Help 90g, Dutch style, first try

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You shouldn't run into any light blocking issues with a mesh, esp if it is a clear mesh.
I also don’t expect anything dramatic, and hope my explanation above was not a too complicated reply to the question.

I guess my point is that the best is always to measure, as intuition and observations with the human eye are not very reliable when it comes to light.

I do expect that losses will be limited, yet depending on the lightsource and position I would not be surprised if measurements show still 10% intensity reduction or more. The point is that light rays do not go straight down, perpendicular to the mesh, as we may believe is the case.
 
Hey guys, in about 2 days I'll receive Gertrudae Aru and Iriatherina Werneri, it's my first time that I've bought fish online.

Usually I do drip acclimation to 30-40m and then net them out, how should I act considering that fishies will be in the same water for at least 24h?
 
Hey guys, in about 2 days I'll receive Gertrudae Aru and Iriatherina Werneri, it's my first time that I've bought fish online.

Usually I do drip acclimation to 30-40m and then net them out, how should I act considering that fishies will be in the same water for at least 24h?

I've had fish shipped to me many times over the years. Honestly I don't even acclimate.

I do leave the CO2 off the day they are arriving, but then they just get plopped in the tank. Have never lost one ever.
 
Hi guys how are you?

I don't know what I did (or what I didn't in the last few months i.e panic when algae occurred), but the tank has never looked this good.
I can easily declare the tank 100% (visible) algae free. There are leftovers on old AR mini leaves, but are receding.

I never freakout during the rough times, I always followed a path, a routine, but the tank fixed himself, why I'm saying this? keep reading and laugh with me at the end.

The tank is running since November, I always did 2 60% wc weekly, every single week, never ever skipped one.
Every time I did a wc i always vacuumed the substrate. Every time I saw algae on the bottom of the plants (with a lush and healthy top) I always trimmed and replanted. Every time I had algae on glass, I always cleaned it and did a wc After. But still, algae was present at the next wc, in the last few months I was aware of only 2 things, death and the facts that I had to clean the algae at next wc. Meanwhile I tried different ferts (I even bought micros from Burr, and I'm Italian lol, it took almost 1 month and half to arrive here), bought a co2 controller, a new inline diffuser, a new reactor (the ones from the dutch guy, it's working great btw, CO2 on at 8am, light on at 9am with 1.5ph drop), the plug of chihiros auto doser blew up (lol).

2 month ago, for some reason I had a diatoms blooms (never had diatoms I'm this tank), I continued as always my routine.

But then 1 month ago I changed the routine, instead of doing 2 wc weekly, I started to do 1 time per week 60%. Instead adding a single macro dose after wc, i started adding 2 (so less WC + more ferts added, I've even increased my po4 from 3ppm x week to 4.5 x week), instead of vacuuming the substrate every wc, i literally stopped doing it like before, instead I vacuum only when i think is needed (some junk on substrate, or maybe if I feed too much or if I see too many poop). And the filters? Used to clean the prefilter every 7 days and every month the main chamber, now I still clean the prefilter every week or two but last time I cleaned the filter was like 2 months ago (but tomorrow is the cleaning day for the filters).

After all this words, what I want to say is, stick to the path, follow the routine but don't be afraid to change something, learn to recognize the symptoms, the plants literally talk, and the algae are a critical symptoms to recognize a problem, if you have "name an algae here" you have "probably this problem". Idk why the tank fixed itself, but it did. I'll add more photos tomorrow, the myriophillum mattongrense golden is awesome, it's completely white from top to bottom.
 
As promised here the photos. I can't upload directly on SC due to img size...


As I said, I didn't trimmed, the bottom part still have bad growth (some holes on leaves or cut leaves, but 0 rotting problem or algae there), but is algae free. I'm using this photos because is too easy to show a perfectly manicured tank without visible problem, but my intention is to show the differences between old and new growth, later this day I'll do maintenance, so I try my best to manicure it lol.

The plants did a complete metamorphosis since the last month, you can easily see it on this photo:
The Ludwigia brevipes changed entirely.

This photo is from 13 march:
Can you spot the difference? Lol

Seems that I've finally reached some sort of "tank maturation".

@Unexpected I read a post where you said that at 6-8 month, the tank become way more manageable and healthy, the tank turned 6 months old this month.


I've added in the last month, 10 Gertrudae Aru, 6 forktail. Planning to add 10 Threadfin (Iriatherina Werneri) and 1 pearl gourami (what do you think about this one? Will it be detrimental for the other fish?)
 
As promised here the photos. I can't upload directly on SC due to img size...


As I said, I didn't trimmed, the bottom part still have bad growth (some holes on leaves or cut leaves, but 0 rotting problem or algae there), but is algae free. I'm using this photos because is too easy to show a perfectly manicured tank without visible problem, but my intention is to show the differences between old and new growth, later this day I'll do maintenance, so I try my best to manicure it lol.

The plants did a complete metamorphosis since the last month, you can easily see it on this photo:
The Ludwigia brevipes changed entirely.

This photo is from 13 march:
Can you spot the difference? Lol

Seems that I've finally reached some sort of "tank maturation".

