Frustrated again with plants

one thing i was thinking about for you... if you are injecting co2 into your tank via your canister you may be wanting you push the saturated co2 water down into your tank(i know this goes against what i said before)... maybe just get a small powerhead to create the surface roll...

this way you know the co2 you are injecting is going to be getting moved around your tank throughly and not have even less potential of getting off gassed
 
Friday morning Dec 11, 2009. I have started EI dosing KNO3, KH2PO4 and traces. I have reduced my co2 down to about 2-3 BPS and put it on timer to start 3 hours before lighting (at 7 hours per day 220w) and end with lighting. I have air stone activated from 1 hour after lights out and running for 8 hours. I had shut down my AC and readjusted my Eheim spray bar to give a little surface roll and tested co2 at oppposite end of tank near bottom with drop checker and it tested green. What I noticed however is that some flake food hung at surface behind the spray bar and at first I thought I had a rotting fish somewhere. I elected to put my AC back into operation and redirect the spray to just below the surface. Unfortunately the sponge dried out so it is still getting cycled for biological action. I am using carbon in a sock thanks to a deal from Big Al's recently. I was noticing some surface film right after I started adding ferts and oxygen bubbles seemed to hang in this film. I would periodically turn on my air stone at night to break this up. Currently I have no surface film perhaps due to all the devices that are coming into play on various timers. I am still finding loose stems of egeria regularly but I started replanting them last night instead of tossing them out. For some reason the stems seem frail and most of leaves have browned and taken on a pointed appearance as opposed to the normal ovate shape. The other plants seem to be hanging in there and maybe starting to prosper. I almost think the egeria is doomed and will need to be replaced totally but I will let nature make that decision for me. My fish are doing great. Actually when I sit in my easy chair and glance at the tank it does look very nice with the variety of plants. If it stayed as is I would be happy. I don't mind a little pruning and picking of dead leaves but I do not want to be a slave to the tank with constant fussing about this and that. I took some photos and videos of my tank some time ago and if I can figure out how I did it I will do another post so you can all see what the tank looks like. Thanks again to all and a hearty "happy holidays" to each and everyone.
 
Friday morning December 18,2009. It has been a week since I started EI dosing, timed co2, timed air stone, 8 hours of lighting. The Egeria is still looking stunted but is starting to send out new shoots at several locations. Hopefully this is a good sign. The other plants are doing so so. I am seeing more and more red algae on my glass but it scrapes off when I do my weekly 50% water changes. The fish are still doing great. I took some videos but I had a lot of problems downloading them to imageshack so I had to resort to some photos. My hand was not steady on some so please forgive me. The egeria at first was quite bushy and full, but not any longer as you can see from the photos - if I can get them listed. This is also my second attempt at writing today and I'm not sure if my fingers are hitting the wrong keys but I had a rather complete message before the whole thing disappeared.
http://img24.yfrog.com/i/1000090ts.jpg/;
http://img252.yfrog.com/i/1000089.jpg/;
http://img191.yfrog.com/i/1000088s.jpg/;
http://img695.yfrog.com/i/1000087x.jpg/;
http://img268.yfrog.com/i/1000085v.jpg/.

If you look closely you can see the oxygen bubbles all over the place.
From here on I guess I just keep plugging along and wait for nature to do its thing. I do go to camp every weekend during the summer so there will be no EI dosing during this time. I'm not sure how to handle this yet but I have another 5 or 6 months to figure that out.

Happy Holidays to all!
 
December 31, 2009 7am. My plants are starting to regain strength and my egeria no longer drop stems randomly. I added some additional plants (sorry I'm terrible with names so I won't bother) and my clown loaches are making a meal out of some of them. I am noticing a return of plain old green algae and my long time friend black beard algae like I have had so many times before so I added 8 Ottos and 4 Hillstream loaches. While I do see these guys land on the bba they do not eat it. In the past I have removed my shipwreck (about 20" long) and sprayed it with clorox and then decontaminated it before readdition to the tank but I do not look forward to doing this again. I have heard mixed stories about SAE's so I am not sure if I want to add them to the mix or not. My plant population and appearance is still not what I want it to be and maybe if I get the right combination of plants along with proper ferts, lighting, co2 etc then maybe the bba will disappear. My past experience however tells me I need to bleach the bulk of the items to get the bba under control. Should I just hang in there and try to get my plants, lighting, ferts, etc stabilized before worrying aobut the bba or should I take steps now to minimize the growth of the bba? I am running 220w for 8 hours currently with 2-3 BPS co2 and dry ferts. I have an airstone come on after lighting ends and run for 8 hours. My java moss is brown with algae (?) but growing. I still need some serious help to try to get this tank under control. I know I am impatient but I just sense that things are not developing according to plan.
 
i would follow... wycco, riiz, karlth, maniki, j-gens and canuck on this one.
also...
4dKH.jpg

and i'm just running below you with lighting and i use an airstone for co2 and my lighting is up to almost 16 hours depending on the day. with no algae. you need your ferts and gh is an important one. barr's gh booster from aquariumfertilizer.com will fix that pretty cheap.

EDIT: feel free to copy that picture to your desktop if you feel the need. and check out riiz's diy root tab recipe in the sticky in the planted tank section.

4dKH.jpg
 
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