Alex's 20 Gallon Planted Journal

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Could it maybe be older leaves trying to out compete new growth?

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Fresh2o said:
Runners and side growth is a good sign. Oddly, when I increased my lighting, the star repens did a lot of vertical growth. It may be more of an issue with crowding. Those AR (mini?) are looking good.
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My AR? Thanks, but I don't think so. The mini version isn't growing at all and the normal version is putting out good new growth but the old growth is dying off, with pinholes and torn edges (which I guess is reabsorption). I'm hoping the added K and PO4 will help with that. I mean, it isn't too bad but the old growth is not doing so well.
 
Brookster123 said:
Could it maybe be older leaves trying to out compete new growth?

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Click to expand...


Is that to explain the sideways growth and longer leaves? Maybe. After this new lighting most of the plants have grown larger leaves but this is weird.
 
Fishperson said:
My AR? I wish. The mini version isn't growing at all and the normal version is putting out good new growth but the old growth is dying off, with pinholes and torn edges (which I guess is reabsorption). I'm hoping the added K and PO4 will help with that.
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The ar I sent you, taller version, last night I did a wc and when I shut the filters down i noticed all these tiny bubbles streaming from the ar, it's about 9" tall now and the tops are deep purple.. same tank and light as yours! Something to look forward too;) oh yah.. no co2 either..

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Brookster123 said:
The ar I sent you, taller version, last night I did a wc and when I shut the filters down i noticed all these tiny bubbles streaming from the ar, it's about 9" tall now and the tops are deep purple.. same tank and light as yours! Something to look forward too;) oh yah.. no co2 either..

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Yay! I sure hope so. All the new growth is great I just hope it stays and doesn't get any problems. I'm having trouble getting the mini to grow though.
 
The mini is tough.. I've been able to keep it alive but nothing amazing is happening..

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Brookster123 said:
The mini is tough.. I've been able to keep it alive but nothing amazing is happening..

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Click to expand...


Yeah. My eventual plan is to have it spread in a semi circle around the right part of the driftwood to come next to the staurogyne repens. It's giving me lots of grief now though.
 
Today I trimmed the staurogyne repens and a little bit of the ludwigia that was branching. I wanted to shade my one small crypt parva plant that is growing on the far right. It's doing pretty well now, with two new leaves since it was transplanted, but has a bit of algae so I thought some shade would help. The star repens carpet is officially spreaded :cool:. Now it just needs to grow in and thicken up. The stuff grows really well! :dance:

I noticed that my AR and AR mini are growing new leaves from the very bottom of the stem.

All of the s. repens tops have sunk. It must be the larger leaves.

The baby vesuvius is growing, albeit slowly.

The torn-leaf ludwigia has perked up.

Life is good! :D :popcorn:

I recently PM'd Tom Barr on TPT. After reading this thread I am convinced that:
a) the guy is a freaking genius
b) EI is the way to go

I decided on a modified version of what he recommended. I PM'd him and this is what he said, and what I decided on.

He said:

"Light and CO2 are the most important things.

Ferts are secondary, important to some degree, but not that big a deal.

20 Gallon tank:

I'd dose say :

1/4 tsp of KNO3 2x a week
1/16th tsp KH2PO4, 2x a week.

Add GH booster after water change, say 1 tsp.

Dose traces at 5mls 3-4x a week (CMS+B at 3-4 tsp in 1 liter of hot tap water).

Done.

then focus on good care, top off the water for evaporation, water changes, good cO2 and then good CO2 and then good CO2.

Moderate light etc.

That's about it.

Ferts are boring after a week or so."

I replied:

Aquarium_Alex said:
So after some calculations I have a formula set to dose EI as a liquid, daily (that is preferable to me).

1/4 tsp KNO3 2x a week = 1/2 tsp per week = 1/14 per day
1/16 tsp KH2PO4 2x a week = 1/8 tsp per week = 1/56 per day

12 tsp KNO3 and 3 tsp of KH2PO4 dissolved in 500 ml of water = 12/500, 3/500 = .024 tsp KNO3 per ml, .006 tsp KH2PO4 per milliliter of said mixture (12 tsp KNO3, 3 tsp KH2PO4, 500 ml of water)

1/14 tsp KNO3 per day = .0714 tsp per day. .024 tsp KNO3 per milliliter of said mixture means that 3 milliters of said mixture would give me .72 tsp per day of KNO3, or slightly over half a teaspoon per week (.504 teaspoons).

