# Syn tank, shrimp tank, tree of life ressurections



## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

The Intro:
continuation of: "King's never die."
All you've seen in part 1 and looking me to continue from that time forget about it. I have totally different dimension
tanks now. 
3 tanks
my hehe fire tank, 20 gallon long, this is the tank that gets the most maintainance, got my best plants, and gets most of
my attention
75 gallon filled 30-40% water, shallow water softwater mass produce tank
and my 56g frag tank, growing mosses and low light-moderate light

I've been into aquariums over 20+ years and i've only burnt out a few times. The key to not burning out? Some make sales,
communications, relating, relations. The internet and the social chat is a big huge reason why i don't burn out. The kush
moments of the tank get me so passionate. Theres a lot of different clicks and blends, then theres just whack jobs. I 
got my sales, and i keep a close niche of people in some sort of realm of circle of bsing around and then plant talk. It
all keeps me enthused. When you burn out, your tank knows and starts to go south. My uncle on my mom's side came over to my 
house and checked out my plants and I quote said, "Oh! They're breathing", this being said made me so happy and appreciative.
I swear, I've thought it, that I'd sell my soul for my planted tanks. Its my main focus in life, and i'm damn lazy. That
I would give up all the people around me, just for my planted tanks. In the past I ended up in the hospital and went
through a tough time, very tough, very depression type, first thing i did when I got out was go to the welding airgas
and swapped my tank cause I ran out of co2. Talk about whackos. But really, you've got to get a click in the game. 
Its just very helpful and beneficial. We strive for each other. It sucks being lonely. It sucks just surviving. But its
just so damn good thriving. But what u do to thrive? ur drive, how much you want it, and who'd you'd stab over it.
Everyone's commenting and taking so much pleasure in being right, the scene socially is just weird. I'd rather post on a
forum where the postings are rather permanent, than on social media where it dissappears into the dust, search function
is not as great. But God, it feels good to get those likes. Support can make or break you. I see, oh i only got 1 like, 
I feel like s* now. Oh I got 8 likes, bad ass. All temporary and all just moments.

A sort of maturation into the hobby. Things are much easier now. More laid back and more laxed. Knowledge and information
it just keeps coming. Don't worry if you get algae. The system gives u more chances, if not, redo the system. I've killed
so many fauna through the 20 years, also given good homes, but its just not right, how i get over things so fast. Thats
a weird condition of the brain I do not understand. A 6 year relationship and I could care less right after we break up.
Call me a robot? maybe, but I got heart too. Time to respect the fauna more than the flora. Or less I be reincarnated
into a beautiful syn tank as a panda loach and get gassed out. Down the line, if your co2 is too high even if your fish
are not gasping yet, it still takes it toll on them, they will die faster overtime. You look at all the signs, your fish
go up for air once in awhile, some do, some don't suppose to do that. But at the same time its the aesthetics of the fish
in which we may treat it differently. I've kept panda loaches (gassed), discus (got them breeding, unsuccessful, sold
after 3 attempt), severums (good homes), shrimp(good and bad), coruydoras (bred, unsuccessful raising fry), cardinals
(good homes), loaches (usually gassed), guppies platys and mollies and endles (good and bad), plecos (good and bad), galaxy
rasboras (good), those at the top of my head, so much more. In general with pets/animals I think its pretty balanced out
of giving heaven or hell. 

I can grow a wide range of plants pretty well, but I always get bored so fast, mosses and syns are my most passionate 
plants. I cannot grow reds, scratch that, I cannot get my pantanal deep red and down, its a plant thats a great contrast
with syns. I've grown a lot, melted a lot, killed many of species and yet I can't throw trims away, I just can't do it.
Here I am desecrating all these species, wasting high $, and I can't throw away a live plant. So it either gets sold or 
given away. I can't grow rotala florida, sunset and any other within the realm. I can't grow downoi. I'm not gonna name 
anything i haven't tried. Erios! I'm cursed, I get them growing good for a bit but everytime they melt on me. I'm really
starting to think its the substrate. Easy erios like malaytoor and such, I can grow, its mainly ball erios, the most
pretty ones mainly. 

I really looked up to Barr and how well he grows plants. No secret to his success really. He's said all he's done by
now into the game. To take a tonina lotus blossom and snap it, it breaks like a stick, a erio with so much roots and so
fully grown I can't even plant it in 2" soil without it floating up, syn madeira looking like a pike, a weapon called a
pike, I was so fascinated by his plants. Everyone who thinks hes hiding something which he already said how to, I figured
the secret. Nowadays he recaps his soil. All it is, is feeding the plants. Feeding, pumping, and pumping, light light light
co2 co2 nutrients nutrients nutrients. High light photosynthesis, high co2, no need to fight each other to eat, high 
nutrients. You know what, I've done the same, but not with erios. I got madeira stem to look like a pike, the stem of madeira
is really interesting, its thick not stem thin, and the leaves have no real rythmn to them. Tonina snaps, check. The way
I am I'll probably never be top grower eventhough i want to be. Oh and I forgot, feed feed feed plants, and reset, wc. The
reset water change allows you to keep on. Do over and over and over, mega plants.

I've spread a lot of myths about moss in the past. Ie Mosses do not need nutrients, without nutrients moss will grow
stringy, with, they grow in nice and thick. I've said they don't do well with co2 but they do. Man decades ago I was
selling mosses left and right and growing the snot out of them. Good flows good. When you tie or attach though, what
you really want to do is a thin layer of moss. It'll get you so much more far. In fact, if you tie your layers thick
the mosses fronds or whatever will compete and not grow as fast nor look as nice. That thin layer and growing it out
just looks divine. There are major players and minor players in the game. All you need is to obtain x1 of the plant
and you can control the sales game. You get that one and if your eager and determined enough you'll mass prop it and
take control all the awhile the other guy is selling. A buddy of mine rarez, plays it really smart, hoarding bbw and
matto grasso, no one will ever take over, nor take his place, well not unless he dies or something. I'm coming to begin
to know that all plants are weedy, in this time. TAke any slow grower, after initial adjustment, they all boom off
after a period of time. If not, the plants just not for survival. Plants will fight, but I'll show you a picture of
some tonina in its natural environment. The plants just not made for survival, its bound to go extinct.

Just a little bit of what it all about. #synpassion

Main "Fire" Tank
20 gallon long
Lighting: Beamswork fspec da x2, 30", set currently at 7 (for brightness) both led fixtures.
co2: mr aqua turbo reactor 400 
soil: malaya
water: pure ro
remin: lowkeys gh booster, just a few drops
had* platys

Mass syn produce tank
75 gallon shallow water tank. Tank is filled to about 40%
internal filter with built in uv
co2 mr aqua 400 reactor
amazonia soil, old, aged
water is pure ro
remineralization with lowkeys gh booster
has platys
aquasky light 48" x1

Frag moss tank
36"x30"x12" high
light is a ati fixture, 6 bulb, but I drop the light in the water and now 2 sockets are shorted out, no matter what bulb i put
malaya, africana, and chinese crap soil capped
pure ro water or water from other tanks upon water changes of other tanks
wet dry filter
cerges co2 reactor


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

StrungOut said:


> The Intro:
> 
> continuation of: https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/12-tank-journals/1190914-kings-never-die.html
> 
> ...




I read the whole post! An interesting, stream of consciousness look at the hobby in your experience. 
Nice, I enjoyed it. 
Thanks for the update. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Thanks very much discusluv. Got a good appreciation to this hobby. Really cool stuff.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone
I've gotten most syn to flower stalk. I've gotten syngo belem, sao gabriel, lago grande, rio uaupes, rio ***** giant, 
rio ***** 2006 all to stalk. Never seen a flower once for all of them. I've never gotten manaus or madeira to stalk. 
But I'm wondering how to propagate the flower pods. Does anyone know and can help? Is it cool to just pull the stalks
out, dry them up and then pinch and spinkle onto emmerse setup? Is it possible to cross pollinate and create some
sort of hybrid syngonanthus? Seems like no one knows. They know how to with erios. The plants have not seem to die off
at all though having three stalks or so. The buds even seem to attract cyano. I use a small siphon and it doesn't seem to 
suck off. My ph must be pretty low, i haven't measured it. If anyone can help or refer someone to help that would be
greatly appreciated. In all my life I have never seen a syn flower or belem shoot out a stalk, and stupid me wasn't paying attention when
I was trimming i pulled it off, when it was pretty close to the surface, without noticing and tossed it. Even when belem
reaches the surface of the water I still have not seen it stalk till now.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

Gorgeous plants! 

