Day after and water is nice and super clear again, no signs of a surface film either
Figured I should do a photo update of the plant growth, as this marks the end of trying 0.5 Fe + traces dosing to try to fix the chlorosis issue.
It definitely didnt work, and going higher than full EI seems like the wrong direction to go in to try to fix the issue.
On the menu for this week is nothing actually,
@Happi suggested letting the tank run for one week with no micros.
Im not entirely sure what the purpose for it is, maybe to let the plants clear some of the stored traces they may have taken in, giving us more of a clean slate next week?
I dont think its going to cause death and devastation so why not.
After that I will start out pretty low, final amount still to be decided but my latest thinking was something like 0.06 Fe weekly just to see what will happen, but with a different ratio of the other traces that I think might be beneficial.
It would be swell if that works right out of the gate, but usually life isnt entirely that simple so I expect to have to tweak a little bit around on total dose and ratios until I find something that works for my specific water.
I still have no clear idea why I am having this issue and why not more people are having the same sort of troubles. Maybe that my tap water is fairly soft and pretty clear of anything has something to do with it. I remember the time I straight up melted my population of floating plants and almost killed my fish using a copper based snail medication, while the majority of the forum use this medication without any problems. That most members on the forum are UK based and the parameters of most UK tap water being quite different to mine is something I keep in mind. It might also have nothing to do with that, who knows.
Onto the more interesting part, pictures
It really is true what they say, about plant growth with CO2. Even when plant growth is bad, its still pretty damn good as long as the plants have access to their fix of carbon.
So chlorosis or not, most of the plants are developing pretty nicely and I am enjoying taking pictures of them (even though they are only in focus 1/5 of the time
).
Rotala OJ is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, the color when it gets close to the light is lovely. This second pic is a replanted top. For some extra fun, ask me again in a year or two what I think about rotalas and their growth rates
The rotalas in the little pot were evicted because they were doing too well. My two least sh*tty Pantanal stems are now living here. They are very small and stunt easily. A shoot of Golden has moved in to be their new friend.
Even more of the strange symptoms on the Stargrass. It almost makes me wonder if its not a iron issue but another trace. Patches and banding and showing up in patterns I wouldnt normally think of as iron deficiency/issue.
Ludwigia sp. Marilia looks best in a thick group, and its really loving the brighter spot. If anyone gets this plant, which I highly recommend as it is quite unique, definitely put it in your brightest spot.
Actually, now that I think of it, the leaf shedding has decreased a lot after I moved it here..
Big Cuba and sidekick is doing pretty well despite the chlorosis.
Super Red could probably have even better color, but man the light increase is really doing it for this plant, everything else seems to be secondary.
The rest of the Cuba is bulking up, cant wait to trim off the old growth on these, just need a bit more time.
Had a big cleanup of the Golden, from my limited experience 3 stems with good flow have much better odds than 30 puny miserable shoots in a tight group. Felt counterintuitive throwing away much of the plant I want more of, but quality growth is the goal now. If I get a few stems to thrive then I can propagate from there. The Ammannia crassicaulis next to it is doing almost equally as badly, which I find quite impressive. I was growing this plant in pretty lovely form at times in low tech, but so far have not been able to in high tech. Definitely had its ugly twisted periods in low tech too though. Its time in high tech so far hasnt been the most stable, so I cant really blame it. I am trying to recover from my acute collectoritis, and upon looking over the plants I have and the plants I definitely want, it seems I might be getting rid of A. crassicaulis in the long run. Theres just a lot of orange plants in the works. Should I keep one stem or not? They would be really easy to get again.. Let me know what you think.
Pogostemon helferi and M. Guyana is getting ruthlessly hacked back on a regular basis, mostly to keep their relative happiness from blocking off the plants behind them. Its really not ideal to have happy bushy plants in front of the unhappy plants.. This whole corner needs a bit of rearranging, none of it went entirely the way I had planned. You know what they say, no battleplan survives contact with
the enemy real life. Actually just about none of the plan has worked out exactly the way I thought it would, but thats just how it goes. Almost all of these plants were new to me, I didnt know how they grow, whether they would do well or struggle, or what sort of trimming they like. So they way I see it, a little bit of getting-to-know is unavoidable.
Final shot of Tonina and Hydrocotyle grown under 0.5 Fe. The latter also got a really big hacking back so the growth was a little bit slowed, but still sufficient to see that its still pale.
Whenever I feel plants are too difficult I look into this wild little corner here where the crypts and little carpet plants hang out in merry wildness. Sure they have a bit of algae on some old leaves but all in all its pretty peaceful in this little corner, and the noodles like rummaging through the dense growth here. Towards the lower left, the crypt purchased as Queen Vandom has put out an interestingly marked new leaf, a pale silvery grey with green stripes.
FTS complete with reflection, watermarks, all that good stuff 😊 Im happy that the general amount of plantmass is increasing.
