Palmfiber Peat soaked in Chemicult as a substrate.

Good evening Professor...

I am going to be venturing out into the unknown over the next few weeks, and require your advice with regards to the PFP method described here. I have seen a lot of results in peoples tanks, and eagerly purchased the products this afternoon.

I am planning on a doing a NANO tank (standard 1ft tank). Going to aim for 2 watts of correct sprectrum light per litre (will do this with advice from Dolphin). I'd like to have the entire bottom of the tank covered in Hairgrass, and then have a moss wall up the back. A few other small plants (anubia) will be in the tank as well... but that'll come later.)

Vis is doing an interesting experiment at the moment and growing his Hairgrass emmersed in an ice-cream tub on a windowsill, and says that he is getting very good results. I'd like to follow his example, but instead of using the ice-cream tub, I'd like to set up the nano tank in a sunny area with the PFP method, capped with black gravel, and then plant the hairgrass, and only fill the tank to half cover the leaves of the hairgrass. Basically propgate the grass using the emmersed method, rather than immersion.

With the fact that it's a Nano tank, I obviously would not be using a full brick, or a full teaspoon of chemicult, but will have to proportion is accordingly.

My question is this...

I will not be pumping or circulating the water at all, and not sure if I should then be changing the water manually every few days? With this in mind, would I need to proportion the chemicult with the PFP brick, or would it not be a problem to "overdose" on the chemicult?

 

"I will not be pumping or circulating the water at all" Not a cool idea I think - did two PFP tanks a few days ago with the same thing in-mind. Could not last a week without a film on the water surface .. added a small HOB - Seem to have done the trick.

 

That's the problem f-fish... I'm planning on propogating the plants EMMERSED. This means that ONLY the roots are covered with water, and the leaves are exposed. THis is the most common way the nurseries grow aquatic plants. There is absolutely NO way you can get a pump in there. The water is literally only going to cover the gravel.

 

Ok got it .. can you leave the hood off ? Then you should be OK just do not turn it into a bog - moist but no standing water should be fine.

 

zoom just be carefull with leaving the tank in direct sunlight , with that small amount of water in it a days good sunlight will evaporate all the water over a day or two especially taking into consideration that black attracts heat . be sure to do top ups and maybe leave the hood on .
but im sure you know this ! just wanted to make sure

 

It's suppse to be bog. A lot of plants are grown with their roots FULLY submerged in water, but the stems, leaves and rhizomes (if any) above water. However they are in special tankes where the water underneath is being drained and refilled continuously. Obviously not new water, but through a sump type set up.

I don't plan on leaving it in full sunlight. I'll actually take the hood off and cover with cling wrap with a few holes in. This will allow the moisture to stay in the tank. But I'm just not sure if I should be replacing the water every few days, or if I can leave it.

 

If I may add something,Zoom.
Leave the water as is,don't change it.As the grass roots,it will "airrate' the substrate,removing Co2 as it builds up due to nitrogenues activitys.I.e. you will effectifly be cycling your substrate and the hair grass will help with the process.Just remember to replace evaporated water with de-clorinated or tank water.

 

Hi Prof,

With regards to your suggestions about my water, what would you recommend for me to check my water properly...

Then when i use the charcoal will it absorb your ferts as well, and if so once i'm done with the charcoal, how much ferts should i put in again..

Thanks very much
Regards

 

Hi Julie,

Your pics 2 and 3 are of the plants that are not actually aquatic, through them out, they will not grow.

When Limnophila "melts" I mean it goes soft and grey and looses all the green colour. It then just floats to the top in this dead mass with perhaps a few green bits left.

You need to have your pH measured properly with an accurate pH meter.

Then activated charcoal does not remove any of my ferts, so you do not need to replace anything, but why do you want to use activated charcoal in the first place, it is completely unnecessary unless you want to remove medication or something.

Zoom, what you propose for your nano is fine but do not overdo the Chemicult, keep the concentrations low and do water changes very so often. You will need to add ferts such as mine though because the chemicult does get used up over time. If you have a very low water level it is not necessary to filter, but just be careful that the tank does not dry out all of the sudden and you must have some air circulation in there, by leaving the lid open or just even pumping some air into the water with an air hose.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks Professor.

I have done the Chemicult as per your instructions. I used a 6th of a block of PFP, and a 6th of a teaspoon of the chemicult. Was rather interesting to get the preportions right. I set the Nano hairgrass last night. Due to the fact that I want a slope on the substrate, some of the hairgrass is submerged completely, and some is emmersed. I will get an airstone into the water tonight.

I only added 1.5litres of water, so you can imagine the fun I had adding your gH+, K+ and your Trace mix to that amount of water... how do you measure 0.1 of a mil? Needless to say I worked on a 5litre container, made the mixture, and added the balance to my community tank.

 

Hallo prof.

I read that you said the plecos does not belong in a planted tank. I've got a Golden pleco , a common pleco and a leopard pleco. I wanted to put 1 or 2 in my pfp tank once it cycled but not any more. Does all 3 these species destroy plants? all 3 are about 10cm

 

Hi Zoom,

What you have described about your nano setup sounds fine and I look forward to seeing how the grass will grow, but I am sure that it will. I will see if I can scan in some pics of nanos that I see in my German aquarium mag which have hairgrass in them. What you may eventually find is that in view of the fact that you are not adding any nitrogen because you do not have any fish that you may have to add some of my nitrogen containing ferts. For the moment all is fine though, let us see how things proceed.

Franna,

I want to make a general statement here and that is that none of the loricariad catfish with heavy suckers can be kept in a planted tank. So, unfortunately all of those will have to go.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Prof

As per one of your previous messages about my tank, you recommended i use some charcoal to bind the tannins in my tank, as i am not getting it under control with water changes etc...

Do you still recommend this?


Thanks

 

Hi Jules,

Yes, I still recommend that. The thread has got soooooooooo long that I cannot now go back and find my answer quickly, but I would use charcoal for a few days in a filter on the tank, a good handful at least, and then remove it and replace it with new charcoal until the problem gets less.

Do you also have logs in the tank?

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

I do have two logs, but the are very old.
I don think they are releasing tannins any more.

I will try the charcoal this weekend.

Thanks very much for all your advice...

Regards

 

Hi Professor,

Yes, the Nitrogen shortfall was a bit of a concern for me too. I did however add some undergravel fertlizer tables that contains a fair amount of Nitrogen. I will have a look tonight at the packaging and give you the breakdown of the analysis.

I'm fairly excited about the set up. Just need to look at the lighting tho... seems a bit darker than I remember the tank to be.

Regards

Zoom

 

would cory catfish dig up the sand enough to expose the pfp?

 

no speeds they don't dig they forage in the sand at most .

I have 4 and am using the pfp method .

cheers

 

If i go by this calculation, using half a brick; i should roughly get about a 1cm layer on 90cm x 32cm tank, right? Is this sufficient? Also would 1tbsp or less than 1tbsp be used? sincing that i would be using half a brick

 

I don't think 1cm will be thick enough. Check this entire thread... I'm sure the professor mentions 2 cm.

If you use half a brick, use half a TEASPOON.