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Mini-tank cycling
Hello All:
On tuesday 13th march I set up a small tank (11" X 8"
X 8") as a rescue tank for some Crytocorine wendtii,
Liliopsis brasiliensis, and an Anubias sp. I planted
it on the 20th. The plants were all doing very poorly
in highly neglected tanks, and had to be bleached. The
substrate is about 1cm of clayish soil and
vermiculite, about 1/2 and 1/2, with a handfull of
acidic peat, which I doubt is much like your peat.
Very fibrous. This is topped with 2-3 cm of 2-3 mm
quartz gravel. The tank is only meant to sustain the
plants for nine months, so I'm not to worried that the
substrate might be a bit thin. I also added a few
pieces of Ludwigia repens, which I'm going to replace
with healthy specimens, five of some stem plant that I
can't identify, but it quickly grows right out of the
tank, and has a blue flower (looks like it might
belong to the Primulacea), a good number of
Echinodorus tenellus, and a single tuft of Eleocharis
which was a contaminant with the E. tenellus, and has
doubled in size. I'm using a pair of biolux 20 watts
over the tank (the fitting is way too big, but I don't
have any choice here). Figure the tank is getting
about 30 watts of daylight spectrum light. I
fertilised initially with a saturated solution of
MgSO4, KSO4, and KNO3, about a tablespoon or so
(probably way too much). Algae started taking a hold
early last week, until saturday when the tank wat
nearly opaque. It cleared a bit yesterday, and its
nearly completely clear today. No sign of any other
algae so far. Tank temp is 26C, pH is 6.13, and
probably a little higher now that the yeast CO2
reactor is a little cold. Most plant are bubbling, and
the crypts are all putting out new leaves. Haven't
tested for nitrates or hardness yet though.
So am I crazy?
Jacques
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