Archive for the '46 gal' Category

The ADA Substrate System

Published on November 23, 2009 in 46 gal. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I went to Aqua Forest Aquarium today, and walked out with 2 boxes full of ADA substrate, an ADA catalog with instructions on how to lay it down, and the International Aquatic Plants Layout 2009 book for inspiration.

ADA Substrate

The two bags on the left are Amazonia Powder, the two on the right are Amazonia, and the one in the middle is Power Sand.  This is what the Aqua Forest Aquarium employee recommended for me to fill my 46 gallon tank and have enough to create a good slope.

Here’s my 46 gallon’s humble beginnings in its new location.  I have a Hydor undergravel heater, so that goes in first.

46 Tank Start

Now that I’ve gotten my hands on the “ADA system,” I can see why it works.  Power Sand is mostly granulated peat and is used to create a small layer across the bottom of the tank.  The granulated peat serves multiple purposes at the bottom of the substrate.  First, its large granules help prevent substrate compaction which can lead to anaerobic pockets that produce sulfuric acid.  I used to think that anaerobic pockets were a myth, but after this tank was running for about 16 months with Flourite it  began having problems, so I’m happy to hopefully not have to worry about that anymore.

Power Sand

The Amazonia and Amazonia Powder are actually more like granulated soil than gravel.  Amazonia Powder has a really small granule size that allows for ground cover plants to grow very fine roots, and Amazonia has a medium granule size which suits deeper rooting plants.  Amazonia II has also been introduced recently, and from reading the catalog, it’s main distinction is that it lowers the pH of your water more than Amazonia.  I’m using Amazonia because I’ll also be injecting CO2 into this tank, but in my 29 gallon tank I’m going to use Amazonia II.  The catalog also talks about Bacter 100, which is a fine dust filled with bacteria that will jump start the ecosystem in your soil.

Keeping the Sand Border Clean

Published on August 9, 2009 in 46 gal and Aquascaping. 0 Comments Tags: .

The sand border in my 46 gallon tank is holding strong, and today I figured out an easy way to clean the sandy area up front.  If I  place my palm against the glass and flap it hard enough, sand and debris will be pushed outward in all directions.  This is great for a couple reasons.  First because it reveals fresher, whiter sand.  But even better, it pushes the older and discolored (green dust algae!) sand into the undergrowth of the foreground plants and blurs the line between my sand and flourite, making it look more natural.

Controlling Brush Algae

Published on August 9, 2009 in 46 gal and Algae. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

I’ve had brush algae in one of my 46 gallon tank for over 3 years now.  It’s one of those algae that are just about impossible to get rid of completely, and it’s recently come back in my 46 gallon tank. It can do well in almost any condition, including ideal conditions. I’ve only found 2 ways to control brush algae:

Siamese Algae EaterSiamese Algae Eater

I bought a school of young SAEs to control my first Brush Algae outbreak and they cleaned the tank of all visible BBA within a few weeks.  They kept the algae completely out of sight for a long while, but as they got close to full size they started to prefer the other foods I was feeding the other fish.  Even though they were eating more prepared foods, they continued to keep the BBA spotty and trimmed. I recently donated the last of my batch back to the LFS and have gained a new appreciation for the job they were doing, as the BBA has come back as strong as ever.

Flourish ExcelFlourish Excel

Seachem’s Carbon additive is meant to be a fertilizer, so they can’t comment on its uses as an algaecide.  They probably also don’t want to comment on how it can also melt certain plants, but there’s no doubt that it can have a significant effect on a tank riddled with BBA.

To use Flourish Excel to control BBA, the idea is to expose the BBA to as high a concentration as possible.  The best way to do this is to take whatever the BBA is anchored to out of the water and mist it down with a spray bottle.  If that’s not possible, you can use a syringe or pipette to spot treat the BBA in the tank.  The 3rd method, which I used in my 46 gallon tank recently, is to overdose the tank.  Some people may object to this, but I’m an experimenter, so I have dumped as much as 4 times the recommended dosage into my tanks and have not had problems with it harming my fish or invertebrates.  (Think: one-one-thousand-two-one-thousand while pouring…)  I can also tell you that it’s amazingly effective, even on horrendous outbreaks.  It even works fast.  Within 2 days the algae will visibly change color, I’ve seen both blue and red while it was dying, and within a week it will be a dull white color.  The downside to this treatment is that the algae isn’t removed from the tank, so it’ll be up to you to reach in there yourself and physically pull each tuft out.  Not fun, but I’m doing a little bit each week during my water changes and am almost done.  As always with aquariums, a little time once a week is all it takes!

Substrate Border, 1 month later

Published on July 13, 2009 in 46 gal and Aquascaping. 0 Comments

OK, it’s just over a month since I replaced the glass on my 46 gallon, and here is where I’m at today:

1 month after starting the tank I cut the border to size

1 month after starting the tank I cut the border to size

I didn’t trim the border until JUST before this picture was taken, and I also just put down a fresh layer of sand when this pic was taken. So up until now the border has been above the sand/Flourite levels by a good inch or so, which did a perfect job at keeping Flourite out of the sand and vice versa.

In this time, the Flourite which was originally sloped upward towards the back, has settled a bit which raised its level in the front slightly. So it’s a good thing that I waited a while to trim the border down, because if I had done it right from the beginning, it would already be a nightmare to keep the Flourite out of the sand.

Also, that 1 inch artificial dam collected a LOT of garbage in my foreground carpet plants and fouled them up pretty badly. I was mostly unaware of this because they were blocked from my view (by the border!). This was definitely a case of “out of sight out of mind” because I know that’s a common problem with carpet plants, I just couldn’t see them and didn’t think about that.

So now I’ve trimmed the border just above the line that the Flourite has settled to and added more sand to raise it to that level. My preference is for the sand to spill over into the Flourite but not vice versa, and plants to grow slightly into the sand, creating a completely natural looking effect. So far so good, more updates in time…