Journal Long-winded ramblings about Dutch-style aquascaping

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I wrote out some ramblings, but my phone died so now y'all get the bullet points.
- tank is uggo, I had a lot of poor growth so had to give it a proper chop
- replaced the Limnophila wavy with difformis, it just looks better IMO
- can't grow mayaca fluviatilis for the life of me despite most places listing it as an easy, undemanding plant
- added a marble queen sword because I think swords are neat
- won some rotala tulunadensis in a drawing, I'm going to try not to kill it this time by putting some root tabs under it

I'm running into issues posting pictures, I'll try again later
 

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Oh yeah, potentially the biggest change. I switched from 7.2/2.8/15.2 macros dosed once a week (front loaded) to 18/6/26 dosed throughout the week (with a double dose after a water change).

I don't really know why my macros were this low, but I'm trying to push some growth to let everything recover.

I switched to dosing a solution because it's easier to dose if I don't have time for a full water change, which is probably going to be fairly often this summer as I'm going to be out of town at least a few weeks.
 
gjcarew said:
I wrote out some ramblings, but my phone died so now y'all get the bullet points.
- tank is uggo, I had a lot of poor growth so had to give it a proper chop
- replaced the Limnophila wavy with difformis, it just looks better IMO
- can't grow mayaca fluviatilis for the life of me despite most places listing it as an easy, undemanding plant
- added a marble queen sword because I think swords are neat
- won some rotala tulunadensis in a drawing, I'm going to try not to kill it this time by putting some root tabs under it

I'm running into issues posting pictures, I'll try again later
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How are you getting the crypt to grow bushy like that?
 
gjcarew said:
I don't want to get too technical on you, but my strategy for bushy crypt growth has always been to leave it where it is and not touch it
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Fair enough. I know when I had it in the past even without moving it, it just spread out flat on me with how much light it was getting.
 
I've never tried that one.

I create the shape of the bush by dividing what I have into individual plants, but filling it in just takes time. Whish I had better suggestions for ya!
 
Just finished a bit of a clean up after I was out of town for a couple weeks. The tank looks alright for how neglected it's been in recent months, but you can definitely tell it didn't get a water change or ferts for almost three weeks.

One interesting experience I had today was with using HCl to lower the kH in my aquarium. My kH is around 4 which is a bit high for some sensitive plants I'm trying to grow. I measured out 30 mL, added it to a half liter of water, then poured half in. I didn't see a change in pH or kh after that so I poured the rest.

Almost immediately, the fish started gasping at the surface. I measured kH again and it was 0, and pH was super low. I don't know exactly how low, because my pH meter takes forever to settle and I wanted to be proactive immediately. All I knew was I wanted to neutralize some of the acid, so I went and grabbed some baking soda and kept adding it until I was detecting 1 kH. I then did about a 20% water change, and the fish stopped gasping.

I made two mistakes. First was going off Burr's journal while not using the same brand of muriatic acid he used. Turns out the stuff I got is significantly stronger than Klean-Strip.

Second, I didn't consider that the HCl would not dissolve in the quart container. I think it all settled to the bottom, hence seeing no reaction from dosing the first half and a huge reaction from dosing the second half.

I don't know exactly why the fish were gasping at the surface, but I suspect all the acid reacting with the CaCO3 in the tank just instantly saturated the water with CO2, which was resolved pretty quickly up one doing a water change.

So basically I have quite a few sodium ions and a bunch of chloride from the baking soda. I don't think it will be an issue, but if things look like they're taking a turn I'll do another big water change this week.

Luckily the plants appear to be recovering from their neglect and the fish appear to be happy as clams. Pic of The Boys below for proof - check out those colors!

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In terms of the layout, the myrio and crypts are both too central. I will adjust that next week. Everything just needs a little time to recover before making any other decisions.

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I removed the bolbitis today. It's just too big and I can't control it. I'm trying some pinnatifida back there because I do like the dark green look.

I've considered replacing the ludwigia rubin with panatanal as well. I think the red lotus and the ludwigia are very similar shades of red, and the panatanal might have a better contrast. I just need to make sure I can get some nice fat heads on the panatanal before going that route. To that end, I may bump up the certs 20% next week and see what happens.

The tulunadensis still looks like crap, I don't know what that plant needs. I tried popping a root tab under it and that didn't seem to do anything. I'll give it another week but unless it starts to look way better I'm probably tossing it.
 
The tank looks great. Plants are healthy, fish are big and algae seems to be minimized. Well done, my friend.

What is your dosing regime now-a-days? Do you use @GreggZ’s Excel template? Would be great to see what you’re doing and we can suggest any adjustments, specifically for the pantanal.
 
Just curious, for people that do a double dose of ferts after a water change, are you doing macros AND micros? I've noticed when I do both the micros tend to precipitate out as soon as I add them.

I am trying a new method for back walls using window screen mesh as the front material. It's definitely easy, the only question is whether moss will grow out of it since those holes are pretty tight.

I've done this with two pieces of the standard needlepoint mesh, but the moss doesn't get much light since it blocks so much (especially at an oblique angle). Window screen is built to block less light, but the holes are also smaller. If it works, it might win the prize for least fussy moss walls construction method.

@Art, you convinced me to finally try to be somewhat scientific. I've attached my fertilizer regime. I even calibrated my pH meter for this.

I didn't fill out the yellow portion because I couldn't read it very easily, plus I don't really have a target in mind for fertilization levels. My target is plant health, and I'm willing to do pretty much any regime to get there.

I was pleased to see I'm getting a 1 pH drop. It felt close based on the plants and livestock.

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I’ve never seen precipitation when I do it. I do have some pretty good flow in the tanks and I do give about 5 minutes between the Macro and Micro doses.
 
gjcarew said:
Just curious, for people that do a double dose of ferts after a water change, are you doing macros AND micros? I've noticed when I do both the micros tend to precipitate out as soon as I add them.
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Not sure if this is helpful for your tank, but I wait for my CO2 to be at target (pH below 7), especially after WC, before dosing the micros. What I have in mind here is the stability of FE chelates, but this may or may not be a real issue in your case.
 
gjcarew said:
@Art, you convinced me to finally try to be somewhat scientific. I've attached my fertilizer regime. I even calibrated my pH meter for this.
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I love you, man! Thank you.

I should have told you how to attach it too. You need to screenshot it and then post it as an image. Sorry.
 
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Quick pic for posterity before I head out of town for another 10 days. At least I was able to a water change in. Things are overall looking pretty good. Meta is growing well, but I don't have a full group of it. The Hygrophila pinnatifida is a mess, I just need more of it. I don't like that marble queen sword, I will probably toss it.

It doesn't look like my window screen mesh experiment is working. I guess I'll see if there is any change when I get back, otherwise I'm ready to declare it a dud.

In good news, the rotala tulunadensis is finally getting some healthy growth, presumably due to lowering my pH with muriatic acid.
 
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