# Nicklfire 25 gal planted redo



## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Pardon the messy tank was moving things around so made it cloudy. Im also testing a shop light so lighting looks ugly.

Here is my hagen 25 gal rimless.
Pressurized co2
Dosing ferts all dry uncluding trace
Lighting about 1 wpg 10 HRS day to start
Plants are mix of rotala species including hygro and sunset. Also have dwarf hairgrass in forground. Downoi in midground. I have another stem in right rear forget name of starts with d.

Will try to do 50 percent water change weekly to reset fertz. 

My goal is to keep the hairgrass alive at 1 wpg light. 

Because im dosing fertz and using a pressurized system one of the biggest things is lack of circulation in a planted tank. you really want to make sure your water circulates at least 10x the volume. I'm using a kora which is rated about 265g per hour which is well above my 10x volume taking into consideration my eheim 2232 filter as well. 

I have a drop checker with 4dkh solution in it and i have just a little air stone im using to diffuser the co2 which isnt doing a great job. Just gotta wait till i can get a real ceramic glass diffuser.

For substrated im using some older eco complete.

Planted investment was about 60$ and did pretty good for my 25 gal, i probably could have seperated the planted more but i wanted them to be more bunched when i planted.

So i'll rotate my fertz doing my macro 1 day, then my trace the next day, then again and again for a full week, then 50% water change. AT the week mark i'll try to note any plant growth, if i dont see the dwarf hairgrass doing well i might have to go up on the light just a bit.

I'm trying to keep the co2 about 30-40ppm, on the higher side as much as i can..

for livestock just got the cherry shrimp.




- shawn


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

I promise within a week i'll clean up the tank next week lol, Try to get some nicer pictures and will clean the glass, and get the snails out and get the algae off the glass. and tie the java moss lol


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Hello. Looking good. is that a cherry shrimp or painter fire red ? Cheers


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Good old little cherry 

I always hate the look of a tank at the very start, looks so.. bare.. .and lonely lol.


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Lol True but i do like to watch it grow. Cheers


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Whats your stock going to be ?


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Just plants and shrimp. Maybe some gal rapsbora later on.


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## Foxtail (Mar 14, 2012)

What size is that light? Looks a bit on the large size...

Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk 2


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i found the wooden limewood blocks to work way better than an airstone, if you dont want to pay for the ceramic disks yet


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks great Shawn! love the driftwood you have in there....very nice. Look forward to seeing it's progress!


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Foxtail said:


> What size is that light? Looks a bit on the large size...
> 
> Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk 2


Are you asking how wide it is? Yea it's wider then the tank, the light fixture is probably a few inches longer on each size, the bulb is rated about 34w, so it works out to about 1wpg, maybe little more. I just wanna see if the hairgrass can maintain at that low of lighting, judging by other people on other sites it should be doable as long as the co2 is there. If not then i got another fixture which is about 54w, which would put me up to about 2.1 wpg.

It aint about the looks right now, it's just about getting a right balance of light, fertz, co2 most importantly. The more light you have the more problems you will have, the more stable to the co2 the less problems you will have.

Fun thing about this hobby, it's always changing and you can never get it perfect, you can just learn from your mistakes.


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## Foxtail (Mar 14, 2012)

Ya I was just pokin fun. I just found it funny because I have a 48" light on my 60" tank. It looks awesome. I am a total noob to planted. I only have a couple plants in pots in my sons 20 and 3 pieces of planted driftwood in my 120. It's definately a learning process. I don't have the confidence to go co2 yet. I am always in awe of all the planted tanks on here.

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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Foxtail said:


> Ya I was just pokin fun. I just found it funny because I have a 48" light on my 60" tank. It looks awesome. I am a total noob to planted. I only have a couple plants in pots in my sons 20 and 3 pieces of planted driftwood in my 120. It's definately a learning process. I don't have the confidence to go co2 yet. I am always in awe of all the planted tanks on here.
> 
> Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk 2


Hehe, Yup, you gotta do what you can with what you have  Those shop lights from rona are only like 25$ and they work great, nice t5 bulbs, cant go wrong there. If your new to the hobby just start with alot of easy plants, java moss on wood, some rotala species of stem plans, some crypts. Go lower lighting so you dont run into algae problems, then once your comfortable start getting into harder plants.. and by that time you will want to go with co2 

Shawn


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

You'll have no problems growing hairgrass at that lighting level in such a shallow tank Shawn. Also, forget the ceramic diffusers. Get a bazooka diffuser from Pat. I got one for my ADA cube and the bubbles are finer than anything else I've ever used and algae doesn't seem to grow on it (haven't cleaned it in almost 2 months, whereas my diffusers were being cleaned every week).


