Silvering

I don't know how long the shrimp are going to make it, now only one is hiding up there - I still hope the others are just hiding someplace else! I think there must be too many "scary" fish in the tank. Not sure whether it's the rams or the barbs that count as "scary" from the shrimp's perspective though... I don't think any of the other inhabitants are incompatible with shrimp but I'm not sure about those two groups. Not that I've seen any harassing. Or bodies, in or out of the tank. Yet. >_>

I'm definitely having issues with BBA. I suspect the month-long water change hiatus is probably the culprit, though I have started weekly again. Possibly also letting my yeast mixes get too old is affecting it as well. Interestingly enough, during the neglect period, all the clado vanished and was replaced by short green hair algae.

Replacing the light fixture has improved growth - I depend on the H. difformis for that, it shows new growth pretty much instantly as soon as I up the lighting. Convenient. I need to stop messing with the photoperiod just because I want to stay up late and watch the fish, though!

You know, I really do want to beta-test that new substrate that the experts are cooking up. And I would go pressurized if the intial cost weren't so darn much! I did put a GLA regulator on my Christmas wish list though... that's the piece that's really standing in my way. Too expensive for me to buy for myself in addition to all the other gear on the one hand, and no mental capital to spend on figuring out pressurized gas plumbing and sourcing secondhand parts on the other. XP

Silvering

Argh, this "maintenance" thing is of the evil. Fish-only tanks are so much easier! LOL

The graph of size versus time required for maintenance for planted tanks must have a much different curve than fish-only, which, all other things being equal, is pretty much an inversely linear relationship. Somewhere for planted tanks there must be a point where making the aquarium larger results in less work, but it must be way up there in size.

Anyway, I decided to experiment a bit and started adding Seachem Nitrogen to my tank for a week; I'm pleased to report a decrease in BBA and clado (hair algae remained), but the H. difformis new growth became quite pale, so I restarted dosing traces again, with the Nitrogen. Hopefully the chelators get along... I'll see what happens next! I ended up with a bit of hornwort a while back, and adding the Seachem Nitrogen caused it to grow more quickly, putting off lots of side shoots, and turned the growing tips red!

Unfortunately I don't think any of my amanos survive - I found one poor thing dessicated on the floor a few days ago. No more shrimps for me, I think.

Fairly recent pic:


Due to some Mysterious Fish Losses, I bought a cheap UV filter - my thought is that the neons are carrying something nasty like MB, and it was killing off the new rams one by one. So far, no new fish have gotten sick, but I think it's a bit early to declare victory.

Silvering

Time for another update! Apologies for fuzziness, I forgot to shorten the shutter speed.



"Blue" rams above the crypts - I feel like adding N has really helped these plants grow more lush recently. Must be all those roots they like poking out of the substrate. Makes vacuuming that section a pain in the neck, though!


H. difformis patch that requires pruning every two weeks - didn't get a trim this week, definitely will need a major one next weekend, but who's going to have time for that at Christmas? LOL


I think my Amazon sword is suffering some kind of deficiency - wrinkly leaves with some holes in them, but not the perfectly round pinholes of K deficiency. Got some more Flourish root tabs coming in this week, so I hope that helps. The pinnatifida isn't showing any signs of deficiency and is making a recovery, which would probably be faster if I would stop moving it around the tank trying to find it a good spot!

Silvering

Post-holiday update! I failed to do much maintenance over the holidays, as I expected would happen, but this time I made sure to squirt traces in every few days to keep my K-priority plants happy. Thankfully, using MCI-philosophy and upping my N dosing at the end of last year beat the nasty algae, and all I have right now is GSA, which I can live with! :P

Candid shot, sorry for the daylight reflection, but that's the side with the slow-growing java ferns anyway!


The baby ozelot green plants can't handle growing in the dry indoor air for long, even still attached to Mommy Plant - their leaves quickly start drying out. Even edges of the Mommy Plant leaves, if the water level drops enough and they stick out, will dry out and die. That keeps the ozelot conveniently in submerged-only mode. I stuck the first flower stalk back into the water, there's a new one growing outside the tank right now, but its babies haven't gotten big enough to start drying out yet.

I definitely need to prune that H. difformis, it's mashing itself up against the front glass. The cardinal plants are getting a little too big too, I think. I wish the left side would fill in more, but given that it's pretty much completely shaded, I don't know that it's a realistic desire!

