# kaldurak's 20 Gallon Long - formerly a Spec V and 10g thread.



## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Photo update with some comments 11.28.18

Note to self - clean up this first post with pertinent information, pictures, editing and overall presentation.

*Scroll a bit to get past old pics of tanks that aren't running anymore. There is a 20 Gallon Long somewhere in here that is the current tank being run. Also available is my youtube channel if you wish to see video - there's no talking or commentary or music, just tank footage. https://www.youtube.com/user/kaldurak *






So few of you may remember my Spec V, I loved that tank. It started a slow seeping leak from the front bottom seam. Enough to make a 6 inch round pool of water every 24 hours. It's my fault, I had to move and merely drained 80% of the water and gently got the tank on a big wood cutting board to transport it. Didn't move any livestock out. 

Anyway, here was my last photo of the Spec.









So I ran out and got a 10g tank ($1 per gallon sale), an Aquaclear 20 (wish I got the 30 - more media space, 150 watt heater (sold out of 100's at the time - argh) and a bag of pool filter sand.

This marks the first time I've used a substrate that wasn't eco complete or clown puke (loved my tanks as a kid! Bred bettas for hobby money!) And so it's a new adventure for me. I'm looking forward to an inert substrate. I placed a smattering of Osmocote+ at the bottom of the tank and added the sand.

I stole a bag of bio media from the Spec along with half of the sponge I had stuffed in the top of the Spec V filter area and placed those along with the new aq20 sponge into the aq20 filter basket. I put the carbon packet in my parts box. I needed to get this tank seeded immediately and cycled in record time

Fast forward to tank cycled, because it was just days of changing a towel and pouring water to top up leak and evap.

Yay! Moving day!

Lesson learned from spec v, HM grows like mad - don't take all of it. So I didn't. Now, I've never been good at aquascaping, now I don't even try. But I like a full tank, I just don't want another tankfull of HM because I want more room for plant variety. 

That's more seeded material from the Spec V laying about. Moneywort to the left, ludwigia.....repens? To the right, HM across the middle and Glosso? across the front. And some rotala walichii that I can't grow unless I severely reduce csm+b dosing. Java moss in the rocks, all grown from a dime size ball that came with a local shrimp purchase.

Oh yeah, livestock. My grumpfaced murderer Søt Fisk the Betta Fish decided to carpet surf during cycle time. I was very upset, but my Chilis and cherrys were likely not too disheartened. 5 Chilis and 1 cherry are what I had left along with a nerite and an oto. So into the 10 they went. Bagged and drip acclimated because habit.






























Plants not in the best shape, I'm still questing to find the right light/co2/fert circle of life throttle balance Zen and maybe I'll find it in my inert substrate. 

That was April 10. Onward!

April 16 - added AR Mini. Tissue cultured.









April 21 - I took this picture because ar mini is all Praise The Sun at night, I forget the technical term for plants that fold their leaves at night. I love the color of this plant.









April 24 - full tank shot and various other pics. Playing with a macro lens for my android. Super cool. Added 6 red cherries and 5 more chili rasbora to boost their numbers. 























April 26 - the day I actually played with the macro lens. And apparently didnt photograph the tank...
















Today























Trimmed down the HM a few days back, added a bunch more Ohko? stone - big shrimp hidey holes all about it. 

Plants are starting to catch on to a new tank. It was almost like going emersed to submerged transition all over again. Lots of low old leaf die off followed by new growth. Reached my pic limit, will post again soon.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

If you saw the barrel diffuser in the earlier pics, here's how that ended. It worked great! I had submerged it in my water bucket for 24 hours, looked at my reg to make sure all the dials and switches were turned and thrown appropriately and it ran AWESOME for a few days I had the most delicate of, like, molecular sized air wisps that looked like the swirls of galaxies viewed from Hubble and it would all get sucked into the black hole of the prefilter on the filter intake tube, all of it.

And it was great, co2 levels spot on, drop checker happy, plants pearling.

BLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLB

That is the typographical representation of what it sounded like when the stone cracked and the co2 was breaking the surface of the tank. Sad day.

Had to go back to Old Reliable.









It's a combination of check valve, bubble counter, and diffuser all in one. Only about half of what this guy releases is wispy galaxy sized bubbles, so less gets sucked into the filter, but what doesn't gets blown around the tank very well. Drop checker is happy. Plants are growing better. Removed most old leaf from most of the stem plants.










































I'll remove the ar mini old growth in another few days. I want to make sure it's well rooted before I prune so I don't dislodge it.









Rotala - I command you to live this time, you little stub, you're all that's left of your kind, grow little one....grow.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Quick update, no algae noticeable in the tank except for a thin band of green dot/spot? algae along the edge where substrate meets glass. 

Very pleased with the AR Mini growth.









Full tank shot









Carpet is cruising along the sand planting roots.









A faint glimmer of hope appears in the rotala walichii 









Ludwigia is being chopped and replanted too much.









Present count of berried cherry shrimp is at 4, up from 1. I'm racing plant growth and the rock maze against the ticking clocks of pregnant shrimp hoping that enough concealment will exist to prevent too much predation by the chili rasboras. They are quite adept at hunting through the plants and picking off micro fauna - they act like I don't feed them.

Oto is fat and happy, tummy is always full and he's always lazily munching on stuff when he's not sleeping.


Shrimps are like homing missiles when blanched spinach is set in the tank. The spinach pic is from April 27. Rest of the pics are from today.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Just adding some photo's.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Just a quick pic, also, my YouTube channel has a couple videos added. No commentary, just video of the tank.










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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Added some macro footage of one of my monster red cherries.

https://youtu.be/tGBHG19uklU


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Aaand the 10g tank is now a 20 long as of a few weeks ago.


































































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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Does anyone know how to change a thread title? Obviously I'm not 10 gallons anymore 😞


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Added some more plants after waterchange/trim/maintenance day yesterday. And added some other random snaps I took.












































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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

kaldurak said:


> Does anyone know how to change a thread title? Obviously I'm not 10 gallons anymore 😞


Edit the first post in thread.

Click on "Go Advanced". 

Now you can edit the title.

And very nice job on the new tank. Will get even nicer as it fills in.

Looking forward to seeing more updates. Subscribed.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

> Edit the first post in thread.
> 
> Click on "Go Advanced".
> 
> ...


Aha. I'm mobile. I'll have to steal some computer time somewhere!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Quick photo update!









I forget the name of this plant - it's doing very well transitioning .









Yeah, forgot the name of this one, too.  it's also doing very very well transitioning.









Lovely crypt imo. I love the brown color!

















ALL this AR Mini is about to get chopped down to nothing next week. I just topped and planted all my Ludwigia, so I'll let it root for a week before I chop out a load of growth.









Sigh, not transitioning too well.









S Repens. Desperately needing a severe trim. Pic is deceiving, this is the plant in my tank that is an algae magnet. Threads of super thin hair like algae growth.









And full tank shot this fine evening.

