Journal 120 Dutch Ft. Yugang Reactor (Horizontal CO2 Reactor)

[Yugang]

someone mentioned I grew nothing but easy plants bringing into question whether a Yugang Reactor could grow more challenging plants.

I would say that the plants don't see the reactor, they only see CO2. We check the CO2 profile with a probe, and if that looks good how can the injection or control mechanism matter to the plants?

My tank is happier than it has ever been, as I have my reactor in overflow mode and then by design I can't mess with CO2 anymore. I do some experiments with the reactor version 2 (the box with internal bypass), but take that one out after a few hours as I've not been successful with overflow mode yet and need to figure out my next attempt. I am not claiming any causal relation, but to my own surprise I have currently no BBA at all - none.

I could imagine that there are two different kinds of "difficult" plants when it comes to CO2. First, plants that require a lot of CO2. Second plants that are the first to complain when CO2 is not stable. I am using my Rotala Wallichi as indicator, it shows its unhappiness the first in my tank when I play around with CO2.

 

[Unexpected]

The whole easy/difficult plant thing is such a petty argument. Idgaf how many difficult plants you have, if the scape is pleasing to look at IMO that’s all that should matter. Just because you can GROW an easy plant doesn’t mean it’s healthy or at it’s fullest potential. Your tank is full of healthy and vibrant plants and something you should be proud of, which I know you are. Scape the tank you want and F anyone else who tells you otherwise.

Love you man! I know I know, it just really pissed me off knowing what Yugang went through/ is going through to get his reactor out there and proven. As the (and I hate saying this) the first to use his reactor, I take it personally when people say such things. So for the sake of showing these dbags what they need to see, I feel I must increase the difficulty accordingly.

 

[Unexpected]

I would say that the plants don't see the reactor, they only see CO2. We check the CO2 profile with a probe, and if that looks good how can the injection or control mechanism matter to the plants?

My tank is happier than it has ever been, as I have my reactor in overflow mode and then by design I can't mess with CO2 anymore. I do some experiments with the reactor version 2 (the box with internal bypass), but take that one out after a few hours as I've not been successful with overflow mode yet and need to figure out my next attempt. I am not claiming any causal relation, but to my own surprise I have currently no BBA at all - none.

I could imagine that there are two different kinds of "difficult" plants when it comes to CO2. First, plants that require a lot of CO2. Second plants that are the first to complain when CO2 is not stable. I am using my Rotala Wallichi as indicator, it shows its unhappiness the first in my tank when I play around with CO2.

Yeah, I knew this immediately, how in the hell is stable CO2 and indicator of “growing challenging plants”? Stable is stable, but I guess we/you have to prove every aspect of new concepts.

 

[BigWave]

This hobby is full of haters. People that can not even fathom growing some of these plants. Its mostly due them being neive and not taking advice. I think there are 2 catagories for challanging / advanced plants and they both interact with each other. 1st is most def CO2. Some will melt at the thought of CO2 changing. The 2nd are plants such as Toninas, Synth's, erios and a few ludwigia and rotala species. They reqire mass amounts of CO2 but also certian water parameters. If any of the parameters or CO2 waver they melt. I suppose you could toss in a 3rd. Plants that need both of above and also are very slow growers, as in months to throw out 1 new leaf.

 

[BigWave]

Some of you have been folowing my new journal. I need to update it sevierly lol. At 1st it just started out by me wanting to replicate a few outstanding tanks Ive seen online. Once I was sure and confident I could grow these so called hard to grow species I started adding other hard to grow plants. Most of them rare and or just plain hard to find and get ahold of. We do not see them in the hobby much therefor they are considered advanced plants.



Here it is today a few days after tearing it apart and re-planting.
So far I am pushing that boundry of what people say and have to do with some of these species. In essence raising gH and slowly bumping up dosing levels to way beyond ei levels. How, its easy watch your plants. Observe their growth patterns, color, etc.



My updated Plant list as of 02/29/24
All plants I have in the Fluval Spec V and have acquired to date.

