# The Green Era... Underpressure



## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Chapter 1 - 
http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=129798

Chapter 2
So. Been a while. and here we are today. New plants, retuned scaping, horrible failure and success. 
All have been terms that could have been applied to this tank since the last update.
After I finally got everything setup well. I noticed the water one day get a little cloudy. I thought. humm strange, and let it go. the next day I could see the tank was getting a tint of green. I knew what was happening. So kicked down the light and turned off bank 2. back down to 3wpg. added some ferts and hoped for the best. 
Couple days later and this is what I had.









This is after a waterchange.

So. I think to myself. what do to..... 
Well obviously I've been lucky to get this much from my tank with my setup. No CO2 shitty DIY setup. Lots of plants and way too much light. Yes.. It was a timebomb. 
And it blew.

So now faced with a need for a decision I made two. 
1st was to get a UV filter and take care of the issue at hand. So I did so. In addition to the addition of the UV I turned the lights out for a couple days and closed up the room. 
And in a couple days I had this.








Crystal clear. nicest the water has ever been. I'm sold on UV's. 
But now altho this took care of the immediate need. I knew this was only a temp bandaid. So in comes decision #2. I started looking for parts. found some for cheap. slapped it toghether and now today I finally have it complete. Finally I have my head out of my ass and am fininshing off this tank with pressurized CO2. If only I knew I could slap something like this toghether so easily before. ahh well..










Check back in a couple weeks for an update. 
I expect to be growing a jungle in a bit here.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Way to go, BS

You are going to have enough plants to scape it however you want in no time now lol

Looking better than ever!


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## therizman1 (Jan 6, 2006)

Very nice progress BS!


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

I have another regulator on the way for the 75 gal as well. I just have to find a cheap silenoid to install to the new regulator and an adapter system so I can use paintball CO2 cylinders with it. I might wind up swapping the systems. I also made some DIY drop checkers. But I'm having issue getting the mixture right to properly display the CO2 levels.

My current "Issue" now that the greenwater is clear. Is that I am getting attacked by claudio alage. In the last tank pic you can see a green haze around the moss ball. yeah. thats caludio. It also has attacked onto my hairgrass. as well as it was clumped under the microswords that used to be up front. (yeah I pulled the microswords altho they were growing real fast. Actually I think the MS are what were keeping the water stable. removing that mass messed up the balance of the tank and thats why I had the GW outbreak.)

So how do you deal with hair alage??


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## flashover00 (Oct 19, 2006)

A ++ Man....looks good.

The whole co2 step is one that im not ready to take...glad to see you made the leap. Ill be askin for help when i realize i need the boost.


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## eiji (Sep 16, 2006)

that's awesome


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

flashover00 said:


> A ++ Man....looks good.
> 
> The whole co2 step is one that im not ready to take...glad to see you made the leap. Ill be askin for help when i realize i need the boost.


Take the leap. Trust me its not as bad as ppl make it out to be. you can get an O2 regulator on Ebay for around 25bucks and a sienoid for around 30 put the two toghether and make a bubble counter hook it up and your flowing. if your crafty you can even hook up a paintball tank via a modified remote fill system. 
Getting pressurized CO2 is so freaking easy. I mean its not as cheap as say a DIY but the consistancy is so much better. and you can get a 5lb tank of CO2 filled or swapped for only 10 bucks or so. That will last months. compared to 10 bucks worth of excell. and the ablity to actually regulate and monitor the carbon levels. 
And then you can even take it up a notch from there and get the PH controler and do a fully automated system.

Lets do a price check on what this system costed me so far.

Regulator -Ebay for 75
CO2 tank 5lb Local seller 25
CO2 diffuser - 20
Heavy duty Timer 2 for 8 bucks at Ikea
Airline had laying around house - freeish. 
DIY drop tester 5 bucks (enough material to make about 10 of them)
Filling the CO2 @ Central welding -11.36

Not too bad. 
I'm so confident in this now I could even build some stuff myself.

Next system
o2 regulator-ebay 25 bucks
Painball tank expecting to pay no more then 10-15 bucks. 30 for a 3 LB. 
Remote hookup to convert 20 cheaper if found used.
Silenoid - 10 for soda dispensing style (needs modification)- 30 bucks brass one with standard plug.
This one will be piped directly into the cannister filter for diffusion.
Filling a 20Oz PB tank at sports authority 7.95
Brass fittings & needle valve to put it all toghether 5 bucks.


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Thats awesome man-Keep up the good work-Thanks for the detailed report as well man-Very helpfull for people like me-thanks B.S


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## flashover00 (Oct 19, 2006)

lol..yeah we'll talk after the holidays...i need guidance and i want lush greenness


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

> My current "Issue" now that the greenwater is clear. Is that I am getting attacked by claudio alage. In the last tank pic you can see a green haze around the moss ball. yeah. thats caludio. It also has attacked onto my hairgrass. as well as it was clumped under the microswords that used to be up front.


moss balls scientific name is Cladophora aegagrophila..

