90 Gallon Update: The Heady Days of CO2

90-gallon Update

The Heady Days of CO2 

After just 21 days since my last post, I can already see a great deal of new growth in the 90-gallon tank. I've had to trim the valisneria at the waterline to keep it from blocking the light over the alternathera reinicki mini, the red plants on the left side of the tank. What's worse, the vals were developing those long strings of algae at the top of those long, beautiful strappy leaves, and I was not surprised, given the fact that they were as close to the lights as any plan can get. I had to resolve that algae issue as soon as possible. I know how hard it can be to get rid of that air alga once it gets established, so I'm always looking out for new strands to remove them as soon (and cleanly) as possible. Any little piece that breaks off can start a new strand, so I have to go slow and carefully each time. Trimming the leaves just seemed to be a more effective way of getting rid of both issues in one fell swoop.

I cut back a couple of leave at the water line first, just to test it. I wanted to see if the leaf would die and melt away. If so, I wanted to see how that affected the plant. To be honest, I don't see that it hurt much at all. In fact, it might be the reason why those vals are threatening to overrun the tank! It definitely made removal of that hair algae much easier.

It's pretty clear that the vals are booming. They are sending out runners everywhere, and growing by the day. I'm definitely going to have to remove several of them soon before they overgrow the tank.

The little blue basket up in the top right corner of the tank is where I am holding about 20 baby ancistrus.  I intend to move them over to the mini-fish room in the garage to grow out, but I'm somewhat hesitant because I had so many die that way last time (I know at least one of those babies survived, but it looks like it was probably only that one because I haven't seen any others in a really long time). I treated that tank with meds and water changes a few weeks ago, and everything has been fine for a long time, but I'm still a bit wary. I want them to get a little bit larger before I move them.

Speaking of ancistrus, here is one of the larger ones in the 90-gallong tank. I wanted to demonstrate with this picture how much the stringy little alternanthera reinicki mini has grown and how strong it has become (check my last post), given a steady supply of CO2 and smaller, regular doses of ferts.

Since it kind of fits with the whole theme of aquatic plants and nature too, I decided to share a picture below of my youngest son on a recent class field trip to Billie Swamp Safari on the edges of the Florida Everglades. Alligators are "kind of our thing" down here in South Florida...

Let's Get Planted!

Planted Tank Tips 

After lightly dosing the planted tank I keep in my living room with trace nutrients earlier today, it occurred to me that I could share a few bits of wisdom that I've gleaned over the last couple years of keeping a planted tank. I have to offer a disclaimer, however, that I am not an expert on this topic by any measure of the word. Instead, I approach this topic as little more than a hobbyist who has had his share of successes and failures with planted tanks over the years.





























Here are some tips (in no particular order)...

1. Lighting and Plant Selection: Go with low light plants if you don't have good lights. Start with the easy ones like anubias and java fern (or java moss if so inclined), moving up to amazon swords and others before you go with more difficult plants. Watch a few YouTube videos and read a few online forums to familiarize yourself with the needs of the plant. Then try not to mess with the plant too much after you set it in the tank. Give them time to adapt. Patience is essential in the early stages.
   
2. Lighting: Get decent lights. They don't need to be any particular top brand, or any name brand at all. Just get as much coverage and as bright a light as you can. I have had success with relatively "low-cost" LED light strips (the white/blue type, not the flexible strips) that I bought on eBay, but I still spent about $100 on lights for my main tank all told, just to have enough coverage. I have also had a great deal of success with LED floodlights (similar to these) in my fish room.
   
   Tip: If you're going with floodlights, look for something in the daylight color range (6000K).
   
3. CO2: CO2 definitely helps. The level of CO2 in your tank will limit your plant growth. You can go with the liquid form at first if you're not sure about the relatively steep cost of starting up a CO2 system, but if you stick with it, you will eventually want to get a tank, regulator, diffuser, and CO2 airline. Don't worry. It's worth it.
   
   In an aquatic environment, CO2 is not as abundantly available as in the air we breathe. Increasing the level of CO2 in your aquarium will make your plants grow faster and better. This is the fuel for their cell-building. More fuel means more more cell-building. Isn't that the point? As an added bonus, CO2 helps control algae as well!
   
   Tip: Keep the dosing of CO2 constant as well. Fluctuating CO2 levels can be problematic.
   
4. Fertilization and Algae Control: When using liquid nutrients, spread the dose across the days of the week. For example, if your total dose of a given nutrient is 9 capfuls once per week, administer it as 3 capfuls, 3 times a week instead. A plant can only consume so much at any given time. Once it hits the maximum rate of absorption, the rest of the nutrients are left floating in the water column, ready for any algae that might be lurking in your tank. Plants are able to uptake nutrients much more easily when the dose is spread out, and it leaves fewer nutrients for algae to consume in the end.
   
   NOTE: This is definitely a balancing act with any waste that you might have coming from fish, invertebrates, or other life in the tank too, including the remains of dead, wilted leaves which decompose and add more nitrites to the system. Dead leaves are inevitable, and fish waste is a natural source of nutrition for an aquatic plant, but it can get out of hand very quickly, especially if you have a large die-off of plants, an over-stocked tank, or too much food waste.