Water on Mars

I can't believe after so many months, the day finally came.  I filled the tank and turned on all the equipment.  I looked back and the first thing I bought was June 28th.  So nearly 5 months of time has passed accumulating the needed pieces to put this beauty together, not to mention the 3 or 4 months of considering getting started in aquascaping in the first place.

I had planned to fill the tank about a week ago but realized I didn't have the final piece of soft silicon tubing to connect my CO2 diffuser.  The day that came, I couldn't wait to get home and get it all going.  It ended up taking me 2 or 3 hours to fill the tank, get the inflow and outflow pipes connected and get the CO2 setup how I wanted it.  Then I also filled and emptied the tank a few times to help get some of the initial cloudiness out of the water.

I've been running the CO2 at extremely high level for the first few days.  Something like 10-15 bubbles per second.  This will allow the plants to transition from infinite CO2 levels during the dry start to slowly dial them back to something more reasonable (likely 1 - 2 bubbles per second).

After 2 days, I performed another water change.  Then I remembered I had stashed away the mirror that came with my Aquasky light.  I couldn't believe how amazing it looked.  The last time I put it on was when the tank was completely empty.  All it did at the time was reflect the super bright light back into my eyes so I didn't think I was going to like it.  Look how cool the shimmer effect is.  Also see in the picture below, there are tiny bubbles all over the Monte Carlo and Riccia.  These are oxygen bubbles.  They call the effect "pearling" when the oxygen being produced is so great that it forms bubbles which release and rise to the top of the water.  This is an indication that the plants are happy and healthy so I was very excited to see.  Even after a few days, they continue to pearl so I know it wasn't a fluke.

I am so happy with how things have turned out.  I plan to do another big water change this Sunday and then start in on EI (Estimative Index) dosing of fertilizers.  I will also plan to start ordering some fish in about 1 or 2 weeks.  Also some shrimps. :-)

Planting Complete

Ordered a dozen plants from Buce Plant and they arrived this week.  Very excited with how it turned out.  Take a look.  This round was focused on buying plants for the midground and background of the tank.  Plants that would range in height between 3 inches and 12 inches.

Here is a cool shot from the side of the tank where you can really see just how dense it is.  I always read that the best way to avoid algae is to densely plant your tank from the start.  I think I filled just about every square inch.

Here was a shot of what came in the mail.  It was a lot more work that I expected to get all this prepared and planted.  I honestly thought I would be able to knock it all out in a few hours including setting up the filter and CO2 and actually be up and running.  After 2 hours I was done planting and it was time for bed.  For now I've left the tank in the dry start and will just keep misting the plants with the tank covered.  I've also reduced the light down to running just 6 hours per day since that is what I'll plan to do once I add water.

The day after I planted these, I tried to setup the filter and CO2.  After about an hour, I realized I didn't have all the correct tubing I would need to setup the CO2 so I had to bail out again.  I ordered the silicon tubing I need to connect to mt CO2 diffuser and that should come early next week.

Plant Planning with Bamboo Skewers

I'm getting really close, I mean look at that carpet.  I've just ordered all my plants from BucePlant.com for the rest of the midground and background.  I got 12 different plants for around $70.  They are all different sizes, colors, textures and species.  Figuring out what I wanted to plant was quite challenging.  So far in my equipment buying I've followed the ADA plan.   The first videos I ever watched in aquascaping were all ADA.  I can't count the number of times I've seen them work through the entire process of getting a tank setup.  The setup that always seemed unnecessary to me was the use of bamboo sticks throughout the tank to determine where your plants were going to be.  As I started to try and figure out plants to buy to fill the mid and background of my tank and the thousands of plants available to choose from I realized I needed some help.

I was lucky enough to have bamboo skewers in my house so I went putting them throughout the tank to figure out where plants would go and how tall they should be.  Here is a shot of the end result.

Once I had this I created a map of this on paper.  This allowed me to have a diagram of exactly how many plants I should buy, how tall each needed to be, and which plants should go where for best color and texture blend.  Clearly tall plants go in the back and shorted plants go in the middle but it's not quite that simple.  Some plants start out tall and grow to be 12-24".  Other start small and max out at 3-5".  Some plants are fast growers and will need constant trimming and replanting and others may never need to be trimmed.  I didn't want to go over the top with stem plants (the kind that grow super fast and need to be trimmed all the time but I did buy a few.  Based on the flow of the water in the tank, I also got a plants that I expect to grow taller than the top of the water level.  This plant will go in the back right and as it grows tall, it's leaves will flow across the top of the water and compliment the slope of the hardscape.  Now, how this looks next week once I plant it is another story for another post, but I'm excited. 

Green Leaf Aquarium CO2 System

Exciting week for the new setup.  The last big ticket item finally arrived.  This is the Green Leaf Aquarium GLA-PRO1 complete system.  It turns out this company is world renowned for their aquarium grade regulators and they are made right here in my hometown of Gainesville, FL.  They are one of the most high end regulators but after reading about all my options, people seems to say you get what you pay for and the last thing I wanted to have to think about was problems with my setup.  Also, I liked the idea of helping out a local company rather than just buying some cheaper thing from another country.

You can see the regulator has two gauges, one for working pressure and one for tank pressure.  It also comes with a bubble counter which you can use to dial in exactly how many BPS (bubbles per second) I want.  Below the bubble counter is the solenoid valve.  This allows me to put the system on a timer so I don't have the CO2 running when the lights aren't on.  This allows you to save on CO2.  I'm expecting this 5 lb tank to last 6 months or so.   I plan to set the CO2 to turn on 2 hours before the lights turn on and then turn off 1 hour before the lights go off.  This seems to give the time for CO2 to build up in the water before the lights turn on to allow maximum absorption by the plants.  Turning if off an hour before the lights go off allows this level to come down.  The plants don't use CO2 when there are no lights.

Looks pretty awesome next to the ADA SuperJet ES-600.  Exactly what I was hoping for, matching stainless steel.  The glass stand lets these shine in all their glory.