Pinker Rotala indica

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel (+15 mL at night), 5 mL iron chelate
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
All the angelfish eggs have died, so I removed them. I don't know why. Perhaps the water was too hard (estimate GH approx 15) for the eggs to be fertilized properly, or perhaps the Excel adversely affected the eggs.

A few of the Rotala indica stems have been growing in nice and pink. I still don't know what makes these plants redder: more Calcium? More micros? Less iron?

The algae is still dying away. Excel seems to be very effective against staghorn, BGA and green beard algae, and to a certain extent, green dust algae. The growth of the green dust algae has decreased by about half. It doesn't seem effective against the dark green hair algae, though. I've noticed more of the hair algae since the other algae types have decreased.

Otherwise, although the stargrass has been growing great, the other plants (esp. L. repens, R. indica) have still been growing in stunted. I'll probably try upping the Calcium again after the next water change.

Fish fry spotted

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel, 5 mL iron chelate
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
Over half of the angelfish eggs are now white, and some of them have fungus growing on them. I'm still hoping that some of them will hatch tomorrow, though.

I saw something shiny resting on an anubias leaf. It was 2 to 3 mm long, and looked like it had eyes and a tail. It darted away when I brought the leaf for closer inspection. It was some sort of fish fry! My guess is that it may have been a danio fry, though it was much too small to tell. I was surprised that it has actually survived this long.

As I noted earlier, pearling is still decreased since the water change as compared to previous weeks. I also started adding some iron chelate again today, since some of the glosso and java fern were looking pretty pale. Even a little of the hairgrass was turning yellow. I'm not positive that it's due to the lack of iron, though.

Progress of the angelfish eggs

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 2
• PO4: 0.75
• Iron:
• Dosing: 25 mL Excel, 11.25 ppm NO3, 1.6 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 46.25:5.2 = 8.9

Notes:
The female angelfish hung out by her netted eggs all day, attacking the male when he approached too close, for some reason. Occasionally, she would try to get to the eggs. Maybe she was frustrated by being blocked by the netting.

Over the course of the day, more and more of the eggs turned white , showing that they were infertile. By the end of the day, maybe about a third of the eggs had turned white.

Isolating the angelfish eggs

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
The angelfish pair spawned again. This time, the female laid even more eggs this time, arranged very closely together. It looks like she is getting the hang of the process.

Because the eggs from the last couple spawnings disappeared, probably because the angelfish ate the eggs, I decided to separate the eggs from them this time. I don't have a separate tank, so I cut off the leaf that housed the eggs, and I put the eggs and leaf into one of those netted breeder cages. Now, I can observe better to see what happens to the eggs over the next several days.

The angelfish pair seemed upset when I took away their eggs, because afterwards, they chased the other fish around the tank repeatedly. Obviously, they couldn't take it out on me. Sorry.

Shrimp sighting

• pH: 6.5
• Temp:
• KH: 5
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
Since I hadn't seen any shrimp for the last several weeks, I thought I had killed them off through my tank chemistry tinkering, but I was surprised to see two of them hiding out in the H. micranthemoides.

I don't know why the pH was so low today, but the fish don't seem to be gasping, so I let the CO2 bubble rate be (only 1.8-1.9 b/s).

Stargrass leaves growing larger

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel, 10 ppm NO3, 0.8 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 35:3.6 = 9.7

Notes:
You can see the staghorn algae turning red and dying on the leaf of the sword plant.

The stargrass is growing in nice and big, though not as big as I have been able to grow it once. The leaves are about 1-2 inches long, and I used to be able to get the leaves to grow a whopping 3-4 inches long. Just don't ask me how I did it.

Some of the leaves are very pale, though. I used to think it was due to an iron deficiency, but I've seen it turn green while tweaking some other element, even while having the iron remain constant. It might be nitrogen? Or perhaps one or more element of Ca/Mg/K.

Algae dying

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel, 1 tsp epsom salts, 2 tsp CaCl2
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
There's still some sign of what I think is a Magnesium deficiency: old leaves in the L. repens turn yellow and brown from the outermost end of the leaf to the part attached to the stem, and the A. reineckii turn transparent and melt away. It might be potassium, but then I would expect to see more black spots and pin holes? I added some Mg and Ca.

It's only been 3 days, but I can definitely see now that the staghorn algae is already turning red and dying all over the tank from the Excel overdose. Yay! And the green beard algae is receding, it also seems.

I haven't added any iron since the last water change, and many of the leaves are paler. But the R. indica is turning much pinker, and reds are coming out of some of the L. repens. Ordinarily, with lots of iron, these plants would be more yellow.