You got it.. it is the clado. I was going to say something to you about having that thing in your tank, but I didn't think it was, or could be invasive.

I did a little reading, and found that some say they have gotten clado outbreaks from having them, and some say they did not. 
Sounds hit and miss to me, so I will never get one.

BTW, the only way to get rid of it is to get all of it out of your tank manually. Very tough


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Moss balls and hair are different species of Claudio tho. this is true hair or thread tupe. not the shorter tufft type like the moss ball.
At least thats what I've read in some debate about the cause of hair outbreak.

I guess I could just nuke it with some excel. I'll just have to remove the ball. 
My Riccia seems to be horrible effected as well.


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## Round Head (Sep 26, 2005)

Very nice scape. You sure got a variety of plants.
Yep, the UV is the ultimate green water killer.


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## Malok (Mar 26, 2006)

Whats the silonoid for is it necassary?


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

It is what shuts down the system at night when hooked up to a timer. needs to shut down at night so PH dosen't crash.

Oh yeah I ripped a bunch of plants out. (was getting overrun.)
and I rescaped some..

NEW camera and new pics soon to come. 
But heres a teaser.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

oh yeah. and I threw away my moss ball yesterday too.








It kept getting attacked by the hair alage. and I kinda ripped it in two. at that point I just gave up.
oh yeah and tetras are meat eaters. even neons like raw shrimp.

guess thats why I can't keep ghost shrimp in this tank.


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## Malok (Mar 26, 2006)

> oh yeah. and I threw away my moss ball yesterday too.
> It kept getting attacked by the hair alage. and I kinda ripped it in two. at that point I just gave up.
> oh yeah and tetras are meat eaters. even neons like raw shrimp.
> 
> guess thats why I can't keep ghost shrimp in this tank.


thats a shame about the moss ball my mom loves those things.
thats odd about the tetras my sis has alot of cardinal tetras and hudres of female cherry shrimp


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## Malok (Mar 26, 2006)

> oh yeah. and I threw away my moss ball yesterday too.
> It kept getting attacked by the hair alage. and I kinda ripped it in two. at that point I just gave up.
> oh yeah and tetras are meat eaters. even neons like raw shrimp.
> 
> guess thats why I can't keep ghost shrimp in this tank.


thats a shame about the moss ball my mom loves those things.
thats odd about the tetras my sis has alot of cardinal tetras and hudres of female cherry shrimp



> oh yeah. and I threw away my moss ball yesterday too.
> It kept getting attacked by the hair alage. and I kinda ripped it in two. at that point I just gave up.
> oh yeah and tetras are meat eaters. even neons like raw shrimp.
> 
> guess thats why I can't keep ghost shrimp in this tank.


thats a shame about the moss ball my mom loves those things.
thats odd about the tetras my sis has alot of cardinal tetras and hudres of female cherry shrimp

sorry for stuttering

sorry for stuttering.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

The silver tip tetras are pretty aggressive. As well I also have a dwarf pike cichlid in there so he I'm sure contributes. I also feed them all litle bits of frozen shrimp like I do my FH and arrowana. so they have become a little more aggressive then normal. :grin:

And here are those new pics I promised.


















the pike


























Sorry 56K users.. But come on you know it was worth the wait.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)




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## ~Silly~Spy (Mar 12, 2005)

very nice man! keep up the good work!


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Thanks. I felt this was also a great oppertunity to show off my new camera.

lovin the quality shots I'm getting now and all the options I have avalible over my old HP digi.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Yo, if you need some Ludwigia arcuata, 'Cuba', Potomogeton gayi, Limnophila sp 'mini', or a few others I will have sometime in January/Feb, you are about ready to give those a try









Merry Christmas, and awesome setup!

Hey, is that Didiplis diandra I see in there? I love that plant! -very versitile


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

What plant are you referring to? the one in the last post middle pic top right? 
I don't think thats what it is. I'm pretty sure that one used to be a reddish pink color when I got it. I think it was the one labled as rotela indica. But there was another plant I got at the same time. But that name doesn't sound familar. It's kinda my mistery plant. 
Alot of the other stuffI got from you. That big Crypt in the middle was the little hitchhiker from the first stuff you sent me. I had to break him down cause he was getting too big. I got 4 other plants from it.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

It is quite possible that it is Didiplis diandra after looking at some of the pics. I did buy some of that. As well as two other very similar looking plants. When the ones I got that were red lost their color they all got mixed up. This is the last of those stems. It is flowering along the stem. I will try and get a shot of that.


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## Malok (Mar 26, 2006)

looks great the camera too


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Thx!


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Its matured.









Here are some updated pics of the tank. 











































And a much needed clean up crew









Already Hard at work. hopefully they are all there tomorrow.


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