Went to Green Aqua in Budapest the other week and I have a long way to go before its as clean and algae free as their tanks, but always good to see whats possible, had a good chat with the guys and with the limited time I had as wife will only hang about so long, three things I took away which might help me
1. Root Tabs ! I have been meaning to get some but never got round to it so got some ADA ones and stuck them in a week ago.
2. Water temp. They run their tanks at 22 degrees Celsius in the showroom. Tried to lower my tanks temps but even with the heaters off they go above 23-24 but 'winter is coming' 😉
3. Snails in all their tanks
Plus non of their tanks was over 12 months old, its been 18 months since I started my DSM 😱
Was very tempted by the ADA RGB solar LED lights the colours was amazing, Good job they wasn't in stock. Same they don't dim either
Its been a month since I trimmed the carpet and tank has not been looking so happy, micro swords dying back with algea due to trimming! Hygrophila pinnatifida was doing well but algae and BBA was increasing on the anubias due to the increase light, but the MHG is coming back and roots improving in substrate too, so turned the light down and the Hygrophila pinnatifida took a turn for the worse after a couple of weeks so turned the light back up, I think its starting to recover but the Anubis will take the hit with the extra light, so I've took some Pogostemon helferi and squeezed it into the anubias to provide some shade, not sure if I like it or not? Also gave the Trident a good trim back to help the flow and its coming back already. Rocks are in need of a good clean but quite a few can be taken out and soaked in weak bleach them primed.
Pest snails doing well so I had planned to sort them out with eSHa Gastropex which I had done a test run on my 16l fluval single dose wasn't so effective so double dosed and it sorted the snails out and shrimp was fine so ordered a job lot to sort it. But when I did the repeat dose 14days later a lost a few shrimp and some fish I had in quarantine in the tank at the time also! so was cautious to dose my 50l and 500l tanks to clear the pest out! So decided to embrace the snails as 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' after all and detritus and algae is the worst enemy after all, so ordered some Ramshorns snails and dropped them in the tank also
Also boosted the clean up crew by Amanos x10, Tiger Ottos x2 and SAE x3 (small)
Got my Turkey baster and well put it this way I had to do two 50% WC after using it and my filter was full of detritus like never before. I could of caught some water off whilst using the baster clipped to a hose but it would off been to much of a water spillage hazard IMO, so it was a case of blast the carpet etc get the detritus into suspension and let the filter remove it, there was LOADS! which is bad and good, bad it was there in the first place, but good that I have identified a major fault in my maintenance 😳 Expected really, as with two thirds of tank being relatively the same level the detritus settles at the lowest point and thats 2/3 of tank, I should of took some pics but was gobsmacked at what was coming up, its going to take a few WC's and baster to removed whats needed IMO
Also have an Ehiem skim on full time.
Slightly lowered the target pH also so pH drop in 36mins and DC still yellish green, think I've been a bit OTT with the [CO2] trying to battle the algae but hopefully the reinforced clean up crew will help
1. Root Tabs ! I have been meaning to get some but never got round to it so got some ADA ones and stuck them in a week ago.
2. Water temp. They run their tanks at 22 degrees Celsius in the showroom. Tried to lower my tanks temps but even with the heaters off they go above 23-24 but 'winter is coming' 😉
3. Snails in all their tanks
Plus non of their tanks was over 12 months old, its been 18 months since I started my DSM 😱
Was very tempted by the ADA RGB solar LED lights the colours was amazing, Good job they wasn't in stock. Same they don't dim either
Its been a month since I trimmed the carpet and tank has not been looking so happy, micro swords dying back with algea due to trimming! Hygrophila pinnatifida was doing well but algae and BBA was increasing on the anubias due to the increase light, but the MHG is coming back and roots improving in substrate too, so turned the light down and the Hygrophila pinnatifida took a turn for the worse after a couple of weeks so turned the light back up, I think its starting to recover but the Anubis will take the hit with the extra light, so I've took some Pogostemon helferi and squeezed it into the anubias to provide some shade, not sure if I like it or not? Also gave the Trident a good trim back to help the flow and its coming back already. Rocks are in need of a good clean but quite a few can be taken out and soaked in weak bleach them primed.
Pest snails doing well so I had planned to sort them out with eSHa Gastropex which I had done a test run on my 16l fluval single dose wasn't so effective so double dosed and it sorted the snails out and shrimp was fine so ordered a job lot to sort it. But when I did the repeat dose 14days later a lost a few shrimp and some fish I had in quarantine in the tank at the time also! so was cautious to dose my 50l and 500l tanks to clear the pest out! So decided to embrace the snails as 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' after all and detritus and algae is the worst enemy after all, so ordered some Ramshorns snails and dropped them in the tank also
Also boosted the clean up crew by Amanos x10, Tiger Ottos x2 and SAE x3 (small)
Got my Turkey baster and well put it this way I had to do two 50% WC after using it and my filter was full of detritus like never before. I could of caught some water off whilst using the baster clipped to a hose but it would off been to much of a water spillage hazard IMO, so it was a case of blast the carpet etc get the detritus into suspension and let the filter remove it, there was LOADS! which is bad and good, bad it was there in the first place, but good that I have identified a major fault in my maintenance 😳 Expected really, as with two thirds of tank being relatively the same level the detritus settles at the lowest point and thats 2/3 of tank, I should of took some pics but was gobsmacked at what was coming up, its going to take a few WC's and baster to removed whats needed IMO
Also have an Ehiem skim on full time.
Slightly lowered the target pH also so pH drop in 36mins and DC still yellish green, think I've been a bit OTT with the [CO2] trying to battle the algae but hopefully the reinforced clean up crew will help
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and so easy to move around and take pot out for trimming stems and replanting. some might call it cheating but I call it conman sense and Fun with instant impact. Even thinking about having areas where the pot can be sunken into the carpet so you cant see the pot with the carpet then just carefully lift it out for trimming or a different plant, The future is 'Pots' IMO 
Macros and Micros for six days day rest then start ferts cycle again. Did a 60-70% WC today
