# 38 Gallon Tank log



## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

I moved all of my dwarf sag into my 40 from my 75 about a week ago. I am using no co2, 1 wpg, and dosing ferts once or twice a week according to Barr's low-light non CO2 method. Some of my leaves are turning transparent and/or brown/yellow. What does this signify? A deficiency in some nutrient, light, ...? Thanks for any help.


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## rbp75 (May 2, 2004)

What kind of ferts do you dose with? Do you use potassium? If not that may help the plant utilize the ferts you dose with. It could also be shock from the move and they just need to reestablish.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

ya, what he said...
It also depends on if your lighting is 1wpg power compact or regular flourecent.
I have 2wpg T12 shop lights on my low light tank, and I'll tell ya.. it's super weak.


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

I have flourescent lighting. I am having trouble finding 36 inch strips with reflectors or some sort of encasing to keep the light from shooting everywhere. I tried walmart, home depot, office depot (I work there), and Ace Hardware...any suggestions? I want to get around 1.5-2.
I dose with greg watson ferts: KH2PO4, CSM+B, K2SO4, and KNO3. The last time I dosed was almost a week ago and I dosed 
KH2PO4	smidge 
CSM+B	0.125 tsp
K2SO4	0.75 tsp
KNO3	0.125 tsp


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

what happened to your high light setup? Weren't you able to control how many lights came on? 
Keep dosing every week. keep an eye on phosphate and nitrate, and don't let 'em bottom out


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> what happened to your high light setup? Weren't you able to control how many lights came on?
> Keep dosing every week. keep an eye on phosphate and nitrate, and don't let 'em bottom out


I have a 48 inch 220 watt compact flourescent light. That is on my 75 (no more plants, going to be an algae-scaped tank







). It might not work too well on my 40 because it has 4 55 watt bulbs, if I use turn on only one bulb that will be 55 watts but only cover half of the tank, I turn on two I'll have 110 watts over it, which would be too much, dont you think? I guess not all the light would be going in the tank which would reduce the wpg.
I think I'll switch out the strips and see how it does, plus I need to dose.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

BigChuckP said:


> what happened to your high light setup? Weren't you able to control how many lights came on?
> Keep dosing every week. keep an eye on phosphate and nitrate, and don't let 'em bottom out


I have a 48 inch 220 watt compact flourescent light. That is on my 75 (no more plants, going to be an algae-scaped tank :nod: ). It might not work too well on my 40 because it has 4 55 watt bulbs, if I use turn on only one bulb that will be 55 watts but only cover half of the tank, I turn on two I'll have 110 watts over it, which would be too much, dont you think? I guess not all the light would be going in the tank which would reduce the wpg.
I think I'll switch out the strips and see how it does, plus I need to dose.
[/quote]
Hmm, did you ever use excell on your 75 to get some carbon in the water? If you used excell, dosed enough other ferts, planted heavily enough, and did algea maintenance every day, chances are you might of won the battle over algea eventually in that tank.
As long as you balanced between CO2, (excell) ferts, and light, you should be ok with 110 over your 40. A planted tank requires patience and love for the hobby, that is for sure... you know that by now lol
a good way to be in the beginning is well, plant heavy, lots of fast growers..check PO4, and NO3 a lot to see what your uptake is. With P's you might never have to dose nitrates. K is good to dose in that situation too, not to mention Fe and micros


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> what happened to your high light setup? Weren't you able to control how many lights came on?
> Keep dosing every week. keep an eye on phosphate and nitrate, and don't let 'em bottom out


I have a 48 inch 220 watt compact flourescent light. That is on my 75 (no more plants, going to be an algae-scaped tank :nod: ). It might not work too well on my 40 because it has 4 55 watt bulbs, if I use turn on only one bulb that will be 55 watts but only cover half of the tank, I turn on two I'll have 110 watts over it, which would be too much, dont you think? I guess not all the light would be going in the tank which would reduce the wpg.
I think I'll switch out the strips and see how it does, plus I need to dose.
[/quote]
Hmm, did you ever use excell on your 75 to get some carbon in the water? If you used excell, dosed enough other ferts, planted heavily enough, and did algea maintenance every day, chances are you might of won the battle over algea eventually in that tank.
As long as you balanced between CO2, (excell) ferts, and light, you should be ok with 110 over your 40. A planted tank requires patience and love for the hobby, that is for sure... you know that by now lol
a good way to be in the beginning is well, plant heavy, lots of fast growers..check PO4, and NO3 a lot to see what your uptake is. With P's you might never have to dose nitrates. K is good to dose in that situation too, not to mention Fe and micros
[/quote]
I did use excell but I don't think I used it enough, I wasn't dedicated enough to my tank and I know that was the problem. With my 40 I am going to stay dedicated and do everything I can to make this tank look amazing. I have an excel spreadsheet with how much I dosed, what the params measured at, etc. This will help me see correlations between my dosings and the params.
I am not going to use excell in my 40 unless I get algae.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Hope it works out well for you.. at any rate, get some pics up!!!


