Mmiller2001

Are you dosing Micro's?

Yeah, S. Repens and pretty much any AR are challenging plants. Your best bet is to bring GH and KH into very soft water levels and use an aquasoil. Aquasoils, or soils in general, seems to be the most effective way to grow them without CO2. Those may not be options for you, so don't be discouraged. I'm using ECO Complete and my AR looks like trash with CO2. However, my S. repens is doing really well in Eco complete and did poorly in pool filter sand. A 4GH and a KH below 2 seems to be a good area for more challenging plants if you aren't using a soil. Here is a pic of my horrible AR. Looks brown yeah!. Should be a gorgeous red, and it's just never going to get there. GH 4, KH 1 under full EI dosing and CO2 with a 1.3pH drop to 5.9

You could try garlic guard in addition to medicated food.

Extra fertilizer doesn't cause algae. For green water, it's ammonia and too much light in combination.

New camera. I'll probably post way too many photos now!

The truth is, DYI CO2 is going to give you inconsistent results. And those fluctuating CO2 levels are going to cause problems. If money is a concern, just wait and save so you can get a proper system. By proper, I mean a good entry level system like this. https://www.co2art.us/collections/complete-kits/products/pro-se-series-complete-aquarium-co2-system-with-in-tank-flux_-diffuser This is the absolute lowest quality I would use. I have 2 systems and they are solid performers at this price point.

You would want to test GH and KH, if they are high, you would then cut the tank water with RO water. Seachem acid buffer works by depleting KH. Lower KH means lower pH. Leaves and wood and tannins have very little effect on KH short term.

The lady is a bit more reclusive, but here is the man.

I also made some changes to my water and water changes. I've dropped KH to 1dKH. And now do 60% to 70% water changes every 7 days on all my tanks.

I forgot to mention what happened to the 75 after the substrate change. A few weeks after the change, I started adding more plants and I was dosing my leaner numbers. I wanted to slow growth down as to not have to cut so much each week. I noticed the Pennywort was going necrotic, on the lower leaves, and many of the plants just stopped growing. So I bumped up NO3, yet the necrosis continued. I guessed that it was a macro nutrient deficiency because it seemed like a transport nutrient issue. I had assumed I was dosing enough K via my source water and the small amount in the KNO3 and K2PO4. Well, it wasn't. So I started dosing additional K and the necrosis stopped and all the plants started growing again. Holes in leaves may be a later indicator of potassium deficiencies, but early stage potassium deficiency did not express holes. If your plants stop growing, lower leaves look necrotic and Staghorn algae presents on those lower leaves, check your potassium levels!

There are 2 similar looking plants in that group. The left side is Ludwigia Pantanal and the right is Rotala H'ra. The Pantanal is not doing so great. It's definitely a difficult plant. I'm going to stick with it a bit longer as the substrate matures. I'm hoping the increased dosing brings it along. And thank you! The foreground is turning out to be quite challenging and I'm not sure where it will end up. It seems foreground plants are more slow growing, which presents its own set of problems.

Brazilian Pennywort. And thank you.

I haven't updated in a while because the tanks went through a transition. I changed the substrate on the 75 and converted the 40 to lower tech. The 75 did not like the changes and I had problems pop up all over the place. So rather than freak out, I instead hunted down harder to find plants and just started planting and increased fertilization to combat some algae issues. I also purchased a male/female pair of Apistogramma trifasciata for the 40 gallon and added 10 Lemon Tetra as dither fish. So, all previous 40 gallon fish are in the 75 and the 40 is as mentioned. Light on the 40 has been dropped to about 25% intensity and dosing much lower on the 40. Probably about 12ppm NO3 per week. 5ppm PO4 and 15ppm K. Micros are around .56ppm Fe as marker. 75 Gallon 30ppm NO3 9-10ppm PO4 25ppm K .67ppm Fe So far, I'm not too happy with Eco Complete, but it's real new and I won't judge it quite yet. I will give it at least 8 months. For now, "it's let plants grow". I told myself I would never try AR again, and here I am trying it again. I should have listened to myself. It just wants an aquasoil and I'm not ready to try that yet. To me, it looks minimal. What do you think? Ordered more plants and I will add those when they arrive. I imagine the 75 is maxed after these arrive and it will just come down to arrangement. Here are the tanks today.

