Mmiller2001

You are under dosing Easy Green.

How many gallo is the tank.

Is that Java Fern?

I will throw in Hygrophila Polysperma, just so easy and beautiful.

I do, I gave up trying to find just females for him 😞. But he seems content.

For those interested.

Absolutely insane. That second one is cool, well done! I'm in the other category #7. I'm addicted to the Dutch Style look, but can't quite achieve it yet.

Taiwan Lily Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan'

I wish, I just don't think I have that scaping"eye"! Maybe I could win a jungle scape competition 😆.

Very nice!

Just sharing a few phone pics from this afternoon without all the journal stuff.

Just a few lower exposure shots from the phone camera. The left side plant arrived and hopefully it's a fast grower. Also thinking I'm going to lower NO3 next water change.

I have canisters and lost power for 4 hours. No ammonia spikes, just a 24 hour bacterial bloom. There's plenty of BB in the substrate to handle things once everything is flowing again. If you expect longer outages, grab some battery operated air pumps. Then just rinse out the canister when power returns.

That's an excellent question, and the only answer I have is that's what some of the top planted aquarists are running. Planted tanks seem to grow better in those ranges according to them. The livestock flourish in these conditions too. But these are certainly soft water species. If you are keeping hard water live stock, I would attempt to raise Ca and Mg to match those "standard" ratios. I would think doing this would be very safe. As far as one being higher than the other, I would assume it's fine. As long as toxicity doesn't occur, I'd imagine it's fine. Maybe not ideal, but fine. This article covers some basics. https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/ph-kh-gh-tds/gh-explained

I do 2:1 18ppm Ca 9ppm Mg That's 4.6 dGH I see people going as far as 4:1

Looks great. Well done!

You have a lot of room there to dose more. You just have to decide how you want to dose it. Use more easy green, or dose just P. Via Easy Green, assuming 10 gallons in the tank, at 2 pumps, is only .32ppm of PO4. I would shoot for 1ppm per week and see how the tank responds.

How much P are you dosing?

Finnex, just make sure it's the ALC version. It has 660nm reds.

I would also drop GH to 4dGH and KH to 0-2dKH In the last picture, the water surface looks stagnant, you should really try to surface skim. Are you using a spray bar? Can you use one?

You are low on CO2. Remove all of the blue channel in your light schedule. Have an 8 hour light schedule, just reduce the intensity 50%. You will bump it up slowly later. Stop just dosing fertilizer with no goal in mind. Determine some ppm in common ratios and dose those numbers only. And make no changes in dosing for at least 3 weeks. That said, all in one fertilizers are not ideal for high tech tanks. Are you dosing complete Micros? Research and try Estimative Index dosing. Or try PPS Pro. I will say it again, you are low on CO2. I would spot dose Glut while getting everything thing else under control. Otherwise, you are going to spike ammonia.

The Stratum probably has a high CEC value and it's pulling the carbonates out of the water.

I think dragon stone adds minerals to the water. This could be a reason.

Yes, mostly a pH concern. I know Thrive has an EDTA and DPTA version. Not sure which is which. If they make one that's both, that would be my choice while using CO2. I use dry fertilizer, but use both EDTA and DPTA Fe.

That is interesting. Retesting the tank still shows as before?