Journal SkaleyAquatics Re-attempted Dutch

While I am refraining of posting pictures of the main tank until after the AGA competition I can share the farm tanks. Yes I said tanks, the end of September I setup another 40gal breeder as the first one was extremely full with plants and had no room for them to grow. I am hoping that 2 is enough for the time being as I am attempting to downsize the fish room for a while so that I can move tanks out of it to redo the room as it is not insulated and needs to be.

I will talk about the main tank though. It is due for a uproot, trimming and replanting for quite some time now but I have been holding off for the announcement of the AGA competition to time the lobelia right, however, this weekend that is getting done. I cannot let the tank crash if I plan to enter it. The only real issue I have been having is GDA attaching to the gravel on the right side of my street, not quite sure why only there. The only other thing is I am struggling to find a plant for the street to disappear behind. I am going to slightly adjust the layout this weekend as well.

Farm tank #1
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Biomass removed from tank:
Removed Mass.jpg

Farm Tank #2
20241016_FT2.jpg
Farm tank 1, picture is after I removed the biomass in the tank. I was having a massive thread algae issue and cut back and made sure co2 was functioning properly. I believe that co2 diffuser was slightly clogged or the amount of mass in the tank did not allow adequate circulation. I also have been very lax on how well I clean this tank but moving forward I will adjust this issue.

Farm tank 2 is quite a bit overgrown and needs to be pruned this weekend. The aponogeton is massive and really needs a bigger tank I am afraid to put it in one of my low tech tanks as I do not want to lose it. I have a plan for it down the road but we have not crossed that bridge. It sends up new flowers pretty much weekly at this point. I really need to try and get more plants to come from that flower.
 
While this journal was originally created for a new attempt at a Dutch tank, it has evolved into my place to put all my planted tanks. While I usually only post the co2 injected tanks I do want to add a new project I started that will not have co2. At least not for the foreseeable future.

20241027_183614.jpgEnter the 14gal cube, aqua soil, low temperature, high light aquarium. Yes this is based off of @sudiorca experimentation's. It has a chiriros wrgb II on it, with ADA amazonas 2 for the soil. This is my first time using aqua soil and am hoping that in 6 months I'll have a Dutch style aquascape that I can show off at my clubs show in the spring.
I appreciate @Burr740 for the plants as always. He hooked me up. I'll put the plant species eventually. Let me tell you that most of the plants are from the lythraceae family. I'm looking forward to this and will be updating it as I go along. This is mostly for experience for me as in the future I will be doing a larger lythraceae aquarium.
 
Very interested in the Sudiocora tank. Thanks for getting the plants from me!

Where's the sunset? Ramosior dont operate like most Rotala. Lean water and rich sub might be ok, but they tend to do better in rich water and also need a decent amount of Ca, like 20 minimum, 30-40 better. Low KH is fine, low GH is not. And they couldnt care less about a rich sub. Sunset actually does best in my sand tanks even with 5-6 KH (compared to 0-1) If I were you Id save a couple for another tank just in case it goes south. Because sunset isnt going to sit around looking all sad for a few weeks while we figure out wth is wrong with it. Most of the time it just straight up dies. Florida is not so bad about that but everything else applies to it too
 
Very interested in the Sudiocora tank. Thanks for getting the plants from me!

Where's the sunset? Ramosior dont operate like most Rotala. Lean water and rich sub might be ok, but they tend to do better in rich water and also need a decent amount of Ca, like 20 minimum, 30-40 better. Low KH is fine, low GH is not. And they couldnt care less about a rich sub. Sunset actually does best in my sand tanks even with 5-6 KH (compared to 0-1) If I were you Id save a couple for another tank just in case it goes south. Because sunset isnt going to sit around looking all sad for a few weeks while we figure out wth is wrong with it. Most of the time it just straight up dies. Florida is not so bad about that but everything else applies to it too
Good to know the sunset is in here back left corner. I'll grab a few stems and put them in one of the farm tanks. GH wise I am sitting at 10, this is what I have been running on all my tanks with Ca:Mg at 50:10. I did not realize Sunset was more temperamental then Florida haha.
 
Minor change following this week as I have adjusted the Ca and Mg levels down to 35:7 after a conversation on other topic. Otherwise things have been pretty good.
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First water change on the cube was this evening. There is already new growth in the cube tank, especially in the Rotala 'Enie" Which I will say I absolutely love the coloration of this plant.
Plant species in the 14gal cube are as followed:
didiplis diandra
eriocaulon sp. Vietnam
heteranthera zosterifolia
lobelia cardinalis
ludwigia ovalis 'Pink'
ludwigia senegalensis
rotala Indica
rotala macandra 'Kochi'
rotala macandra 'mini gold'
rotala macrandra variegated
rotala mini butterfly type 4
rotala ramosior 'Sunset'
rotala rotundifolia 'Assam'
rotala rotundifolia 'Big Bear'
rotala rotundifolia 'blood red sg'
rotala rotundifolia h'ra
rotala wallichii 'Enie'

Overall pretty happy with the species in this tank there are 2 plants I really want to try in it as well ammania pedicelleta 'golden and rotala tulunadensis. I have tulu but I just trimmed the good stems from the old in the farm tank and its only about an inch. I want it to get a bit bigger before I add it to the cube.

I also setup an indoor emersed plant grow setup to keep even more plants. :ROFLMAO: My wife luckily is very supportive of my obsession's.
 
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