I have to apologize. Once again, I let myself get the better of me. I apologize to any that I may offended. I do enjoy this forum and whish to contribute, but I think that's best done through my journal. Going forward, I will no longer comment and only post on my journal. And my journal consist of trying to emulate these 2 people. https://www.plantedtank.net/threads/greggz-120g-rainbow-fish-tank-scapecrunch-interview-1-18-2021.1020497/ and https://www.plantedtank.net/threads/120-gal-dutchy-freestyle-now-with-35-less-water-volume.1117642/ I hope many will find these 2 people as inspiring as I do.

Remove design, what's left, the absolute peak performance of healthy plants. And that's water changes designed to target specifics and health over all.

These are not my tanks, and water changes are a step on a ladder to these types of tanks. These are the tanks I strive to have, and having too few plants is a novices mistake. Water changes allow you to target nutrient ppm and are a fundamental learned by the best in the business. A planted tank, at peak performance, is a tank with regular water changes. I imagine plant growth is the natural process in tanks like these, and aesthetics is secondary. And I 100% attribute my plant growth, and these illustrated, that water changes are the key factor in refreshing Calcium: Magnesium and targeted nutrient ppm. Water changes and maintenance go hand in hand, so please, try not to devaluate their relevance. I imagine, that natural environments are refreshed on orders of 100 times a day by natural processes, I.E. rain or river flow ect.. Outside of the harshest conditions, or Blackwater environments (where plants are mostly void), obviously certain rivers are blackwater with plants, where water is changes in the 1000's of gallons a day, makes your point invalid. So, yeah, water changes are perfectly "natural". What effort is required to change water. Minimal. My answer, was never for anyone other than @Grizzly and at what point do you do water changes. It's when you want to target specific goals and have a tank better than most people. Because water changes allow you to predict ppm and parameters that everyone else is guessing at. A tank, that's calculated, is a tank that can be controlled. These people, commented above, are incapable of making anything more than a general adjustment, and know nothing about specific quantities in an aquarium. When a problem occurs, what is the fist thing people recommend....Water Change... so.............yeah...think long and hard about water changes.....water changes are long term stability. I won't comment any further. Your tank or their tank is exactly the amount of effort put into it. By these people "I mean" Edited to not be banned!

You should ask yourself, are Nitrates the sole determinate factor in fish keeping? I ask myself that a lot, and the answer is no. There's way more chemistry going on and I want to operate at peak performance. Tanks like this, don't go a week without a 50% water change (or greater). Are tank like this everyone's goal, probably not, but do they want it to be? I respectfully, would ask anyone, not changing water, to show pictures of there tanks. And they will almost never look like these tanks. Is it worth it to not change water, IMO, nope. Ask any person keeping tanks like these, and water changes are 1000% mandatory.

It's not specific, but a TDS pen will let you know if your having a buildup.

Too much light and ammonia.

Med Trio in a 125 would be ridiculous. Do yourself a favor and grab a bottle of PraziPro, you would want it on hand anyways. I would suggest getting a larger bottle, or 2 4oz bottles. 100% follow up with another round in 2 weeks if you choose to dose.

Flukes are, unfortunately, becoming more resistant to meds. I would follow the above advice and also be ready to treat again. I would dose PraziPro for such a large tank, if it comes to that.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why This was very helpful when I first started.

They will be fine. If you are worried, do a water change. That will remove CO2. When they start passing out, be alarmed. That's an emergency water change situation. You are looking for a 1 to 1.5 pH drop from your degassed pH. Take a clean container, fill it some and set it on your counter for 24 to 48 hours. Then, pH that water. This will be your degassed pH. Then turn your CO2 on and pH the tank every hour. When you hit the 1.0 pH drop, you are close to 30ppm CO2. You also want to have excellent surface agitation and I highly recommend surface skimming. O2 and CO2 are independent of each other. You want to maximize O2 and CO2. I have my CO2 come on 2 hours before lights on and 1 hour before lights off. You can also record KH and pH and use a CO2 chart to determine CO2 levels.

https://greenleafaquariums.com/products/estimative-index-e-i-aquarium-fertilizer-package-bags.html