# Rimless Dutchy



## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

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For those that have followed my 75g Dutch Weed Farm journal, you've probably seen me mention this rimless tank a few times. Its been exactly 11 months since I purchased this tank, it was never my intentions or plan to wait as long as I did to get it set up. But life got in the way and I kept putting off purchasing the last few items needed to get it up and running.

One major difference between this setup and every other tank I've setup is, I decided to go with an inert substrate. My original plan was again to use AS, but as I got closer to actually setting up the tank I started to waffle on my decision. Don't get me wrong, I like AS but I hate the mess and as it gets older it only gets worse. With all that said, I made the finally decision and went with BDBS for this build.

I started bright and early Saturday morning, first order of business was the black vinyl background. I went with a product from Vivid Vinyls, this stuff is actually used to wrap cars. The best part about this product is, it is super easy to remove any air bubbles trapped under it since it has micro channels which allows the air to be pressed out without much effort,

The vinyl all installed! All and all it probably took about half hour to complete, this includes spending a good amount of time making sure the glass is squeaky clean.


Next I placed a 1/4" of BDBS in the bottom of the tank and added some O+, then added another 2.5" on top of that. 


It was finally time to added some water, I had it about 1/3 full when I noticed something I didn't like at all. For those that have not had a rimless tank before, you need use a foam mat or something of the sorts under the tank. The mat relieves any pressure points that can eventually cause the tank to fail, be it a crack or a seal that lets go. What you are looking at below is the left side glass panel not sitting on the foam at all. So with that, out came all the water and all the sub went back into buckets. Which pissed me off because I had the O+ balls perfectly set below about 2.5" of substrate. I'm hoping that them being scattered throughout the entire depth of the sub will not cause me issues in the long run. I figure if I just push them down to the bottom when ever I see one pop up, will keep things in check. Its always something!



*Equipment*
120cm x 50cm x 50cm (48" x 20" x 20") AquaFire Rimless tank. ~83gal
Aquatop CF500uv canister filter
SunSun 304B Filter (not installed yet)
DYI 3" x 28" reactor
Pressurized Co2. On an hour and a half before lights on and off an hour before lights out. My pH drop is about 1.4 before the light come on a drops a further .2 an hour into the photoperiod for a 1.6pH drop.

Under the cabinet still needs to be organized.


*Lighting *
Four bulb T5HO horticultural fixture
Bulbs from left to right, 
6500K 
Actinic 420 (blue)
PowerVeg 633 (red)
2700K (yellow)



Current Macro dosing is 25N-7P-30K weekly. I front loaded half the weeks total right after I added the plants and will do the second and third dose Tuesday and Thursday.

Micros are roll my own dosed 4 times a week.
Fe .2ppm
Mn .05ppm
B .073ppm
Zn .05ppm
Mo .00175ppm
Cu .001ppm
Ni .0005ppm

So far I am loving BDBS. For those that have never planted in this stuff it is night and day compared to AS. Plus the fact that you can move things around all day long and not have to worry about creating a dust storm.

I'm super excited about this whole setup and I look forward to a new learning experience using inert substrate. Aquasoil can easily hide your dosing errors, or at least delay the the issues, not so much with an inert sub. Thanks for following along.

Final money shot!


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## gtgwin (May 4, 2014)

Hey, the setup looks great and i'm very excited to see the results of the substrate.

Where did you get the O+ tabs? And what method of macro dosing do you use? I'm trying to figure out the amounts I need for my 50Gallon.


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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

gtgwin said:


> Hey, the setup looks great and i'm very excited to see the results of the substrate.
> 
> Where did you get the O+ tabs? And what method of macro dosing do you use? I'm trying to figure out the amounts I need for my 50Gallon.


Thanks.

I purchased the O+ on a little road trip across the border! I added the actual little balls of O+ into the substrate, not the gel caps full. I believe The Plant Guy also sells gel cap full of them. But I would not recommend adding full gel caps worth in one area of your tank. Depending on your substrate, I'd add a few actual O+ balls around some of your plant roots. Make sure to push them down deep into the sub. I think you are asking for trouble adding the full gel cap.

As for my dosing, I mix solutions using dry ferts. I mix one container for Macros and one for my Micros. I also make my own micros, I do not use commercially bought CSM+B. My weekly totals are posted above.


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## gtgwin (May 4, 2014)

I have dry ferts, I'm trying to figure out how I would create my solution to achieve 25N-7P-30K weekly in my 50 gallon. Is there a calculator I can use? my highschool chemistry is fading hahaha


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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

gtgwin said:


> I have dry ferts, I'm trying to figure out how I would create my solution to achieve 25N-7P-30K weekly in my 50 gallon. Is there a calculator I can use? my highschool chemistry is fading hahaha


There are a couple of them out there, I personally use Rotala Butterfly. Its pretty straight forward to use, just keep in mind that you have to figure out how much K you are getting from KNO3 and your KH2PO4. The calculator will spit these numbers out for you.

