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Nature aquarium dragon wood

Tank seems to be settling now, I've cut a lot of it back so everything has had alteast one trim now to allow for fresh new growth.

Nitrates are around 5ppm using apt3 and the rotala is colouring up well. The blyxa mixed in with the background stems has gone red aswell.

I've added a plant to the wood at the front I think it's a bolbitis.

6 new otto catfish in to help with the cleaning up!

there is still stem plants which I replanted in the back corners but I like the island look as it is aswell.
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All growing very well, I've cut it all back for a reset, I think this time I will let it grow right up to the surface and hopefully get a deeper red in the rotala, I've cut back on some of the red to the left and added rotala green to break up the colours, there is also rotala h ra and rotala yao yoi next to each other so I'm hoping by the way it's shaped now I will be able to tell the difference between them both.

I replanted some of the good tops and once separated the hra has a slightly deeper red.

Still have BBA coming back all the time, ive started even more in depth waterchanges sometimes more than 1 to get more detritus.

I've turned up the c02 slightly aswell and the plants seems to pearl a lot more so hopefully these things start to get on top of it, all fast growing plants are fine. But slow growers are in a battle with BBA
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Some areas are looking ambitious bear compared to before as I am trying to tackle the bba still and determined not to give up and restart so one of the changes I could have made was remove as much bba as I could manually including plants effected that are not growing.

stem plants are just fine in the background, I've added some root tabs in just to tip up the nutrients. I think I could be slightly under dosing nutrients so I am upping my dose of fertiliser to compete with the algea and focus on healthier plants.

I've had new glass pipes as the other snapped!

I've had galaxy rasbora fry swimming around so they must be happy in the breeding.

all looks to be on the right track, just the BBa which I'm chipping away at with a wire brush and apt fix


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This tank looks different all the time and varies alot with colour depending on trimming or fertilising.

I've now changed to dennerle liquid and liquid plus fertiliser. Seems to work well for this tank. I think the APT 3 wasn't giving enough nutrients for this amount of plants, which if I would had a higher dose, I would soon have ran out anyway.

1st thing to change is the floating plant health with healthy looking roots now and good growth.

I cut most of the slow growing plants back as they were covered in BBA which I have slowed down, but still having issues with. I got alot of it off with a wire brush but still alot left. Either that or the fertiliser has given the plants a boost anyway, so I will continue with that.

Also got cyanobacteria in here which I will need to treat, if anyone has any tips? I have got rid of it before by adding an air stone over night and it disappeared.

New fzone lily pipe as the other one smashed.

Scarlet badis added so ill try get some pics of them and some galaxy rasbora babies that i have been breeding at home.
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Lovely scape @Sprayman60. Really love how you've used just the right amount of red and also the contrast between the different greens. It really sets the composition off!

I notice your anubias mini coin 1 2 grow has survived from the get go. Any advice in how you prepared and secured this plant to the hard scape ? Currently having issues with this plant, in that it just turns to mush within a week of adding it over and over. You've obviously got it right here as yours seems to be doing well, long term.
 
Hi all,
Currently having issues with this plant, in that it just turns to mush within a week of adding it over and over.
What fertiliser do you use or do you have fairly fresh aquasoil? All Anubias are very prone to <"damage from ammonia (NH3)">, although we don't know exactly why.

cheers Darrel
 
Cyano near the substrate sometimes are associated with poor water circulation on the bottom regions, leading to poor oxygenation. I think it's worth checking it that's your case.
 
Lovely scape @Sprayman60. Really love how you've used just the right amount of red and also the contrast between the different greens. It really sets the composition off!

I notice your anubias mini coin 1 2 grow has survived from the get go. Any advice in how you prepared and secured this plant to the hard scape ? Currently having issues with this plant, in that it just turns to mush within a week of adding it over and over. You've obviously got it right here as yours seems to be doing well, long term.
Thanks! I used the rotala green to break up the rotala yao yai and H ra.

For the anubias mini coin I think I've had it 4+ months and it's not really grown till recently. I've had problems with BBA and the more work I did to manually remove that all around the tank it started to grow and I also upped the dose of micros (fertiliser) and its started producing new leaves finally.

Cyano near the substrate sometimes are associated with poor water circulation on the bottom regions, leading to poor oxygenation. I think it's worth checking it that's your case.
Yes it could be this, I've got rid of it before by adding an air stone over night and it disappeared! I've just rearranged this tank and I've removed some of the wood which will hopefully improve the circulation and c02 and the c02 was going straight up to the wood and I think stopping it from being spread around the tank.
 

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Big change for this tank! I've removed some wood which I think was blocking some circulation and the C02 looked like it wasn't getting to certain areas because of this so I will see what effect this has.

There was still a lot of BBA and I've not had that much time for it recently so I've had chance today for a big reset and spent a few hours manually removing what I can. I removed some over the last few weeks and seems that the slow growing plants started growing finally.

The rotala background had never been fully replanted so i was thinking it was holding alot of waste at the bottom of the stems and it was, this could be my problem with the BBA. I had removed other stem plants and replanted for this reason but wasnt enough to stop the bba.

The background plants have had all the healthy tops cut off and replanted so I've decided to spread the rotala accross the whole background and will trim into a V shape when it's all grown in. I'm expecting to see the full colour of the rotala soon with. I have yao yai, H ra and maybe colorata from my old tank.

I added one stem of rotala macrandra aswell and left a good space for this in the middle with a bit of rotala green to break up the colour. I'm hoping it's different shades of red/ orange in the background

I've added some dennerle stone in the front which will hopefully separate the soil from the sand. Blyxca japonica has been added down the sides also where I've removed the old stem plants. I can't remember the name of the stem but the fine leaves seemed like it just collected waste so I tool it all out.

Hopefully in a month this will all be looking at its best again.
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Despite the difficulties you've been honest enough to discuss, this has been - at all stages - a very attractive tank. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your approach. Any update?
 
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