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- Redemption -

6 days of growth. Everything doing amazing; no algae..water change 60% every day still...running purigen and it works a treat removing tannins. I’ll probably add some carbon as well.

4 ml of Tropica premium fertilizer daily.
Switching to Specialized once this bottle is over.
Thinking of some AR mini in between stems and the Monte Carlo. Not sure if that’s gonna look too big...
I left that space empty for something...maybe crypts.
Still not sure how to make the “tree” more tree-ish. Maybe eventually pinnatifida will fill in but still looks kinda empty.
I was planning some buces but the light will be too much...ideas?
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Looking really good Andrew I think once the moss starts to fill out with some pinta like you said it will fill out the tree nicely how are you finding the vivid 2s have 2 over my 1200 and just can't believe how good they are and real good value for the money with the controllability and I don't even hear the fans in mine at all really happy with them
 
Looking really good Andrew I think once the moss starts to fill out with some pinta like you said it will fill out the tree nicely how are you finding the vivid 2s have 2 over my 1200 and just can't believe how good they are and real good value for the money with the controllability and I don't even hear the fans in mine at all really happy with them
Thanks, I agree the pinnatifida is crazy once it takes off.
I just love the vivid 2. The light is in a closet since this tank is in wall so I really can’t hear a peep, but even when messing around the tank I can’t hear the fan unless I’m right next to it looking into the tank.
The colors are ...well...amazing. The controllability is cool. Got tired of playing around with the colors and just chose the “Red” preset. In conjunction with the ADA light screen, it gives a very nice color balance to the tank as a whole. I keep switching between “red” and “Buce” presets.
The Buce has a little more blue and less red which enhances the green that much more...one of these days ill settle on one:)
Which one do you use ? Or did you go with your own?

I must say, the tank looks very different with the light screen off and I’m sure I would change the light spectrum if I didn’t have the screen. Somehow that white light blends the whole thing a little nicer...not sure how to explain it. I might post a picture with the screen off just for comparison.
 
Great photos.
 
You could consider blyxa as an alternatieve to crypts as well. But I think a brownish crypt would suit it better :) Looking good! I wouldnt add more species to the tree, just let it grow, if you add more it might start looking too crowded :)
 
I just go with the buce setting like you say really brings the green out but I have tonnes it down to about 70%
How high up is your light mounted and how deep is your tank? My tank is only 14” deep and the light mounted around 12” or 30cm above the rim. I left it at the roughly 100watt intensity the “Buce” setting runs from the factory. I noticed Green Aqua mounted their ADA RGB which is 130 watt bond imma let between 30-35cm or 12-13 inches respectively above their bigger 120-180P but also run them over their 60P’s for 7 hours photoperiod so really that’s a lot of light if you think about it.

I’ll see how mine progresses; healthy no algae tank is the goal here.

I’m also shying away from EI dosing.
I ran out of salts so no reason to implement it again like I got tempted last time around.
Not saying it’s bad, it certainly worked, but I wanna experiment with lean(er) dosing .
 
You could consider blyxa as an alternatieve to crypts as well. But I think a brownish crypt would suit it better :) Looking good! I wouldnt add more species to the tree, just let it grow, if you add more it might start looking too crowded :)
Blyxa is beautiful but has been a weed for me in the past . I’ll experiment with some crypts maybe.
 
How high up is your light mounted and how deep is your tank? My tank is only 14” deep and the light mounted around 12” or 30cm above the rim
Mine are hung from the ceiling and can change the hight they hang about 30cm from the tank its Ea aqascaper 1200 I believe its 53cm deep im glad I got the shades 😎
 
Since I’ve got a mature filter with a few pounds of Seachem matrix that’s half a year old at this point, I got the fish today.
Poropanchax normani - lampeye killifish. 20 of them :)
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Their blue eyes are really stunning in person. I reckon even more so under the Vivid 2.
Pictures to follow.
 
Quite a turn of events...
11 of the 20 fish died overnight.
They were all eating and being very active ever since I introduced them.
Checked co2, same rate same schedule as before.
The only thing I’ve done differently last night is lift the lily pipe out of the water and aerate the tank overnight because I saw some of the fish gasping for air at the surface after the lights went off. They were acting very normal at the end of the photoperiod.

The other 9 fish that are left are fine.

Removed all dead fish and performed a 70% water change.
All I can think of is an ammonia spike or more likely some of the weaker souls of the 20 kicked the bucket after being exposed to higher co2 levels after lights off...

Ottos grazing continuously and Amanos doing their job.
Weird...
 
Lost another fish, from the same batch. No amanos or Ottos; those are doing fine!
I see the killifish (some of them) gasping for air at the surface but only at night. During the day all is well like nothing’s wrong.

What could be happening is plants are releasing oxygen during the day in enough amounts that fish get by, but as soon as night comes and plants start consuming oxygen the levels are quickly depleted and fish are suffering or dying in my case.

But why aren’t the ottos and amanos behaving erratically? Are killifish a more sensitive fish to these water conditions?
 
If the fish seem to start tooccupy just the area near the surface it's probably CO2 related and best thing stop CO2 altogether until_ and run a airstone
The co2 is on a timer, 9 hours on. Running 3 hours before lights on and off an hour before the lights go off.
Fish show no sign of distress during the photoperiod. Only at night.
 
This is probably what's happening your plants are adding extra CO2 at night and you already have a high level of CO2 in the photo period. The plants in the photo period are helping and guessing your fish are coping . A airstone at night will help degas levels a bit during the day a small powerhead could help surface agitation but for now l would stop CO2 altogether . Fish you have lost maybe? fish what are higher energy so succumb first You could carry on W/C need not be 70% just regularly. Very sad losing fish maybe someone will have something to help
 
Quite a turn of events...
11 of the 20 fish died overnight.
They were all eating and being very active ever since I introduced them.
Checked co2, same rate same schedule as before.
The only thing I’ve done differently last night is lift the lily pipe out of the water and aerate the tank overnight because I saw some of the fish gasping for air at the surface after the lights went off. They were acting very normal at the end of the photoperiod.

The other 9 fish that are left are fine.

Removed all dead fish and performed a 70% water change.
All I can think of is an ammonia spike or more likely some of the weaker souls of the 20 kicked the bucket after being exposed to higher co2 levels after lights off...

Ottos grazing continuously and Amanos doing their job.
Weird...

Have you checked ammonia levels?
 
Have you checked ammonia levels?
Hi wookii,
I haven’t. There’s no way there’s ammonia with such robust plant growth and if there was even a minimal amount of it, the Amano shrimp would have died before anything else correct?
That’s one of the reasons we don’t particularly pay attention to the nitrogen cycle in a heavily planted aquarium.
 
Hi wookii,
I haven’t. There’s no way there’s ammonia with such robust plant growth and if there was even a minimal amount of it, the Amano shrimp would have died before anything else correct?

Yes, possibly the Amanos would have shown effects of excess ammonia.

I just know from my two recent tanks (both heavily planted) that with Tropica soil that it took a week and a half of 80%+ water changes to get the ammonia levels down to zero (and that is with fully matured 9 month old filter media), and you have Amazonia which puts out a lot more ammonia than Tropica soils. You've added the fish within inside two weeks of setting up the tank, so it was just a thought that ammonia leaching could still be an issue.
 
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