My 10 Gallon Journal

[A3M0N]

So, not a great update this week. The ludwigia stems that were on the left side literally turned to mush. I don't mean the leaves melted away, the stems and all just dissolved in mush. The stems on the right side are still there and seem to be doing well. The vallisneria isn't looking good either. I think it's time to end my month of no fertilizer, it doesn't seem to be helping at all. I have a basic estimative index set on order, hopefully it'll ship today. I added a few root tabs just to get some nutrients in there, I read it shouldn't be a problem to have those in the sand alongside the EI method. 

Based on water test/quality, no water change again this week. When I start with the EI fertilizing I'll be changing the water weekly regardless. 

Testing this week: 
GH: 120
KH: 80
pH: 7.0 
Nitrite: 0 
Nitrate: 0 

Edited September 23, 2022 by A3M0N

[Guppysnail]

I have had stem rot right beside ones that did not. That always stinks. 
The old Val leaves that were growing algae so much were most likely not healthy. That is usually why they grow algae. You will get there. Remember the journey is what makes the final success so rewarding. 

[A3M0N]

I'm sure you're right about the val. I'm probably just going to trim those affected leaves off. 

The journey is definitely worth it! I enjoy the process, I would just hate for all the plants to die during that process. The process of rehabing my previously uncared for lawn has been fun too, but that's a topic for another forum altogether, which I'm also a member of 😉 

[A3M0N]

I still want to feed my fish a more diverse diet, the topical flakes didn't work out as noted earlier, so I gave them some freeze dried bloodworms today. Ironically, I didn't even buy them for the fish, I got them to feed to my Venus Flytrap! I thought they were too big for my little fish, but I read they're good for them. I wasn't aware you are supposed to rehydrate them, I'm glad I Googled it! Several of the Harlequin Rasboras gobbled up some worms, I saw some of the Neons nibble at them, but I think they're too big for the Neons to just gobble them up. I plan to try hatching some baby brine shrimp in the future, after my patient wife forgets about the plant and fertilizer situation. 

I did trim off the old Val leaves, and I also pulled them up a bit. I planted them deep, but I read their crowns aren't supposed to be covered, so I pulled them up so the roots are buried but the crowns are showing. And all but one of the Ludwigia Repens stems died. Pretty much turned to mush, I think I saw it called stem rot somewhere. Oh well, I guess it happens. Hopefully the fertilizer comes in soon and it revives all the plants I have so far. 

I did locate a virtual fish club in my area on Facebook recently. Is there an etiquette in fish clubs to ask about items that may be for sale?  

Edited September 24, 2022 by A3M0N

[A3M0N]

Pretty good update this week! The fertilizer came in this week, and I was able to dose NPK on Wed and micro nutrients on Thurs, and changed the water today (Fri). I'm not convinced the dry fertilizer worked this fast, but I did add root tabs last week and there is some definite improvement in the Vals. 

I picked up a terra cotta pot a while back and painted it back with Krylon Fusion, after I broke the bottom out for safety. It like it better than the original cave a made of out rocks. It's been used a little bit already, but I haven't been able to get any shots. I'm also planning to add some more sand next week, the new filter is sticking up a bit and the corners are getting shallow. I'm sure it's all settled and compacted over the past few months as well. 

With the increase in fertilizer and DIY co2, I figure I'll need to increase light as well. I'm not going to increase the intensity, but I'll be increasing the time to 10 hours per day with a 4 hour siesta. The plan is to run from 9AM-1PM, then 6PM-10PM. 

And finally, when I dropped the dry ferts in the water a few of the fish thought it was food and tried to eat it. I don't like that at all. So I divided each day into little plastic cups, I plan to add a little tank water to pre dissolve it then add to the tank. 

I understand testing isn't required with EI fertilizer dosing, but I feel like it's still important to keep track of right now.

Testing this week: 
GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 6.5 
Nitrite: 0.5 
Nitrate: 40 

[A3M0N]

Well, that one last ludwigia stem that was looking good last week turned to mush this week. I have no idea what happened to it. It was green and had some new leaves growing, I noticed it looking dark when I changed the water yesterday, it was all mushy when I touched it. It came right out of the sand with no roots. Instead of just throwing it away I left it in the tank to see if some part of it may recover, you can see it in the bottom left corner. 

The first thing I did with the ludwigia is Reverse Respiration overnight, then planted it into the sand. I didn't have any fertilizer going on at the time and didn't start the EI dry ferts for a week or so after. The nitrates always read zero with my little fish and one snail, so maybe that's why they didn't make it. Next time maybe I'll just let the stems float for a week or so? They weren't cuttings though, they had roots. 