I am a noobie at best-- no help here

But, maybe @Maryland Guppy @burr740 @Greggz can help.


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

I'm just happy my syns and lotus blossom are nearing the surface.
Doubt I'd try to flower these.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Discusluv said:


> Gorgeous plants!
> 
> I am a noobie at best-- no help here<a href="http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/images/smilie/icon_smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" ></a>
> 
> But, maybe @Maryland Guppy @burr740 @Greggz can help.





Maryland Guppy said:


> I'm just happy my syns and lotus blossom are nearing the surface.
> Doubt I'd try to flower these.


Thanks discusluv. 
Maryland guppy, at a point in time metoo but now I want to conquer all species of the genus


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Hey Dennis good to see you here again.

I saw your opening post a while back, but it took me until now to read it all!:grin2:

Wish I could help, but when it comes to Syngo's I don't think there is a higher authority than you. 

Looking forward to following along....subscribed!.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Greggz said:


> Hey Dennis good to see you here again.
> 
> I saw your opening post a while back, but it took me until now to read it all!<a href="http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/images/PlantedTank_net_2015/smilies/tango_face_grin.png" border="0" alt="" title="Big Grin" ></a>
> 
> ...


Thanks for that greggz, it means a lot. Ya I've gotten no hits regarding subject


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Things weren't perfect but it was a good clean run

_The Meltdown_

So I had a streak of good clean growth and it has/had ended. Things weren't perfect but felt very kush and very proud. These plants are labeled "s" grades and I've seen them melt rather very rapidly. Overnight a plant can be torched if its unsatisfied with conditions. Fully melted overnight. I've mainly seen it in Amazonia. The thing I have to do is pinpoint the cause of the melt. If I can stop that, I can stop from losing my plants. So talking about melt, that's exactly what happened beginning end of December. Two changes had haps, I added a few import plants, dec 23rd, and 24rth I added dwarf puffers. Wow, the mindset when melting hits. I am absolutely devastated. I've known colonies devastated. My mindset is poor and my spirit is weak. How can this be? Along with the melt I got algae as well. I'm battling bga, bba, and the green stuff, well the green stuff I attacked with api algaefix right away, that stuff works rather fast and well but goes against my beliefs in using chemicals. But when you panick or are impatient, its the way I went. "Patience" is a big virtue in this hobby. I want my plants grown overnight, so I can trim and sell them, then repeat. But I need patience, I've seen this melt before.

So I thought of things that could cause

Ammonia
Light
co2
nutrients
buffer depleted
soil depleted

Well my puffers were leaching something and they were my main suspect. Got it right, I removed them and donated them back to the lfs. It had to be ammonia of some sort. That is my conclusion
When you get melt like this its real hard to bounce back. Usually the plant keeps on melting. So after I removed the puffers, the melting stopped.

Things going good 12-22-19-12-23-19

























puffers added 12-23-2019









damage(melt), algae (bba, cyano)

































Some things I did after removing puffers
mass water changes, suctioning of plants, manual algae removal, addition of humic acid (this stuff clears rather rapidly depending on how much you use)
the humic acid was a paranoia that the buffer of the substrate had ran out








mass water changes









Aftermath, see the melt, see the new growth

















Looks like I weathered the storm. Things are looking back up, I hope to get back to almost perfection


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

Don't feel bad, I went through a major algae bomb just last fall.
Seemed like a double dose of melt and algae.

Had to dose AlgaeFix or lose it all.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Maryland Guppy said:


> Don't feel bad, I went through a major algae bomb just last fall.
> Seemed like a double dose of melt and algae.
> 
> Had to dose AlgaeFix or lose it all.


Tough times...


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## Desert Pupfish (May 6, 2019)

StrungOut said:


> Things weren't perfect but it was a good clean run
> 
> _The Meltdown_
> 
> ...


Very odd that the puffers could have been the cause. Did you have a big snail population they make a big dent in? Wonder if eliminating snails could have precipitated it--since one puffer can obliterate a tank in days... Can an obligate carnivore an inch long create enough ammonia from eating that much escargot that it would affect your plants in a tank that densely planted? But if the plants improved after removing the puffers, then that could be the/a cause. How many puffers did you have?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Desert Pupfish said:


> StrungOut said:
> 
> 
> > Things weren't perfect but it was a good clean run
> ...


No snails at all in my tank before or after. The puffers didn't seem happy when co2 came on. They wouldn't gasp but they would hide throughout the photoperiod. Letting to me to believe that they were stressing a lot and such releasing ammonia. I had 5 puffers. Before I had platys in there no issues. The platys would help with algae contributing to healthy plant growth. But riding the fish has allowed me raise co2. I dont see a difference though from where I had it before and boost in plant growth


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

_Importing_

In years of importing it always happens and repeats itself. Plant die off rapidly, plants take long to adapt, sometimes recover, some dont', and then boom in growth after a certain time. I believe all plants are weeds given their condition, otherwise they'd go extinct. I'm curious as to the water being different that we aren't measuring. Say you take hard water and filter it through a ro system and you take soft water and filter it through the same system would those two waters be exactly alike? One of the main sources of success is water chemistry ranging all in all throughout the hobby from Sulawesi shrimp to eriocaulon. Hell I believe if you replicate their natural environment we wouldn't need co2(so many ways of getting it, atmosphere, pressurized, diy, fauna breathing, decaying, substances, <<death>>) or dosing and such. Impossible to exactly replicate cause its just a box. My box of heaven. Any slow grower, we all find out they're weeds, but it takes that initial adjustment. Importing sucks because, $, losses, takes forever to get the plant going, and hey, natural environments could get swamped. Like buces. 

Bahia, sensitive plant, does not like touching at all. I had one touching with eriocaulon sectaceum Kimberly and both melted however the bahia came back. They fought each other to the death. Treat as erio?









Eriocaulon sectaceum Kimberly, took me a year to finally get one stem to split, now it splits rather fast, I just don't get it, why did it take so damn long, I kept having to trim the bottom off. Sectaceums don't split by trimming the bottoms. They split by the crowns. I grew 5 plants, but then melted a couple









MG-Matto Grasso, I killed very first import, it melted a day, currently bought 3x, put x2 in Malaya and x1 in Amazonia, in Malaya melted overnight, in Amazonia melted in a week

























UH-Utricularia heterosepala, I started a very small patch and a year later was a very small patch. I got it going, then it died on out, lucky me, I gave to two backups
no pic

uaupes, I already have the plant, but I'm always after new, who knows it may end up different, but this one ended up the same, I already have, I've been screwed on imports as well claiming id, importing sucks


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

You know even though they grow pretty well, I still love and search out and ask people different questions about syngonanthus. Well actually no, I ask certain people about different aspects to it all, each person has their unique expertise or way and I just love talking it. I've been reading published papers on the syngonanthus and the propagation/germination of seeds. One thing needed is pollination. I cannot do this, the water would be like 3 inches high in order for the bud to emerged. The flower stalks grow very slow and very short like the plants. I'm working with a well known identifyer who is very awesome for helping me. The buds are pollinated, (these papers most likely talking terrestrial syn.), by insects. I don't know if I'm being dumb here if that's the only way plants pollinate in nature. There are a lot of scientific words that regard in the paper that I don't even know or didn't even bother to look up. Its too much, would get me exhausted in the brain quickly, so I didn't. So many scientific words, so many great words, these papers have the greatest words. I'm thinking about doing a fourth tank, most likely emmersed, or a germination chamber for seeds. Either of the two. I can't king thy crown if others are beginning to learn and grow the hard stuff with their different methods and such. Different methods, its what makes us all wrong, and all right, cause everyone has their own method to the box. I for one am stubborn in not trying out different things. In order to grow and advance I need to. I'm just too worried about algae all the time that I regress into the same routines. I've got a lot of new exciting things going on regarding aquaria, I just love these highs and passion.

