Thailandia Sunset

[Simon Cole]

I use Perspex Neutral 9T20 if I want to reduce the light. It is a very light grey shade similar to factor 1 or 2 sunglasses and doesn't distort the colours inside the aquarium. Perhaps try a section over the affected plants. Or attach a floating hoop of floating plants. I think your aquarium looks superb!

 

[Hanuman]

use Perspex Neutral 9T20 if I want to reduce the light. It is a very light grey shade similar to factor 1 or 2 sunglasses and doesn't distort the colours inside the aquarium. Perhaps try a section over the affected plants. Or attach a floating hoop of floating plants. I think your aquarium looks superb!

Thank you. Not sure I will find that product here in Thailandia and not a fan of floating plants in my tank. Other option is to change plant all-together 😅. This said, this plant is nice though, it doesn't grow too fast and that's what I like about it.

 

[Hanuman]

So I came back home from my little holiday (it's new year here in Thailand - Songkran for the initiated). Little pic of the temp and PH of my tank. I actually underrated the temp. It's higher than I thought.

So we can see the temps is at 32.2C and PH at ~6. Plants look fine so far but also I started noticing some melt happening on E. Quin. In a normal day the PH would be around 5.3 at the same time at which I made the measurement. So that's a pretty hefty price to pay CO2-wise for 4 degrees away from my baseline temp. This is why controlling temps is beneficial in the tank if possible.

 

[Hanuman]

I believe some update wouldn't hurt.
So it's been nearly 2 months since I started front loading all macros + calcium after WC. Traces are dosed daily, morning just before lights on.
So far I have seen no ill effect and in fact it has helped to some extent with my L. Pantanal which struggled severely after being uprooted, trimmed and top replanted. It does still struggle after replanting but I would say it recovers faster than before. Still not satisfied with how long it takes to fully come back to glory specially because when that happens it's time to trim again 😅, so that is a bit annoying. I will concede I am not sure how high intensity tank owners handle that plant so that it doesn't go through a nasty phase. None of my other plants do that. She is the only party pooper of the bunch.
I have also removed entirely the Syngonanthus macrocaulon to give some space for the Rotala. Couldn't figure exactly why it was melting at a certain height and anyway, got bored of it.

Here are some pics of the WC day ++.
I scrap front and side panels with an old credit card to remove any algae buildup. I very rarely do that on the back panel since it's black and it's actually fairly difficult to see the algae. Only when you look from the side and you really need to pay aattention. I like to leave that algae for all the suckers, snails and whatnot. I will clean it maybe once every 2-3 months.

Me filling up the tank. Yes that's how I roll. 20L water containers at a time and my hand. I need 5 of those. And yes still in pyjamas.

Filled up and just after adding the CaSo4 in the skimmer. Snow time.

End product two days later.

This is same day after trimming. The tops will progressively shrink throughout the week until it reaches a certain height then will bloom again so to speak.

Proserpinaca palustris. It turns progressively orange the closer it gets to light. Easy plant.

Anubias nana petite variegated center and Bucephalandra green wavy left. Some pin holes here and there from old leaves and a bit of algae. Algae is mostly due to me uprooting stuff at the back nearly every week and flow not being great down there and it's starting to get a bit packed.

Rotala Bossii and Rotala Waliichii. El weed. They turn progressively pinkish the higher they get to the light. Easy plants.

Last but not least, since today is medical Monday, some cucumba was required.

 

[Luciën]

Nice all your plants looks so healthy.

 

[erwin123]

32 degrees! That amount of heat is scary - my experience is that heat spikes can lead to algae outbreaks, but your tank looks pretty clean and the plants are nice!

 

[Hanuman]

32 degrees! That amount of heat is scary - my experience is that heat spikes can lead to algae outbreaks, but your tank looks pretty clean!

There was the usual very light GDA but nothing out of the ordinary. There was a bit more GSA than usual but nothing extreme. If the tank had remained longer at those temperatures then perhaps there would have been a bigger outbreak.