1/56 tsp KH2PO4 per day = .0179 tsp per day. .006 tsp KH2PO4 per milliliter of said mixture means that 3 milliliters of said mixture would give me .18 tsp per day, or slightly over an eight of a teaspoon per week (.126 teaspoons).

Since the ratio of KNO3/KH2PO4 is 1:4 like you recommended, and they would need the same amount dosed per day, I could mix them into the same bottle and just dose 3 ml of that each day, right?

Seems right.

Then micros:

You suggested 5 ml of a 3 teaspoon/500 ml mix of CSM+B and water, 4 times a week. That's 20 milliliters of the mixture per week. Since I'd like to dose every day I would dose 3 ml instead, 7 days a week. Obviously in a separate bottle from the macros. Also sounds right.

I will probably mix the mixture today.

Thanks again for your help! Please correct me if anything is wrong!
Click to expand...

So that's what I will be doing. I will also add 30 grams of MGSO4 to the mix to raise my GH (it's very low).

I'm thinking its a good plan.

Life is very good as of right now, it really is. Don't want to jinx it. After hearing Brookster's story I'm glad I have an aqueon tank. This has actually survived many gerbils, 30 something tadpoles, a brown snake, and a year and a half of being a fish tank. Very happy with it. :dance:

Here are some pics!
 

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Everything looks better topless, especially fish tanks! :D :cool:
 

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Oh boy.. Tom Barr is the man. His Dutch tank is simply amazing! Your tank is looking good too.
 
Life is very good as of right now, it really is. Don't want to jinx it. After hearing Brookster's story I'm glad I have an aqueon tank. This has actually survived many gerbils, 30 something tadpoles, a brown snake, and a year and a half of being a fish tank. Very happy with it. :dance:

Here are some pics![/QUOTE]

Tank looks excellent! ! You're definitely doing something right over there;) yah talk about crap luck? Well the Marineland is holding strong, you'd think I'd have had enough tank work? Rescaping the 20 tall tomorrow hehe.. keep up the good work! Can't wait to see how sir Tom's method works..

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Brookster123 said:
Life is very good as of right now, it really is. Don't want to jinx it. After hearing Brookster's story I'm glad I have an aqueon tank. This has actually survived many gerbils, 30 something tadpoles, a brown snake, and a year and a half of being a fish tank. Very happy with it. :dance:

Here are some pics!
Click to expand...

Tank looks excellent! ! You're definitely doing something right over there;) yah talk about crap luck? Well the Marineland is holding strong, you'd think I'd have had enough tank work? Rescaping the 20 tall tomorrow hehe.. keep up the good work! Can't wait to see how sir Tom's method works..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app[/QUOTE]


Thanks! Yeah I'm mixing it today, dosing tomorrow. We'll see.
 
Update again! Lots of more pictures. The S. Repens has TOOK OFF! It's growing super fast and I will be selling it in the classifieds soon. I mean WOW!

The L. Repens is growing fast but sideways sort of and the leaves have a few pinholes and crinkled/melting edges. I just don't like it. I may switch it out for some Ammania sp. Bonsai soon or something similar. Recommendations?

Baby Vesuvius isn't growing well. I'm going to take it out because it doesn't really add to the tank at all.

AR: Old leaves are algae magnets. I'll elaborate on the algae later.

AR mini: Old leaves have some algae, but not too much. I think my lighting is too low to get major algae down there so that's sort of a bonus. It's not very red though.

Rotala: The bottom leaves don't seem to be getting much light or something. They are falling off a bit in some places but overall not too bad. Still lots of sideways growth on the smaller stems. :banghead:

Crypt Undulata: A bit of algae on it's leaves. The co2 went a bit low over the weekend unfortunately. Also, I seem to have a problem. My co2 fell to around 2 bps, which should be sufficient for this tank but IMO it's not. Somethings weird. I'm running it into the canister intake, so theoretically all of the co2 should be dissolved. Also the surface agitation went up while I was gone so that would lower co2 levels. Right now co2 is at 5ish bubbles per second and the water level is back up. Hopefully that will take care of some algae.

Crypt Parva: It's well shaded by the S. Repens now and has shot out a 5th leaf. Still very small but that's alright.

Algae:

A bit of black/dark green spots on the glass. Not sure what it is.

A green powdery sort of stuff on the AR. I'm guessing green dust algae?

Green spots on C. Undulata. GSA I'm sure.

A bit of green on the driftwood. I think it was either the lack of co2 or added K and PO4. Thoughts?

Finally, pics:
 

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How did you make your EI solutions, or did you just dose it dry?


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