[Greggz]

Linn that Rubin looks like it is getting happier. And the 20G is really nice. We've seen this before where people have the same plant in two seemingly similar tanks, and the plants react quite differently. Just goes to show what a fine line it is sometimes.

And I love seeing the video. Looks like the Bows and other fish are doing well. Always nice to convey the sense of movement. One of the favorite parts of my tank.

 

[Immortal1]

Well, this is a bit of a surprise. Was doing regular maintenance and water change today and noticed something a bit odd with my Crinum Calamistratum (see pic below). Evidently these things and/do flower!!! Have had this plant for at lease 2 years and never knew this. Went to Google Images and actually found many pictures of the flower - very cool. So, with any luck this stub will actually turn into a beautiful flower... maybe.

 

[Immortal1]

So, today was a pretty good day
Received 2 different packages of plants today. Thankyou to @burr740 and @StrungOut. Everything arrived in excellent condition before our weather turned to $#!^
In this pic, you can see the new Barclaya Longifolia Red and Myriophyllum Red Stem along with a Lobelia Cardinalis along with a new Eriocaulon Lineare and some Syngonanthus

In this pic, you can see how the Pogo Kimberly and Mermaid Weed are doing since I started adding some MGSO4 and/or Equalibrium based on input from @Seattle_Aquarist

And of course, this would not be a complete post without a FTS...

Definitely learning the dwarf rotala grows like a weed when parameters are close to correct and lights are bright! Bet I can get more than 1" per week. Really looking forward to how some of the older plants look in a few weeks - hoping new growth is looking the way it should instead of deformed and wilted.

 

[Greggz]

Getting better all the time!

I've seen this coming for a while. How are you enjoying the transition?

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @Immortal1,

Glad to see the positive results!

Based upon the 1/6/18 pictures you posted of the Mermaid Weed it looks like a little more Equilibrium and/or calcium is needed and either your NO3 or Fe is low. You still have leaf tip 'hooking' on the new leaves (Ca) and the new leaves shouldn't be that yellow, if the veins were green I would say Fe but they look overall yellow so it could be NO3. Have you checked your nutrient ppm's lately; with the improved growth the nutrient uptake may have increased.

 

[Immortal1]

Hey Roy, interesting you mention NO3. Its the one fert I never would have imagined running short on. I have an API test kit for nitrate but as most will agree, it is not the most accurate. for what its worth, I am dosing 1/2 tsp of KNO3 3 times per week. Would not be that hard for me to increase the dosing a bit. The amazon sword is showing signs of nitrate deficiency so this should not surprise me that much. Tomorrow is a macro day so I will start dosing a bit more and see what happens.

As for the Ca levels, I will likely run a full test of variables this weekend and see what I can come up with - should be interesting.

 

[Immortal1]

Wow, just learned something about my 75g tank this evening! Have not honestly tested Nitrate levels for MANY months - the API kit always showed 40-80ppm and just assumed that was normal for my tank (or the API kit). So on a whim I tested the Nitrate level this evening (tomorrow is water change day). I actually got a big fat "0" on the test. Basically shocked, I tested the wifes high tech 40g barb tank (assuming the API kit was just dead). Well, that tank showed a nice 40ish ppm so I guess the kit still works. Looks like I will need to up my KNO3 dosing from 1/2 tsp to 3/4 tsp (3) times per week and test again.

While I had all the test kits out figured I would test a few more things. Realized after digging thru everything I have an API Ca2+ test kit also.
Ca2+ = 80ppm
GH = 15 at the tap (API test)
GH = 17 in the tank (API test)
KH = 10 at the tap (API test)
KH = 9 in the tank (API test)
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Did not test Magnesium level this evening, but it was around 12-16ppm before I dosed the Equilibrium.
So, given the rather high 17dGH (approximately 304.3ppm) and only 80ppm Ca2 I wonder what else contributes to the high 17dGH?
Anyway, looks like I have some more learning to do For now the best I can do is show off what I learned on my LG-G6 phone - manual video settings!!! This just might be the clearest video I have ever done on this tank. Make sure you use the 720p / 60fps setting if you watch it.