On a side note, I'm not sure of your set-up but if you are considering using 25-7-30 as your dosing be mindful that I am using very high light, nose bleed levels of Co2 and have lots of fast growing stem plants in my tank. Meaning my tank can handle this level of dosing, I don't want you run into algae issue.

Let me know if you have any question regarding the calculator or mixing your solutions.


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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

Hygrophila Corymbosa 'compact' turn very red from high light.

Saturday 29th when it was planted


Last night.


Also notice the Mermaid weed behind it.

So, when you see people give the advice, 'add more iron to get your plants red' you tell them noooooo, add more light!


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## Aceman21 (Nov 4, 2015)

Man I wish this forum had a like button


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## thezenmaestro (Jul 6, 2018)

:like:


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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

Figured I do a quick up date since I will be away all weekend for Thanksgiving.

Lets start off with a FTS.

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Overall everything seems to be doing pretty good. A few plants are getting a little GSA, mainly Lobelia and AR mini. I spent a few minutes and picked off all the badly effect AR leaves, Lobelia I'll let it runs it course.



Ambulia is doing something pretty weird. One of the stem actually looks like it started to convert to emersed growth. For the record I literally pulled this out of the 75 walked across the room and stuck it into the sub of the rimless, it was probably out of the water all of 30 seconds. One of the other stems looks like its not happy either, it has lost all of its colour but the tip is still green and growing.

If you look closely, that is not the stem you are looking I am actually holding one of the 'leaves' with the tweezers.





Ammannia gracilis was not happy for the first day or so, but it has turned around and is now looking good.





A fellow planted tanker sent me a few plants along with his Seneye Reef PAR meter. I tried to get it up and running so I could get some quick reading of the tank but for some reason the software is not cooperating for me. On a side note, why in hell does this company not support Mac?



Finally why not throw a picture of the messy 75 for old time sake.

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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

I'm not much of a testing guy but wanted to keep a closer eye on this tank to see what is actually happening, since i'm a kinda winging it and all when it comes to this inert substrate game.

Ammonia readings. I do not have fish so I'm not to worried atm. Plants should suck it up and of course once the BB in the filter catch up it should zero out. I'd suspect the ammonia is coming from the O+, I questioned @burr740 about this and he has not seen a major spike due to O+ in his tanks. I wouldn't consider this a major spike at this point. I'll keep an eye on and do another water change if it starts to climb any higher.



Phosphates. I'd like to see this a little higher, might be the reason I'm seeing GSA on some of the plants. Its still early times, with the tank still cycling I'm probably going to see some things I don't like.



EDIT: 1/2 tsp of KH2PO4 and we are back around 5ppm. I'll test again tomorrow to see what happens with it. (pic makes it look darken then it actual is)


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## hendy8888 (Sep 10, 2010)

I'm the exact opposite with the ammonia in my new setup. I was expecting all this leaching from the aqua soil but every time I test its zero. I'm kinda stumped, the filter has been cycling a couple weeks before planting but didn't see any nitrite at all....granted my test kit is so old I don't trust it. So far so good though.


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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

Been a while since I updated this thread. If anyone is interested, I post my update more frequently here.

Anyways, things have been going great the last couple of weeks. Tank seems to have balanced out and algae has all but disappeared. Most plants are doing great. Some plants have never grown better for me, Rotala macrandra being one of them. There are a few plants that seem to do better in my Aquasoil tank, the main stand out is Pogostemon helferi which grows 3 times the size of the ones in this tank.

Enough of the chatter and on to what everyone actually wants to see, the pictures.


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## Aceman21 (Nov 4, 2015)

Ok now I'm just drooling







. Here's mine lol


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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

Its been a long time since I updated this thread.

Lots has changed with the Rimless. I've decided it was time to go true Dutch and what says true Dutch? How about moss walls! I'm still not happy with it, since the Pogostemon erectus is not cooperating I need to find something else to go into the back left corner. I still need to adjust the size of some of the groupings and allow the streets of Lobelia and Hydrocotyle to grow in. Not 100% sure about whats going on, on the right side, once everything grows in it will be too crowded.

Yes there is a Ozelot Sword in a pot and a Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red' auditioning for a spot as a specimen plant. I started out with a Crypt wendtill 'Tropica' in that spot but because of the high light it was growing too flat for my liking.

Anyways heres a few pictures to get things up to date.

Current pic as the tank sits today.



The tank before I started to reduce the species to the allowable amount of 12/13 per N.B.A.T rules. The rule of a Dutch Style Aquarium should not contain more than one specie of plant per 10cm of front glass. The moss walls do not count as a species of plant.


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## Aceman21 (Nov 4, 2015)

Man what a beautiful tank mark. Keep up the great work as I look forward to the next update.


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## infolific (Apr 10, 2016)

Looking good!

I had moss wall ambitions once. And I failed miserably


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