1. Rotala mexicana bangladesh
2. Rotala super red sg
3. Potamogeton sp curly hair
4. Pogotsium sal paulo
5. Rotala yarabje
6. Bocopa salamanzii purple sg
6a. Pogostemon erectus
7. Ludwigia indica white
7a. Cabomba red belem
8. Echinodorus aflame - Purple knight
9. Lindernia rotundafolia varigated
10. Hyptis lorentziana
11. Myriophyllum mattogrossense golden
12. Hydrophila sunset
13. Rotala ceylon
13a. Caloglossa beccarii
14. Tonina tocantins
15. Syngonanthus meta
16. Tonina lotus blossom
17. Erio Bolivia 2002
18. Samolus parviflorus “red”
18a. Gratiola viscidula
19. Syngonanthus rio negro giant
20. Rotala tulunadensis
21. Eriocaulon goias
22. Hygrophila corymbosa compact
23. Hygrophila sp chai
24. Lobela cardinals mini platinum
25. Eriocaulon ratnagiricum
26. Rotala wyland
27. Syngonanthus macrocaulon
28. Syngonanthus manaus
29. TBD
30. TBD

 

[Unexpected]

Some of you have been folowing my new journal. I need to update it sevierly lol. At 1st it just started out by me wanting to replicate a few outstanding tanks Ive seen online. Once I was sure and confident I could grow these so called hard to grow species I started adding other hard to grow plants. Most of them rare and or just plain hard to find and get ahold of. We do not see them in the hobby much therefor they are considered advanced plants.

View attachment 4475

Here it is today a few days after tearing it apart and re-planting.
So far I am pushing that boundry of what people say and have to do with some of these species. In essence raising gH and slowly bumping up dosing levels to way beyond ei levels. How, its easy watch your plants. Observe their growth patterns, color, etc.

View attachment 4476

My updated Plant list as of 02/29/24
All plants I have in the Fluval Spec V and have acquired to date.

1. Rotala mexicana bangladesh
2. Rotala super red sg
3. Potamogeton sp curly hair
4. Pogotsium sal paulo
5. Rotala yarabje
6. Bocopa salamanzii purple sg
6a. Pogostemon erectus
7. Ludwigia indica white
7a. Cabomba red belem
8. Echinodorus aflame - Purple knight
9. Lindernia rotundafolia varigated
10. Hyptis lorentziana
11. Myriophyllum mattogrossense golden
12. Hydrophila sunset
13. Rotala ceylon
13a. Caloglossa beccarii
14. Tonina tocantins
15. Syngonanthus meta
16. Tonina lotus blossom
17. Erio Bolivia 2002
18. Samolus parviflorus “red”
18a. Gratiola viscidula
19. Syngonanthus rio negro giant
20. Rotala tulunadensis
21. Eriocaulon goias
22. Hygrophila corymbosa compact
23. Hygrophila sp chai
24. Lobela cardinals mini platinum
25. Eriocaulon ratnagiricum
26. Rotala wyland
27. Syngonanthus macrocaulon
28. Syngonanthus manaus
29. TBD
30. TBD

Hell of a list lol. Jeez!

 

[Unexpected]

Pre water change and arrangement shot. Finally getting decent mass. 4 more all green stems converting in the middle and hopefully 1 last addition before getting this baby in shape
.

 

[GreggZ]

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here, so I will tread lightly. But @Yugang, a while ago, after posting my AGA tank and celebrating my 2nd place result; someone mentioned I grew nothing but easy plants bringing into question whether a Yugang Reactor could grow more challenging plants. This bothered me quite a bit and so I reached out to Joe @Burr740, and told him about how I was feeling. He reassured me why I chose the plants I used, “because just getting the scape was difficult enough.” I completely agree here, and exactly why I went easy plants.

Can you say who said this to you? I am not fond of this idea of having to grow more difficult plants to get respect. When I see your tank I see a work of art, and that takes more time, effort, and patience than most can imagine. I don't look at your tank and judge how hard the plants are to grow or how rare they are, I just see the beauty of how they are arranged and presented.

And I get folks who set up tanks just to grow rares. That is where their interest lies. But many tanks just set up for that purpose are not much to look at.

And the fact is that different plants may have different peak parameters. So it's very difficult to keep every type of plant happy in one tank. Change on thing to help one, and another may suffer.

I have some plants I just don't do well with. But so what? I stick with the ones that like the soup I am serving.

But, I asked him about more intermediate plants to see if the Yugang reactor performed the same with so called challenging plants.

I don't get the whole idea of the type of reactor having an impact on the type of plants you can grow. Makes no sense to me. If you get a steady pH drop from CO2 I can't see how the methodology for dissolution means anything at all. Of course as usual I could be wrong but someone would have to explain that to me.

