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Libba's 60P

wow very nice growth! Do you know what is the GH level of your water ?

Thank you. I'm happy with the new growth. The internodes are much smaller and the leaves are much more purple. The stems I got looked pretty sad initially. I'm currently raising GH. Right now its at 8dGH and 0-1dKH. Syngo doesn't seem to mind the Ca and Mg.
 
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Yup, I suspect the Flowgrow database entry is wrong is saying that Gh and Kh should not exceed 5. Syngonanthus macrocaulon

My Gh is 6 and the Syntho is growing ok in my tank. Don't mind trying to increase it to 7-8. I read elsewhere that Bucelphandra also don't mind a bit of hardness.

Another thing about the flowgrow database entry in the link above is that it says you should only cut off the top 4cm and replant.... I always worry about cutting too short....
 
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The tank is going through some changes now. I've removed the driftwood and ripped out the glosso because I just wasn't happy with either of those. The carpet is now S Repens and Monte Carlo. I've planted some Tonina Fluviatilis in the back right corner. I recently topped the AR because I was getting algae due to insufficient water changes. Hopefully once the AR grows back and the Tonina grows the tank will be looking pretty good. Rotala Florida has been extremely slow growing but looks great.

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This plant was sold to me as Tonina Fluviatilis but it doesn't look like the images I see online of this plant. Is this a different varietal?
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I had a lot of decaying old leaves of staurogyne repens stuck underneath new growth. The old leaves were becoming a bit of an algae farm. Because the old growth was under the new growth it was impractical to try to trim it all out. I decided to trim the entire plant right down to the substrate and let it regrow from scratch. That was about a week ago and it's starting to show some new growth. I also reset the syngonanthus by cutting off the tops, discarding the bottom and replanting the tops. Rotala Blood Red and Monte Carlo were trimmed back too. Rotala Green will be replaced soon because I don't think it works well in this scape. Tonina Lotus Blossom and Rotala Florida growing slowly but healthily. AR mini is the only thing that isn't really doing great. New growth is a little crinkled and algae develops on its leaves quite quickly.

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Here's a video of me removing my Rotala Green in preparation for new plants. I find it really satisfying to watch for some reason so I uploaded the vid for any other freaks to enjoy:

 
Removed Rotala Green and AR mini. I didn't feel like the bushy appearance of the Green suited the tank's style. The AR hasn't been doing well since I increased my CaSO4 and MgSO4 dosing. I'm not saying its causal though, could be something else. But it went from being healthy and robust to really struggling.

I've added some Rotala Macrandra Green because I wanted a stem with a bronze-ish look. Also added some Tonina Fluviatilis to stick with the "soft water" theme. I might do eriocaulons at some point but they are a bit expensive. The other plant I'm trying is Ludwigia Sphaerocarpa. I don't see this plant used too much but Barr had it in his "Dutch something or other" and I wanted to give it a try. The plants aren't the most healthy so it'll take me a while to grow them out into a nice robust form. I'm gonna enter the tank in a local aquascaping comp in the next two months so hopefully I can get the tank close to its final form by then.

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Topped and replanted the rotala blood red. Put in some ADA bottom plus root tabs. Decided that its time to push down on the accelerator a bit and see what happens. Increased the light to 80% intensity for 4 hours of the photo period. I have a little bit of BBA showing up on equipment and substrate so I'm dosing Excel to hopefully combat this. Plant health seems good.

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Most Ludwigias can be trimmed to bush out and maintained nicely. The contrast between your reds and greens is nice🙂
 
those floridas. wow! any issues with droop or melt? @Libba

Nothing too significant. The oldest leaves do eventually droop and melt away but now that I'm at around 50ppm calcium this doesn't happen for quite a while. Growth occurs faster than the older leaves are dying off, so I'm able to maintain the plant pretty well with occasional topping. I'm gonna experiment some more with cutting the older stems right down to nothing and letting them regrow. Some of the younger stems now have a dozen nodes with the bottom leaves still intact.
 
Tank is just chugging along. Still trying to decide what to put in the back middle. I want to have a layer of green separating the Macrandra and the Sphaerocarpa. I'm thinking maybe some Rotala Indica and then a bush of HM behind that. I have a pinch of HM growing in the glass so I can see how it looks without committing to growing it in my substrate and then needing to rip it out if I change my mind. Trying to limit the replanting and removing of plants wherever possible to avoid disturbing root tabs.
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