Re: I'm starting to lose the battle
I would not mess with the sub.
You live near the Vac Aquarium society and Seattle's group, there are quite a few folks in that area that keep plants.
Might be worth it to go to a meeting there.
The plants are cheap to free.
The tank does not look particularly problematic.
You just need to keep adding good CO2, dosing the nutrients like I suggest and make sure your KH/GH are stable.
Your tap water is likely extremely soft, treat it like RO water.
Variations in KH will cause havoc with the CO2, GH are both plant nutrients also.
Light can be reduced also, 2-3w/gal is plenty for any plant.
So just check the KH/GH good, keep after the nutrients, the tank shoould balance out, power through with the CO2/Nutrients and back off the light some.
Weekly, even 2x a week water changes will re set the tank well.
Blackout if you absolutely need to.
Those are easy to prune stem plants, so work each group carefully and pick and clean them well before returning and replanting.
You can do this, don't be a quitter unless is drugs or cig's.
I'll keep adjusting advice to see if you can get results, at this point it's likely something you might be overlooking or perhaps expectations etc.
Just don't give up just yet.
It'll fall into place if you keep after this and check and re check things, you are basically learning right now and will know later when or if it happens to you, but things will go much easier later once you get the tank to do what you want.
It'll happen, be patient.
Regards,
Tom Barr