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Immortal1,

That Mermaid Weed just looked way too yellow. Because it is a mobile nutrient the chlorosis (yellowing) of an NO3 deficiency usually starts showing up on older leaves first, when we start to see it on new growth it means NO3 is bottoming out. If those new Mermaid leaves had showed green veins I would have suspected iron. I bet that growth rate picks up now! lol

 

[Immortal1]

LOL, I bet it does! Just blows my mind I am at 0ppm on Nitrate. Always harp on the wife when she feeds the fish not to put extra food in there as I did not want the Nitrate to go above 80ppm (it has happened in the past). Never would have guessed the various plants would have gobbled up that much nitrate once I turned up the lights.
@Seattle_Aquarist do you have any experience with Crinum calamistratum? Seem I am being over run with this plant and from what I can tell there is the mother plant and atleast 4 offspring surrounding it. Is it possible to separate the offspring? I understand stem plants, crypts and sword plants but have no working knowledge with the Crinum.

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Immortal1,

Sorry, not experience with that species; but I am glad that your tank is getting back on track. I try to do tests every couple of months, more often when issues occur. The nutrients in most water supplies vary greatly between spring, summer, fall, and winter - a lot of times all we see on the utility water reports is whatever the average has been for a given period. For example, here in Seattle they issue a quarterly water report, but that is just an average for that period. It was really dry last summer and some wells that are typically not used were brought into service, for a while I almost had a measurable dKH!! lol

 

[burr740]

Nice video Linn. Im always pleasantly amazed when I see vids of your's and @Greggz Rainbows.

My only Rainbow experience was back in the day, a few of those inbred "australian" variety from a big box store. Those things were wild swimmers, constantly back and forth and back and forth. I hate fish that swim like that. But you guy's are always so tranquil and peaceful looking, chilled out.

On the Crinum, there's some advice in this thread that might be useful - https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/plant-id-needed.48841/

 

[Immortal1]

Will have to check that thread out @burr740 I did find another site that offered the following; Honestly cant imagine trying to pull the entire plant out to try and "tease" the bulbs off. Have a feeling the root system is almost as big as my tank, LOL.

Origin
Africa; these plants are mostly found in Cameroon.

Propagation
As long as this plant is given the correct growing conditions, it will form bulb shoots from the side of the main bulb. To propagate other plants, remove the mother plant from the aquarium and gently tease away the smaller bulb growths and re-plant these into the substrate. When first planted, make sure that there are plenty of nutrients in the substrate to encourage root growth. This plant will produce flowers if allowed to and they are superb but propagating from seed is extremely difficult and should be left to the experts. If you wish to obtain flowers then high lighting and soft water in the aquarium will be required but once they start they will flower on a regular basis.

Difficulty
Medium, they do need to establish a good root system for healthy growth.

Short Description
This is a very popular background plant in the aquarium hobby. They will produce long and slender leaves that will reach up to the water surface. If given the correct conditions some specimens can grow leaves that will reach up to 4 feet in length. They are sensitive to being moved around the aquarium, it is best to plan carefully where you wish to place these plants and then let them grow there permanently. They are hardy once established, in their natural habitat they can even survive short periods of drought. Even fish nibbling at the leaves should not cause long term damage to the plant. For best growth results, it is best to use a CO2 system and a low water flow.

 

[Greggz]

Nice video Linn. Im always pleasantly amazed when I see vids of your's and @Greggz Rainbows.

My only Rainbow experience was back in the day, a few of those inbred "australian" variety from a big box store. Those things were wild swimmers, constantly back and forth and back and forth. I hate fish that swim like that. But you guy's are always so tranquil and peaceful looking, chilled out.

