With the holiday frenzy over with, its a good time to update the journal.
The balance of my tank has shifted quite a lot, most of (although not all) the plants are growing better, but ive also had a quite large flush of algae of all kinds.
Including what looks like some types of brown algae, very peculiar to get this in a mature tank.
The algae selection includes BBA on leaves, green thread algae, brown algae smudges on the glass and on some leaves, and algae in the sand at the front.
Plus green spot algae on hardscape as well as at least three different kinds of strange funguseseses/fungi growing on select branches of the wood.
The algae flush doesnt seem to be passing on its own, so I will need to figure out what is causing it so I can fix it.
Unfortunately for me a lot of things were tweaked or added, so its not an easy task.
Here is the tank in all its crusty glory
My toadstools are growing well, they seem to have settled in and I think they will be on board for the long run.
Some of the leaves should really be trimmed off, but ive been wearing sweaters constantly and havent been bothered to roll up my sleeves yet 😁
On the rock to the right in the first pic is some dying Scapania undulata, I found it growing green and lush in a creek, however from my research and the state of this sample it doesnt seem like it can tolerate aquarium temperatures, even the modest 23 C my tank is running. Its a shame, its very pretty in the wild.
On the right in the second pic are various pebbles of mystery mosses, all of them got a heavy trim a few weeks ago, and any that had died were removed. Most of them are growing questionably and very stringy, although a couple are growing in a weeping fashion downwards. Aside from collecting the mosses, which is a very hands on process, the whole moss experiment is wonderfully low maintenance once they are in the tank. Its just a matter of waiting and seeing what happens. Right now im not convinced the project will be very successful, but does it really matter? I dont think so. Sometimes I just get the urge to try (and fail at) something on my own.
My wild caught fissidens species are not very happy.
Im quite sad about this. I was fairly confident that they would take but they are growing so stringy.
This is Fissidens bryoides before the trim. Decently green but very thin looking.
I gave it a trim hoping it would grow back more thickly, sometimes plants get confused when their growing conditions change drastically, and the initial growth is weird.
For most established aquarium mosses trimming is almost always good.
The wild Fissidens doesnt seem to think the same, algae has taken hold amongst it and the second batch of shoots are even more poorly than the first one.
Maybe it would have been wiser to replant the shoots from the first batch and discard the stuff under the netting. Its too late for that now, but I will probably try it next time. If the Fissidens fails I will try again with samples taken in the height of summer, the temperatures then should be much closer to aquarium temps than it was when I collected these ones right before the frost came.
My buces all seem happy, I can tell that they are getting more food now.
This is the Black Ventii in the center, its really hard to capture the beauty of this variety on camera, it reflects strongly with blue, green, and red iridescence.
The base color is a dark blackish green with new shoots a lovely olive color. I see I have two very dominant shoots now, I need to spread them out a bit more, otherwise they will stop the growth of the shaded shoots.
The iridescence is just under my relatively normal-spectrum lights. I have a pet dislike for sellers of buce who take pictures under extreme purple spectrum lights, making their buces look all kinds of crazy colors. Sure, yes they will look all purple and magical but it also makes your hand and your aquasoil look purple so who is really dealing with reality here?
My Fontinalis samples have finally made it through the netting, it seems the large nature of these species meant the shoots had a very hard time navigating through the holes.
They are due for a trim soon, otherwise I think they will grow very scraggly. I was planning to just chop off the tips and let them branch and regrow, but in light of the Fissidens maybe I would be better off replanting the shoots? I should definitely use a more open method of securing the moss if I do that. Then again it seems more vigorous than the Fissidens... Ill need to give it some more thought, please post what you think I should do in this case.
Pogostemon helferi has transitioned nicely from the weird 1-2-grow cup I got, although it could be a darker green and slightly more dense.
The Sagittaria is still happily trucking on, its a bit dirty but overall health is good and its spreading.
The two smudges on the glass is some of the new brown looking algae. Its not super easy to rub off, which I find interesting.
My substrate has turned into a total mess, with detritus, crud and poop everywhere. Simultaneously I have had an explosion in the amount of snails and shrimp. The snail explosion could probably be frightening to some, but I have chosen to take it as a sign of better tank health. When the tank was neglected for months over summer, the tank almost ran out of calcium, which is only a realistic possibility when you have fairly soft water to begin with. Meaning its not a real risk for most UK tap water users.
Im confident calcium was running very low as most of the Physa snails were getting very eroded shells and actually dying from it. The population didnt seem to be replacing the lost adults either. I also wasnt seeing any baby shrimp at all. Im hoping the snails will reach equilibrium soon, as right now they are absolutely everywhere. I hope they are earning their keep by keeping the tank clean. A while back, when I first introduced the Physa snails, I did notice an increase in tank cleanliness. It seems to me a factor that is often overlooked.