Dosing 5x Excel

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 7.5
• PO4: 1
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel, 10 ppm NO3, 1 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 25:2.8 = 8.9

Notes:
I moved the floating Kleiner Bar sword plantlet from the end of the tank, where the spray bar was spraying new algae spores onto the plant leaves, to the center of the tank, and the brighter lighting in the center caused the new sprouting leaves to turn an even brighter red. Very pretty.

I've decided to dose about 5x the recommended dosing of Excel to the tank. I don't know if it's just my imagination, but there already looks to be slightly less algae in the tank. Now, I've also decided to try dosing just Flourish instead of the usual Flourish/iron chelate combo, so the decrease in iron might have something to do with the algae instead.

Today, I also noticed a small but noticeable burst of growth in the R. indica, L. hippuroides and H. zosterifolia. Due to the excel? Or water change?

I also noticed that the plants were still pale on parts of the leaves, especially the broad leaved plants like the A. nana, java fern and L. repens. The paleness seemed to run along the veins of the leaves. Is it because of a lack of iron?

I tried to capture it with the camera, which was difficult since the camera doesn't do well with color.

One more observation is that I don't see nearly as much of that floating short algae filaments I had described earlier in the water. It seems either due to the water change (reducing hardness) or due to the Excel, or even possibly due to less iron. I will probably start dosing iron again soon to see which if any of these observations change.

Adding Excel

• pH:
• Temp: 82
• KH: 4
• GH: 11
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 50 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
I received some Seachem Excel today. Excel is supposed to be a liquid carbon supplement, but it unofficially is also supposed to somehow act as an algicide. The instructions say to set the first dose to 25 mL for 50 gallons, which I doubled. Subsequent daily doses are supposed to be 5 mL. I will probably increase that either by 3x or 5x. I hope that this overdosing of Excel will have some effect on the algae.

The KH was 4, lower than my target 5, so I added 0.5 tsp baking soda.

This morning, I noticed that the leaves of the L. repens and some of the java fern were pale in color in some areas of the leaf, almost white. Odd. There also wasn't quite as much pearling today. Perhaps it is adjusting to the decrease in Ca/Mg with yesterday's water change.

Water change reset

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 ppm NO3, 1.8 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:1.8 = 8.3

Notes:
I haven't been happy with plant growth, so I decided to reset things with a water change earlier than the usual weekend water change. The L. repens and R. indica weren't growing much. The stargrass seemed to be growing all right, though.

65-70% water change:
30 mL Amquel+
3 tsp baking soda

I didn't add any Ca or Mg.

Little NO3/PO4 uptake

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 10
• PO4: 1.25
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 1 ppm iron chelate, 0.2 ppm PO4, 10 ppm Flourish potassium
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:1.8 = 8.3

Notes:
There's been little to no NO3/PO4 usage, it seems. Perhaps the extra hardness from the Ca/Mg is somehow preventing uptake of some other element(s). The only other element I could think of was potassium. Only approx. 9 ppm potassium was added since the water change (as part of the KNO3 dosing), so I added another 10 ppm to see if that would make a difference.

Male angelfish in the doghouse

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 10
• PO4: 1.5
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 1 ppm iron chelate, 3 tsp CaCl2
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
This morning, all the angelfish eggs were gone. I noticed yesterday that both the male and female angelfish seemed to be slowly eating both the fertile and infertile eggs. They might have eaten the rest of the eggs. The next time, I'll probably remove the eggs when they're laid.

Later in the day, I couldn't find the male angelfish, which was odd since he's the diameter of my fist, making it hard for him to hide. I finally found him hiding in the corner. Whenever he would try to venture out, the female would attack him, driving him back in the corner. Maybe she's upset about the loss of her eggs, but in any case, he's definitely in the doghouse.

The tops of the A. senegalensis seem redder than usual today for some reason.

Tending to the eggs

• pH:
• Temp: 80
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
The female angelfish has been staying close to the eggs while the male is busy chasing other fish (and my camera) away. If the eggs turn white, meaning they are infertile, the female will pick off and eat the infertile eggs.

I don't know whether to separate the eggs into another area to let them hatch and see if I can raise the fry or to just let the eggs be. The first spawning disappeared after I was away for several days, so I don't know what happened to them. I do have a netted breeding area I could move the eggs to.

Eggs on the Kleiner Bar sword with mother angelfish tending.

After water change.