The vallisneria is looking better now, its green again! I think I'll just watch the vals get stronger for a little while then add some more plants after these get healthier. I like the look of ludwigia, and I thought it was an easy plant to grow. I like the stem plants look, but maybe I ought to get some easier plants just to get them growing. 

I finally got a shot of one of the neons hiding in the cave/pot! I really want another snail after seeing @Guppysnail's magenta mysteries. @Chick-In-Of-TheSea or @TeeJay , if y'all hatch some keep me in mind please! 

Testing this week: 
GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 6.5 
Nitrite: 1  (should I test for ammonia too just to be sure?)
Nitrate: 40 

[TeeJay]

May be awhile before I get another clutch. For magentas anyways. My goods usually produce clutches faster so we will see.

[Guppysnail]

Perhaps your ludwigia is not capable of rooting or thriving in the sand. Try a terra cotta pot of gravel. Mine went crazy when I did that. For now let it float to recover. Mine do well floating also. 
 

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea and @Bev C looks like you two are up to bat on supplying folks with magenta mystery snails 🤗😁

You have fish so check ammonia and maybe lower nitrite to .5 ppm

[A3M0N]

On 10/8/2022 at 3:31 PM, Guppysnail said:

Perhaps your ludwigia is not capable of rooting or thriving in the sand. Try a terra cotta pot of gravel. Mine went crazy when I did that. For now let it float to recover. Mine do well floating also. 

That's a good idea. I just did some reading and it seems like sand substrates can possibly suffocate ludwigia. I'm using blasting sand, but it's still relatively fine. Can it grow like an epiphyte (I hope that's right right term), maybe glue it to a rock or weigh it down so it appears to be planted? I saw on another forum, I think it was Tom Barr, where he made "mud ice cubes". Basically he froze a mixture of potting soil and into cubes water then stuck that under the substrate, after it melts that section can be planted. Not saying I'm advanced enough at this point to try that, but seems like a pretty neat idea. 

Edited October 8, 2022 by A3M0N

[Guppysnail]

It does not do well glued. I tried. I have used a plant weight and dropped it in on top of substrate and it did well. I have also used a zip tie suction cup and stuck ludwigia on the wall and it does just fine. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I have a love/hate relationship with my ludwigia. I have dirty gravel with a 2” sand cap.  It’s similar to Walstad method but for people that have already started their tanks with gravel. LOL. With Walstad the bottom layer is soil.  I planted ludwigia in there and theoretically the dirty gravel is supposed to provide nutrients to the roots and allow them to spread out. However, all the ludwigia did poorly. 
 

Mystery snails know when plants are failing because the dying parts of the plant no longer produce allelochemicals (snail deterrent). This is why mystery snails don’t eat healthy plants. So the mystery snail kept chewing the stem of the ludwigia. I could clearly see when the rest of the plant floated up that the stem was slimy. Nevertheless I replanted those plants after cutting off the slimy end. This happened a number of times. Anything I replanted grew roots but did poorly. In some cases I had to cut the stem off all the way up to the leaves, but I still put it back into the substrate and it worked; it developed roots. So now I had a whole bunch of suffering plants.
 

I started a new tank for baby snail growout and that tank has a 1” sand only with nothing underneath. It’s a 10 gallon and I moved some ludwigia to it. The ludwigia began to thrive and has reached the water surface. It even shows red and I don’t supplement iron. Unless iron is in root tabs, not sure. But I don’t use the Easy Iron or anything, and supposedly red plants need that?  I didn’t buy it because I didn’t want to bother with more plant supplements or add complexity to my maintenance. (In the 29 root tabs were used as well but certainly not on any kind of schedule- I just eyeball plant health).

So my theories on my ludwigia doing poorly in the 29 are:

-sand too deep; roots did not make it down to gravel

-light too far away

A third theory which does NOT apply in my tank is nutrient burn. When plants are put directly into nutrient rich substrate, the roots are not established enough or ready to take up those nutrients, so the nutrients damage the stem. For tanks with a sand cap like mine, the plants theoretically should go into the sand only and then as the plant begins to grow the roots will reach down and seek out the nutrients, when the plant is ready.

And of course there’s a possibility of not enough nutrients when the plant is ready for them. 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

[A3M0N]

Thanks for the input y'all! 

I'm pretty sure I have been trying to run before I can walk, I'll explain. I think lighting may have been my issue with the ludwigia repens, and why the vallisnera isn't taking off faster. I've never really looked at the specs of my light since I bought it, because it was cheap and a beginner light. My light's max power is 760 lumens, a chart I found says low light is between 15-25 lumens per liter. If 10 gal is roughly 37 liters, at max power I have about 20 lumens per liter. I've been running mine at half power thinking light was why I had hair algae when the tank was new, now I know almost all new setups have algae at first. So really I've been running at about 10 lumens per liter. Today I bumped it up to full power, along with the blue lights and we'll see how that goes this week. Hopefully with more light, the fertilizer rockin' and rollin', and my modest DIY co2 the val will take off.

