Okay. I'm finally going to do something about these plants...

[Caliban07]

Yeah they are slow growers for sure. There's probably a lot of GSA infected leaves too that will require cleaning or removing.


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[enrgizerbunny]

The rhizome appears to have 3 buds growing on it now, I'm not sure what I'll do, because it has definitely started growing faster with two buds, but 3?

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[enrgizerbunny]

Update on the swords. The one on the left is sill taking off, the ones on the right are starting to with me adding the carbon on their side. I'm going to move some to the left tonight during my water change and relocate the new anubias. What kind of spacing should I give the swords from one another to avoid competition?

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[Caliban07]

The rhizome appears to have 3 buds growing on it now, I'm not sure what I'll do, because it has definitely started growing faster with two buds, but 3?

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Just snap the buds off. Try to get a nice bunch of leaves per 'new' rhizome.


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[Caliban07]

Update on the swords. The one on the left is sill taking off, the ones on the right are starting to with me adding the carbon on their side. I'm going to move some to the left tonight during my water change and relocate the new anubias. What kind of spacing should I give the swords from one another to avoid competition?

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That's good. Did you move the wood? I have them an inch or two apart in my tank and there seems to be no problem but they are all the same size.


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[enrgizerbunny]

No. I really like where the wood is so I'm going to move the plants. I'm going to get some tall anubias for the right side since they seem to do fine, and I'll likely get a couple moss balls and tie them to the wood to give it some color.

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[enrgizerbunny]

Well I didn't move the plants and they're starting to take off, so they are going to stay put for the moment. Adding the carbon on the opposite side of the tank seems to really be helping, and the taller they grow the easier it is on them to get light.

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[Caliban07]

Well I didn't move the plants and they're starting to take off, so they are going to stay put for the moment. Adding the carbon on the opposite side of the tank seems to really be helping, and the taller they grow the easier it is on them to get light.

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Good stuff. Any algae?


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[enrgizerbunny]

Good stuff. Any algae?


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No, very little algae in my tank and I haven't scraped in ages. My photo period is 2on,3off,3on,3off,3on to prevent algae growth.

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[Caliban07]

That's good. Having a nightmare with algae at the moment. I have managed to grow every type. I think I know how but now I'm going to try to see if my hypothesis is correct and combat the algae.

Been doing a lot of reading lately. Basically I had no algae When I had a full tank of plants



I changed my co2 schedule so that it came in three hours before lights on (to ensure co2 saturation at lights on) my ph dropped to <6 and the effects were made even more pronounced when I pruned half my tank (less co2 uptake)



Water went very cloudy after I did this because I disturbed lots of the bacteria in the soil substrate. Since then my fish shrimp were acting strange including decaying of fins on swordtail and shrimp. My Kh is <3 so ph is not protected from fluctuations. Couple this with the fact I believe my tank has little dissolved oxygen. Basically I believe at present my tank favours heterotrophic bacteria that are outcompeting the autotrophic nitrifying bacteria thus producing large amounts of ammonia (high organic carbon from soil etc) and so ammonia is being produced but not nitrified efficiently leaving excess ammonia to be taken up by algae.

Time will tell. Have a few trick up my sleeve to try.


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[Caliban07]

Since then btw I have turned co2 off completely and added crushed coral to my filter. Fish and shrimp behaviour is back to normal including regeneration of fins.

First thing I'm going to try is lots and lots of water changes.


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[Fresh2o]

Since then btw I have turned co2 off completely and added crushed coral to my filter. Fish and shrimp behaviour is back to normal including regeneration of fins.

First thing I'm going to try is lots and lots of water changes.


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Any change in your light schedule? I'm wondering how the absence of CO2 will affect the growth of algae in your tank.
If you restart the CO2, the pH drop should not be as pronounced since you are increasing the buffer capacity.


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[Caliban07]

Any change in your light schedule? I'm wondering how the absence of CO2 will affect the growth of algae in your tank.
If you restart the CO2, the pH drop should not be as pronounced since you are increasing the buffer capacity.


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Thanks fresh. All I have done is removed the reflectors from the T5s. The plants seen ok at the moment. The algae I think is still growing but not as rapid. I understand what you mean about the buffering capacity and I do have a ph pen now to spot check but when you see one of your fish in the distress that my swordtail was in it has really made me reluctant to switch it back on. I will do eventually after I have tried other means to remove the algae first. I will probably only have co2 to come on half an hour before lights too so that co2 is not allowed to build up as much and affect the ph.


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[enrgizerbunny]

I may have asked this before, but would I gain anything by having one 10,000K bulb and one 6500K bulb? Plants are growing well, btw.

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[enrgizerbunny]

Recent picture.

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[Caliban07]

Looks good. I feel like it could do with a lot more flora though.


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[enrgizerbunny]

Looks good. I feel like it could do with a lot more flora though.


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Opinion on the bulb?

I'm having fun watching what I've got grow and want to get them a little taller before adding more competition for carbon.

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[Caliban07]

Opinion on the bulb?

I'm having fun watching what I've got grow and want to get them a little taller before adding more competition for carbon.

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Looks kinda bright but looks good. Yeah I get you on that one.


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[enrgizerbunny]

How big can I expect these swords to top out at? One of them is almost ten inches tall now, second largest is about 6, and it goes down from there.

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[Caliban07]

Not sure. The app I use says normally won't exceed 30-50cm


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