4ft Valley Garden

[Ingen]

I do not know what exactly caused BBA but from my observation its not due to flow, I have had BBA in both high and low flow area and if you visit GC, at times you will see a colony of them growing at their outflow pipe or high flow zone.

[Realcaster]

Very true, i have few BBA elsewhere too but most are found hidden in inside the thick bushes.

I am contempting using chemical warefare with Algaefix which I know I will have 100% success, but catching the 25 yamato shrimps seems daunting. The snails will definitely be easier pick out.

I have being spot treating the BBA with Excel at 2X dosage for the last 2 days, and trimming off the affect plants. It seem the BBA are in retreat and dying off. One thing I know, Excel will not solve the root of the problem, sacrificing those hidden Yamato may be my next option.

[Realcaster]

I think I have beaten the BBA without using chemical warfare and BBA is in retreat. 90% are gone now

i am faced with a different problem. The newer leaves in 2 stalks of Rotala Sunset are showing sign of curl, twisted leaves.

when I notice that I quickly check my NO3 and true enough, my nitrate have bottoms out to zero. Apparently while fighting the BBA, I reduce feeding to once a day and moderately, and I did not dose KNO3, my Micros and Fe dosage was reduce by halves. From my past record with heavy feeding twice a day, I am able to sustain 10-15ppm of NO3. So I usually just dose K. I quickly dose KNO3 to bring Nitrate to 30ppm. But I doubt that was the main culprit for twisted leaves.

I was trying to figure out what is wrong, apparently, Rotala Sunset is behaving very differently from the rest of the plants, it seems to be hypersentive to micros... After lots of Google and consulting reputable LFS, they all point to Calcium deficiency... for curl or stunt new leaves. But it is unlikely I have Calcium deficiency becuase I have 60kg of Seiyu rocks in the tank which is actually weathered limestone and it will leak Calcium and raise GH and KH.

i recalled something I read in XiaoZhuang thread that he mentioned he dose Mn only because and he ever experienced stunt new leave growth issues before and he was using Seiyu rocks in that tank too.

Ok, more Google..... Apparently for effective usage of Ca, there is a ratio of 4:1, 4Ca:1Mn.... I check on seachem equilibrium ingredient and they maintained the same ratio for Ca and Mn.

i quickly diluted my MnSO4 dry fert and dose 1 ppm of Mn. and that was 2 days ago.

new leaves coming out of the Sunset for the for the 2 stalk that used to have twisted leaves are no longer twisted.

phew.... This is really a very interesting hobby

just sharing.

I am still monitoring, and hopefully Mn deficiency is the real cause.

Please comment and advises are welcome

[aquaticlover]

May i know the reason you pick 1ppm for Mn?

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[Realcaster]

I am just testing out, no real reason for it. My EI dosing is suppose to be dosing 1 Mg per week. ... Sorry my mistake, I have dose Mg and not Mn... Lol have confuse between Mg and Mn

thanks for pointing out. The thread above, I am referring to "Mg" not "Mn"

[aquaticlover]

Thanks for your clarification. Now it is clear what you meant was Mg (Magnesium) not Mn(Manganese)

[Realcaster]

Day 70 Update

Have removed some plant and added a few new plants



The biggest change is an addition of a new light that provide specific light spectrum Blue at 450nm and Red at 650nm. The led ratio is 1blue led to 2red led. As for the reason, , I am still experimenting it have being week 3 with the new light and I do notice some change in my plant growth which I hope to share when the changes are more conclusive.

A Zoom-in shot from left to right







Rotala sp Araguaia is starting to color up


2 not so common plant: Lobelia Cardinalis 'Small Form' & Eriocaulon Quinguangular


Rotala Ramosior Sunset, a nice tight bunch.

[Xiaozhuang]

New growth looks good... good choices for light spectrum ratio

[aquaticlover]

Is your light custom made?


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[Realcaster]

New growth looks good... good choices for light spectrum ratio

LOL, yes, I managed to "untwist" my Rotala Sunset leaves, thank you for your advise.

Was messing with light spectrum, and 450nm & 650nm is what the plants needed most. As for the ratio, I was trying to manage lengthy growth to achieve compactness and larger leaves. Because this addtional light is to compliment the 2 Green Element that i was using, it was just a guessing game. I actually have another full light spectrum light tube that is tunable with various intensity of Blue, Red & white (LED are 450nm & 650nm & white 6500K) respectively for further compensation if needed.

Is your light custom made?

They are off-shelve lights used in Hyroponics, hopefully it works for aquatic plants too.

[AQMS]

Nice . Now i want a 4 feet tank...

[Larnall]

Beautiful set up. I want!

[Realcaster]

It have being 1.5mths since my last update. As you can see in the pics, I added Discus fish... Lol. It added a new dimension to my planted tank. I have increase my tank temp from 25C to 27C to accommodate the discus. Temperature have increased slowly over a period of 4 weeks. Reduced my Fert regime to 30% of the initial dosage and surprisingly, the plants still grow extremely well and all still maintain the redness.

Now this is my 4ft X 2ft X 50cm tank Fert regime:

KNO3, 10ppm X 2 times a week
K2PO4, 1ppm X 2 times a week
seamchem flourish X 5ml 2 times a week
seachem iron X 3ml X 2 times a week
Water change 50% once a week

my Fert regime have reduced by 70% since I added discus.

The Discus have all stablised and eating like pigs and plants still growing like wild fire.

[Realcaster]

Rotala Macrandra so "mini" butterfly


Rotala Sp Sunset


Rotala sp Araguaia


Limnophila Hipurroides


Nesaea Pedicellata


Lobelia Cardinalis 'Small Form'

[Xiaozhuang]

looking good ~ And new crazy lights ha

[Realcaster]

looking good ~ And new crazy lights ha

Haha... Thank you. It's overdue for a major trim.

[Stanley Ng]

Huge and beautiful done up

[AQMS]

bro, what lights are you using?

[Realcaster]

bro, what lights are you using?

i am using a cheap 4ft hydroponic light with only red and blue LED together with my 2x Green element.

Huge and beautiful done up

Thank you for the encouragement.

[seudzar]

Interesting and very well done. Where did you get the hydroponic lights from?