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

AI0Q9979 06 oct 22 proc web.jpg

The 'haven't completed tank maintenance yet... 1 week flies by too fast' update

As you can guess by the wildly varying heights of the stem plants, I have been hacking stems down to size but I still have a long way to go... but I'm just going to post the photo. Trying to have a nice tank with nicely trimmed stems every week is impractical given my schedule 🙂

The latest addition (or re-addition, since I had grown them in my previous 60p), is Syngonathus Macrocaulon. I think they should go behind the A.Pedicatellas so I planted 2 stems there. I put one remaining stem in the front left of the tank just in case the area behind the Ammannias are too shaded. The Tonina Lotus Blossom are making good progress - the sideshoots should be ready for replanting soon!
 
erwin123 said:
Trying to have a nice tank with nicely trimmed stems every week is impractical given my schedule 🙂
Click to expand...

Plant colours are looking great.

Do you plan to cut the stems back and let sides shoots grow out to get a bushy growth form at any point, rather than individual straight stems?

Also, gotta say, that filter outlet gives me the heebie-jeebies every time I see it, you’ve really got to change that out before you slice yourself open!
 
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erwin123 said:
View attachment 195408

The 'haven't completed tank maintenance yet... 1 week flies by too fast' update

As you can guess by the wildly varying heights of the stem plants, I have been hacking stems down to size but I still have a long way to go... but I'm just going to post the photo. Trying to have a nice tank with nicely trimmed stems every week is impractical given my schedule 🙂

The latest addition (or re-addition, since I had grown them in my previous 60p), is Syngonathus Macrocaulon. I think they should go behind the A.Pedicatellas so I planted 2 stems there. I put one remaining stem in the front left of the tank just in case the area behind the Ammannias are too shaded. The Tonina Lotus Blossom are making good progress - the sideshoots should be ready for replanting soon!
Click to expand...
That bacopa sg is looking mighty fine.
 
Thanks for the inputs, I am quite happy that algae is under control. I still have algae here and there, but it isn't bothering me, as long as the plants are happy 🙂

(1) I am not so good in trimming/cutting - my attempts at allowing stems to branch to create a 'bush' usually end up in a bunch of stems that crowd other stems out. Individual stems are probably the easiest to maintain for now but certainly, I do want to experiment more with using sideshoots to create a bushy growth.
(2) I just received my pipe cutter from amazon, so now I can cut my Neo Aquario v2 lily pipe to size, so I will be installing that shortly.
(3) The Bacopa SG is a fast grower and the new growth is really nice. Usually the bottom-most leaf next to the substrate has some algae (it probably doesn't get much light as well so the plant might have decided its a useless leaf) - so what I have been doing when trimming and replanting is to strip out all the leaves at the bottom - if the leaf nearest the substrate is going to have algae, it might as well be removed before I replant.
 
erwin123 said:
Thanks for the inputs, I am quite happy that algae is under control. I still have algae here and there, but it isn't bothering me, as long as the plants are happy 🙂

(1) I am not so good in trimming/cutting - my attempts at allowing stems to branch to create a 'bush' usually end up in a bunch of stems that crowd other stems out. Individual stems are probably the easiest to maintain for now but certainly, I do want to experiment more with using sideshoots to create a bushy growth.
(2) I just received my pipe cutter from amazon, so now I can cut my Neo Aquario v2 lily pipe to size, so I will be installing that shortly.
(3) The Bacopa SG is a fast grower and the new growth is really nice. Usually the bottom-most leaf next to the substrate has some algae (it probably doesn't get much light as well so the plant might have decided its a useless leaf) - so what I have been doing when trimming and replanting is to strip out all the leaves at the bottom - if the leaf nearest the substrate is going to have algae, it might as well be removed before I replant.
Click to expand...
It's probably a different issue besides the lower leaves being shaded, as long as some parts of the plant is receiving adequate light: 120 Gal Dutchy Freestyle - Now with 35% less water volume!.
 
