# The Friday Report - 50g Planted



## Nick72 (9 May 2020)

Started on 19th January 2019 as a low tech, no C02 tank:






In May 2019 I transitioned to CO2 injection.




...and spent the next ten months fighting every kind of algae.


Mid April 2020 and a combination of algaecide and contaminated tap water destroyed all plant growth.




So I started again.





Three weeks later and some plants are thriving (some not so much)




The diatoms are back, it's lightly planted now and probably too nutrient rich.

The green dust algae is back on the glass (easily removed with a razor) and as little green dots on some of the leaves and the air stone.

I've ordered my favourite 9 plants, a range of foreground, mid ground, and background:

Foreground
Staurogyne Repens
Pogostemon Helferi


Mid Ground
Alternanthera Reineckii
Ludwigia Palustris (AKA Ludwigia Mini Super Red)
Ludwigia repens x Arcuata
Syngonanthus Belem


Background
Limnophila Aromatica / L. hippuridoides
Limnophila Aquatica
Limnophila Sesiliflora

They should arrive sometime next week.

So, here we go again.


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## Nick72 (15 May 2020)

Plants should be arriving today.

This is the plan:


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## Nick72 (15 May 2020)

OK.  All done.

The plan somehow changed halfway through:




















Let's see how the new plants adjust.

Hopefully I'll get some good growth over the next couple of weeks.


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## Nick72 (22 May 2020)

One week on and most plants have acclimated well.

The Ludwigia Peruensis was almost at the water surface, but having lost its emersed leaves the long lower stems were bare.  I decided to prune it back, discarding the lower stem along with quite a healthy root system.  Hopefully the cuttings will again take root.


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## Nick72 (29 May 2020)

Another week on and seeing good growth.





Unfortunately also seeing a little filament algae and a great deal of diatoms.

I'll take no action for now as I'm hoping this is just a part of the settling in process.

Diatoms should hopefully clear up on there own.


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## Nick72 (5 Jun 2020)

Another week:

The diatoms had concerned me a little, so I took the prevailing advice on this forum and added a spray bar.  I'm glad I did as it was immediately obvious this improved overall circulation throughout the aquarium.

The diatoms are visibly receding from the substrate, but have actually got worse on the carpeting plants.

I had also tried to increase lighting by around 15% overall by increasing the Blue from 5% to 15%, and modest increases across each of the three whites.

The consequence of this has been the Alternanthera Reineckii completely succumbing to brown & green algae.  This plant is dead.  I will remove it shortly.

The  Ludwigia Peruensis is also suffering from a mix of brown algae and green filament algae, but I hope this is very much salvageable.

I also see that the Tonina Belem has started browning a little on the very outer edges of the highest leave tips.  I think this is indicative of too much light (which surprises me).

Considering all the above I will reduce the lighting back down its original settings (Blue 5%, Red 83%, Cold White 63%, Pure White 74%, Warm White 68%)





Apart from that I have moved the Hygrophila Leucocephala to the background as it was clearly outgrowing the middle, moved the Limnophila Sessiliflora to the middle just to provide it more space and light as it had been shaded previously, and split some Hygrophila Corymbosa from the main grouping in the middle and added it to the back right.  It was just getting too big and taking up too much room in the middle.

Slow progress this week, but hopefully these changes will see better / cleaner growth in the weeks ahead.

(Edit:  I should have mentioned that the Green Dust Algae has completely gone, so seems increasing  phosphorus by 20% worked well)


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## Nick72 (12 Jun 2020)

Week 8 -  Diatoms - Destruction - Disease - Disasters - and more Diatoms


*Daitoms* -  5 weeks of diatoms, which are only getting worse.  All the substrate in the open area's are covered as are the carpeting plants, and few plants have gone unaffected.

I know I need to just wait the diatoms out, but it's so ugly.

I had thought the Tonina Belem was melting, but no, it's just diatoms covering the outer parts of the leaves.

The lights remain on the lower setting  (Blue 5%, Red 83%, Cold White 63%, Pure White 74%, Warm White 68%) while we wait for the diatoms to go.  Green, mainly spot and filament, algae remains limited and in control, but I don't dare turn up the lights until I can get rid of it.

