more adjustments

Winter is dull. Nothing going on with any plants- except those in the aquarium, so here's what. I have some foliage going dull and dark on watersprite, some algae on apono leaves, rotala turning yellow on the base of stems and smudges of algae upper leaves. I think it's because I kicked so much mulm into the water column last week; the nitrates were too high- 60ppm at the end of the week. I adjusted the ferts- gave just a little bit of KN03 (less than a smidgen), 1/8 tsp K2S04 and 1/32 tsp KH2P04. I received a lot of advice on fish forum when I first posted my confusion with dosing dry ferts- several different approaches were recommended and now I'm trying another one (dose full on macros and micros, but substitute K2S04 for the KN03- giving little to none of that- as I've already got nitrates in the tank obviously).

I moved a few more plants- put all the rotala stems in the back of the tank, moved one smaller aponogeton forwards. I had sponge filter running high while I was moving plants around, and the fishes did not react much at all- were swimming around curiously when I added in new water, I even received happy kuhli dance up and down the sides!

Then I noticed the apono was too far forwards, so I nudged it back a little bit- kicking up a bit more stuff from substrate. Not enough to see, but the fishes slowed, sat still in the water with their noses down for a while. So answered my own question about why the fishes sometimes look stunned when I do maintenance. I'm guessing I also got some algae because of extra nitrates in the water... must be more careful when moving things about. Still have two or three stages to go, before I get everything rearranged the way I want it. (That female bottom right of the pic is either a dominant fish hogging food, or holding eggs- look how fat)

I also pulled up the smaller watersprite plants, leaving just the three largest rooted. But did not throw the smaller away- trimmed off dying leaves and let the good parts of the plants float. So they can continue to take up nutrients and help my tank. It looks more spacious in there, now.

This apono was in the back corner, I think its leaves always pulled down by the sponge filter. Maybe they can straighten out again- or at least new growth will.