how to prune this nicely?

[gregorsamsa]

First,

sorry for the bad pictures. I was using a camera phone.

More importantly, i have attached 2 pictures, one unedited and the other with "play station controller" markings. I am doing a 2 mound concave compostion on a small 1.5ft tank.

From the markings, the traingle shows that there is no planting/plants, that is it is the partition. However, despite trimming, the tops (represented by the circle) converge. the plant in mention is rotala "green".

Effectively, it has become a wall of weed.

what do you propose that i trim, prune or remove, so as top restore a parting between the two mounds?

[juggler]

Looks like need to remove more plants to maintain a "partition".

[vinz]

I agree with KF.. you need to make the partition wider. The plants will naturally lean over and fill up the partition over time, but still maintain a gap.

[Fei Miao]

With 1.5ft tank, IMO everything in proportion must be kept smaller, so more prunings to maintain the desire shape...

[gregorsamsa]

Oh, what a long wait

actually, i have only like just removed some of the stunted plants, will probably tear this tank very soon. I have tried to widen that central gap but the rotalas will just stretch into that space.

and also, i have noticed that my "softer leafed" plants like E. triandra and MM are melting only recently despite good growth of previous times. Fertilisation is EI but i think its related to Vinz thread on water quality.

will up date this thread as soon as the new plants grow in, just before i tear it down.

cheerios

[vinz]

Try using aged water for water change, and see if the plants still react.

[PeterGwee]

Oh, what a long wait

actually, i have only like just removed some of the stunted plants, will probably tear this tank very soon. I have tried to widen that central gap but the rotalas will just stretch into that space.

and also, i have noticed that my "softer leafed" plants like E. triandra and MM are melting only recently despite good growth of previous times. Fertilisation is EI but i think its related to Vinz thread on water quality.

will up date this thread as soon as the new plants grow in, just before i tear it down.

cheerios

Don't be over critical about the tap and accept the fact that the stunting/melting of plants are caused by it. Check the CO2 and in doubt, add more. The plants, presence of algae and lull in plant growth tells you more than the test kit which can be wrong. Plants and algae don't lie like Tom said before. They are your last test kits and the most reliable of all. Unless you rule out the biggest nutrient needed for plant growth, you cannot assume its the tap.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[vinz]

Well, I'll agree with Peter that other factors should be considered as well.

However, I have to say that there IS something wierd with the water for some people. Keeping your current routine and then use aged water (2 to 3 days) to do the water change is one way to eliminate or confirm that issue.

Peter, the plants and algae don't lie. But what are they telling us? If something in the water is affecting the plant health either directly, or indirectly (by binding certain essential nutrients), it could still trigger off an algae bloom. Plants don't grow well, algae get a foot up.

If we can assume that the water is ok, then lights, CO2 and nutrients are what we can look at. But one LFS I spoke to reported that certain sensitive plants turn yellow after a water change. This does not happen when they use aged water. Nothing else in their routine changed. The only obvious factor that made the difference is the aged water and direct from tap water. What can we deduce from that?

I'm not blaming the tap water completely blindly for my problems, else I have spoken earlier. The problem has manifested itself with too many parties to ignore. Now, the thing is to figure out what it is, what it does, or at least how to get around it... which seems to be aging water or use a carbon filter to filter the tap water.

[PeterGwee]

Peter, the plants and algae don't lie. But what are they telling us? If something in the water is affecting the plant health either directly, or indirectly (by binding certain essential nutrients), it could still trigger off an algae bloom. Plants don't grow well, algae get a foot up.

If something in the tap is going to hurt the plants real bad, its going to hurt algae as well. Pretty much like H2O2 if overdose on plants and algae.

If we can assume that the water is ok, then lights, CO2 and nutrients are what we can look at. But one LFS I spoke to reported that certain sensitive plants turn yellow after a water change. This does not happen when they use aged water. Nothing else in their routine changed. The only obvious factor that made the difference is the aged water and direct from tap water. What can we deduce from that?

Chloramine is not the issue then as it can stay in water for quite a long period. Chlorine might be the case, drop in KH or an important nutrient. What type of plants are we talking about? Crypts? Most LFS don't use KNO3 and KH2PO4 stuff and definitely don't test for CO2. They can do an experiment on a nano tank which really simple. Get the particular type of plant that is giving issues. Add nutrients at max uptake rate base off amount of light over the tank and crank the CO2 till they get good pearling (no critters in the tank). Do the water change routine and add nutrients back again. See if they get the symptoms.

Some folks went too far to rule out surface movement in order to keep the CO2 in during the day. They do fine when the plants are doing well and pumping loads of O2 which will tide things over the night. Now, something in the tap changes (drop in an important nutrient) and plant growth slows down substantially. They get weird or gasping critters...

Well, do what you think is right then. But don't jump to wild conclusions like the K blocking Ca issue we thought was true for sometime. I got myself marine products that include Ca/Mg and started dosing. The issue got worse...then I thought, it cannot be the K then since I stop dosing it and added quite a bit of Ca/Mg. I went and up my CO2 and the issue pretty much went away.

Regards
Peter Gwee