@Unexpected I read a post where you said that at 6-8 month, the tank become way more manageable and healthy, the tank turned 6 months old this month.


I've added in the last month, 10 Gertrudae Aru, 6 forktail. Planning to add 10 Threadfin (Iriatherina Werneri) and 1 pearl gourami (what do you think about this one? Will it be detrimental for the other fish?)
I’m definitely no fish expert. Might wait for others to chime in.
 
I’m definitely no fish expert. Might wait for others to chime in.
I've quoted you about the soil maturation, I saw a comment from you where you said that at 6-8 months mark, the tank become more mature and the plants are more healthy. My tank turned 6 this month, seems that you're right.
 
I've quoted you about the soil maturation, I saw a comment from you where you said that at 6-8 months mark, the tank become more mature and the plants are more healthy. My tank turned 6 this month, seems that you're right.
Ah, yeah, there’s something going on because many have noticed this as well.
 
Pearl gouramis are community fish. Only aggro when laying eggs and only around the eggs. I'm going to have some in my 135g they are stunners when mature.
 
Great tank pics! Plants are looking healthy and lush.

It's probably a combination of things. Large 2x weekly water changes require large macros doses to keep nutrient levels stable in the water column. Likely the extra dosing/less water changes means more fert accumulation and is helping.

And good micros help a lot too.

As to the other items you mentioned hard to say. When you change a lot of things at once it's hard to pinpoint causal effects. But since the combination is all working I'd stick with it. Results look outstanding.
 
Yes, it's the first time that I truly enjoy my tank. I can't stop thinking how much I've struggled in the past months, and how it is right now. This journal helped me a lot.

The tank need a desperately a trim lol, next week I'll do it.

BUT, I would like to do some changes.
1000069427.jpg

I would like to remove hygrophila polysperma tiger (red cross) and hygrophila polysperma sunset (green cross).
Both give to the tank a messy look (they grow so damn fast).
- Swap out hygrophila poly tiger:
eriocaulon blood vomit (or syngonanthus uaupeus) at front and behind it eriocaulon quinquangulare. Then at the back, to the right (or left) of quinquangulare, hygrophila chai (I'm still undecided, it's too much hard growing it from cup).
- Swap out hygrophila polysperma sunset:
I would like to put there syngonanthus macrocaulon or Tonina fluviatilis and in front of One of the above, Ludwigia white.

Below the arrow, there is rotala hra.
1000069429.jpg
Starting to grow nicely BUT I just hate the plants that grow sideways, you'll now way better than me, we already have to deal with lots of trimming, but trimming plant that grow literally inside other plants is way more time consuming.

The idea is to remove rotala hra and instead put at the back myriophillum mattongrense golden or maybe alternathera reinekii kleines papageinblatt.

The only thing that stops me is that the plants removed will be directly to the trash bin. I feel a bit guilty.
 
Hey guys, little suggestion, these plants have any particular needs to grow properly? Will my setup be enough?
- Eriocaulon Blood vomit
- Eriocaulon quinquangulare
- hygrophila lancea chai
- Ludwigia meta
- Ludwigia white
- cabomba furcata
 
They should all do fine

TC chai is hit or miss for anyone. Emersed converts better. Already submerged is the best obviously... if you have a choice
 
They should all do fine
I heard that Eriocaulon are very sensitive to water params, hopefully my gh5 and kh0/1 will be enough.
In addition to the above, I was thinking about the Eriocaulon ratnagiricum too. I'm a bit afraid of flowering and then the premature death of the plants. How it works?
 
I heard that Eriocaulon are very sensitive to water params, hopefully my gh5 and kh0/1 will be enough.
In addition to the above, I was thinking about the Eriocaulon ratnagiricum too. I'm a bit afraid of flowering and then the premature death of the plants. How it works?
In addition to the above, I've talked to a guy that said I couldn't ever grow plants like hygrophila lancea chai due to my lightning being too weak. Is weak a 7200lm for a 110cm tank?

Tomorrow I'll test my par at substrate level with photone app.
 
I heard that Eriocaulon are very sensitive to water params, hopefully my gh5 and kh0/1 will be enough.
In addition to the above, I was thinking about the Eriocaulon ratnagiricum too. I'm a bit afraid of flowering and then the premature death of the plants. How it works?

Main thing they all need is very low 0-2 KH. The fresh soil will help, your dosing and co2 is good. After that its just clean and stable conditions.

Stable conditions become more and more important as you get into more sensitive plants - co2, ferts, tds build up, etc. Youre in a good sweet spot atm with all that so just keep everything clean and steady

In addition to the above, I've talked to a guy that said I couldn't ever grow plants like hygrophila lancea chai due to my lightning being too weak. Is weak a 7200lm for a 110cm tank?

Tomorrow I'll test my par at substrate level with photone app.

70-ish and up will grow everything but maybe the chai. Ive grown nice ones around 90. All will thrive at 100+
 
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What do you think about backlit?
1000070056.jpg
Will it lead to algae? The week aqua p900 is on at 09:00 till 15:00, I was thinking to have a strip of leds ON in the background till 21:00.

Will it lead to algae? Fish and plants will be stressed. Let me know guys.
 
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