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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

AR Mini on the chopping block today. Donating to The Wet Spot because I couldn't find anyone local that wanted it for free. 

















Later this week I need to move the crypt, s repens, and probably tear out half the Monte Carlo to make the room.

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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Weekend update!

Mostly just photos, taking pics before I start my water change. Should have scraped the front glass though, but I played with my camera before maintenance. A note, since my last update I am now (currently) Algae free! In a photo you an see some dot algae on the glass, but if that's all? well, call me pleased and grateful. All the algae on the S. Repens just disappeared in the past week, so I am reaching a very good balance in the tank. The more plant mass you have the easier this gets all the time.










































































Also picked up some emmersed growth Ludwigia Ruben and mermaid weed to see what they end up looking like in my conditions. I removed all the Ludwigia repens from the right side of the tank to make room. All the AR Mini I chopped down quickly started making new growth - it's a nice deep red color so far. The rotala is pearling away yet grows so slowly (imo) it's taken weeks to transition and that's all that made it out of like 8 stems of each in different places around the tank at random. I either don't have enough light because the only ones to make it were taller, or something else. The telanthera is quickly transitioning in the back middle of the tank. Pearl weed is due for another hacking down, too.

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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Some more photos since the previous post met the limit. Tank is starting to feel more Full. As the tank matures more (this tank is a baby, only months old) I get even more meditative maintenance work to do and I love it!



















































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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Major topping and replanting through most of the tank. Im super excited to see all this grow in.









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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

Tank is looking good! Plants seem quite healthy.

What is your dosing routine/level for Macros and Micros?


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## Frank158 (Oct 1, 2013)

Had a good read, tank is looking good. Looking forward to seeing your progress.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

vijay_06 said:


> Tank is looking good! Plants seem quite healthy.
> 
> What is your dosing routine/level for Macros and Micros?
> 
> ...


As my plant volume has increased I've slowly been increasing my modified EI. I was dosing 1/16th tsp kno3 for the longest time, but I've just recently updated that to 1/8th. P and K I dose 1/32nd tsp. CSM+B is 1/32nd tsp. I alternate micro and macro ferts by day. I dose 2ml iron daily via seachem iron.

Thank you for your kind words, although I still feel like something is off balance. O just can't put my finger on it. I see mild chlorosis in the s repens and every once and a while all my stems will decide to make new side shoots instead of just growing Up so something I do or did misaligns the fert ratios in the tank - I'm just not sure what yet.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Frank158 said:


> Had a good read, tank is looking good. Looking forward to seeing your progress.


Thank you! I'm looking forward to it, too. Im really looking forward to the next big trim after this one since the telanthera and mermaid weed is still mid transition. Once I can chop those down and grow all submerged the tank should look pretty rock and roll at that point if I can resist buying any new plants 🙂


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## nbgolds (Aug 21, 2018)

Very nice! Looking forward to updates to see how the replanted stems come in.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Yeah, what did I say about buying plants? I went to the wet spot last night and they were unboxing tissue cultures and they had some fancier and harder to find stuff. So I came home with a crypt pink flamingo. My crypt undulata is doing great, so I want to try my hand at this one, too! Pics this evening after I get it into the tank.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Alright! I bought $20 of crypt Pink Panther at the wet spot and got it planted! I'm super excited to see how this does in my tank. I've seen how pink this can potentially be in other people's tanks, but not too frequently.








so that's the tissue culture. I neglected to ask who the supplier is and the container is all handwriting, no label like major brands. Not concerning. I've bought others from them of this type and they've been awesome.








plunked out under my kitchen lighting, looking fairly pink 








All divided up. Nice number of plants packed into that tiny little cup! I further rinsed the augar off in the sink.








ok these are Very pink! Fingers crossed that this guy does as well as my undulata. 








Ok, I didn't have anywhere else to put the last two divided pieces, so I packed more in the same area. I'll have to trim back some Monte Carlo and probably re-home the piece I buried back in a trio of ar mini.

This is going to be a fun plant to watch, can't wait to share it's progress!

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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

The pink crypt is doing very well so far!









This stem of Ludwigia is turning blood red. I dosed extra csm+b and iron this week, but this is the odd stem out. 









Pogostemon looking amazing with new growth.









I have a stem of albino Ludwigia, I don't understand?









Tops of this transitioning Ludwigia look odd and if I can fix this deficiency, I'm hoping it will look better and grow faster









And this plant is just never happy. Wrinkled and poor. Not sure what's wrong for it.










I turned up my co2 a hair and keeping close eye on fauna, so far so good. And the plants that typically pearl are doing so enthusiastically. 

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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Psst, hey Kal, take your own advice from the pro tips thread about co2 rofl. ALL of my plants are pearling away like mad from just a small turn of the needle valve. Maybe take into account that you have WAY more plant mass now than you did a few months ago when you last thought your co2 was dialed in!!!

Fauna hasn't even budged from normal activities. I'll try another small increase tomorrow. Time to look at plants and fish instead of charts and readings for a minute.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

kaldurak said:


> Time to look at plants and fish instead of charts and readings for a minute.


Amen. +1.


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

Very nice tank Kal. Really liked watching it grow up from a spec V, to a 10, to a 20. I have a feeling it's not stopping there.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

KZB said:


> Very nice tank Kal. Really liked watching it grow up from a spec V, to a 10, to a 20. I have a feeling it's not stopping there.


Alas, This 20 Long will be my largest for a long time. This is the maximum size I could move if I ever have to move again, which in my line of work can sometimes happen. So I will stuff, trim, pack, ans re-arrange this tank until I have as many species growing inside as I can pack in :grin2:


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Just some random shots of water change day. Sneaking in a full tank shot as well.


























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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

Looking good Kal, plants filling in nicely.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

KZB said:


> Looking good Kal, plants filling in nicely.


Thank you, always grateful for a compliment! 

I've banned myself from trimming and replanting anything but the Ludwigia and monte carlo and I have recently increased my macro and csmb dosing amounts to the full dry measurement amounts for a 20-40 gallon EI schedule because it seemed like growth paused after my last trim. I'm catching up to my tank in realizing that with this much more plant mass that I was running short of Something, but I did not know what nutrient it was. Also with the co2 cranked up my drop checker is bright yellow all through my lighting period now. I was probably running short of co2 somewhere during lights on.

This week I am happy to report that all the stalled stem growth burst back to growing except for the few individual rotala stems randomly placed in the tank. I'll eventually just yank them more than likely if they don't shape up by mid November with these increased ferts and co2. I don't know what it is about rotala in all its forms that causes me to be unable to grow them, but hey, I've got enough variety of other plants that once I let them fill the tank to bursting capacity I will do a mild rescape to get the light hogs in the right places and move similar looking plants away from each other and probably swap placement of cryptsand the ar mini so the tank looks much more balanced in appearance. Something more dutchy instead of a grow out looking tank.


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## billb (May 29, 2009)

Tank looks really nice! I love the brown Crypts. Do you know what it is? C.wendti brown?


