A few months back, I received a lot of great advice from members of GWAPA when I turned my 120g reef into a freshwater planted tank. After seeing the beautiful tanks posted here, I hesitated on posting any of mine. But, I’m having problems with my Reineckii, it’s driving me nuts. Plus Chris’s post on nitrates kinda broke the ice for me…..So….here it goes:
Tank Specs:
120g RR AGA tank, old and scratched, but ya use what ya have
Sump and Rena XP3 Canister filter
TEK T5HO 6X54W
Koriela4
Mineralized Top Soil capped w/3M black quartz
Pressurized CO2 with inline reactor
This tanks been set up since 10/20/09, in a few short months it’s really taken off. I haven’t really done any “aquscapingâ€
Need help with my 120g please....
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londonloco
- Posts: 236
- Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:48 pm
- Real Name: Loni
Very nice looking tank, Loni. You say you didn't aquascape it at all, but it looks pretty good to me!
I'm sorry to hear of your CO2 overdose and lost fish. That's the most frustrating thing that can happen with CO2. You still want to make sure that you inject enough to encourage the plants to grow. Usually, when the bottom half of stems go bare, it's a lack of light, but I think your 6x54 fixture is probably sufficient light. How long are you running the light for, and are you running all six bulbs, or splitting them up?
Also, you can always trim off the aerial roots from these plants without harming the plant. I'm half curious if your Alternanthera reineckii is really Ludwigia glandulosa which is notorious for losing it's bottom leaves without a tremendous amount of light.
I'm sorry to hear of your CO2 overdose and lost fish. That's the most frustrating thing that can happen with CO2. You still want to make sure that you inject enough to encourage the plants to grow. Usually, when the bottom half of stems go bare, it's a lack of light, but I think your 6x54 fixture is probably sufficient light. How long are you running the light for, and are you running all six bulbs, or splitting them up?
Also, you can always trim off the aerial roots from these plants without harming the plant. I'm half curious if your Alternanthera reineckii is really Ludwigia glandulosa which is notorious for losing it's bottom leaves without a tremendous amount of light.
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londonloco
- Posts: 236
- Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:48 pm
- Real Name: Loni
This plant was purchased from aquariumplants.com. It was labeled Alternanthera reineckii, but who knows.
Your right, I don't run all 6 lights at once all day. The two most exterier bulbs on either side are Geissman midday's, the interior two lights are aqua blues. I know, I know, I've read 1000 times blue lights are a no go with planted tanks, but I had just done a 6+ year saltwater/reef stint and I really like the bluish tint light. I'm thinking about replacing the aqua blues with either pink grow bulbs or 6K or 10K bulbs. Light timer runs like this:
2 hours outer two lights
2 hours inner four lights
2 hours all six lights
2 hours inner four lights
2 hours outer two lights
I read a lot about lighting on TPT, APC, here and PVAS forums. Supposedly, T5HO 6X54W lighting is a bad idea, too much light, algae farm...yadda yadda. But I have a 120g fatboy, 48x24x24, I wanted the light to reach the entire tank. Figured if it was too much light, I could always just use 4 blubs, so I went w/the 6 bulb instead of the 4 bulb.
So wadda think, should I increase my lighting? I was actually thinking of decreasing it since it's on 10 hours a day and I've got green spot algae....
Your right, I don't run all 6 lights at once all day. The two most exterier bulbs on either side are Geissman midday's, the interior two lights are aqua blues. I know, I know, I've read 1000 times blue lights are a no go with planted tanks, but I had just done a 6+ year saltwater/reef stint and I really like the bluish tint light. I'm thinking about replacing the aqua blues with either pink grow bulbs or 6K or 10K bulbs. Light timer runs like this:
2 hours outer two lights
2 hours inner four lights
2 hours all six lights
2 hours inner four lights
2 hours outer two lights
I read a lot about lighting on TPT, APC, here and PVAS forums. Supposedly, T5HO 6X54W lighting is a bad idea, too much light, algae farm...yadda yadda. But I have a 120g fatboy, 48x24x24, I wanted the light to reach the entire tank. Figured if it was too much light, I could always just use 4 blubs, so I went w/the 6 bulb instead of the 4 bulb.
So wadda think, should I increase my lighting? I was actually thinking of decreasing it since it's on 10 hours a day and I've got green spot algae....
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londonloco
- Posts: 236
- Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:48 pm
- Real Name: Loni
I agree that the maroon coloring is normal because it's L. glandulosa. Unfortunately, a lot of times the online stores and local stores mislabel plants. Even so, it is a nice plant.
I run CO2 on all of my tanks and keep nerite snails. CO2 will eventually deteriorate their shells, but that's over years, not days.
I run CO2 on all of my tanks and keep nerite snails. CO2 will eventually deteriorate their shells, but that's over years, not days.
Green spot algae is generally more indicative of a lack of phosphates, rather than too much light. You may want to dose a little bit more phosphate, and see if it continues to go away. If the rest of your plants are doing okay, keep your light where it's at. If you really want to please the Ludwigia glandulosa, you'll need to increase the amount of time all 6 lights are on, but honestly, I'd probably keep it where you're at. As mentioned, Ludwigia glandulosa is not an easy plant, so if it's growing for you at all, you're doing a lot of things right. 
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londonloco
- Posts: 236
- Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:48 pm
- Real Name: Loni
I googled "Ludwigia Glandulosa" and looked it up in Kasselmanns book, (he calls it "problematic"), sure does look like that's it. Funny the "experts" at aquariumplants.com got it wrongkrisw wrote:Green spot algae is generally more indicative of a lack of phosphates, rather than too much light. You may want to dose a little bit more phosphate, and see if it continues to go away. If the rest of your plants are doing okay, keep your light where it's at. If you really want to please the Ludwigia glandulosa, you'll need to increase the amount of time all 6 lights are on, but honestly, I'd probably keep it where you're at. As mentioned, Ludwigia glandulosa is not an easy plant, so if it's growing for you at all, you're doing a lot of things right.
. Kasselmann says def signs of it dying is "initial shedding of the lower leaves." Great! It has grown a lot since the end of Oct. and has always shed it's lower leaves. Well, time will tell.I've read green spot=low phosphate, so I started dosing 3 weeks ago...less green spot on my glass, no more noticeable on leaves...I'll give it a few more weeks and see how it goes. Thanks Kris!
Oh, anyone have any ideas on the nerites? I would really like to stop killing them
....Loni-
Cristy Keister
- Posts: 2201
- Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2003 6:52 am
- Location: MD
Did you put a bunch of potash in the substrate? That's a problem for shrimp anyway.
The only time I've seen a bunch of olive nerites die off is when I dumped them into a newish tank with Aquasoil. My guess is that it was a very big change in water conditions like pH or ammonia. I didn't actually test the water to find out, so this is just speculation. They can usually take a big change, but maybe there is a limit.
The only time I've seen a bunch of olive nerites die off is when I dumped them into a newish tank with Aquasoil. My guess is that it was a very big change in water conditions like pH or ammonia. I didn't actually test the water to find out, so this is just speculation. They can usually take a big change, but maybe there is a limit.
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londonloco
- Posts: 236
- Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:48 pm
- Real Name: Loni
I put potash and domalite under an inch mineral soil, which is capped with two inches of 3m color quartz. I did basically the same tank setup with my 29g and I have yellow shrimp and nerites living in that tank for weeks now. Hmmm, I guess I could have put more in the 120g per square inch...I just don't remember. Does this mean I'll never be able to keep nerites? Or shrimp in this current set up.... 
