sake).


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## workn4frags (Sep 29, 2008)

Very nice set up.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

thanks. it still needs a scape though.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

ok here is an update:
the R. vietnam is going nuts. it grew at least an inch in 3 days. mystery plant "a" grew 4 side shoots, 4! and mystery plant be has grow a little bit. the R. mini is still barely growing. cyano is in patches on the substrate, but still not totally invasive. besides, the tank is still new, so the cyano may go away on its own as the plant mass increases.
i was hoping to plant the glosso today, but its not gonna happen. there was some confusion in the transaction and it was probably sent to somebody else (not sure if that was the case, though, i havent gotten a pm back yet). no big deal though. i will probably do it in a week or so. and next weekend i will bleach some lileaposis from my 20L and put that in there (hope the bleaching doesnt kill it) when i go to redo my 20L to higher tech and new scape (check out my journal for that too). 
here are pics of the tank as is:


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Cyano is caused by low/fluctuating co2, bad water flow and low kno3. Are you dosing any macros (NPK)?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

low or flux CO2? for cyano? that could be it. im using DIY and if your read my last update, youll see just how flux it was. it shouldnt stay that way though, so then the cyano will go away? 

i have good flow. i just added a powerhead with 30gph (can go up to 50 though). 
and i dosed macros sunday and today. i plan on dosing only once a week though, if i can get away with it. if not then 2 times.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

cyano is spreading. im going to redo my CO2 on wednesday, and start to dose ethyromicyn (maracyn). i will also bump up the flow a little bit. and dose again like i plan to. hopefully with better CO2, and higher flow, cyano wont be allowed to take hold, and the antibiotics should kill it pretty fast (though i will do a WC first and try to get as much out as i can anyway).

glosso came today. its just gonna float until wednesday. it should survive like that until then.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

i went to the tank and saw this:








scraped the glass to be welcomed by this:









i need help.
im dosing nitrates, increased flow, moved the powerhead, and dosed maracyn.

i cleaned out the cyano, and now it looks like this:








i hope i can get it to stay like that.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Ouch! Talk about an algae ambush!


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

How much are you dosing for nitrates?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

im dosing flourish line macros once a week. seachems reccomended dose.
micros are every other week.

my nitrates are 5 or higher always, though.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

That is pretty low but adequite. I was running my higher light tank lean on KN03 and had a little cyano. Upped my dosing to get a ~15ppm KNO3 reading and all was good. If I were you I would see if someone could send you some potassium nitrate and start dosing that. Better yet save yourself the money of buying all the seachem stuff and get the whole NPK pack from Greenleaf or Rex.



@[email protected] said:


> im dosing flourish line macros once a week. seachems reccomended dose.
> micros are every other week.
> 
> my nitrates are 5 or higher always, though.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

i have dry fertz. i intend to use them on my 20L with the automatic dosing. 
i will also eventually use them on the eclipse, but i still have the seachem line flourish fertz, no need to throw them out.

ok, so ill dose a bit more nitrates and see how that goes (cant dose more often, im just not there to do so).


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

i made a gas seperator for the eclipse 3 to keep yeast out of my diffuser. here is a pic with my new camera:


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## connordude27 (Jun 14, 2008)

subscribed thats a nice tank


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

wow, thanks!
if only i can get the stems to grow straight. but the vietnam is growing at least, and actually could do with a trim.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

the rotala vietnam has been growing very well, and i trimmed it for the first time today.
its already starting to shape up (it seems to like the tank a lot). the R. mini is growing a few new side shoots, and i cant really tell if the main stems are growing too well. i guess this plant is more of a slower growing stem. the 2 freebies are also growing pretty well, but are too small to propagate so far. i also added some of the lilleaopsis from my 20 L (plenty left, PM me if you want some). 
glosso is still just sitting there, but i only planted it wednesday.
still no sign of cyano returning, but i am starting to get some diatoms on the wood and anubias.

here are pics:


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## OhNo123 (Jan 8, 2008)

Nice tank,

any updates?


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