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

billb said:


> Tank looks really nice! I love the brown Crypts. Do you know what it is? C.wendti brown?




The brown crypt on the right is crypt undulata brown according to the label of the tissue culture when I bought it.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Tank is filling in nicely! Something is "off" still. Single long hairs of some form of algae grows from the lead tips of certain plants. Hard to capture in a picture. From a foot back, you can't see it, up close and you can see it in more places than I'd prefer. Still running with increased ferts and co2. Maybe reduce from 6 hours to 5 or 4? Running low on ideas to solve it, but it's nothing that 10 min of maintenance manual removal doesn't fix.










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## tredford (Jun 29, 2018)

Looks great! Starting to really fill in after the last trim.


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## Mike! (Mar 26, 2018)

kaldurak said:


> Tank is filling in nicely! Something is "off" still. Single long hairs of some form of algae grows from the lead tips of certain plants. Hard to capture in a picture. From a foot back, you can't see it, up close and you can see it in more places than I'd prefer.


Thread algae is my major algae annoyance at the moment as well. No amount of manual removal seems to help. 50% posting here in case someone has amazing advice. :grin2:


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Well, over the course of this past week of upped ferts and increased co2 and a slightly reduced lighting period, growth looks amazing, the few hairs of algae disappeared except for a small patch on the glass and a tiny amount on the Monte Carlo - both of these areas coincide with places that get indirect sunlight in the room. Not concerned at all anymore as the glass razors off in 10 seconds and the mc is due for a trim down. No discernable algae on any other plants or on the glass anywhere!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Wow! Look at the color difference of the new Flamingo growth vs the old!!! I thought the old was pink, but this plant is really coloring up better every day!









Blyxa japonica chilling in the corner, low light and shaded a lot. I need to make an area with higher light by removing some M Carlo - I want to ditch the mc at some point anyway, try out a different more manageable carpet.


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Rotala showing slight improvement. Moved it to a different area so it gets more light.









I love these plants. They grow slower than the Ludwigia, but are more straight up and down and just look awesome! They also look too similar, so I'll have to relocate one or both down the road. In the mean time, just topping, replanting and leaving the stumps to grow more stems is my current plan for them.









Ah yes! Full tank shot friday!

This is how I set the tank when I get home and can view it while I make dinner and whaty-what after work and for a few minutes in the morning.









This is what the tank is at from Noon to 5ish every day. Blinding photon-o-tron 4000. Hard to look at and even harder to photograph.










Any suggestions about what I should do with the blyxa? Ditch some m Carlo? Ditch all the m Carlo and expand my crypt collection? Buy another hard crypt? 


Anyway, I'll post on water change day (tomorrow) with a full rundown of my tank water, degassed tank water, tap water, and degassed tap water and pictures of the city of Vancouver water report. I know you guys love the sciencey stuff 



Edit: edited 3 or 4? times because picture, because words, and because I needed to note that I edited, ha.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Your tank has a lot of impact for a 20G.

For whatever reason, seems much bigger.

Lots of good things going on there. 

Very, very nice!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Water breakdown. It's Water change day, so here's a weekly water report for you guys.

Edit: all 'tank' readings for this post are Pre-water change. Thanks @Greggz!

Edit 2: TDS tap: 120. TDS tank: 285

Degassed tap and tank water pH









Tank water pH after co2 running









Tap and tank Nitrate
















Tap and tank phosphate









Tap and tank KH and GH









City if Vancouver WA water quality report























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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Nice post.

Are the P & K reading before or after the water change?

Either way, looks like your plants enjoy a nutrient rich environment!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Greggz said:


> Nice post.
> 
> Are the P & K reading before or after the water change?
> 
> Either way, looks like your plants enjoy a nutrient rich environment!


All the 'tank' readings are pre-water change (should have mentioned that, will edit) 

I have since completed the water change, drove into pdx, stood in line for 2.5 hours to buy 6 cherry shrimp to jump up my numbers ( there was a guy that bought several hundred dollars of fish and plants, probably a pro, had crates ready to carry the zwillion bags of flora and fauna. It backed up the line quite a bit and the store was already packed with customers. ) drove back home and am now floating the shrimp and doing some end of day readings now that it has had a few hours to chooch.


Does anyone know the maths to guesstimate my CA and MG levels based on my tests and the water report? Or, I have Epsom salt and calcium chloride on hand, should I be dosing any of that?


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Post water change results

Edit: TDS tank 120

pH driven way way down by co2









Phosphate somewhere between 5 and 10









Nitrate, here is a gripe. The left test is shaken with the cap on, the right test is shaken with my finger as the lid. Hard to capture in a pic, but the finger test is definitely oranger rather than redder like the cap test, and see how much liquid is lost by the lid? That has to skew so many people's readings. Because I see 40ppm on the left and 25 to 30ish shades of orange on the right.

















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## Edward (Apr 11, 2005)

kaldurak said:


>


 I see one beautiful healthy girl Celestichthys margaritatus, one of the smallest and certainly unique fish. How many you have and what do you feed them?


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Edward said:


> I see one beautiful healthy girl Celestichthys margaritatus, one of the smallest and certainly unique fish. How many you have and what do you feed them?


I have 9 cpd's and 12 chili rasbora, 3 otos and now 18 cherry shrimp after I added 6 today.

I feed a variety of all this









The cpd's are fanatical for the hikari algae wafers, the omega one veggie rounds, the tetra min flakes but barely touch the omega one flake. In fact the omega one flake is not popular with anyone but the shrimp and snails, I don't hardly feed with it anymore. I crush the tetra min into small to powdery consistency and so the Chilis can fit it in their faces.

I also occasionally feed frozen baby brine shrimp to the tank with all the pumps off. It's like a feeding frenzy.

And they love water change day because when the canister gets turned back on a bunch of detritus worms get blown into the tank and the hunt is on!

I've tried feeding frozen blood worms bit they're too big.

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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

kaldurak said:


> Post water change results


Listen, this all depends on how deep into the weeds you want to get.

Test results are tricky. You need to able to trust them.

Before I made any conclusions, I would make a calibration solution to test your kits. Otherwise, you really don't know what you are dealing with. If you need the recipe, PM me.

I went through this a bit in my journal a little ways back...............

https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/12-tank-journals/1020497-greggz-120g-rainbow-fish-tank-fert-spreadsheet-v3-0-10-31-2018-a-56.html

The thing is, if you don't know if your test kit is close to accurate at all, it's tough to make any decisions based on it.

I mean, everything seems super rich, but it might be your plants like it rich. But better to be sure.


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## Edward (Apr 11, 2005)

kaldurak said:


> I have 9 cpd's and 12 chili rasbora, 3 otos and now 18 cherry shrimp after I added 6 today.
> 
> I feed a variety of all this
> 
> ...


Nice, they eat better than I do. 
CPD Celestial Pearl Danio grow up to ¾ inch or 19 mm record size so they are basically adult fry size fish. I got three boys and three girls two weeks ago from a fish store. They were barely alive, tiny and severely malnourished. Because I don’t have any live food I was serving them boiled yolk for a week. When they doubled in height I switched to hand shredded raw frozen duck and pork tenderloin. Now, a week later they look very healthy, happy, nimble and horny. 

