This log seems more up your alley.
Very extensive with fertilizer regime included.
Will probably use chatgbt for translation as chinese isn't my first language and reading this is probably more painful than translating to english.
Translation below with images pasted as well.
STARTS BELOW THIS LINE.
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This pasted post is a
full 6-month Chinese buce tank diary for a
60×45×45 cm buce setup. The important English summary:
Core setup
Tank: 60×45×45 cm
Substrate: 3 L ADA Power Sand + 18 L ADA aquasoil
Filter: prefilter for physical waste + large bio-filter for stability
Water target: around
TDS 150, pH around
6.8 once mature
Temp: usually
23–24°C
Ferts: AF Micro, AF Iron, AF Potassium
CO₂: pressurized CO₂, eventually
24/7
Light: 5-tube T5 fixture, ramped slowly over months
His main philosophy
He is basically saying:
Buce needs stability more than anything.
New aquasoil swings pH/TDS/hardness hard, so he ages the tank, changes water often early, adds coral bone temporarily to stabilize hardness/pH, then slowly ramps light, CO₂, and ferts.
He does
not treat buce like a normal fast stem-plant tank.
Substrate method
He uses:
ADA Power Sand bottom + ADA aquasoil top.
He says because Power Sand already contains organic/inorganic nutrient base, there is
no need for extra base fertilizer or root tabs at startup.
For planting, he trims bad leaves/rotten roots, then uses tweezers to insert the roots into the soil while keeping about
1/3 of the main stem/rhizome exposed above the substrate, then clips/pins it down. His view is that for propagation/display, planting/pinning into the substrate is better because roots can enter the soil and grow faster.
Important: he is
not burying the whole rhizome deep. It is root access to soil, not suffocating the crown.
Cycling before buce
He cycles/ages the tank for about
28 days before adding buce.
During that time, he does
5 water changes totaling about 3.5 tank volumes. Reason: new aquasoil releases too much fertility and has strong acid/hardness-lowering ability. He wants to weaken those swings before buce goes in.
His data showed early tank water going:
TDS up, pH down
because nutrients/minerals leach while aquasoil acidifies/softens the water.
So he says if you don’t age/change water properly, buce can melt from unstable new-tank conditions.
Water targets
He says ideal GH is around:
GH 5–12 dH
He sets his tank around:
TDS 140 first, then 155, later stable around 150
He uses filtered tap water plus some RO/pure water. He is not using pure RO only. His tap varies a lot, so he mixes water to hit his target TDS.
He temporarily puts
coral bone/coral gravel in the prefilter to counter the aquasoil’s strong acid/softening effect. As the aquasoil gets older and stops lowering hardness as much, he slowly removes the coral bone.
So his mindset is:
Use RO/pure water as a mixing tool. Keep TDS stable. Don’t chase ultra-soft water.
Water changes
Early after planting:
- every 3 days, 1/3 water change, three times
- then every 4 days, 1/3, two times
- then every 5–6 days
- eventually settles into weekly 1/3 water changes
If algae or water-quality problems happen, he increases to
1/2 water changes or more frequent changes.
He also says not to panic with unlimited huge water changes. Adjust slowly according to the situation.
Cleanliness / maintenance
He emphasizes cleanliness a lot:
- clean prefilter regularly
- remove fallen/melting leaves
- trim flower buds because flowering consumes plant energy
- trim damaged old leaves
- clean glass/equipment biofilm
- keep dead snails/leaves out because decay pollutes water
He specifically says a strong filter catches more waste, so the
prefilter must be cleaned often. Dirty prefilters can cause ammonia/water quality issues and lead to poor plant condition or melt.
This is
not deep gravel vacuuming the aquasoil. It is keeping the system clean: prefilter, glass, dead leaves, visible waste.
Lighting schedule
He starts very low and ramps slowly.
After planting:
- first: 3 hours/day with 3 tubes
- then 4 hours
- then 5 hours
- then 6 hours
- then 6.5–7 hours
- later 7.5–8 hours
- eventually main 3 tubes run about 8–9 hours, with the extra 2 tubes added gradually for a shorter midday period
He says strong light alone does
not make buce color better. Strong light must match substrate fertility, liquid fertilizer, CO₂, stable water, and the plant’s ability to absorb nutrients. If not, buce can fade, stretch, melt, or get algae.
This is a major point.
CO₂
He uses pressurized CO₂ from the start, but carefully.
Early after planting:
15–20 bubbles/min with the light
Then later:
60 bubbles/min
Then once stable:
24-hour CO₂, around
1 bubble/sec or
60–80 bubbles/min
Reason: after the tank stabilizes, 24h CO₂ helps stabilize pH. But he warns CO₂ is not “more is always better.” Too much can hurt livestock and water quality.
He also keeps pH from dropping too low early. He tries to keep pH above about
6.3 in the early phase.
Fertilizer schedule
This is the most important part.
He does
not dose heavy ferts from day one.
Around day 50–65
First liquid fert:
AF Micro 0.5 mL
Purpose: let buce slowly adapt to liquid ferts; micro helps side shoots/root growth.
Around day 66–79
After water changes:
- AF Micro 0.5–1 mL
- AF Potassium 0.5 mL
- AF Iron 0.5 mL
Around day 90-ish
After weekly water change:
- AF Potassium 1 mL
- AF Micro 1 mL
- AF Iron 2 mL
Around day 99–123
After water change:
- AF Micro 1.5 mL
- AF Potassium 1.5 mL
- AF Iron 3 mL
He says once buce is growing normally,
iron becomes the main fertilizer, while potassium and micros are supporting fertilizers.
Later higher point
He tried:
- Micro 2 mL
- Potassium 2 mL
- Iron 4 mL
But then algae appeared, so he stopped ferts temporarily.
His warning about overdosing
He says micros are needed in very small amounts. If overdosed, they can cause leaf holes.
He also specifically says
most buce leaf holes are caused by too much iron fertilizer.
His advice:
If buce already looks good,
reduce/maintain iron, don’t keep increasing.
That is a huge Chinese-style warning:
Do not chase color by constantly increasing iron.
Algae response
When green dust algae appeared, he:
- cleaned prefilter
- changed 1/2 water
- stopped ferts for 2 weeks
- reduced/held lighting
- used snails
- later used AF algae remover daily for a week
- resumed ferts at a lower adjusted dose
After recovery, he settled around:
- Micro 1 mL
- Potassium 1.5 mL
- Iron 3 mL
Then held that dose for a while.
Temperature
He strongly controls temperature.
He keeps water around:
23–24°C
In summer he uses fans, AC, and possibly a chiller. He even sets the light period from early morning to early afternoon to avoid afternoon heat.
This matches that other Chinese line you showed: at
29°C+, many buces fade.
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END OF TRANSLATION COPY>
I do have a few more of these forum posts I can copy/translate over here, but that would be a bit spammy, unless you guys are interested in seeing a few more.
