• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 20 mL Excel, 10 ppm NO3, 1 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 25:2.8 = 8.9

Notes:

• pH: 78
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 20 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:

In the picture, you can see the long stem of the Kleiner Bar sword plant growing along the surface of the water. The stem will soon become a plantlet. Head count of fry is 13. The past couple days have been cooler, and the brine shrimp eggs have been slower to hatch. I've put a small lamp next to the shrimp hatchery to help warm up the water a bit.

Some pinker/redder plants

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel, 15 ppm NO3, 1.8 ppm PO4, 1 tsp MgSO4, 3 tsp CaSO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:1.8 = 8.3

Notes:
Sucked up the fry into a separate container and did a 50% water change:
25 mL Amquel+
2.5 tsp baking soda
25 mL Excel
10 mL Flourish
1 tsp MgSO4
3 tsp CaSO4

This week, the tops of the L. repens have been getting nice and red, and some stems of the the R. indica have been nice and pink. Dosing a lot of micros (10 mL Flourish a day) seems to help with the coloring, along with some yet unknown relationship with either a lower GH or Mg/Ca amounts. There has been some improvement in the stunting of the Rotala, I will continue using the CaSO4 instead of the CaCl2 to see if the improvement continues.

Yesterday, the sick harlequin rasbora finally died. Today's headcount of fry is 13. It seems after every night, one of the fry will die. I don't know if it's because it couldn't go so long without a feeding (12 hours), or what. Large female shrimp sighted today.

Feeding the fry for the first time

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 20 mL Excel, 7.5 ppm NO3, 0.3 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 35:3.6 = 9.7

Notes:
The fry must have been hungry today, because when I fed them the newly hatched brine shrimp for the first time, they immediately gobbled it up. Most of the fry ate the shrimp until their bellies were bulging and pink. Today's headcount is about 17 fry. The brine shrimp survive for several hours, so I only had to feed the fry twice today. Any shrimp that swam out of the net cage were eagerly eaten by the rasboras. The larger angelfish ignored the shrimp.

Since the algae problem is under control with the help of Excel, I upped the light period back from 11 hours to 12 hours. Also, I noticed that the green dust algae, while still building up, seems to have decreased in half again. I think it's because I cleaned out the cannister filter, which was very dirty and gunked up.

Hatching brine shrimp

• pH: 6.8
• Temp: 84
• KH: 5
• GH: 12
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 20 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
I was able to count the angelfish fry this morning, there was approx 35 fry. They started free swimming and swam out of the plastic cup into the breeding net cage. Then I saw a horrible thing: the angelfish were trying to eat? the fry by sucking the fry out through the netting. Although the fry were too big to go through the netting, their tails were still small enough to be sucked out. Once stuck, the fry would struggle as the angelfish picked at the tail, trying to pull the fry out. By the time I was able to jury rig wrapping a large ziploc bag around the netting, at least half of the fry were dead. Yaargh!

This morning, I started up the brine shrimp hatchery, and the first batch should be ready next morning, which I will harvest over the course of the day. I have two setups, so I can start a new batch every morning to ensure there is a constant supply of live shrimp. In the picture, the bottle to the right has brine shrimp eggs incubating, while the bottle on the left is getting prepped for the eggs.

To construct the hatchery, I sawed off the bottom of two 2L soda bottles. I drilled a hole in each of the soda caps, and glued in an airline connector into each hole using plumber's goop as the glue. I then connected airlines to t-line connectors, shutoff valves and an air pump and hooked the airlines to the airline connectors in the soda caps. I turned the soda bottles upside down and used the bottom halves of two more sawed off soda bottles as stands. Using the shutoff valves, I can control the flow of air from the air pump to either of the bottles. While the eggs are incubating, the air from the air pump helps keep the eggs circulating in the water.

Here's what I added to prep the water:

1.5 liter tap water
several drops Amquel+
7 tsp aquarium salt
approx 3/4 tsp baking soda

I then added about 1/8 tsp of brine shrimp that I ordered from http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com, a small batch to start. Since the tempurature in the house is so warm (aquarium temp is 84 degrees), I don't have to worry about heating the water for the brine shrimp.

Hopefully tomorrow, the fry wil still be alive so I can start feeding them!

Adding some CaSO4

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 2
• PO4: 2
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 20 mL Excel, 2 tsp CaSO4, 12.5 ppm NO3, 0.6 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 27.5:3.3 = 8.3

Notes:
The new leaves of the stargrass were small and pale. Added some CaSO4. There was more pearling today.