What do they do with the bee pollen? Thanks for the algae tip I will try some fine frozen spinach. Too bad I don’t have any algae, I need some algae, anyone?


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Greggz said:


> kaldurak said:
> 
> 
> > Post water change results
> ...


Oh, ues, I read your journal, I know how deep this rabbit hole can go. I just wanted to get my numbers out there for now. I'll start playing with spreadsheets later 😉


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Edward said:


> kaldurak said:
> 
> 
> > I have 9 cpd's and 12 chili rasbora, 3 otos and now 18 cherry shrimp after I added 6 today.
> ...


Ah, the bee pollen is for the cherry shrimp.


Need to grow algae? Put some tank water in a mason jar in a window and also shine some intense light on it like 18 hours a day, you'll have a personal algae collection jar before you know it


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Anyone want to hazard a wild guess as to why AR Mini, which has been growing amazingly for over a year and through several tank swaps and numerous trimmings while other plants are growing wild? My crypts, s repens, Ludwigia, blyxa, pogo erectus and limno aro. are all looking fantastic.

My AR looks like I don't dose P or K at all. I dose EI buy volume (shame on me) so 1/8tsp kno3, 1/16tsp kh2po4 and 1/16tsp k2so4 and my tap has a little nitrate in the 10-20ppm range. I also add 1/16tsp csm+B and 2ml seachem iron every other day, 50% water change, maybe 65% sometimes.










The newest newest growth looks much better than the old leaves, but I can't figure out what caused this generation to go into meltdown mode while every other plant in the tank looks happy









Happy








Happy








Makes me smile.










I'm about thus close to yanking out that massive carpet of monte carlo. I'm kind of feeling like, 'yay, I can grow a carpet, but this isn't an iwagumi tank and I've proved to myself that I can if I wanted. So say I rip that out of the tank. I could spread out all my crypts and really give them some more elbow room and light contention. I could move the light starved blyxa over there. I could get a different plant? Combo of the above? Have to give it some thought.



Edit: if anyone wants shots of certain plants, just ask. I'll happily provide.

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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

Nice job Kal your tank looks great, filled in very nice and lush. Try adding root tabs under your AR maybe it'll help. I am always rearranging plants here and there. Adding new plants, removing failed plants. Trying to get the right balance of plants that can grow together. I say do as you wish with your carpet. It's always fun trying to see your capabilities and what you can grow. Have fun and enjoy the ride


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Yeah, I think the carpet should go and the crypts should get some more elbow room. The AR I will trim one last time and see how the new iteration goes. If it's ragged again, I'll yank it all despite success in the past. Everything else is growing so well that I won't miss it too bad. If I get a hankering for red plants again, I'll grab some red Ludwigia to try.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

This was actually quite fun, nice roots all across the while carpet. It's sitting in a gallon Ziploc now.

























The edit: pogostemon helferi (not blyxa, thanks slipfinger!) looks great, again nice white roots.









Temporary spot for the time being, I'm going to move a bunch of stuff around tomorrow on water change day.









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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

I just did the same thing last week with some mini dwarf hair grass. It was really cool how it all came out in one tight chunk. Looking good!


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Very cool pic of the carpet.

It's all personal opinion, but I like it better without it. 

It drew your focus too strongly. I think all the plants pop more now.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Greggz said:


> Very cool pic of the carpet.
> 
> It's all personal opinion, but I like it better without it.
> 
> It drew your focus too strongly. I think all the plants pop more now.


Thank you!

Edit: can a plant become 'burnt out?' From too many toppings and replantings? I'm curious. I've never had a plant as long as my ar mini, and it's been decapitated so many times both tops replanted numerous times and several times I've just trimmed it to stumps and let it come back. Usually grows amazingly and this time the stumps grew back horrible 😛


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Grobbins48 said:


> I just did the same thing last week with some mini dwarf hair grass. It was really cool how it all came out in one tight chunk. Looking good!


Thanks!


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

You know Kal I recently been wondering the same question if a plant can become burnt out. Do you have a plan for a new carpet or layout? Maybe offset carpet from middle to left? Btw Great job on your previous carpet, nice thick and healthy roots.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Yes, this evening I'm going to uproot and replant a decent chunk of real estate. I want to get the Pink Flamingo away from any ar mini because pink and red together doesn't jive for me. I want to separate the pogo erectus and the limno aromatica because they look similarish. I would like to keep the blyxa in better light, rather than stuffed in a corner, and possibly also do something with the brown crypt - maybe get it closer to the middle right side of the tank instead of right up front.

Some changes are a comin'



Edit: quick update, if my crypts decide to melt from my replanting, I'll weep. I'm not worried about it though, roots were amazing. The Wet Spot got in some Ludwigia super red, so I got 2 bundles. Tossed all my AR Mini except 1 top. All the roots looked great, but the leaf growth was all gnarly. Just time to go. Also gone is all the mermaid weed and rotala experiment stems. Didn't like either, both always struggled.

For having uprooted that much stuff and replant then do my water change the water was quite clear. I really like sand as a substrate, it's so easy to keep the tank clean.


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## LRJ (Jul 31, 2014)

The brown crypt is amazing. What type is that?


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## slipfinger (Jun 8, 2016)

kaldurak said:


> The blyxa looks great, again nice white roots.


Not sure if the above is the wrong picture for the caption or......... But the plant in the picture is actually Pogostemon helferi (downoi).


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

LRJ said:


> The brown crypt is amazing. What type is that?


It's origin was a tissue culture labeled crypt undulata brown, and thank you, it's one of my favorites, too!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

slipfinger said:


> kaldurak said:
> 
> 
> > The blyxa looks great, again nice white roots.
> ...


You're absolutely right! I even have that written down, but I go all dyslexic on that plant and almost always type blyxa, thank you!


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

All your plants look nice and healthy. I am still trying to find my balance


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

KZB said:


> All your plants look nice and healthy. I am still trying to find my balance


Thank you! My secret is that I have not found my balance yet either! I get some twonky growth out of my Ludwigia. Some generations it will grow awesome with nice big leaves. Next gen will want to grow side shoots all day instead of growing Up and tall.

I've tried to photograph the type of algae I get, but it's so thin and long that I cannot get my phone to focus on it. Otherwise, I think my tank looks great.....right up until you press your nose to the glass, then all its dirty secrets get revealed in person, lol. There's not much algae though. I get a few strands that show up when a plant stalls. I fertilize with all the things that can fertilize a tank, but there is a balance issue in ratios or something. Like I have to keep my P between 5 and 10ppm, otherwise I'll get spot algae alllll over the glass. If I keep it high - no algae in the tank other than a few wisps of the long filamentous looking hair? string? algae. I can deal with that.


