Parameters, Fertilization, odds and ends and some pics
My water parameters are 22 dGH and 23 dKH (test kit tolerances unknown), pH 7.8.
Temperature will be in the 77F to 79F range... right now it sits at 77.7F
Lighting provided by the Marineland Double Bright LED 24" array with 12hours of light per day.
Fish feeding is minimal.
Tank is a 37 gallon high, 30"L x 12"W x 22"H
Plant list as per OP.
Cleaned playsand substrate ranging from 3/4" up front to 3" in back
Mopani and Malaysian drfitwoods, some stones.
The overall picture is pre large water change, the floating matt is post water change plus a couple of days and the individual plant is the one that I call "oregano" for lack of taking the 2 minutes it would take to actually ID it properly, maybe you guys can tell me and save me the effort :roll: That oregano has grown nearly two inches since planting... I'm a little surprised. I added a slightly better contrast sword shot here as I cannot edit my original sword post now.
I plan on cutting the water with reverse osmosis water during water changes, I added 5 gallons at the last change but have not retested since... due today now that additional fish have been in for over 24 hours. I'd like to bring the KH and GH below 20 degrees which may reduce the pH to the mid to low 7's. While the GH and KH are predictable, I'm not certain how the pH is going to respond to my RO addition.
I planted all the plants as I thought they should be planted, I'll address each one separately later, then added a half a capful of Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive. It's been the most mentioned aquarium fertilizer here so, I figured why mess with what is reported to work?
It seems to have a decently comprehensive list of nutrients, I suppose it should, given the name.
I have added this three times since setting up the tank and cannot say that I noticed anything happening... not that I should expect to I suppose. Most of the plants, with one exception, honestly didn't look terribly healthy. I was looking forward to getting some fish in place to generate some much needed ammonia (nitrogen source) as I thought that might be the largest factor in the plants apparent flagging.
I should change that, I did notice a growth appearing on the mopani drift wood that is not an algae, probably some sort of fungus. It was not easy to dislodge but the new tiger snails seem to enjoy eating it... so I've left it alone. It stopped growing following the water change, I think I can attribute it's reduced progress to not fertilizing. If the snails don't clean it up completely I may scrub it off with a tooth brush and remove it with the next water change.
During the last water change (75% or better) I pulled all plants that didn't look to be doing their best and left them to float. I also did some pruning, but I'll address that individually as each plant seemed to need something different done to it.
Since adding the fish and playing gardener everything seems to be doing better, except the fungus or whatever it really is. I have a matt of plants sitting on the surface and they all seem to be doing fine up there. The red ludwigia has some new growth at the ends, which surprised me a little.
I have not added any fertilizer since the last water change. I am not going to add any more pending seeing a reduction in the plant vitality... I'm not a fan of adding anything for the sake of adding it. I think that it would be very easy for me to over fertilize as my water has a lot of mineral content right from the tap. I know some have water that NEEDS these nutrients added so this is probably not typical.
Jeff.