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

[erwin123]

Fortnightly update

Thanks for the comments on layout. Trying to learn and slowly improve/change the layout

Removed several stems of perfectly good Meta in order to replant the Syngonanthus Macrocaulon between the Meta and the R.Blood red for a better grouping. As for the Ammannia 'Golden', I'll just let them take over the entire right side of the tank except for the Blood Red in the right rear corner.

The fastest growing plant in this tank is not the Meta or even the Blood Red ... its surprisingly the M. Roraima (though the Meta and Blood red are a close second).

Freed from the need to post a weekly FTS, I can let the tank get overgrown and hack it down for a fortnightly photo.....

 

[erwin123]

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas. I was on a long vacation which was why I haven't been posting.

This is what I saw when I got back. The first photo shows what happened to the tank warts and all (I didn't scrape algae off the glass)

The second photo, I decided to do a close up so I scraped a little bit off the algae off the glass as algae on glass is more evident when doing closeups. Fortunately no major algae outbreaks when I was gone. I'm not sure how many hours of trimming I will need to do, but at least I have the weekend to do it!

Contrary to standard advice, I did not turn down the light levels when I was away - as it turns out, the overgrown stems have made the bottom of the tank is a very "dark and gloomy place" which may have helped to arrest algae growth while I was away. But as you can tell from my journal title, I'm in the a "photon cannon" camp when it comes to planted tanks, so I prefer my substrate level to be brightly lit as well.🎆🌅

 

[JoshP12]

Get trimming or it will look like this!

Merry Christmas!

 

[erwin123]

My Fortnightly update aka obligatory UKAPS FTS
Work is keeping me busy, so I want to do as little maintenance as possible, which entails just hacking away at the plants. The more I hack, the longer the interval between maintenance!
I got a lot of unhappy Meta/Pantanal that reached the surface and started to turn emersed, only to be told they had to be submersed again and they protested by stunting. I'm just waiting for their submersed sideshoots to grow large enough then I'll replant the sideshoots.

 

[erwin123]

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.

 

[plantnoobdude]

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

 

[erwin123]

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

 

[plantnoobdude]

, 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.

 

[erwin123]

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

 

[erwin123]

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 )

 

[Hufsa]

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

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 😁👍

 

[Hanuman]

PND

Googled this since I am ignorant. It came out with:
Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea
Postnatal depression
Pump and Dump
Party Next Door
Punk not Dead

I'm fairly sure it's none of the above. Please educate me.

 

[erwin123]

Googled this since I am ignorant. It came out with:
Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea
Postnatal depression
Pump and Dump

I'm fairly sure it's none of the above. Please educate me.

PLANTNOOBDUDE

 

[Hanuman]

I added a few extra definitions just in case 😂

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea

I'm guessing that is a <"first mention on UKAPS">, a bit like finding a <"Googlewhack">.

cheers Darrel

 

[erwin123]

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 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%+.🌅🌄

 

[Hanuman]

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.

 

[Hufsa]

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 😅

 

[erwin123]

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) 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.

 

[plantnoobdude]

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) 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