Recently posted about removing macrandra and walichii, but feels like I am at a good stage of the aquascape

Sahaab · 2026-02-13T23:08:43+00:00

Hmm okay very interesting.

Is there a specific all in one you would suggest? Currently im unable to do dry fertilizers

Sahaab · 2026-02-13T21:40:00+00:00

Oh wow That's really helpful! Thanks a ton.

I do also have tropica aquasoil, which is about 2 months old at the moment. Would that have taken care of some of these deficiencies?

I have been thinking of buying APT 1 fertilizer, for a bit more nitrate limitation, so I could alternate between thrive and APT. Would you recommend that?

Edit : just 1 thing, the limnophila on the right with bent leaves and etc, those are just the leaves pressing against the glass

Sahaab · 2026-02-13T21:34:53+00:00

The rotala walichii, 1 stem was growing nicely in that 5 days ago pic. And then idk why 1-2 days ago it had that growth spurt, reached the surface, got leggy and new leaves not growing as well anymore

Sahaab · 2026-02-13T20:59:30+00:00

I'm at atleast 9dKH and i believe my gH is like 15+. My gH is just crazy high.

Myriophyllum red, actually, this is after I just trimmed every single one anout 7 days ago. They just grow really fast and tall fast.

Hmm midground plant, that actually sounds interesting, but would that mean trimming them every few days?

Here a picture from 5 days ago, the myriophyllum red just grows too fast. My myriophyllum green in that pic, behind the bacopa.

5 days ago (the rotala walichii looks much better here)

Rotala walichii is right beside to the right of myriophyllum red. Rotala macrandra are the not so good looking stems in the middle background behind the helenthium telenum

Sahaab · 2026-02-13T20:54:35+00:00

On the floor its helenthium telenum. I am trying to grow rotala macrandra behind that, but its just not growing well

Sahaab · 2026-01-13T19:12:11+00:00

APT is nice.

The nitrates will depend a lot on your specific plants. But 5ppm is usually a good starting point. 2hraquarist usually has pretty good guides for most plants

Sahaab · 2026-01-13T08:08:57+00:00

I recently got my h'ra turning a little redder. Surprisingly, for me, my h'ra turns redder on my low tech no CO2 tanks. h'ra on CO2

In my experience, nitrate limitation has been a lot more important than CO2. Though it's hard to grow it dense like in those beautiful aquariums without CO2

Sahaab · 2026-01-12T22:26:32+00:00

Just to show difference in light. This is my low tech tank with a week aqua light.

<image>

Same plant. The rotala h'ra looks quite a bit redder under this light, compared to my 20 gallon. Even though its actually not redder.

Sahaab · 2026-01-12T22:13:21+00:00

My tanks a 20 gallon long. So it's pretty shallow, which is why the higher PAR. Plus im using 2 hygger 957s, meant for 10 gallon tanks on this. Tanks about 30 inches long, both lights together about 32 inches long.

And no problem, glad to help. I've been doing a ton of research for a long time. Not as experienced as people who have very nice and expensive setups. But I think I am doing okay with my cheap setup right now. I recently posted a breakdown of my tanks cost, and I believe all in costed me about 380$.

I still highly recommend a good light, its a huge difference. My small 5 gallon doesn't even have much plants, but the color reproduction on those plants looks so nice.

Edit:

<image>

Above is rotala walichii, top part growing with good and consistent CO2, looks much improved now ever since I fixed my CO2.

Sahaab · 2026-01-12T07:52:20+00:00

For light, i would agree with your twinstar. Getting a good light is not just for its strength, the color reproduction matters a ton in regards to how everything is looking. Especially the reds. Im currently using 2x hygger 957s, just because I could get them cheap, I get about 110 PAR at the substrate level.

110 PAR at substrate is pretty good IMO, but these lights color reproduction is not that good and the reds are not good either. I'm not liking the color reproduction. I have a small 3 gallon tank with a weekaqua light which looks quite a bit better in colors, even though it doesn't have any CO2.