P.S. they now have a sunsun canister with a lcd display and adjustable flow. getting a bit excessive technology wise aren't we? Its great, but at the same time I think its bad, especially for the beginners and novices who can't keep up with it.

P.S. isn't this a money maker? timer on your co2 regulator. Why hasn't anyone done this?

P.S. I'm pretty bummed I'm not doing well with fishes. I won't go into details. I doing fine with my low light moss tank, but other than that, I keep getting into rare fish and kill them. Its what completes the system in my opinion and I can't get them thriving. I did fine will platys.

just a pic, I'm going to slowly aquascape this one, I'm going all out.


God I've got a ton of pictures, I lost 50000+, but racking the number back up, its a pain and I'm lazy to sort them. Otherwise this post would be so much better.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

StrungOut said:


> You know even though they grow pretty well, I still love and search out and ask people different questions about syngonanthus. Well actually no, I ask certain people about different aspects to it all, each person has their unique expertise or way and I just love talking it. I've been reading published papers on the syngonanthus and the propagation/germination of seeds. One thing needed is pollination. I cannot do this, the water would be like 3 inches high in order for the bud to emerged. The flower stalks grow very slow and very short like the plants. I'm working with a well known identifyer who is very awesome for helping me. The buds are pollinated, (these papers most likely talking terrestrial syn.), by insects. I don't know if I'm being dumb here if that's the only way plants pollinate in nature. There are a lot of scientific words that regard in the paper that I don't even know or didn't even bother to look up. Its too much, would get me exhausted in the brain quickly, so I didn't. So many scientific words, so many great words, these papers have the greatest words. I'm thinking about doing a fourth tank, most likely emmersed, or a germination chamber for seeds. Either of the two. I can't king thy crown if others are beginning to learn and grow the hard stuff with their different methods and such. Different methods, its what makes us all wrong, and all right, cause everyone has their own method to the box. I for one am stubborn in not trying out different things. In order to grow and advance I need to. I'm just too worried about algae all the time that I regress into the same routines. I've got a lot of new exciting things going on regarding aquaria, I just love these highs and passion.
> 
> P.S. they now have a sunsun canister with a lcd display and adjustable flow. getting a bit excessive technology wise aren't we? Its great, but at the same time I think its bad, especially for the beginners and novices who can't keep up with it.
> 
> ...


 If you ever have questions about fish, let me know. I cannot help you with plants, but I may be able to help with your fish.



Let me know what your keeping- some basic stats on water they are in, high tech/low tech, feeding schedules and type, other fish in tank-- and Ill try to help.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Discusluv said:


> If you ever have questions about fish, let me know. I cannot help you with plants, but I may be able to help with your fish.
> 
> 
> 
> Let me know what your keeping- some basic stats on water they are in, high tech/low tech, feeding schedules and type, other fish in tank-- and Ill try to help.



I kept platys fine in the tank. Then I went to dwarf puffers. Then Pseudomugil mellis. Before prior I tried panda loach twice. Without the co2 and without the syngonanthus conditioned tanks, I keep fish very successfully. I loved keeping discus, but you need a big tank, heavy water changes, heavy feedings of homemade beefheart as all others will not bulk them up no matter how much you feed. I got them to breed 3 times before giving up as they have to learn to raise their young. Fun stuff, only thing holding me back from ever! keeping again is the big tank.

Platys
Were fine, I noticed that if they're all surfacing at once and not trying to eat food (all the time), that the co2 is too high. So I know dial good co2 for platys. They shouldn't really be surfacing.

Dwarf puffers
These were okay only during lights off. They were surfacing and not really gasping though. During day they would just hide and I'd never see them. No deaths, I gave them back to the lfs.

Honey blue eyed
What happened here was, I got 4, plopped dropped them, actually I plop drop mostly all. I had dosed the tank prior with humic acid, and putting them in the tank, they were all f-ed up swimming but recovered. This is all lights off. I didn't do the start up for the tank this day. Turned off co2 and kept the lights off. I within a little time dosed 4 drops of gh booster made by lowkeys. I didn't check on tank till later, Found 3 dead bodies, 4rth body I cannot find.

Panda loaches,
gassed, within 2 days, lost colony. This one is obvious to me, back then I was pumping a ton of co2. Both times, I didn't understand it as I do now. The co2 that is

quick specs of tank
pure ro
very light remin, as y ou see I only add few drops
Malaya substrate, the ph is in the 5s, not with co2 on


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)




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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I'd love to keep corydoras again, I believe most come from soft blackwater. For my sand tank that is, however parameters are:
ph 4.2 before co2
pure ro
acidic stuff in substrate


















































*Does anyone know the bubble substrate that I used back then? You can see it in the group of albino corydoras pic*


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

You can't take a factor of a planted tank and call it the main variable. I know ppl doing this with microtox if light and co2 are good then=ferts, I've seen it done with co2, but co2 utilization peaks, its not what makes the tank. If it was, then everyone can do this. I've done a wide range of moderate to higher levels of co2 with not much or no differences, I've done it with lighting. I've seen nutrients cause algae and nutrients not cause algae. It doesn't mean you should go ei. My reason that ei works so well, is that the people successful with it have a wide range of plants, plants mass as well as algae busters. *Algae busters*, I think the reason ei works well is that you have super fast growing plants absorbing all that gunk in the water and as well you've got the reset with water changes. When I look at my planted tank, its consuming so much resources with the amount of water changes and materials I put into the tank. These plants are like ludwigia reds and pantanal, floaters, foregrounds...


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

StrungOut said:


> *Does anyone know the bubble substrate that I used back then? You can see it in the group of albino corydoras pic*


PhosGuard!?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

KayakJimW said:


> StrungOut said:
> 
> 
> > *Does anyone know the bubble substrate that I used back then? You can see it in the group of albino corydoras pic*
> ...


Naw it's a inert sub. I think it is coral sand or something.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Uaupes vs Giant
Both species splits a lot. However if you trim giant leaves or bottom the plant, it hinders growth severely. With uaupes, it just keeps growing, splits and splits. Giant is easier of the two and has more uniform growth in groups. Uaupes will always be my favorite. Giant roots way better, Uaupes hardly roots into the soil. Rio ***** 2006 roots in very well to the other two, but will get into that species when grow out more full adult plants. See in pics how uaupes can take different shape depending on water parameters
uaupes
































rio 2006









Lenghty vs short
This is how I want my tank but way shorter. 
overgrown but tall

















short but not overgrown









In fresh Malaya, the syns(not all) will grow more lengthier. I want the main tank with all predominantly s grades and giants and maybe lago grande. I'm afraid of capping new Malaya soil and redoing the tank as I really don't want to deal with cyano and lenghty syns. 
















































Up nextz
actual start of journal
1. main tank of syns
2. moss frag tank
3. syn propagation tank (sand)


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

StrungOut said:


> Naw it's a inert sub. I think it is coral sand or something.


Oh gotcha, I was thinking you knew what it was and seeing if anybody could guess it haha. I thought it may have been a good use for accumulated used phosguard instead of throwing it out because it looked so similar. I guess it would be a little light to plant in tho…

Seems like a coral sand would buffer water higher if it were aragonite/calcium based, but looking around led me to this: https://www.sciencesource.com/archive/Coral-Sand-from-Apo-Island-SS2432107.html#/SearchResult&ITEMID=SS2432107
Getting warmer maybe?


Beautiful plants man, I never tried Syns but enjoy looking at yours


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

KayakJimW said:


> StrungOut said:
> 
> 
> > Naw it's a inert sub. I think it is coral sand or something.
> ...


