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Golden rock- 4 weeks growth, background plants added 5/8/08

Re: Work in progress - 2 weeks growth, fish and shrimp added

Thanks Sam, I think it's getting there now. I need to get on top of the algae before it gets worse but thanks to ceg4048's advice above I reckon I can do that.

I have more Downii, some Hyrgo Corymbosa Red and a few others on the way from GreenMachine (what a good bunch to deal with). I should have an update after this weekend.
 
Re: Work in progress - 2 weeks growth, fish and shrimp added

Guys,
Remember that all factors which negatively affect plant health produces ammonia ejection into the water column. So whether this is poor CO2 or poor nutrition caused by circulation/distribution issues this will result in NH4 ejection. In addition NH4 ejection can be caused by non plant related issues such as rotting organic debris or dead bodies. While filtration and bacterial populations ultimately reduce the ammonia, algal spores sense this temporary increase. In the presence of high light algal spores will be stimulated to bloom even after the bacterial populations have removed the offending NH4.

This is why the credo of EI is based on techniques to address the optimization of plant health first.

Cheers,
 
Re: Work in progress - 2 weeks growth, fish and shrimp added

Well, my plant order from GreenMachine arrived exactly as promised, (Jim, 2 days from your door to Galway by DHL, for future reference)
I've the alarm set for early in the morning to get them in. 2 really healthy looking pots of Downii, Hygro Corymbosa Red, Nessaea whatever-you-call-it!, and a few more.

Pics tomorrow.
 
Golden Rock - 4 weeks growth, Background planted 5/8/08

So, this week i've learned:

1. Don't assume your filter is working properly just because it's only 3 weeks old. If you do you risk not discovering the 6 inches of filter floss wrapped around the impeller reducing flow to very little. Lesson learned.

2. As pointed out by Clive above, drop-checkers are not to be trusted. Your fish may well by perfectly happy with higher CO2 levels. Turn that needle valve and find out. If they're not, add a small powerhead for more surface agitation and turn up the CO2 slightly! Seems to work.

3. Disturbing Aquasoil kills shrimp. I assume the ammonia released was the reason I lost 6 Amanos in 5 minutes when I started re-planting. :? The cherrys are fine though.

Anyway, 6 hours yesterday finally got my Green Machine plant order planted. Nessea pedicellata & Ludwigia inclinata var. Cuba added to fill out the background. 2 pots of Downii added to the foreground.
i removed all the E. Tennellus and went through each plant removing any signs of Algae. It took ages but had to be done. It's shooting out runners all over the place too. 😀
Pruned and re-planted the Stargrass which has gone mad in the last week. Removed the Limnophilia Ses. as it wasn't looking right. Added the Blyxa that milla kindly sent me. (It has died back a bit but looks like it'll recover ok)
My solitary surviving stem of E. Stellata seems to be recovering, I must be doing something right.

I'm dosing Tropica Liquid Ferts daily for the moment as I have some left.
Lights are on from 10am to 5 pm @ 2 x 39W
CO2 on from 9am to 2pm singing through the diffuser. The fish are starting to get a little stressed now at 1pm so I may have to review this level of CO2.

AlgaefreeEchTennellus.jpg

EStellata.jpg

Rams.jpg

Snowball.jpg

Swapped my 5 inch Royal Plec with my LFS for this beauty.

fulltank2.jpg

fulltank3.jpg

enoughCO2.jpg

queryplant.jpg

Anyone know what the plant in the centre is?

tank1.jpg
 
Thanks guys. I'm sure with the help I'm getting from everyone on here I'll be able to keep it looking like that.. 😉
 
CO2 tubing popped off the diffuser while I was away for 2 days. :evil: Brown diatom stuff all over the glass. Not happy.
BBA is improving slightly. Crypt Parva seems to have dirty leaves, doesn't look like algae but I suspect it is.

Slowly getting on top of the quantities of trace to dose. Had Iron shortage for a while that seems to have improved.

Lost all my Amano shrimp too, a dozen in the space of 24 hours. Could they be that sensitive to the AE trace mix? or Flourish Excel? I have 20 or so Cherries who were unaffected.

Next few days will be Clean/Water Change/Dose/Repeat, I fear.

Seeing huge growth in the Stargrass and the E. Tennelus. The downii seems to be very slow to settle in. The longest planted ones are starting to look healthy in the last couple of days but the rest looks rough.
 
lost 10 fish last night, including 5 of my 7 blue rams, 3 rummy nose and 2 lemon tetra. No obvious cause apparent.
I thought the gas might have come on hours too early and stressed them too much.
The powerhead that gives surface agitation and runs in parallel with the CO2 didn't come on, but I can't see how that would have caused them to die in the hour before I discovered the powerhead fault and recified it.
I've added an airstone and upped the CO2 slightly to compensate. I'd prefer to waste cheap CO2 in in surface losses than lose more fish.

On the plus side (I think), all the equipment and plants for Tank no 2, my first public display tank (In my GF's GP practice) was ordered today from GreenMachine. more on that one later.
 
Will do, Sam. I'll be starting it on Saturday. Pics will follow.

The deaths still have me puzzled, all the other fish are perfectly healthy with no signs of stress. There's no inter-species aggression of any kind and all the dead fish are stock I've had for ages, 3 years in the case of the lemon tetras. The Blue Rams all came from the same brood and the remaining ones are 100% healthy and happy.

Has anyone ever had any problems with fish being sensitive to the AE trace mix?
 
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