That and the occasional leaf that looks like it's lacking for Calcium. I have Epsom salt, calcium chloride and caso4? (plaster of paris) or seachem equilibrium to choose from to dose to raise calcium and magnesium levels. My s repens is always the first to show magnesium deficiency (or iron, they look the same to me, but I am very heavy handed with iron dosing) so it's likely a ca/mg issue.


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

My ludwigia repens are very temperamental too. I recently pulled them out and just planted the nicer parts. I am getting back to testing parameters to see what's been going on. I suspected a calcium deficiency but calcium tested 100 ppm. Maybe its mg, will try some Epsom salt and see what it does. Back to the drawing board for me


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Finally got around to trimming green leaves off of the Flamingo Crypt. All the new growth is nice and pink and it happily got moved in the tank with no melting.

















Pogostemon Erectus - I havent uprooted this guy at all since it's initial planting. Looked awesome, but very dense and was restricting flow back across the tank. Uprooted all of it, roots looked fantastic, all white no rot. The black is just some sand I got lazy about rinsing off in the tank. Replanted about half of what I tore out.

























And a full tank shot. The brown crypt on the right also experienced no issues after being uprooted, trimmed, divided and replanted.









Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## slipfinger (Jun 8, 2016)

kaldurak said:


> Finally got around to trimming green leaves off of the Flamingo Crypt. All the new growth is nice and pink and it happily got moved in the tank with no melting.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Everything looks so nice and healthy. 

Those Flamingo look mighty nice as well, they are no where to be found around me. 

I'm hoping my Pogostemon looks like yours very soon. I'm actually starting to see some improvement with the stems in my rimless tank, there is hope.


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

slipfinger said:


> Those Flamingo look mighty nice as well, they are no where to be found around me.


Let me know if you ever find some...


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

@slipfinger so the crypt flamingo was a tissue culture I bought from The Wet Spot in pdx OR, but it wasn't anything special, just an AFA cup. (I think it was AFA, anyway) what TC brands can you buy online up north?

If you scroll up, look at how that pogo looked like a stem of Rosemary a long time ago. The emmersed growth looks sooo different than it's submerged form. I'm thrilled to have this plant thriving - I wanted something with thin leaves, and rotala walichii just grows like clumps of twisted horrible looking leaves and just doesn't grow for me. In fact, so far all rotala types that I have put in this tank so far has just had horrible stalled twisted growth and it gets yanked and binned.


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

Those are absolutely beautiful Flamingos. I want one hahahaha


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## slipfinger (Jun 8, 2016)

kaldurak said:


> @slipfinger so the crypt flamingo was a tissue culture I bought from The Wet Spot in pdx OR, but it wasn't anything special, just an AFA cup. (I think it was AFA, anyway) what TC brands can you buy online up north?
> 
> If you scroll up, look at how that pogo looked like a stem of Rosemary a long time ago. The emmersed growth looks sooo different than it's submerged form. I'm thrilled to have this plant thriving - I wanted something with thin leaves, and rotala walichii just grows like clumps of twisted horrible looking leaves and just doesn't grow for me. In fact, so far all rotala types that I have put in this tank so far has just had horrible stalled twisted growth and it gets yanked and binned.


From what I have seen we have access to Tropica, Hortlab and ABC Plants, which is newer local Canadian company that is adding new products to their line up weekly it seems. 

I've always wonder what the rule is on sending TC cups over the border since they would be pest free. Anyway have any insight or knowledge on this?

Ya at one point in time Pogo. e. was bullet proof in my original 75 with newer AquaSoil. I have not really given this batch any love, its just been sitting in the back of the tank in a big ol'clump. I'm sure if I spread it out a little and gave it some breathing room it would do a little better. 

Anyways those Crypts are looking pretty nice, I'm sure if they are a hardy variety they'll be in the Canadian market soon enough. Wonder if my friend @burr740 has any idea when they might make their way north.........


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Great tank kaldurak, nice journal too 



slipfinger said:


> Anyways those Crypts are looking pretty nice, I'm sure if they are a hardy variety they'll be in the Canadian market soon enough. Wonder if my friend @*burr740* has any idea when they might make their way north.........


Not any time soon! Mine are still on life support for some reason, but they seem to like the new lower dosing routine


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

slipfinger said:


> From what I have seen we have access to Tropica, Hortlab and ABC Plants, which is newer local Canadian company that is adding new products to their line up weekly it seems.


Dennerle TC too:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ska-shrimps-nature-aquariums/plant-pricelist/1094982080605350/

They seem to have Flamingo as well... Sold out currently (maybe ask / pay for special order?? Count me in if you want  )




slipfinger said:


> I've always wonder what the rule is on sending TC cups over the border since they would be pest free. Anyway have any insight or knowledge on this?



Interested as well.... I can ask a Tropica dealer I know and see what he has to say... Although me and him are butting heads over a very-very long overdue / outstanding plant order at the moment....


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Thanks for you kind comments everyone, I hope all of you up in Canada can get all the sweet plants you want - I can meet people at deepwoods border crossings in the middle of nowhere with a backpack full off rare tissue cultures if any of you want to bring a backpack of Kinder Surprise and OHL season tickets 😉 (Erie otters fan)


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Soooo, I was at Parkrose hardware today picking up a part I needed for work, I do apartment maintenance for a living, and parkrose is essentially what used to be an Ace Hardware and the franchise owner bought himself out from Ace and renamed, allll the awesome stuff an Ace carried plus like 50% more and better stuff.

Anyway, going towards the register I decided to walk the lighting isle for funsies and saw that they had the Sunblaster lighting that's cheap, efficient, and a nice way for me to add some extra light. So I grabbed the 36" version and I'll probably grab a flora sun bulb tomorrow. I set it on the tank rim just to see how bright it is and I am very impressed. Pearling within 10 minutes and like ridiculous amounts. It looks like it raining up.

Tomorrow I will properly hang it above the tank with an adjustable height pulley system and a timer so I can use this as a very high light for a shorter segment of the current lighting period of 6 hours of 80% intensity from noon to 6 with my finnex cc. Like 1.5 hours of very high light.

Ha! The t5 reflector is re-reflecting the leds bouncing off the water surface.









Both finnex and t5ho (with film on reflector because I didn't read and was excited to try my new toy, lol)









Just the t5 (before peeling film!)










Edit: I am a dolt who forgot to RTFM and didn't peel the protective plastic off the reflector. Let's try this again.



Both the finnex and the single t5ho sans film









Just the t5ho sans film


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

kaldurak said:


> Soooo, I was at Parkrose hardware today picking up a part I needed for work, I do apartment maintenance for a living, and parkrose is essentially what used to be an Ace Hardware and the franchise owner bought himself out from Ace and renamed, allll the awesome stuff an Ace carried plus like 50% more and better stuff.
> 
> Anyway, going towards the register I decided to walk the lighting isle for funsies and saw that they had the Sunblaster lighting that's cheap, efficient, and a nice way for me to add some extra light. So I grabbed the 36" version and I'll probably grab a flora sun bulb tomorrow. I set it on the tank rim just to see how bright it is and I am very impressed. Pearling within 10 minutes and like ridiculous amounts. It looks like it raining up.
> 
> ...