Lots of Calcium helping with stunting

• pH:
• Temp: 82
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 ppm NO3, 1.6 ppm PO4, 8 tsp CaCl2, 1.5 tsp MgSO4, (5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate yesterday)
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:1.6 = 9.4

Notes:
Although it was only a day, the big dose of Ca seems to have helped with the stunting. The Rotala indica started to grow large leaves again. For the water change, I added the same total CaCl2 dose that I added over the past week, which is much more than I've ever added before. I added a little less epsom salts this weeek than last.

The A. reineckii doesn't seem to have any more melting leaves, it either seems to have recovered from the UV or benefitted from the extra magnesium.

The remaining staghorn algae seems to slowly be dying off.

Yesterday, I also took out the prefilter sponge to the AquaClear filter. It was clogging up too quickly, so that I had to clean it out a couple times a week. I haven't seen any shrimp for the past couple weeks, I've probably ended up killing them.

50% water change:
25 mL Amquel+
8 tsp CaCl2
1.5 tsp epsom salts
12 tsp KNO3
8 tsp KH2PO4

Over the past couple days, I've also noticed a lot of short (2-3 mm) bright green filaments/thin hairs floating in the water. It's as if there was dust motes floating around.

This evening, the angels also spawned again, on another sword leaf.

Inconsistent KH/GH test results

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH: 5/8
• GH: 11/12
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 10
• PO4: 1
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 mL Flourish, 1 ppm iron chelate, 3.75 ppm NO3, 0.6 ppm PO4, 0.5 tsp epsom salts, 4 tsp CaCl2
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 35.25:3.4 = 10.4

Notes:
I've been using the Red Sea brand for testing the KH and GH. I recently got the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals brand to replace the Red Sea tests, which were running out. When I ran both brands, I found that they differed:

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals: KH=8, GH=12
Red Sea: KH=5, GH=11

To be sure, I ran the tests several times. Which one is correct, especially for the KH?? Most people seems to think that all the KH/GH test brands will give accurate readings (versus others like nitrate/phosphate), but this clearly is not the case.

I like to experiment with the water the most just before the water change. I added a lot of CaCl2 and some MgSO4 to see if raising the hardness even more will help with the stunting. It appears that the heavy micro dosing doesn't seem to be having much effect so far.

Eheim sludge extractor

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 mL Flourish, 1.5 ppm iron chelate, 1 tsp epsom salts
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
I picked out more dying A. reineckii leaves. Since the leaves are still melting, I decided to dose some more magnesium, since I had been keeping the levels low.

I also received the Eheim sludge extractor today. It was on sale for $50 at Petco, and usually retails for about $90 at other sites. It is battery powered, and it seems to have roughly as much suction power as my Python hose. As I used it in the tank today, the filter got filled up with debris, which I had to clean out a couple times. It basically works as well as the Python, but without having to suck out the water. Thumbs up.

I noticed a slight increase in green algae (green beard, some mystery non-filamentous green algae) today, possibly due to the high levels of micros I am dosing.

I also noticed a few new pinholes developed in a few of the anubias nana. This always seems to occur when I run the UVS.

Increasing micros

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 2
• PO4: 1
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 mL Flourish, 1.5 ppm iron chelate, 15 ppm NO3, 1 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 31.5:2.8 = 11.25

Notes:
I'm really trying to get to the bottom of the Rotala indica stunting. I'm going to try to dose a lot of micros over the next several days to see if that helps with the stunting.

Melting A. reineckii leaves

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH: 5
• GH: 9 before dose
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate, 2 tsp CaCl2 (+ 5 mL Flourish/0.5 ppm iron chelate at night)
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
I just noticed that a lot of the Alternathera reineckii leaves are suddenly turning transparent and melting away. This must have happened over the past couple days. What's going on?? Was it because of the UVS causing some mineral deficiency? Or could it be because there's not enough magnesium?

The leaves pretty much turn transparent (but still red) and then melt away. It looks like what I would expect from a nitrogen deficiency, but I've been dosing a lot of nitrates for the past several weeks, and it's never melted like this before. The melting leaves seemed to be scattered through the plant, it's not obviously on the lower half of the plant, though I don't see any new leaves with this problem, so perhaps it is affecting the older leaves. That would perhaps indicate a deficiency in nitrogen, magnesium, or perhaps potassium.

I plucked off all the melting leaves off, to see if any more leaves start melting. If so, then it's probably not due to the UVS, since I turned it off yesterday. If the melting continues, I will dose some more magnesium.