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Interesting. Ya ill msg him about the bazooka especially if you had such great luck. Im excited to see thr daily results of these plants with the ferts and co2 combo with the lighting params

- shawn


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## trout (Mar 21, 2012)

I second the suggestion of the bazooka diffuser.....very fine mist. So far I've also found they dont clog or get as dirty a normal diffuser usually does.

Great start btw! Will be nice to see as it fills in.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/freshwater-livestock-25/fs-cherry-shrimp-29933/

If you need to stock with more really nice cherry shrimp, thefishwife has some out near you in the Valley.

Also, if you want to get a diffuser from Pat, just have him contact me and we can get together before you come in a couple of weeks.


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks guys yea i'll get that diffuser. Already talked to pat about it and he's going to snail mail it to me at my request  I should get it prior to our bca meeting which is good, then you dont have to go out of your way bud.. i know your always willing to which is greatly appreciated. One thing i Will need is some cherry shrimp, wonder if any of our staff has any i could buy off them in time for the bca bbq. Kim has some nice ones, but too outta the way to go to grab some.

I've been dosing the dry fertz right into the tank, i had ordered some measuring spoons (pinch, dash) off ebay, waiting for them to come but until them im just guestimating  Doing dry fertz for macro and micro.

The co2 is going..but it's not diffusing hardly with that stupid airstone.. worthless.. but at least it's better then big bubbles.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I have Cherries that I can drop at Anthony's, if you want some Shawn, and can't find any that are close to you.


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Hey Gary,

Yea that would be great, just let me know how much each and i'll get like 10 of them if that makes it worth wild. I'll be meeting up with the rest of the staff on the 18th.

So here are some more pictures i took tonight just to document how fast things are growing. I used my magnet to measure and it seems the plants on the left side are growing pretty quick, good half inch in a day which im glad to see. Waiting for the right side to get into a growth spurt. Plan would be to let them grow all the way to the top and then give them a good trim.

I apologize for the quality, i just always have problems with camera and lighting. The tank seems alot more vivid and green, these are my camera phone pictures so again my apology. I tried to clean the tank up as well but noticed i got some calcium deposits on the tank that i gotta put some elbow work into 

Enjoy.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I really love that piece of wood, but it's a bit too centred for me. Have you considered moving it over to one side or the other by about 6 inches? PM'd you about the shrimp.


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

I think i agree with you on the position. Might be too late to move but ill have to figure it out i know what ya mea. I think its a tad too big for the tank

- shawn


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Nicklfire said:


> One thing i Will need is some cherry shrimp, wonder if any of our staff has any i could buy off them in time for the bca bbq?


Shawn.

I can bring you some PFR's to the BBQ. Let me know if you're interested.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## Foxtail (Mar 14, 2012)

No... I like it in the middle, reminds me of hometree from avatar! Don't move it lol. 

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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Lol AVatar.. great movie? Great.. tank haha


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

I love that wood in there like that , awesome center piece, the tank looks great man ... i dunno about avatar at all not my cup o joe but it looks like a creepy old tree alright and its great, i did wanna ask though do you ever have any shrimps get chopped up by your water fan or are they smart enough to recognize it is a danger>?

anyways great looking tank, im glad you guys know how to do the planted thing, they are so pretty to look at , unfortunately me and plants underwater or on land for me just dont fly the mother in law game me some tree in a pot for our house one she had grow since it was like 4 inches and it was like 20 something years old , and within 6 months i killed it lol no plant skills at all...



Foxtail said:


> No... I like it in the middle, reminds me of hometree from avatar! Don't move it lol.
> 
> Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk 2


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Nope, never seen any shrimp chopped up with the hydor pump. The shirmp seem to notice the big current so they typically stay away from it. the odd time one of the dumb farts will swim right in front of it then they get a good ride  

The wood right now is not the way it should be.. I'm waiting on some fissiden fontanus moss which will go over a good portion of it, dont know how much of the java moss i will keep. Then for the narrow leaf java ferns i got i'll tie them down better and trim the roots as they look a bit messy. 

I got really upset at myself a few months back, i was scrubbin the glass with the magnet cleaner and a piece of eco complete got stuck between the magnet and the glass and scratched the crap out of it.. now i see all these scratch marks.. (sigh) ...

Excuse to get a new tank and do it over....


