1.5gal DSM Iwagumi attempt

[mistahoo]

Day 29 (03.24.13) - Flooding!

Decided to flood the tank. HC held firm and nothing uprooted. Very nice pearling action going on right now.

Before flooding






After flooding






CO2 added



Pearling action!




Future Fauna

[mistahoo]

Added two bags of established media and tossed in a floater to get the bacteria jump started. Ammonia is still high and no Nitrites or Nitrates.

[Jozle]

Damn, how long did it take for the pearling effect?

[JAYGEE]

Looks good mistahoo! I'm learning alot from you and Jozle!

[mistahoo]

Damn, how long did it take for the pearling effect?

About a minute? It's crazy! It looks like a field of mini cotton plants!

[mistahoo]

Looks good mistahoo! I'm learning alot from you and Jozle!

I'm also learning as I go. Never done a DSM or a CO2 tank. Hopefully my diffuser I'm going to use for this setup comes in soon. The ADA diffuser is temporary since the other one has a bubble counter and check valve incorporated in it.

[Jozle]

Post a picture of your complete CO2 set up. What's DSM by the way?

[mistahoo]

Post a picture of your complete CO2 set up. What's DSM by the way?

DSM = Dry Start Method. Basically growing emersed. CO2 setup is just the simple ISTA 45g disposable CO2 cartidge with regulator. Nothing special. They do have some cool dual stage regulators with solenoid that amazingly fit on these things though! IMO not worth an extra $150 for it when a 5lb setup is about $150.







This is the diffuser that's being mailed. The 2-in-1 diffuser and bubble counter comes with this setup and sold at Petco for about $50-60 (?). The person I bought it from wanted to hoard the diffuser and CO2 cartridge, so I went ahead and ordered the 3-in-1.



Bonus footage!

[Jozle]

Thats a ridiculous amount of CO2 pumping. What is your bps rate? It should be 1 bubble for 3-4 second for that size tank.

[mistahoo]

Thats a ridiculous amount of CO2 pumping. What is your bps rate? It should be 1 bubble for 3-4 second for that size tank.

I dunno I don't have a bubble counter yet. It's coming in the mail. Video was from before when I was trying it out. At first I accidentally turned it all the way up and shot a ton of water out lmao! Right now it's only like one bubble stream coming from the diffuser. Valve is almost closed completely. CO2 is running right now so that there is minimal melting for the HC to adjust. When I get the 3-in-1 diffuser, I plan to run it at 1 bubble per 5 seconds.

[Jozle]

You should stay away from the 5lb, it might cause your diffuser to explode on you.

[mistahoo]

LOL! If it'll make it explode, I wonder what a 20lb will do!

[mistahoo]

Day 32 (03.27.13)

Day 3 after flooding. I noticed some melting here and there, but it's very minimal. The dirty looking stuff on top of the HC is mulm that came off some bio media I dumped in there for a bit. Got the 3-in-1 diffuser. I have the CO2 accurately dosing 1bp5s now. No solenoid so I'll be running it 24/7. Should last a while since it's being dosed at a low amount.

[Parzival]

1.5gal DSM Iwagumi attempt

Looking great

[mistahoo]

Re: 1.5gal DSM Iwagumi attempt

Thanks! I can't wait to get the crs in there. I want some biofilm to build up first. I have been dosing stability to keep ammonia levels down (from the substrate). Surprisingly this stuff works greater than I had imagined. I'll be putting the crs in the tank in about 4 days.

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