Maybe it's my imagination, but I could swear I saw the exact same post from @Quagulator here.

https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/12-tank-journals/1224777-quags-3-25-gallon-formerly-30g-long-9.html

And looking forward to seeing what effect it has on your tank.

Keep the updates coming.

Tank is looking great.


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## slipfinger (Jun 8, 2016)

I'm so glad to see so many people finally seeing the 'light'. T5HO's are the cats ass, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever switch to LED's.

T5'er for life!


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

slipfinger said:


> I'm so glad to see so many people finally seeing the 'light'. T5HO's are the cats ass, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever switch to LED's.
> 
> T5'er for life!


I've been trying to be magnanimous, but I am with you 100%. 

Not that LED's are bad...........but C'com T5HO's still rule!!

You are not the only one @slipfinger!!


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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

Greggz said:


> I've been trying to be *magnanimous*, but I am with you 100%.
> 
> Not that LED's are bad...........but C'com T5HO's still rule!!
> 
> You are not the only one @slipfinger!!



Sorry to be _that guy_, but: 



Impartial maybe?

Again, sorry! >


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Greggz said:


> Maybe it's my imagination, but I could swear I saw the exact same post from @Quagulator here.
> 
> https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/...77-quags-3-25-gallon-formerly-30g-long-9.html
> 
> ...



Oh god you're right, it wasn't your imagination. I think I subconsciously stole a great moment of quagulator 😞


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

kaldurak said:


> Oh god you're right, it wasn't your imagination. I think I subconsciously stole a great moment of quagulator 😞


Yea... I'll take my commission cheque (check??..... darn American spelling  ) any time now roud:

BTW... I updated my Journal's title to ensure everyone it was my idea hahah 

But seriously, I'm glad to see I sparked some T5 interest in the LED community. I'm really enjoying the tube + diode life at the moment.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Quagulator said:


> kaldurak said:
> 
> 
> > Oh god you're right, it wasn't your imagination. I think I subconsciously stole a great moment of quagulator 😞
> ...


Haha! I'm sorry that happened, but something something imitation and flattery! But really, I binge read all the active journals and try to emulate a bit from all the good tanks out there and learn new best practices. I see all these tanks that do astoundingly well under t5ho lighting, there is just something about it, and I want to join in trying it out.

I'm eagerly awaiting a flora sun bulb in the mail, now that I have the light suspended from the ceiling about 6" off the water surface!


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## slipfinger (Jun 8, 2016)

kaldurak said:


> Haha! I'm sorry that happened, but something something imitation and flattery! But really, I binge read all the active journals and try to emulate a bit from all the good tanks out there and learn new best practices. I see all these tanks that do astoundingly well under t5ho lighting, there is just something about it, and I want to join in trying it out.
> 
> I'm eagerly awaiting a flora sun bulb in the mail, now that I have the light suspended from the ceiling about 6" off the water surface!


Ha we got you hook line and sinker! Myself, burr and Greggz have stocks in T5 lighting so every time someone converts the stock price goes up! Our tanks are fake news, they are all photoshopped to look like they do.. I actually don't even have plants in my tank!


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

slipfinger said:


> Ha we got you hook line and sinker! Myself, burr and Greggz have stocks in T5 lighting so every time someone converts the stock price goes up! Our tanks are fake news, they are all photoshopped to look like they do.. I actually don't even have plants in my tank!


LOL!

But here's the way I see it. 

T5HO's are like tube amps and vinyl records................all the cool kids are into it!:wink2:


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

Greggz said:


> LOL!
> 
> But here's the way I see it.
> 
> T5HO's are like tube amps and vinyl records................all the cool kids are into it!:wink2:


Great.... now I'm scouring the internet for a new tube amp to replace my beat up solid state amp... Keep adding the $$$ to my hobbies...:laugh2:


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Greggz said:


> slipfinger said:
> 
> 
> > Ha we got you hook line and sinker! Myself, burr and Greggz have stocks in T5 lighting so every time someone converts the stock price goes up! Our tanks are fake news, they are all photoshopped to look like they do.. I actually don't even have plants in my tank!
> ...



Vintage is awesome! I have a hefty collection of safety and straight razors that I refurbish and.....used to use, but I am a Viking now because beards are outstanding.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

slipfinger said:


> kaldurak said:
> 
> 
> > Haha! I'm sorry that happened, but something something imitation and flattery! But really, I binge read all the active journals and try to emulate a bit from all the good tanks out there and learn new best practices. I see all these tanks that do astoundingly well under t5ho lighting, there is just something about it, and I want to join in trying it out.
> ...


Foiled again!


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## duppen1 (Feb 23, 2018)

Just read your whole journal in one sitting. Very nice read and lovely tank with healthy plants, subscribed! Will look forward to updates


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

duppen1 said:


> Just read your whole journal in one sitting. Very nice read and lovely tank with healthy plants, subscribed! Will look forward to updates


Thank you! It's the result of following other planted tankers for years, and lots of time reading journals and the Barr report and reddit, etc. I wish I still had images from way back when I first started and signed up for TPT. BGA attacks, massive algae farms, throwing waaaaay too much light at tanks without co2, diy co2, pressurized co2 quitting and throwing away lots of tanks and equipment after a move. I tossed Everything. Multiple tanks and all the extra fiddly bits - all right to the trash bin. I only saved my co2 tank and reg because of the costs that involved. I only 'just' returned to the hobby around a year ago (wow, feels longer) and this 20 long is only a few months old. I am very grateful for all the information I've accrued over the years and all the help and advice from members here. I would still just be a frustrated algae grower who hated his tank instead of having this amazing display to tinker with and do meditative maintenance work in. I am very hands on/in with this tank thanks to advice from members here who run amazing tanks like @burr740 and @Greggz and @Quagulator and Dennis Wong and Tom Barr who are constantly reaching in to pluck a ratty leaf or clip and errant stem shoot. I used to (a long time ago) be more of a set it and forget it kind of guy and then wondered why my tanks didn't look like an expertly manicured and perfectly curated tank - I discovered that to have a great display you sometimes have to get wet and do some work 🙂 which I find to be a great way to settle my mind after its been in GO GO GO mode all day at work. Now if only I could figure out why now everything is growing fantastically except for my Ludwigia - stupid easy plant is growing like it's stunted and tossing side shoots instead of big leaves while everyone else is growing (imo) quite well.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

kaldurak said:


> who are constantly reaching in to pluck a ratty leaf or clip and errant stem shoot. I used to (a long time ago) be more of a set it and forget it kind of guy and then wondered why my tanks didn't look like an expertly manicured and perfectly curated tank - I discovered that to have a great display you sometimes have to get wet and do some work 🙂 which I find to be a great way to settle my mind after its been in GO GO GO mode all day at work.


You've said a mouthful there, and divulged one of the secrets to keeping a planted tank.

When I first got started, I heard the term "keep your sleeves wet". I thought to myself these guys are all nuts. I mean, how hard can this be?