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

i just put a good 4 inch gouge in one of my tanks too, same thing magnet cleaner thing and scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch i was less than impressed, fortunately i got givena new 33 gallon shell last night so i just have to clean it up and paint the 3 sides and bottom and were good to go


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Just a little update





































- shawn


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Looking good, Shawn. Let me know if you still want some PFR's !

Best regards,

Stuart


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

looking super thus far! great Job Shawn!


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Here is another update for tall. I the plants are doing really well. I I had worries about the hair grass the most but I noticed they got a lot greener and do finally now seeing new shoots.

The left side is doing much better then the right but I think the bazooka diffuser Wil make a big difference.

Dont mind the fish bags filled with moss, that's my way to cultivate it without having moss all through my tank..... Patent pending lol.

I did change the light to give me about 2 wpg as I got bored waiting for the plants to grow. I am dosing all my ei daily and have my pressurized, going.

The downoi in the mid ground is doing way better then I expected so that's a nice surprise. I hope to be bringing in some fissisen moss nezt week so I can start covering my drift wood and tying down the barrow leaf ferns.

I'm still not happy with the lighting as the tank is only 30 inches wide and the coralife cf bulb is about 24 inches...... Sigh lol. I









































- shawn


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## trout (Mar 21, 2012)

looking great! that wood will look awesome when you tie it all down and add some fissidens.

patent them moss bags haha. thats a great idea


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

trout said:


> looking great! that wood will look awesome when you tie it all down and add some fissidens.
> 
> patent them moss bags haha. thats a great idea


Lol i have thought about it and selling on ebay. so many uses for it. I even know how I would design it properly. The suction cup at bottom and top is the key lol

- shawn


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

nice looking drift wood it looks like a tree with all the plant all over it. I also really like how you planted all evenly in front like that.


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Got my new Co2 atomizer today in the mail from Canadian Aquatics and all I gotta say is wow. Thanks for telling me Gary. 

- shawn


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

MEDHBSI said:


> nice looking drift wood it looks like a tree with all the plant all over it. I also really like how you planted all evenly in front like that.


Thank you. I wait until the fissidens. Oss is over it all and grown out. I once that hair grass starts to really grow in it will look sharp

- shawn


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## crimper (Oct 20, 2010)

I got the same atomizer from Pat, it really makes a difference.

Awesome tank by the way.


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Hey All,

It's been a long time from the last time i did a update so i thought i had better do a update. Well i shoudl tell you between the last time i updated and today i had actually left to alberta for a month and left my wife in charge of the tank... bless her heart.. but she aint me  She did not realize the importance of the water change nor the frequency you have to add ferts into the tank... so unfortunately i came back to tons of clado algae.. I have not really battled it all that much, just tried to get it under control a bit and removed what i could. The problem with clado and dwarf hairgrass is that they stick together so if i pull the clado the hairgrass comes with it.

So basically i have upped the co2, i have started dosing the fertz via EI (estimated index) style back to where they should.

I did receive a light from fishneedit.com which is a 70w metal halide, i love the look of them and it was cheap.. about 100$ all together. the only downfall of this halide is that it concentrates most of it's light strait down.. and there is not really much spread. Even my 25 gal it does not do much spread on.. but that's fine because most of the tank seems to be pearling anyway.

Here are some updated photos.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks great Shawn!


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Yea getting there, once the hairgrass fills in it will look alot nicer, plus i gotta trim the downoi :


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Wow, the Downoi is growing great! Mine was being shaded by overgrown moss for a while and took a beating. I hope they start to grow as nice as yours.


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Looking good Shawn.

I'm guessing I just need more light to get that type of growth on my Downoi. I've always been afraid of going too high light, though.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice thing about that MH light stu is that i ceiling mounted it, so i can always adjust up and down to get more or less light depending what happens in the tank. If your dosing co2 and EI (fertz) and you have higher light... and as long as you continue dosing ei... and co2 is at 30ppm there is not much to go wrong if all the plants are getting enough nutrients and co2..

good water circulation helps with the co2, too often people have a pressurized co2 tank but bad circulation so the co2 does not get everywhere especially in a densely planted tank.


My tank would have looked totally different if my wife hadnt buggered it up with the Fertz... the tank starved for a month basically. It was getting lots of light and co2 but no fertz... like a 3 legged dog... 1 leg fails.. it all fails.. Now i have problems with clado algae...

I was hoping my dwarf hairgrass would have been filled in more.. but now it's like starting from new again.. so i gotta wait another month of properly dosing.. for it to grow..

my plants are pearling like mad after 6 hours.. so that's good news.. just gotta get rid of the clado and do a few more prunings.. and we will be golden. Looks like a mess to me right now though.


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