Competition Registration and Rules

Aah ok then Thanks @Lizid

 

Ok... I'm not going to spam PM everyone... So I'll add the competition email address to my sig, and post it here...

Once you have completed your scape, you can send me your journal in WORD format, with pics, to competitions(AT)theplantedtank(dot)co(dot)za...

 

haha kewl Sean, I will wait till the last week tho. Give my plants as much time as possible

 

I finally got my hands on the ferts I want... Took me long enough. Only crappy thing is that the gentler plants melt a bit but then come through booming. So now it's picking out the damage and waiting. On a side note..... I got the 5ft tank up and running and it looks amazing except for the tannins. Not in the mood for 70% water changes on a 300L tank 3 times a week. What can I use to break down the tannin stain?

 

Strangely enough, Seachem Purigen. It polishes the water, and removes the yellow colouring from the water. I will use it in every setup I do. It's a brilliant product. Also, good activated carbon will also remove the tanin colour. But I still prefer to use pirigen.

 

Yep go for the purigen, it lasts forever and you can clean it again to reuse! Not like carbon that has to be thrown out. Purigen in my 40L tank has removed all tannins within 2 hours - in a bigger tank might take a bit longer but it will be gone fast.

 

I have two carbon trays in my canister. 1 is the carbon sticks you get in the assembly and the 2nd one is a combination of crushed charcoal and washed coal. Will try out the purigen and see how it works. Thanks @Sean J

 

How long has the carbon been in the tank? The purigen you can buy as a small packet (I prefer this since its already in a nice little baggie that fits into most filters.) or you can get it in a big bottle but then you need to make a baggie for the purigen.

 

I had it pre-cycled for a month on an established tank and did a carbon and sponge wash for the new setup with old water. Been on the new setup for over a week now

 

It could be that the carbon is old, I was told to remove it after a month in my tanks. So I switched to purigen, I have 3 packets, one in each tank and one being soaked in bleach then in prime so that I can swop it with a filled one in one of my tanks.

 

Carbon can only be used for 6 weeks at most, think about this ad explained to me...

Carbon absorbs stuff out of water, once it is all absorbed what happens to it?

It begins to expel so now all your carbon is doing is putting the crap back in your tank!

If you want to reuse your carbon I have read in a few places that you can boil it... Problem is boil it too long it begins to break down don't boil it long enough it wasting your time!!!

 

Not 100% true.

It just becomes useless, and whatever it was holding starts to break down... negligable releasing, but it doesn't release it. (If you google it you will get 6 results that says yes it does, and half a dozen that says it doesn't).

Think of a magnet... A magnet holds 500gr of iron filings. if you throw 600gr of filings at it, it will hold 500gr and not hold the other 100gr. Will it over time drop the other 500?? No. Over decades and decades it probably will... but you not keeping you AC for that long are you? General rule, replace AC every 6 weeks.

 

6 weeks? Not true either... Matrix Carbon from Seachem can be used for up to 6 months... And it doesn't leach any substances back into the water, supposedly. I used it in my marine setup, and it works brilliantly... I use this and purigen together.

 

@Wyvren, When you clean your Purigen in Jik do you put in hot or cold water?

 

I just soak it in cold/ room temp tap water with some jik in it for a day. Then 2 or 3 days in a tapwater with loads of prime in.

So far havent had any issues.

 

i'm going to take picks on a weekly basis as i think it'll show any growth without having too many pics. btw i got winows xp and i regularly run into trouble with documents in newer versions of windows. @ Sean J will this be ok or must i borrow my moms laptop and use her newer version?

 

Older versions should be fine, I think.

 

I assume that it is ok if we submit our journal under

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

 

@f-fish, dude I don't think any one has entered the comp worrying about creative commons licence...
Frankly once I have submitted the pics to Sean I don't care what he does with it... And I trust Sean enough that if he makes money of my pics that I will get my share...

 

hehe that is the point giving him the ability to use it ... if not then people could get funny about it if they see a pic they took etc.

ouch... so you have an expectation to profit should he manage to make a few bucks? Now this is exactly why one needs to show your intent.

Actually this is probably a topic that should have been covered in the rules - typically you surrender all rights when you enter a competition, but AFAIK that needs to be agreed to at entering.

laterf