Planted Tank Timeline

From the beginning until now. Tank 3 plant growth and progress updates.

5-May-2024 More plants and a small rock added. Water clarity improving. Day 2

8-May-2024. Added a few more stems. Filter-bag over filter outlet to reduce currents. Extra heaters after water-change [right]. Day 4

11-May-2024. Water-change and added drift-wood. Pre-cleaned and soaked in warm water for a few hours to help it sink. Still needed to be held down with rocks. Day 7

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it's progressing. The hair-algae is a bit annoying, but an increase to the tempo of water changes should keep that in check. There are 6 Otocinclus Catfish now in the tank. They're actively munching on the greens, together with the 6 Endler Guppies, and the snails, will all keep pressure on the primitive-greens, whilst I keep the CO2 delivery "on high" and help the plants (sophisticated-greens) get the edge.

A worrying amount of algae is growing.

First theory; Too much nutrient in water due to young tank and new substrate (leach-peak). Will attempt to remedy by doing more water changes (60% every 2 days).

Increasing the water changes and stopping dosing of the liquid plant fertilizer has improved things, but the algae growth continues (feeding on dying plants?!). Have to try something else.

After manually cleaning up the algae by removing the wood and giving it a scrub, trimming and removing all algae-covered plant-parts, and doing a water change, I set the light to peak at 60% of max intensity (was peaking at 100%).

Reducing light to reduce algae-growth. Let's see if that helps.