Ya looks like it almost the same with bits here and there. Yes I forgot about the leech and it was very porous for planting. Thanks for reply.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

Sorry, I missed this post. 
Your PH is very low, as you know. Do you know what your kh/gh is? I would think fish that come from Blackwater regions: Rummynose, Black neons, neons, cardinal tetras, some corydoras, discus, Angels, etc.. would work well in your water. 
Regardless of where you purchase fish and what kind, with a Ph so low I would slowely acclimate them to your water to not induce osmoregulatory shock.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Discusluv said:


> Sorry, I missed this post.
> Your PH is very low, as you know. Do you know what your kh/gh is? I would think fish that come from Blackwater regions: Rummynose, Black neons, neons, cardinal tetras, some corydoras, discus, Angels, etc.. would work well in your water.
> Regardless of where you purchase fish and what kind, with a Ph so low I would slowely acclimate them to your water to not induce osmoregulatory shock.


Ty for the suggestions. I'll look into them. Kh is 0 and gh is around 1


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

start of journal

Tank 1, main tank


20 gallon long tank
lighting is x2 beamswork dafspec, I only use the warms, currently dimmed to 7 on each fixture
5 hour photoperiod
co2, gla regulator, mr aqua turbo diffuser, 2nd size up, I think 400 or 600
stream of bps
SunSun 402b with uv on
pure ro water, light remin (lowkeys gh booster) few drops
random water changes, random dosing

full tank shot as of 2/5/2020
as well segment shots











































so now i'm back to fresh ada, growth should be ok but i'm sure lenghty unless I can do dosing different dosing regime, as well algae can/will flourish unless I keep up the water changes
well the tank looks bad anyways so here.
*Steps I may or may not do
I'm gonna redo the tank
cap with Malaya soil, one 3l bag
suck up and scrape all algae on walls
add a moss wall
add wood with moss tied
add humic acid below cap
try to suck up all the powder Malaya followed by water changes
clean the filter (the flow is down quite a bit), replace fluval peat granules with new box
*


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

As I age into aquariums, I now just want something I can look at all day and night. Before I was sales driven, now I'm not too worried on it. Most of them they come to me instead of advertising. And each sale is a cluster patch that leaves a gap. So I'm try focus more on making my tanks look better. heck I got all the time in the world. 


So steps I did:
Uproot all plants
build a moss wall (weeping)
add a wood (mini weeping, buce)
suck up all deteriorated powder of Malaya (this stuff is bad, powder dust on plants, algae cause)
scrape all bba off glass by siphon, scrape/suck
tear off algae leaves of plants
cap top with 3l of Malaya soil
cleaned the filter (sunsun canister), added new fluval peat granules to filter, tossed old stuff
water change 80-90%
replant plants

so my goal, overgrown, many splits, full grown plants, no gaps, short

2/6/20-2/8/20


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So from 2/8/20 to about a couple of days ago from today I have been battling cyano daily. Each day I'd airline tube it off. I'd rather have cyano, id prefer as I can manage it, over bba or hair algae. 

I have no fish and I've been able to blast co2. I see no difference as when I had it much lower, no difference at all. However, the soil is capped with new and my predictions of lenghty syngonanthus hasn't happened. 

I still am having melting issues. I think this is due to not enough water changes. Its mainly my rio ***** 2006 having the issues. I hate melt, its more problematic to me than any algae. I'm not really dosing at this point. 
































2/20/2020








So I removed a good amount of melting plants and rearranged some plants. As well to fill in the gap of the wood, I splitted some plants. I also have a fear that if I leave splits too long they'll eventually melt.

I am very determined to get back on track to this level. 








I took out the wood, and put it in my frag acrylic tank. It wasn't sinking. The weeping moss wall is slowly growing but not in the pattern to my liking. Debating what to do about it all the while I'm gonna install a spiky moss sidewall. 








Got 20# cylinders @ $60 each filled, good hydros. 

New equipment coming mail today from a buddy. 
















current 3/2/2020 fts


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So I think I finally narrowed it down to the syngonanthus melting of leaves to be some kind of touching disease. When the plants are healthy they can interconnect just fine with enough light getting to each of the leaves. So I've taken out most of the melting plants and either planted to my other tank or just tossed depending on the amount of green in the plant left. The initial melt could've of been ammonia but its continuing to spread despite daily water change and algae removal. Despite algae, I can almost guarantee that the melt is not caused by algae. May hinder growth a little bit, but that is it. I remove cyano daily with a airline tube and touching of those leaves with the suction I think I also spread the melt that way too. This is all just thinking observation, I can't really know. I've also got bba, but I don't remove it. For that I'd have to uproot the plants and strip it off. I can do that anytime. The melt is my main focus. The sideshoots don't melt because I plant them and they get plenty of space and not touch each other. This is all disheartening and has hardened me a bit, but I'll continue my persistence in solving the melt. Working daily for a little bit. The tougher syns like giants and such don't get it at all. The leaves are green and strong despite algae as well. By now things are rooted in pretty well so I expect better results. Some stems of melt had very well rooted into the soil as I removed them.

























I've been using a new led a friend of mine built me. It has full spread and can get par up over 300 real close to 400 par. I have it dimmed to about 70 par, 6 hrs light a day. 










moss frag tank


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## SingAlongWithTsing (Jun 11, 2015)

what's the distance between the substrate and the leds?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

SingAlongWithTsing said:


> what's the distance between the substrate and the leds?


Hey, 
About 17 inches minus the substrate, so to answer about 15"


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So while I'm manhandling my syn 20g long, I figure I start sharing my other two tanks as well. I'll start with the frag moss tank
I wasn't going to show this for awhile because I was gonna want to enter it into the iaplc competition. But that's kindve dumb that you can't
really share. Rather than wait for all it, I'll share progress and maybe enter to the aga. Nothing top ranking, just something I can look at.

Frag Moss Tank-advanced acrylics 36"x30"x12"high
eshopps wetdry system-media bioballs only
lighting- x6 bulb 36w ati dimmable 36" fixture, 2 bulbs per day, all 6 for taking pictures, sometimes
co2 pressurized injection
old ada Malaya and Africana, plus some Chinese soil, no real brand name
ro water, remineralized
top offs, no real water changes, probably x2 since its been set up
bluestar endlers
crs, bb, blue dream
manzanita wood for hardscape
center stump is probably Malaysian
buces, mosses, mainly
1 sword
This is just current progression. Tank is far from done, im waiting buces arrival, I have moss but am lazy to tie and glue, it takes a bit to get the motivation
[url=https://imgur.com/4nqVGYs][/URL]

<a href="https://imgur.com/4nqVGYs"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4nqVGYs.mp4" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
https://imgur.com/4nqVGYs
https://imgur.com/4nqVGYs


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

"U" can't invent a whole book of truth and prophecy. You can change it though and throughout time it can be well known as truth. 
The puzzle of God
There is to me no doubt there is a God, but what kind?
I think myself God is a naturalist. The way He does things is a natural flow. Things slowly naturally, overtime, He is one major one of patience.
Buddhism makes a lot of sense in the ways to perceive life and how to channel energy in a positive mindset.
10 commandments on how to act
I myself grew up in a way as Islam, only believing in Allah without the "trying to make sense in my mind" that an Omnipotent divine being sending a part of himself that can perform miracles although still limited to body. I still believe the lather though based on prophecy. That changed me to Christianity.
Its a puzzle I'll never solve until I die 
And even then will I know what happened?
There is a promise for me, and a revelation of truth so magnificient and worthy in the wait, my opinion
One thing, all most books have a savior, I believe that savior is all the same

Bump:


StrungOut said:


> "U" can't invent a whole book of truth and prophecy. You can change it though and throughout time it can be well known as truth.
> The puzzle of God
> There is to me no doubt there is a God, but what kind?
> I think myself God is a naturalist. The way He does things is a natural flow. Things slowly naturally, overtime, He is one major one of patience.
> ...


