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Tank Reborn

On closer inspection of your photos, I saw the cherries. They go a lovely deep red colour don’t they. TropCo has purple emperors. I’ve been feeding mine mosquito larvae from the frog tub over summer and they are colouring up nicely.
 
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Have noticed the first signs of algae but am hopefully catching this early.
Am I correct in seeing staghorn on the vallis and some form of BBA (of a reddish colour) on the java fern? It also appears to have attached to one of my fishing wires for holding down the wood - you can see one clear white wire and the other covered.

As I am not dosing ferts in any quantity or running full CO2 would I be right in thinking my light could be the issue. Switching to LED from two T5 is bound to be an increase in light level.

Having never used LEDs before, am I better off reducing the photoperiod or the intensity (I think I can do that using the WiFi controller by changing the red, blue, green, warm white and cold white LEDs - is there a 'better' mix of lighting to go for?)

My lighting is currently running a 1 hour sunrise, 7 hours on (with a slightly darker hour midway through) and ending with a 1 hour sunset. The main lighting is set as shown in the image.

Any thoughts welcome as I want to nip this in the bud before it takes hold.

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Approaching the 8 week mark. Here are a few photos and a video prior to my water change this week. It is far from perfect and not in the same universe as some of your amazing creations on here but I am pleased with how it is going (so far!). Had a few nice comments from visitors to the house which is always good to hear.

Video 8 Weeks

Changed the LED settings to a pre-programmed biome and maintained my low CO2 level rather than reducing. Dosing at first sign of the frogbit not growing well. It's currently going absolutely nuts and looks great. Will have to remove some soon as it will take over the whole surface.

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Looks great! No algae in sight. And the colours from those lights look good too. What’s your main ten mace regime these days, and light/co2 amount?
 
Thanks @hypnogogia, I'm now doing a 30-50% water change weekly although if I miss one I make sure the next one is a solid 50%.
CO2 is running at about 4bps (very low for a tank this size) two hours before lights and stopping two hours before they go off.
Light is now the JBL Community Tank lighting programme. Has a shorter sunrise and sunset than I would like but I have started the photoperiod later so it goes off at 8pm so get to enjoy it in the evening.
No algae issues that I can see at the moment but noticed a build up of muck in the substrate along the glass but don't see this as an problem. :thumbup:
 
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@Tom Raffield whats the carpeting plant you have along the front?

It's monte carlo, or what was left of it after the shrimps ripped up most of it. I was going to pull up the whole lot but thought I would just leave it and see what it did.

It has definitely taken a foothold in the substrate so hopefully it will begin to spread more freely :thumbup:
 
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