Update here...
My ADA 120-P tank was suffering, plants did not look that good, had recurring bouts of BGA, so I posted about a month and a half ago asking for help.
Got generous advice from Tom, Gerryd.
Tried my best to follow it - and, WOW.
I'll try and post a few images later. In the meantime, I'm a pretty happy camper - after reading hundreds, maybe a thousand or more posts, and trying my best to follow what Tom, Gerry and masters have been saying for quite some time, I believe I have a better grasp of the whole tank x light x plants x fish x substrate x CO2 x ferts interactions.
I planted the tank way more heavily, moved the lights up, added tons of gentle water movement (2 hydors), added a school of black neon tetra, have been toping the tank with distilled water and adding a fraction of EI per week (KNO3, Phosphate, Tropica Plant Nutrition; feeding the fish generously, and
wow. 5-6 weeks have gone by, no algal blooms, no BGA, I haven't even had the need for vacuuming the substrate, and my Anubias(es), Crypts, Ferns, Apos, etc are very happy, and sprouting beautiful green leaves - one at a time, slowly as Tom mentions, but surely. The fish seem extremely happy. My 5 clown loaches are happier than ever. I am quite proud of my tank, its been nicer than ever.
All this is because of your advice guys, Tom, Gerryd and the other gurus.
I am learning!
And my advice to others: do try to understand and follow the suggestions carefully.
I even followed Tom's advice to create calibrated nitrate solutions. Result: wow, test kits of course do vary wildly - but within one batch you now know what a certain test kit result (color in LaMotte, values in others) really means.
Don't throw away the kits - but do what Tom says.
Many many thanks!
mike
My ADA 120-P tank was suffering, plants did not look that good, had recurring bouts of BGA, so I posted about a month and a half ago asking for help.
Got generous advice from Tom, Gerryd.
Tried my best to follow it - and, WOW.
I'll try and post a few images later. In the meantime, I'm a pretty happy camper - after reading hundreds, maybe a thousand or more posts, and trying my best to follow what Tom, Gerry and masters have been saying for quite some time, I believe I have a better grasp of the whole tank x light x plants x fish x substrate x CO2 x ferts interactions.
I planted the tank way more heavily, moved the lights up, added tons of gentle water movement (2 hydors), added a school of black neon tetra, have been toping the tank with distilled water and adding a fraction of EI per week (KNO3, Phosphate, Tropica Plant Nutrition; feeding the fish generously, and
wow. 5-6 weeks have gone by, no algal blooms, no BGA, I haven't even had the need for vacuuming the substrate, and my Anubias(es), Crypts, Ferns, Apos, etc are very happy, and sprouting beautiful green leaves - one at a time, slowly as Tom mentions, but surely. The fish seem extremely happy. My 5 clown loaches are happier than ever. I am quite proud of my tank, its been nicer than ever.
All this is because of your advice guys, Tom, Gerryd and the other gurus.
I am learning!
And my advice to others: do try to understand and follow the suggestions carefully.
I even followed Tom's advice to create calibrated nitrate solutions. Result: wow, test kits of course do vary wildly - but within one batch you now know what a certain test kit result (color in LaMotte, values in others) really means.
Don't throw away the kits - but do what Tom says.
Many many thanks!
mike