New 100g Setup

[dutchy]

Hooked up the UV.

I asked the manufacturer about the flow direction and they said to use the bottom connection as the inlet (to prevent bubbles in the unit etc).

Ok, so I hooked it up like this and I am running it 24/7 for the moment (but will change this to a timer later).

Water went pretty cloudy on the first day that I had it running, it has cleared up now though.

I'm not sure whether it was excess iron in my tank or whether this is faily normal for UV sterilisers....

Will wait and see.

Attached is a photo.

Scott.

When the cloudiness disappears the Fe will also have disappeared.

[scottward]

When the cloudiness disappears the Fe will also have disappeared.

Hi dutchy.

Thanks for your thoughts on this...yeah....that's what I was thinking too.....and basically the cloudiness acts as a kind of iron test kit I suppose! :-)

I have since changed the UV to run only 12 hours per day; I now dose the micros + iron just after the UV switches off, so that the plants have a good 12 hours to soak up the iron. No cloudiness anymore and plants look fine.

Scott.

[Gerryd]

What would you recommend? What did you end up getting again?

How's your co2 'consumption' in your 180 now? How long is your bottle lasting between fills?

On a separate note, I'm getting sick of hygro etc, its too hard to keep it looking nice. I'm thinking of changing styles...

Hey,

Well, I got about 7-8 weeks iirc on a 20lb....if that says anything

I used a brand new victor dual stage. I now have 3 of them

A single stage will work, just have to watch for end of tank dump....that said, it is nice to have the comfort of the dual stage and to know it is new and reliable.

If a plant or scape technique doesn't work for you, change it! Was hard for me to learn and I still fall for it at times. If YOU don't like it, change it lol

It sometimes takes days or weeks for me to decide

And it's a 220...I gave the 180 away.....

[scottward]

Cool, I've since found the build thread and have had a good read through it. Good stuff.

I also read the thread where Tom visited you and said "it takes what it takes" with your CO2 usage. Seems you through it pretty quickly, even though it is a big tank. You don't have any hungry stems gobbling it up though...your tank is mainly hardscape IIRC?