The Cookie Crew

I think it would be too big for the betta's tank, unfortunately. I need something a bit taller in there, but something that would not outgrow a 26 litre tank. Since I already have some in the big tank I think I'll try planting a piece of water sprite.

When I say about the Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan' being helpful with the uptake of "nutrients", I really mean in terms of any excess ammonia and nitrates etc... 

Ditto that...!!!  Although in my case, I'm thinking that Amazon Frogbit is perhaps the biggest nitrate munching culprit...   

Quote from: Sue on May 05, 2018, 04:11:16 PM

Platies do eat a lot of veg matter and unfortunately veg matter = lots of poo whether its fish or cows 

That confirms it - he'll have to go before the Espei arrive...

I doubt if he'd produce more than the nerite snail, though, who is a herbivore.

Big water change today (I believe @Matt 's advice to me on this subject to be spot on) and more general maintenance, including the removal of the last of the largest Echinodorus leaves plus some H.Costata that looked miserable and had hair algae on there...  Also removed more Amazon Frogbit, and lastly several nibbled N.H.Taiwan leaves, which the Amanos eat when they're hungry (I am beginning to think this might be a good barometer for how well fed the tank is, at least in terms of under feeding, which is when the shrimp then eat the N.H.Taiwan)...  Tank looking brighter all round now...

After the large'ish WC today, I have now begun to fertilise with the TNC Complete @ the TNC recommended levels and have cut down from 3ml per day to 2ml per day...  Will stick with this for at least two weeks, then may well even reduce a fraction further...  I now realise that I do need to fertilise more than I used to, but part of me wonders if the recommended dose is perhaps actually still a bit higher than needed by some small margin...?

Looking forward to reading that @Matt ... 

With my story, I get the impression that with the "dirt" layer in my set up (John Innes #3) may hold nutrients on different levels...  By that I mean that there was the initial period when all plants were blissfully happy & tickety boo for the first couple of months or so and this makes me think that a proportion of the nutrients were readily and easily available...  I can't imagine that all the soil's nutrients are exhausted already as it's far too soon for that imho, so leading me to thinking that there must be plenty more left but that's less readily available, or you might consider as "slow release" when compared to that initial gush of easy to access nutrients... 

Ditto on Matt's theory.

I think my tank is a bit different in that my substrate starts with low nutrients, but holds onto them. So I should start with dosing, but the need to do so reduces as the substrate 'grabs onto' more nutrients. I have mostly sieved Seachem Eco complete. (ie the smaller, <2mm granules).

More maintenance today...  Completely removed Hottonia Palustris plant, which was very weak and I'd say was in a bad way due to the malnourishment but beyond saving since boosting the fertilisers...  Trimmed off a few more weak H.Costata leaves plus one or two that were looking under hair algae attack... 

Reluctantly going to try the TNC Carbon again in the hope that it will do two things:  supplement the additional fertilisers and help combat the hair algae - I can't just keep cutting off any leaves affected by the algae as the tank will finish up bare and barren...  Only added 0.5ml and will do 0.5ml per day for a trial period, keeping a major eye on the Amano shrimp...!!!

Hope the health of the plants turns around soon as there's no doubt that this is a stressful time with the tank - or the plants to be more specific... 

The little Ramshorn hitch-hiker snail numbers are up and I suspect this is down to the plants which haven't survived well, giving them a plentiful supply of dead/rotting plant matter...  They're so small that I'd bet it wouldn't take much in the way of such plant matter to represent an open buffet to the little tinkers...!!!

Thanks Donna...   

New update: 

Majority of the plants looking healthier, but it has to be said that it's not by much when all things considered... 

Current fertiliser dosing is TNC Complete @ recommended level, but part dosed daily rather than full dosed weekly...  Have also progressively built up the TNC Carbon to 2ml per day, which is a two thirds daily dose level... 

In the meantime, the one thing that I had managed to avoid so far looks to have struck: the dreaded BBA...!!!  There's little sign of the hair algae abating either... 

So, the notion of super dosing the plants to get them growing faster and out-competing the algae is currently looking like not only being a fail, but also that all the added nutrients appear to have encouraged BBA...!!!


I'm at my wits end now and growing increasingly fed up with the whole thing to be honest... 

On the plus side, at least all of the tank occupants are doing well and still not a single fish fatality to date...  All the shrimp seem to now be coping with the carbon, after building it up slowly, and the snail collection also seems un-phased by it too...  But this issue of constant battling with one issue or another is getting tired real fast now...