well,
My name is kevin and this is my first planted tank...
I would like to share my tanks with you...













apart from that,
how do i gain access to other areas of this forum such as algae control..
currently have an increasing algae issue..

I really love your rocks! I'm going to see if I can find some like that...

To get accesss to everything on this site you "subscribe" to it: http://www.barrreport.com/payments.php. Well worth the small cost.

Your tank looks very good. Tell us some more about it, like size, lighting, fertilizing, etc. And, where did you get the great looking rocks?

Hi, thanks for your response...
that makes much more sense now
mmm subscriptions!

isn't there any other way to gain access? maybe some web development for the forum?



anyways, to share the specs of my tanks.. they are something as it follows:

Birth date: 30-08-08, 02:33 PM


Specs
Tank:
62x30x30

Substrate
Aqua soil Amazonia II

Light:
2FT lamp with 10k t5 bulbs - $100
0.89WPL or 3.36WPG

Filter:
Eheim 2213 - nill

Ferts/Routine:
50% H20 change-weekly
Seachem flourish - 1mL per WC
1/4 Tsp-KN03 3x a week
1/16 Tsp-KH2P04 3x a week
CO2 DYI 2LT (2Cups sugar, 3/4 ts Yiest, 1/2ts S. Bicarb; weekly rotation)


MISC:
3x Rocks

Flora:
HC
Hair grass
Pogostemon helferi

Fauna:
12 Cardinal Tetra
1 Otto
7 RCS


as per request, the rocks were purchased from my local garden center... they cost 6 dollars a killo.. I'm located in Australia NSW ... if you want an address please pm me!

any suggestions for the algae ? you can see the blobs of it on the last picture as its starting to forum...
i spent alot of time manually removing it from the HC.. but i dont think thats a proper solution as it will return..

since its a newly established tank.. would 2x wc a week assist more in battling algae?

Are they Lace Rock? i have some that look similar and they are Lace rock.

I found some similar looking rocks at a landscape supply place too. But, when I dripped some acid on them I found what I suspected - the rocks are carbonate rocks, which is how they came to have the nice lacy hole structure. They aren't good for an aquarium unless you don't mind having the KH slowly rise all the time.

It is hard to avoid algae on start up when you have a very lightly planted tank. And, it is likely to be harder with a lightly planted tank in Aquasoil, because there is even more ammonia being generated in the tank. It would work better if you did the water changes every other day for a couple of weeks, then began to stretch the time between changes until you got to the weekly changes. But, with so few plants it is still hard to completely avoid algae.

You didn't mention how long you keep the lights on, but for a new tank it should be less than 8 hours a day, and some people believe that you should start with just 4 hours or so for a few weeks.

hello and thanks for your reply.

I dont have any acid at home to do tests on the rock but i figure it wont matter with 50% wc's

.. hpoefully


also, i keep the light on for 4hrs a day on a timer! what luck!

i keep it on at 6am -> 10am

but then i usually turn it on for a few more hrs at night for viewing.. ( maybe i should stop that as it usually adds up to 8 hrs in 2 blocks of 4 hrs)

if i do WC every other day, should they still be 50%?
as i have some cardinals, im worried about stressing them out mm

what kind of acid do you mean? I have a few rocks around and would like to test them
thanks

I use ordinary swimming pool acid, muriatic acid. If it just slightly bubbles that isn't bad, but a vigorous bubbling means carbonate in all probability. Even that can be tolerated if you do big water changes weekly, but not doing so means a steady rise in KH.

50% water changes are sort of the norm for getting rid of excess "stuff" in the water. That doesn't hurt the fish.

thanks ! I'll run the test but I'm 90%sure that they will not work