Hi all guys, today we continue with the filling phase of the tank, and its maintenance during the first months of life, we will also address some problems that normally occur during the start-up of a new tank…
You will realize how fantastic Wabiscaping art is..
Filling and Maturation of the Tank:
Very important premise, count the liters of water that you insert during filling… because then it will be based on that specific liter that you will have to size the dosages of the products!
o Use Osmosis water reconstructed with Linfa salts or with the new Linfa A&B liquid (which will soon be on the market), to bring the temporary carbonate hardness KH, and total GH to the values of 4/5°dKH and 9/10° dGH;
o Use Scudo (conditioner) which is excellent for treating Osmotic water;
o Pour a vial of Remover NH3, to eliminate any ammonia;
o Pour one vial of Bacterya for every 50 liters of water to ensure the nitrogen cycle starts;
o Pour a vial of Bio-alganex to immediately establish suitable bacterial colonies against algal spores;
o Pour a vial of Nutrobact to immediately support the new bacterial colonies in the tank.
The large root inserted into the tank immediately began to release tannin into the water, even though before using it I had washed it very well with a powerful pressure washer and left it in the water for about 30 days. Furthermore, immediately during the maturation phase, the root was completely covered in mold/mucilage logically due to submersion.
I didn’t touch anything at all.. the tank has a very delicate balance during the start-up phase.. and the less you put your hands in the tank the better!.. let’s let all the biological activation that we have inserted work on our own and we wait at least 3 weeks..
Once the three weeks had passed I intervened with a 50% water change where I proceeded to vacuum the mold and mucilage on the roots, and using a toothbrush I cleaned and brushed the rocks..
Then after the cleaning and water change phase, I proceeded to insert a small backpack filter loaded with only Depuro carbon into the tank to slowly reduce the tannins released by the root.
The procedure I followed after siphoning and cleaning is as follows:
o 50 liters of Osmosis water + Linfa;
o Scudo 12,5 mL;
o Remover NH3 a vial;
o Bacterya a vial;
o Bio-alganex a vial;
o Nutrobact a vial.
o 24/7 carbon dioxide supply activated to guarantee a supply of at least 20/25 mg/l;
o Filter activated;
o Photoperiod for 5 hours.
N.B. The maturation phase of the tank is very delicate and must be respected without intervening, let’s tie our hands behind our backs and wait!.. ..otherwise there is a real risk of not achieving true stability of the biosystem.
N.B. these are guidelines that have been customized for the tank in question, the administration of fertilizers and the lighting hours must always be supported by a vegetative response… you must learn to look at the plants and the growth to then calibrate the administrations and the product dosages.
Water change:
To always be supported (after the maturation phase) every week at least 20/25% of the volume of water in the tank, and rebuild it as previously written.
Vegetative Response:
I think the images speak for themselves… the difficulty in emerged cultivation and above all in the typology of this tank lies precisely in the fact that the emerging plants find CO2 in the air without assimilation difficulties, and find light in more than sufficient quantities for them to they are 15 cm from the ceiling light… consequently they require an intake of nutrients directly proportional to the demand… and therefore they need a personalized fertilization plan.
But at the same time the submerged part is made up of minimal species, mosses, Anubias and Bucephalandras… which do not require an excessively high supply of nutrients…
Therefore, in order to make the emerged plants grow healthy and luxuriant and not push too much with the fertilizers in the column so as not to create problems especially for the mosses, the right balance must be found and the products dosed in the right quantity that can be assimilated by the emerged part and so don’t stay in the column.. …I assure you that this balance is not easy to manage.
First Filamentous Algae:
Precisely because in this type of tank fertilization is not easy to manage, especially during the first month after starting I noticed the appearance of filamentous green algae especially on the mosses.
I constantly intervened almost daily to manually remove the algae, using a wooden toothpick… and during the weekly water changes I dosed two vials of Bio-alganex instead of one.
The algae have not yet completely disappeared, but they are in a clear phase of regression.
The important thing with this type of algae is absolutely fundamental not to let them take over and try to keep them contained. And it is also essential to try to rebalance fertilization, dosing Florido C7 daily.
Water circulation:Another very fundamental aspect that is most of the time underestimated is the circulation of water.
When setting up a tank it is of fundamental importance to determine the current that the water circulation in the tank must have, even before building the Hardscape, in fact there must be no impediments, the water must be able to make a complete revolution of the tank and return to the suction point: delivery point and suction point must coincide.
In this tank, following a strong growth of the emerged part, I found myself in difficulty in ensuring a correct circulation of the water, because the aerial roots developed by the plants grown on the wood were creating a blockage point. I had to intervene by uprooting part of the plants and repositioning them so as not to obstruct the flow of water behind the root.
Behind the entire composition you see in the photograph, there must remain a free corridor of at least 5 cm where the water must circulate, to avoid having areas where the current slows down and organic deposits form over time from which they can then leave Algae outbreaks.
Preventive control of the presence of parasites on emerged plants:Emerging plants have no problems with being attacked by algae.. but they can however be attacked by parasites.. example Cochineal.. Aphids.. etc…
When proceeding with the cultivation of this type of tank, it is necessary to plan for a continuous daily control of the leaves of the emerged plants, especially checks under the leaf blade and in the younger leaves that have just emerged… in such a way that it is possible to intervene in a preventive and temporary on the removal of parasites.
I’m talking about prevention of parasitic attacks because we absolutely cannot intervene on the tank with biocide products… therefore daily checks are the only effective prevention.
Don’t think that algae problems and/or problems of any other kind never arise for us… in fact I assure you that they are obligatory phases in the maturation process of a tank and its subjective biosystem… it all depends on intervening calmly and with due precautions. Every action in the tank consequently corresponds to a response from living beings… let’s learn to observe these responses..
See you soon
Roberto Bielli