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I'm just got some fish stock for my frag tank. I got rid of as much endlers and shrimp as I could.
Fish I got were 7 red severums from the lfs
and 12 elegan corydoras from wetspot (this place really knows how to do it)
The cories look really cool swimming together but are already dividing into their shoals and school groups. This is the beginning I caught on tape. I feed daily live blackworms to each fishes. I really
want to fatten the corydoras up. I liked them so much I got the other 12 remaining from wetspot should come in tomorrow.
These fishes including the severums have kept me way more entertained and fascinated then my other two plant tanks at the moment.

https://vimeo.com/400415407

somehow I already violated terms and service through vimeo so cant link the other two videos


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

lets try this


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

For a friend, past scape attempts


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Almost any light will grow. I've even seen a youtube video of a 20000k (blue light) growing. Given almost any light will grow plants in your aquarium, it still is a whole nother variable in itself. There are so many different light options out there now. They all can work, you just got to work around it. Lighting is the major monster aspect in itself. It controls growth. So when people say factors like fertilizers or co2, it just may not be so to them answers, and the difference can be lighting. You see a trend of the t5s and different combinations of bulbs and certain height off the tank. A common setup that works real well and you see wonderful plants of result. Certain light, cause certain algaes? Yes I believe that. All the variables of lighting, some are repeat just different words for it-intensity, par, pur, spectrum, color, lux, kelvin, photoperiod. More more more things to look into. Some to never be learned. So ppl usually invest a lot into light? Why? I for one, want to be able to blast as well as dim, I want super fast growth for the plants that I do have. I don't know why it is, but it seems the t5 crowd does it better than the led crowd. I mean the top notch people. It all started with t8s,t12s with me, and I've seen some wonderful things with using those to grow. I noticed the difference in moss growths using powerglos, 50/50s, coralife 6500ks and 10ks..The co2 injection rate has changed as well as fertilization regimes for me, and as well few different lighting types of the leds, t5s, t8s, t12s and power compact. They all grow so well but I may have or may have not witnessed many different algae types in the different lightings I've used. Its funny how one tank gets a certain type of algae bba or bga ie, but never any other type of algae. I think overdosing co2 is overrated, at some point it stops getting used, maybe if increased lighting you can control it that way. Boost in growth doesn't all seem co2 related, I've done a few different injection rates myself. A lot of overdoing it, mainly in fear my plants would die. So I keep injection rates rather high, if I want to add fauna or so, I lower it but see no difference in rate of growth. But then again I've never measured ppm. Back to lighting, when I had my sbreeflights, I had lanky plants. Their site says, shifting the spectrum more towards red gives taller more lanky plants with thinner leaves that are farther apart. That's exactly what happened to my uaupes. They looked like lago grande. I claimed it was the ada soil, but it was actually the lighting. I've never really been a fan of the blue spectrum except for growing mosses. Otherwise, it doesn't please my eyes. Sbreef were the best leds I've tried so far. Seems like their information, they really know their light. Reds come out nice. Some leds I tried were too directional, like the bulbs shot straight down, this made huge algae issues, cause the par was also too high at certain points. Spread was off. I've advised lower the lighting the better, even for high light plants where spread is good, I don't even follow this, I always want more, faster. Not always the best approach, lower, patience I think is better. But you see really awesome stuff being done at higher par. 

1. syn tank-battling bga, melting, hair algae
2. frag tank- 2 severums died, bacterial bloom, stabilized at 5, got rid of them to the lfs

3. reason I haven't posted this tank is its always been a failure, old Amazonia (failed), sand (failed), the stems never grew
So I turned this into a aquascape Wood and stems


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I'll do this every so often
random picture post








































new species I got in from a very generous fella
















So now my uaupes are melting one leaf at a time and my rio ***** 2006's are not melting at all. This is all weird and whack to me...

GIANTS deficiency, formed halos, this is probably iron and traces, I never dosed them, and now after the giants don't have it anymore, maybe one or two


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

How good did I have it before?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)




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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Stronger lighting will force sideshoots faster. Top any syngonanthus, any, from what I've seen, that grow in our aquarium ( I've not tested Vichada yet) and the bottom will produce sideshoots. Some species very rapidly. Giants however, growth will be hindered, not to say they won't, sides just form way quicker with the top crown. But from what I've seen, to mass prop belem, manaus, madeira, lago grande, uaupes, rio 2006, (not sao Gabriel, always remained too short), caulescens, meta, variegated off the top of my head bottom will produce a bunch of sideshoots. Regardless, the plant sideshoots anyways, just if you want a little more and then a little more. nice prop tip. 

Here in this picture are bottoms of uaupes, see they are splitting, you can see tops here and there









I love watching them split. You can pull the split by having a hand gripping the main stem and then pulling the sideshoot with the other hand. That's if you do not want to uproot the whole stem and prop that way.

sao Gabriel splitting








stunted, looks to me to be uaupes








split crown lago grande








and caulescens splitting









The genus in parts of south America lives in low to none nutrient waters. Iono about the rest of the world, how the waters are. But despite this, I've haven't seen a species that thrives more in rich nutrient waters. Keeping the water low of total dissolved salts. But heres the thing, in the realm of slightly acidic and slightly everything.
In speaking to others, (this goes for generally most all the aquatic species, I say most as something will pop up or science will always prove me wrong) 
we can rule out things. I said everything slightly so
rule out tds
I spoke to a buddy with a tds of over 200, I believe, but not 300
gh 0-6 id guestimate is the safe side
kh0-1
ph slightly, so range 3s to maybe 8 (for belems), but 7 on safe side
moderate co2 and almost all range of lighting intensity, at least 20 par id say
























Manaus
Reminds me of the new 'Meta' sp. Long internodes, thin leaves, and a crown, vs. Meta which is wider and a bit longer internodes and crown.








Belem
The plant that got me into the genus. Everyone knows belem, but there are variants, like variegated and white, bottom roots in soil as well as all others roots higher up, some go into the soil, others assumed absorbed nutrients through water column
















lago grande 
a classic beauty, grows very nicely in groups








poor
















uaupes vs lago grande
they can look very similar, and if your growing them lenghty, uaupes can get tall as an average lago, and a lago, well a lago can just keep growing it seems
lago down the center








uaupes center, lago backround








uaupes








uaupes? lago? uaupes or lago?
























^^^^^all uaupes^^^^^^

uaupes
could be a favorite of all time plant to me. Roots into the soil very slowly. Splits rapidly. Prone to melting. 
Here is the pic I used to reference back in 2012, the one I got from crispino ramos
the plant on the right side center
Now I believe this plant was on its reserve, fast mass split, but it melted rapidly








^^^^^^^
I use this in reference to help ID, in the beginning I mixed all my S grade syngonanthus up, this means rio ***** 2006, sao Gabriel, and rio uaupes. I have reference pic from Japan for sao Gabriel.
References
























So certain syngonanthus can take on different shape and structure based on parameters
I can define uaupes as thicker leaves, leaves downward curvature, slow rooter, bottom most roots grip soil, splits a lot, wavier leaves, leaves can compare to erio Vietnam in design, tips but the erio Vietnam info is not my information. Tips can become white, white points and whitish outline of leaves. Growing, this can go for all, whitish centers that bounce back overnight then grow whitish into the photoperiod, this is in high light and I have not seen excess fertilization of macros to solve this issue, it could be traces and iron.
stunted








adult
















fast








Rio ***** 2006
Similar to uaupes, small crown, splits fast, prone to melt, roots fast into soil, grips soil, looks more like a pineapple crown
mother








stunted








stunted too








glorious








group








uaupes vs rio ***** 2006
left uaupes, right 2006








middle, right-uaupes, left 2006








sao Gabriel
thinnest leaves, shortest grower, most prone to melt, splits fast, lost species unless pops up on me
center front
















alll three-views
now sao Gabriel it seemed to me to be this plant as it was like no other. It supposed to have thinner leaves but it is possible for the plant to thicken up in my tanks
























uaupes
the easiest one to tell apart
















rio ***** 2006
















Madeira
just like manaus, bigger crown, ability to morph bushiness all the way down the stem. The 'stem' itself can become thicker than any other I've seen except maybe caulescens
Giants
Trimming its leaves hinders growth, not the sideshoots but the crown leaves itself. Bottoms are slowed. The plant is the best overcrowder there is. Grows uniform, grows in unison.
giants looking like lago








giants looking like belem, back








bahia
bottom leaves attract algae like bba, its hard for me to keep algae off the older leaves of this plant, sensitive and prone to melt, been growing it for awhile but I keep rehacking it down, so its like restarting








caulescens
good nitrates, id say put in at least 10ppm kno3 per week, aerial roots root all the way down to the substrate, sideshoots get blocked of light
























variegated, a belem variant, twisted leaves, patches of deficiency patterns, reverts to belem and reverts back, nutrient load does not seem to matter in this pattern process....

