At long last, an update.
I've had a couple of massive work projects that have robbed me of pretty much all my free time (anything up to 16hr days, 7 days a week) for a couple of months or so, and not only have I not had time to update the journal, I've barely had time to do water changes, let alone any other deep water chores. But we're getting back on track now.
I'm really pretty happy with the plant growth over the last couple of months.
The Crypts have filled out nicely.
I think they've lost a little of their brown colour, and I suspect that may be down to light levels. (I assume it's the same as red plants in that they need a lot of light to maintain their non-green colour.) If I trim the Vallis and Wisteria, hopefully that will help as they are reducing the amount of light that can get to the Crypts.
It has amused me (at my own expense) that Crypt Wendtti usually seems to be sold as a mid-ground plant, as having a stupidly deep tank, for me it's very much a foreground plant.
Equally the Amazon Swords really aren't a background plant for me. Not to suggest they haven't grown well, as some are over 12” high and only have a couple of damaged leaves.
The Swords that I feared had died definitely have. So I think there is room for a few more in the near future. Having seen the all plants grow, I now have a much better idea of how many to order.
I mention the damaged leaves because they have highlighted yet another reason to
not have a tank this deep and narrow, and why I am very glad to be aiming for a low maintenance tank: dealing with the plants is an utter nightmare
🙄. There are two factors : 1) even with long scissors / tweezers, I get wet very nearly to my arm pit if I need to get to the bottom and 2) the refraction caused by 2.5 ft of water means it's virtually impossible to get a sense of where things are in the tank when I'm shoulder deep in it. This was exemplified when I tried to trim a dead leaf from the Swords and in the process, uprooted a large chunk of Vallis ... Which was then a complete ***** to replant.
🙁
However, the Vallis is definitely a success story.
If memory serves me, there was about a foot between the tallest leaves and the surface of the water when I started. Now there is more than a foot of Vallis across the surface, the leaves having reached the top some time ago and trimming is definitely on the cards. The plants have also sent out some really strong looking runners which are in turn starting to grow leaves.
I've long wanted to steer clear of the ubiquitous Vallis curtain at the back of the tank, and were it not for the shelf and the Wisteria, there is something approaching that already. But the shelf does provide a great natural barrier for that - an unexpected bonus.
The Wisteria has certainly done what it was supposed to, as a fast growing plant, and the taller stems reached the top of the tank a few weeks ago.
As the picture shows, the leaf growth is almost exclusively in the top 12” of stem, with the lower part being almost completely bare, except for runners. I suspect I should have pruned all this quite a while ago to promote leaf growth lower down, and given the rate of growth and number of runners, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Wisteria take over the tank, given the opportunity. However, it has long been the plan to use it to help establish the tank quickly, and then replace it, so maybe it's days are numbered and it will be coming to a Sale/Swap page near you very soon.
The Hairgrass has done OK.
It's not the carpet I would like,
yet, and having read about such foreground plants before I started, without pressurised CO2, the odds of achieving that quickly are supposedly slim. But there has been significant growth in terms of height and there have been plenty of runners, some of which have set themselves free and floated off, but I'm pretty sure others have taken root. So hopes are still high. As with the rest of the tank, I haven't got round to pruning the grass yet, but it's on the cards and hopefully that will promote lateral growth. The down side is the Wisteria seems to have inhibited the growth of the Hairgrass on top of the shelf, but as mentioned, the Wisteria is coming out so hopefully the Hairgrass will regain some territory.
In writing this journal entry I've went back to review the last batch of pics I posted, and the main thing that steuck me is how well the mosses have grown in.
Getting the mosses into the tank was another example of why tall tanks are ****.
Having tied the it on, as mentioned in a previous update, I was hoping the cotton holding it on would last till it had secured itself. Which of course it didn't. So I had the painful task of securing it a second time with everything still in the tank. Redoing the shelf was going to be a major PITA so I decided not to do that and hope for the best.
And thankfully I seem to have got away with it!
As with the Vallis and Wisteria, I think the moss would benefit form some pruning, though I am not confident how much yet. I think the Taiwan moss just needs thinning a bit on the right hand wood, but it is a bit of a mess on the shelf. I think the latter may not look so bad if trimmed along with some light pruning to the Hairgrass. We shall see.
Since I'm not using pressurised CO
2, in the hope of kick starting growth, quite a while ago I tried administering liquid carbon. I was warned (somewhere in this jounal IIRC) that it may be detrimental to the Vallis, and I think there may have been some melt, so I stopped using it. Not using it doesn’t seem to have done any harm, nor has there been any long term damage to the Vallis. I also ran out of ferts, and have just relied on the natural chemistry of fish and plants to look after that side of thigs. Obviously it's not perfect, but it's low tech and not a disaster by any means.
That said, in my last proper update I mentioned a little GSA. Not surprisingly this spread, but only really to the glass.
A lack of time for tank maintenance saw quite a significant layer, but a good scrape with a razor seemed to do a lot of good, though there does seem to be a thin layer coming back on the glass in less than a week. I know many suggest increasing phosphates, but this kind of goes against my low tech approach. I've also seen talk of just toughing it out and waiting for tank maturity to get the better of GSA, and though I have no idea how long this would take with a tank this size, it does concur with my (limited) previous experience. Any thoughts on this would be more than welcome.
I've hardly seen my Assassin Snails recently, but I know they like to hide in the substrate, and I have seen almost no signs of pest snails since only a few days after the Assassin's were introduced. So I am not concerned about their demise, but I really like seeing them so I'm a little disappointed. A couple of weeks ago I spotted an entirely different snail, one of size and shape I've not seen the like of before. Unfortunately I only had my phone's camera to hand and it has only made one brief appearance, so any help identifying it would be appreciated.
There is nothing significant to report on the rest of the livestock. On the ocsasions I've sat and watched the tank recently I've not managed to count a full compliment of anything except the Dwarf Blue Rainbows. But we all know counting a small schoal of Neons in a well planted tank is nigh on impossible, and there are so many places out of sight for the Ottos and shrmps to hide, it's not really surprising. Maybe one evening I'll just spend a whole eveing sat in front of the tank (rather than repeats of Mock The Week on Dave Ja Vu
🙄 ) and try a propper head count. There is pleanty of room for more fish, and hopefully soon I will get round to adding a little more colour – probably something with some orange or reds.
I think the thing I am most proud of is achieving is what seems to be one of the holy grails of planted tanks. Despite running the tank almost as low tech as it's possible to get, I have seen signs of pearling.
To be fair, this may be misplaced on my part – I've only seen it a couple of times, and only in small areas of the tank, but with low light and no pressurised CO
2, I'm really pleased to have shown that it can be done. (I look forward to someone telling me that this isn't actually pearling.
😳 )