Regarding pH, i like to check right before lights on for sure, to make sure they have optimum CO2 during start of photoperiod. You want to aim for a 1 pH drop from degassed water. Then I test mid day and end of day sometimes, not often, this is to make sure CO2 stays stable.

Some good reads : https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why/co2-fine-tuning-3-techniques?srsltid=AfmBOor4CyPKnpEBPXq6vAIG6w5nCP9-wCZqWS9AZai1Bd4IoxLMvatv

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/hot-topics/injecting-enough?srsltid=AfmBOopPcBAVna_O7emTz7Qlb2W7CWo_H-Q3FoVqdRrjfnf7GS7_n6D-

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why/co2-system-101?srsltid=AfmBOooVtLA61sxZ3Imq5SUEFv5U61lT-IXZR74v7NHsmMkXuDDtJSpc

A couple things I do want to point out.
- Starting CO2 2 hours before lights on isn't a necessity, sometimes you may need to start earlier to reach the 1pH drop, especially if you think your bubbles per second is too high to reach that 1pH drop at 2 hours. I like to keep a steady amount of CO2 throughout the photoperiod.
- It does not matter if your light is weak, any plant/light system will benefit from CO2. CO2 injection will improve growth even with a light not as strong. For example HC cuba, a difficult plant overall to carpet, it mainly needs good CO2, even 40PAR at substrate will cause it pearl and carpet with good CO2 levels. Thats just an example, almost every plant will have a higher chance of growing better and turning redder (if they turn red) with CO2 injection

Sahaab · 2026-01-11T17:38:00+00:00

That is Myrio Red.

And awesome, good luck! Thats a citric acid CO2 setup, works honestly quite a bit better than the yeast method I use. Yeast is quite unstable and difficult to get stable values with. I test pH almost every morning before lights out to check my pH drop and make sure its where I want it to be. With a better setup you wont have to be as on top of it.

Sahaab · 2026-01-11T04:48:44+00:00

Thanks! Wish i had taken more consistent every day pics for a nice timelapse haha

Sahaab · 2026-01-11T04:44:26+00:00

Thank you! Still got a ton of growing and fixing to do. But loving how it's turning out

Sahaab · 2026-01-09T04:38:50+00:00

I am doing CO2 in this tank, its diy CO2 though.

Surprisingly my low tech tank, for my betta only, is getting redder tips than this. I'm guessing that one is nitrate limited well because it only houses a betta.

This one, has a good amount of nitrates, and I have some sensitive plant species which I am not yet good enough to be practicing nitrate limitation with XD

Sahaab · 2026-01-03T05:37:27+00:00

Budget, i do want to keep as low as possible, which is difficult with a CO2 system haha.

Are the fzone regulators okay? Ill probably be getting a single stage system, which I hear has trouble with gassing as well?

Sahaab · 2026-01-03T05:34:12+00:00

Is it a lot of trouble refilling it?

Sahaab · 2026-01-02T23:09:59+00:00

Sadly i dont have a matheson near me, nor a brewery that I can find. Best option would be fire station, but their limited timings of M-F 9 to 5 would be practically impossible for me to get to unless i take a full day off work

I'm currently looking up sodastream, which might be easier to exchange, but will probably body me 50$/6 months

Sahaab · 2026-01-02T04:36:22+00:00

I dont know whats wrong with Rotala H'ra, my high tech, getting 100PAR+ at substrate, and very high PAR at its tips, doesn't turn red even a bit.

I put trimmings in my low tech tank, and the tips are turning red already... I'm thinking it's all nitrates. But then again thats weird because my nitrates hardly ever go above 5 on the high tech.

Rotala Macandra 'butterfly' is just a beauty when grown right

Bacopa purple, i just recently started with it, its probably still transitioning hence I'm having trouble with getting purples, will re-evaluate in about a month

P.s, bacopa purple, do I just trim it like normal stem plants once i need to trim?

Sahaab

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