The light is strong enough for modest growth on most plants, but I suspect not ideal or the Ludwigia Peruensis and Alternanthera Reineckii.


*Destruction* - I do large water changes - normally in the 60%-75% range.   Never had an issue.  Then last Tuesday during the weekly water change I noticed that the Ludwigia Peruensis (each of the three stems, which were between 12-16 inches high) were laying down particularly flat at low water - to the point they had snapped just below the water line.

I've never had anything similar happen before, I didn't even know this was a thing.  darn stems simply weren't strong enough to support themselves emersed.  

I guess I will have to keep them under 10 inches in future - or support them with splints.



 


*Disease* - I'm still getting healthy growth on most plants, but I had moved a smaller Hygrophilia Corymbosa to the right hand side of the tank a couple of weeks ago - it's not a keeper - it's just building biomass until everything else fills out.     I'm now seeing grey patches on many of the leaves - some big streaks of grey / almost translucent leaf, some smaller circles or patches, but only on this one plant.

Considering the "centerpiece" Hygrophilia Corymbosa just won't stop growing and looks extremely healthy except for some algae, I wonder if this is some sort of plant disease?










Strange - most everything else looks healthy:






*Disaster *- My Siamese Algae Eater has been delayed, shouldn't be long now.  My suppliers are struggling to source a Panda Garra due to Covid effecting logistics, and I've have no love for snails, so through bad judgement and desperation I introduced Thirty High Sakura grade Golden Back Shrimp on Tuesday.  

The Red Eye Tetra went crazy for them.  Not really eating, just harrassing and pulling them apart.  I suspect my Angelfish may have cleaned up the remains.  There were none left by Thursday morning 


So with no readily available clean up crew, I can only pray to the Algae Gods to remove my diatoms and help this tank progress.


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## Ray (13 Jun 2020)

Hi Nick and Selamat Datang 

That looks like leaf melt to me, not a disease. 






If so it’s induced by sudden changes of conditions or insufficient CO2 available for the lighting. For example I recently caused this on S. Repens in my low tech Betta tank by turning light up from 25% to 50%.

If you like you could fill us in on lighting, flow and CO2 regime so we can see if everything adds up here?


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## Nick72 (13 Jun 2020)

Ray said:


> Hi Nick and Selamat Datang
> 
> That looks like leaf melt to me, not a disease.
> 
> ...




Hi Ray,

I think your probably right.   I rather unceremoniously pulled this plant from the middle of the tank around two weeks ago, and stuck it in a poor location on the far right had side of the tank.

It probably didn't enjoy the upheaval.  

It's a 900x450x450 (182 litre)
Fluval 407 canister + spray bar
Fluval Plant 3.0 lights

CO2 Art Pro Elite Regulator (Dual Stage) with 3kg cylinder 

Tank is PH7.7
CO2 three hours before lights on. 
PH 6.4 before lights ramp up (1hr) and stable throughout photo period (6hrs).

C02 off at end of photo period, then lights ramp down (1hr).

I'm very happy with the flow I'm getting from the spray bar, so suspect it was the rough move that got it upset.


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## Witcher (15 Jun 2020)

Nick72 said:


> I had thought the Tonina Belem was melting, but no, it's just diatoms covering the outer parts of the leaves.


Hey @Nick72 - what substrate do you have? This plant (it's actually Syngonanthus macrocaulon) requires acidic substrate for growth (Tonina species actually need similar conditions) - from what I've seen and read here and there mixture of peat with sand can be ideal. I've never managed to grow either of them without problems in "standard" soil even if water is acidic. Now I have Tonina sp. in my tank with garden-like soil and it's only surviving - no growth at all, only sitting there with tendency to slow yellowing.


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## Nick72 (15 Jun 2020)

Witcher said:


> Hey @Nick72 - what substrate do you have? This plant (it's actually Syngonanthus macrocaulon) requires acidic substrate for growth (Tonina species actually need similar conditions) - from what I've seen and read here and there mixture of peat with sand can be ideal. I've never managed to grow either of them without problems in "standard" soil even if water is acidic. Now I have Tonina sp. in my tank with garden-like soil and it's only surviving - no growth at all, only sitting there with tendency to slow yellowing.




