AR Mini replaced by pearlweed
Pearlweed grows fast but i don't mind. I find them one of the best plants for "scaping" due to their ability to grow thick, compact, and lush in a very short time. It's also nice that the lower part of the plant does not melt in time - either due to high light or pearlweed just don't need much light source. Other stems plants like rotala rotundifulia and Luwigia sp. red has their bottom part melting in time, at least from my experience.
Blyxa Japonica is getting a lot of attention
Every time I posted images of this tank in a social network or planted tank community, the first question i'm ask is "What is that plant to the right?". If I'm one of those that saw the pictures, I will probably ask the same question. I didn't intend for this plant to look this way, but it did. Blyxa Japonica is a plant I don't see often used by professionals. But I think it has a lot of potential for creativity.
Do I need to dose more potassium?
I have been dosing less than 20ppm of potassium in this tank since the beginning. Plants such as hydrocotyle tripartita and staurogyne repens were struggling to grow from the start. I had to remove almost all of the hydrocotyle tripartita because it looked really bad. Then last week I started to dose more than twice as much potassium as I do, and immediately I noticed staurogyne repens looking really green and lush. I'm starting to suspect that I've been depriving these plants of potassium all along. I will continue to dose potassium at more than 40 ppm a week and see if these plants will rebound.
Pearlweed and blyxa were fine though. I guess they are more into nitrates than potassium and this tank never had nitrate deficiency so that probably explains that.
One dwarf puffer for all the snails in the world.
At one point the tank is infested by limpet and ramshorn snails. they populate very fast. adding one fresh water dwarf puffer fish solved this problem. I never seen the fish hunt or eat one but since it has been introduced, the population has dwindled drastically. At this point, I cannot see any of them any more. It used to be that they crawl all over the glass and scatter their eggs everywhere. Unfortunately one day I saw the puffer fish on the floor. I didn't know it can jump as well. It was probably spooked. I'm pretty sure there's still a small population of these snails hiding in the soil and will soon wreak havok again sometime, but i'll be sure to get another dwarf puffer when that happens.
BBA vs. Excel: Excel Wins!
BBA got a little bit out of control at one point but thanks to Seachem Flourish Excel, they are gone now. Every week, before I do water change, I spot dose any BBA i see in the tank. Then I leave it for 15 minutes before I start draining the water. It worked, their reproduction rate decreased greatly. Now I only see 1 or 2 small clumps sticking in the rocks every time I do water change. In time, I don't expect to see any.
I also installed a small pump to improve water flow in the tank. That might have helped reduce presence of BBA as well because I notice they either grow in a dead spot or in an extremely high current area in the tank like outlet pipe opening.
Monte Carlo is still in progress
It has finally exploded in growth over the last few weeks. It filled the front lawn and required me to trim so as not to let the bottom area to melt. The back lawn and the sides still need some growth though before it can fully fill the whole tank. I hope it happens soon. It's been a long time!
So in summary, things are getting better. It still has a long way to go before it reaches the goal I have in mind for it but it's in the right direction. I'm considering to add a new plant to make the right side more natural and put a little balance on that side. I'm thinking of ammania sp. bonsai. From here on, I will try to be post updates more frequently.
No comments:
Post a Comment