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Journal of a Natural 16g tank

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Just some picture of my tank at the moment
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The growth rate isn't as what I've expected and algae seemed to start getting hold on the mini pellia and the glass. Considering that the lighting is sufficient, I'm very tempted to start this tank on some CO2 injection until the plant has got good growth and the bacteria in the substrate has got enough mulm to decomposed and mature..... So far none of the plants are showing signs of deficiency and most of the plants have grown good roots. I'm therefore quite tempted to say that nutrient wise the tank will have plenty.

My HC seemed to be growing clinging low on the ground as well but the only problem is that it's constantly churn overby the trumpet snal and left floating in the tank before the roots manage to grow long enough to cling onto the substrate. In the end I just ended up burrying more and more of the HC in the substrate :(
 
daniel19831123 said:
The growth rate isn't as what I've expected and algae seemed to start getting hold on the mini pellia and the glass. Considering that the lighting is sufficient, I'm very tempted to start this tank on some CO2 injection until the plant has got good growth and the bacteria in the substrate has got enough mulm to decomposed and mature..... So far none of the plants are showing signs of deficiency and most of the plants have grown good roots. I'm therefore quite tempted to say that nutrient wise the tank will have plenty.

Hi Daniel,
Algae is usually a sign of deficiency. In this case, in my opinion, the deficiency is Carbon, and probably other macros based on the amount of light you've got there. Right now, the plants are using whatever reserve of nutrients they built up (either when they were in the emersed state or from when they were in other tanks) so it gives the illusion that the dosing is OK. At some point though, the high lighting will exhaust those reserves and you may start to see the effects in a few weeks or so. You may want to try daily dosing of Excel if gas injection is problematic.

Cheers,
 
yeah I thought so myself and just got myself some excel and fertiliser. Will start dosing the excel and see if things improve. If it does then I will keep the fertiliser on hold. If not then I will add ther fertliser in.
 
What's the red plant in the back right called? It's very red!

The wood looks better at an angle like that, it looked a little contrived in the middle as it was before.
 
Alternathers reinekii is the red plant on the right. It's meant to be fast growing but so far besides the root been fast growing the plant hasn't seemed to throw out much shoots.

Just purchase a CO" injection kit from germany. Might start injecting CO2 to give the plant growth a boost to combat the algae at the moment.

Sadly I had one casulty with my octocinclus. Don't know why it died. It's belly just got so bloated..... I would be tempted to say it's got cancer but it's too quick for a cancer to grow that big within such short period of time. :p
 
I think many ottos are still wild caught, so it may just have been stress, or an internal bacterial infection brought on by stress. I had a problem with a shoal of panda corys I bought. I got 6 and within 2 weeks there was only 2 left, those are still going 6 months later. The other 4 all died with red patches on the side, like a heamorage.
 
yeah I do realise that in fact that's why I bought so many of them. The last time when I got 10 of them only 3 left in the end. This time ouf of the 14 that I've got, only 1 died. So that's good news to me I think.was thinking about adding another bristlenose plec into my tank just to clean up the wall. I have kept them in planted tank before but it was mostly java fern and bolbitis in the tank with plenty of moss. NOw that I have all soft leaves plant I am afraid that they will ruin the plant for me within a night. Any ideas on tha?

Will post another picture when the Ludwigia repens grow out of water. It's growing like weed at the moment and is the fastest growing plant in my tank. Pogostemon stellatus is growing much much slower than I anticipated. Will be adding CO2 injection at the end of the wekk to boost the plant growth and will consider weaning it down when most of the plantt form aerial growth.
 
Hmm just found another dead otos in my tank.... Just wondering if dosing excel have anything to do this? They all seemed to have big expanded belly.... this doesn't happen before I start dosing excel... Will start dosing excel soon when I get CO2 injection kit. Any idea how to reverse the effect of the excel if this is what causing the problem with the otos?
 
I used a whole bottle (not all at once!) on two tanks with ottos in and didn't see any problems.

They may have had bacterial infections that is just starting to show.

edit: By the way, if you're trimming your repens then I'll have some!
 
I'be bought the otos in 2 batch. The first batch has been in my tank for 5 weeks now and the second batch has been there for nearly 3 weeks. I don't know which are the one that died but if they have been a weak batch they would have shown problems when I first bought them wouldn't they? The rest of the otos looks active and eating well with stuffed belly.... Just hope that it's not a sign that they will die again. maybe I will do a water change soon.

edit would take a few more weeks before i do any trimming. wanted some aerial growth
 
I have Otos in a cube that I'm dosing with Easy Carbo - effectively the same thing - and no Otos have died. The bellies could be swelling either through starvation or possibly an infection. I would add some Melafix to the tank as I've found it has good general tonic properties and make sure they have enough food - maybe put some nori in, or algae wafers?
 
yeah I have. and there is plenty of visible spot algae and green dust algae in the moment that they don't seemed to be munching much on. that's why I was thinking of adding a bristlenose in the tank. I've also added some cougrette in the tank which they munch on earlier in the week. will get some melafix. thanks
 
Ludwigia is growing like weed at the moment and the leaves are getting bigger and bigger so I'm getting rid of them. Rotala wallichii on the other hand doesn't seemed to have grown at all... in fact it looks like it's dead from the first day I planted it in my tank. Constantly brown...

Have placed an order for tonina fluviatilas and limnophila aromatica to replace the rotala and ludwigia and hopefully it will come soon. Has anyone managed to grown any tonina in a low tech setting? They are well known to be a difficult plant to keep alive. So far I've manage to keep the pogostemon stellatus alive and growing
 
Rotala wallichi seems to prefer soft water. Mine copes with lots of abuse as long as the water's soft. I'm sure it can be grown in harder water, but it'll probably need more TLC. I believe Toninas and Eriocaulons are even more fussy...
 
hmm.. I never bother to check my water parameter. After checking on PFK the water supply here shouldn't be that hard. And with using topsoil with plenty of humus and organic matter, the water hardness should drop shouldn't it? And I haven't change the water for nearly 6 weeks now. The magnesium and calcium level should have drop by a little assuming that the plant growth would have consume some of them... Maybe I'll go get a hardness measuring kit...
 
But while the plants are using some minerals up, evaporation will be removing water and upping the hardness slowly too.

Despite my water not being 'too hard' I found the only way to get really soft water was to use an RO unit. I'm not saying you need to do this (it would be much easier to avoid those plants and fish that need soft water) but it might give a reason why you struggled with the Rotala.
 
just a few more photo of my tank now

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Sorry for the GDA and GSA. Thought it would go away with CO2 injection and increase the phosphate by feeding loads! lol

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My alternathers
 
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