few notes

I realized the ferts I'm using for my tenner is a standard all-in-one, formulated for shrimp (which seems to just leave out copper). The same company makes another version specifically for low-tech tanks. Although this bottle has instructions on the back how much to dose for low-tech, I wondered if I it was too much. Maybe I should dose a bit less, even up to half the recommended amount? or do lighter water changes, instead of the 50% it's had for a long time? Making a conservative change, last week I dosed 3.5 ml of the ferts, whereas the usual was 4 ml. And what do you know- I think the plants look subtly improved at the end of the week- leaves on buce isabella are wider, richer in color, upper foliage on the rotala stems greener and some even have a tint of red. Today I did the same- fifty percent wc and then 3.5 ml of ferts dose. Short while later I saw some leaves on windelov pearling. The plant that's been doing shabby a while now. I'm going to keep with this for a few more weeks, maybe cut back another half ml, see how it goes. Pleased to think my windelov might not die after all!

Some more plants came loose in my 45 again, from where they were tied down- one of the smaller anubias, two buce 'brownie ghost', a buce 'green wavy', a vallisneria uprooted. I'll have a bit of replanting tying to do again on maint day- which stresses out the angel. He's very chill now when I walk in the hall or move around the tank, but doing work inside the tank or lifting up driftwood pieces still freaks him out.

The four new tetras still look great in QT. I can't wait to move them in and finally take down that extra tank.

Window tank is- a bit murky. Paradise fishes look better- I'm still feeding them lightly. Tank glass got a lot more soft brown algae this week- not sure why. Maybe because I fed Perry and Lady several red wigglers that showed up from my boston fern? I have the pot on old pot shards over tray of water, and mist it every other day, but not actually watering the soil much. Some worms began emerging out of the dry soil and swimming around in the tray- seeking moisture. I rinsed them off and gave to the paradise fishes, but neglected to 'clean' the worms out- I used to keep them overnight in a container so they'd void a lot first. I didn't this time, and perhaps it added too much organics to the tank- paradise fishes seem fine but there is definitely more algae, water looks a bit tinted, and some film on the surface. Cleaned the glass today, rubbed some algae off leaves. I did feed them worms two or three times- one each- so . . . oops.