ElleDee
Member
So! I had some unexpected family stuff that demanded my focus for the past few weeks (thankfully all is well now, whew) and haven’t paid this tank much attention at all. This bad boy got zero (0) water changes since the end of October, much less any pruning. I do not think it was smart exactly to leave a new tank to fend for itself, but these things happen.
All in all, it could be worse! Besides the general instability that goes along with a new setup, the soil was a huge unknown with regard to the production of organics, but given the lack of water changes I am surprised things are holding up as well as they are. I mean, clearly there is an excess of organics in the water and the algae situation is not great, but it’s not a toxic soup of melting plants under a thick layer of algae, you know? With a few exceptions, the plants have done a good job getting established and the new growth is staying pretty clean. I really can’t complain.
Let’s get into the trouble spots though. I even took a few pictures. This is what I started with:
Grody. After I cleaned off the glass, the most obvious problems is the BBA in the front center and front left of the tank.
It’s unfortunate that the worst area is so prominent, and one that was a troublesome spot for me in Biding Time as well. I think it’s the combination of high flow from the spraybars and low plant mass/high light that makes it susceptible. I have a bunch of Crytocoryne ‘Lucens’ and Lilaeopsis along the front of the glass that is really getting hammered, as well as the older leaves on slow growers in high flow areas. Hopefully it can be combated with consistent maintenance, but I bet it’s going to take a while. I didn’t prioritize dealing with the BBA in Biding Time and never got it completely defeated, and I really hope I’ll manage better this time around.
But other areas look pretty good and the plant mass of the tank has greatly increased. And even the infested plants are growing, so I’m not counting them out by any means. Most of the frogbit settled on the right third of the tank and it appears to have really reigned in the algae on that side, though it's a bit too shady for some species. The lower stems of Bacopa caroliniana on the right and Hottonia palustris are losing leaves and probably ought to be moved. My downoi is also leggy, but it’s growing pretty clean and that makes me hesitant to move it right now.
There are a few truly unhappy plants. Blyxa japonica is the one species that might not make it. It’s never been incredibly happy in my tanks and I’ve killed it before in a new setup, so I'm not surprised it’s not found its groove here. Echinodorus horemanii ‘Red’ is still small but growing well, but ‘Fancy Twist’ is not settling in at all. It has made a flat rosette of small (stunted?) red leaves and the root zone seems to be slowly turning to mush. All the other plants are well rooted at this point, so I don’t suspect a substrate problem, but I don't know what its deal is either. I'm going to let it float for a while and see if that helps. Lastly, the aponogeton is handing in there, but has an unsightly bba problem; I’m considering removing it altogether. But it’s still putting out new leaves about as fast as I remove the old ones, so I’ll give it more time for now.
Among the plants that are doing well, Rotala ‘Blood Red’, star grass, and water sprite have been the real MPVs of the startup period. I know I have effused about ‘Blood Red’ before, but it’s the easiest keeper for me and has great color. The other two are well known very easy plants, but I am still impressed with their quick growth. I am also really loving Nymphaea zenkeri ‘Green’, but I’ve tucked it behind the wood and it’s hard to see. I wanted it to grow a little taller and peak out, but no such luck.
The crypts as a whole are looking sparse, but that’s as expected. I know I’m playing the long game with those guys and I look forward to complaining about having to control all the runners in about two years. We’re just not there yet. In the meantime I have done what I always do and tucked all sorts of stems higgledy-piggledy in between them and it’s chaotic and off plan. I wryly think of this as my “signature style”, but it's not what I'm going for long term. I am going to work to restore order, but it is working against my brain a bit, and admittedly now my priority is stabilizing/maturing the tank, not moving stuff around and leaving the crypts out in the open before they really come into their own.
I just did a massive water change and a first round of pruning. Big improvement with just a few hours of work!
I am still figuring out all the ways to optimize moving that much water around. I am using a garden hose to drain the tank now, because 0.75” created too much suction and didn’t give me enough time to clean. I added a gravel tube to the end and now it’s perfect. There are still some kinks to work on on the filling side, but my husband surprised me with hose attachment for a clamp he secretly designed about printed for me, along with something to go on the end of the hose to blunt the flow of the water. (Someone else designed that part and I can find out who should anyone need the link.) Even when my pump is running full speed the velocity of the water is very manageable and it's secure and hands free. The benefits of having a thoughtful design engineer spouse are very real!
I hope to move back to my scheduled twice a week water change until things look better (or at least once a week, sheesh), pruning more and more as I go. It may be better to do all the pruning at once, but I don’t have that much time in a single session, so I just address the most pressing stuff. Nothing needs serious pruning more than once a month anyway, so it works out. I am pretty optimistic about the tank overall, so I’ll start writing up the details on the substrate while I can still remember them.
