Update: January 24, '08
Well I think it may be time for a little word update. Warning: quite lengthy.
Flora:
Well let's see.
>Since moving to Flourite, I have added N to my fert regime (on the 14th) and upped the dosage of Flourish in an attempt to help my jungle val recover- I think it is working
. I am getting a few bunches with new growth, and about half of them have sent out runners. Growth is still slow on the growing ones though, but I will give it time before raising any alarms (thanks to Avalon for that advice).
>My rotala is doing amazing in my tank- it has more new shoots growing than I started out with, and it is growing quite quickly and fully in a beautiful pink hue.
>The windelov is growing quite nicely, and since having uppe lighting and N and increased flourish it has been growing very fast and beautifully.
>Finally, my java moss is exploding with growth! Since having more lights it has been growing like mad- I am hoping to use it is a compete ground cover for the fore/midground, letting the fern and anubias to grow out of it.
Fauna:
>Well the black female has been developing an iridescent blue glow to her fins, and many of the half-black babies have yellow tails from the father- looks cool right now, and I can't wait to see if any of them are males to get some real neat colour patterns
. I have another guppy fry maturing as a male- so now I will have two golden cobra males.
>My amano shrimp just hang out in the shade under my driftwood, so I need to figure out what I am doing to displease them and fix it.
>No death's since the camallanus victim.
In other news, I am having a crazy algae outbreak lol. Again, I will be letting my plants outcompete it with time rather than freak out and try to fix it myself (that being said, if anyone has any suggestion as to why it might be happening then please let me know- I get the feeling my water quality/nutrients are off kilter). I have some black beard algae- has been minimal for a
long time (I thought that was what diatoms looked like
) but suddenly it is growing and spreading. I also have this really light green stuff that looks hard, not slimy or soft by any means- like a salt 'stain' when saltwater evaporates from a surface, only green).. On top of that I also have diatoms breaking out again- I just cleaned the front glass pane yesterday and it is already marred with diatoms. Finally I also have this turquoise coloured spotty algae in my bacopa leaves. As I said, my plan is to either find what I am doing wrong in terms of water quality or let it fix itself.
I get the feeling it was from my changing fert routine as well as the increased amount with a slight decrease in CO2 production (bottle slowing down a bit). I have finally settled on a good fertilization routine (see attachment) and will stick to it for a while. I will be doing a 50% w.c. today to sort of reset the water a bit and get rid of some tannins.
That is everything I think. I might post some pictures tomorrow or this weekend to show the growth of the plants and the rotala. Thanks for reading. Feel free to post in this thread or in
this one if you have any idea on what is causing the algae. I have set the lights off for two hours less each day for now to see if it helps.