After starting and nuking my set up twice, I've finally achieved stability. My tank is now 2 years old and I only need to do water change once a month without having to worry about too much algae. Here is what I've learned: * Begin with rich nutrient substrate and plant sh*t ton of root feeder. * Buy N, P and K test kit and dose each NPK separately as needed. * Add root taps once every 3 weeks to a month when plants show sign of deficiency. * you can never completely eliminate algae. * floating plants and houses plants are optional. But I keep both on my tank.
Very nice, agreed, the most important thing I learned that the most challenging thing is to get the tank running stable once, after that, it’s pretty easy!
No problem, happy to help! The mount is the „kind of“ official mount for the Hydra, the price is horrendous, but there are really no alternatives! I bought it in a German online store on a discount! Just google „AI Hydra 32 mount“ there are several options that are all equally overpriced
I used to have one and I wish I kept my hydroponic setup. Still, it was before I'm into aquarium. Smart idea! For a moment I thought you were going to put the top of the planter on to the tank itself.
Great video 😊 I started my first reef tank series at the end of last year with a canister filter and it's been running really well. A few of the usual issues here and there with the tank but the filter hasn't been a nitrate factory time bomb like everyone carried on about. In fact I have to dose to keep NO3 and PO4 in the system! I have stopped cleaning it as well It's been nearly 3 months since I cleaned it last.
@@passion4aqua In the filter I have a full stack of biorings and live rock with a small bag of carbon. I upgraded to an Oase Biomaster 250 thermo though to take advantage of the quick clean prefilter but I've stopped cleaning it entirely because I have a hard time keep nutrient levels up. At the moment I'm just keeping a mix of soft corals which is going pretty well so far. I have a mini video series going here on RU-vid of the progress from day 1 if you're curious about the filter setup. Going with a canister has been a non event so far though. I even had a cheato reactor ready because I was worried about nitrates but that was not required. So I took it out of the loop.
i would personally not skim this tank because at this size it will just cause issues with salinity. if nutrients become an issue i think a refugium would be better. or you could experiment with a mixed macroalgae / coral tank which can look really cool.
FYI: This product seems to be unavailable at IKEA in many countries! But there are other similar options online, google „IKEA indoor herb garden“ or something similar! Thanks @christheghostwriter for the help!!! 👍
Seems terrible to me, alot of wasted space. You can use a big storage box and inside you can create an actual arrangement with a small river and all the plants together, stones, wood, moss, ferns etc. Can't even grow a medium anubias in this.
@@passion4aqua they haven't been sold for well over five or six years! I used them to flow water through for my aquarium, just put two holes in the bottom for in- and outflow.
wonderful and much cheaper than only 1 little bulb (full spectrum) paid on AliExpress and all of them dying after 8 months... I got 16 bulbs and all of them died and were replaced again but dead again... Chinese bulb... European prices...
I live in Germany where it’s available, but it’s a new product here as well, might come to different countries soon… but you can also google something like „ikea indoor herb station“ to find similar products
Everywhere you hear emersed (should be immersed) think instead emergent. There is immersed which is below water. Then there is emergent which is literal as in emerging from the water.. The reason aquarium plants “melt” when you put them in your tank from the store is they usually are grown emergent and those leaves die off to be replaced by immersed leaves.
I'm using small box for seedlings, filled it with some old aquarium sand and pond soil, filled it with water slightly above the soil and put it near a window. Works wonderfull too! No light though so the IKEA solution has its perks.
Great idea, there are lots of ways to do this, and if it’s just about the efficiency, something like your setup is probably a lot better! Since I want to display it though, the look was also important to me, and I thought it was funny that it’s from IKEA 😂
you could probably run it through your tank, pumping the water from the tank through the setup, that way plants could get the nutrients from the aquarium and filter it a bit as well. a mini aquaponic system
This will be very interesting! I’ve wondered about what goes into a saltwater tank! Can you tell me, please, the name of the tiny-leaf ground cover mat?
This is a hydroponic cloning station. If you purchase a pack of neoprene cloning collars that fit snugly into the net pots, you can root anything. Nice product but would have preferred a single clear container cover over the base.
I HATE lights with these corner-cutting timers. I use smart plugs on all of my plant lighting that allows me to set my own photoperiod as needed, synchronize everything easily, recover from outages without headache, and override the timer if I need to turn things on or off, if needed. I've had to modify every single product like this. Some I just removed the board entirely, others, I ended up creating my own replacement with the features I needed. It would be great if manufacturers offered versions without the timers at all, or an upgraded version to a better one.