that's all I have for now, quaranteen has allotted me the time.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Everyone has their own systems and techniques and methods that they try over and over and it seems to be their routine. That's why you see someone saying well this worked for me and that worked for me. Examples of the systems are range of lighting, co2, fert methods, water parameters, etc. In developing my main syn tank, I decided I wanted a system similar to my moss frag tank. There needed to be established microorganisms, needed fish, a light constant of nh4 through the fish, co2 stable, o2 stable, fertilization stable, water stable with gh. One thing I've seen, is you gotta watch and carefully plan your system for good stability and adjustments of adaptation. Plants come from a wide range of enviromnments but we've also seen a wide range grow all in the same conditions. I believe there is a period of adaptation and if you keep changing your technique the algae will overcome. If you keep everything the same the system will develop(micro) as well the plants will grow keeping the system clean. What I'm trying to say is that I've gotten a regime going and I'm tweeking to perfect it still along with the natural biology working it too. 

Perfecting my system. 20 gallon long syn tank

Ever since I switched to the wet/dry, in every situation, its been nothing but good results. Theres something about gas exchange that's really good for growing. 
I switched from leds, to a 4 bulb t5
co2 is injected via a atomizer and another outlet into a mr aqua co2 reactor400
Things I noticed was the good circulation, co2 was hitting the bottom too. Very good results
But I needed fish
So I lowered the co2 considerably, I noticed gha influx on the walls the very next day, as well as halt in growth, but the plants adjust and adapt to the situation, they're fine
I began frontloading ~30ppm kno3, not per week, per water change. Water change is about 80% and maybe every 4 days. With this I needed to accomadate adding gh as I use pure ro.
I get it to about 3. 

So the fish I got, 25 dwarf rainbows. pseudomugil gertrudae. I put 7 in the syn tank, and 18 in my frag moss tank. They probably see me as a big blob shadow, but I noticed that these fish see things I do not. The dwarf rainbows I see daily pinpointing with their eyes and then pecking at nothing. Could be a wall, or a plant, but nothing is there that they're pecking. The visible bugs that I've seen are now all gone, and they're still continually pecking and hunting. 

New thing, I bought a blender, will see results of it. 

Pictures, videos, on the way


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Bump:


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)




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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Way over the melt, I've been in propagation mode. Mainly uaupes and rio 2006, really hoping a sao Gabriel will pop up. But I must admit, aside from the originals I have groups blended. Both 2006 and uaupes. I'll tell when they're mothers. So in my goal for the tank, I have sold lots but tried not to sell those as well. My goal same, short, bushed out, mostly the whole tank. I do want to add a red I can put on the side. Id prefer pantanal but I can't reach my goal of getting it red, like real red/pink for a good length down. So I've sold some syns, mainly giants, they were rather hard to get rid of and remained getting taller and taller for some time, a little over a foot long and sideshoots at the very bottom mainly, a few exceptions. 

So on to propagation, uaupes and 2006, all same concept, trim and spread as fast as the shoots become available, trim and spread tops, about half and inch crown. Fill in gaps missed as well. So if I can find a small space between stems I plant there, when all grown out you get a real nice good look. They all can overcrowd very well. I'd suggest good light. I trim them with my fingers, even with clipped nails you can pinch them together to a scissor type. Urea could be the quicker way to achievement, Im dosing so much macros already, I can try a little. Bottoms sideshoot a lot, takes a few days to see a tiny baby split. The plants keep me really entertained. 

Been messing around with photoperiods. tried 12 hrs one day, I had it all timed at 6, now I've bumped it to 8hrs on timer. I really want that shoot production and as long (I have algae) as algae is not spreading, its all good to me. If I have algae that doesn't really go anywhere then i'm fine not even managing it. I've noticed this, old stems even that reach the surface for all that gas are more prone to algae than any of my trimmed stuff. Stuff in front and in corners are prone to mild algae stuff too. I've noticed in overdosing macros that leaf growth was a lot thicker, but algae was a lot thicker and harder to remove too, it stuck more, just say in overdosing that algae thrives more and is very healthy. Still the spread that worries me does not go very far. 
5/23/2020








5/30/2020








6/6/2020








6/12/2020








6/15/2020








6/19/2020








6/23/2020








6/23/2020








6/23/2020








6/24/2020








6/25/2020








6/29/2020








6/29/2020








6/29/2020








6/30/2020








7/6/2020








7/11/2020









ps, my third tank, I've added urea to see if uaupes would melt. Alll plants in that tank grew a lot faster, but algae grew too, whispy s**t easily swayed in fact if I used algae fix it likely all be gone, I do not recommend algae fix for utricularia heterosepala, only plant that melted in the tank with that use. The tank is now just a holder of syn, overcrowded, a sell tank as you will, a swap species back and forth sort.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

> ps, my third tank, I've added...


5/23/2020








5/26/2020








5/26/2020








5/29/2020








5/29/2020








6/4/2020 x7 pics
























































6/10/2020 x7 pics
























































6/28/2020 cut all splits down and all good stems together and redo x5 pics








































7/3/2020 update some growth x5 pics








































7/11/2020 x3 pics


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So when the favorite of my syns kept melting, I had to make use of other syns as filler for the whole tank.


> Way over the melt, I've been in propagation mode. Mainly uaupes and rio 2006, really ho


Here are center progressions of my tank
5/17/2020








5/22/2020








5/26/2020








5/29/2020








5/30/2020








6/3/2020








6/6/2020








6/10/2020








6/12/2020








6/15/2020








6/19/2020








6/25/2020








6/30/2020








7/2/2020








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7/2/2020








7/5/2020








7/7/2020








7/7/2020








7/8/2020








7/11/2020








7/11/2020








7/12/2020








7/12/2020








7/12/2020








7/12/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I don't know if i mentioned Wong, but he is the one that helped me get through the melt. I told him my situation and right away he gave me a link on the 2 hr aquarist. I learned that the powdered broken down soil is no good. It can cause melting, bba and other algaes. So looking at my soil, its mostly all powder now. There is also seems sulfur build up by the smell.
I had the last two bags of malaya soil 3L on this earth, now gone. The plan I had
Fill water jugs ro water-always gotta have spare water on hand for any situation, for me is mostly for the sumps evaporation.
Pull any melted plants
Pull all syns and try to best identify them by 2006 and uaupes
Catch the fish
Siphon the substrate a bit, removing bits of powder bits of floating algae
Wipe glass
cap soil
plant
This was all done overnight. I mostly drink redbull to get me through.
well bummer, imgur or my imgur is down


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Youtube working though, not much videos to share
7/17/2020




7/23/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

New soil. The melting starts and continues
New melt each day. I am manually removing stems that have leaf melt trying to stop the spread. This is disheartening, I just don't understand it.
It could be something with ammonia, fish, dosing
It could be the plants are not established, they're all chopped up, no root systems developed yet
Could be something leaching into my ro water
Cannot be gh/calcium deficiency, I add on most water changes, it ranges but never past 3, i test in a blue moon, or like each month
Doubt its co2, nor intense lighting
I hate this same pattern, it may get kush again, but then i'll get the disease again, i just don't understand it. 
It was better with one or two plant melt in the powdered substrate
This is what I had before when the sub was all powdery
































heres what im dealing with, video sums it up too
all taken 7/27/2020


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## nntnam (Oct 7, 2019)

Hi Dennis, 

It's me. Nam.
We talked on FB the other day. 
Which kind of Syn would you recommend to use as a background plant? 
Around 12" high. 
Can ***** giant or Largo grande grow that long?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

nntnam said:


> Hi Dennis,
> 
> It's me. Nam.
> We talked on FB the other day.
> ...


