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.