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10 year 60cm tank... did some maintenance

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finally, and forgive the blurry macro pic - are these L. Senegalensis flowers??? or just sideshoots.
 
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Weekly dosing N 15.12ppm (6ml APT Complete per day x 7 days)

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Weekly dosing N 22.54ppm (3.5ml APT EI per day x 7 days)


I will dial back to 3.0ml APT EI per day x 7 days which will give me 19.32ppm N, and after a week of dosing at that level, will report back what 'colour' I get in my NO3 test.
 
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This is a continuation of my discussion with Plantnoobdue in his journal thread about how to help Senegelansis colour up.

This is a reference photo for comparison with future photos to see if there is any effect to ramping up the light intensity ). Currently my tank is lit by 99w of LED. 67w from the WRGB2 which I am temporarily bumping up to 90% for a short period within the regular photoperiod, and 32w from my Aquazonic Spectra (which uses 1.5w LEDs).

The R.Florida have purplish new growth but the bottom leaves aren't too great
Two stems of B. Salzmannii are finally turning purplish at the top , again bottom leaves don't look too great
L. Senegelansis ('Guinea") some of the stems are trying a very dark red and the red leaves are curling

Also got the Aquario Neo root Tabs to try out.

And of course, the easy L Super Reds looking superb as usual. I decided to cut down the tangled clump and left a few stems planted. I may be moving the Pantanal to the left rear corner once I get a 2nd WRGB2 (waiting for a local 8/8 sale - 32w from the Spectra 60 doesn't seem enough).

I have moved a stem to the left front corner which is the area of maximum CO2 mist. As can be seen from the FTS shot, there are vairous Buces there, but as the 2hr Aquarist site mentions... putting Buces in the path of CO2 mist often leads to algae... so I have to move those as well.
 
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Update on my low-tech Shrimp growing tank. The objective of this tank is to breed /grow cherries till they are large enough to put into my main tank.
23 July: Filled with water
24 July: Shrimp Introduced
05 Aug: Update 1

12 litre tank, maybe filled to 10l.
9w table lamp that covers maybe 3/4 of the tank on 8 hours a day.
Gex Medium HOB filter.
Gex soil
Very lean dosing.

Despite being transferred from High tech to Low tech I did not experience any melting of the plants. They simply adapted. The R Blood Red's new growth is yellowish, the Sao Paolo turned all green, as did the R. H'ra which is on the right in the 'low light area'. The Super Reds on the right, in low light are also in the process of turning their leaves green. I also planted some emersed Super Reds in the HOB filter. I may need to dose more to help the Eleocharis along though.
 
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Weekly update

The flimsy proprietary power connector cable for my DET lightscreen got damaged, hence the dark background in this photo. Have to speak to my LFS about spares.

Plants
Removed the entire clump of L. Super Reds and replanted a few of them. This left space for some replanting/shuffling of plants. As a result, the Neo Flow Premium outlet is now visible. Hope to grow the Pantanal enough to block the outlet from view again.
Also planted some emersed P. Palustris at the back where the Super Reds were.. May need to wait some time to convert to Submersed before it starts growing. Will be getting a 2nd WRGB2 soon so I should have enough light for the Palustris.
Thanks to 2hr aquarist article that there are 2 types of B. Salzmannii, I realised mine was just the green one that turns slightly purplish. Went to a LFS to buy the purple ones and also picked up E. Quinquangulare as well.
A farmed Buce "Dark Blue" appeared in my LFS at a modest price so I just had to get it. Large emersed leaves are no indication of submersed leaf size so I expect it to get much smaller once it converts. . Waiting for the B. Theias to convert - with the large emersed leaves gone, there will be more room for planting ...

Water
The lower leaves of the R. Florida aren't doing too well. 2hr Aquarist says it needs calcium. I have been adding Seachem Equilibrium to move the Gh for 6 to 8, but since Equilibrium is adds both Mg and Ca, I have also added 4g of food grade CaCl2 from my local store to move Gh further up from 8 to 10 and will monitor if that was too excessive.
 
