trimmings

Yesterday with water change I trimmed out a lot of watersprite- cut dying bits out of the thicket (light blocked by its own upper leaves), trimmed floating cuttings of their original foliage- leaving the new baby plants sprouting roots from stem junctions. Removed about half the mass of floating plants.

Also cut out a few older crypt leaves and one browning apono leaf- I worried a moment for the apono, then realized I'd accidentally damaged that stem last week. Cut off the flower stalk too- it was over a foot long! See following post.

My nicest apono, that made a flower, has some brown patches on leaves. I think it's burns from the heater. Planning to rearrange the plants some, bringing the aponos forward and moving rotala to the background.

I like the new glass cover. Even if it doesn't let more light in (hard to tell) I can look down in through the top (which is fun sometimes) and I'm loosing a lot less to evaporation now.

I now dose macros first, then the micros after a gap of about five or ten minutes. In case it helps the plants absorb more iron.

Another difference- the pH is finally lower! I saw that Pinkie's pectoral fins are no longer curled so out of curiosity tested it. The pH in the smaller tank is still 8.0, but the 20gal it reads 7.6 with the regular test regeant, 7.4 if I use the higher-range one. That's a lot better than the 8.0-8.2 it used to be at! What made the difference? Organics building up, driftwood slowly releasing tannins, something about having more live plants? Whatever it was, I hope it remains stable here.