All in all, it could be worse! Besides the general instability that goes along with a new setup, the soil was a huge unknown with regard to the production of organics, but given the lack of water changes I am surprised things are holding up as well as they are. I mean, clearly there is an excess of organics in the water and the algae situation is not great, but it’s not a toxic soup of melting plants under a thick layer of algae, you know? With a few exceptions, the plants have done a good job getting established and the new growth is staying pretty clean. I really can’t complain.
Let’s get into the trouble spots though. I even took a few pictures. This is what I started with:
Grody. After I cleaned off the glass, the most obvious problems is the BBA in the front center and front left of the tank.
It’s unfortunate that the worst area is so prominent, and one that was a troublesome spot for me in Biding Time as well. I think it’s the combination of high flow from the spraybars and low plant mass/high light that makes it susceptible. I have a bunch of Crytocoryne ‘Lucens’ and Lilaeopsis along the front of the glass that is really getting hammered, as well as the older leaves on slow growers in high flow areas. Hopefully it can be combated with consistent maintenance, but I bet it’s going to take a while. I didn’t prioritize dealing with the BBA in Biding Time and never got it completely defeated, and I really hope I’ll manage better this time around.
But other areas look pretty good and the plant mass of the tank has greatly increased. And even the infested plants are growing, so I’m not counting them out by any means. Most of the frogbit settled on the right third of the tank and it appears to have really reigned in the algae on that side, though it's a bit too shady for some species. The lower stems of Bacopa caroliniana on the right and Hottonia palustris are losing leaves and probably ought to be moved. My downoi is also leggy, but it’s growing pretty clean and that makes me hesitant to move it right now.
There are a few truly unhappy plants. Blyxa japonica is the one species that might not make it. It’s never been incredibly happy in my tanks and I’ve killed it before in a new setup, so I'm not surprised it’s not found its groove here. Echinodorus horemanii ‘Red’ is still small but growing well, but ‘Fancy Twist’ is not settling in at all. It has made a flat rosette of small (stunted?) red leaves and the root zone seems to be slowly turning to mush. All the other plants are well rooted at this point, so I don’t suspect a substrate problem, but I don't know what its deal is either. I'm going to let it float for a while and see if that helps. Lastly, the aponogeton is handing in there, but has an unsightly bba problem; I’m considering removing it altogether. But it’s still putting out new leaves about as fast as I remove the old ones, so I’ll give it more time for now.
Among the plants that are doing well, Rotala ‘Blood Red’, star grass, and water sprite have been the real MPVs of the startup period. I know I have effused about ‘Blood Red’ before, but it’s the easiest keeper for me and has great color. The other two are well known very easy plants, but I am still impressed with their quick growth. I am also really loving Nymphaea zenkeri ‘Green’, but I’ve tucked it behind the wood and it’s hard to see. I wanted it to grow a little taller and peak out, but no such luck.
The crypts as a whole are looking sparse, but that’s as expected. I know I’m playing the long game with those guys and I look forward to complaining about having to control all the runners in about two years. We’re just not there yet. In the meantime I have done what I always do and tucked all sorts of stems higgledy-piggledy in between them and it’s chaotic and off plan. I wryly think of this as my “signature style”, but it's not what I'm going for long term. I am going to work to restore order, but it is working against my brain a bit, and admittedly now my priority is stabilizing/maturing the tank, not moving stuff around and leaving the crypts out in the open before they really come into their own.
I just did a massive water change and a first round of pruning. Big improvement with just a few hours of work!
I am still figuring out all the ways to optimize moving that much water around. I am using a garden hose to drain the tank now, because 0.75” created too much suction and didn’t give me enough time to clean. I added a gravel tube to the end and now it’s perfect. There are still some kinks to work on on the filling side, but my husband surprised me with hose attachment for a clamp he secretly designed about printed for me, along with something to go on the end of the hose to blunt the flow of the water. (Someone else designed that part and I can find out who should anyone need the link.) Even when my pump is running full speed the velocity of the water is very manageable and it's secure and hands free. The benefits of having a thoughtful design engineer spouse are very real!
I hope to move back to my scheduled twice a week water change until things look better (or at least once a week, sheesh), pruning more and more as I go. It may be better to do all the pruning at once, but I don’t have that much time in a single session, so I just address the most pressing stuff. Nothing needs serious pruning more than once a month anyway, so it works out. I am pretty optimistic about the tank overall, so I’ll start writing up the details on the substrate while I can still remember them.
