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Aurora Aquatica

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice so far. I have just returned home and carried out my 50% water change, not an ideal time as it's just in to my photoperiod, but I didn't want to wait until lights off as it will be late. It only takes about 15 minutes, CO2 is back on and the drop checker is still green as it has been ever since it turned green on Saturday afternoon. I have turned the spray bar back down a bit to try and keep more CO2 at this stage with their being no fish, but I have left a slight surface ripples as there is indeed a slight surface film. It's barely noticeable, but it is there.

My Echinodorus does not look overly happy, the bigger leaves look like they are in bad shape, I have removed the largest leaf as it's definitely decaying. I'm hoping that this is because it is switching to its submersed state, maybe someone can confirm? I'm about to post a couple of pics from my phone.
 
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While I am on the subject of the Echinodorus Reni, I read that Echinodorus like a deeper substrate as they have a large root structure. I therefore planted in this corner as my substrate banks to around 8 cm in this back corner. The base layer of Tropica substrate was also made deeper, around 2 cm at the back compared to 1 cm at the front. I trimmed the roots to around 4 cm as seemed to be advised in a lot of the Tropica videos, so this plant will have a way to go before it gets to the enriched substrate at the bottom. Is it worth me supplementing it's root feeding with a root tab? I know EI is supposed to give everything the plants need, but I thought it might help the plant get established?
 
Thanks, I'll go give it another trim. I had seen that video and expected my Echniodorus to arrive bigger than it did, so when it was so small I didn't want to remove too much, a couple of leaves had already come off in transit. I know the Reni is a smaller Echinodorus, but this is smaller than I expected to receive.
 
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Hopefully that's better, I uprooted it, removed all the damaged leaves, also removed some stems from leaves that had already come off, just got 5 or 6 good leaves left and replanted deeper in the substrate.
 
That plant size looks as usual for E 'Reni' - it will do fine :)

I think you've motivated me to pick one up, I've been holding out for Tropica's Echinodurus 'Red Special' but it seems to be off their list these days :(
 
Yeah, it looks like a lovely plant in the pics on the Tropica website, I chose it because it it supposed to be the smallest of the red Ecinodorus so thought it would fit better with my smaller aquarium.

I jacked up the CO2 to around double what I had it set to as my drop checker just never seems to change from green. I wanted to prove to myself that I could make it go higher. By lights off it was still green, but this morning it was a little yellow with a tinge of green still. As there are no fish I think I will leave it high for a few days and over dose for the plants, then look to stabilise it later.
 
So things seem to be going reasonably well at this early stage. Most of my Ranunculus papulentus seems to be doing well, its really reaching up for the lights and growing well already. The Hydrocotyle looks in really poor shape and I was a little worried at first, but last night saw that all 4 groups I planted had tiny new leaves on them, so I assume that the old leaves are dying off and there is now new submersed growth. The Anubias has two fresh leaves on it which is also encouraging. My Montecarlo looks a bit rough, hope that is transitioning over and new growth comes through, the same goes for the Alternanthera reineckii mini, no new growth yet, some older leaves starting to die back. The Crypts show no new growth, but look fairly happy and have just generally perked up, the leaves were very flat against the substrate after planting, but seem to be, well, I can't describe it other than more perky, hope that makes sense, haha. The Limnophila hippuroides seems to be exactly the same as when it went in, so I am hoping that no news is good news with it being in the lowest flow area. It's not just died, so fingers crossed.
 
On Wednesday evening I installed another drop checker right near the substrate in the back left corner. I get good flow there I think, but it is good to be able to check now. I also replaced my fluid in the other drop checker at the same time, so I was starting with the same colour in both to compare. When I got home last night, CO2 had been on for 3 hours and and lights for 1 hour, the top one was still quite blue where as the substrate one was more green, so that was a surprise. Neither were as green as I would like though, so I upped the CO2 for the last couple of hours. This morning they are both bluish, so I will see how they are when I get home tonight after having the higher rate of CO2 for the whole photoperiod, hoping to come home to lime green this evening.

