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mark's 1st planted tank . update

hairgrass has been in around a week now . shot up in height really quickly , so a couple of days ago i gave it an aggressive trim , down to around 1cm . its already back up to about triple that in height again , more so in places , and ive started to see the 1st few runners . the little tiny stems of rotala rotundifolia have gained around 2 or 3 inches height in the week too . got another couple of pots of hairgrass coming , jut to fill out a slightly larger area , and some anubias nana for the wood .

battling a slight hair algae problem though , have been for a week or 2 . nothing major , but enough to bother me . i know i could probably get some algae eating fish to keep it down , but id rather eliminate the cause instead . at the moment im fighting it by keeping co2 high , lighting period short , maunal removal and extra water changes . may try some excel too .
 
still struggling with what i believe to be poor distribution of co2 . hygro is melting badly , hair algae choking the hairgrass . going to be making some drastic changes to my co2 injection/distribution method next week , using a 1200 lph powerhead to drive a co2 reactor and back out into the tank via a full length spraybar along the rear wall to try and get even flow / distribution . on a plus side though got a cracking anubias nana fro AE today :)

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anubia by mark pettican, on Flickr
 
in my ongoing struggle with co2 ive had a fair few plants melt away . lost the hygrophila , blyxa and limnophila . slowly making changes bit by bit , and i think im slowly getting there . not quite nailed it yet , but things seem to be slowly turning a corner . i know the pump is an eyesore , but thats temporary until i get an external pump to run the reactor . looking a bit bare at the moment , but ive got some moss coming from a member here for the wood , a big tub of riccia coming for the foreground , and il get a few more plants soon enough . on the plus side the anubias nana added just under a fortnight ago has sent out 2 new leaves , and flowered .

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IMG_0158 by mark pettican, on Flickr

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IMG_0164 by mark pettican, on Flickr
 
added more plants yesterday , only to have a nightmare setback today . the powerhead slid down the glass overnight and blasted aquasoil and plants everywhere . the bacopa in particular took a real battering . all looking a bit jungle-like and chaotic at the moment . really need to get rid of that ugly powerhead , and get an external pump .

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IMG_0191 by mark pettican, on Flickr
 
for better circulation over the tank you can do 1 thing.
if you use diffuser place a small powerhead just over the diffuser.the co2 which will come out from diffuser will mix with powerhead and run all over the tank.actually i do the same thing and get a good result of it.
 
co2 is injected via an external reactor , ( powered by that powerhead) and fed into the tank via the full length spraybar .
 
is spray bar really needed for planted tank?good water circulation is good to combat with algae.you may use the same without spray bar.
 
i was having poor growth , along with hair algae problems and even some green spot algae on the front glass . since swapping to the reactor / spraybar setup ive had no gsa and hair algae is all but gone . id say that speaks volumes about its benefit ;)
 
good to hear about your planted tank.all the best.


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