 

[GreggZ]

The tank is looking great! Plants look very healthy and everything is very well presented. It all creates a very good vibe.

Well done!

And good to put a face to the name too!

 

[Hanuman]

good to put a face to the name too!

I look better in the OP picture 🤓. The latest pic above is me 3 years laters without gym training due to an injury, waking up early, being moody and 10kg surplus. Luckily for me I decided that I could no longer continue in that path so decided to make a u-turn. Here is the u-turn 😰:

 

[Garuf]

Pumps? Hoses? Automatic w/c?! Sounds like cheating to me.

You should see the size of the tank.

 

[Hanuman]

The other day I forgot to post a picture on how I usually trim my plants. As you can see I cut just below the nodes and remove all leaves 2-3 cm from the bottom. These leaves will eventually die since underground, so better to get rid of them since they will add organics to your tank. I also remove any side shoots I see to reduce the burden on the plant. The devil is in the details.

 

[Hanuman]

Today I came across a fews posts made by Tom Barr. This is unrelated to my tank specifically, and there is nothing new about what he says but I thought it would be a good reminder to the community. These posts came in response to someone posting an old article relating to the <Redfield ratio>, and asking if it worked as suggested to help control algae:

For reference: rate of nitrate and phosphate

 

[X3NiTH]

I totally agree with Toms sentiments as my current NO3 : PO4 is currently 119.6:1 and a Redfield Ratio of 183.

No fish in there only Physella Acuta snails.
The GDA on the back glass is a recent phenomena as I swapped out my own ferts a few weeks ago for a commercial brand that has EDDHA in it and also Cobalt (I limited that for 3 years), no change to rate of dosing but my Fe has accumulated to 5.12ppm, I’ll be swapping back soon when it runs out.

 

[Hanuman]

I like the ambiance in that tank. Feels mysterious

 

[Hanuman]

For PAR values, you can try the Photone app with an iPhone in one of those waterproof pouches for scuba divers. It will at least give you relative numbers.

Not having a PAR meter since those are rather expensive, I abandoned the idea of measuring PAR, UNTILL, thanks to your post on this thread I was finally able to get what I wanted. I bought the "LED Full spec" in-app option for around 8USD for better accuracy. That's far from the 500++ USD an Apogee MQ 500 costs.

At substrate level at the front and back of the tank I have ~ 100 μmols/m2/s while center at ~ 150 μmols/m2/s. Give or take maybe 5%. This is in fact what I more-less suspected but could never confirm.

There is a ~100μmols/m2/s difference between the top of the bucephalandra in the middle and at substrate level in the middle. That's roughly 15cm/20cm.

Interesting indeed. I didn't measure the PAR on the blood vomit cup, but that is probably a good 500+ μmols/m2/s.

 

[seedoubleyou]

Not having a PAR meter since those are rather expensive, I abandoned the idea of measuring PAR, UNTILL, thanks to your post on this thread I was finally able to get what I wanted. I bought the "LED Full spec" in-app option for around 8USD for better accuracy. That's far from the 500++ USD an Apogee MQ 500 costs.

At substrate level at the front and back of the tank I have ~ 100 μmols/m2/s while center at ~ 150 μmols/m2/s. Give or take maybe 5%. This is in fact what I more-less suspected but could never confirm.

There is a ~100μmols/m2/s difference between the top of the bucephalandra in the middle and at substrate level in the middle. That's roughly 15cm/20cm.

Interesting indeed. I didn't measure the PAR on the blood vomit cup, but that is probably a good 500+ μmols/m2/s.

View attachment 189294

Coming from a reefing background where people are obsessed with PAR. I find those readings interesting

 

[Courtneybst]

Not having a PAR meter since those are rather expensive, I abandoned the idea of measuring PAR, UNTILL, thanks to your post on this thread I was finally able to get what I wanted. I bought the "LED Full spec" in-app option for around 8USD for better accuracy. That's far from the 500++ USD an Apogee MQ 500 costs.