Hey buddy,
Both lago and rio ***** giant can get there. Lago will be faster. Both are mid ground I'd say. Giant especially midground, it will keep getting taller but slowly. Getting my giants to 12" - 13" took months. Lago is a taller grower. Both look wonderful in groups and grown in unison. 

A long lenghty stem vs a compact bushy lago could make all the difference in your scape.

Nutrient load and lighting spectrum seem to determine bushiness, compactness, thickness, lenghty lanky...

For background I recommend belem, manaus, madeira, all fast all gotta keep trimming. Giants dont need much of trimming
Regards
Dennis


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So I went from rapid propagation to rapid decline. I'm pulling syn out just as fast as I split them. So all that propagation is losing stems daily. I switched some to my amazonia lite tank(sell tank) thats a bit aged soil. For safety and saving/storing. As of current I am not happy with any of my three tanks. My moss frag tank is overstocked with corydoras, blue dream shrimp, bluestar endlers, and pseudomugil gertrudae. I will eventually give away my corydoras, it hurt, cause they so darn cute, and my endlers, maybe transfer some to another tank, and keep the other two species. Reason being that the waste just keeps accumulating. I can clean a moss on driftwood and within a few hours the debris is back all over. So I made the major mistake of overstocking my tank. My main syn tank, is the most worked on, but you know repetitively ...melting. And my sell tank, is not selling fast enough, just so overcrowded. I'm not satisfied at all but got plenty of time to turn them around fast.

Recap
Main tank
20 g long
bridgelux led over
co2 reactor co2 atomizer diffusions, gla reg, sump
malaya aquasoil
pure ro, sometime rodi
remin caso4/mgso4
water changes
ei dosing
7/31/2020








Moss frag tank
acrylic 56 g custom, 36x30x12
wetdry filtration, purely bioballs
a lot of sulfur buildup
pure ro water changes
remin caso4/mgs04
ati x6 bulb dimmable fixture, only use 1 channel x 2 bulbs, hung
very old malaya, africana, and more recent but still very old chinese brand aquasoil
co2 into cerges reactor, very low injection, i don't even think it matters or see a visual difference
7/24/2020
















sell tank
20g long
sunsun canister filter with uv
shallow water
pure ro
odyssea t5 fixture x 4 bulbs
amazonia lite, aged, humic acid beneath
co2 into mr aqua 400 reactor, ista regulator
dosing of urea trial
7/31/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Since I'm getting rid of them i might as well explain my observations.
*Corydoras behavior*
These guys definitely communicate. Of course they're talking smack on me when they're just all grouped up not moving, but i don't hear them so it doesn't bother me. Joking aside, this is a def social fish. In their way of communicating by means of I don't know how, theres a leader and they swim in unison, split apart, disperse, regroup. Very fun to watch. Their smell sense must be really strong as when food put in the lead will find within probably 20 seconds in my 56g squarish tank. But I saw an interesting pattern in eating food. I can see them coordinate with each other getting their share of food and then swim in back of line till they bury their barbs into the food again. Swapping and alternating its cool to see. Lay and sit as they chew food. Its very cool to have a group of the same species, swimming in unison, exploring the whole tank together and finding food. Waste is another matter, they produce a good bit. The whole group is not always together, they'll break into little shoals of 3 or more as well as regroup too. Breeding, I haven't been able to get them to breed, i heard entice them good water change and live foods, but I don't feed live foods. Got a variety of 8 kensfood sinking pellets. I've gotten habrosus to breed but that was way years ago and was never successful. Lights off and then sudden lights on, just as any fish mostly they'll be all whitish dull or something i can't describe well but they'll color backk up assuming comfortness. The elegans are midswimmers sometimes and also do the thing where they jump to the surface for that gulp of air. I was really surprised by their mobility in and out of the woods and landings. Very cool to see maneuvering.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Throughout the day in my main tank(20 gallon long, reactor and atomizer in sump, where all the melting is happening in s grades) co2 bubbles start to build up and start multiplying. It doesn't happen right away, not instantly, but as the bubbles build they start hitting the substrate and flow back all the way to the outflow spray bar. Even with surface agitation the bubbles build up. This is a good observation that there are no dead spots.

A side tip, you can kind've gauge the nh4 leech by the amount of algae your getting. Other common ferts will not bloom algae. But there are a lot of other factors involve, so debunk.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

For syngonanthus especially the higher the light as you push the plant more and more whitish centers occur. In moderate lighting with ei dosing, they'll always be full and green. My system usually involves moderate light and over enough supplementation. I believe higher and higher light shocks the plant to whitish but then rebounds through the resting period. 

I see it as this, which is better
White tops, losing energy, shocks, rebounds and grows

or

Always replenished with more than enough food, on I'd say a stable speed of growth, always full color

So I've been trying a blast period. I will update. But I am always supplementing over ei on the macros.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

One of my goals is to get pantanal very red. I'm not there yet, but looking at its color as of now, its got my observation recently. Co2 has been consistent ever since I got 20# tank months back and set it up months back. Bummed out by the melt of syns I just stopped caring and didn't do anything to the tank for a week. I had put new soil in. So I stopped dosing, I stopped water changing and the tank just ran itself. To my amazement new ada soil is just king for rapid growth. Add the co2, the bright lighting with a fully stocked tank can lead to good results. So back to the pantanal, I stopped dosing, but I don't think its nitrate limitation either. There may still be a good amount in there, along with whatever N or NH4 the soil has with. I assume this, because all my plants are coming in thick. Not sure how much water changes take out but I'm back to doing them. As some see tops closer to the surface more red, theres a trick, you trim toss the bottom, and the red grows on top the red if i can explain it right, thats the only way i think I can accomplish pantanal red all the way down. I have seen dulling in colors from excess dosing, but I have to accomplished colors in the excess dosing. So I really think its lighting. So iono, bewildering. Roots don't really bury too much so its easy to uproot and trim replant without floating soil up with. 
Im really disssappointed on how the camera pics up the reds, but here anyways.
all pictures 8/19.2020
























full tank shot
















thick growth
























giants








same giants








they were planted by size but u can see some just spurt taller growth


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

pantanal progression
8/16/2020
















still 8/16/2020








8/17/2020
























8/18/2020 lights off, but other tanks lights on









if it was mainly co2, how come at the surface with all the co2 unlimited, how come no ultra red?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

pantanal progression, it would go in and out of red and dull, eventually i just gave up. Let it become duller and duller. Then I pulled the stems put them in a bag and intended to transfer them to another tank, but let them die instead. So i lost pantanal species.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

tFirst part of progression, I hacked all the giants from my tank, put back a few middle right end of tank. My crops got very dusty, so I waivered them and water changed. 

I have noticed, syn touching syn is just fine. Syn touching other sensitive plants like kimberly one or the other can melt. S grades touching fast growers can melt. The spread is fine, so ...

8/24/2020
all giants are on right side









all 8/27/2020
this is a uaupes, it was shaded under giants on right side middle








giants extracted








s grades dusted


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

progression continue

8/28/2020
























8/29/2020
























took the rotala t. out
8/30/2020 pic
























8/31/2020
































9/1/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I put my vichada into my fresh amazonia tank and it started splitting within a matter of days. I had this in malaya for so long few months, just growing but no splitting.
9/3/2020

























buce skeleton king 7/13/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

9/4/2020 -present (9/12/2020}
algae on lower or older leaves. It was very stuck, siphoning couldn't get it off, scraping with fingers not effective. Only choice, let the plants outgrow the algae. Or maybe pluck all leaves with it, but i'm not going to do that.
I only got the lyrics to describe my feeling of how the tank is "I wonder, the spell we're under...will ever be broken.."
9/4/2020








9/5/2020








































9/6/2020
































reverted green, white stripe in pic
















9/7/2020








9/8/2020
























9/9/2020
































9/11/2020








9/12/2020 present day...


