Journal Fishstery's Garden/Nature style hybrid

[Fishstery]

I think the layout looks great, it is quite unique and I don’t think I have seen an island scape like this before. My thought would be to let it grow out and see.

Not sure what your GH is, but Dennis reported it to need higher GH. If these are Rotala ramisor florida, you can get some great stems from @Burr740 .

From the hair algae perspective, I think several people have different opinions but probably would choose a strategy and stick to it. Personally I feel lowered light intensity and duration helps, my Rotala Florida seems to be doing ok with a PAR of 50. I would check parameters like ammonia and ensure you are keeping up with water changes.

Thank you! It's definitely changed form a lot from my initial vision, it's hard not to get collectoritis when doing garden(ish) styles. My gH is between 6-7, so no issues there. My plants came from Joe actually, right now he has some lopped young plants for sale, but the larger trimmings I got which is what I have now, didn't enjoy the trip from AL to PA and melted almost entirely. This is what I had managed to recover, so I'm trying to find larger, rooted plants to add in hopes they transition to my tank better.

As for the algae, I'm staying course right now in hopes that keeping the Phosphate balanced again will help starve it out. I still have the cycle at only 6 hours, but I think the indirect light from my back door is contributing to the issue. I have a set of blinds coming this week to cover it up and hopefully that will further stop it from spreading while the livestock keep it mowed down. If it spreads any more I'm going to bump the light intensity down in 5% increments one week at a time. I'm not privy to algaecides, so that's last ditch effort to curb it off and start over. Ammonia isn't an issue, it's even cycled since the end of January and it didn't start until my Phosphate bottomed out when I ran out of ferts and shipping took forever. I do weekly 50% water changes minimum, sometimes two 25% instead, and use a pipette to lightly blow detrius out of the substrate while vaccing, so the substrate is clean. Almost daily I have my hands in the tank removing any old or damaged leaves.

I can't really identify what both types are, the one kind has the color of cyano but is velvet-like in texture, and the other is some kind of filamentous algae that grows in single, short stems.