Freshflora
Member
Do you use a PH controller? As long as your injection rate stays constant, you should be fine even with some fluctuation of the PH.
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90P High Light (Plants are happy, Algae are happy too)
- Thread starter erwin123
- Start date
sorry, I'm not so advanced, I just use a timer.
regarding my inconsistent pH .. i guess I don't know the reason, but I had been getting changing degassed water pH readings over the last few weeks (we are talking about 0.2-0.3pH variance which seems small but is huge where CO2 concentration is concerned...)
So my mistake is not regularly taking degassed readings while tweaking my CO2.
So I assume you are using a PH pen. Don't get too caught up with such variations on a PH Pen. There is no way this can be accurate specially in a tank where water is never stable from one 1 second to the other. Plus the PH pen loses calibration basically every-time you use it. Even if you re-calibrate it each time it's highly possible you won't get the same result after two or three readings. I think that to make a more accurate profile you would need to use a double junction ph probe and ideally one that logs continuously, else you have to accept some variations as being part of the PH pen lower accuracy and consistency.
I did some trimming and plant removal, moved the Erio 'Vietnam' and 'Japan' to the front, in order to give the plants more space. I moved the Crypt Flamingo to the left in the hope that it will do better in a different location -its not doing so well where the leaves are concerned by the root/rhizome system looks fines.
I hope the T. 'Lotus Blossoms' speed up their growth and I have some sideshoots to propogate.
At the left near the front there is a single stalk of Cuphea Anagalloidea that was given to me by a hobbyist that is colouring up nicely in the upper leaves and hopefully it will be ready for replant. If it adapts to this tank, I think I'll go and get some more.
On the right hand side right in front of the Rotala Blood Red there is a single stem of Rotala 'Orange Juice' that was given to me as well. It has been there for past couple of weeks but is now more noticeable as its taller so you can see its contrasting colour more clearly.
plantnoobdude
Member
Those are even slower than fluviatilis. Grow a couple inches per week, I’d say. easiest way to get sideshoots is to let the plant grow to the top of the tank, then just let it stay at the top for another week, side shoots should emmerge from the bottom of the stems, this species does not produce side shoots on its own well.
where is the cuphea? I cannot find it. When it grows bigger it produces side shoots very readily so a 30cm stem can be trimmed into 6 or so pieces and replanted.
The tall stem in the front left? It doesn’t look like cuphea to me to be honest.
yup, thats what the person who give me the plant told me it was... - so I assumed it was correctly ID-ed by him as a cuphea. (need to clean my tank glass before taking photo - too many rabbit hairs....). he also passed me a Rotala Orange Juice which i planted next to the Blood reds... unless this is also Orange Juice.... then oops.... but since the stems were free I guess I shouldn't complain 😅
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plantnoobdude
Member
just looks like rotala rotundifolia type to me.
Leaves should be thicker wider and rounded.
(Image from flowgrow page)
Weekly photo.
Nothing much to report. When I was replanting one of the Goldens, I used a dropper to apply APT Fix directly onto the leaves while it was outside the water. It didn't like it and turned pale shortly after will report whether it dies or recovers, at the moment its hanging on.... I confessed I may have used a few too many drops though....
Decided to increase my dose slightly to 1.4ml of APT EI, 0.7ml of Tropica Specialised a day.
I spent the $30 on this, in the name of 'practical science' and because I have am having the GDA on glass issues and the amount of GDA in the water column after doing cleaning (as evidenced by my 100 micron filter pad turning green). As you can see, it has a shade so the UVC is only radiated in a 180 degree pattern so the fish/shrimp are "protected".
My plan is not to have it in my tank permanently but to eventually use it after I do my cleaning/water change as thats when there will be the max amount of algae in the water column. But for now, I'm doing a 24 hour test cycle to assess its 'range' and efficacy.
I attached it to the side of the tank, and I covered the part of the tank with aluminium foil on the outside (internet says aluminium can reflect some UVC while absorbing the rest) as a safety precaution.
After half an hour, the GDA on glass in the general vicinity (i.e. maybe 2 inch radius from the light source) has turned white, so at least UVC can penetrate a few inches. But GDA more than 2 inches away don't seem to be affected. But a 2 inch range, could be enough to zap passing algae spores...