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Water
The lower leaves of the R. Florida aren't doing too well. 2hr Aquarist says it needs calcium. I have been adding Seachem Equilibrium to move the Gh for 6 to 8, but since Equilibrium is adds both Mg and Ca, I have also added 4g of food grade CaCl2 from my local store to move Gh further up from 8 to 10 and will monitor if that was too excessive.
in my experience and from what i've read, the gh number doesn't matter much to plants. just have enough that t doesn't limit plant growth. 6-10 is a good number for most. also great looking bacopa sg. not sure if in EU yet though.
 
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My Low Tech update first.
10 litres, 9w desk lamp.
Minimal fert dosing. 0.5ml APT every 3 days so far.
I don't have any special shrimp food, just feeding them Hikari regular wafers and Hikari Algae wafers. 4+ baby shrimp spotted frequently on the aquarium 'glass' where there is algae.

Plants seem doing ok. I moved a Pantanal stem that wasn't doing so well, and the clean-up crew got to work on it immediately! This is probably better than Excel or H2O2 spot dosing!
I drilled a hole in the HOB cover and planted a Polygum Sao Paolo. This is in addition to the L. Super Red stems that I just inserted into the filter at the outflow area.
 
for stems like that pantanal. it is usually better to chop off the tops than try let it regrow. ofcourse if growth parameters are not fixed it will just do the same thing though. I once had a similar issue with cuba. trimmed the top and upped co2 in that area. and it never did it again. though pantanal is supposedly much more finnicky than cuba. good luck!
 
for stems like that pantanal. it is usually better to chop off the tops than try let it regrow. ofcourse if growth parameters are not fixed it will just do the same thing though. I once had a similar issue with cuba. trimmed the top and upped co2 in that area. and it never did it again. though pantanal is supposedly much more finnicky than cuba. good luck!
thanks I have a few stems that suddenly didn't do so well after I moved them. 2hr aquarist says Pantanal doesn't like overcrowding as well. Hopefully I can fix the issues. I do not know whether they were attacked by the Amanos because some leaves show signs of being eaten. I've since reduced the Amanos in my tank from 9 to 4. They doubled/triped in size since I bought them from the store so I think 9 giant sized Amanos was way to much for a 100 litre tank and led to them eating the plants.
 
thanks I have a few stems that suddenly didn't do so well after I moved them. 2hr aquarist says Pantanal doesn't like overcrowding as well. Hopefully I can fix the issues. I do not know whether they were attacked by the Amanos because some leaves show signs of being eaten. I've since reduced the Amanos in my tank from 9 to 4. They doubled/triped in size since I bought them from the store so I think 9 giant sized Amanos was way to much for a 100 litre tank and led to them eating the plants.
I have about 7 amanos in 45 liters haha. never had an issue with them eating plants. i'd think they only eat dying plants. but i've seen cases where they eat plats such as althernathera though.
 
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Weekly update. E. Quinquangulare purchased in submersed form, hopefully adapts to my tank and doesn't die on me I think there is 1 new leaf popping out.
E. 'Bahia' is undergoing conversion from emersed to submersed, wait for the first new leaf to appear.
Something triggered a reaction in the Pantanals, basically several of the stems, the main crown has stopped growing, like the single stem next to the Blood Reds which was multiple sideshoots. I suspect it could be water change where there was like a 3-4 degree temp difference. After that incident I do water changes and immediately add ice to reduce the temp quickly.

P. Erectus is not doing well in this tank. I had some L. Aromatica in my lowtech shrimp tank which look healthy, so I moved one stem over, maybe to replace the P. Erectus for now. Though i suspect I may not have gotten a healthy specimen of the Erectus (it was in a plastic bag and not sure how long it was sitting in the bag). I would like to grow it again but I'll specifically buy a healthy specimen from an LFS that sells them straight out of a holding tank with Co2.

