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On 1/28/2023 at 6:57 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Did a bit of testing and the tank is finally consuming. I've been dosing 10ppm NO3 and 5ppm PO4 with potassium over 30ppm. Surprisingly, NO3 was 10ppm and PO4 was 4ppm. I've increased to 25ppm NO3 and 7ppm PO4. Overall, the tank is starting to take a turn. It still looks rough, but there's finally some movement on these slow growers. Bit of algae on the glass, but I haven't scraped in a while. This is definitely a positive sign.

PXL_20230129_004754329~3.jpg

“Looking a bit rough” he says.  HAH!  You ain’t seen rough!  😉 I guess by “rough” you mean amazing?

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Each week I'm seeing positive signs and I think I can finally relax a bit. These plants should be good and ready when the new tank arrives. Can't wait. Ordered a few plants I've always wanted to try and hopefully they survive the cold journey. E. Aflame, H. Pinnitifida and a C. Pink Flamingo. 

Light remains 11 hours with an additional 4.5 hours of 1% blue moon effect. I'll shove them in somewhere.

PXL_20230203_014530976~3.jpg

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On 2/4/2023 at 8:25 AM, Mmiller2001 said:

Each week I'm seeing positive signs and I think I can finally relax a bit. These plants should be good and ready when the new tank arrives. Can't wait. Ordered a few plants I've always wanted to try and hopefully they survive the cold journey. E. Aflame, H. Pinnitifida and a C. Pink Flamingo. 

Light remains 11 hours with an additional 4.5 hours of 1% blue moon effect. I'll shove them in somewhere.

PXL_20230203_014530976~3.jpg

Which new tank did you order?

H. Pinnatifida grows like a weed for me. Much more manageable on hardscape though.

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I'm tired of canister cleaning. Tired of hoses and tubing. So this tank solved all my problems. 1 tank to rule them all. I'm selling everything but the QT tank. My only issue is whether I keep the Chihiros 120, or sell it and buy another 90 to light the tank. The tank is 70 inches long.

I think keeping the 120 is the way to go. It's a shallow reef tank and I wouldn't mind darker sides for Anubias type plants.

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On 2/4/2023 at 9:00 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

I think keeping the 120 is the way to go. It's a shallow reef tank and I wouldn't mind darker sides for Anubias type plants.

Few tanks, better cared for is the way to go IMO. That's also a perfect size for a Dutch tank 😉

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On 2/7/2023 at 1:26 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Should you trim Fissidens?

@Odd Duck

Pretty much any moss I do trim. It encourages branching and growth. Depending on how you want it to look would be up to you. If you want longer strands and more movement, wait to trim.

I trimmed mine completely back and it's already 4-5x the length two weeks later. Fissidens is a bit slower to grow then the one I have, but just weigh that in to your choice as well if you're up against a deadline or need a certain amount of propagation.

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On 2/7/2023 at 3:26 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Should you trim Fissidens?

Depends on the look you want.  Fiss grows slow enough you won’t need to trim often unless you want a really tight, dense lawn effect.  Personally, I think Fiss looks it’s best with a little length because it doesn’t branch that much and you get a really great waving grass, field of wheat rippling type effect that’s just gorgeous.  When you trim, it does get denser and more mat like.  It can almost get to a moss ball type surface with minimal movement and visual flow if it gets dense enough.  I’ve had my base pieces of Fiss get that dense after I trimmed them to make my slurry for the dry start.  They grew back a bit then crapped out and died.  I suspect they didn’t like how dense it was and that tank might not have had enough movement for them to cope with being that dense.  With more flow, they might have done fine.

On 2/7/2023 at 4:06 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

@Odd Duck

Pretty much any moss I do trim. It encourages branching and growth. Depending on how you want it to look would be up to you. If you want longer strands and more movement, wait to trim.

I trimmed mine completely back and it's already 4-5x the length two weeks later. Fissidens is a bit slower to grow then the one I have, but just weigh that in to your choice as well if you're up against a deadline or need a certain amount of propagation.

Yep, all this.  I’ve not gotten Fiss much beyond about 1.5” strands.  It always seems to break off or die out in patches before it gets much more than that.  I’m sure others have probably gotten longer strands.  I’m no moss expert, just a big fan of the less common mosses.

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On 2/7/2023 at 10:15 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

I'm finding this stuff grows pretty quick. Looks great.

Yeah, you really, really do know your way with plants.  It's beautiful to see an artist do their work.  I had some issues with mine, but I would love to try it again.  Fissidens nobilis is one I am targeting to own and do well with.

The "look" that you're going for is it something like what you have where the texture is shown as you have it now? Do you want to coat wood or rock and make a "bush" of sorts or what fits your design here?

As an example, here is a susswassertang bush.  Probably wrapped around a river rock in the video header image.  tumbled lava rock (garden section) works well too if that's a specific shape you want.
 

 

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I'm going for moss patches on wood that hang some. When the new tank arrives, I will have large rocks I want completely covered.

I am getting some filamentatious algae on the higher portions. I think I want to wait and see before making changes.

Edited by Mmiller2001
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I'm now convinced my problems are all related to low turnover and flow distribution. Luckily, this should all be solved when the new tank arrives, and I received notice the tank should be delivered next week. We are super excited! Fingers crossed it's undamaged during shipping.

I don't think I'm going to pull my hair out trying to solve the flow issue and just focus on propagating the plants I have. I'm going to need more for sure. Probably double.

Excuse the mess the tank is in.

 

PXL_20230305_152925955~3.jpg

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On 3/5/2023 at 9:49 AM, Mmiller2001 said:

I'm now convinced my problems are all related to low turnover and flow distribution. Luckily, this should all be solved when the new tank arrives, and I received notice the tank should be delivered next week. We are super excited! Fingers crossed it's undamaged during shipping.

I don't think I'm going to pull my hair out trying to solve the flow issue and just focus on propagating the plants I have. I'm going to need more for sure. Probably double.

Excuse the mess the tank is in.

 

PXL_20230305_152925955~3.jpg

I do have one question; why the slope? Is there something about your setup that takes advantage of the slope or ??

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