thirty-eight report

Unlike last week, this time around I did a lot of trimming and replanting tops. Trying to discard all the foliage in the tank that's turning black or scummy with algae. But to my surprise when I rubbed the crypt leaves they don't feel slimy or weak at all, and the glass was very clear- no need to clean the inside surface. Wiped it down with algae scrubber pad anyway just to see, and didn't come up with any GSA at all. So maybe I'm getting close to balance. I took all this out:

A few dying leaves off aponogentons and windelov fern, and older leaves from (what I think is) crypt parva, with the longer stems. Cut most of the floating hornwort in half and discarded the ends that were browning with algae- only kept the fresh green ends.

Trimmed at base and replanted tops for some elodea (which had almost hit the surface) and most of alternanthera reineckii hygro compacta, rotala indica and a few ludwigia stems. Discarding all the lower halves which were blackening. But I found fresh new growth at the base of some, so I think the plants were recovering. I could have done this to bacopa as well, but it wasn't in such bad a state so I left those alone for now. There was only a little bit of thread algae to pull off the rotala, elodea and hornwort.
I was thrilled to find another good sign: more new emerging shoots on the buces! 'Emerald green' has finished unfolding its leaf.

'Midnight blue' is a bit slower at that- still just a nubbin of green. To my delight, 'dark godzilla' also was unfurling a new leaf. This one seems to have black beard algae on the edges of its older leaves, but I am so loathe to trim buce leaves for some reason. I took off a few of the worst ones, don't want to do more until it has a least a few healthy leaves unfolded. Several of the buces I can see new white roots going down to grip on things, too. Cheers!

Honestly I have been feeling anxious about the tank all week, thinking it was in the pits. But now things are definitely looking up. I did not have to take any dying leaves off the crypt wendtii this week. Behind them here you can see how thin rotalas are looking since I cut most of their heads off and replanted to get rid of all the dying lower growth.

I was also happily surprised to see the downoi appear to be sprouting new leaves lower on the stem. Didn't expect that really.

In the background here you can see even my crypts in pots are growing- one has roots coming out the side.

I did not touch the photoperiod this week. Nitrates tested at 20-30ppm. I do think it's the amount of KN03 dosage that I need to tinker with now. Unfortunately I didn't make a note last week how much given. I'm still doing the adjusted dose; recommended was to give half the normal dose of KN03 or even less, down to nil. I suspect last week I skipped it entirely, but not sure. This time I dosed 1/16 and I'm keeping track on a piece of paper, what the nitrates are at each week, what I dose and how the plants (and algae) respond following. So I can see which way keeps the tank sparkling clear. It all looks kind of empty now because I cut so much down to get the bad leaves out, but most of the plants in there are clean now. I was itching to move a few- if the crypt parva stays small in size, I'd rather have it more in front... but don't want to disrupt things more.

And- I killed the BBA off the sponge filter! The top half was so nice and clean this friday. Promptly gave the lower half the same treatment- microwaved for three minutes. It seemed already less on this half, maybe dying off because of the improvements. I've also decided to keep the corner sponge filter running, but with lower flow, just enough to rock that corner. Saw that when the airline was off at night, the fishes were hanging out near surface in the morning- dipping up now and then- probably to get oxygen. So I guess not a good idea on this tank to have it on/off. I didn't want it so high the bubbles look annoying though, and keeping it a gentle flow seems enough to keep things even.

Oh, and just for fun you can barely see on that last photo- I tied a bit of subwassertang on the elbow of the filter intake pipe. It was a nice sized bit that came loose when I ran the siphon over the plant, so I tied it there just to see if it will take hold.