Journal 60L tank ft Lagenandra meeboldii, using mini Anubias as foreground

[Dennis Wong]

Looking great!
1.What is your technique for trimming fuzzy tall stems like Myrio. Looks like you are not straight trimming them since they don’t have branches. Do you just pull out the stem, top it and replant like the dutch? I had limnophila wilsonii (tall fuzzy green)and when I straight trimmed them they got messy quickly.

2. What is the green background plant next to myrio in the background? Your Facebook post on it says ??, are you keeping it a secret !!

3. The fluid in your bubble counter looks neat on the Facebook feed, is that just mineral oil ? I have become tired of replacing water.

Thank you!!

Thanks man~

1. I think I will cut the taller stems lower down and let it branch, same for Myrio golden. I see some lower branches developing as it is. I'll probably top and replant this first batch as I see imperfectly grown lower stems, but for the future trimming I'll probably just cut individual strands strategically. This approach is also helpful in slowing down bushes that are too fast growing.

2. I actually do not know what plant this is, maybe Lysimachia nummularia ? I need to check the comparison photos

3. Its a non evaporative, non toxic non oil liquid, you can use chatGBP to find a few chemicals that fall into that category.

 

[techman81]

Myrio roraima grows a couple of cm a day, so getting it to align with the rest of the plants will be the key in the layout.

I'm dying to know the answer to this.

 

[CincyScaper]

2. I actually do not know what plant this is, maybe Lysimachia nummularia ? I need to check the comparison photos

Nice! It looks pretty i am pretty sure I might have pulled the same family plant as a weed before in my yard.

What is the plant in the pic that you posted that looks like bolbitis?

ChatGPT thinks glycerine is the best option for bubble counter! Will be ordering it.

 

[techman81]

ChatGPT thinks glycerine is the best option for bubble counter! Will be ordering it.

I use this Food Grade mineral Oil. Works well.

 

[JacksonL]

One of my favourite plants!!
I do find that when it has been established for a while, it starts to put out extremely large leaves. Snipping them off doesn’t seem to prompt it to go back to a smaller form, but uprooting it, cleaning up the roots and replanting seems to make it go back to more compact growth.

 

[Dennis Wong]

I posted this on FB and thought I would update it here too:
In planted aquariums, plants constantly shift gears to match current growth conditions and environmental factors. New optimized growth is algae resistant and is easy to spot from its brighter colors and better growth forms (1) vs deteriorating older growth that is faded in color and attracting algae (2). The difference is subtle but discernable when one examines closely.
Stable growth parameters in aquariums maximize adapted growth (1), while unstable or lacking growth parameters in aquariums cause plant stress and more deteriorating older growth (2).
In this example, the best action is to uproot and discard (2) while topping and replanting (1). Removing older deteriorated growth that is vulnerable to algae (2) while maximizing high quality algae resistant growth (1) is the way to get an algae free tank. This is how aquariums running very high light levels, with high nutrient availability in the water column remain algae free - by maximizing algae resistant growth, and minimizing/removing poor quality growth.

A couple more close-ups
Blood vomit settling in nicely.


Roraima top view

 

[CincyScaper]

In planted aquariums, plants constantly shift gears to match current growth conditions and environmental factor

What do you typically do with TC plants ? Once they have some submerged growth do you top them and discard the original emersed portion routinely ?

 

[JacksonL]

View attachment 14949

I posted this on FB and thought I would update it here too:
In planted aquariums, plants constantly shift gears to match current growth conditions and environmental factors. New optimized growth is algae resistant and is easy to spot from its brighter colors and better growth forms (1) vs deteriorating older growth that is faded in color and attracting algae (2). The difference is subtle but discernable when one examines closely.
Stable growth parameters in aquariums maximize adapted growth (1), while unstable or lacking growth parameters in aquariums cause plant stress and more deteriorating older growth (2).
In this example, the best action is to uproot and discard (2) while topping and replanting (1). Removing older deteriorated growth that is vulnerable to algae (2) while maximizing high quality algae resistant growth (1) is the way to get an algae free tank. This is how aquariums running very high light levels, with high nutrient availability in the water column remain algae free - by maximizing algae resistant growth, and minimizing/removing poor quality growth.

A couple more close-ups
Blood vomit settling in nicely.
View attachment 14951

Roraima top view
View attachment 14950

These posts have been very helpful!

