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Journal My $12 Aqueon 10 gallon journey from nothing.

Mr.Shenanagins said:
How much you pay for that penny sized sample, $30? 🤣

Just kidding, that looks like a real nice piece from an unsuspecting place.
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$10 for the brownie from PetSmart and $6 for the wavy green from Petco.

Figured I’d start with something common to kill. Have then up front on some lava rock.

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Thanks. Yea I’ve noticed the same, and realized I may be under dosing since I switched to APT complete. I used to individually dose seachem but since the switch I have noticed signs of iron and nitrogen deficiency, as well as some seriously stunted growth. I dosed supplemental seachem iron and nitrogen last night and will increase APT in the interim.

I’m still trying to nail down stable gH remineralization. I was using Kent liquid calcium and epsom salt, but I don’t feel I’m being consistent or accurate enough.

I can’t seem to find any resources for Liquid calcium supplement concentration to calculate dosage so I’m just eyeballing it.

My LFS finally got Seachem equilibrium in stock so I grabbed some to experiment with. Dosed last night because I’m sure it’s still low from my RO water change last weekend and it’s obvious from the livebearer behavior in the tank.

I’m also considering combining the remaining seachem NPK to make a macro bottle, and doing the same with Flourish comprehensive and Iron to make a micro bottle. Just have to work out the percentage recipe to replicate a dose comparable to a lean EI dose.

Now, some pictures for the sake of pictures.

The other mystery plant:

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‘Florida’ coloring up:

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Buce corner:

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So I cleared out the tangled matted mess that was rotala rotundifolia green in hopes of breathing life into the Ammannia ‘golden’ that’s clinging to life. I reevaluated my dosing regime and concluded I was grossly under fertilizing with my per-drop PPS pro schedule. I increased macros, and upped the calcium to 20ish ppm (est) because it was stunting the Rotala ramiosor ‘Florida’ growth and coloration. We shall see how the golden fares with the increased gH. It’s perked up substantially from the nutrient increase and a single root tab underneath. Also have more room for the bacopa to breathe.

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That buce you got is looking really good. I stopped by petsmart myself and they did have some great buce, the only problem was they had been on the shelf since October and were looking dreadful 😒😒 I’m going to find out when they get those babies delivered and I’ll snatch em up. Did you see water filled cups with buce in them? The ones I saw had really nice sized leaves but were clearly rotting.
 
Yea these are growing in pretty nicely. I work close to a PetSmart and a Petco so I stop by on a weekly basis. Ask the staff/store manager when they get tissue culture plants in. It’s usually a specific day of the week (Tuesday in my case). I pass through every Wednesday/Thursday I’m able. PetSmart is kind of always a loss unless they get a new batch of nice Buce. It’s been my experience that Petco regularly gets an incredible assortment of typical and atypical, good quality cultures. There will always be some stale overstock dying on the shelves.

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The crypts in your second photo have a very interesting pattern. Is that the variety or are you running lean on something like mag? I think there are aome crypt varieties that look that normally so I wasn’t sure.
 
FrankZ said:
The crypts in your second photo have a very interesting pattern. Is that the variety or are you running lean on something like mag? I think there are aome crypt varieties that look that normally so I wasn’t sure.
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What is it that you see? Im genuinely interested in whatever is observable as I’m completely new to crypts.

They were given to me by a friend and I believe they are wendtii red or brown. I’m running APT complete which is lean, but supplementing with seachem nitrogen and phosphorus when I see signs of deficiencies elsewhere.

Hardness is estimated around 30-35ppm calcium and 10ppm magnesium for the live bearers in the tank, and for the ramiosor ‘Florida’ to show colors. I’m noticing it does much better with 30+ Ca as suggested. Everything else seems to be fine with water on the hard side except for the Ammannia Golden.
 
Mr.Shenanagins said:
I have to say I love looking at this tank, the Ludwigia catches me everytime. I love the shade of pink it gives off
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Thanks. I like them a lot, but they are very scraggly and untameable. Hard to obtain a nice neat bunch. I’ll let them grow out to top and replant the straight stems with the least branching.

The 5 gallon is shaping up nicely too.

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Jhardee85 said:
What is it that you see? Im genuinely interested in whatever is observable as I’m completely new to crypts.

They were given to me by a friend and I believe they are wendtii red or brown. I’m running APT complete which is lean, but supplementing with seachem nitrogen and phosphorus when I see signs of deficiencies elsewhere.

Hardness is estimated around 30-35ppm calcium and 10ppm magnesium for the live bearers in the tank, and for the ramiosor ‘Florida’ to show colors. I’m noticing it does much better with 30+ Ca as suggested. Everything else seems to be fine with water on the hard side except for the Ammannia Golden.
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It’s the dark veins and lighter color leaves. The wendtii brown i have in my low techs have that but not nearly as pronounced. It just might the difference between my no co2 and low light vs your co2 and high light.
 

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