hornwort

This stuff had an immediate effect.

Overnight my nitrates dropped by 20-25 ppm. In a day and a half the green algae has complete disappeared from the glass. I did a small water change (10 gal) because noticed that one male and two female barbs have pale, scraped-looking patches on their bodies. The smaller female with these marks is also the skinniest right now, and was chased the most by the males during a spawning frenzy when I first introduced the new plant. I've never seen them so active. Squirming into the densest parts of the plants. I'm not sure if the marks on them are from scuffling with each other, or if some pathogen came in on the plant. So I fed them garlic and did the water change. Keeping a close eye. The smallest female had slightly clamped fins yesterday, today she looks a bit better. I've found it's easy to spot these marks after dark with the moonlight on the pale patches shine in the dark. I don't think it's fungus...

Also saw that right after putting in the hornwort, most of the other plants seemed to pick up growth, algae began to shed off some, but some of the watersprite had gone pale and rotala looking dismal. Yellowish, brown, curling. I've seen these symptoms before- starving plant. I bet the hornwort took up too much nutrients. With the small water change I dosed a few finger pinches of the dry fert (relative proportions to each other) and a fourth-dose of micros, and this morning see some improvement.

If the hornwort is that effective, it could well starve out my algae-eating snails! I've already sold half the lot- all the floating stems that were crowding up the tank. This stuff grows fast, too. Some of those stems I weighed down with rocks are hitting the water surface in just a few days' time. It worked a lot easier to do that when I got some larger-sized river pebbles (from the pet store).

And- I have two more fish. Female cherry barb. In the little QT tank with some floating hornwort stems and the sponge filter. They look alert but haven't seemed interested in eating yet, and chased each other madly all over for the first day. This morning one was under decor, other in the hornwort, I guess they sorted out a little pecking order. They'd be more comfortable in the big tank, but want to make sure whatever is ailing the established fishes cleared up, and that nothing is afflicting these two. They are bloated looking- square fat stomachs. I thought overfed and am fasting them for a few days, will offer peas. If they are just egg-bound hopefully meeting my four red males will cure that.