aquatic plant update: main

Current appearance- I'm still getting used to it.

The fishes are too. I think they really miss the shelter those broad apono crispus leaves provided. They're a lot more skittish nowadays, often in a group and fleeing to the other side of the tank when I walk by. I'm hoping to fill it in with more hygro cuttings and apono capuronii, but it's taking time to grow-

I started cutting off capuronii leaves that were too tall on the mature plant, so that one is thinned out now as well. Don't like when they bend and droop over from the surface.

I lost one of the capuronii bulbs. The smaller one, that needed to be weighed down with stones. It simply got eaten into a hollow nothing by shrimps and snails, and then disintegrated. No roots.

The other however looks quite healthy, has two crowns, and is starting to take off-

here's a pic two weeks later. It's putting down roots now as well.

I moved a few plants around week before last. All the bacopa stems out of the corner- some are here in front of the apono capuronii bulbs. Also lined up the smaller anubias 'petite' across the back wall.

And I shifted all the tall fronds of bolbitis to the far right.

From the side the fronds kind of blend with narrower leaves of apono behind them.

A week later- You can see some of the fronds have grown out thicker, and there's more root mass below- which is great because I also moved the stones with 'windelov' java fern to sit between the bolbitis rhizomes and the rest of the tank at left. Hard to see the windelov because they're now behind the crypt thicket and leaf litter patch- but they kind of blockade the bolbitis into the corner.

Now it's fairly easy to favor the kuhlis- I just distract the tetras and drop sinking food into this corner. It's hard for the tetras to get through the stiff bolbitis stems, horizontal rhizomes and tangle of root threads, so it gives the kuhlis time to eat below. There's now some little fiddleheads coming up-

My crypts are pretty happy. I've found new baby plants coming off runners on either side. Had to take out some of the vallisneria behind them- runners of vals were extending into the foreground. Clipped them off and moved into the window tank (where of all plants, vals seem happiest).

But my favorite area of this tank right now is the driftwood covered in short bolbitis.

It looks nicer from above, to see the pattern of fronds.

Here's that entire short end- but I took this picture when still had a sick fish in the fry box.

Something different is going on in here lately. There was a week where I skipped doing ferts, and the plants looked fine. Healthier, even. I skipped in part because the nitrates were high. But the plants looked so good at the end of that week that I went lean another week- did a smaller wc (about 30% instead of 50%) and instead of dosing dry ferts, I just added some root tabs. Another week like this, and the plants still looked good- and there were still high nitrates. Which kind of puzzled me, because I hadn't added any KN03. Maybe it was the decaying apono bulb? or stuff from the root tabs that escaped into water column. I watched the levels. Next time I did the 30% wc again, and put in a few more root tabs just around the stems that looked kinda peaky- hygros, bacopa, and some of the crypt balansae. That's when vallisneria runners shot out from the background, and my crypt parva or willisii seems to be spreading too.

I decided to take a chance and try something new. I have this little bottle of Aquafertz root tabs I got once when ordering plants. Also got their long-handled applicator tool. This is the first time I've used the fertilizer tabs. I have actually put the tool to use just to nudge a leaf aside or poke something on bottom of the tank- because it reaches. But got frustrated trying to place the root tabs with it. No matter how I positioned it, the tab would not release off the applicator end and stay in the substrate. I ended up just using the regular long tweezers. Easier than the API tabs- these are smaller. I read the details of Aquafertz on the site- it's supposed to be used in conjunction with a substrate the company also makes- which is "a fired fractured clay substrate " that holds the ferts in for slow release. I wonder if the fired montmorillonite clay I used can work the same? So, I'm giving it a try. So far, so good. It's been another week, the plants all look the same. Hygros are growing a bit faster (I will have to trim very soon, they have nearly hit the surface for first time), nothing is slowing down or yellowing...

Side note: hydrocotyle is still in this tiny pot. I think it grew three new leaves. But I don't know if I want to keep it like this much longer. It does poorly when I forget to water it every day.