Re: 3 feet tank now planted and scaped! Update!
Well just a quick update after a little over 2 weeks since the tank has been setup. The plants so far is doing ok. Some thriving and some melting.... But I suppose this is expected due to all the things that had happened over the last 2 weeks! Let me see where I start...
In the first week, the plants were melting really fast despite me cranking up the CO2 rate. Used 2 different drop checker and OMG one was bright yellow and one was blue. The moment I realised this, I went out and bought enough tubing to split the system. Now my chiller is powered by the 1700LPH pump where as my tetratec 1200 is running as usual. Needless to say the whole tank is now like a whirlpool. Still waiting for my second Lily pipe to come today to make the flow more gentle but I'll update the picture once the pipe arrive tonight.
Then within the same week, the MH light keep tripping the fuse box for unknown reason. However, once the lights are turn on it will be fine. It's the bit when it was trying to power up that seemed to tripped the fuse. Anyway, I just manually turn the lights on everyday. This was probably my biggest mistake ever... Went back to malaysia for 2 days and left the light to be turn on via timer. Came back on day to find that the light wasn't switched on and my neighbour said they smelt something burning from my living room the day I left! Looking at the bulb, I don't think it is damaged. I've got a strong suspicion that it's the ballast. Anyway, the seller is coming to pick it up tonight to have a look at it. Well you can imagine 3 days without light in a high tech tank... Most of my staurogyne melted or stunted. With the only exception being the limnophila hippuroides. It's grown through ups and down and I've now more than 20 stems in less than 2 weeks! The blyxa is bouncing back really strong too. My P. Helferi and UG took a hard hit and I'm barely left with nothing at the moment.
Limnophila hippuroides top view
Side view
Front view
Staurogyne being eaten by what looks like a water caterpillar!
Crypt undulata red regrowing new leaves
Poor pogostemon helferi trying to sprout new shoots
HC getting hit hard
blyxa growing out new leaves with red hue
Current tank view