I may look into making my own light using Serpa Design's ideas in the future. For now I'll watch the val, maybe change my planting plans to more low light plants, and revisit mid light plants at a later time. 

 

[A3M0N]

We do streaming services and don't have cable, but today the NLCS game 1 in Atlanta is on Fox. I picked up a cheap antenna but didn't want to attach it to the wall, so the light stand for my aquarium is doubling as an antenna stand 😁

Also, I'm not sure what that odd reflection is in the glass! I'll have to check that out later on. 

[A3M0N]

In a turn of events, my fish now prefer the grocery store tropical flakes over the fancy pellets! They turned their noses up to the flakes before, but I gave them some a few days ago just for a change of pace and they tore them up and now seem ignore the pellets! 

If I start feeding live brine shrimp (a project for the future, not now) will I have to worry about them only wanting that and not eating any kind of dried food? 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I think they'd rather go after the brine, but when in doubt fast them a couple/few days before you feed them a new food for the first time. When I'm a bit peckish there are things I would eat that I wouldn't normally if it were the only food available...now where did I put those condiment packets..... 😄

[A3M0N]

Not a bad week at all, not much to report honestly. I saw an uptick in brown algae after turning my light all the way up, not a huge worry though. I've been needing to do a good scrubbing, so I did that yesterday. The nastiest was the heater, it looks brand new now! The vals are still looking green, but I don't think they grew much over the week though. I'm looking into adding some more plants as soon as I can. I want to try ludwigia repens again and looking at maybe some kind of rotala and bacopa. I like the look of stem plants. I did switch from dry dosing to trying a solution for the fertilizer, today was my first day dosing 30ml of solution and it seems to be a good bit easier. 

(Testing before water change) 
GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 7.0 
Nitrite: 0.5
Nitrate: 40
Ammonia: 0 

 

I have some questions and concerns about a couple of the neon tetras. I'm not sure if my journal is the best place for concerns, I may start a thread in the general section if its better. A couple of them have rounder/bigger bellies, I haven't thought about the sex of the fish yet, could they be females? Here is a very newbie question, do females lay eggs even if conditions for breeding aren't right? Like could one of them hiding the cave more often be a sign they're laying eggs? 

 

Another of the neons has been just staying in one spot behind the filter uplift tube. It just stayed there for a few days last week but came out and was swimming and eating after the water change yesterday and into the evening. Then this morning it was hiding in that corner again. It doesn't look too bad, its color wasn't as bright as the others but seemed to brighten after moving and eating some. 

 

 And a couple shots of the snail being silly and blocking the co2 diffuser. 

[A3M0N]

Not much change this week. I have some algae growing that I expected eventually with the light increase, and I think the EI fertilizer dosing is too much for my few plants. I want to get some more plants soon, but until then I think I'm going to go with the EI low light dosing, pretty much the same dose but only once per week instead of three. Hopefully that will help with the balance some until I can get more plants in there. 

I added a chunk of cuttlebone last week, maybe two weeks ago, and I haven't seen the snail anywhere near it. Maybe the algae wafers have enough calcium in them already? 

I forgot the test the water before I changed it. Oh well, I'll test it next Friday. 

Have a great week y'all! 

[A3M0N]

I cut back on the fertilizer from three times a week, to once a week for both micros and macros. Still have some algae hanging around, and some more grew back, but not as much. Interestingly, the nitrates were still at 40 even with the cut back. I'm going to let that roll for another week, then I may swap my low power aquarium light for a higher power clamp on work light with a 1500 lumen/5000k LED bulb. I'll give that two weeks, maybe leave the fertilizer at 1/3 of usual to see if the vallisneria will soak it all up and choke the algae, and see where that takes me. I'm hoping to order some more plants very soon. 

Moved the co2 diffuser to the other end of the tank, I've read the bubbles from the air pump may negate the co2 bubbles, but they seem to float around more after getting caught in the flow from the output. Also, my bottles got knocked over by the dog playing and the washing bottle/water separator/bubble counter developed a leak. I just removed that from the system and ran straight from the yeast bottle, it works fine but grows yeast on the diffuser very quickly. I'll have to make a new lid for the other bottle soon. Altogether, the DIY co2 is going well! I used the recipe from MJ Aquascaping and its bee running for nearly four weeks! I had to make a few conversions from metric to imperial, but it works out fine. The gelatin/sugar layer is getting thin, I have a new one in the fridge ready to swap out. 

I broke up some cuttlebone for the snail, but I haven't seen him go anywhere near it. I'm not well versed in aquatic food nutrients yet, but maybe there's already enough calcium in the algae wafers I feed him about every two days. 

