75 gallon Planted Office Tank Journal

**mes1234** · 05-18-2010, 11:50 AM

Sounds like you bought them from a good person. Post in his classified about how well he shipped them for future business for him.

**geekpryde** · 05-18-2010, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by mes1234

Sounds like you bought them from a good person. Post in his classified about how well he shipped them for future business for him.

It was a Miss, not a Mr.

I will certainly post feedback in the marketplace, and I hope people do the same for me.

She is one of the Mods here, I believe her name is Rachel. I even got a nice AquariaCentral.com decal/bubber sticker!

**geekpryde** · 05-18-2010, 12:56 PM

Very well packaged.

Bag seemed kind of thin, but when I cut it open partially with a knife, it actually didnt "pop" as I thought it might, so maybe it was stronger than it looked. Either way, the superior packaging ensured that nothing poked the bag open.

Amano Shrimp are in the tank, working away. Just like the Otos, they immediately went for the algae.

**geekpryde** · 05-18-2010, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by moi-eater

EI forum on the Barr Report: http://www.barrreport.com/forumdispl...timative-Index

EI light: http://www.barrreport.com/showthread...ss-techy-folks

Thanks!

I guess mr. barr doesnt let google index those pages? You would think just about every sticky in those forums would be the top google hits.

I will be reviewing all of that information.

**mes1234** · 05-18-2010, 2:45 PM

Give us photos of the shrimp in the tank. I have a few ghost shrimp. I like shrimp.

**geekpryde** · 05-19-2010, 3:03 PM

Shrimp:

Originally Posted by mes1234

Give us photos of the shrimp in the tank. I have a few ghost shrimp. I like shrimp.

They are kind of hard to photograph in my tank. Unfortunately they seem to be spending their time eating off hard surfaces right now, like the filter intake, thermometers, heaters, etc. I really wanted them to dig into the algae issue I have on the lower back stem plants, mostly the bottom half of the plants that dont get alot of light. Maybe they do most of their eating at night?

They seem to really like hiding in plants floating on the surface, I havent seen them moving around too much today, whereas yesturday they seemed to be moving around and working on the algae. Maybe their bellies are full? Do they take breaks between meals?

Trim:

I just did my first stem plant trim, not sure if I did it correctly. Basically I just took and cut off the top 1/3 of the stems and jammed them down into the subtrate. Well see....

Junk in My Water:

Everytime I move plants around, I stirr up a ton of fine substrate and algae powder and/or detritus.

Since I am not vaccuming the subtrate this makes sense, but I thought the plants are supposed to consume this mess? Maybe I should put on another filter with just a ton of ultra fine batting or whatever to catch this stuff? I need to get this stuff out of the watercolumn, but I dont know the best hardware solution for the job. Something I only use at water change, like a HOT canister, or a dedicated second filter that I will have to change the batting material out very often (which i dont mind). I dont even know if batting is fine enought to catch this junk, I need a friggin hepa filter!

Give me your ideas people!

**geekpryde** · 05-19-2010, 3:28 PM

Regarding polishing the water, what is the current opinion regarding products like Purigen, for use in planted tanks? Would I be filtering out all the good with the bad?

http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...s/Purigen.html

I've seen plenty of the ads in TFH, but what got me thinking about it was this thread: click here

**moi-eater** · 05-19-2010, 3:36 PM

Originally Posted by geekpryde

Junk in My Water:

Everytime I move plants around, I stirr up a ton of fine substrate and algae powder and/or detritus.

Since I am not vaccuming the subtrate this makes sense, but I thought the plants are supposed to consume this mess? Maybe I should put on another filter with just a ton of ultra fine batting or whatever to catch this stuff? I need to get this stuff out of the watercolumn, but I dont know the best hardware solution for the job. Something I only use at water change, like a HOT canister, or a dedicated second filter that I will have to change the batting material out very often (which i dont mind). I dont even know if batting is fine enought to catch this junk, I need a friggin hepa filter!

Give me your ideas people!

Good ideas, they are ranked (imho).

1 - You could replace the media in the 2217 with quilt batting.
2 - Get another 2217 and use quilt batting.
3 - Get a HOT canister and use fine mechanical media and use at water change.

You could easily do 1 and then do 2 or 3 later if needed.

**geekpryde** · 05-19-2010, 3:41 PM

Originally Posted by moi-eater

Good ideas, they are ranked (imho).

1 - You could replace the media in the 2217 with quilt batting.
2 - Get another 2217 and use quilt batting.
3 - Get a HOT canister and use fine mechanical media and use at water change.

You could easily do 1 and then do 2 or 3 later if needed.

I like option 2, but can even an entire 2217 filled to the top with "quilt batting" really remove the ultra fine particles I am talking about?

**moi-eater** · 05-19-2010, 3:51 PM

Originally Posted by geekpryde

I like option 2, but can even an entire 2217 filled to the top with "quilt batting" really remove the ultra fine particles I am talking about?

That's I would try option 1 first. If it gets most of it then you could do option 2 and alternate replacing the media. If it doesn't then you could do option 3.