How to improve my CO2 graph

[jsiegmund]

Another quick update. I've increased the lighting a bit more by running my normal T5's which I still have in the tanks hood for 4 hours during the time the LED lighting is on. Reasoning behind this is that I'm not sure whether the LED's (SMD 5050) are sufficient to have a good reach / spectrum. In order to resolve this more permanently I've ordered new 8520 chipped strips which should give me way more lumen. Ordered both normal white and warm white to see whether I can also improve the color temperature a bit, I'm still not pleased with how things look now.

The T5's have been running for three days now. The only noticeable difference is that I seem to have more surface film than before. I always had a bit of film so I have an Eheim skimmer running during the night. I'll increase the duration a bit to see whether that helps with the film. Is this film being caused by increased bacterial activity due to higher lighting?

Plants look ok. Gave the moss a good trimming last weekend and it's already bouncing back in bright green. For the struggling plants, no real improvement there (yet). Got some urea from a buddy of mine, will see whether dosing a bit of that maybe gives things a kickstart. Any additional tips are very welcome

 

[jsiegmund]

Finally! Time for an update with pictures!

That's the tank as it sits now, nice and healthy! And here's one with the additional T5 running:

The camera makes the difference more dramatic than it is in real life, but still; it's considerably more lumens hitting the plants. I've got new LED strips lying waiting for the connectors to arrive from China. Those should be brighter and I've ordered both 'normal' white and warm white to see the difference it makes to the looks of the tank.

As for the plants, things definitely seem to be improving:

I've moved the staurogyne to a place near the front, it seems to like that.

Grass (Lilaeopsis Novea-Zelandiae) is improving, not algea free yet.

Marsilea crenata looking good

Alternanthera Reineckii also doing a lot better. It stays fragile though, sometimes I spot a floater.

Some pearling on the weeping moss. Did a radical trim last week and it's already grown back amazingly. But look closely and you'll spot some BBA in this pic.

There's been a few things I've done so far:

- Shorter lighting period
- Adding the T5 for increased intensity
- Upped the dose of PO4
- Added the dosing of Urea

So I cannot really tell which of these did the trick, or maybe it's the combination of everything of course. My latest water parameters were: kH 5, gH 10, PO4 0.5 and NO3 20. Yes, the PO4 is still 0.5 even though I'm dosing more. I'm not convinced that this means the plants are using more, cause in the past I could dose pretty much any amount, readings would always say 0.5 :S

The BBA isn't completely gone yet, but I've forced it back onto the hardscape as most plants seem to be clean now. I've trimmed away some leaves which still had it but the new growth seems to be doing better. I also still have some green spot algea, mostly on the glass (BBA there as well) and on the Lobelia cardinalia. I'm going to wait untill I have the new lights installed to see what happens. For now I'm pleased with the results already as there definitely seems to be improvement! Thanks again for all the help, especially @Manuel Arias !