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Thanks Mom!
Everything is growing nicely. The rotala wallichii looks like crap right now but I think my pink kissing gourami is making a meal out of it. It is the only plant I see it munching on from time to time. It continues to grow and I think it is looking better than it did a few days ago. I know it is hard to grow, so I will not be terribly disappointed if it dies, but the root systems are crazy developed. I pulled one bunch out just out of curiosity to see how the were developing and was very shocked at how hard I had to pull to get the bunch out of the substrate! Roots were about 3 inches long and plentiful.
Algae seems to be in check. I have had to clean the glass twice since starting this experiment and it appeared to be green spot algae. I wouldn't say that it was a problem, just about a dozen or so dots here and there. I last cleaned the glass on Saturday May 9th and no issues since. There is some algae growing on some of the leaves, but I trust the oto's to do their jobs....
The alternanthera reineckii keeps shedding leaves, but they are all the older leaves and I read that they will lose their leaves when transplanted. The old leaves are quickly being replaced by new leaves and I am not seeing new leaves being shed, so I think all is good there.
Wisteria looks good and my Red Tiger Lotus bulb is growing in now. I have had to trim some ratty looking leaves off the Aponogeton Natans but again I have a fishy suspicion (no pun intended) that the pink gouramis are nailing the vegetation.
I am feeding the fish bloodworms about once a week or so to keep their diets mixed up and the pink kissing gouramis are the only fish in the tank that do not eat them. All the other fish go nuts for the bloodworms, so I have to assume I have a couple vegans in the tank there...
Tested my tank water last night and here's what I have:
Nitrite - .00 - .05ppm (hard to tell)
Nitrate - 5ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
Phosphate - .5ppm (this is a huge dip from where I started at 3ppm)
KH - 5 (a HUGE jump. I removed the crushed coral from the filter when I started and my last water change was 25% on 5/9)
GH - 13 (This is another HUGE jump. No idea why. Advice or input?)
pH - 6.7 (regulated by the CO2)
CO2 - 23ppm (per a test kit)
Tap chemistry is:
pH - 6.8ppm
GH - 3.0
KH - 2.0
Everything else is 0ppm
Any ideas why the hardness is so high?
Let me know what you all think. I will post pics next week with some close ups of the leaves. I don't want to run out of space on this thread to post pics.
Thanks!
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Dean
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