Will report back after a 24 hour cycle. On the flip side, the lack of range beyond 2 inches might be a good thing where fish/plants are concerned (though the shade is already blocking about half of the light except the light radiating up and down vertically).
Weekly update.
I let the R. Wallichii grow too tall and get blown around by the Lily Pipe at the back, as a result, they are all 'bent' after a trim and replant. Hope they can straighten up 🙂
Other than that, nothing much to report....
Noticed that a dark blue background colour vs light blue colour somehow seems to fool the camera into more saturated reds.. here the colour is a little less 'red' than it actually appears...
plantnoobdude
Member
More and more of the Pantanal seem to be converting? I have seen this raised a few times over at different forums by different users, and it seems no one really has an answer for it….
Anyway, tank looks quite good, and those tonina are growing in. I notice the Macrandra missing? I will miss it, a beautiful but very demanding plant….
yes, I think Pantanal conversion happens to 1 out of 15 stems totally random. they grow so fast, including their root system, it must cause them a lot of stress to be constantly trimmed and uprooted. Luckily I have sufficient new plants from sideshoots to replace those that convert - for the time being, I'll keep the converted plants and see what they do.
I replaced the Macandra Narrow Leaf which was too messy with Macandra Mini hoping that it would grow more neatly but Macandra Mini is a whole lot harder to grow than Narrow leaf, so I gave up and anyway, I needed the space for the Crypt Flamingo which is not doing so well leaf wise - but when I replanted it, i noted that rhizome, root system was much larger are quite healthy
Weekly update
Speaking of the Rotala Macandra, I actually had 2 stems hidden away and one of them is doing well colour wise (left hand side). However, I plan to keep it strictly at 2 stems and trim and toss everything else, so as to not crowd out the Tonina. As the Sphaerocarpa grows taller, the leaves are colouring up but the lower leaves are in bad shape, guess I'll trim and replant soon.
Not sure if its that clear from the photos, but the converted Pantanal/Meta are sprouting lots of new sideshoots, so its just a constant cycle of replanting new sideshoots and then tossing the converted stems.
Some BBA on the Eriocaulons. Will sort those out shortly. Next to the Tonina there is a L.Aromatica 'Mini'. I'm just testing it to see if it lives up to its "Mini' name.
Oh yeah, got to find time to change the broken Lily pipe..... 🙂
Unfortunately, that's the fate of all glass lily pipes and why I got rid of them. The constant care-fullness one needs to have each time you clean them was too much for me. Switched to stainless and plastic. Glass lily's are overrated IMO.
Please change that broken lily pipe though, I am afraid to see some blood soup in your next update. 🤕
This happens to meta as well but I can tell you with confidence it's not a trimming issue. I have trimmed both meta and pantanal religiously on a weekly basis for nearly half a year and the only moment I had them revert (or beginning to revert) was when I had CO2 issues and when I dramatically reduced ferts. That's all.
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GreggZ
Member
I agree with you. I've kept the same group of Pantanal going for about 7 years now. The only times I have seen this is when testing the lower limits of ferts. IMO it's a deficiency of some type. Like you said can be CO2 deficiency as well. Mine get hacked down once or twice or week for years and they don't blink.
Weekly Update
Spent some time trimming and replanting. The converted Pantanals are actually doing pretty ok, so I moved them to the back and will harvest more sideshoots. As it is, I am getting enough new sideshoots to replace the converted stems.
After seeing plantnoobdude's Toninas, I've moved my in-tank CO2 diffuser right next to them, maybe it will help! There are also new Tonina sideshoots appearing so I want to hurry them along so that I can replant and get more density.🌪️🌪️🌪️
The A.Pedicatellas are actually looking rather decent.... There's a very green one amongst them, that is a new stem from another hobbyist, as an experiment to see whether there is any difference, whereas everything else came from the original 2 stems in my tank.
plantnoobdude
Member
By the way, our tonina are different. Yours are lotus blossom mine are just fluviatilis.
So ya, yours will always stay small and less dense.
The pedicellata are looking better! That Pantanal is just a stunning!
Looks like algae is getting under control as well?
Yeah I was about to say, your older plant growth looks a lot less green (in a good way)!
Tank is looking really nice @erwin123 😍
Thanks! The in-tank UV lamp for a few hours straight after water change and glass cleaning seems to work. I've been getting less and less algae on the glass since then.
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