Snapping a close-up pic of the Metas. This at the back of the tank so the dominant light is the Week Aqua P900. I have dialed the red back for the P900 quite a bit but its still casting a reddish tinge to the A.Goldens. (some of the tinge is probably reflections of the colours of the Metas as well).
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90P High Light (Plants are happy, Algae are happy too)
- Thread starter erwin123
- Start date
Snapping a close-up pic of the Metas. This at the back of the tank so the dominant light is the Week Aqua P900. I have dialed the red back for the P900 quite a bit but its still casting a reddish tinge to the A.Goldens. (some of the tinge is probably reflections of the colours of the Metas as well).
Once in 3 weeks maintenance day and photograph.
Did some plant rearrangement, moving the S.Macrocaulon to the left, removing the H.Araguia to make way for H. Chai.
The Chai still seems to be alive which is good, hoping that it will convert successfully.
Testing my new camera rather than a substantive update.
My DSLR is really old so for Christmas I got myself a new DSLR. The colour rendition is remarkably similar as long as I use the same white balance setting. The new camera has 'focus bracketing' which I am testing out but will need some time to find the best settings for 'fish tank photography'
Interesting to see the C.Furcata 'closed up' compared to the earlier pic - photograph was taken near the end of the photoperiod.
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MichaelJ
Member
Hi @MichaelJ happy to share
Water:
gH 6, kH 3.
TDS pen reports 100+ppm
Temp 25 degrees average (i think 23-24 degrees would be more ideal but I live in a warm climate).
50% water change every 3 weeks
Soil: Amazonia II , no change.
Dosing regime
90P roughly 180 litre tank
CO2 & Flow
FWIW as bubble size vary: I have 2 CO2 diffusers total 3 bps (always shocked when people with small tanks say they are running 10, 20 bps - pls check for leaks!)
At least 10x flow.
Light
WRGB2 Pro - approx 80%
Week Aqua P900 - approx 80% (i've dialed the red down but too reddish for my taste)
Daily: 1 pump of Tropica specialised (2-2.3ml. When I started up I used to measure exact amounts, but now I just go by pumps....)
Weekly: 1/2 pump of Seachem Iron twice - i.e. 1 pump but spread over 2 days (I read somewhere that Seachem Iron is only 'bio available' for a few days so its better to dose two times a week rather than weekly... but sometimes I don't bother and just do a weekly pump)
Weekly: 1 pump of Seachem Trace
On water change day: 1 extra pump of TSN, Iron, Trace. 4g of Epsom Salts.
Occasional osmocote applications in selected areas. For targeted application of a small amount of osmocote pellets over selected plants. For example, when I planted the H. Chai. I added 10 osmocote pellets in the general area. For reference a single Tropica Nutrition capsule contains something like 20-30 pellets in a single capsule.
Water:
gH 6, kH 3.
TDS pen reports 100+ppm
Temp 25 degrees average (i think 23-24 degrees would be more ideal but I live in a warm climate).
50% water change every 3 weeks
Soil: Amazonia II , no change.
Dosing regime
90P roughly 180 litre tank
CO2 & Flow
FWIW as bubble size vary: I have 2 CO2 diffusers total 3 bps (always shocked when people with small tanks say they are running 10, 20 bps - pls check for leaks!)
At least 10x flow.
Light
WRGB2 Pro - approx 80%
Week Aqua P900 - approx 80% (i've dialed the red down but too reddish for my taste)
Daily: 1 pump of Tropica specialised (2-2.3ml. When I started up I used to measure exact amounts, but now I just go by pumps....)
Weekly: 1/2 pump of Seachem Iron twice - i.e. 1 pump but spread over 2 days (I read somewhere that Seachem Iron is only 'bio available' for a few days so its better to dose two times a week rather than weekly... but sometimes I don't bother and just do a weekly pump)
Weekly: 1 pump of Seachem Trace
On water change day: 1 extra pump of TSN, Iron, Trace. 4g of Epsom Salts.
Occasional osmocote applications in selected areas. For targeted application of a small amount of osmocote pellets over selected plants. For example, when I planted the H. Chai. I added 10 osmocote pellets in the general area. For reference a single Tropica Nutrition capsule contains something like 20-30 pellets in a single capsule.
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MichaelJ
Member
Hi @erwin123, Interesting,
1 pump of specialized is about 2 ml, so 14 ml weekly in 180 L equals about 1 ppm N, 0.08 ppm P, 0.8 K. 0.055 ppm Fe. weekly. So rather lean at least on the NPK.
Yes, the Sachem Flourish Iron is Fe Gluconate - wont stay around for long, but also easy for the plants to absorb.
While I do understand your addition of Fe from an alternative source due to the higher alkalinity (dKH) I am bit puzzled about your application of Sachem Trace as you get pretty much everything from the TSN, so just wondering if you have a particular reason to add the Sachem Trace ? Additional Boron (B) and Manganese (Mn) perhaps?
I assume your not using RO Water, but the tap water is low on Magnesium, hence the addition of 4g of MgSO4?
Thanks for sharing. Love your results and approach!
Cheers,
Michael
Hi @MichaelJ
Seachem Trace: one of the forum experts suggested that I may have a Manganese deficiency so I am primarily dosing Trace for that.
Magnesium: in my tap water report it says its an 'average' of 0.31 mg/L but the range is huge from 0.027-2.41, so its more of 'just in case' my water is on the lower end.