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AI0Q9992 12 oct 22 proc web.jpg
Weekly update.
I got my pipe cutter in the mail so i could cut the Neo Aquario pipe to the correct length in order to replace my broken Lily pipe.
plant-wise, nothing else to report except that the Erio Vietnam looks like its due for a trim
 
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AI0Q9999 20 oct 22 proc web.jpg
Weekly update
Did a bit of maintenance /trimming. Basically I spread my maintenance over 2-3 weeks so I haven't finished yet but UKAPS journal section requires obligatory FTS shots so here goes 🙂
The Tonina Lotus Blossoms are looking good - the sideshoots are still attached to the main stems but by next week, they should be ready to be replanted. I hacked the Erios down to size, hopefully that will be good for a month.
The M. 'Roraima' is looking good, I'm actually preferring them to the R. Wallichii because they have 'stronger' stems. Wallichii stems are not as strong and they are easily blown about by water movement if they get too tall. I would like to get some M Tuberculatum to compare them to Roraima but I haven't seen Tuberculatum in my LFS for ages....

I'm so-so about the Rotala Orange Juice... they have the habit of bending that some Rotala species are prone to doing unlike the Rotala Blood Red which is largely upright. Anyway once the Syngonanthus reaches a suitable size I will need to remove the orange jucie to make room for them.
 
erwin123 said:
Anyway once the Syngonanthus reaches a suitable size I will need to remove the orange jucie to make room for them.
Click to expand...
If I may make a placement suggestion?
Purple Bacopa is a really beautiful plant, and I see you have a fair bit of it in the tank spread out from left to right. Because of how the internodes are spaced a little further apart on this species, I think it could look even better if placed in a deeper group front to back, that way the plant group overlap the internodes and looks fuller and thicker. Since they grow relatively slowly you could probably also maintain a sloped group pretty easily. Maybe this would clear up a bit of room for the Syns too 😊
 
thanks, yes I should try some sort of front to back Dutch inspired street. I plan to do some major plant moving so that the Syns have space, i should also try the Toninas into some sort of front-back street as well.
 
Hi Erwin,

Just been going back through some of your tank updates it is amazing how ammania golden transforms into such beauty after a period of difficulty. I remember our discussions on this plant and I have to say you really do have a good feel for how to treat it to get the best out of it.

Tank is looking great 🙂 glad to here you are considering a dutch style with it!! Look forward to seeing how it transforms 🙂
 
AI0Q0004 02 nov 22 proc web.jpg

This is the obligatory UKAPS FTS because I haven't updated for 2 weeks. 🙂

Unfortunately I am too busy these few weeks to do any sort of proper maintenance.... before this shot, many of the stems had hit the water surface already. so they were in dire need of hacking down.
Today I removed the Rotala OJ and several stems of Rotala Wallichii, and moved some of the Bacopa SG to try to do a front to back arrangement (long way from finishing that).
I plan the swap the positions of the Tonina & L.Senegalensis so that there is better green/red contrast... when I manage to find some time....

One area of concern - I bought 2 stems of what were supposed to be A. Pedicatella Golden but they are still very green. I thought I was sold a non Golden variant but while doing maintenance, I discovered some fresh sideshoots from existing yellow stems that looked rather green.... I'll let them grow bigger and get more light exposure to see if they turn yellow.
 
AI0Q0014 16 nov 22 proc web.jpg
Fortnightly update - because I have moved to trimming plants fortnightly after they become really overgrown to save time. And I don't mind the overgrown look actually.... 🙂 Swapped positions of the Tonina Lotus Blossom and Ludwigia Senegelansis. Other than that nothing to report.
 
erwin123 said:
View attachment 197812
Fortnightly update - because I have moved to trimming plants fortnightly after they become really overgrown to save time. And I don't mind the overgrown look actually.... 🙂 Swapped positions of the Tonina Lotus Blossom and Ludwigia Senegelansis. Other than that nothing to report.
Click to expand...
You’ve really improved the grouping. Tank is looking stunning, well done!
 
AI0Q0023 29 nov 22 proc web.jpg
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..... 😛
 
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AI0Q0027 24 dec proc web.jpg

AI0Q0031 24 dec 22 proc web.jpg


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.🎆🌅
 
AI0Q0040 proc 9 jan 23 web.jpg

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.
 
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