Journal Fishstery's Garden/Nature style hybrid

[Dennis Wong]

I was considering adding some elaine triandra to the carpet to get the soil covered, since the hairgrass is taking a very long time to fill in, as expected.

I saw that you noted it has a rather shallow root system but spreads quickly. Do you think a large carpet of it may be problematic as far as floating when it becomes dense? I had that issue with Utricularia and Micranthemum if I wasn't incredibly diligent with thinning it out, which is why I chose hair grass this time.

it grows very fast, so if you do not like trimming very very frequently it may not be a good choice. I think the issue isn't floating, but that it will grow very thick quickly without frequent trimming. Smaller crypts are quite low maintenance, as are smaller buceps/anubias when used as foreground

 

[Fishstery]

So I got my RO unit hooked up with plans to make the swap over to RO tomorrow.

I have 2 questions:
Since I'm doing to drain most of the tank, should I uproot all of the plants and top them as a reset? Taking into consideration my hair and staghorn algae issues attacking the lower leaves of a lot of the stems. The stems have half old growth from before I bought it, then healthy new tops grown in my tank. Now I'm resetting the parameters, so I don't know if I should just prune the worst of it and leave it be or uproot, chop, and replant the tank with the new tops.

 

[Dennis Wong]

So I got my RO unit hooked up with plans to make the swap over to RO tomorrow.

I have 2 questions:
Since I'm doing to drain most of the tank, should I uproot all of the plants and top them as a reset? Taking into consideration my hair and staghorn algae issues attacking the lower leaves of a lot of the stems. The stems have half old growth from before I bought it, then healthy new tops grown in my tank. Now I'm resetting the parameters, so I don't know if I should just prune the worst of it and leave it be or uproot, chop, and replant the tank with the new tops.

I would replant the tops ! I'm doing it in my own new tank as well

 

[Fishstery]

I would replant the tops ! I'm doing it in my own new tank as well

So there's no worries about it making the algae worse if I do most of the plants in the tank? I figured I'd uproot them all, then siphon the water out, and only replant the healthy tops that I'll rinse any algae spores off of. I wasn't sure if I should only do the species with the worst bottoms or just do the entire tank at one time.

Edited to add: the tank got pretty dense with plants since my last photos, so doing this will knock my plant density back down.

 

[Dennis Wong]

So there's no worries about it making the algae worse if I do most of the plants in the tank? I figured I'd uproot them all, then siphon the water out, and only replant the healthy tops that I'll rinse any algae spores off of. I wasn't sure if I should only do the species with the worst bottoms or just do the entire tank at one time.

Edited to add: the tank got pretty dense with plants since my last photos, so doing this will knock my plant density back down.

I think removing deteriorating growth is more important in this case. I think doing the whole tank at once should be alright

 

[Fishstery]

I think removing deteriorating growth is more important in this case. I think doing the whole tank at once should be alright

Sounds good.

The final plan is to uproot all of the plants that are affected, drain down to the substrate, paint the wood with APT fix, then replant with only the best looking tops, fill with RO water remineralized with APT Sky and APT 3. Tomorrow I will do another 100% WC with a filter cleaning and APT on the wood again, repeat Sunday. Lights will stay knocked down to 75umols and I'm swapping the co2 regulator/inline diffuser for a GLA dual stage regulator and reactor.

I'll be posting updates with photos along the way to document, including an ugly algae phase photo before working on it so you all can see what I'm starting with.

Edit for Dennis, I have purigen in my canister. I know APT Fix uses some organic compounds in it, do you know if it is okay to leave the Purigen in or would it be more advantageous to remove it during the APT Fix treatments?

 

[Dennis Wong]

Sounds good.

The final plan is to uproot all of the plants that are affected, drain down to the substrate, paint the wood with APT fix, then replant with only the best looking tops, fill with RO water remineralized with APT Sky and APT 3. Tomorrow I will do another 100% WC with a filter cleaning and APT on the wood again, repeat Sunday. Lights will stay knocked down to 75umols and I'm swapping the co2 regulator/inline diffuser for a GLA dual stage regulator and reactor.

I'll be posting updates with photos along the way to document, including an ugly algae phase photo before working on it so you all can see what I'm starting with.

Edit for Dennis, I have purigen in my canister. I know APT Fix uses some organic compounds in it, do you know if it is okay to leave the Purigen in or would it be more advantageous to remove it during the APT Fix treatments?

plan sounds good ~ I think Fix will be fine with purigen

 

[Koan]

and APT on the wood again

Hey @Dennis Wong , on this subject - - Do you find that slow growers like crypts and buces can tolerate gluteraldehyde spot treatment for heavy algae, or not?

 

[Dennis Wong]

Hey @Dennis Wong , on this subject - - Do you find that slow growers like crypts and buces can tolerate gluteraldehyde spot treatment for heavy algae, or not?

Yes if they are healthy. No if they are not healthy, this applies to most algicides against most plants

 

[Fishstery]

Quick update before the update:

The co2 regulator almost gassed my fish today. I came home to my drop checker yellow despite me lowering the injection rate to account for the lower lighting levels and had my outflow positioned to suck air in and spit it out. Thank God my fish are all okay. This is the last time I use an fzone regulator on such a large tank, the needle valve and solenoid are junk. My GLA regulator came today and will be getting installed tonight.

RO is currently being made, I'm maxing out the running pressure at just under 80psi, but man is it slow going. Fingers crossed it can make the full 30 gallons by 9pm. Quick question for @Naturescapes_Rocco

When you remineralize in a smaller container and just dump it into the tank itself instead of your clean water container, do you fill the tank with clean RO, then dump the remineralize in and start the filter? Or do you dump the mixture in first then fill?

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Quick question for @Naturescapes_Rocco

When you remineralize in a smaller container and just dump it into the tank itself instead of your clean water container, do you fill the tank with clean RO, then dump the remineralize in and start the filter? Or do you dump the mixture in first then fill?

Either seems to work. It's often best to have the tank full enough that the filter is running so there's some flow, then pour your little cup of water and remineralizing powder into the moving water.

Also I think you know this, but I like to use a milk frother to quickly mix the cup of powders. They don't need to dissolve in the cup, just get hydrated.
Pouring that stirred mixture into your 90% filled aquarium with the filter running will quickly dissolve the mixture in a matter of an hour or so in most cases. If you don't, CaSO4*2H2O (Gypsum) will often clump and stick together underwater for up to 24 hours.

But none of this step is precise. Just mix the powders in the cup while you start filling your tank, add them to the water if/when the water has some movement, and do it all again in 7 days!

 

[Fishstery]

Either seems to work. It's often best to have the tank full enough that the filter is running so there's some flow, then pour your little cup of water and remineralizing powder into the moving water.

Also I think you know this, but I like to use a milk frother to quickly mix the cup of powders. They don't need to dissolve in the cup, just get hydrated.
Pouring that stirred mixture into your 90% filled aquarium with the filter running will quickly dissolve the mixture in a matter of an hour or so in most cases. If you don't, CaSO4*2H2O (Gypsum) will often clump and stick together underwater for up to 24 hours.

But none of this step is precise. Just mix the powders in the cup while you start filling your tank, add them to the water if/when the water has some movement, and do it all again in 7 days!

Thank you so much for the quick reply! I fear I wont have enough time to make the 30 gallons I need to swap over to RO tonight. Even at the pressure I have going in the unit and being able to run the lower flow restrictor to get it to 2:1, it's made probably less than 5 gallons in the last 2 hours. I have the smallest bit of warm water running through the system, but I'm too nervous to mess with it any more than that and ruin the membranes. The water coming out of that faucet is ice cold which is killing the production rate...