The fry are still not free swimming yet, though their eyes are developing more. Assuming they begin to turn free swimming, I'll start hatching the brine shrimp, using a couple 2L soda bottles and a air pump as a hatchery.

More fry pics

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 20 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
I'm slowly going to try to step down on the Excel. This week, I will reduce the daily dosage from 5x to 4x overdose. There is not too much algae in the tank right now.

You can see the breeding net cage in the tank. Since the fry are still not swimming free, I just put them in a cup in the beeding net so I can easily lift them out of the tank for closer inspection.

A picture of a clump of fry all wriggling and sticking together. Today, their eyes have developed. Tomorrow, some of them should start swimming free.

A closeup of one of the fry. The yolk sack is shrinking steadily as the fry develops. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but if you look closely, you can even make out the vertebrae.

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: almost 0
• PO4: 1.5
• Iron:
• Dosing: Before water change: 5 mL Flourish, 25 mL Excel. After water change: 25 mL Excel, 1 tsp MgSO4, 15 ppm NO3, 1.2 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:2.7 = 5.6

Notes:
50% water change:
25 mL Amquel+
25 mL Excel
1 tsp MgSO4
2.5 tsp baking soda

The rest of the eggs on the leaf are dead, but most of the fry in the breeding cage are still alive and kicking. While doing the water change, held the fry in a cup out of tank. Pruned out almost half of the A. reineckii and put in some stargrass filler instead. Cleaned out both filters. The Eheim cannister filter hadn't been cleaned in several months, it was very gunked up.

The harlequin rasbora that had the cloudy patch on its side is looking worse. It's scales are all raised, and it's breathing quickly. The Melafix seemed to slow down whatever is wrong with the fish, but as soon as it is stopped, the fish again gets sicker. This fish looks to have the same problem as the previous rasbora who died a couple months ago. This fish will probably need to be euthanized soon as well...

Fry tails!

• pH:
• Temp: 84
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 7.5
• PO4: 2.5
• Iron:
• Dosing: 25 mL Excel, 5 ppm NO3
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 37.5:3.6 = 10.4

Notes:
In the morning, when I removed the filter bag covering the angelfish eggs, there was a bit of fungus on the eggs, which the mother angelfish promptly cleaned. There's currently a heat wave in my area, so the tank is pretty warm, about 84 degrees. I think because it's been so warm, by the afternoon, I could already see tails of the angelfish fry wriggling out of some of the eggs. I noticed that some of the eggs were moved to another small leaf. The angelfish kept picking at the leaf, and when the eggs would come loose, they would mouth the eggs and try to redeposit them. The leaf was too small to hold the eggs, so the eggs would fall off again. They kept doing this over and over again, until I decided to remove those eggs. I moved those eggs on the small leaf to the breeding cage to see if they would survive without the care of the fish, but I left the other eggs on the sword leaf with the parents.

A bit more Mg

• pH:
• Temp: 80
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 25 mL Excel, 0.25 tsp MgSO4, 0.5 tsp CaSO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
I added a bit of Mg and Ca since I saw that a couple of the reineckii leaves were turning transparent.

At night, I covered the sword leaf hosting the angelfish eggs with a filter media holder bag, to make sure no one ate the eggs overnight.

Iron chelate and white leaves/wrinkling?

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 5
• PO4: 1.75
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 10 ppm NO3, 0.8 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 32.5:3.6 = 9

Notes:
I noticed that suddenly today, the stargrass had new growth that was white, and that some of the new leaves of the A. senegalensis have curled/wrinkled a bit. It seems that a lot of the iron chelate (1 ppm yesterday) causes these symptoms. Could there be some reaction with the iron chelate and Calcium? Interesting.

The angelfish have already spawned again this afternoon. Since the eggs always seem to disappear after two days, tomorrow night, I'll probably try to cover the leaf with netting at night to prevent whatever fish from eating the eggs.

Increased iron, increased pearling

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 1 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
Increased the iron, and noted that there was a lot more pearling today, probably because of the iron. Although it's always nice to see pearling, I'm not sure if that is actually any indicator of plant health or increased growth.

A few black patches are visible on the leaves of the stargrass.

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH: 11
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 7.5
• PO4: 1.5
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 mL Flourish, 0.25 iron chelate, 25 mL Melafix, 25 mL Excel, 7.5 ppm NO3, 1 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 22.5:2.8 = 8

Notes:

More shrimp sightings

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Melafix, 25 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
3 shrimps sighted today, the most at any one time. They all look male. For some reason, they seemed pretty active today.