After this test, I am going to replace the fluid again tomorrow morning to give me a fresh starting point and move the drop checker behind my bogwood to see what I get round there.
 
I've gone through something similar with my tank. I was having to start co2 around 3 hours before lights which seemed wrong.

I found that by reducing surface agitation (pointed my spray bar slightly lower) I am getting a green dc at lights on in 2 hours.

I am still finding that my PH is not at its lowest until into the light period though, so am trying to improve that now. I can get to a very light green bordering yellow DC and my fish are OK. This give me a PH of 6.9. I am aiming to have 7.0/6.9 for lights on. My circulation appears good, the DC is on the back wall 1/4 way up under the spray bar so it has to be something else wrong.
So far I have removed some media from the filter as it was pretty fully. I am then going to try putting the diffuser on the filter inlet instead of the outlet.
 
It's going to take some trial and error to get this right that is for sure. After I got the drop checker to go green last Saturday it had refused to do anything other than stay green or go up to almost yellow, I never got it to go back to blue, even with surface agitation overnight. At the moment, with no fish in, I have reduced the surface agitation, as if anything, I want too much CO2 rather than not enough. It was set to around 1 bps yesterday, have upped it to around 2 to 3 bbps now and will see what that results in when I get home.

Tomorrow I will be at home when the CO2 comes on, so that means I can see how things progress throughout the day. It's looking like a rainy day and my girlfriend is away in the US, so other than popping out to the official opening of the new Fishkeeper Scotland\Maindenhead Aquatics in Aberdeen I won't be doing much tomorrow, plenty of time to sit and watch what happens and worry about what is going on, haha.
 
I don't think it's advisable to put the diffuser on the filter inlet buddy, the Co2 can have adverse affects on your filter causing seals to deteriorate quite quickly as the gas will build up in the canister. Just a heads up.
 
So this evening, both of my drop checkers are green, so that's good news. I'm really suspicious of the fact the original DC stayed green 24 hours a day earlier in the week, when I cleaned it on Wednesday, it appeared to have some white gunk in it, probably from the surface film that I have at the moment. I'm now wondering if this had completely blocked the DC so that once it had gone green, it then wasn't exposed to the tank water any more and just remained green 24 hours a day. It now appears to be ok, so will just have to make sure it does not get blocked. The DC down by the substrate is defo green though and that's the one that I'm most worried about as its where the plants are! I have moved the lower DC as planned so it is behind my wood on the back glass, so will see if my stems round there are getting any CO2.

The surface film is getting worse, but previously this week I have just syphoned off water, not specifically skimmed the surface. It was worse than usual tonight and I could actually see a whole layer of CO2 microbubbles trapped under it when I got home. I skimmed it off manually before the 50% water change and will monitor the situation. I'll skim daily from now on, but if it keeps coming back I'll either get an Eheim Skim 350 or one of the glass inlet pipes with a skimmer built in.

So today is day 7, I'll try to get a picture later on once it is darker and I don't get so many reflections from around the curtains in the lounge (doesnt get dark until very late in Aberdeen at this time of year). There is not that much difference to the day 1 pic to be honest, but the ranunculous is certainly doing well.
 
I just noticed tonight that I am starting to get a white\grey fuzz appearing on parts of my bogwood. Have read about this before so know that it is fairly normal. I know that shrimp tend to clean it up, but I don't intend to put any life in for another 6-7 weeks, so should I start cleaning this off myself, or just leave it? I guess if I leave it, it will have taken over before the shrimp go in. If I need to remove it, what is the best method? A toothbrush and airline to syphon it off?
 
Most plants are showing new growth now, some old leaves dying off, but definitely new growth.

My two worries at the moment are the alternanthera and the Monte Carlo. My MC does have some new growth in the tips, but the bottom of its looking awful. Not sure what to do with it...


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