Hi @Witcher -

Thank you for the specific I.D.

The substrate is 100% Indonesian lava rock.  Think Eco-Complete but at a fraction of the price.

I think you can see from the journal that while slow, the growth had been very healthy prior to the diatoms outbreak.

It has developed a great deal of density with new shoots.

But it is starting to look a little sorry for itself now.  I believe this is mainly because I've turned the lights down too far, which I need to do due to algae, and because it's leaves are being peppered with diatoms.


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## dw1305 (15 Jun 2020)

Hi all,


Nick72 said:


> Strange - most everything else looks healthy:


When you look at the stems of the _Limnophila_, from above, how pale do the growing tips look? Are they really pale? To the extent of not really being green at all? or is that just the lights bleaching out the photo?

cheers Darrel


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## Nick72 (15 Jun 2020)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> When you look at the stems of the _Limnophila_, from above, how pale do the growing tips look? Are they really pale? To the extent of not really being green at all? or is that just the lights bleaching out the photo?
> 
> cheers Darrel



The tips do start out lighter in colour than the old growth, but the photo is very deceptive, as you guest the lights are bleaching the photo.


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## Nick72 (15 Jun 2020)

This is really getting frustrating.

I'm sure the diatoms will go with time.

I do have a very small amount of green algae.  

I believe I've got this tank as well balanced as I can, but I'm still lacking some overall plant mass.

I really think a couple of SAE or a Panda Garra could keep on top of algae growth, but Covid has meant new stock of these fish are not coming through.

Right now I feel like turning the lights down has started to really harm some of my plants (Syngonanthus macrocaulon, Alternanthera Rieneckii, Hygrophila Leucicephala and both Luwidgia).

Think I'll push the lights back up a bit and see if I can keep on top of the green algae by manually removing effected leaves and stems.

(Flip/Flop)


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## dw1305 (15 Jun 2020)

Hi all, 





Nick72 said:


> Right now I feel like turning the lights down has started to really harm some of my plants (Syngonanthus macrocaulon, Alternanthera Rieneckii, Hygrophila Leucicephala and both Luwidgia). Think I'll push the lights back up a bit


That is why I like a floating plant as a net curtain, they <"are adapted to intense light"> and have access to aerial CO2.





Nick72 said:


> but the photo is very deceptive, as you guest the lights are bleaching the photo.


I though that might be the answer. I was wondering about iron deficiency, mainly because that is nice and straight-forward to diagnose.

cheers Darrel


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## Nick72 (15 Jun 2020)

dw1305 said:


> ....  I was wondering about iron deficiency, mainly because that is nice and straight-forward to diagnose.
> 
> cheers Darrel



Hi Darrell, 
I'm over doing the iron a bit as my CSM+B came with 7% DTPA and I'm adding full E.I. Dosing of 13% EDTA (according to Rotala Butterfly).

I calculate I'm up to about 0.9ppm Fe.

Something in the back of my head tells me this might be making the diatoms worse, but I haven't acted on it.


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## Nick72 (19 Jun 2020)

Week 9 - I'll keep this one short.

Still can't source the clean up crew I'm looking for:  Siamese Algae Eater and Panda Garra


I pulled every stem out of the tank, with the exception of the Limnophila Hippuroides - which is doing great, to hand wash them and remove as much algae as possible on Saturday.

Most of them were really upset, others died.

I've almost lost my Pogostemon Helferi and my Ludwigia Super Red.




Still have diatoms (but looking a little better) and still have a little green algae (looking about the same).

I did push the lights up to:

Pink 100%
Blue 5%
Cold White 73%
Natural White 80%
Warm White 76%

Think this has helped - I'd like to push the lights further, but not until I have at least one SAE or Panda Garra in the tank.

It's a sorry looking tank right now - but I'm convinced it will improve over the next month if I can only get that SAE.