That Excel really is a miracle, almost all the algae is gone from the tank, except for some tough mowed down black staghorn remnants on the anubias and reineckii leaves. The 5x Excel overdose doesn't seem to be harming whatever shrimp I can see. The algae disappearance has reached the point where I'm actually worried over whether the algae eating fish and shrimp will have enough to eat, something I never thought I'd have to worry about!



Last week, I had drained the water before wiping off the green dust algae from the tank to see if that helped reduce the algae population. The green dust grew back on the tank walls at the same rate as just wiping it off under water, so it made no difference.

Ludwigia palustris

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 15 ppm NO3, 1.8 ppm PO4, 1 tsp Equilibrium, 1.25 tsp MgSO4, 3 tsp CaCl2, 50 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:1.8 = 8.3

Notes:
65-70% water change:
25 mL Amquel+
3.5 tsp baking soda
50 mL Excel
1 tsp Equilibrium
1.25 tsp MgSO4

Someone ate all the angelfish eggs last night.

Added the CaCl2 after lights out. Last week, mixing in some of the CaSO4 with the CaCl2 didn't seem to make much of a difference in plant growth. A shrimp sighted today (almost sucking it up while siphoning out the water).

I traded in the two Kleiner Bar sword plantlets and some stargrass prunings for some Ludwigia palustris at an LFS. I was confused and thought that I was getting some Ludwigia peruensis, I'm not very good at remembering names... The leaves on the palustris look narrower than what I've seen in pictures on the Internet.

Returning to the tank after 2 days, ostracods?

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH: 14
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 7.5
• PO4: 2
• Iron:
• Dosing: 0.5 iron chelate, 25 mL Melafix, 2.5 ppm NO3
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 40:4.55 = 8.8

Notes:
I was away from the tank for 2 days. When I came back, the angelfish had laid eggs again. The angelfish were very aggressive towards each other, constantly biting and chasing each other. The female had damage around its mouth area and some loose scales on her body. To be safe, I will probably avoid dosing Excel for a day or two to see if there is any progress on the eggs. Until I see if the eggs survive or not, that means I also can't do my usual weekly water change. Since I hadn't been dosing Excel for the past two days, I could see some thread algae growing. An anubias flower also bloomed. For whatever reason, the hairgrass is still continuing to yellow slowly. The stargrass is growing normally, but its leaves are smaller than they were last week.

Those little water bugs also seem to be multiplying. They are swimming in the tank now. None of the fish seem interested in eating them. The harlequin rasboras will mouth them and spit them back out. I noticed that whenever I pour the Melafix into the tank, it gets sucked up into the AquaClear filter and kills some of the bugs in the filter, and the dead bugs then get poured out of the filter output.

These bugs might be ostracods, according to others on the forums. I had noticed that the side root hairs on the java fern roots had seem to have gone, leaving only the bare root stems, and I was puzzled as to what happened to them. One of the L. hippuroides plants also seems to have damage on its leaves that I don't think is due to a nutrient deficiency. It might be damage caused by these bugs.

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 25 mL Melafix
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 2
• PO4: 2.0
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 15 ppm NO3, 1 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 37.5:4.55 = 8.2

Notes:

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 10 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 25 mL Melafix
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:

Adding CaSO4

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 25 mL Melafix, 2 tsp CaSO4, 7.5 ppm NO3, 1 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 22.5:3.55 = 6.3

Notes:
I got my calcium sulfate today and added 2 tsp. into the tank, about an additonal 9 ppm. I want to see if CaSO4 makes any difference versus the CaCl2. The CaSO4 dissolves a lot more slowly (hours) than the CaCl2 (minutes).

Potassium or magnesium deficiency

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.5 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 25 mL Melafix
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
I can see over the past week or two that there are yellowing glosso leaves with pinholes developing. Same for the L. repens. Potassium or magnesium shortage?

Upping initial potassium

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 0
• PO4: 0.75
• Iron:
• Dosing: 1 tsp Equilibrium, 1.25 tsp MgSO4, 2.5 tsp CaCl2, 50 mL Excel, 15 ppm NO3, 1.8 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:2.55 = 5.9

Notes:
65-70% water change:
1 tsp Equilibrium
1.25 tsp MgSO4
30 mL Amquel+
50 mL Excel
25 mL Melafix
3.5 tsp baking soda

Cleaned out AquaClear filter. Before siphoning out the water, I cleaned the lower half of the tank of the green dust algae. Then after draining the water, I cleaned the algae off the top half of the tank, above the water, in an attempt to see if this will reduce the levels of the green dust algae. I dosed the 2.5 tsp CaCl2 the next morning.