 

[Dennis Wong]

What do you typically do with TC plants ? Once they have some submerged growth do you top them and discard the original emersed portion routinely ?

Hmm I think it depends on the state of the older growth ? Some species seem to convert very smoothly, but if the older growth is clearly poorer quality then replanting new growth makes sense. TC is very un-uniform product. Some farms produce much better quality TC than others, and depending on the freshness and how it is stored, the outcomes can vary quite a bit.

This whole removing old growth thing applies to carpets, which is truly the most troublesome thing about maintaining carpets long term

 

[Dennis Wong]

Day 31.
Tank has grown in very quickly, but I guess I have every single tool available out there to give the tank an advantage, from mulm from matured tanks, to decent plants stock, expensive testing equipment and good tap water.

Java fern "orange narrow" is peaking out nicely. I wonder whether sandwiching the Xyris between the mid/background plants is a good move. They may be more visible in time, but they grow slowly. Similarly, the Lagenandra is slow to grow in. I foresee a couple more months before it gains good size to be featured more prominently.

I'm more and more convinced that (and Barr has mentioned this before without much explanation), that the very large water changes (90-100%) at start, plus planting densely (everyone knows this) is what will allow aquasoil tanks to settle in fast, with high chance of skipping diatoms/green dust algae stage. 90-100% water changes reset parameters/ammonia accumulation which spike tremendously during the first couple of weeks. 50% water changes doesn't cut it. Example - if you have 10ppm of ammonia (common with APT Feast), a 50% water change only removes 5ppm of that, and you're back to 10ppm+ within a day or 2.

90-100% water changes every other day for the first 2 weeks allow nitrogen (ammonia/Nitrates) in the water column to settle within the range of 4-8ppm consistently, and having that stable range makes a huge difference. Only doing say 50% water changes once or twice a week will see levels fluctuate in a much wider zone, with nitrates likely spiking to 20ppm - in such cases, the tanks eventually settle in only when plant mass catches up across a longer horizon.

 

[JacksonL]

Day 31.
Tank has grown in very quickly, but I guess I have every single tool available out there to give the tank an advantage, from mulm from matured tanks, to decent plants stock, expensive testing equipment and good tap water.

Java fern "orange narrow" is peaking out nicely. I wonder whether sandwiching the Xyris between the mid/background plants is a good move. They may be more visible in time, but they grow slowly. Similarly, the Lagenandra is slow to grow in. I foresee a couple more months before it gains good size to be featured more prominently.

I'm more and more convinced that (and Barr has mentioned this before without much explanation), that the very large water changes (90-100%) at start, plus planting densely (everyone knows this) is what will allow aquasoil tanks to settle in fast, with high chance of skipping diatoms/green dust algae stage. 90-100% water changes reset parameters/ammonia accumulation which spike tremendously during the first couple of weeks. 50% water changes doesn't cut it. Example - if you have 10ppm of ammonia (common with APT Feast), a 50% water change only removes 5ppm of that, and you're back to 10ppm+ within a day or 2.

90-100% water changes every other day for the first 2 weeks allow nitrogen (ammonia/Nitrates) in the water column to settle within the range of 4-8ppm consistently, and having that stable range makes a huge difference. Only doing say 50% water changes once or twice a week will see levels fluctuate in a much wider zone, with nitrates likely spiking to 20ppm - in such cases, the tanks eventually settle in only when plant mass catches up across a longer horizon.

View attachment 15089

But what about the endless Facebook claims that large changes stall or reset the filter’s cycle?!

Tank is looking great for being so young. The green foreground plant (S. Repens?) is looking very keen to push the blood vomit out of the way. Is there a good way to prevent/lower that? Or just staying on top of it’s side shoots and pinching off the under substrate runners when they pop up?

 

[Dennis Wong]

But what about the endless Facebook claims that large changes stall or reset the filter’s cycle?!

Tank is looking great for being so young. The green foreground plant (S. Repens?) is looking very keen to push the blood vomit out of the way. Is there a good way to prevent/lower that? Or just staying on top of it’s side shoots and pinching off the under substrate runners when they pop up?

haa facebook claims ... TBH where planted aquariums are concerned, I've always took cycling for granted. I always add fish/shrimp only when the plants have grown in a bit, and by that time I've always kinda assumed that cycling would be done.