At substrate level at the front and back of the tank I have ~ 100 μmols/m2/s while center at ~ 150 μmols/m2/s. Give or take maybe 5%. This is in fact what I more-less suspected but could never confirm.

There is a ~100μmols/m2/s difference between the top of the bucephalandra in the middle and at substrate level in the middle. That's roughly 15cm/20cm.

Interesting indeed. I didn't measure the PAR on the blood vomit cup, but that is probably a good 500+ μmols/m2/s.

View attachment 189294

Did you use a diffuser when measuring? I'm just intrigued because I have the Full Spectrum add on as well.

 

[Hanuman]

Did you use a diffuser when measuring? I'm just intrigued because I have the Full Spectrum add on as well.

Yes, that’s what the app recommends with iPhones. With Android phones they say it’s not necessary.

 

[Hanuman]

A few weeks back I got some new plants. These are meant to be propagated and sold since at least 2 out of 4 of the following sp are not being sold in Thailand yet:

• Ludwigia inclinata sp. meta
• Rotala “sp Red” (blood red SG)
• Rotala tulunadensis
• Erio cetaceum

Long story short the plants were hand carried by plane and it took less than 24h from harvesting to delivery to my place. Unfortunately the shop did not properly wet the paper (in fact I think they didn't wet it at all) when wrapping the plants and when they arrived... well, they were basically nearly as dry as some fritolay chips. Judge for yourself. Needless to say I was rather annoyed. This said shop was kind enough to offer new plants if I ever had someone go to his country... or if he had people coming to Thailand he would send a new batch. I told him I would try to salvage what I could. Since then no communication. [Rant over]

So I tried hydrating them before adding them to the tank and removed all obvious dead leaves and stems:

I was left with this. Plant order is same as stated above.

So far the L. meta and the R. “sp Red” have basically shown no issue in recovering from the unpleasant "dry" trip. The Erio cetaceum on the other hand is just about to become extinct from my tank. The R. tulu is also struggling. From the few 6 or 7 tiny stem portions I was able to save, 4 have already left to a more peaceful world.

Now some more aesthetically pleasing pictures:
L. inclinata sp pantanal vs. L. inclinata sp meta

Rotala “sp Red” (blood red SG). In the middle is the one I bought flanked by Rotala “sp Red” (from APC) in its emersed form. We can see it is starting to transition to its submersed form as leaves are slowly turning red. You might ask yourself why I am putting them together that way. That's because I have the strong feeling both are in fact the exact same plant and the "blood red SG" is just some man made gimmickry to promote a "new" sp that isn't one. So I want to compare them side by side. In fact a well informed source has told me that Rotala “sp Red” (blood red SG) originally came from Thailand.... 😂 - No comment. I'll post some pictures in a few months once the APC version has fully transitioned to confirm this scam.

Now to the novelty section of this post. I picked up this plant from an outdoor pot in some random coffee shop down the street. I have absolutely no clue if is aquatic-compatible, but one got to try!! I'll let the botanists (@dw1305) chime in and speculate on what plant this is because I can't even put a name on this. My gut feeling tells me it will not survive.

Last but definitely not least, a package arrived yesterday from Englandia. My thanks go to both the product originator and the financial agent (😉) who made this possible. You guys are the GOATs. My Thailandia home will be open to you as you already know.

Oh and I almost forgot, I am reviewing my dosing. Minor detail. Removing KCL entirely from my mix and dropping K to ~23ppm in my next mix. In the following mix I will probably drop it further down to 20ppm. This decision came after a conversation and advise from Raj (@GreggZ you know him well I believe). Let's see how things go from here. I also increase each channel of the WRGB light by 5%.

 

[Hanuman]

And I just realized... I might as well include the new Fe Gluconate in my next Micro mix. First need to figure out the mixing proportion.