About 10 weeks since I setup the tank. Changing about 90% of water once a week. Dosing Flora Grow Fertiliser once a week and have CO2 injection timed to an hour before lights on and off. Photoperiod 10 hours.
Livestock is just cherry shrimps, around 30, although they are breeding so this continues to increase.
Given the photoperiod and amount of natural light this tank receives, I’m seeing surprisingly little algae - pretty much nothing. There might be a very slight dusting of the glass after 4-5 days after a clean but next to nothing. Plants seem to be consuming all nutrients and cherries keeping any emergent algae under control. Will be interesting to see how this progresses as we head to summer months with longer and more intense sunlight.
As for the plants species:
- Monte Carlo carpet is very green and vibrant and completely covering every millimetre of the bottom of the tank. I have to trim once a week.
- Rotala Bonsai a slower growing and short species for sure, but seeing great growth and lots of new stems. I’ve had to trim once so far which I used as cuttings for my new tank.
- Rotala vietnam Hra has shown the most prolific growth since the start and needs trimming regularly. Again this has provided cuttings for a new tank.
- Hemianthus Micranthemoides had a slow start as the tissue culture specimens I started with looked very fragile and on the point of melting. However this plant has gone bonkers and is a very fast grower. I would say even faster than the Rotala v Hra now. What I notice with this plant is that it grows much faster with support of neighbouring stems. So might be an idea to give this plant some kind of support when getting started. Having said that cuttings taken to my new tank have needed no encouragement to get started so it may well be that you’re best-off with cuttings rather than tissue culture with this particular species. Interested to hear others’ experience with pearl weed.
- Ludwigia Palustris “super red” - this was the only plant I bought as a potted specimens (2 pots), which I cut into smaller sections for planting. It has grown like crazy right from the start and cuttings I’ve taken of this also grow and root very quickly. I did put some in a fish bowl with no CO2 and weaker light and lost the bright red colour in about a fortnight.
- Pogostemon Erectus had a shaky start as it was quite unhappy with my attempted “dry start”. It’s been by far the slowest growing stem and I haven’t trimmed it at all and it’s still not as tall as the other stems, although as you can see from the latest photo it is catching up! This really is a beautiful plant however it looks it’s best when viewed from above or looked down at from an angle because the leaves are a almost a white colour underneath as opposed to the vibrant green on top. So you might want to think about viewing angles if choosing this plant.
- Alternanthera Reineckii this has really come into its own after a very slow start. A low growing plant without the speed of Monte Carlo it’s always competing with the stems but seems to have founds its feet now and provided I keep the Monte Carlo and stems at bay is looking really striking now. A beautiful plant I would definitely use again.