Lately I’ve been reducing the amount of plant species in the tank. Since the pogostemon is completely out of season right now I removed it and let the Aromatica take center stage. I’ve been harvesting blyxa weekly but I think I have the right amount figured out, and now I just need to stay there. The big update really is my new found passion for growing Ludwigia Arcuata! Well its a passion mainly because I can’t seem to figure it out. I bought a bunch from AFA and planted it, I’ve even added more iron in the form of chellated mix to the water column but the arcuata is far from its blood red look I see in books and online all the time!! what gives?

Oh and on the fona front, I’ve removed the flag fish, they basically prevented all my discus from eating and became pretty aggressive towards all the other fish in the community. I also removed the SAEs, they were too large and very aggressive as well. In fact they would scoop up more bloodworms during feedings then any other fish, back to the store for you! I lost yet another discus, maybe time to find another primary fish, or kill more Discus? Anyways I have one left and he’s doing much better with the adjusted community. Might be time to visit Inland Empire Discus after-all.

I trimmed out most of the rotala in the tank and I’m making room for the lobelia cardinalis ’small form’ and the staurogyne sp. The staurogyne is a hearty low plant that wont grow high but will spread around, I want to blend this with the lobelia for its low growing properties as well. For a little height in the back I’m trying out eichhornia diversifolia and spiky rotala. The wood centerpiece will be covered in xmas moss and I just tied some mini pelia to the top branch. The foreground is a race between the UG or the HC, whichever one wins gets to be the foreground plant there, I’m happy if either take hold I’ll be documenting the shift in the new layout - i’m pretty flippin excited about the new scape! (that and the new lily pipe set i got… so much more clearness in there!

A new floater was added as well, this one doesn’t take over the surface in a short period of time, its heartier and slower to grow as well, Limnobium laevigatum. I keep it above where the co2 is hitting the surface to hold the gas in the water longer.

In the foreground there is a lot of blyxa, these were brought in from the 10 and 60 gallon tanks. Because the amazonia substrate is so fresh and new we thought we’d let the blyxa help with the absorption. The light levels are to low for blyxa yet it is still thriving from the substrate… eventually it will slow its growth, grow very vertical trying to get closer to the light and eventually melt away if no new supplies of nutrients is deposited into the substrate.

The new piece of manzanita wood that is resting on top of the asian bogwood is a piece my brother picked up while he was in Montana. It made me take out most of the blyxa that was growing in the front which was doing really well, but it wasn’t helping the scale of the tank much. The space is opened up now, so maybe the UG will take over sometime, if not, then the next plant I want to really feature is the lobelia cardinalis (small form) - It’s been slowly growing which is great since i don’t have to stay on it so often like the rotalas.

Something I’ve learned in these past months with this tank:

black brush algae, the thick fluffly tuftes of it grow really well in areas with more current – a piece of the bogwood on the left was getting hit directly with the filter outflow and eventually it was covered in all the nasty forms of algae. A really awesome technique to rid of it swiftly is double dosing the tank with fluorish excel, i would fill a little dropper with it and apply the excel directly to the algae. After a day you’ll start to notice it turning white, this is when you know you’re winning!  I just did that for a week, everyday until all of it was gone. It pops up in small amounts here and there, but for the most part its gone.

The scape starts to really fill out and give me ideas on what to do next. The Blyxas grow so quickly I’m trimming every two weeks and basically giving away 2-3 zip lock bags worth each time. I keep trimming them down but they have still managed to cover all my stones. The summer is most definetly over according to my Pogostemon Stellatus. They went from a luscious bunch of colorful dense leafs to simple pale yellow green leafed plant.. pretty amazed by that actually. The Aromatica on the other hand seems to benefit from the hibernation of its neighbor and suddenly it is springing into action. Most the rosettes with yellow to red in the center are the Aromatica.

One of the grassy plants I brought back from my trip to Iowa is really taking off. I have no idea what it is called. Its the plant growing in front of the Blyxa Auberti, the one that has made it to the surface and is bright green. I’m thinking of moving it from there soon actually.

It looks like the tank has reached a good equilibrium with the water now, and no more algae is showing up! The left side is going to be all Myriophyllum Mattogrossence now and the blyxas up at the front are really taking off nicely. Still dealing with some blue green algae BGA but its under control for now. To make sure it doesn’t keep coming back I’ve added a bga chemical remover to the tank.