Journal Experiment Tank || 90x50x36cm, 39gal, Horizontal Reactor High-energy Aquascape Journal

[Kwyet]

How heartbreaking!

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Day 173-184: Deep clean, Replanting, and a few new plants!​

I removed a lot of the old plants, did an insane 5 hour deep clean using my not-yet-trademarked Aqua Vacuum setup, which allows you to siphon all waste and detritus while recycling the water in your tank!... All it is is a Netlea Prefilter with a fine reuseable sponge and an inline pump, with temporary lily pipe return and acrylic tube intake. Someday I'll post it, because it's awesome.

After a deep deep clean, I removed plants and prepared them for replanting, trimming basically any damaged, algae-covered, or unhealthy leaves.

Then I let it grow out for 11 days again:

Ta-daa! Now with plant names:






Spot dosing the Crypt parva with H2O2 has helped get the algae under control. Limnophila aromatica mini continues to grow horizontally more than vertically in high light. Really more of a mid-background plant than a true background plant, even in this shallow tank...




The Lobelia cardinalis mini from @Burr740 is awesome. I get it now. I avoided this plant for years for some reason, but it's super bushy, easy to trim, grows very short and rounded. Great plant!

Next to it is Piptospatha ridleyi:

Not much is really posted about this plant online. Many say it's not even aquatic. In fact, one of the only instances I can find online of this plant growing submerged is from this thread from Burr:

We'll see if it grows well (or if I like it at all!). It's not a very "natural" plant IMO, but then again, not many in this tank look like they are anyway...


Pearling is back in full "upside-down rain" status again. Lights are about 150-170 PAR at the substrate, closer to 300PAR at the surface (measured using Photone app and cosine diffuser with iPhone 15 Pro in a ziploc bag).



I really like how this left side is coming along. I think I'll need a different/taller plant for the main background bush to replace the L aromatica mini. It's just too horizontal, but would make a great plant in the midground somewhere! Also totally in love with Bacopa colorata. There is nothing like that beautiful salmon coloration, large stems, and tulip-shaped leaves. I'll have that in every colorful tank for sure.

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[techman81]

So this was all just intended to test our faith in you?