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## Nick72 (26 Jun 2020)

Week 10 - The Panda Garra (Garra Flavatra)  arrived on Tuesday 





Loving this little chap - loads of personality and has got straight to work.


The tank is still looking a mess - but at least the diatoms have not got any worse, and considering I pushed the light intensity up 10 days ago, no extra algae.

In fact patches of green filament algae have been disappearing from my S.Repens as the Panda Garra has started exploring.

I still have a small amount of green algae elsewhere, but not much, the diatoms remain the main issue.  




Some of the plants are still suffering from being removed and cleaned of algae last week, but I've seen good growth elsewhere.

The  Ludwigia Super Red hasn't made a recovery, so I took advantage of the extra space and planted around 14 stems of Ludwigia Arcuata (from tissue culture) right in the middle of the tank.

They've only been in there since Tuesday night, but don't look like they are taking at this point.  Hopefully at least one or two stems will turn good, and I can propagate them from there.

I'm going to try to leave the plants along for a few weeks and give everything a chance to recover, save for the occasional pruning on the Limnophila species which are all doing well.

Apart from that the only tinkering I've done this week is to reduce my Nitrate dosing.  Up until now I've been adding 21ppm per week and ending each week at around 45-55ppm.  So I missed the first dose of the week after water change on Wednesday.  Only dosed 5ppm this morning (Friday), and expect to dose 5ppm on Sunday morning - as long as I'm still reading over 15ppm Nitrate when I test on Saturday night.

I don't want to keep adding it if my plants aren't using it, it can only be promoting algae.


With that said, I'm really happy that I'm seeing less green algae and with the Panda Garra, so I'm going ahead and pushing the lights again.

Starting tomorrow it's:

Pink 100%
Blue 5%
Cold White 83%
Natural White 90%
Warm White 86%


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## Nick72 (3 Jul 2020)

Week 11 - Let There Be Light!

I'm really pleased at how the tank has responded to increased light.





It's accelerated the growth - which is starting to look healthier, and decreased the diatoms very noticeably 

Reducing the Nitrates on the other hand was a mistake, within 2 days I started to smell Cyanobacteria (BGA) and by the fourth it was visible on my substrate.

I've raised the Nitrates back to the original EI levels and the BGA is expanding very slowly.   I'll tackle it tomorrow with a siphon / grave vac, but I'm hoping it wont last now I've increased the Nitrates.

The tissue culture of Ludwigia Arcuata has stalled on the substrate, so I'll remove it tomorrow and consider that tissue cultures just may not grow in inert substrate.  I will order a couple of pots of Ludwigia sp. Super Red to fill that space.

The Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE) finally arrive on Tuesday (always on water change day ), and are the smallest examples I've ever seen.





Much smaller than a Rummynose Tetra, I was concerned that my Angelfish would eat them, however they settled in fine and seem to have added 50% in weight after just 3 full days in the tank.

It's wonderful seeing them clean the diatoms off individual leaves of the Tonina Belem (far left), between darting around the tank.

I know I said I'd leave the plants alone for a couple of weeks, but It is time for a trim.  I'll try to cut a propagate the S. Repens, and tidy up each of the taller stem plants on Saturday.

I've been reading and watching as much as I can about trimming Stems.  All advice seems to suggest you simply cut the tops (length not important) and replant - and while I find the tops do well, it invariably stunts the bottom half, and on the Limnophila's the leaves on the bottom halves (those with the root system) tend to go brown.  So IDK?

Tempted to push the lights some more - but I really will wait a little to see if I can get rid of this BGA first.


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## hypnogogia (4 Jul 2020)

This SAEs look very pale (no orange) or is it the lighting?


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## Nick72 (4 Jul 2020)

hypnogogia said:


> This SAEs look very pale (no orange) or is it the lighting?



The photo is very accurate.  They are predominantly silver.

IMO this is actually typical for SAE, although I have seen photos of SAE with more yellow / brown colouring.

The Flying Fox, which is a similar looking fish, and the Cambodian Logsucker (sometimes called the false SAE) also typically show more yellow / brown colouration.


