Well make sure you keep an eye in the hydrocotle els its going to be everywhere! I left it unchecked in my nano and all of a sudden I had it strangling and tangling all my stems
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Plant selection is very fitting ady, will require some precise trimming to keep the stone featuring strongly which it deserves.
How are you finding the wood? Mine seems to have almost stopped leaching now... 1.5kg of carbon later!
Nice choice with the pencils too mate.
Just carried out a minor trim last night at water change. Tidied up some of the mosses, bit of hydrocotle, some stray fissidens etc. so hopefully ill keep things in check....although I'd like to cover most of the rocks with moss really.
The wood is still leaching, I've got carbon in there too, but not too concerned yet, ill just keep water changing and when it shows signs of slowing ill add some purigen which will hopefully give the gin clear polished look
Pencilfish are great fish, love watching them schooling and then separating and weaving their way through the plants, I want more but unfortunately (as warned by Ian) I've had a few jumpers. Frustrating and sad, but I had ordered an acrylic sheet to use as a cover which didn't arrive with the rest of the order to make the light shade last Wednesday, but should be here soon and will hopefully prevent more losses
While I was on water changing i gravel vac'd the substrate as it was getting some detritus build up, and moved it about a bit as it was making its way towards the front. Hustled the plants to stir up any trapped fish waste etc and shift any dirt from the leaves.....and try to agitate the filamentous algae which is not shifting. Got a little staghorn too on the top of the vallis, tank is still not quite settled yet but the maintenence made a huge difference visually and mentally. Ill do extra water changes and be vigilant with cleaning and hopefully it will go. Ill add to the cuc with more shrimp (added about 10 adult CRS tonight, but need more Amanos also) and more ottos and also a sae too.
Going to leave the lighting period as it is for now whilst not on top of the algae.
Mixed a new batch of EI ferts with more potassium nitrate just to see if there is any difference to the plants. The last lot I mixed had more potassium phosphate which didn't seem to have any noticeable effect, I just feel there is something lacking still so doing a few alterations to see if there is any improvements.
Ive been monitoring ph to get a better understanding of what's happening with my co2, and I've realised that if the ph goes below 6.3, the fish begin to be effected, sluggish, rapid gill movements, but at 6.3 they are fine so have set up an injection rate which begins 2 hrs pre lights on which gets co2 to peak acceptable levels, then I use 15 minute on/off intervals set on solenoid timer to maintain the 6.3 ph and a consistent level of co2. It was building up further if just left on and I want happy active fish to watch
Will see how it works out, I'm guessing that it will be ok if the level of dissolved co2 is maintained, and its seemingly the only way I'm going to manage co2. It is giving at least a 0.7 drop in ph, but I've not been able to get a ph reading just prior to lights on as yet due to one thing and another. The only time I did was one afternoon just after a water change which gave a ph reading of 7.3, but this may not be representative. I've been getting ph 7 first thing in the morning, but like I say, I don't know if this rises further during the day yet.
Anyway, that's enough rambling, need to get some accurate ph readings pre injection period to know exactly what is going on, and need to monitor the plants to see if there's any changes from the altered EI dosing. Overall its going ok, but still much to learn before I have the same levels of success growing the plants that many members do
.....oh and Troi, I'm working on a background so hopefully ill have something a little more tasteful soon
Cheerio,
Ady.