My 55g <UPDATE 4/17/10 on pg 5>

[angel]

Although I'd think just keep doing exactly what you're doing, you can email Joe and see what's next. I'm sure he'd be fine to say what comes next.

[jeremyh81]

The 55 is getting better. I finally bought some Algone, added a long airstone on a deep-water air pump, and put a micron cartridge in the HOT 250. I ran the micron until flow stopped, then swapped it out with a fresh one until that one stopped flowing. Now I can finally see the back of the tank through a light cloud! There's still some free-floating algae, so I'm going to try the willow branch trick on that. There's a large willow tree just outside my apartment that I could take a clipping from.

The lighting has also changed to a standard 48" 2xT8 fixture from WalMart ($12) w/ 6500K bulbs. Can't remember the wattage at the moment, but I think it's about 1wpg total and running about 10 hours per day.

All fish are well and I even added 6 baby Emerald cories to the community. I think I'm going to scratch the Angels in favor of a SA community of 7-9 diamonds, maybe 8-10 (or more) neons, and maybe some hatchets. All depending on my carrying capacity. The 4 diamonds do need a few more school-mates, though. I've noticed and read that they preferred odd-numbered schools.

2 of the 3 plecos from Drew have about 1-2mm long bristles now! There are 2 in the 55, and the one without any bristles is the aggressor. I'm assuming it's a female, which makes the aggression odd (to me at least).

I would like to take the leaf plants out, except the crypts. Of all things, the crypts are actually growing runners! I haven't been fertilizing at all. We can thank (someone) for poor advice and me for not listening to Jon and Joe.

[jeremyh81]

One question, though: If it comes down to removing all of the plants, would the iron-enriched Flourite substrate cause any problems with future algae blooms?

[jeremyh81]

Ok, now I'm amazed. I went to visit my parents over the weekend and came back to nearly crystal-clear water! The tank had gone 2 weeks without a water change and no ferts for over a month. The only change was that I replaced an Algone pack with a fresh one.

So yesterday I changed roughly 20% water, removed the dead leaf plants, and trimmed some of the stem plants. Now the only plants are some wisterias, crypts, and anubias. No CO2, but still have the bubble wand on the deep water air pump.

I can finally enjoy my "new" tank! Maybe it's time to give the diamonds a few more playmates.

[angel]

That's the best news of the day!

[jeremyh81]

Thank you! I took some pics yesterday and will get them uploaded tonight.

[jeremyh81]

Here it is!



You can find more pics in my Photobucket albums at www.photobucket.com/jhenson81.

[angel]

Wow!! Major WOW! It's like it was never green!

[jeremyh81]

Apr 21, 2010 19:04:15 GMT -6 angel said:

Wow!! Major WOW! It's like it was never green!

The first thing I said when I saw this was, "holy s**t!!!"

Maybe it was the Algone or maybe it just needed a little more O2 and less CO2/ferts.

Going to leave it alone for now and see what happens. Then I have some beautiful stem plants w/ red leaves in the 26 that I'll clean properly and transplant into here.

We'll be sticking with the easy plants and low light for now. If algae returns, out with the plants!

[angel]

Good call!