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## hypnogogia (4 Jul 2020)

Ah. I’ve read lots of confusing information about flying fox vs SAE, so I’m unable to tell them apart. Yours are very nice looking fish anyway.


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## the big leyeetski (9 Jul 2020)

Nice journal, im currently in the diatom phase  too and its a pain and shortly going to get oto catifsh, SAE do roughly the same job dont they? Goodluck on successful plant growth, some things are baffling lol


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## Nick72 (9 Jul 2020)

Thanks @the big leyeetski

Diatoms are a real pain but usual clear up in the end. 

Mine are pretty much gone. I've not seen any new diatoms development in a few days and just have some tarnished leaves left over. Should be clear of them within a few more days🤞

I love Oto's, unfortunately I can't get them to survive more than 4-5 months max.

SAE do a very similar job as clear up crew, plus have the advantage of being one of the only fish that will eat Black Beard Algae (BBA).

But SAE also grow out to 6 inches, so you do have to think about the tank space they will take up.


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## the big leyeetski (9 Jul 2020)

good to hear,  so there is light at the end of the tunnel

glad yours are clearing up because anyone who wants plants, wants them to do well and sometimes it just doesnt work and its like a labour of love, whereas some people strike lucky, perseverance has paid if it seems 

i looked back at my ram photos and realised in 6 days the diatoms have gotten fairly bad on only the s repens and baby tears which sucks because the baby tears had just survived a rough 2 weeks after being planted, so now they struggle for light. otos cant come sooner lol

SAE is a nice looking fish, the length they grow isnt bad but considering ive got a clown loach i think its best steer clear from them as i dont want 2 big boys before i can get a bigger tank. The fact they eat BBA is great though, my vallis get either that or GSA or both and only that plant :S its mananagble but not optimal, yours must be in his element, tons of plants, some cleanup action and a steady job/feed haha

my clown loach sorted my snail problem out in 12 hours i was astonished, literally went from a tank of 40+ snails and counting to 2 snails trying to escape the snail massacre that occurred lol, i think he did it at night because i didnt see one get sucked up


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## Nick72 (10 Jul 2020)

Week 12 - A Week Not Without Incident

So my Panda Garra made a second bid for freedom, another 4+ft plunge onto the cold tiles.

Fortunately my 3 year old was on hand to raise the alarm and my wife plopped him back in good time.  He's doing well and acting like nothing happened. 
Come on PG learn the lesson.

Usual water change on Tuesday followed quickly by a slight PH crash (from 7.4 to 6.9) - Crushed coral on standby (tap KH0, tank sits around KH1-1.5) - and capillary action got the better of me.

I had hung the bags of coral over the side of the tank, held with a cloths peg.  Overnight my tank water wicked up over the lip and dripped slowly down the glass.  Outcome - a water damaged cabinet 






I wont be doing that again in a hurry.  Coral bags now sitting on the substrate.


Further investigation on the PH drop revealed my tank KH had dropped to 0.  Perhaps the coral bags are becoming exhausted through over use?  Even then the two tsp's of Gypsom I put in the tank after Tuesday's water change should have ensured at least 1dKH.

I might go back to dosing Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3), but it's slow to dissolve and tends to powder coat the plant leaves.  I'm considering adding 1 tsp directly into my surface skimmer, in the hope that most of it is sucked directly into my canister filter.

The thinking is that the particles will be caught by my main sponges, then my fine filter sponge / floss, prior to getting to the impeller.   There it can take some time to dissolve without powdering the plants.

I'll do this on Saturday after a gravel vac, if I don't hear screams of Nooo!! from this board.


All the above pushed me on to make a closer inspection of my water.  545 TDS, just where I expected.  21GH, wow!!  Tap normally 1GH, this week it's 3GH, I have been adding Gypsom for Ca and Epsom Salts for Mg, aiming for 8GH.  - I should have been monitoring this more closely - 21GH

I will cut back drastically on my Ca and Mg dosing and keep a better eye on this going forward.


On the positive side the diatoms I've been struggling with are clearly on the way out.  Still some small patches, but it's diminishing every day.

