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90P High Light (Plants are happy, Algae are happy too)

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Update: Water change after 3 weeks (i.e. since the last photo).
I was planning to go down to fortnightly water changes but then got hit by some urgent work, so no water change until today
As nutrients were accumulating in the water column without water change, I stopped dosing after 2 weeks and left the tank alone in the 3rd week.
Today I finally changed the water threw away literally half the Pantanal/Meta, Rotala Blood Red and M. Roraima, and scraped away some algae off the glass. Plants seem to be generally doing ok, I have so many new Meta sideshoots it doesn't matter that some stems converted to emersed, I just threw them away....

Looking at the previous photo, the Rotala Macandras are a lot redder now (mainly because in the last photo, they were totally shaded by other overgrown stems - they need light to turn red). Actually even the H. Lancea 'Araguia' look more reddish.
 
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Looking at the previous photo, the Rotala Macandras are a lot redder now (mainly because in the last photo, they were totally shaded by other overgrown stems - they need light to turn red). Actually even the H. Lancea 'Araguia' look more reddish
Do we have the same macrandra species? Anyway, tank is looking nice, think you'll find you don't need as much WC as you think
 
Do we have the same macrandra species? Anyway, tank is looking nice, think you'll find you don't need as much WC as you think
I think mine is Macandra narrow leaf. They don't look very good compared to yours 🥲, maybe they need softer water than what i can provide? (My water is gH 6, KH 3).

Totally agree about the water change frequency. I'm going with fortnightly. I could stretch to 3 weeks, but after 2 weeks, my plants badly need a trim, and if I start pulling all the overgrown plants, i sort of make a mess with the aquasoil, in which case, might as well do a water change :)
 
, i sort of make a mess with the aquasoil, in which case, might as well do a water change
One of the main reasons I swapped to sand, I can do relatively major trims/replants without worrying about that so much. With soil every time you disturb it, a water change is necessary, I don't have time for that.
 
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The fortnightly update.
As mentioned earlier, because I am on a fortnightly water change, I have reduced the dosing by about 20%. It actually appears to be having a positive effect on the A. Pedicatella. I am liking the look of the new leaves. The Pantanal/Meta I can't tell because after 2 weeks they all reached the surface and turned emersed so repeated what I have been doing which is yanking them out, toss the main stem and replant any new sideshoots. I am planning to reduce the amount of Pantanal/Meta by half to make more space for the A.Pedicatella because the latter grow slowly so they are more suitable for a fortnightly maintenance schedule :)
 
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Fornightly water change + update

Major maintenance work done. Pantanal/Meta removed as its not compatible with a fortnightly maintenance schedule because they grow too fast. Eriocaulons also got a massive trim.

Replaced by A. Pedicatella - stems were getting stunted probably in part due to overcrowding. By spreading them out, I hope to get more unstunted stems. The S. Macrocaulon is getting scarily large. I have been hacking off the edges of the bush to prevent them from suffocating the Pedicatella, but it might need replanting soon - there are actually only 3 'parents' stems but they have branched massively.

Current weekly dose
NO3: 4.1ppm
PO4: 1.1ppm
K: 3.6ppm
Fe: 0.2ppm
Mg: 2.4ppm
+ Seachem Traces
(Note: Since I'm on fortnightly water change, I dose for 12 days consecutively then no dosing on day 13 and day 14 so thats equivalent to dosing 6 days out of 7)

Since I have removed most of the Pantanal/Meta, the tank probably requires less ferts, in which case I probably can go leaner (thanks to aquasoil :cool::cool::cool:)
 
Pantanal/Meta removed as its not compatible with a fortnightly maintenance schedule because they grow too fast.
I think the community should have some sort of achievement/reward for individuals growing Pantanal well enough that it becomes a liability :lol:
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Since I have removed most of the Pantanal/Meta, the tank probably requires less ferts, in which case I probably can go leaner than that.
You know what PND is gonna say..
Still too much... Go LEANER


Tank looking nice Erwin 😁👍
 
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I had some time on a Friday to do a little bit of maintenance as some plants were overgrown. This is not my water change week (fortnightly water change) so I used my trusty usb pump with 200 micron filter pad to suck up the inevitable dust caused by the uprooting. I'm getting worried about the S.Macrocaulon breaching the water surface. I am not looking forward to trying to uproot and replant that entire plant mass :p The silver lining is that pushes against the R. Blood Red in the corner and prevents them from spreading out.

With all the ecent threads in the forum about how much lighting is needed, I'm feeling that my WRGB2 + WRGB2 Pro need to be pumped up a bit beyond the current 80%+.🌅🌄
 
With all the ecent threads in the forum about how much lighting is needed, I'm feeling that my WRGB2 + WRGB2 Pro need to be pumped up a bit beyond the current 80%+.🌅🌄
I'll be honest, not sure you want that unless you want to start trimming more often. If both your lights are at 80% you are probably pumping well over 300++ PAR at substrate which is already pretty high. Ammannia pedicatella is looking fantastic by the way.
 
