[Frshwtr]

Made another purchase from buceplant.com today - had some bonus points so I'm taking a chance on some rare plants:

Eriocaulon sp Quinquangulare Red
Hygrophila Lancea 'Araguaia' Sp Chai
Eriocaulon sp Vietnam

Hopefully everything will arrive by early next week!

 

[Frshwtr]

Looks really great!

Thanks!

 

[Frshwtr]

Also had a bit of a shrimp rave this morning on my office nano tank when I fed them. I have a ton of shrimplets in this tank and the colony is doing really well. I started out with only bloody mary's but have a couple that are looking more like plain cherry shrimp or even sunkist orange. Plants are also doing really well!

 

[Frshwtr]

1/27/23 Update

All of the plants from buceplant.com arrived in 1 day. Some of the plants looked great, some of them not so much. All of the stems were in decent shape with a bit of melt only on the hygrophilia, but the tissue cultures left a lot to be desired. All of the crypts and bucephalandra were TINY. I'm hoping I can get them up. The 2 Eriocaulon plants looked to be in decent shape with the Quin Red having a bit of melt. I'm also experimenting with my carpeting plants around the structure. I like the wild look with some variation - especially in the carpet.

I also changed the length of the photoperiod out a few more hours but with lower intensity. At it's peak, the T5's are putting out 75% of their capacity for 5 hours and then ramps down to lights out over the next 5 hours. Prior photoperiod was from 9AM to 6PM, with 5 hours at 75%. Full photoperiod now is from 9AM to 8PM. I'm curious what a longer photoperiod is going to do in terms of growth, but not getting too much algae. I'm injecting EI based nutrients automatically in the tank, as well as 30 PPM CO2. Every week I am still doing 50%+ water changes. If I start getting algae problems I'll change the light settings back.

Now it's time to play the waiting game and watch the grass grow. Here is a list of the newest additions and a couple FTS from tonight. Please pardon the photobombing rainbow fish!

Cryptocoryne Yujii
Cryptocoryne Spiralis Tiger
Hydrocotyle Tripartita
Ranunculus Inundatu
Rotala Bonsai
Bucephalandra Arrogant Blue
Bucephalandra Black Pearl
Pogostemon Helferi 'Downoi
Hygrophila Pinnatifida
Eriocaulon sp Quinquangulare Red
Hygrophila Lancea 'Araguaia' Sp Chai
Eriocaulon sp Vietnam
Dwarf Hair Grass

 

[Frshwtr]

2/5/23 Update:

A week after I made the purchase from Buceplant.com, I have had a few successes and a few failures. The Eriocaulon sp Quinquangulare Red has completely melted into the substrate and I think it's a goner. They said it was a difficult plant on their website, but it didn't even make it a week before completely melting. Pretty bummed about that! The other Eriocaulon sp Vietnam had some melting also, but I think it's going to hold on. I noticed it has some small shoots coming up from it's base and some of the leaves haven't melted. Fingers crossed that it's going to hold on. The other difficult plant, Hygrophila Lancea 'Araguaia' Sp Chai lost quite a bit of it's leaves, but seems to taken hold and is putting on a lot of new growth. The small crypts also seem like they are going to make it. I'm really happy with the Bonsai Rotala, even though it's really bouyant and was difficult to keep planted. It's putting on lots of new growth and should be a nice end piece of the scape. Everything else seems to be doing really well - especially the Rotala H'Ra. Already had to do a big trim on it. It seems like my fish also really like digging up the new dwarf hair grass as I find quite a bit of it in the dead spot of the tank every morning.

I noticed I was also starting to get some mild green spot algae on the anubias. I think it was the extended photoperiod. I decided to go back to an 8 hour photoperiod starting at 12:00 and ending at 20:00 with a 5 hour peak at 75% output. I also decided to start doing a small daily dose of flourish excel on top of the liquid ferts. I'm hoping that helps give everything a bit of a kick and helps them take hold. Here are some current pics. Thanks for looking!

Evening vibes before lights out. The actinic light really shows up when the other lights are dimmed.

New growth on the Sp Chai

 

[JasPR]

Terrific result !