finally got my tank yesterday from the LFS and i hurried home to set it up. the aquascape setting was nice but it was not done by me coz i didn’t wanna get my hands dirty. i’m kidding! i wasn’t involved in the initial phase because i had no experience. i could’ve gave it a try but was afraid that i might screw it all up.
the shop assistant gave specific instructions to fill up the tank slowly with water. i followed his instructions and used that small hose thingy you see in most aquariums…that took me a little over 30 mins to fill up the tank. my initial fill up was a blunder and the water was cloudy. i then syphoned the old water outta the tank and refill with new ones, this time gently and slowly, not disturbing the soil. the entire process took me about hour of my patience. you have no idea how slow the process was. it was like an eternity waiting for all the water to drain and refill.
alas, new water and everything is clear and nice for the first time. i gave me tank a drop of brighty K (this is one fucking expensive product. 250ml worth of product that looks only like water cost me rm53. that’s way more expensive than my shampoo) to help with my plant’s photosynthesis and another drop of so-called "good bacteria" to help with growth and potential algae issue.
behold, the brighty K (center), the bottle of "good bacteria" (left) and baking soda (for my co2 project. ignore that shit)
everything was good until the water turned yellow again AND it was only 30 minutes after the last water change. OMFG!! i did some research online and discovered that the issue i’m facing could potentially be caused by the driftwood i had in my tank. i think they described the issue as the leeching of tannins aka tannic acid by the driftwood. again, i syphoned the water outta the tank and this time removing the driftwood as well before refilling. naturally, the water was clear again…
very fucking nice!! it’s yellow again!!
…BUT it had turned yellow once again so the problem was not caused by the driftwood. after further investigation, it was determined that the soil was the one causing the problem. apparently the soil i used, ADA Amazonia has humus acid and has easily-soluble character which could turn the water to yellow if the water has alkaline which was affected by the tap water condition. Alkaline in my water huh? I’ve been drinking that same water from the same tap for so many years. A quick study on alkaline shows that it means my water has a pH of over 7, clearly not suitable for fishes or shrimps which is not an issue now cause all i have in my tank are plants.
my plants requires co2 to flourish and getting a co2 system has never been considered because it is friggin expensive. luckily i did my homework and discovered a cheap but effective way to generate co2 for my tank and NO, it does not require me manually exhaling air into my tank. the ingredient to producing sufficient co2 for over a week or two is 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of yeast and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in a water bottle with lukewarm water, shaken not stirred. after almost and hour of letting it be, the yeast activated and started producing co2. my little science project worked…woohoo!! anyways, i connected the tube to a piece of wooden block to diffuse the co2 but there weren’t any bubbles. my initial thought was that the pores on the block was too small and it needed greater pressure to release the co2.
so i went back to the LFS and got myself a glass diffuser which was also not working. to make matters worse, that glass diffuser costs me rm9 and i broke it. i now understand why the LFS kept insisting on the plastic diffuser. the glass ones are really fragile..get the plastic ones if you’re ever gonna start a planted tank. i went back to using that wooden block hoping that it would work and it did. i can finally see some bubbles coming out of the block. i guess the only reason why it didn’t work at first was because the yeast had only became active and was producing co2 but not fast enough to generate the needed pressure. i should’ve waited longer before driving down to town, saving myself from all that trouble. DUH!!
co2 bubbles forming on my suction holder
oh yeah..i got some carbon and ammonia chips for my filter as well to help with the yellow water issue. i am hopeful that after a few water change, it will be crystal clear again. now, there are a couple of issues i am facing BUT the main challenge is HEAT. my room is a sauna at 33 degrees and that’s in the water. i’m pretty sure my room hotter than that. i have a couple of pc fans laying around but am so lazy to fabricate a bracket for it to sit on top of my tank. i read it was better to have your temp at a 27 degrees but how am i gonna down 6 degrees with 2 pc fans?
look at that!! 33 degrees celcius!!
btw, my tank is still incomplete, there is still another driftwood to install but it’s still buoyant so i’m currently soaking it so that it will stay submerged.
ignore that mineral water bottle. i’m just using it as weight.
if there’s a lesson to be learn from here, it will be to start with at least a 2ft tank. i bet most of you think smaller is better for beginners but not for this case. a smaller tank means everytime you screw up the water setting, that ratio which would otherwise be ok in a bigger tank will not be same for smaller tanks. catch my drift? the keyword here is ‘ratio’. repeat after me, ra-tio, rey-shoh, rey-shee-oh. i was aware when i made that choice to start small. i figured that if i can manage a smaller frigile tank, things will be alright for me when i upgrade to a bigger tank. in my opinion, the only drawback here is that my tank is really to small and my equipments are big which makes the tank look fugly. i’m talking about the thermometer and that co2 diffuser of mine. and FYI, LFS means local fish shops.