I know that if commercial bacteria strains are used, the popular strains propagate faster in warm, slightly alkaline water, with PO4, Mg and some trace elements are present, high oxygenation rates. I have not done testing specifically whether water changes speed up or slow down tank cycling in these cases.

The foreground plant is elatine triandra, it doesn't grip the substrate as firmly as Staurogyne repens. It is easy to remove/trim with shallow root system, so I find it easy to pair with other delicate foreground plants. I wouldn't use S repens, in such combination, unless I intended to be super on the ball with cutting off invasive runners for the reasons you mentioned.

 

[techman81]

I'm more and more convinced that (and Barr has mentioned this before without much explanation), that the very large water changes (90-100%) at start, plus planting densely (everyone knows this) is what will allow aquasoil tanks to settle in fast, with high chance of skipping diatoms/green dust algae stage. 90-100% water changes reset parameters/ammonia accumulation which spike tremendously during the first couple of weeks. 50% water changes doesn't cut it. Example - if you have 10ppm of ammonia (common with APT Feast), a 50% water change only removes 5ppm of that, and you're back to 10ppm+ within a day or 2.

90-100 percent water changes every other day on a 75 gallon tank or larger is a lot of waste water. If I had a good way to reuse it, I wouldn't be bothered, but since I don't, I worry that I'm not being a good steward of nature and resources. I already worry about that with the tanks I currently have set up.

 

[Kwyet]

I worry about that too, especially now that I’m in Colorado and water stewardship is more important.

 

[Gwad]

One thing to consider, taking a bath uses around 30-50 gallons of water, so doing ~70 gallon water changes every other day would be like taking a daily bath (although I don't think most folks bathe daily and opt for showers).

The worse thing about doing this for me would be that I have very hard tap water and use RO. Making enough for a 90% change takes a lot of time and waste water in addition to the change water. I'm very envious of you folks with soft tap water.

 

[JacksonL]

90-100 percent water changes every other day on a 75 gallon tank or larger is a lot of waste water. If I had a good way to reuse it, I wouldn't be bothered, but since I don't, I worry that I'm not being a good steward of nature and resources. I already worry about that with the tanks I currently have set up.

All my waste water from my aquarium, both RO waste and water change outgoing, gets put on my vegetable garden. Guilt free fish keeping!

 

[Dennis Wong]

90-100 percent water changes every other day on a 75 gallon tank or larger is a lot of waste water. If I had a good way to reuse it, I wouldn't be bothered, but since I don't, I worry that I'm not being a good steward of nature and resources. I already worry about that with the tanks I currently have set up.

Yea water wastage is definitely one angle. The "dark start" way to start a tank potentially uses less water but more time. Also, depending on whether you actually have good tap water, and whether it comes out at a usable temperature - all these can make such an approach more difficult for many folks. In asia side, many folks have smaller tanks, so the amount of water managed is smaller (tank above is around 20 gallons), in the states larger tanks are common, and the resource consumption as a whole scales up quite a bit.

While water from water changes is an in-your-face issue, one can also argue that fish tank water wastage is kinda a small problem compared to wastages caused by other structural issues in society at large. Power generation, farming practices etc all consume a huge amount of water.




Source: Water Footprint Network

 

[Dennis Wong]

Day 43
Tank has reached good density, but active trimming needs to be done to prevent bad overcrowding.
Roraima doesn't branch particularly well, seemingly to prefer just focusing energy on 1 or 2 main stems when the main bud is cut. (Similar to Pantanal) this makes it harder to get a nice bush in smaller spaces. Might look to replace it.

 

[Dennis Wong]

Top view fridays ~
One day I want to have a pond that looks like this

 

[SmartAlec13]

Thanks man~

1. I think I will cut the taller stems lower down and let it branch, same for Myrio golden. I see some lower branches developing as it is. I'll probably top and replant this first batch as I see imperfectly grown lower stems, but for the future trimming I'll probably just cut individual strands strategically. This approach is also helpful in slowing down bushes that are too fast growing.

2. I actually do not know what plant this is, maybe Lysimachia nummularia ? I need to check the comparison photos

3. Its a non evaporative, non toxic non oil liquid, you can use chatGBP to find a few chemicals that fall into that category.

I agree I am pretty sure that is Lysimachia nummularia, I have the same in my tank as well and looks similar. Grows pretty well unless its roots are disturbed, I have found. It was my plant that had a massive dying-off when I decided to uproot older stems and replant the nice tops.