Hello Folks,
I hope all of you are taking the necessary precautions to stay safe and keep the Covid Virus at bay.
It has been 11 weeks since I started this scape and 3rd week since flooding.
Last week, the scape was almost taken over by slimy thread algae. So I did the following:
ADA Brighty K and ADA Brighty Mineral once in two days, thrice a week, with saturday rest, water changed on Sunday.
The whole tank is getting to be absolutely fantastic with algae disappearing by the day . Since I have changed a lot of things, not sure on whether it is the Excel, water change, change in the surface skimmer or the ADA Bio Rio.
Not a big fan of adding chemicals to the tank (Except for the ferts of course), so Excel treatment is just to not have my back broken before the plants grow to their full potential. Ordered 10 Amano and 10 Fire red shrimps and added them to the tank. They along with one black cap military snail will be my cleaning crew. I will carry on with Excel for one more week and then leave it to the cleaning crew to help me out.
Some after hour pics of the tank
Front tank shot - notice how the background plants have grown in the last one week (compare to the 1st and 2nd pics from previous post). The Montecarlo in the front half of the tank looks like gone case... so planted some in vitro eleocharis parvula.. just in case.
Close up effort for the background plants (Rotala H'ra, Limnophilla Vientnam Green), right sideground (Ludwigia SP. hi-red) and midground (s. repens, H. Pinnatifida)
Blue Green Algae!!!! - there are totally 3 patches in the tank.. need to spot treat this Saturday
Bad haircut day - Had a cup of this moss - Callicostella Prabaktiana waiting to see how this flora turns out
Black military cap dude..
Fire Red Ballarina
... and the Amano Shrimp...
Sometime I feel that aquascaping and stock market trading have pretty similar basic principles. In Stock market trading, let go of your fear and greed. In Aquascaping, let go of your fear and impatience - fear of algae and impatience to see good results.
Lesson Learnt - level head, thinking rationally, letting cause and effect take place in the time that it takes, consistency and patience give you the stepping stones to a successful aquascape.
Take care and be safe!
I hope all of you are taking the necessary precautions to stay safe and keep the Covid Virus at bay.
It has been 11 weeks since I started this scape and 3rd week since flooding.
Last week, the scape was almost taken over by slimy thread algae. So I did the following:
- Suctioned majority of the algae from the scape and plants with a thin RO inlet pipe - this helped to take out more stuff with less water being suctioned
- Used a toothbrush to loosen up whatever was attached to the stones and plants
- Removed dead and rotten plants as much as possible
- Did a 50% water change with RO water
- Added another 2 liters of ADA BioRio to the filter - total of 4 liters in the Eheim 2217
- The surface skimmer was pushing the background plants as they grew, so moved it to the center left of the tank
ADA Brighty K and ADA Brighty Mineral once in two days, thrice a week, with saturday rest, water changed on Sunday.
The whole tank is getting to be absolutely fantastic with algae disappearing by the day . Since I have changed a lot of things, not sure on whether it is the Excel, water change, change in the surface skimmer or the ADA Bio Rio.
Not a big fan of adding chemicals to the tank (Except for the ferts of course), so Excel treatment is just to not have my back broken before the plants grow to their full potential. Ordered 10 Amano and 10 Fire red shrimps and added them to the tank. They along with one black cap military snail will be my cleaning crew. I will carry on with Excel for one more week and then leave it to the cleaning crew to help me out.
Some after hour pics of the tank
Front tank shot - notice how the background plants have grown in the last one week (compare to the 1st and 2nd pics from previous post). The Montecarlo in the front half of the tank looks like gone case... so planted some in vitro eleocharis parvula.. just in case.
Close up effort for the background plants (Rotala H'ra, Limnophilla Vientnam Green), right sideground (Ludwigia SP. hi-red) and midground (s. repens, H. Pinnatifida)
Blue Green Algae!!!! - there are totally 3 patches in the tank.. need to spot treat this Saturday
Bad haircut day - Had a cup of this moss - Callicostella Prabaktiana waiting to see how this flora turns out
Black military cap dude..
Fire Red Ballarina
... and the Amano Shrimp...
Sometime I feel that aquascaping and stock market trading have pretty similar basic principles. In Stock market trading, let go of your fear and greed. In Aquascaping, let go of your fear and impatience - fear of algae and impatience to see good results.
Lesson Learnt - level head, thinking rationally, letting cause and effect take place in the time that it takes, consistency and patience give you the stepping stones to a successful aquascape.
Take care and be safe!