Alvin Koh's Journal: 90x45x45cm Planted

[EvolutionZ]

Originally Posted by zonkkie

Haha... i don't like Amanos. Evoz - I thought you were using Malayans?

oh well.. those malayans i bought turns out to be wild cherries.. some were even sakura-red.. paid the price of malayans only.

[rodders]

Originally Posted by Alvin Koh

Hey Rodney! :P I didn't know you were into fishes & long time no see

Just started a while ago. It's more for my son actually so am here to see and learn more stuff. Will catch you at one of the meetups. Cheers.

[Alvin Koh]

Week 9-10 (3 April 2011)

It's been 2 weeks since the filling up of the tank and the tank is not doing too well. Majority of the UG is showing signs of melting/browning. I've added 2 schools of fish into the tank during this period. I will show some contrasts between the progress of the UG from week 9 to 10.

The tank lighting remains at 39w x 2 and the CO2 injection at about 3-5bps. Dosing of macros/micros are on alternate days.


Week 9 - Utricularia Graminifolia

Upon filling up, the leaves of the UG begin to float/erect upwards and by the end of the week, they look just like miniature grass.







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Week 10

Diatoms began to coat some of the plants and the UG seems to be most badly affected - taking on a sickly yellowish color. I spotted algae growing in parts of the tank and immediately started dosing (mixed dry ferts) to keep the algae under control. On hindsight, I started dosing a little late.

The Oto was unable to cleanse the UG leaves of algae/diatoms because they were very delicate, thin and leave clusters made it difficult for the Oto to get into the tight areas.

The UG continued to show decline in health as each plantlet started to melt from root to tip (the darker UG regions are actually transluscent). Although acclimatisation from emersed to submerged is a factor, I cannot firmly ascertain this as the melting seems more widespread - as though the water parameters were off. However, the rest of the plants were thriving.

The only positive news I have, is, my left cluster of UG (2nd pic) gew new leaves and regained some of it's color and began to sprout tiny runner shoots. I hope these new sprouts will adapt to the tank condition and start to spread. As of now, 95% of the UG is practically unusable (no joke!).







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Others / Inhabitants

The Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica' is growing - quite a lot larger than I expected and about 3 times the original size. Leaves are about 4cm broad and 15cm long.

I have also added 2 schools of fishes.
1) 4 Golden Pristella Tetras - Pristella maxillaris
2) 20+ Ruby Tetras - Axelrodia riesei

The Ruby Tetras is taking on some color (from pale white), but it's hard to tell if they will take on a deeper shade of colour. Under brighter areas of light, their coloration is barely detectable. The fishes are generally eating well.

[cher boon]

Bro, is beautiful planted set up.

[jest1081]

bro,

have you checked the water? i understand that the tank has yet to go thru cycling process.

when you add fishes, you will likely face ammonia issues, at the same time plants are also trying to adapt to new submerged environment.
this could be also the contributing factors to mass death of you plants.

cheers.

very simple and nice..

[Alvin Koh]

Originally Posted by cher boon

Bro, is beautiful planted set up.

Originally Posted by scubabear

very simple and nice..

Thanks cher boon and scubabear

Originally Posted by jest1081

bro,
have you checked the water? i understand that the tank has yet to go thru cycling process.
when you add fishes, you will likely face ammonia issues, at the same time plants are also trying to adapt to new submerged environment.
this could be also the contributing factors to mass death of you plants.
cheers.

jest1081, you are right to say that. The water parameters based on test kit did not have noticeable changes, but as the diatoms indicated, the tank was about to complete cycling. The outbreak is now controlled by increasing the frequency of water changes (50% daily for the past week instead of every 2-3 days). Unfortunately, 80% of the UG became unrecoverable. The remaining 20% however is bouncing back which gives me great hope . It's been several days now, and there's no longer noticeable occurrence of diatoms or any other algae for that matter.

The UG was just really sensitive and caught me by surprise as other plants were seemingly unaffected. For example - I took some better samples of the affected UG and tried to cultivate them emersed - majority continued to melt completely within the subsequent few days.

In hindsight, as my setup has low plant mass, I should have kept the daily water changes much longer (maybe 2-3 weeks instead of just 1 week) and started dosing much sooner.

I look forward to updating again soon with visible progress and before-after shots

Nice setup...
Await nxt update...

Thinking of setting up a 4ft Planted when Altum Angels season start...

[EvolutionZ]

Originally Posted by aroc2003

Nice setup...
Await nxt update...

Thinking of setting up a 4ft Planted when Altum Angels season start...

its better to start now bro.. i set up my 422 in jan in preparation of altums already.. since altums need really stable water and it takes months for your tank to become really stable...

[jest1081]

Originally Posted by Alvin Koh

The outbreak is now controlled by increasing the frequency of water changes (50% daily for the past week instead of every 2-3 days). Unfortunately, 80% of the UG became unrecoverable. The remaining 20% however is bouncing back which gives me great hope .
The UG was just really sensitive and caught me by surprise as other plants were seemingly unaffected. For example - I took some better samples of the affected UG and tried to cultivate them emersed - majority continued to melt completely within the subsequent few days.

I look forward to updating again soon with visible progress and before-after shots

aaah maybe its a good idication for you to carpet the fore with just HC.

would be nice!