The minor Cyanobacteria (BGA) outbreak is well in hand.  I'm getting virtually none on the plants, a couple of very small patches (2-3 pebbles worth) on the substrate, but have been getting some larger clusters building up under the substrate against the glass.

I started tackling the BGA with Phyton Git Sol - which I've discovered to be an excellent spot killer.   A couple of drops on a patch of BGA and the next day it's gone. 
Even on the larger clusters under the substrate, a healthy squeeze of the pipette (1ml) held under the substrate and it starts to turn Red and Grey and is obviously dying.

I've not been consistent with the treatment, leaving two or three days at a time, and the under substrate patches have require two doses to kill completely - and therefore I'm still unsure if Phyton Git Sol will eradicate  BGA from my tank completely or if new outbreaks will always appear after one area has been successfully spot treated.

I've got some UltraLife Blue/Green Stain Remover on standby, but for now I will continue with the Phyton Git Sol as an experiment.




(There's another example in the above photo of the cabinet damage)


So with all this going on - what of the plants?

Well I'm delighted - getting great growth and everything feels as though it's coming together:





The Ludwigia sp. Super Red was planted on Thursday and is still in it's emersed form. 

I might be a stones throw from Borneo but Bucephalandra is still priced like gold!  I couldn't believe the diminutive size of these stems - at 8 quid a stem!!





So a colourful week, but I'm happy with the progress


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## Nick72 (17 Jul 2020)

Week 13 - A Gentle Adjustment





Adding  Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) directly into the Surface Skimmer worked nicely.   After a 20 second delay the spray bar jets still clouded the water, but to a slightly lesser degree, and apparently without the larger participles, as the next morning there was no powdering effect on the leaves.

Time will tell if this new method of introduction will shorten the life of my canister filter, but so far so good.

The main benefit of reintroducing CaC03 is that I've gone from 0KH to a stable 3KH - which is much more manageable.


After last weeks 21dGH I've backed off a bit on the Ca and Mg, and now have 12dGH and 350 TDS.  I'll stop adjusting when I reach 8-10 dGH.


The Phyton Git Sol has heavily suppressed or killed the Cyanobacteria (BGA), I'm not sure if there is any still alive in the tank, but I'll keep an eye on it for another week or so.

I do have a very small amount of Green Dust Algae on some sections of glass.  I was cleaning the glass twice a week, but haven't needed to since introducing the Panda Garra on 23rd June.  I'll do it tomorrow, and hopefully only once every three or four weeks going forward.

Apart from that the tank is algae free, so I pushed the lights from a 6hrs photo period to a 7hrs photo period, still with a 1hr ramp up/down on either side.
I don't plan to push either intensity or duration beyond this for at least a month.

The Ludwigia sp. Super Red has settled in well and is colouring up nicely.  It's this and the Syngonanthus Macrocaulon that are the most light hungry.  So I'll only increase the lights if they look like they need it.


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## hypnogogia (17 Jul 2020)

Looks really good in that pic.


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## Nick72 (17 Jul 2020)

hypnogogia said:


> Looks really good in that pic.



Thank you 

I'm pleased it is starting to come together.


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## Ray (17 Jul 2020)

Looking great, really come on A LOT in a short space of time - a credit to your perseverance.  Loving the Pogostemon Stellata (?) centre right, beautiful.

So you’re keeping BGA down with Phyton Git Sol and running nitrates at an EI level?


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## Nick72 (17 Jul 2020)

Ray said:


> Looking great, really come on A LOT in a short space of time - a credit to your perseverance.  Loving the Pogostemon Stellata (?) centre right, beautiful.
> 
> So you’re keeping BGA down with Phyton Git Sol and running nitrates at an EI level?




Thanks Ray 

It's Limnophila Hippuroides but looks very similar to Pogostemon Stellata.

It's relatively easy to grow, very robust.  I really like it, but it is a big stem.  Almost too big for this 190 litre. 

I don't want to say anything conclusive regarding the BGA just yet.   It was a small outbreak a few weeks back, but I'm sure it would have overrun my tank by now if left to itself.