On the Crinum, there's some advice in this thread that might be useful - https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/plant-id-needed.48841/

Burr's tank with Rainbows?

It would be a pretty picture.

If only just for a picture.

Ah.....we'll never see it....but guessing it would be spectacular!:grin2:

 

[Immortal1]

@Greggz - it would be a real improvement to have some quality bows in @burr740 tank

Just kidding Joe. But it would be interesting. The other thing I find interesting with your tank Joe is when I show people FTS of your tank people are always blow away by the colors and textures and ask "does he have any fish?" then I start pointing to the 20-30 fish in the same picture. Guess that means the main focus is the plants. Where Gregg's and my tank it seems the colorful rainbows are more of the focus, THEN your realize how much plants are in the tank. Guess thats just how it is - but some times I would appreciate it if the @#$% pleco wouldn't knock loose all the newly planted stems - stupid pretty fish

 

[Immortal1]

Well, what would be a water change day without a few progress pictures. Might as well start off with the FTS as it really shows how much scissor work was done (yes, they are now dull). Myriophyllum Red Stem is now in the back right corner - have a feeling it will be back to the surface by next weekend. Ludwigia repens 'Rubin' is right in front of the Myrio. It is looking redder and healthier than it has been in the past. I relocated most of the Limnophila aromatica 'mini' from the front left to the right hand side and now have a nice selection on the left of Hygrophila 'Siamensis 53B', Lobelia Cardinalis, Dwarf rotala, Bacopa sp. 'colorata', and Myriohyllum sp. 'guyana / mini'. The Barclaya Longifolia Red and Eriocaulon Lineare pretty much occupy the left middle area. Pogo Kimberly, Mermaid weed and Hygro Siamensis consume the right side with some Jungle Val hiding in the back right corner.

I have been researching on how to thin out the Crinum calamistratum a bit and found out that I "should" be able to separate off the bulb side shoots. Well I was able to peel off 2 of them - this is the smaller of them, LOL

 

[Immortal1]

Well, this is a bit surprising. For the longest time I could only find 1 Amano shrimp in the tank at any given time (added a total of 6 over the past summer). Was a bit shocked to see 4 of them in almost the same spot! Nice bonus is the pearling in the background.

 

[Immortal1]

Seem to remember promising @burr740 that I would post a pic of the wifes 5 gallon beta tank after adding the Christmas moss to the spider wood tree. Seems I really need to get better with my picture skills. Little tank consists of regular black aquarium gravel, a small sponge filter and a small 25w heater. So far, the lighting consists of a LED grow light in a generic clamp holder. Plants so far are various cuttings from my tank in addition to Burrs Christmas moss. In addition to her prized Beta, there are 7 pygmy cory cats in the tank.

 

[burr740]

Nice man, that tree is gonna be sweet!

 

[Tiger15]

I saw that you have couple big fat Siamese algae eater, banded Gara, and amazingly a few Amno shrimp that don’t get eaten. How are they comparing in term of algae eating. I’m trying to get some Gara, but they are hard to find. They are so cute and I heard that they are good bba eater. How large are your SAE. Do they still algae at that size.

 

[Immortal1]

I saw that you have couple big fat Siamese algae eater, banded Gara, and amazingly a few Amno shrimp that don’t get eaten. How are they comparing in term of algae eating. I’m trying to get some Gara, but they are hard to find. They are so cute and I heard that they are good bba eater. How large are your SAE. Do they still algae at that size.

LOL, yes the SAE are big and the one is definitely fat! They do still nibble on various plants looking for algae although they really like cucumber the most. The Gara spend a lot of time cleaning the glass but in my opinion they leave more of a pattern on the glass than actually cleaning it. I think with all the plants in the tank the amano shrimp have plenty of places to hide. I occasionally see one swimming out in the open and the rainbow fish seem to leave it alone - possibly because the amano are about the same size as the smallest fish in the tank - not sure.