Finally got some pictures.
Here you can see the carnage from my battle with the hair algae. There's still some lurking in spots, but I think I'm winning at the moment. Reconfiguring my ferts seemed to do the trick.
I took a scissors to the glosso today. It was getting too tall so I cut it down to about an inch or so. I'm going to be pulling the cuttings out for the next month. I tried skimming them, but I missed a bunch.
I moved the nesaea up to the front of the tank on the right side. Despite the algae issues, I haven't managed to kill the nesaea yet.
The ambulia is still growing like a weed. I trimmed the tops and replanted them today to fill in where the rotala was before.
Here's a shot of the blood stargrass. It's starting to take off now. You can also see the new growth on the rotala. I think it likes having some more nitrate in the water.
After playing with my mom's camera a few weeks ago, I realize just how terrible mine is. I may have to see if I can do something about it. In the meantime, I apologize for the picture quality.
I've tried twice to make a drop checker and failed miserably. I used a quarter machine egg and a baby bottle nipple for the first attempt. I tried hot gluing a suction cup to the egg and it fell off. Then the nipple started peeling away from the egg. I tried Crepe's method of using an API test tube. I had problems with the cap leaking, so I used some hot glue to seal the leaks. It worked, but today I pulled the cap off to check the solution and I cracked the tube putting the cap back on. I found a small glass jar with a screw lid. I'm leak testing the cap now. If it's sound, I'll have another go at a drop checker tonight.
I've been losing adult guppies like crazy the last few days. I've been having some issues with my CO2 setup and I'm wondering if the pH fluctuations are killing the fish. There's no outward sign of illness, but I've pulled seven dead fish from the tank in as many days.