tank notes and trimming watersprite

I have not made mention of the aquariums in a while because it's been a bit frustrating again. Had an overnight filter failure on my main aquarium, fish came down with fungus and tail rot, then I was away for a week, lost two, still treating three others.

Good notes: all the tanks (QT included) have good water parameters now. The main one nitrates are at an even 20-30 ppm. The tenner looks better (I adjusted the light)- I keep thinking I've got algae on anubias, but it turns out the brown debris that settles is just snail poo. A few times a week if it's bothering me to look at, I siphon it off with a straw. The filter has a gentle current and Oliver doesn't hustle about disturbing things, so it just sits there. I think this is something I'll probably just always have to deal with in this tank.

Java ferns seem to be slowly coming back- there are finally new baby leaves on the two smaller plants. The bigger one, its oldest leaves are still turning blotchy and I expect they'll die off eventually, but two more recently grown out look good and are holding their green (hard to get a good angle on them w/the camera though).

Three cherry barb in QT are hanging in there. I've switched their treatment, but there's notes upcoming on all that... In the 20gal plants are still doing well- I don't have a lot of java fern growth, but the rate of dying leaves has slowed way down. Crypts have a few older leaves to cut off, the aponos as well. Rotala has grown so tall across the back half of the stems trail across the water surface now. And watersprite is growing like a weed. With the nitrates being lower this week, I took a chance and moved one watersprite into a back corner. It did cloud up the tank for a while, but the fish don't seem to mind- in fact the barbs were playing in current after water change again (maybe it's because I've started putting a little extra prime in- 5 drops per 4 gal). They did this last week too. It's fun to see.

So- the watersprite! This stuff grows like crazy. It's great if you need a plant to fill in or take up nitrates, but I find I have to trim it at least every other week. I like doing this but some people find it a pain. Maybe later on I won't be so keen on this plant anymore.

Here's what I've observed about this plant. I like the way it looks growing out of the substrate. But it doesn't hold on well. I have to peg mine down. When it reaches the water surface, if I don't want it to trail across and shade other stuff, I just cut it back however far, snipping the stem right above another leaf junction. At the same time, baby plants are growing piggy-back style on the main plant. They start as little bumps where a secondary stem meets the main one (there's one just above tip of my finger here)-

then the small plant will unfurl and root hairs grow down. When the roots start growing, you can gently break the baby plant off. Here you can see a stem I've cut on the right, a baby plant in center:

But I don't usually do that. I've noticed when the baby plants start growing, that same main stem will begin turning brown down at the base. And the foliage above the baby plant starts to get brown tips as well. So I usually cut the stem off below the baby plant, trim off the browning foliage, and let it float free to keep growing. Baby plant cut free:

after the dying stuff removed- you can see it still has more leaves getting ready to unfold

Here's another one, just below my finger-

and this is it after I removed some dying stuff (camera wouldn't focus on the planlet on my palm, but it does have two white root hairs)

Usually on my floating plants the original "mother-plant" leaves start to decay after a week or so, but the new growth from the plantlet will keep going (say hi, Pinkie!):

While I'm taking tops of stems with baby plants off, I also cut out the main stems when they go brown at the base:

This doesn't stop the plant from looking full, as it's always sending up new stems- they unfold like fern fiddleheads. Here's a young stem on the right- both plants have a new stem coming up at the base, like a green lump just now:

I don't know if everyone's watersprite behaves this way- I've seen pictures of a big one with baby plants with their roots all over it, and the main part of the plant was green all the way down. (Take a look- this is where I learned how to manage watersprite). So maybe mine just doesn't have enough nutrients or light to keep everything going at once. I think if I just let them alone, the stems would eventually decay and break off the main plant, the older leaves disintegrate from the top, and the new plant would continue. But I've never actually let it do that, because I don't like seeing so much dead plant material around in my tank.