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Hope it works out well for you.. at any rate, get some pics up!!!


Here are some peectures.
The lil aggressive inhabitant
View attachment 86885

I had to remove all of the leaves from this anubias because it was infected something fierce with bba, but he is finally growing some leaves!
View attachment 86886

My sad looking hygro...
View attachment 86887

Algae...
View attachment 86888

So here is my tank with the new lighting, 110 watts, 6700K. Not all of the lighting is going in the tank because it is a 48 inch strip and the tank is only 36 inches. I don't like the way the new lighting looks, it makes the tank look green and unnatural, compare with the picture under this one. What lights would make the tank look better as well as continue to promote growth?
View attachment 86889

Here is the tank with the old lighting, I think the bulbs were called "natural daylight" or something.
View attachment 86890


Thanks for any comments and/or suggestions.


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## killerbee (Aug 18, 2004)

That's weird, my 6700 lights on my 113 don't make my tank look green


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

killerbee said:


> That's weird, my 6700 lights on my 113 don't make my tank look green


Really? Strange, my 6700K lights always made my tank look green


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## killerbee (Aug 18, 2004)

BigChuckP said:


> That's weird, my 6700 lights on my 113 don't make my tank look green


Really? Strange, my 6700K lights always made my tank look green
[/quote]

yep, check it out:










And if you look a couple of threads down (planted 113) you will see more, none looking green


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## spree_rider (Mar 20, 2004)

those lights look too yellow to be 6700k it looks more like 4000k or 2500k, that would make it look green, i would change the bulbs because light that colour probably has too much green to grow plants efficiently.
on most of my tanks i use a combo of one plant light strip (the purple kind) and 2 daylight strips, on my 5g tank i use something called a power glow that is very white then turns purple after a year or so. my newest setup im using a 6700k and 10000k and that looks very nice pure light and colours come out very nice,
i will post some pics of it after i get it all set up, right now it has no plants


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

stick it out, chuck! You will get a balance if you keep tweaking eventually. With the lower light, you can dose less often. the tank has excellent potential, and the fish looks great too


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

I couldn't be happier! I just got a co2 tank! I have been trying to get one for a long time for cheap, and everytime I was about to get one it just slipped out of my hands and now I have one and the cost is the best part...free! I get paid friday so I will be getting myself a dual regulator with a solenoid valve, bubble counter, needle valve, and a ph monitor off ebay. I can't wait to set this baby up and watch my brandtii tank explode with growth...if I don't mess it up :laugh: I'll have to post some pictures of the progress when it gets up and running...just though I would let yall know of what's coming


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

BigChuckP said:


> I couldn't be happier! I just got a co2 tank! I have been trying to get one for a long time for cheap, and everytime I was about to get one it just slipped out of my hands and now I have one and the cost is the best part...free! I get paid friday so I will be getting myself a *dual regulator *with a solenoid valve, bubble counter, needle valve, and a ph monitor off ebay. I can't wait to set this baby up and watch my brandtii tank explode with growth...if I don't mess it up :laugh: I'll have to post some pictures of the progress when it gets up and running...just though I would let yall know of what's coming


bro, did you get the duel regulator yet? I never used one, but i hear it don't work too good.. I hear 1 tank gets all the co2, and the other suffers.. Im not sure, just letting you know that is what i hear.

Superb deal on the cylander!! I hope it works out for you!! Definately, keep posting pics and progress, we will try and help u if u need it








oh, as for your 40.. I thought it looked like it needed more plants to start out with to balance out 
sorry I didnt post till now, but i just thought to say that


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## rbp75 (May 2, 2004)

BigChuckP said:


> I couldn't be happier! I just got a co2 tank! I have been trying to get one for a long time for cheap, and everytime I was about to get one it just slipped out of my hands and now I have one and the cost is the best part...free! I get paid friday so I will be getting myself a dual regulator with a solenoid valve, bubble counter, needle valve, and a ph monitor off ebay. I can't wait to set this baby up and watch my brandtii tank explode with growth...if I don't mess it up :laugh: I'll have to post some pictures of the progress when it gets up and running...just though I would let yall know of what's coming


Nice pickup! I just bought a co2 tank myself not too long ago and had to pay $70 for it








Definetly worth it though if you want a well planted tank. If everything goes well then you should have a totally different looking tank in a matter of weeks. Good luck.


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## BigChuckP (Feb 9, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Nice pickup! I just bought a co2 tank myself not too long ago and had to pay $70 for it
> 
> 
> 
> ...


A well planted tank is what I am after, I can't wait to get 'er running!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

ya, I thought u meant 1 regulator for 2 tanks. LOL --glad you didn't go that route








Nothing else to say at the moment, keep us posted


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