Moved the H Pinnatifida to the left rear corner as it was shading other plants. It has been growing well, hope it will survive being in the corner.
 
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I have been temporarily moving my B. Salzmanniis with algae into my shrimp tank for cleaning. It really is more effective than H2O2/ Excel. After cleaning, I'll move them back to my main tank.
 
wow😍 very efficient cleaners,
 
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just completed a 72 hour blackout.
  • 50% Water change
  • Blackout for 72 hours. Set my Neo Flow Premium skimmer to suck in air to aerate the water. No ferts added, so water column NO3 was probably close to zero
  • Turned on lights at 4% briefly to feed the fish.
  • After 72 hours, remove cover and do 60% water change
  • Resume CO2 / lighting. Set WRGB2 to 35%
Interestingly, I found that most of the stem plants continued growing in total darknees. The Blood Red and Super Red's new growth was still red rather than yellow/green. Internodal difference was of course larger but looking at the photos I wouldn't say they were 'stringy'. Some of the Pantanal stems hit the water surface so I trimmed and replanted. Noted one of the bigger stems shot out a huge mass of aerial roots during the darkness.

So generally, most of the plants coped well with a 72 hour blackout. The notable except is the Erio. Q. I think its slowly deteriorating. The P. Erectus also didn't grow during the blackout period and maybe looks a bit weak.

Just before the blackout, I planted a bunch of emersed Eriocaulon 'Vietnam' on the left side of the tank. Fortunately, these look ok, so I hope they will successfully convert to submersed form.
 
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Getting a fair number of baby shrimp. I'm just feeding the shrimp 1 small hikari wafer a day which the adults finish pretty fast. As this is a casual tank, don't think I want to spend a lot of money on 'specialist' shrimp food.
Plants all seem ok and relatively algae free.
 
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Weekly update

Planting
E. Quin
looks like its not going to make and was weakened by the 72hr blackout. It was in submersed form and maybe I should have gone for an emersed sample instead. Tropica TC E.Cinerum appeared in my LFS so I decided to get some. Also added some more emersed L. 'Guinea' just to see if they will turn out better than the current ones which keep on losing lower leaves.

Bucephelandra 'Mini Catherinae' appeared in my LFS and I just had to get it because its leaves look very different (i.e. the 'mini' type)

Moved some P. Palustris to my low tech shrimp tank to make space for Rotala Wallichii. Got a whole emersed bunch at a good price. As there wasn't space for all of them in the tank, I planted the extra emersed stems in a pot with my other emersed plants but all of them wilted except one. As for the ones in the tank, they are in the process of converting and oddly, the new growth has very similar colours to the Pantanal (yellow with orange accents).

I am so happy that the 72 hour blackout made all my stem plants such as the L Super Reds grow straight up. Forrtunately, they're still growing straight. Fingers crossed.

My R. Floridas are a lost cause. gH 8 is evidently not enough and the stems have all shed their lower leaves., but at least there is new growth.

Water Column
After the 72-hr blackout, I am keeping the LED lights at a much lower intensity, roughly 40% for the front with the Buces, and 45% for the back with the stem plants. While CO2 is unchanged, I decided to reduce the ferts to follow the manufacturer's recommended dosage, which in this case is 2ml daily of APT EI for 100 litres. In addition, I'm also dosing 5g Equilibrium, 1g CaCl2 weekly with water change to bring gH from 6 to 8.

So my weekly dosing (APT EI + Equilibrium) appears to be roughly:
  • 13 ppm N
  • 4.2 ppm P
  • 26 ppm K
  • 2.6 ppm Mg
  • 0.5 ppm Fe
Even with the Mg from Equilibrium, my Mg dosing is still quite a bit lower than "EI Dosing Mid" (i.e. since I'm using lower lighting, I'm using the "EI Dosing Mid" in the IFC spreadsheet for reference). After reading plantnoobdude's posts, maybe I should start looking out for Mg deficiency and get ready to add some Magnesium Sulphate...
 