With all the recent threads in the forum about how much lighting is needed, I'm feeling that my WRGB2 + WRGB2 Pro need to be pumped up a bit beyond the current 80%+.🌅🌄
Resist the call of the void 😂
Like Hanuman said, if you only want to trim every other week, why would you add more speed 😅
 
thanks for the advice - i was wondering whether A. Pedicatella needed more light - PND is running his WRGB at 100% and his tank is only 36cm high (60P vs 90P) :cool: Anyway, I decided to just bump the red channel up by 3% and will monitor whether there is any difference.

It also not that obvious from the photo, but the massive S.Macrocaulon is preventing a lot of the light from the rear WRGB2 from reaching the A. Pedicatella in the front - I will be trimming that down soon as its just touched the water surface, so maybe that in itself will provide a light boost.
 
thanks for the advice - i was wondering whether A. Pedicatella needed more light - PND is running his WRGB at 100% and his tank is only 36cm high (60P vs 90P) :cool: Anyway, I decided to just bump the red channel up by 3% and will monitor whether there is any difference.

It also not that obvious from the photo, but the massive S.Macrocaulon is preventing a lot of the light from the rear WRGB2 from reaching the A. Pedicatella in the front - I will be trimming that down soon as its just touched the water surface, so maybe that in itself will provide a light boost.
More light will almost never unstunts plant. Usually it makes things worse and stunts plants. If I were recommending a system to someone who only wants to grow ammannia pedicellata:
Medium light
Rich soil
Lean ferts (stable!!)
Moderate GH
No KH
Very stable co2
 
Maintenance day

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Tossing all of this and leaving 3 stems to regrow.



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Capricorn Aquarium had to rehome and they did a 'soft opening' (renovation work is still in progress) last week . Any Youtube video on Capricorn older than 2023 is a video of their old premises.
This is their small outdoor retail section that is open. Pick what you want.


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They also had indoor tanks.... YESSS


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New plants for the tank:
C. Furcata
M. Tuberculatam (
I already have M. Roraima so I hope this is not Roraima and is a real Tuberculatum)
In quarantine, then physical inspection for snail eggs and then permanganate bath.
 
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Fortnightly maintenance / water change and update

As detailed in the other thread, my malfunctioning WRGB2 Pro has come back from the dealer. Bluetooth controller was replaced with a new one. In the meantime, I bought a Week Aqua P900. After comparing the colour rendition, I felt that the WRGB2 Pro had a tiny edge when yellows were concerned, so it's in the front, while the P900 is at the back and helping to give the Furcata and Tuberculatum some light. In terms of brightness I would say that they are roughly the same and maybe the WRGB2 Pro has the edge in max brightness.

Anyway, back to the plant pics. The C.Furcata is growing so slowly at the back of the tank, and constantly at risk of being shaded (as they are light-lovin' plants, they will object to being shaded), so I planted one in front. As you can see from this sample, the new sideshoot is much redder than the original stem which appears to have stunted. I'm visualising a whole bush of them trimmed low with that deep red colour.... lets see if that happens or whether they stunt...

The Tuberculatum are growing slightly faster but you still can't really see them from the FTS.

But specially for @eminor, I tried to zoom in a bit in the 3rd photo to hopefully show the difference between M. Roraima and M. Tuberculatum. The former is coppery red while the later appears to be a brighter pinkish-red. The latter also appears to be much 'skinnier' but not sure what its final form will be- I hope it still maintains these colours after it adapts to the tank conditions. I said I removed the Pantanal/Meta but actually I left a couple of tiny stems in the substrate just in case I needed some, and they have of course grown too fast.
 
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looks healthy, i'm not skilled enough, i can't grow hard plant, i have so much difficulty to not get them stunted. I had much more result with furcata though, even in medium light she grow fine. Tuberculatum and walichii are a nightmare with me, will try them in low tech.

damn roraima looks nice, maybe i switch to roraima, i'm tired of fail. Tuberculatum can be wider
 
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Fortnightly Water change and maintenance
Did some maintenance today so we can now see the difference between M. Roraima and M. Tuberculatum more clearly. M. Roraima has a deep red stem and more coppery-red leaves. M. Tuberculatum has more pinkish stem and leaves, and appears to be 'slimmer' than Roraima. They also have a lot of bubbles in the leaves unlike Roraima which never has bubbles trapped in the leaves. M. Roraima has a thicker and stronger stem, and more able to remain upright in strong current. M. Tuberculatum has the same issue as Wallichii - easily blown around by strong current.

Furcata is not doing well. Need to figure out why.
L. Sphaerocarpa new leaves have turned to a very pleasing/unique wine-red colour not sure why...
A. Pedicatella appreciate having more space as I spread them out and rewarding me with plenty of new sideshoots

Dosing
For easy reference, my weekly dosing (fortnightly water change) is:
NO3 4.4ppm
PO4 1.2ppm
K 3.9ppm
Fe 0.25ppm
 
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