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The Celestial Swamp - A voyage through a flooded forest fringe (Shallow Riparium)

1015 days later...

Okay, I did it! I cleaned the poret filter in the sump... bath tub was black water...



I found one Celestichthys choprae and three Celestichthys erythromicron hiding down in the sump... the choprae will remain down there... which brings the fish population to six, including the Otocinclus and the BN ancistrus...

Look, the Oto is real!



I hate this kind of algae... I've scraped it off this wood so many times...



What's next for this tank? Who knows.... maybe I will start caring for it again, or maybe not... there's plenty to do... the entire back of the tank is a rats nest of Spathiphyllum roots and mulm... both my koralia power heads that have been running non stop since 2014 died so circulation is poor...
 
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Well, I've become temporarily obsessed again...



I added some golden white clouds I had in the outside patio pond I took down today...



I also added Hygrophila polysperma again to fill out the middle... I just love the bright colour and know it grows in this tank, but I will need to start fertilizing again I think...

The tank certainly is a brighter, happier place since I decided to look at the tank for the first time in months (maybe longer)... I kind of just close my eyes and top off the sump so I don't have to look at how messy it usually is... I always tell myself that just a bit of time with my hands wet every couple days or once a week and it would be fantastic all the time, but you know, that sounds like work 😉

I do have a question for you folks: should I scrap the wood on the left side and allow that side to be more open with the dragon stone being the only hardscape there?

The left stump was supposed to have emerged growth on it, but always gets covered up by the Spath leaves so nothing grows from it, and the underwater wood seems to be a magnet for algae...



Looking back 5 years ago, things seemed a little more "full"...

 
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I think it looks fantastic as it is! Really natural! If I were you, I wouldn't change anything - even the algae on the wood at the back looks really natural and in keeping with the scape.

You could get an auto-doser, and start adding a little ferts regularly, the plants will soon pick up and fill in. If the tank is near a water source and a waste outlet, then plumbing in a simple auto-water change system would be straight forward to improve overall tank health too. Both systems would require very little additional maintenance over what you are doing now.
 
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Is it a case of the wood is starting to break down? The last one I took down I didn't realise how much the wood had decayed - very soft and bent/snapped easily. I wonder if that had contributed to the algae and mulminess.

I added an autodoser to mine recently and it's helped. Only down side is things to build up faster if you are skipping water changes.
 
Wookii said:
I think it looks fantastic as it is! Really natural! If I were you, I wouldn't change anything - even the algae on the wood at the back looks really natural and in keeping with the scape.
Click to expand...

I spend enough time in my kayak in riparian zones to know that you are correct... The natural habitats this tank is supposed to represent demonstrates the competition between plant growth and the algae/organic accumulation present, and this would make most in the hobby cringe... At the same time we don't necessarily want to look at "icky" things, especially when the thread algae is a perfect magnet for floating mulm which highlights the tanks (or my) other shortcomings... Random bba I can deal with... thread algae and bga I cannot 🤮

I do need to manage expectations, but I also need to spend smaller amounts of time, more often instead of putting blinders on and and finally coming back to mayhem like I so often do... This tank has been fun, but quite the roller coaster! I have not added fertilizer in close to 2 years... I think it's time to give the plants the edge...
 
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tam said:
Is it a case of the wood is starting to break down? The last one I took down I didn't realise how much the wood had decayed - very soft and bent/snapped easily. I wonder if that had contributed to the algae and mulminess.
Click to expand...

You are also correct, the manzanitia wood is soft and squishy about 2inches below and 2 inches above the water level... I am sure this is contributing to the organic bioload... the wood has been underwater since 2016 in a barrel first, then the tank... It's incredibly resistant to rot but it is happening...

This tank has been flooded and chugging along for 2817 days....
 
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Having been devoid of a fert regime and very little feeding for 2 years, I decided to start again... I ran out of the all in one fertilizer back then and didn't get anymore, but then I found my dry ferts from many moons ago... a water change fortified with GH booster, 3 dashes of KNO3, 1 dash of KH2PO4 and 1 pinch of Fe EDTA 13% and we got the stew going...

I'm going to use the frogbit index to monitor results...
 
I'm reading up on the combined article you made now... but I'm trying to figure out a dosing regime to start with... you have mentioned small dosing of Fe and Mg regularly and then dosing macros as needed, but what is small dosing?

Up until now the only indicator has been browning and yellow tips of the older Spath leaves...
 
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"or three times a week, lick your little finger, dip the tip of it in the "Epsom Salts", wash your finger off in the tank."

Funny, but I like the simplicity...

I actually don't know what kind of Fe I have... the bag says Fe Chelated 13%... is that EDTA?

What about other micros? I have a bottle of Flourish Comprehensive that says refrigerate after 3months that's been sitting in my utility room for the last 10 years 🥴
 
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I did some things....

After camping for the weekend and thinking about my tank when I should have been enjoying the last few days of nice weather, I made some changes...

Observations:
  • TDS 300
  • One golden white cloud was in sump (How is the 100% weir guard is still letting fish pass through?), 3 seen, 3 missing?
  • The H. Polysperma is converting from emersed, but some new leaves are curled (magnesium?)
  • Some of the Frogbit has some yellowish leaves
Additions:
  • Added 6 Celestichthys erythromicron
  • Added 2tsp of Magnesium (MgSO4.7H2O) Mg 4.09ppm, S 5.39, dGH 0.94
  • Added Philodendron monstera to left HOB
  • Moved C. Rufibarba to right HOB (the planter suction cups failed and it was on its side on substrate)
  • Added 1 pot of C. wendtii ‘mi oya’ and 1 pot of C. wendtii ‘green’ to foreground
  • Added 4 stems of H. corymbosa ‘kompact’ to middle
Maintenance:
  • Mulm suck to micron sock back into sump
  • Display is slightly cloudy
  • Added some prime
  • Water change and further cleanup tomorrow
Sorry for the weird post, I will try to get some pictures tomorrow...
 


Its nice to sit and watch the semi clean tank with the fish, old and new, swim about... I forgot how calming it is...

I just need to keep up with the maintenance so it brings me joy instead of heartache...

I am reminded by the comment made by @alto back in 2017 when he said "you make it sound as if the thriving plant growth died back rapidly with no time to intervene 😕
& now the underwater "plant" life is dominated by algae & mulm"... He was right, I had time to intervene time and time again, but chose to ignore and walk away... When changes are made in a low tech, the results can take awhile to show themselves, so it's hard...

Oddly enough, the hair algae on the wood is disappearing by itself... Cleaning filter? Fert Additions? Ramshorn snails? Who knows...

I've actually thought about adding 3 more lights facing the back to encourage better growth in that direction of the riparium plants... I mentioned doing that back in 2019, but didn't...

Here's a short video if anyone is interested...

 
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