Hello,
Tank
Aqueon 75 gallon
pH - 7.6 to 7.8 (degassed)
kH - 9 to 10
GH - 190ppm
Lighting
Finnex Planted+ 24/7 (not CC or SE), on from 4pm to 11pm
Finnex Ray2 DS, on from 6pm to 8:30pm
Filtration
Sunsun 304b, 2 trays of Seachem Matrix, 2 trays of polyfill, 100mL bag of purigen, 250ml bag of purigen. Feeds into a Grigg's reactor.
Oase Thermomaster 600, 2 trays of Hel-X bio media, 2 trays of Seachem Matrix, 1 tray of biohome, 1 tray of 45ppi sponge, 1 tray of 30ppi sponge. Prefilter with 30ppi sponge.
CO2
Pressurized 5lb tank, dual gauge (NOT stage) regulator, comes on 2 hours prior to lights
Fertilizer
EI dosing standard KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, DTPA Micromix, 11% DTPA Fe all from GLA. I check NO3 and PO4 daily with API test kits. If NO3/PO4 is above 20ppm/2ppm respectively, I skip KNO3 and KH2PO4 dosing and only dose K2SO4 according to Rotala Butterfly calculations. Macros and micros are dosed on alternating days.
Substrate
Black diamond blasting sand with root tabs from NilocG
Fauna
40 Neon tetra
25 Ember tetra
6 Panda corydoras
1 Bristlenose Pleco
2 Clown pleco
2 Siamese algae eater
5 Cherry barb
2 Apistogramma Cacatoudes
2 Apistogramma Hongsloi
6 Nerite snails
Flora
Dwarf hairgrass
S. repens
Amazon sword
AR mini
AR
Rotala rotundfiola
L. Inclinata Cuba
L. repens
L. palustris
Christmas moss
Buce Pedagang Japan
Red Myrio
Temple plant
Gratiola Viscidula
Schedule
2pm - CO2 kicks on, air pump turns off
4 - Finnex Planted+ turns on, I often check the pH for a 1 point drop
5:30 - Finnex Ray2 turns on
6 - Air pump turns on
6:30 - Air pump turns off
7 - CO2 turns off
7:30 - CO2 turns on
8 - Finnex Ray2 turns off
8:30 - CO2 turns off
9 - CO2 turns on
9:30 - CO2 turns off for the night
10 - I feed a tablet of Sera food (the kind that sticks on the glass) alternating daily between treat and veggie formulas
11 - Finnex Planted+ turns off, air pump turns on
As you can see, the CO2 turns on and off frequently. This is in an attempt to get the 1pH drop within 2 hours before lights on while not gassing my fish during the rest of the day. I believe I've struck a nice balance with degassing, etc. The Ray2 comes on for just a little while to provide an extra punch. I'd like to eventually have both lights on during the entire photoperiod, but I'd probably be at over 100+ par even at substrate. Want to make sure I have everything in balance first.
50% water change every week.
Problems:
The AR mini and Amazon Sword definitely has some BBA and maybe the S. repens also.
There is some brown algae on the L. palustris and S. repens. Perhaps diatoms. I can rub it off the leaves but it is not easy.
The S. repens algae is on old leaves from prior to my ownership. I figure this is part of melting.
The L. Cuba looks pathetic. May be that my water is too hard for it.
I may have killed the one buce by using too much super glue. We'll see if it bounces back.
I spot dose with metricide most nights of the week. It seems to help.
Pictures:
http://imgur.com/a/TdkcPK4
I think the tank should look fantastic once things grow in. I need to figure out the reason for the BBA. I believe I had a K deficiency for a long time, wrong chelate for my micros, suboptimal CO2 conditions and lots of organics from my bio load.
In the past month I have:
Increased CO2 to get a 1 pH drop prior to light's coming on.
Used an air pump to ensure oxygen levels are ok throughout the photoperiod and to help degas
Started dosing K2SO4
Added the Oase filter. I'm hoping this greatly improves things. I don't think my Sunsun was turning nearly enough water - especially with the Grigg's reactor attached.
Tomorrow new plants are coming. Several buce and a few Ludwigia. A crypt as well.