Ripper Hollow

It’s February 2, 2010.  Wow, the last 3 years have flown right by for me.  I’ve been neglecting my 26 gallon aquarium the last few weeks.  I need to do some major maintenance on it this week.  My goal for this month is to keep up on my aquarium maintenance.  The top is overgrown with Duckweed, and my Cabomba furcata is also growing wild.  I need to do a big trim.  Hopefully, by the end of the week, I’ll post a video on YouTube of my maintenance routine.  Stay tuned!  =)

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Fissidens fontanus from Aqua Botanic

I’m planning on making a tree/bush using Fissidens fontanus for my 26 gallon aquarium. I’m still researching on ways to do this, and also the best ways to trim to keep the tree/bush look.  I think this will look really good in my aquarium, once I’m able to replace the substrate and work a new aqua-scape.  I think it will look really good sitting close to my Cabomba furcata.  My new aqua-scape will be kind of a hill scape, with driftwood.  Of course I’ll have a ton of other plants in there, along with cryptocoryne parva, cryptocoryne wendtii, anubias minima, vallisneria nana, hygrophila corymbosa kompact, christmas moss, and peacock moss.  I might also try dwarf hairgrass again.  I’ll keep you updated once I start playing with the fissidens fontanus.

Do you have experience with Fissidens fontanus?  Leave a comment!

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Make your own here.

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About 8 months back, I purchased the Electronic CO2 Regulator from AquariumPlants.com.  Instead of using a needle valve, this regulator uses an electronic valve that opens and closes in fractions of a second.  You can adjust the bubbles per second, and the size of the bubbles.  It’s accurate from 4 bubbles per second all the way to 1 bubble every 10 seconds.  Since there’s no solenoid in this regulator, you won’t have to replace one when it overheats and fails (which is what happened to my old regulator).  There’s a build in check valve, though I use two of my own (can’t be too careful), and you don’t need a bubble counter, as it has an LED that flashes to indicate bubbles.

This regulator can be used by itself, or with a pH controller.  I have mine on a timer instead of a pH controller.  AquariumPlants.com also has this regulator with an optional LCD 8 digit resettable counter instead of the LED.  The digital counter also has a backup battery, so it won’t lose its count.  They also recently started offering the counter by itself, so you can use your own regulator.

Overall, I’m very happy with this regulator.  It’s super easy to setup and use.  You can see how I have mine set up here.  I plan on getting another one of these regulators in the future, when I get a large aquarium.

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Among other things, a planted aquarium needs good lighting to promote plant growth.

I have a dual strip light fixture on my 26 gallon aquarium, giving me 130 watts, which is about 7.5 watts per gallon. The fixture I have is a Satellite Compact Fluorescent Fixture Dual 24″ Dual Daylight 6,700°K/10,000°K and Dual Actinic 420nm/460nm.

This fixture has four electrical plugs. One for each dual bulb, one for the LED moonlight, and one for the cooling fan. I have my lights on a timer that also turns on the cooling fan (which is built in to the fixture). The lights are on for 8 hours a day. When the lights turn off, the LED moonlight turns on.

I need to replace both bulbs soon, but I’m wondering if I should replace the dual actinic with a second dual daylight. If I go with a second dual daylight, I can see if there’s any growth difference.  There’s a lot of talk on the forums I visit about the usefulness of actinic bulbs on a freshwater planted tank.  I’d say it’s about a 50/50 whether or not they are useful.  I think I’ll do my own tests.

My lights turn on one hour after my CO2 turns on, and turn off one hour after my CO2 turns off.

I use a total of three timer power strips for all of my equipment. I’m planning on building a “power center,” which will be made out of plywood with electric outlets built on. I’m going to have a couple outlets for non timer equipment, such as my cannister filter, power head (which I don’t have yet), and heater. I’ll also have and outlets for the timer strips. I’ll consolidate both light strips, cooling fan, and moon light onto one power strip. This will allow better use of the cabinet space under the aquarium.

That’s about it for my lighting setup. What kind of lighting do you use on your aquarium?

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