General maintenance with a weekly gravel vac kept it pretty stable, but then it started to really develop between the substrate and the glass.  So I've been treating with Phyton Git Sol (PGS)

The PGS has clearly been killing any area I spot treat, but I'm unsure how effective it is in killing unseen spores that don't get spot treated.

There is still a hint of the BGA smell to my tank water, only a hint, but enough for me to think it might not be completely gone yet.

But yes, PGS has certainly kept BGA at bay.

I also think my Nitrate level has helped.   I dose 22ppm per week and my tank is normally at around 35-40ppm by the end of the week.

I'll keep updating the BGA progress in this thread.


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## Nick72 (24 Jul 2020)

Week 14 - Let's Discuss Algae (including BGA which I will clearly state is not an algae but a photosynthetic bacteria)

I'd like to report that the combination of EI dosing and light and irregular application of Phyton Git Sol (PGS) has completely killed the Cyanobacteria (BGA) in my aquarium.  

I deliberately abstained from either cleaning the effected area of substrate, or using additional PGS for over a week, and absolutely no new BGA.

You can see that some of it remains green, while much has turned red, but it is absolutely dead.





I estimate that I used 1/5th of a 100ml bottle (20ml) irregularly over a two week period.  For me, that's an effective treatment for BGA.

PGS gets the Nick72 seal of approval.


The diatoms have also completely gone, although they were 95% gone before I started PGS treatment and I don't believe PGS played a part here.  What's interesting is a very heavy black coating on some of my older S. Repens leaves.

It will not come off through rubbing, and I suspect the S. Repens will eventually drop these leaves.  I think this is the old diatoms that have died on the leaf and formed into an irremovable stain.






I'm guessing the S. Repens will simply grow through this issue and eventually it will be gone.

Any other thoughts on this?


Apart from that I have a little, very sparse GDA on some of the glass, and that's about it.

So all good on the algae front.


In other news, I finished my Jebao 3.4 auto doser install, along with cheap DIY bottles:









The combination of the WiFi and App make it very easy to install the Jebao 3.4, the software is intuitive and both calibration and schedule programming took minutes.

Another seal of approval for the Jebao 3.4


Over the last 2 weeks I've been reducing the DIY salts I've been using, primarily to reduce dGH from 21.

I've found a nice balance, with 7.5PH, 3KH, 8GH, 300TDS.  The plant growth has slowed a little from when it was 7.2PH, 1KH, 21GH, 550TDS, but I'm hoping they just need a little transition time and will soon get back to growing at the full rate again.





I've been trimming the stems heavily, perhaps too heavily in some area's (but they will grow back), and only leaving the Ludwigia Super Red to settle in.

You can now see a clear definition between the emersed growth at substrate, and the new growth two or three inches higher up the stem.   I'll give it a little bit more growth then cut and replant the tops.

I'm in two minds as to what to do with the bottoms.  I've read people says "cut them off at the substrate and wait for them to grow back" - and this is tempting as I like the idea of keeping the root system, but is it really possible?

When they say "at the substrate" surely they don't really mean it?  Do you not need at least a couple of leaves after trimming to stand any chance of growing back?

I'd appreciate any insight on this.

Otherwise I will just pull the bottoms and bin them.


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## Nick72 (31 Jul 2020)

Week 15 - Steady Progress

I've been unhappy with the Limnophila Aquatica which is completely lost behind the Syngonanthus Macrocaulon, so I switched them around with the Aquatica now in the front.

I still don't feel it adds much and may look to replace it completely in the future.





I also pulled up all the S.Repens and cut off all the black leaves (as from photos last week)

After cutting it back I had just enough to complete the left side carpet.   I will now try to plant Hemianthus Micranthemoides as the right side carpet.

Lastly I cut back the Ludwigia sp. Super Red, so it's just immersed growth now.

I cut back the rooted original stems to just 2cm above the substrate and left them in place.  Let's see if they grow and fill out this area, or simply die back.


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## hypnogogia (5 Sep 2020)

@Nick72 any updates on this?


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## Driftless (6 Sep 2020)

Wow, sorry @Nick72 but watching your process it is nothing but tortured.


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