Day 161 "Metaphor": Good Days Ahead

Increasing Trace, Now Using Rexolin APN

Half way through last week I continue to see poor health on new leaves in Monte Carlo, despite the increase in Fe dosage and dosing frequency. So I decided to start increasing trace dosage as well.

Using Rexolin APN, I start dosing at around 0.2 to 0.4 grams per day until the end of the week. It seems a lot but I just want to saturate to make sure we are not limiting this nutrient. I didn't notice any negative effect though.
In fact, I start to see improvement in Monte Carlo. New growth are now in good shape. The new leaves are much more green now and the leaves are bigger than usual. This is a good thing.
I will continue to dose more trace next week. I will also keep Iron at the same dosage as last week to ensure we are not limiting this nutrient as well.
Even Blyxa Japonica is a lot more green now. It's new leaves look thicker than before and they pearled a lot like I never seen before so obviously we're doing something right here.

Monte Carlo Growh at Middle Back Area of the Tank

Another Shot of Monte Carlo at the Back Area

Monte Carlo Front Lawn is Trimmed to Allow New and Healthy Growth

Increased Phosphates Dosing Continued...

The aquasoil kept buffering it down to 0.5 ppm so that's good. It means I can just keep "overdosing". I don't see any negative effect on plants nor algae bloom trigger.

Dosing Summary From Last Week

Below are the dosing total (in mg/L) from last week. That's a ton of phosphates and Iron right?  It's fine. there were no algae's at all. not a single BBA. Not a stain of green on the glass walls.
Nitrate is naturally high on the tank so don't need to dose any. I will continue to monitor it however because if nitrate bottoms out it will affect plant growth significantly

.NO3	6.140
.PO4	22.373
.K	46.979
.Fe	3.635
.Ca	4.982
.Mg	1.500
.Cu	0.026
.Mn	0.275
.B	0.109
.Zn	0.133
.dGH	1.032
.Co	0.004
.Mo	0.025
.Na	0.020
.Cl	0.177
.S	9.951

Replanting Staurogyne Repens

Since increasing phosphate and iron dosing I see improvement in these plants. New leaves look healthy and green. It used to be that "burns" appear all of a sudden on middle leaves but I don't see any melting ones like that anymore.

However, older leaves that were already suffering from GSA long before increasing phosphates and iron continue to be covered by GSA. This make the plants look unsightly and gives a false impression that they are still suffering from nutrient deficiency. They are also likely to remain this way and die off eventually. 

So the best option is to pull out the plants, remove all infected leaves and replant them. But the long term plan is to remove Blyxa Japonica in the tank and move Staurogyne Repens to their spot.
I intended to do all these this weekend during maintenance but decided to hold off this plan for now.

Staurogyne Repens Getting Better But Older Leaves are Still in Poor State

New Filter Outlet Pipe

This is not just for aesthetics. I find this design is the best outlet lily pipe for canister filters with in-line CO2 Reactor. It has minimum resistance to flow and the opening mouth does not twirl the water coming out so much. It also points downward so CO2 gets dispersed far and low reaching the carpet plants conveniently.