The Limnophila hippuroides has been growing in nice and big, as well as the stargrass. I dosed a tsp of Equilibrium in order to up the initial potassium a bit (+5 ppm, not including potassium from KNO3), since the stargrass was initially getting some black patches at the beginning of last week. Since I'm changing out more than half the water (close to 70%), I'm guessing that the potassium levels are too low immediately after the water change.

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 0.5 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 25 mL Melafix (same as yesterday)
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
A bit of thread algae growing.

Plant growth observations

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 7.5
• PO4: 2
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 25 mL Melafix, 5 ppm NO3, 0.6 PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 30:3.8 = 7.9

Notes:
As in last week, plants are not pearling so much this week. Over the past several weeks, the glosso, although growing, is often turning yellow for some reason. The Rotala indica is still growing mostly stunted, and is sprouting off many side shoots, while the main stem grows sideways, or even downwards. The L. repens is also sprouting many side shoots. The stargrass is not growing quite as large as last week, though it is growing all right.

Plants less red this week

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH: 15 (AP test kit)
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 30 mL Melafix, 0.5 tsp MgSO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
The Rotala indica and Ammania plants are noticeably less red this week. It seems that either the extra calcium or perhaps just increase in general hardness may affect the coloration somehow. Perhaps all the Cl- ions being added from the CaCl2 are negatively affecting the plants? Or perhaps the extra Ca/hardness is affecting uptake of some other element(s) that would help with the coloration. You can see on the picture to the left that I've never been able to get the L. repens very red. Another difference last week is that I did not dose iron chelate last week till just before the water change, so that might have been a factor, though I am only dosing half of the usual daily dose (0.25 ppm iron versus 0.5 ppm).

A few of leaves of the A. reineckii have been turning transparent, a few stalks of the hairgrass has been turning yellow, some of the leaves of the stargrass are developing some black patches, and there are some transparent patches on the H. micranthemoides leaves. The reineckii leaves turn transparent when it seems that there is not enough magnesium. Even though I've added 1.5 tsp Mg this week, I added another 0.5 tsp today. The algae levels have greatly decreased, more than last week. Perhaps whatever the slight deficiency is showing in these plants is also helping to reduce the algae levels beyond the effects of Excel.

One of the harlequin rasboras seems to have a slightly cloudy patch on its side, so to be safe, I dosed some Melafix.

Dosing ratio of 8

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3: 5
• PO4: 1.25
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel, 10 ppm NO3, 1.4 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 25:3.2 = 7.8

Notes:
I want to keep the ratio of nitrates to phosphates dosing around 8 this week (usually around 9-10) to see if that encourages larger leaf growth. This means more phosphates, and dosing it to levels of greater than 2 ppm.

There's been slightly more pearling so far this week than last week, though not as much as I've had in the past. The increased pearling seems to be due to either increased calcium and/or increased iron. My guess is that the pearling is due to the iron.

The algae levels have decreased even more this week, so far. The hairgrass is almost completely clean, something which I've never been able to do without the Excel.

Before and after Excel

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH: 5
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 0.25 ppm iron chelate, 25 mL Excel
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio:

Notes:
You can tell the difference that Excel makes algae in the before and after pictures. You can click on the pictures to see the full sized details:


Just before starting Excel. Notice all the algae caught up in the hairgrass.

After using Excel for about 2 weeks. The hairgrass is almost completely clean. The algae is gone from the Kleiner Bar sword. Everything looks much brighter because the algae is no longer covering the leaves. About 75% of the algae is gone, so far.

Adding CaCl2 later

• pH:
• Temp:
• KH:
• GH:
• NH4:
• NO2:
• NO3:
• PO4:
• Iron:
• Dosing: 50 mL Excel, 1.5 tsp MgSO4, 6 tsp CaCl2, 15 ppm NO3, 1.8 ppm PO4
• NO3:PO4 Cumulative Dosing Ratio: 15:1.8 = 8.3

Notes:
65-70% water change:
30 mL Amquel+
1.5 tsp MgSO4 (epsom salts)
6 tsp CaCl2
3.5 tsp baking soda

Pruned away a large part of the nice, large stargrass.

I dosed everything except the CaCl2 immediately after the water change. I dosed the CaCl2 later at night to see if that would help avoid any chemical interactions that might have been occurring otherwise.

Cleaned out the AquaClear filter. I noticed that there were all these little (<1 mm) bug like things shaped like ovals or almonds swimming around in the water that came from the dirty filter sponge. I have no idea what they are.