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.

 

[Fishstery]

Day 24:
I'm starting to notice more algae. The filamentous algae is moving to more leaves and I'm starting to see some GSA on old leaves and substrate, but very minimal. There's also a very tiny bit of staghorn on a Ramosior stump that seems to be past the point of recovery. I retested Nitrate and Phosphate, still 10:1 ppm so at this point it seems to be a possible light and/or co2 issue. I ticked up the co2 the tiniest bit to account for the new addition in plant mass, and turned the light intensity down 5%.

At this point I'm reevaluating my water source as I'm getting tired of trying to tightrope around my taps 5ppm of Nitrate and 1ppm of Phosphate. Looking ahead I also don't want to deal with the issues that will arise when my soil stops buffering, so I'm biting the bullet and finally dusting off my 5 stage RO unit I bought in 2019 and will be installing it this weekend.

I'm also going to add some Amano shrimp to help knock out this hair algae, I can only hope they don't demolish my AR Mini like they did in my first Garden Style. I also finally decided on the last bit of fish to add: 15 Platinum Rummynose Tetras. I think their colors will compliment my pencilfish wonderfully and I will enjoy their tight schooling behavior. I've seen videos of them circling large pieces of driftwood like a cyclone, I'd be so entranced if they do that in my tank given the layout. The Pencils rarely ever shoal entirely which makes the scape feel somewhat chaotic, and I think the Pencils will add that serenity factor it's missing.

One thing I do need to consult the group on, is transitioning over to RO. Does anyone have an opinion on if I should do my regular 50% WC this week with RO, or just drain the tank almost all the way down and refill with RO? With the buffering of my soil, the remineralized RO will be near identical to where the tank sits now, but from a nutrient standpoint, I'm unsure on how to go about this without causing even more algae issues. I want to start on APT 3 or APT EI once I get off the tap water.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

One thing I do need to consult the group on, is transitioning over to RO. Does anyone have an opinion on if I should do my regular 50% WC this week with RO, or just drain the tank almost all the way down and refill with RO? With the buffering of my soil, the remineralized RO will be near identical to where the tank sits now, but from a nutrient standpoint, I'm unsure on how to go about this without causing even more algae issues. I want to start on APT 3 or APT EI once I get off the tap water.

As long as you remineralize properly, you can do a 50% change with RO Water.

Since you have aquasoil, your KH is probably pretty low or nonexistent. That's good, because RO has zero KH and zero GH, but big swings in KH are the more dangerous for livestock of the two.

So, as long as you add Ca and Mg to proper levels for the incoming RO water, you'd be fine to start this week with a 50% water change!

 

[Fishstery]

As long as you remineralize properly, you can do a 50% change with RO Water.

Since you have aquasoil, your KH is probably pretty low or nonexistent. That's good, because RO has zero KH and zero GH, but big swings in KH are the more dangerous for livestock of the two.

So, as long as you add Ca and Mg to proper levels for the incoming RO water, you'd be fine to start this week with a 50% water change!

Thank you for the response and also the links on some of your RO WC equipment! I got the pump you use coming, since I need to get the water from my basement to upstairs.

Fingers crossed this helps balance the parameters better while I curb the algae before it gets out of control. I know there is something funky in my tap, despite the parameters not being too bad. Every time I've gotten lazy and skipped a water change here and there in my other tanks I get a cyano outbreak. I've even had the weird red freshwater cyano variant

 

[Fishstery]

Day 25:

Algae, algae, algae. I dialed up the co2 today and came home to some tufts of staghorn growing bigger. I'm assuming perhaps it was time to up the co2 since I added a good bit of plant mass? Either that or I have some drifting issues with my needle valve on the regulator, which is a proper fzone dual stage. I'm trying not to have my resolve tested here, I guess I'm just a tad disappointed as I was hoping this tank would be easier to balance than my last high energy setup as that was a nano.

Hair Algae is still going, and gsa still there. The plants look great, except for my AR mini which is taking turns melting off leaves randomly, but upper portions are all very healthy and happy.

Here's my current plan of action: add some amanos to help eat the algae down while I try and stabilize the parameters. Friday I'm going to get my RODI unit set up, and Saturday will be my first RO WC, and switch to APT 3. I'm going to keep the lights a bit dimmer at 45%, photoperiod at 6 hours, and when I'm home Saturday, up the co2 a bit more. Sunday I will do another pH drop test. I also put a curtain on the window nearest to the tank just before making this update.

After 2 weeks I will reevaluate. If things still aren't heading in a better direction, I'll be getting a co2 reactor. Algaecide is absolute last ditch effort for me.

Does anyone have any insight for me as to what they think the issue is, and what your thoughts are on my plan of attack? Anything else I am missing, or should try?