Swords and val grow quickly but my ludwigia* sucks, why?

[Art]

I have absolutely nothing to compare to for gauging intensity or PAR value, I am flying completely blind when it comes to intensity.

Hi - reading this made me feel you are getting a little worked up. I may be wrong. But, if so, relax. You WILL get this under control. Believe me, you will look back at this time and think, "Gee, it was fun trying to diagnose the right balance" when your tank is running smoothly.

Do you have access to a PAR meter? There are clubs that rent them out and even online companies that will rent them out for you to try. It's very handy to know the PAR levels you have as you are deducing.

Although difficult, what you are faced with are three knobs. One is called lights, another fertilizer and another CO2. We just need to turn them slowly until we find the right combination for your aquarium. However, to do so, we need some data. Observational is good but sometimes real data is better such as PAR.

 

[MrMuggles]

No worries Art, I had an "aha" moment with the lighting, it was not a frustrated moment.

I don't have access to a PAR meter yet and this exact combination of reflector/light is not tested on any youtube or other resource I can find. I'll ask on the local facebook group.

I did however find a test that used the same reflector with the "reef" version of these lights, PAR is insane in the center focal point, and falls off quickly at the edges: Kessil A360WE, A360x, and A360x w/ Narrow Reflector Par Results...

TLDR; the narrow reflectors add a huge complicating factor, getting optimal height set is key to feeding the desired PAR over the desired coverage area.

it is also non negotiable for me, without reflectors the lights throw way too wide and leak into the room, and I lose the unique aquascape drama they provide.

Optimizing intensity for each light's coverage area requires raising the lights much further off the water than what I had.
I was in effect starving plants at the edges of the coverage area and over-lighting the center.

There's some additional things I better absorbed this week after reading feedback here and some expert articles:
1. Lean-ish dosing is crucial until plant mass increases
2. rotting plant matter and partially failed plantings is a huge trigger for algae and must be removed nearly constantly in a tank like mine that is still approaching a desirable "balance".
3. I must do even more water changes in pursuit of that balance for the forseeable future, which also changes my dosing schedule to avoid leaning it out too much
4. appropriate substrate fortification will permit leaner water to help with algae suppression

Also I started rotating filter socks in my sump every 2-3 days because it's easy and helps remove rotting organics from plants, I just throw them in the wash and get many reuses.

 

[MrMuggles]

Update: tank now looking much better. just planted my first sword baby with roots. Sword leaves are growing more leathery now which means I can scrub the hair algae without ripping them to shreds.
Some of the ludwigia have survived the cichlids and begun to grow bigger leaves, faster. I ditched the hornwort and dropped in a floating plastic plant for fish comfort. I believe hornwort was making it very hard to get the right balance going for substrate plants, rapidly growing shoots sucked up nutrients quickly while older material would die in the high surface flow of my tank, creating a mess of brown sludgy needles.

 

[MrMuggles]

Today feels like the battle is approaching a draw. I can remove enough leaves, scrub and change enough water to prevent the thick green carpet from forming everywhere, that is a big improvement. but new leaves are still afflicted almost immediately after emerging and the rate of plant growth is not sufficient to overcome the need for exfoliating the old infected leaves. I can imagine spending 2 hrs a day (as I have been) forever to maintain this current state which is still not in balance. but I would prefer instead to find the balance. heh

I reduced lighting by another hour and backed off the intensity a bit today, fingers crossed