[cojo]

I have a 150g planted aquarium/riparium that has been doing great for a few months now. It was just plants (and a few fish to cycle the aquarium) until a few months back - when I added my wild-caught altums. I’ve done heavily planted tanks and expert-level fish tanks in the past - but never both at the same time. I haven’t fertilized (using seachem’s full flourish house of products previously) since and I have cut the CO2 out of caution. The fish are thriving, but I’m starting to notice a little degradation in my plants.

Does any one here have experience dosing fertilizers or CO2 with difficult or wild-caught fish?

right now I have mostly an Orinoco biome (all wild):
7 - adult altum “vichada” (10” or so tall)
1 - 9” ghost knife
8 - small Corydoras schultzei bar black
6 - L128 blue phantom plecos in various sizes
And a few clown loaches (I know they’re from the wrong continent, but I added them for a snail outbreak and you try catching them out of there!)
Then I have a few random snails (nerties, rabbit, etc.)

the plants aren’t difficult ones:
A lot of bucephelandra varities
Anubias varities
Mosses (fissidens, a few nobody has been able to positively identify)
Rosefelia
A few lotus
And a few others.

pH - 6.8 and slowly lowering
Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are undetectable
I haven’t tested gH or kH in awhile, but I built an WiFi auto water change system using RO and peat reactors, so it is usually nominal.

Anyway, I read a lot about it, but I’d be interested in someone with experience here. I’d rather replace a few plants now and then than jeopardize my fish.

I thank any experts in the hobby in advance.

 

[Plinkploop]

Gorgeous altums, they're my fave angel. When I had mine all I had was mosses and floaters. I tried them in a traditional planted with autodosers and they didn't take well. Mine were wild caught from orinoco basin and they hated, absolutely hated fluctuations.

I'm pretty certain others have had better luck with them and dosing but from my personal experience with them I have up and went with a straight up blackwater biotope and they loved it. Just thought I'd share my experience.

 

[cojo]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. That’s exactly what I’m looking for. If I were to do it, I would set it up on a reef dosing pump and try to raise it over time. Stability is key in my opinion. I just don’t t think it’s worth the risk experimenting with them.

Thanks again.