Looks over last post.... Dang, it's been a while!
Got a refund for the snails from the one seller I actually got around to contacting
So nuthin much has happened for a while, except I had what I suspected was BBA in low volume. I also couldn't get rid of it completely. Growth was not impressive, natural since all plants except the Aponogetons were slow growers. The C. helferi I had was struggling, and so was the Eleocharis viviparus (IIRC) I replaced it with. I think they might have gotten too cold during transit, although Aquasabi does a good job on packaging. Anyway, they mostly melted.
Shake the bag try something new, I thought. Let's try some rotundifolia, some P. erectus, some L. aquatica, even a bit of H'ra. The Limnophila did fairly well, so did the rotundifolia, the Pogo grew a bit, then stalled. H'ra told me: "More light, CO2 and everything please". It also was placed badly.
It was here I also soured on the spraybar (I know some love them; I find them ugly, and have a hard time getting rid of dead spots with them. Failure in application? Might be. Not loosing sleep over that!), and changed to the lily pipe I originally bought for this tank, it works for me, so bite me
Still, I was not completely happy, planting was a bit of a mess, not much actual growth apart from the Apo's sprouting 5 new daughter plants on average weekly; an that darn BBA was spreading... except!
It wasn't BBA, it was a YUGE index finger pointed at me that said: "You SLOTH!"
It was staghorn, lot's of it and spreading. Now, my lights were at 20-30 %, my CO2 whilst not entirely on the spot is certainly very much playing ball in the ballpark, my ferts on the light side, flow is getting around; what I DID have was LOADS of mulm (really; after months of melting?). The 2 big roots in the middle? Check, Detritus City. The large patch of Dwarf sag along the backpane
? Check, Mulmsville. Etc, etc, etc.
Only one thing to do.
Earthquake time.
Look at this little village hiding horrible truths:
It was going to get torn apart, and although I usually wouldn't do massive work on a tank like this with the inhabitants still in, it would have to do; I had nowhere else to put them.
My preparations were in place, though. Apart from intending to use some existing plants, I also wanted to get rid of some that wasn't plain working, or had been problematic from the get go.
The procedure the following days:
1. Remove sandy beach of chaos. It wasn't working, although shrimps loved it. Lots of botanical particulate, quite some mulm, decaying botanicals and a general eyesore after a while. Replace sand with aquasoil.
2. Remove roots and remove stones. Last part was tricky, because they were holding the aquasoil in the back, and I wanted an earthquake, not a mudslide.
3. Remove all plants, and vacuum the substrate. I did this in portions, one side at a time, in order to keep some plants in for the critters to hide in. I sincerely believe they appreciated that.
4. Get epiphytes onto 1 root (instead of 2) and a couple of dragonstones.
5. Sort plants, what lives and what is compost.
6. Plant. (No, no, really... Plant.)
All interspersed with frequent waterchanges and (pre-)filter cleans.
Here's a heap of piccies to show some of the mess:
Roots out, sandy beach gone.
Careful planning, less mess.
Plants in their natural environment; the bucket.
Then, after lots of mulm sucking, on to planting:
New stems, right hand side: Pogo erectus (sounds like a punk band) on the left, Rotala H'ra on the right. Both in vitro, Limnophila tops planted in front. I plan to keep this fairly short. We'll see.
Left hand side: Reused epiphytes + new in vitro pinnatifida, that mostly looked like something I could find under my sofa. Eleocharis dwarf grass in front. New AND old Riccardia moss on wood. Some chain swords on the right. C. albida on the very right. Old Apo's and new in vitro C. crispatula balansae along the back (that's right I finally gave up on my old ones, they never got around since the move).
FTS from yesterday, I couldn't continue anymore, I was beat!
That bare spot is for HC. The day ended with a waterchange. All critters alive and well, if a bit hyper, new surroundings and all.
Today was finish up day: Plant HC, a few adjustments, clean filter and do a wc. HC in, fiddle a bit. Then waterchange, last point was the wc. When else does disaster decide to strike?
Now, I use a JBL In-Out, it works fairly well. Although the hose they supplied was 8 m (IIRC), I need about double. So I've retrofitted with Eheim hose in the proper length. This might explain why sometimes the hose pops off the faucet attachment. Happened twice, and great fun everytime
Additionally (if that wasn't plenty) my mixer is some crappy limestone suffering POS, it is very hard to get the right temp, and KEEP it. So a fairly simple, and supposedly not work intensive job: Except for me it involves running back and forth repeatedly: Is the hose about to pop? Is the temperature right? Is everything ok at the tank? Is it overflowing? Etc.
Today suddenly I notice that the water is very cold, trying to get it more around 20 C, checking the tank and I see one Cory and one Oto lying tits up. ARGH! Oh, they're still breathing, albeit faintly.
Finish up quick! Get some water moving! Get some heat on! Luckily, they got around fairly fast. I think they accidentally swam through some of the water that was maybe only 5 C and got knocked out. They seem fairly well now I hope, although I managed to drop overall tank temp to 17 C.
Final shot as of now (ATMITAS?
)
Leaving for a couple of days tomorrow, with light on a fairly low setting, plenty CO2 (ascertained today I wasn't gonna gas anyone while away), and very minimal ferts for the older plants.
Hoping to not return to a muddy pool of algae and floating plants etc
, instead to beginning growth.