But as I gained experience, I began to understand what they meant. A high tech planted tank with lots of showy stems takes a good deal of care. Good maintenance and plant management makes far more difference than most realize. 

And thanks for the mention and kind words. In the end we are all the same here, stumbling along trying to get the best out of our tanks. We all stub our toes, and aren't happy with everything all the time (even Burr!:wink2. That's what makes this community a great place. We can all share our experiences and collectively help each other. 

I know personally I have learned more here than I can repay. And honestly sometimes I feel like I still barely know what I am doing. But that's why I like the hobby, there is always something new to experiment with and learn from.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Greggz said:


> You've said a mouthful there, and divulged one of the secrets to keeping a planted tank.
> 
> When I first got started, I heard the term "keep your sleeves wet". I thought to myself these guys are all nuts. I mean, how hard can this be?
> 
> ...



Honestly, my biggest Lesson from you guys is good plant husbandry. Realizing that leaves don't recover and so they have to go or they break down and cause a nutrient imbalance as it breaks down in the tank or filter. (plus a bad looking leaf makes things just look bad) Combine that with a pre-filter on my intake that I can remove and rinse as needed as it collects detritus keeps my filter cleaner longer. It literally helps me sleep at night knowing that the tank is clean, lol.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Hooray for the weekend! 

My tank was looking nice and full last night, I lost track of time staring at it instead of reading. Unfortunately, I could see that my tank flow was suffering from all the mass, so this water change weekend also included a full topping and replanting of the back plants.









Red plants like this are just stunning to me









I just grab all of one plant type and pull them all out at once before I vacuum that section of sand. Then I top all the stems and replant the tops.









This is how much I cut from the tops of plants. Each top is about 4 to 6 inches, 2 inches will end up in the substrate with leaves stripped off to promote rooting. Due to my short tank, it's fun to be able to plant super short tops and not worry about not providing enough light.










The baking sheet has the rooted bottoms that I tossed and the gallon zip bag was a mix of s. repens, p. Erectus, limno aromatica, and the Ludwigia super red that i gave to a neighbor in my apt community.










End result










Bonus pics: I like this photo because I like the angle, and my finnex isn't off the tank very often - like massive replant days.









My house plants and jarrariums









And tried to snap pics of the rainbows at the way spot, and yeah, they're too fast so that didn't work out. This was the best pic of like 15 attempts.









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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Great post and beautiful pics.

Good to see a focus on trimming/maintenance. When you pull a large grouping, it's surprising how much detritus can gather there. I do the same, and vac while it's out. 

And that is a lot going on in a 20G. Shows much bigger, and that is a good thing.


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## CMcNam (Dec 5, 2018)

Wow! Such a beautiful tank! It's amazing what you've been able to do with the plants. The tank looks larger and like it has more depth and that is something I'm aiming for!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Thank you both! It's my personal challenge to keep a good balance of mass, color and variety in this tank! I also try to make this 20 long look way bigger than it is. It feels huge in person when you stand near it. I am really happy with the tank right now and I am always grateful for the knowledge that I gained from everyone here.

I have never been much of an aquascaper in that I can make a natural looking scene or artfully arrange stone in a pleasing manner I feel. But I am decent at trying to keep things 'tidy' looking I guess and just try to have a nifty looking presentation of color and shape. I am grateful to have this much variety in such a realistically small footprint.


My CDO alarm bells have been ringing like mad though. When I hung my t5, despite measuring, I ended up 2 inches to the right and I tried to ignore it all week.


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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

kaldurak said:


> My CDO alarm bells have been ringing like mad though.


collateralized debt obligations *are* pretty alarming... :grin2:


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

MCFC said:


> kaldurak said:
> 
> 
> > My CDO alarm bells have been ringing like mad though.
> ...



Ahahahah! I was hoping someone would point that out. I use CDO as a joke for OCD....because it's in alphabetical order 🙂


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Weekend update - trying out a white anubias. I went to the LFS to grab iron, I saw this tissue culture and decided to give it a try. A bit spendy at $22 for a portion about as round as a quarter, but it's a perfect looking plant and I don't have space left for anything larger anyway. It's just tied to the rock with a thread. Plant growth on everything else is nice and steady.
































Edit: wrong full tank shot earlier.

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## CMcNam (Dec 5, 2018)

kaldurak said:


> weekend update - trying out a white anubias...


I need it!


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

The tank is looking great! Nice work with the large recent trim and cleaning. Plants look healthy and happy!


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

That white Anubias looks amazing!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Grobbins48 said:


> The tank is looking great! Nice work with the large recent trim and cleaning. Plants look healthy and happy!





Willcooper said:


> That white Anubias looks amazing!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thank you both! I still suffer from a thread algae/spyrogyra issue, but it gives me a reason to get my hands wet every day. This stuff seems to thrive in the same conditions that the plants enjoy. Luckily you can only see it with your nose pressed to the glass. I can barely even get it to show up when I use my macro lens 😞 I am grateful that I don't have an issue with something worse to deal with.


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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

For sure. Algae can always get worse. Just focus your attention on making the plants as healthy as possible and stay on your routine and you’ll be good. 

Hey what substrate is that? It looks slightly larger grain size than average sand and didn’t look as shiny as bdbs. 


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## madcrafted (Dec 23, 2017)

Haven't been active here much lately but noticed this journal post. Your plants and layout look great. You certainly took it up a few levels from that spec V tank. Nice job!


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Willcooper said:


> For sure. Algae can always get worse. Just focus your attention on making the plants as healthy as possible and stay on your routine and you’ll be good.
> 
> Hey what substrate is that? It looks slightly larger grain size than average sand and didn’t look as shiny as bdbs.
> 
> ...


It's black blasting sand, but it's not Black Diamond.  I still have the bag, and I'll edit this post with a picture in a few minutes when I can roll by my garage.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

@Willcooper a few minutes turned into an emergency page at work, eating dinner, working out, showering, and collapsing into bed. But here you go!









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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

I love the colors in your tank and the presentation. Very nice work!

Are you still dosing 1/32 tsp CSMB thrive a week and 2 ml Flourish Iron daily? Based on Rotala, that puts it at close to 2 ppm Iron overall for the week which seems quite high. 


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## fiji (Jul 12, 2018)

amazing tanks man!

What kind of risers are those you have for the planted+?


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

vijay_06 said:


> I love the colors in your tank and the presentation. Very nice work!
> 
> Are you still dosing 1/32 tsp CSMB thrive a week and 2 ml Flourish Iron daily? Based on Rotala, that puts it at close to 2 ppm Iron overall for the week which seems quite high.
> 
> ...


I dose 1/32nd 3x per week, but I reduced iron to 3x per week as well after I increased my magnesium. My s repens was showing chlorosis mid week every week and that's why I was increasing iron, turns out MG deficiency looks similar in the chlorosis respect.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

fiji said:


> amazing tanks man!
> 
> What kind of risers are those you have for the planted+?


