As a heads up, Zephyranthes candida (the so-called "dwarf onion plant") isn't a true aquatic. It won't survive in the long term fully submerged. It is a lovely accent plant in a paludarium or along the edges of a pond, though... just not a good choice for a planted tank.
Thanks for the heads up. I got my plants yesterday and planted everything (only one dwarf onion plant). I'll just leave it until it dies and then get rid of it. Below is a before and after pic.
I have the CO2 coming in through the powerhead and was thinking about what the best placement of the powerhead is. Right now it is rather high in the tank and near the intake for the filter. Would it be better for it to be lower and closer to the return (so bubbles have a better chance at getting blown around)?
Will 2 CO2 bubbles per second be enough CO2 for all these plants? I am getting a bit of brown algae on the glass - anything in particular I should do to help with that? I'll be ordering ferts in the next day or two.
Your tank looks great but you should remove your bubblewand if your going to be injecting CO2. The wand just outgasses the CO2 so your just wasting money.
Get some ottos. They will take care of the brown algae in no time
I initially put the wand in because I noticed my fish were ALL at the surface one day gasping (this was a while back, before I started injecting the CO2). After I added the airlines, they started behaving normally again.
So if my fish weren't getting enough O2 before, then I am a little concerned about taking out the airline - especially when I am adding additional CO2.
What are your thoughts? Remove it and see what happens?
Thanks!
The surface of the water looks very still except where there are bubbles. What is the filtration on the tank? You want to ripple the surface without breaking it, from what I can tell w/ my tanks. Breaking the water (i.e. bubbles, splashes) seems to gas off CO2, but rippling the surface seems to get the oxygen in for the fish so they can breathe. Also, with greater photosynthesis, more O2 will be pumping into your water from the plants themselves, although that only happens during the lighted hours.
I have a Rena XP4 which I believe is rated for over 250g. I would say that the surface is somewhat still where the bubbles aren't breaking it. Any suggestions on how to ripple it vs. break the surface? I will play around with the filter return and see what kind of results I get.
Oh good, that should be great filtration. To ripple my surface I attach a spray bar lower down, like below the surface, and have the outlet holes pointing up at an angle in between straight level with the surface and straight up towards the surface. I have to use a bit of trial and error to adjust the spray bar to get it the way I want it, but I find I have quite a lot of control over what the surface agitation looks like when the bar is positioned under like that, and I can get nice ripples with no breaking, bubbles, etc. HTH!
