Wow it's good that the new forum search function working properly, otherwise i would not find my journal because of the increased activity nowadays
Well the tank is 8 month old now. Not too much thing happened in the past 2 months. Did not had much time to refine or upgrade the scape. So i just kept it going.
Tuned out i run out of phosphate and i had to dose it to do better. So now i am adding that daily or every 2 days.
I added in a GHL Profilux computer with pH control since christmas. And the CO2 reactor managed by the Profilux now.
Originally i set the pH to 6.5 and reduced a buit the lighting. 7-5 hours per tubes pair. I was tired to clean the rocks every 2 weeks and remove the algae.
This worked well, had less issues and the tank ran better, but the plants not grow that nice and after 2 trimming i had to agree on that i have less and less plants. So tweaked the pH controll again. Now target to 6.4 and the T5 tubes set to 7-7 hours a day. Fertilizers not changed. The goal is to switch the plants again to burnst mode and be in a shape to create the final photo.
I had a trimming session last week, and today i had a little time to make a capture on the tank. Now without any extra lights.
8 months... much easier to maintain than any bushy scape which is good sometimes, but i look for the change.
Oh and i thought this is an interesting stuff to share. Downloaded the last 2 months activities on the pH level from the Profilux. This is how it looks:
A bit of an explanation here. I had the pH target set to 6.5. The CO2 was stopped from 10pm to 10am. Lights was on from 15 to 10pm.
The above chart built based on an hourly data sampling.
The peaks on the bottom shows the water changes. I am missing one other at least, i was lazy around the new year but not that much
Anyway, since i do a 120 Liter water change with full RO water the pH drops to 6.3 or so. Then there is an interesting stuff on the upper parts.
After every water change the water is softer. And the Seiryu rocks starts to harden up the water daily. You can see the pH level on the top goes up the same way just like the hardness til i do another water change and everything starts again.
I think i had CO2 issues because of that earlier. Issues with plants - raising hardness and large soft water change. And with fishes too. I had a good level of CO2 in the tank but seeing the Amano shrimps or Otocinclus i had sometimes more than i needed.
Since the controller is watching my back, none of the amanos escaped. They work all day just like the otocinclus fishes.
Its not something new this is just an interesting stuff what i experienced in the past 2-3 months.