Silvering

Oookay, long time no post! I don't even have a good excuse either. ;P

I've actually made the switch to pressurized CO2, which freed me up from having to do a lot of maintenance on the tank with yeast bottles and such - I'm so lazy I dose once a week (if that) and the fish are lucky if I remember to feed them every day. I've been good lately though!

I lost Blue the dwarf gourami a while back - he pined away from causes unknown, sometime after I added a juvie marbled angelfish. (Who is trying very hard to swim straight through the glass on the extreme left side and is thus practically invisible in the photo below.) No plant additions, but I think the poor H. pinnatifida is not long for my aquarium - insufficient K, getting crowded out by other plants. I may try switching it to a little El Natural bowl I started up last year as an experiment and see if I can't keep it alive that way.

Here's my candid shot - been about two weeks or so since the last WC/trim/algae scrub. I supplement P and a K/traces/iron mix. The bulbs in the shop light are probably due for another switch but growth has been pretty good, so I haven't bought new bulbs yet.



Aquascaping comments welcome, since I'll be doing another trim soon! I think I need to thin out the crypt in front a bit, there's a couple of good-sized plants pressed right up against the glass.

Ever Inquisitive

Wow, you're tank has simply exploded. Funny we both decided to log back on today after such a long absence, haha. Sorry to hear about your gourami, that's truly unfortunate.

As for scaping, IMHO I think I would try to move both swords to one side, and open up the other to move the eye along. Other than that, I think just a good trim in general would do everthing some good. But that maybe the urge I have in me to go do my own that way. Just haven't made the oppertunity yet...

Silvering

I think that idea's a good one, Ever, but the DH likes the swords on the end, so I haven't done that yet. I did thin the crypts on the left and put a few of them over on the right side, for lack of a better spot. I don't even know what sort of crypt they are, don't know if anybody'd want to buy my extras!

I'm wondering if I can't find a larger shop light, I'm thinking an extra bulb to more evenly light the tank front-to-back might not help my photos come out better. I scavenged some lights to add to the front for this shot.

mudboots

The tank sure looks great even without the extra lighting. With as much mature plant mass as you have extra light would probably not have any negative consequences aside from having to trim more often.

On the Crypt sps, you might send TexGal or someone familiar with Crypts a PM with some close ups. They look very healthy, and I would have to guess that it'd not take too long to find some interest on the for-sale-or-trade section.

Silvering

I'll have to do that, mudboots!

Here's a current photo showing post-pruning carnage:


I really went all-out on the green ozelot sword, since it has an annoying habit of growing the newest leaves larger than the oldest. Terrestrial plants know better than to shade themselves, but this aquatic plant doesn't! Apologies for the blurriness, still working on my camera skills.

I shifted the filter output and CO2 pumps to essentially reverse the flow, from clockwise to counter-clockwise, so that the output runs along the front glass instead of pushing the crypt crispulata to the right. The trouble is, the hoses up front are really not pretty. I do eventually plan to "enclose" the tank stand in a fake cabinetry-type DIY effort to hide all that stuff, though, so I suppose it shouldn't bother me as much as it does. :P

I also added a guppy group after some months of quarantine; I thought they'd not really compliment the existing fauna but they're happy skimming along the surface, which none of the other fishes do. Gotta fatten them up a bit - they're too skinny! With an angelfish in the aquarium, I don't expect I'll be overrun by guppy fry. I needed the quarantine for some new fish from a Petsmart sale. I managed to snag the last three $1 cardinal tetras. Apparently there was some guy calling the store constantly and buying them all up as soon as the shipments came in through most of the sale! I don't blame him, I would have totally done the same except I already have a nice big school of neons. I also bought a blue ram. From Petsmart. I'm not sure whether I should kick myself for this idiocy yet; I ended up losing all but the first of the other rams I had, but I'm hoping the PetSmart one will already have immunity to whatever thing killed off the others. One. By. One. It was extremely distressing, since I couldn't pin the symptoms down to anything treatable. Hoping the little female will make it through a month of quarantine and pair off with my male!

mudboots

Are you sure you want to get rid of the Crypts? They look really good in there. I can picture a nice Crypt. retrospiralis in place of you sword plant...much finer texture, slow grower, and won't shade anything out...maybe I'm just a Cryptocoryne nut.

Anyway, the tank looks great. Melinda is checking this tank out with me and thinks it's cool that other girls dig aquatic plants.

Later,