Do not be so hard on yourself, Sherry. You got advanced plants with amazing color from a helluva grower,
and they have to transfer from hard to soft water. I've been chasing Travis -- my favorite guru -- for a year, and now, sometimes, if I squint real hard, I can sort of see him, but it just reminds me that I am still very far away. You are doing great. Really.
What do you guys think of the fact that I'm seeing MORE algae two days later .. in fact my first real algae... and it has happened WITH co2.
My guess is that CO2 injection drove up nutrient uptake, and now something is bottoming out. Maybe N. I feel pretty good about this guess.
also will I need to go up to 4 watts per gallon to hold on to the reds
3wpg CF is high light. More might help, especially since your tank appears quite tall, but I think you should just keep up the CO2, make sure nutrients are right, and see what happens this time when the plants grow closer to the light. Then you'll know with more certainty if its a problem with light penetration or some such, or if its just a nutrient and CO2 thing.
Again, that macrandra is damn red, though.
It's probably not an easy answer to get that. This is what makes Travis's tanks so mind-numbingly impressive, even when ignoring Mbuna and 'scape and size and tech.
Just my $.02. HTH