I still have one neon tetra that is hiding behind the uplift tube. It comes out to eat though, so I guess it's doing alright. Its color isn't bad either. I'll just keep an eye on it. 

(Testing before water change) 
GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 7.0 
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40

[A3M0N]

UPGRADES!!!! 

Alrighty, so I got some more plants! Ludwigia repens, bacopa caroliniana, staurogyne repens, and java ferns. This ludwigia seems way higher quality and much more healthy than what I got at my local big box pet store last time, so I'm hoping it does much better this time. I planted most of them, but left two of each stems floating to see if those convert quicker than planting directly. I gave them all the RR treatment before introducing to the aquarium (the pictures below aren't in seltzer water, they're just in plain water at the time to keep them from drying out). 

Next update is the lighting. My light was only about 750ish lumens, so I extended the light hanger and hung a shop light with a 1500 lumen, 5000k, LED bulb over it. I think it looks 10 times better, and is quite a bit brighter. I may add another if the light doesn't reach all the corners. But at around $6 for the clamp light and like $2 for the bulb, can't beat that! 

I also got my DIY co2 redone. So hopefully no more yeast collecting on the diffuser. I'm going to go back to the daily EI fertilizer dosing now that I have more plants and a brighter light. 

(Testing before water change) 
GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 7.0 
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

Edited November 5, 2022 by A3M0N

[A3M0N]

Planted everything but two of the bacopa stems, they're still floating with a few leaves left on them. Hopefully they make it! There's some algae growing in there, but I'm not too worried about it just yet. It's not taking over or anything, just accumulating in the edges and on the rocks but easily removed at water changes. I'm going to cut back on how much I'm feeding to see if that helps. 

GH: 60
KH: 40
pH: 6.5 
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

[Guppysnail]

Looking really great 😍

[A3M0N]

On 11/14/2022 at 3:22 PM, Guppysnail said:

Looking really great 😍

Thank you! I think the light makes a huge difference, the colors are so much better. 

[TeeJay]

On 10/8/2022 at 3:57 PM, A3M0N said:

Well, that one last ludwigia stem that was looking good last week turned to mush this week. I have no idea what happened to it. It was green and had some new leaves growing, I noticed it looking dark when I changed the water yesterday, it was all mushy when I touched it. It came right out of the sand with no roots. Instead of just throwing it away I left it in the tank to see if some part of it may recover, you can see it in the bottom left corner. 

The first thing I did with the ludwigia is Reverse Respiration overnight, then planted it into the sand. I didn't have any fertilizer going on at the time and didn't start the EI dry ferts for a week or so after. The nitrates always read zero with my little fish and one snail, so maybe that's why they didn't make it. Next time maybe I'll just let the stems float for a week or so? They weren't cuttings though, they had roots. 

The vallisneria is looking better now, its green again! I think I'll just watch the vals get stronger for a little while then add some more plants after these get healthier. I like the look of ludwigia, and I thought it was an easy plant to grow. I like the stem plants look, but maybe I ought to get some easier plants just to get them growing. 

I finally got a shot of one of the neons hiding in the cave/pot! I really want another snail after seeing @Guppysnail's magenta mysteries. @Chick-In-Of-TheSea or @TeeJay , if y'all hatch some keep me in mind please! 

Testing this week: 
GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 6.5 
Nitrite: 1  (should I test for ammonia too just to be sure?)
Nitrate: 40 

Update on the snails. I have 2 magenta clutches In the incubator right now. We will see how these do and if I can get some to grow. 

On 11/14/2022 at 4:28 PM, A3M0N said:

Thank you! I think the light makes a huge difference, the colors are so much better. 

Yes the light makes a big difference for sure. 👍

[A3M0N]

Aside from almost killing my fish with cold water from the outside spigot at my last water change, everything is doing well.  I got the water warmed back up as quickly as possible, they didn't eat well yesterday though. But they ate a lot this morning, so that's good news. I didn't lose any of them, but two of neons did sink to the substrate and just sit for a few minutes. All fish (and snail) are accounted for and active now. 

Got the last two floaters planted! So far every plant I received is still alive and many are thriving. Not to knock my local big box pet store, but these plants came in with much higher quality. I really wanted a thick vallisneria background, but it just isn't taking off. Its ok, I'm also very happy with how the ludwigia and bacopa are doing, they'll also make a pretty background. 

I still have a decent amount of algae growing. Still not too worried. I don't want to reduce the amount of light, I think it's at a good place. I've been dosing fertilizer based on recommendations from where I bought it from, and it's for "10-20 gallon aquariums." So fertilizer may be the imbalance. I used a calculator to get a more custom, dialed in solution and mixed up enough for four weeks, we'll see if that makes a difference. 

GH: 120
KH: 40
pH: 6.5 
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20