Another reason why the snails are booming is that I have rehomed some of the livestock. The two fishsticks were growing very large, and I felt they would be happier in a dedicated setup. They were feeling increasingly cramped and knocking loose a lot of plants or getting stuck while trying to navigate through the tank. A nice local fellow took them as well as Sir Snootenpoot. I was very upset to let the good Sir Snoot go, he had developed a real taste for Blyxa and other plants suddenly. He had a lot of personality and I will miss him.
The only stock in the tank now is ~6 Otocinclus cocama and ~13 Boraras brigittae, plus snails and shrimp.
I think a very light stocking is a good choice for my circumstances.
The fishsticks have probably been eating some of the snails as well as stirred up the sand, so I think their removal is one of the causes of the tanks dirty state.
I dont have anything that disturbs the substrate right now, I should maybe get a small shoal of corydoras again, but I want hastatus instead of pygmaeus and they are difficult to source. My otocinclus dont seem to like to be alone on the bottom, and are hiding a lot more.
Thread algae in the water column and a lot of BBA, shown here on the older leaves of the Bolbitis, although new leaves are wide and look healthy.
Nesaea/Ammannia is growing fairly straight but the stem and leaves are thinner than how I have grown it before.
Super Red is Super Unhappy, I havent the faintest clue what makes this plant tick to be honest. The only thing I know is that it really doesnt like to be trimmed in my tank, but that doesnt tell me a great deal.
I made homemade Osmocote root tabs with two balls of Osmocote covered in a ~2mm layer of clay, which I let air dry. I inserted a few of these root tabs around the Cryptocoryne striolata Tiger. This was a while ago, around the same time as the algae flush, and is a potential cause in my mind. The Blyxa seems quite a lot happier now, but if that is because of the root tabs, the removal of the snail that kept eating them or that they have simply just gotten properly rooted now, I wont be able to say.
The crypt is continuing its nonchalant indifference for now.
Hygrophila polysperma is regaining its size, although it is still looking a little red and sunburned.
Some other potential causes for the algae:
03.11.21 the front light was increased from 10% to 15% to ensure enough light to the plants at the very front, the part of the tank furthest from any lightsource.
The blue channel was increased to be the same level as the rest, instead of just a fraction.
20.11.21 I added the airstone and the diffuser, but this shouldnt contribute to algae unless CO2 levels were higher in the tank than in the atmosphere previously?
10.12.21 I had run out of ferts and mixed up a new batch with a general increase in fert levels based on plant responses.
My notes say "Plants seemed hungry under previous regime. Double dosed at the end, better but not perfect. Java ferns shedding leaves, hungry plants not taking off. TDS barely increasing. New recipe around 1/5 EI"
The autodoser is up and running again, very good for my consistency deficiency.
Dosing levels here for sake of consistency:
Macro weekly target:
6 ppm NO3
0.6 ppm PO4
6 ppm K
0.5 ppm Mg
Micro weekly target:
0.06 Fe DTPA
0.12 Fe EDTA
0.026 Mn
0.016 Zn
0.015 B
0.0021 Mo
0.0033 Cu
I think the changes in the light and/or the Osmocote are far more likely to be the cause of the algae than the increase in ferts.
I will change the light back and see if that fixes it, and if that doesnt do the trick I will consider trying to remove the root tabs.
Oh yeah and the pinnatifida keeled over and died again, sorry
@Karmicnull 
I cant grow this plant, I dont think it gets enough CO2 in this setup.
Scutariella has reappeared on the shrimp two times now. The first time was expected, since the parasite lays eggs inside the shrimp that hatch at a later point. The medication doesnt kill the eggs. But I see parasites on the shrimp again today, so I dosed a third round. I may need to do this in a proper controlled fashion rather than just dose whenever I see them reappear. I think I did it this stupid way because I was unsure of the correct interval. I may have been dosing slightly too late to prevent them from laying eggs again and then its an eternal merry go round unless I shorten the interval. I dont know when I dosed the second round, it appears I didnt write it down anywhere, shame on me.. The first dose was 20.11.21 and the third today, 01.01.22. The second dose was probably sometime mid december then.
I think that was most of it, wish you all a good new year and let me know your thoughts if you can 😊
Though I think the tank already looks awesome I don't think you really need it, and it's always great to just try things out. Your plants are looking great and really lush, even before the rescape. It all sounds super exciting and beautiful, can't wait to see the hardscape in place. 
I dont want to throw just any old moss into the tank, that seems pointless and a collossal waste of time, so all the ones I figured I could test have to at least have a relative that is ok underwater, otherwise there is no reason.
It might need some tweaking or something more drastic..