Stopping UVS

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 1.5
• PO4: 0.2
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 ppm NO3, 1.6 ppm PO4, 5 mL Flourish night, 0.5 ppm iron chelate night (5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate yesterday)
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 16.5:1.8 = 9.2

Notes:
Stopped running the UVS today before the water change. The UVS seemed to work to help stop any further spread of the staghorn algae, but I wanted to avoid having to run it 24/7. I also noticed that after running the UVS for a day, the plants seemed to have a burst of growth, though not with very large leaves. It was as if there was some sort of excess of something in the water that got cleared/precipitated out by the UVS. Yet another mystery.

50% water change:
25 mL Amquel+
2.5 tsp baking soda
0.5 epsom salts
2 tsp CaCl2

Cleaned out the AquaClear filter.

The hairgrass seems to be enjoying the extra nitrates, it's been growing in thicker and taller over the past few weeks.

I also wanted to try and dose the micros at night as well as day to see if it will make any difference.

More green algae

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 10
• PO4: 1
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate, 2.5 ppm NO3, 0.6 ppm PO4 (10 mL Flourish, 1 ppm iron chelate at night)
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 44.35:4.45 = 10

Notes:
Spread of staghorn algae seems to have stopped, more green algae (mostly green beard algae) growing today. There was a burst of growth in the repens and stargrass, although the stargrass leaves were pale and more twisted. Definitely due to turning on the UVS.

I've also noticed that one of the SAEs have been hiding out a lot. The two SAEs are usually not shy at all, but one of them has barely showed itself over the past several days. It is also noticably skinnier than the more active SAE. I don't know what's wrong with it.

Still running the UVS

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH: 11
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 2
• PO4: 0.5
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate, 10 ppm NO3, 1 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 41.75:3.85 = 10.8

Notes:
The UVS is still running, and unlike all the previous times, it is not causing that bluish cloudiness in the tank. Strange. There also was a lot of pearling today (more than yesterday) for some reason.

Also, another plantlet is already growing from the Kleiner Bar sword plant.

Less consumption NO3/PO4 this week

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 10-20
• PO4: 1.75
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
There's not been much, if any, decrease in algae. The green dust algae is starting to come back on the tank walls, so the theory of letting the green dust algae "go through its life cycle" did not work.

Starting tonight, I turned on the UV to see if that will make any difference, or at least slow the spread of the staghorn algae. I also noticed that so far this week, there hasn't been nearly as much consumption of NO3/PO4, for whatever reason.

Here's a picture of the horrible staghorn algae which has spread all over the tank within several days. Ugh!

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH: 9 (before CaCl2 dose)
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 1 ppm iron chelate, 1 tsp CaCl2
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Yellowing older leaves

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 5
• PO4: 1.25
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate, 13.75 ppm NO3, 0.8 ppm PO4, 1 tsp CaCl2, 0.5 tsp MgSO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 31.75:2.85 = 11.1

Notes:
The bottom older leaves of the L. repens have been turning yellow with black spots. It might either be a Nitrogen, Magnesium or Potassium deficiency. I think I've been adding sufficient potassium and nitrogen over the past few weeks, but I've been a bit low on the Magnesium, so I will try to increase it a bit.

Fighting staghorn algae

• pH: 6.7
• Temp: 80
• KH: 5
• GH: 8
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 10
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:

The third week of green dust algae growth.


After wiping off the green dust algae during the water change yesterday.

You can see the green beard and staghorn algae growing all over the plants in the second picture. I noticed that the green beard algae had grown more over the last 3 days that I was away from the tank. Perhaps not keeping up on the daily dosing of micros helped encourage the beard algae to grow. I've been trying to keep the nitrate levels up to see if that will help with the staghorn algae. I've also been making sure the CO2 levels stay up (>24 ppm). We'll see if there is any change over this next week.

Wiping off the green dust algae

• pH:
• Temp: 80
• KH:
• GH: 8
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: <1
• PO4: 1.25
• Iron:
• Dosing: 17.5 ppm NO3, 0.8 ppm PO4 (3.75 ppm NO3 on Thursday)
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 18:2.05 = 8.8

Notes:
I was away from the tank for a couple days, and when I came back today, all the eggs had disappeared. I don't know what happened to them.

50% water change:
25 mL Amquel+
2.5 tsp baking soda
2 tsp CaCl2
0.5 tsp epsom salts

After watching the green dust algae grow on the tank walls for 3 weeks, I finally wiped it off today. While I was cleaning the tank, I ran the UV sterilizer for an hour or two to help kill any algae spores floating in the water.

Here's a pic of the Kleiner Bar sword plantlet that is quickly sprouting leaves.

I also wanted to note that the leaves of the stargrass were growing in greener (instead of the pale white) and less stunted. Over the past couple days, there has also been an increase in growth of green beard algae.