Tropica - out of interest of reporting my dosing accurately, I just weighed one pump of TSN (this is the pump that came with the Tropica bottle) - it gave me 2.6g, so thats about 20% more than my estimate of 2-2.3g per pump... so maybe not that lean as initially calculated
Seachem Trace: one of the forum experts suggested that I may have a Manganese deficiency so I am primarily dosing Trace for that.
Magnesium: in my tap water report it says its an 'average' of 0.31 mg/L but the range is huge from 0.027-2.41, so its more of 'just in case' my water is on the lower end.
Tropica - out of interest of reporting my dosing accurately, I just weighed one pump of TSN (this is the pump that came with the Tropica bottle) - it gave me 2.6g, so thats about 20% more than my estimate of 2-2.3g per pump... so maybe not that lean as initially calculated
MichaelJ
Member
Got it. I believe @Hufsa ran into similar issues with Mn deficiency. Seems to be a rare occurrence though.
Interesting. I have checked this on a number of occasions, and my Tropica pumps have all shown to be pretty accurate in terms of volume. That is, 10 pumps yields very close to 20 ml (slightly more) or ~2 ml per pump. Of course even if the dispenser would be dead accurate, by weight it will be different than 2 grams - which would be the case if it would be pure water. So I am not surprised the weight is slightly higher given the mix of elements, but 2.6 g seems quite high. I will have to check again 🤷♂️
Cheers,
Michael
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MichaelJ
Member
Ok, got it. So half a pump (1.25 ml) twice per week (2.5 ml total ) would give you about 0.05 ppm of Fe Gluconate and one pump (~2.5 ml) about 0.0012 ppm of Mn from the Seachem Trace. I wonder how much of a difference that really makes overall - hard to say I guess.
Cheers,
Michael
Still playing with my new DSLR. Took a photo after 5 days so you can sort of see the growth. I had to cut and replant the L. Senegalensis and some A. Pedicatella so that the R. Blood Reds could be seen. Did some post processing to see if I could remove the reddish tint from the camera's auto white balance.
The L.Sphaerocarpa stem on the right is weakening/dying. I may need to drastically hack it down (assumption is that the new growth is healthier than the old), replant and hope it survives. The H. Chai seem to be ok, but I need to be diligent about giving them enough space but hacking back other plants. I removed one bunch of Eriocaulon to make more space.
Pretty good condition for a stems that were "suffocated" by the Syngonanthus. Colouration wise, they are a paler yellow compared to the others but I like the colour. I think that reddish A. Pedicatellas are a sign of (1) stress (2) too much red channel in the light (3) photoshop.
Reference - this is the A Pedicatella before I hacked aways the Synoganthus. The other stem is to the extreme left, touching the side glass.
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Photograph after 3-week water change. I hacked away the Syngonanthus which was 2 enormous stems. I am going to try a new strategy with the plant but trying to do front to back layering of 3 stems and constantly hacking away at the side shoots.
What was interesting was the condition of two A.Pedicatella stems which I planted next to, and were getting suffocated by the Synognanthus - they were in surprisingly good condition, in fact, probably better condition that many of the other A Pedicatella that are crowding out each other. The A Pedicatella needs space so I tossed a few stems but I really need to toss out more to make more space, otherwise their growth seems stunted.
This week is not my water change week, but I did a little bit of maintenance and took some photos. The A. Pedicatella are looking better as expected, after I tossed some stems to give the remaining ones more space. I need to be ruthless about tossing more stems to make space.
I'm also posting a photograph of what is happening at the left rear corner of the tank. I have the usual BBA on the CO2 tubing but since my plants are healthy, I don't get BBA on them.
The camera exposure settings are the same so you can see how much dimmer the corners of the tanks are compared to the middle. Despite the less light, the A. Pedicatellas are doing well, and if you give them enough space, they love to spout sideshoots.
Three-weekly waterchange and photo
I cut one of the L.Sphaerocarpa and replanted the top, leaving the original bottom stem planted. In response, a sideshoot appeared on the original stem and there appears to be more on the way. I should have done this earlier as I do want to have more Spaherocarpas in my tank because I like the wine red (sort of) colouration. However, I have to figure out what to remove to make space for them... I guess more A.Pedicatella have to be tossed..
The Tonina 'Lotus Blossom' have to be hacked and replanted by the next water change.
Just an update on L. Sphaerocarpa. C Kasselmann in Aquarium Plants says "only occasionally do lateral shoots form on older plants, mostly near the base..."
While this seems to be correct and one big shoot formed near the base after I cut the stem, I'm glad to see multiple new shoots form on the top-most nodes of the stem, with apparently more on the way. Furthermore, those at the top are colouring up nicely. I'm crossing my fingers that these will be viable and I hope that they will hit a sufficient height that will enable them to be cut and replanted.
3-weekly water change day.
Did a major renovation by removing most of the Tonina 'Lotus Blossom' which had reached the waterline. Interestingly, the emersed leaves look identical to the submersed leaves!
This was in order to make space for the L.Sphaerocarpa sideshoots which are doing pretty well and should be ready for replanting.
I also took a photo of the A.Pedictalla on the left rear corner of the tank which I had planted as an experiment. It seems that A. Pedicatella don't need that much light - they are a paler yellow with less light but the leaves are generally healthy. It sort of confirms that they need more breathing room.
The new issue I have to fix is algae on the H.Chai, or hopefully, with the removal of the Tonina, there is more 'space' for water circulation and maybe things will improve by themselves.
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
How’s the A.Pedictalla doing? I got some from my LFS that looked a bit manky (only one they had) but gave it a go. Started growing beautiful new big yellow leaves and I got excited. Then it just turned black and now I have one stem left which is looking awful. Gutted because it seems difficult to get hold of and it looked great.
