paul.in.kendal
Member
Yup.
After much agonising, about six weeks ago I introduced five pearl gourami to the aquarium. Lovely fish, definitely the right thing to do (and no further additions for sure!)
About four weeks ago I lost one of the red phantom tetra, found dead at the bottom of the tank. No idea what did for it. All the others seem fine, as do the black neon tetra.
The shrimp have pretty much disappeared. Occasionally we spot one, but I have no idea whether there's one left, or loads in hiding!
I've got plenty of algae. Mainly BBA, but I also get small amounts of thread and staghorn algae, and some GSA (mainly on the lower leaves of the stems round the back).
I'm trying to be philosophical about the algae. My terrestrial garden is lush and lovely, and it has its population of slugs, snails, aphids and other pests. And weeds, of course. I don't try to eradicate any of them, but I do take action if they start to impact too adversely on the garden.
I'm now doing the same with the algae. I'd love to get rid of it all (especially the BBA!), but that just isn't happening. So I remove the worst damaged foliage, encourage vigorous healthy growth, and accept that I can have a tank of (reasonably) healthy, happy plants and fish, and a background level of algae. That works for me (for now, at least).
Plant mass has increased massively, with the sword 'Marble Queen' growing out of the water, and flowering. I've added a Tunze circulation pump to ensure good flow throughout the tank, even with all this extra vegetation.
I'm still dosing full EI. There seems to be no point trying to ease back on nutrients, as I'm using dry ferts - it's so cheap, what would be the point in risking underdosing to save very small amounts of money?
Lights are on for six hours. Co2 comes on two hours before the lights, and off one hour before lights off.
The fish are mainly fed crumb (my LFS's own mix), supplemented with a little live and frozen food from the LFS. I'm also cultivating grindal worms, but rather struggling to get volumes up enough for them to make a significant impact on the total feed required. The fish do love them though!
Here's the tank today.
After much agonising, about six weeks ago I introduced five pearl gourami to the aquarium. Lovely fish, definitely the right thing to do (and no further additions for sure!)
About four weeks ago I lost one of the red phantom tetra, found dead at the bottom of the tank. No idea what did for it. All the others seem fine, as do the black neon tetra.
The shrimp have pretty much disappeared. Occasionally we spot one, but I have no idea whether there's one left, or loads in hiding!
I've got plenty of algae. Mainly BBA, but I also get small amounts of thread and staghorn algae, and some GSA (mainly on the lower leaves of the stems round the back).
I'm trying to be philosophical about the algae. My terrestrial garden is lush and lovely, and it has its population of slugs, snails, aphids and other pests. And weeds, of course. I don't try to eradicate any of them, but I do take action if they start to impact too adversely on the garden.
I'm now doing the same with the algae. I'd love to get rid of it all (especially the BBA!), but that just isn't happening. So I remove the worst damaged foliage, encourage vigorous healthy growth, and accept that I can have a tank of (reasonably) healthy, happy plants and fish, and a background level of algae. That works for me (for now, at least).
Plant mass has increased massively, with the sword 'Marble Queen' growing out of the water, and flowering. I've added a Tunze circulation pump to ensure good flow throughout the tank, even with all this extra vegetation.
I'm still dosing full EI. There seems to be no point trying to ease back on nutrients, as I'm using dry ferts - it's so cheap, what would be the point in risking underdosing to save very small amounts of money?
Lights are on for six hours. Co2 comes on two hours before the lights, and off one hour before lights off.
The fish are mainly fed crumb (my LFS's own mix), supplemented with a little live and frozen food from the LFS. I'm also cultivating grindal worms, but rather struggling to get volumes up enough for them to make a significant impact on the total feed required. The fish do love them though!
Here's the tank today.