I think for the initial purpose of the product, the timer is pretty nice, and I think it’s better to have it like this one than none at all. But I agree, it can be a little bit unhandy sometimes, and of course, I would never use something like this for an aquarium or similar. Maybe I will also use an external timer to synchronize it with my tanks!
As someone who has over 3 dozen indoor plants... welcome to water propagation! Since you already have them, it would be a good idea to put an air stone in the water, so the water doesn't stagnate, and the roots can get oxygen. That could also be why the plants in the aquarium are dying: you have tiny air stones, and all the organisms in the tank are competing for oxygen. Side note: the disk with the hole in the center is for holding large plants upright as they would have no substrate to stabilize them in a pure water hydroponic setup.
I am not sure about the oxygen thing, the problem is rather that some aquarium plants are just very picky about their water parameters and especially CO2! But thanks for the tip, might think about that!
@@tomclift7630 The CO2 is just for photosynthesis. Plants also need O2 to do normal cellular respiration and utilize the sugars the produce. Roots don't photosynthesize, but still need to do gas exchange for respiration.
@@passion4aqua Plants also require oxygen to do respiration. The phloem transport sugars to the roots, but the actual respiration happens locally in the cells. Regardless, adding more/bigger aeration would add more dissolved gas into the tank and would increase the levels of O2 and CO2.
Thank you, I didn’t know about that… one problem with bringing a lot of air into the tank though is that to my knowledge, Oxygen and co2 compete for their share of the water, which is the problem with too high co2 concentrations: it’s not an overdose of co2 that kills the animals, it a lack of oxygen. But I might look into this topic more, sounds interesting! Thank you for the tip
The leaky bit is probably a drain, to let water out without disassembling it or tipping it over. It's weird that it has no handle to open it, but maybe the instructions clarify how it is supposed to work.
It actually was mind blowing for me to realise that the reason some plants need co2 is because they are not well suited to grow underwater. I don't know why nobody is talking about this.
I don’t think it’s common sense. It’s just that the plants don’t want to be submersed for a super long time, because that doesn’t happen to them in nature (usually). But if they get enough CO2 etc. it’s not a problem for them. Also there are true underwater plants, who obviously are well suited for living under water
@@passion4aqua yeah man but if thats not common sense for you then you simply don’t know anything about biology. There are only very few real Water living plants and all the rest only adaptations.
I didn’t know about that before having aquariums. And I believe that considering aquariums many people just accept that plants need CO2 without realizing why. That’s also the reason for the classical „My plants don’t need CO2 because in Nature there is also no Diffusor in the river“ type arguments… 😂
Not available in Belgium 😢 Yet this is exactly the niche content I'm looking for as I'm trying to improve breeding of my slow growers. Subbed and exited to see how it goes.
Just FYI: I'm in the US, and I just googled "IKEA indoor herb garden" and found several options that look just like this one on Temu, Amazon, and other online retailers
I had issues growing plants in my old tank. It was gravel and a weak light. My new tank is soil with a sand cap and a strong light. My plants grow wicked fast and i was even able to give away cuttings in my first month. Plants are pretty basic they need food and light give them enough of both and they'll do great
Might be the case for some aquarium plants, but the ones that I struggle with right now are pretty difficult to keep. They grow pretty slow and need a lot of CO2, light and some even different water parameters than I have in my tap water. That’s why some hobbyist with those plants create their own aquarium water. The „normal“ aquarium plants grow like weed in my tank, I have to take out multiple hands full every week
Very unique hydroponic kit! You could also grow extra plants in a fish bowl with an aerator. Your plants looked healthy- I think they’re being eaten! They were not in decline. Some they like to eat more than others.
I haven’t thought about that… although I don’t think that amano shrimp eat things that aren’t in decline… I will pay attention though, thanks for the tip!
I love this idea. I might try it myself. I know there are other ways to grow carnivorous plants, but I like the look of this planter as a display piece
dude this is awesome content. I just bought java moss, and i am freaking out because i tried growing it above water when i bought it, but it wasnt growing. it seems to be growing underwater now, but im wondering if i should add pebbles in the water so the moss will have something to hold on to
Don’t worry, Java moss is really hard to kill! You can attach it to a pebble or piece of wood with super glue or a thread, it will attach itself pretty fast! Over time, it will start to grow on other surfaces as well, since one single cell (!!) of moss is enough to become into a new plant on its own!
Yeah you‘re right, if the goal would be to produce a maximum amount of plants, there are many ways to make this more efficient. But since the main reason to have an aquarium is that it looks nice, and because I want to display the emersed plants next to my tanks, looks are really important!