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Low Tech Shrimp TankUpdate

I'm seeing more baby shrimp every week in my low tech tank which is also sort of a 'storeroom' for plants.
Low Tech Species list for reference:
Eleocharis Parvula
L. Aromatica
P. Palustris
R. Blood Red
L. Super Red
B. Salzmannii
P. 'Sao Paolo'
L. 'Vietnam'
L. 'Pantanal'
(only in for 1 week - will see whether it is ok in Low Tech).


Emersed update
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C. Wendtii, P 'Sao Paolo', H. Difformis


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H. Lancea in flower

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Overview shot of some of the emersed pots.
 
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Took some photos while CO2 is on as Rotala Wallichii closes at the end of the photo period. The R. Wallichii has been in my tank for 10 days and appears to have converted pretty fast from emersed form to submersed form and is growing faster than Pantanal. I guess the next step is to wait and see and hope it will change colour to the pink I see in all those photos? There seem to be so many Rotala variants around and buying a handwritten plastic cup containing a bunch of plants, I 'hope' those are Wallichiis that turn pink and not some other Rotala....


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L Senegelensis always looks better from the top where you can't see the dying lower leaves :cool:
 
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Weekly update
Took the photo after Co2 turned off to reduce the amount of bubbles. But by then the R. Wallichiis have all closed up and the Pantanals are starting to close, and my photo period is only 6.25hrs...

Removed one C. Crispulata and all the P. 'Sao Paolo'. The former because it was getting way too large - 1 Crispulata for a 60cm tank is more than enough. The latter because you couldn't really see it anyway. I'm still growing them emersed and in my low tech. With the Sao Paolo removed, I have started moving the R. Blood Reds to the back to make space in front to plant Rotala Bonsais. Unfortunately, I only found in vitro ones - for regular stems you can insert it 1 full inch into the soil, for in vitro, they have like, 1 cm of roots so I can't secure them that well? After planting them, they were repeated uprooted by the Cories... 🤣 I've learnt my lesson, in vitro plants and Cories don't mix!

Also added pics of my Buces for reference. The leaves in bad condition are the original emersed leaves. The growth of new submersed leaves for this group of Buces is painstakingly slow in my tank. The Buces with the smaller leaves tend to sprout new leaves faster. I read that Buces are much happier in colder water and my water temp is borderline for Buce viability (26.3 degrees C). Will continue to monitor. The flow is good - the bubbles from my twinstar at the opposite corner go around the tank and flow past the Buces.
 
wow looks very good! very little algae too. senegalensis issue seems to be resolved? what did you change mate, I need to know!
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Weekly update
Took the photo after Co2 turned off to reduce the amount of bubbles. But by then the R. Wallichiis have all closed up and the Pantanals are starting to close, and my photo period is only 6.25hrs...

Removed one C. Crispulata and all the P. 'Sao Paolo'. The former because it was getting way too large - 1 Crispulata for a 60cm tank is more than enough. The latter because you couldn't really see it anyway. I'm still growing them emersed and in my low tech. With the Sao Paolo removed, I have started moving the R. Blood Reds to the back to make space in front to plant Rotala Bonsais. Unfortunately, I only found in vitro ones - for regular stems you can insert it 1 full inch into the soil, for in vitro, they have like, 1 cm of roots so I can't secure them that well? After planting them, they were repeated uprooted by the Cories... 🤣 I've learnt my lesson, in vitro plants and Cories don't mix!

Also added pics of my Buces for reference. The leaves in bad condition are the original emersed leaves. The growth of new submersed leaves for this group of Buces is painstakingly slow in my tank. The Buces with the smaller leaves tend to sprout new leaves faster. I read that Buces are much happier in colder water and my water temp is borderline for Buce viability (26.3 degrees C). Will continue to monitor. The flow is good - the bubbles from my twinstar at the opposite corner go around the tank and flow past the Buces.
 
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