Those are the stock plastic risers that come with (as far as I am aware) every new finnex fixture.


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

@kalduraks I dont know what your feeding your flamingos but they are looking stunning. I had some in my tank going in 4 weeks now and they just seem stagnant. Even loss a few leaves but no signs of new growth.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Yeah, easily the best Flamingos I have seen. They clearly like what you are providing. 

Makes me want to try them, but I am doubting I have the same success.


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## vijay_06 (Apr 11, 2017)

Yes, the Flamingos look awesome. Is that another type of crypt on the far right? They too look very healthy.

Btw, do you dose any Ca and Mg? What are their levels in your tap water?


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

vijay_06 said:


> Yes, the Flamingos look awesome. Is that another type of crypt on the far right? They too look very healthy.
> 
> Btw, do you dose any Ca and Mg? What are their levels in your tap water?
> 
> ...


I dose 1 teaspoon of equilibrium on water change day of a 10 gallon change. I started adding 1/8tsp magnesium on Wednesdays which prevents chlorosis from hitting my s repens. I don't know the specific ratio of ca/mg in my tap other than what my water report says farther up in the thread and also my tap water hardness tests which are also further up. I don't have ca or mg tests to do it myself.

On the far right is a massive crypt undulata brown. If I don't thin it out soon, it's going to take over like a quarter of the tank!

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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

KZB said:


> @kalduraks I dont know what your feeding your flamingos but they are looking stunning. I had some in my tank going in 4 weeks now and they just seem stagnant. Even loss a few leaves but no signs of new growth.


What are your co2 and light levels like? 

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## Willcooper (May 31, 2015)

kaldurak said:


> @Willcooper a few minutes turned into an emergency page at work, eating dinner, working out, showering, and collapsing into bed. But here you go!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for sending the pic. I was even later to see this lol.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

kaldurak said:


> What are your co2 and light levels like?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


High? My drop checker is perpetually yellow for the most part. I just aim for a 1.0 to 1.4 drop in pH. My lighting is a finnex planted plus on Max for 6 hours per day along with a t5ho Sunblaster with a zoo med flora sun bulb. I have slowly increased the amount of time that the t5ho is on in addition to the finnex over the past few weeks. Both are now on at the same time for 6 hours.


Edit: I am not blessed with reading comprehension, lol. I just replied to myself like a pro.

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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

kaldurak said:


> High? My drop checker is perpetually yellow for the most part. I just aim for a 1.0 to 1.4 drop in pH. My lighting is a finnex planted plus on Max for 6 hours per day along with a t5ho Sunblaster with a zoo med flora sun bulb. I have slowly increased the amount of time that the t5ho is on in addition to the finnex over the past few weeks. Both are now on at the same time for 5 hours.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


Did you just use your own question to show off your lighting? [emoji39][emoji39][emoji6][emoji3][emoji106]


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Quick photo update before I top and replant the entirety of the back of the tank today as the L aromatica has breached the surface and I would rather top and replant a large portion of the tank at once on a water change day.

Been busy as all get out at work for a bit, but I have my tank balance in a really really good place right now. Since my last update my fert regime has changed around a bit.

1/8 kno3 3x/wk 
1/32 kh2po4 3x/wk
1/32 k2so4 3x/wk

1/8 Epsom salt 2x/wk

1/32 csm+B 3x/wk
2ml seachem iron 3x/wk

1 tsp seachem equilibrium added to 10g on waterchange

Using this blend of 11 herbs and spices, increasing the duration and lowering height of the sunblaster have resulted in a Very positive change - I have very small green dot/spot algae returning to the front glass of my tank. I am thrilled to see this because as that algae made a slow return - all the hair/string/spyrogyra algae and BBA disappeared over the past few weeks. Plant growth also made a noticeable increase in growth speed and all the growth looks spot on proper!

I lowered the height of the sunblaster to be equal to that of the finnex. All my plants were leaning to the middle of the tank under the finnex and seemingly ignoring the t5ho behind it. I slowly increased the duration from a few hours at the tanks 'Noon' to on for the whole 6 hour lighting period. 










Viewing vs max lighting colors for the flamingos

















Pogo helferi and s repens









Crypt undulata brown









Ludwigia super red









Pogo erectus









White anubias









Limno aromatica









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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

ipkiss said:


> Did you just use your own question to show off your lighting? [emoji39][emoji39][emoji6][emoji3][emoji106]


Lol, I am exhausted and posting from bed, i didnt realize hahahahahaha

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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

Very nice! I may have to look into getting one of these sunblasters myself. @Greggz would be so proud to have another t5ho runner.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Post topping and replanting. I decided to let the regular Ludwigia grow for another week or two.

Next week I need to thin the s repens and pogo helferi.









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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Those plants look darn happy.

Keeps getting better and better.

Very ,very well done!


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

Wow great colors. The L aromatica looks wonderful!


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## gjcarew (Dec 26, 2018)

kaldurak said:


> Quick photo update before I top and replant the entirety of the back of the tank today as the L aromatica has breached the surface and I would rather top and replant a large portion of the tank at once on a water change day.
> 
> Been busy as all get out at work for a bit, but I have my tank balance in a really really good place right now. Since my last update my fert regime has changed around a bit.
> 
> ...


That L aromatica is gorgeous. Is that what you dose per week? I've had some limnophila that has looked horrible since I got it.



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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

I am always happy to see photo updates on your journal @kaldurak. Just great looking plants, while keeping everything simple. Clean, proper lights and co2 with EI dosing.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

> That L aromatica is gorgeous. Is that what you dose per week? I've had some limnophila that has looked horrible since I got it.
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


Yes, my most recent update has my current dosing levels in fractions of teaspoons. I'm going to buy a proper digital scale this month so I can more accurately state to you guys my dosing levels in weight instead of volume 😕


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

kaldurak said:


> Yes, my most recent update has my current dosing levels in fractions of teaspoons. I'm going to buy a proper digital scale this month so I can more accurately state to you guys my dosing levels in weight instead of volume 😕


Just a thought.

Post everything in ppm, then everyone will get a better understanding of your fert dosing.

I know myself I am curious, as the plants are spectacular.

Or take it a step further and fill out my tank info spreadsheet that many have been using, then post a screenshot. The link is in my signature below.


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

Greggz said:


> kaldurak said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, my most recent update has my current dosing levels in fractions of teaspoons. I'm going to buy a proper digital scale this month so I can more accurately state to you guys my dosing levels in weight instead of volume 😕
> ...


As soon as I can sit at a computer - I'm grabbing your spreadsheet. Not that I couldn't do it by phone, but I think I'd be in for a bad time doing it by phone.


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

Hey @kaldurak how is the tank doing?


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## kaldurak (May 2, 2010)

@KZB Thank you for asking, I'll try to update sometime, the tank is doing great however real life has been beating on me a bit hard as of late.


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## KZB (Jan 3, 2018)

I am always getting beaten up by life. That's why I have tank therapy. Lol. Well keep rolling with the punches. I am looking forward to see the updates.


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