Also, I guess it’s questionable whether Furcata is challenging or not, but you don’t see it often (@GreggZ shows us how it should look ) I believe mine is starting to look decent.

I've kept Furcata for a long time and it's one of my favorite plants. In my tank it's pretty much bullet proof and a reliable and steady grower. But that just means it likes what I provide. May not do as well in tank that is managed differently.

I have noticed the heads become bushier and fuller under more light. Under less light the nodes are further apart and heads are not as full. Yours are looking great so it must like what you are providing. The only drawback to the plant is the side shoots that it throws. But I deal with as it's a unique plant and IMO looks great in a scape.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

@GreggZ Amen to all of the above.

Not to thread jack either but since you switched the bulbs I feel your pictures show more red now then what appeared more purple to my eyes previously. I’m assuming that was the red and blue bulbs at the end of their life causing the stronger purple hue.

 

[GreggZ]

@GreggZ Amen to all of the above.

Not to thread jack either but since you switched the bulbs I feel your pictures show more red now then what appeared more purple to my eyes previously. I’m assuming that was the red and blue bulbs at the end of their life causing the stronger purple hue.

Hard to say. Lighting is tricky and color is hard to measure. Also different phone with newer camera could make a difference. Or different settings on Pro Mode. I can say it's really hard to accurately capture color and I try to present it as close to real life as I can. I actually think it looks better in person but that is because viewing a 3D object on 2D screen doesn't provide the depth you see in person. I also run a ramp up/ramp down with only the red and blue lights on. It looks absolutely crazy in full blurple mode in person. But I can't get a picture that captures what I see.

 

[Unexpected]

Can you say who said this to you?

I honestly can’t remember, it was a while ago on FB and it weighed on me a bit.

I’ll be happy with getting the Furcata nice and the Tulu looking good. I started a surge period of light like you described on your journal. Just 1 hour for now. Fingers crossed the tank likes it.

 

[Unexpected]

I know why my spatulata isn’t happy. Every stem rotted. Weird! No clue what caused this.

 

[Burr740]

In my first couple experiences with aquasoils, spatulata was the first and most dependable indicator plant for low PO4.

The first symptom was splotchy degrading leaves starting at 2-3 nodes down from the top. But Ive had it melt stems like that too. its not necessarily PO4 related but ime almost certainly a macro thats too low

Big leafy greens that are otherwise easy are usually the first things to protest with low macros. And by low I dont mean x ppm. Low is relative to the levels of everything else, including light and co2 and even KH

5 or 20 ppm of something may sound like enough or even a lot, but its relative to the levels of everything else. For example my tanks need a solid 30 ppm K in the water, 20 will bring on a myriad of issues. Some would say ahh 20 is plenty it must be your co2 or <some other parroted blanket statement> But nah...everything is relative

 

[Unexpected]

In my first couple experiences with aquasoils, spatulata was the first and most dependable indicator plant for low PO4.

The first symptom was splotchy degrading leaves starting at 2-3 nodes down from the top. But Ive had it melt stems like that too. its not necessarily PO4 related but ime almost certainly a macro thats too low

Big leafy greens that are otherwise easy are usually the first things to protest with low macros. And by low I dont mean x ppm. Low is relative to the levels of everything else, including light and co2 and even KH

5 or 20 ppm of something may sound like enough or even a lot, but its relative to the levels of everything else. For example my tanks need a solid 30 ppm K in the water, 20 will bring on a myriad of issues. Some would say ahh 20 is plenty it must be your co2 or <some other parroted blanket statement> But nah...everything is relative

Hmm, very interesting. I’ll check po4.

 

[Unexpected]

spatulata was the first and most dependable indicator plant for low PO4.

Well, wouldn't you know. PO4 wasn't even 4ppm and should be 10ppm.

 

[Unexpected]

This picture doesn’t do it justice, but the Pogo S is looking real good this morning.

 

[gjcarew]

Well, wouldn't you know. PO4 wasn't even 4ppm and should be 10ppm.

Dang, and I thought I was going overkill with my dosing

 

[Unexpected]

Dang, and I thought I was going overkill with my dosing

Yeah, mirroring @GreggZ 30/10/40.

 

[Unexpected]

Pre water change and trim. New monitor so who knows what this picture will look like.

 

[GreggZ]

That is looking SWEET!

Well done. If I ever grow up and can show some restraint maybe I can be more Dutchy like you!!

Tank has a nice peaceful vibe right now. Keep up the good work my friend.