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Stuff was really booming. I wasn't doing maintenance, dosing, water changes. I'd get very light melt in the back. This all outta lack of motivation. I was really excited and pumped on doing a aga naturescape and that has halted basically everything on my syn tanks. The soil was doing its work, but I really feel like I've wasted it. It was in its prime week, s ago. I felt like i wasted it mainly on giants. But the soil did a great job, now I feel like its back to being depleted and dosing a bunch. Sooner or later I will have to switch my main tank to amazonia. Right now no need to worry. So in growing some different species like r. tuladensis and such I didn't really like them or they didn't do what I wanted them to do. Back to syn again, passion never dies here. Maybe I will try erio in my amazonia tank. My amazonia tank is full of algae, diatoms and hair, easy stuff to fix, but its a mess. I'm surprised la Lindosa is still alive. I have the syn white stripe i bought reverted green, and all its doing is growing like regular variegated in the tank. Very dissappointed in the price I paid for it. I really gotta aim propagation for Syn Meta. People don't seem to like the taller syns. I was in love with belem in the beginning. So this tank getting too much algae. The problem is lack water changes maintenance, but also a key to the problem is the tank is shallow the outflow is low and it blows dust off the substrate, i believe this to be a problem too. So I need to raise the outflow, switch out material, raise the water from there. The tank filtered by a canister. People don't ever say plants are filters, they are great filters. If you have say a cruddy filter and great plants growing, that water will still clear overnight. So I never understood why people never say plants are filters. The lighting is just 4x bulb t5. 6500k. The real problem though, the tank is in another room, I never go in and look at it. I have to look at my object for a little bit, while I plan what to do with it. I can't just go into it. Its harder that way. But always algae better than melting. This tank will be clean in a day. I just dont know what day. It gets pure ro, no remineralization. I find that only necessary for fish with the plants I grow. All my tanks get ro, remin varies by tank. Dosing, its so hard to maintain stability. Main tank i just front load, but other tank i this tank in pictures, i just don't dose. Making it worse, the micro toxicity gambit, got me to hardly even dosing traces, which works very well anyways. They seem to cause rhizo type stringy algae, but could be just overlook. Creativity has reached its peak for me, what am I going to do, add a moss wall? Really no more creativity going on. Drinking red bulls daily can't get me going. Oh well, comes in spurts I supposed. I think I had got to the point where I wanted to be but just wasn't enjoying it, i achieved my goal and just didn't care. Weird. Now its just pretty much farming syn.

9/25/2020
s grade not melt, strange








tonina still growing








giants, i simply wipe off with hand and siphon, all green and all clean








full tank








metas and company
















lot algae








raising water and outflow will rid duckweed








la lindosa not die for awhile now








zoom out


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Ok before I interrupted myself with the other tank. The main tank, I did lots of work overnight. This whole process took 3 water changes. Each change was 10 gallons, 2 5g jugs, and each removed a considerable amount of undesirables. First was catch all the fish I can. I removed all fish in the end, this allows me to open up the overflow box, as well as inject as much co2 as i want. But first, I caught, most fish, excluding the ones in the sump. Remaining was one fish in the tank, and rest in sump, that which i did not catch yet, the caught ones went straight into my aquascape low tech tank. So one remaining fish in the tank, I started dismantling the sump, this allowed me to catch the fish in there and I knew the count of fish. So after all those guys transfered to low tank. I uprooted all plants and drained some water, this allowed me to see and catch the last fish in the tank. Plants uprooted, I needed to wipe down the glass as much I wanted, removing all glass bba. GLASS BBA??? yes. So siphoning and stirring the soil up for all that powder, equaled up to 2 water changes. There was, and still is a lot of powder, basically the majority percentage of soil is powdery. But I did what I can. While removing plants, one by one, needed to identify each and seperate. I've got a good understanding of uaupes vs rio ***** 2006, and then I got unidentified ones. Theres chance, I have sao gabriel, there is a third i have seperated. So I got 2 big groups, 1 3rd, and some unable to id. It wouldn't surprise me if I had uaupes and sao gabriel mixed up and that would make the uaupes group the smallest. Enough blabbering though, doesn't really matter in the end for my end.
9/18/2020

































































































































































































































Bump: continuation 9/21/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Ok sorry, so this post in continuation of last post details. I got lazy in continuing post.

Last pics before tear down and redo 9/24/2020
















see the algae on the glass?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So whatever I said, I dont' know if said it or not. But redo
1. caught all fish
2. tear down sump to catch fish replace new medias
3. Remove plants and try id as best I can and also to catch one last fish inside the tank
4. Scrub walls of all algae
5. Siphon remove all debris, bba, everything I can
6. Take break
7. Plant everything accordingly
8. Raise tf out of co2
10. Open up overflow box removing screens


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

> 9/25/2020
> s grade not melt, strange




So my main tank I totally redid, siphoned the soil clean the walls etc, whatever etc is...One thing has been a reoccurrence, I had this fear which delayed the redoing, and its been MELTING leaves. It got me overthinking into this theory, the thought connected with a feeling, and it made sense to me when I looked at these S grades unknown in my fresh amazonia soil tank. The tank got heavy water changes for the first week, and then I totally slacked off and stopped caring for the tank. The algae that was already there came in booming. So without these water changes, there must be a good amount of nh4. Why aren't they melting, even the melted stems i transferred over, x2 of them recovered or didn't melt the other stems. Whats going on here? And then I could only think, my goal was to have a tank full, have them fully grown out and as fast as possible. I have always wanting to raise light(increase intensity) and I had/have, and then I remember reading about the soil and melting powder from Wong and how light will increase damage. Lowering light will lesson the damage, and will give the plant time adjust and stuff. I realized out of all my experience the eagerness and increase of the lighting always just led to problems. Then I thought, Tom Barrs way, well not his way, but his advice at some point in time. Moderate light, co2, and excess nutrients. Its a good system that works out. So with this, I'm going full on through low par, high co2, high ferts or root tabs. I need to adopt a method and stick to it. And my method, is never high light. I didn't take pictures of the melting but I will start, and start recording the progress of low light. The main tank. The light has a value 255 pwm, i don't know what this means, but 255 is max intensity, I had it at 120, so almost half of full par, now I have it dialed at 60. Thats about under 1/4 of the intensity the light can produce. With syns, I know its said as a high light high co2 plant. My co2 was high af and the intensity at 120, still caused algae and melting issue(s grades). Co2 I 've raised in both my syn tanks to the point no fish can survive. I have not tested fish, but co2 very high those two. I thought ridding the fish and turning up co2 would never lead to melt again so thats why I did the redo. Another thing, removal of this fish lessens the nh4 to nothing. 
LOOK! any change to your system, your not going to see it right away. PATIENCE is key virtue to planted tank. I've learned not to look for the instant reactions anymore. Even if my plants are pearling great and all its not a sign that the system is healthy.

clearing algae, redoing, etc
















filled water level, changed outflow


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## chinaboy1021 (May 30, 2003)

Dennis,

What is that green plant called that you refer to as "Giants"? I never seen this plant before...:O


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

chinaboy1021 said:


> Dennis,
> 
> What is that green plant called that you refer to as "Giants"? I never seen this plant before...:O


Full name provided is
syngonanthus rio ***** giant, but I did send it to a identifyer and it might go under the classification of macrocaulon, I have no idea.


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## kookyxogirl (Nov 13, 2017)

Good luck Dennis! You can grow any Syn!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

kookyxogirl said:


> Good luck Dennis! You can grow any Syn!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Naw D. I want to but I cant. There are certain ones needing that nh4, I have not been able to. I will keep trying though.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So the redo was 9/24/2020 and pictures run through to 9/28/2020
Here are pictures
I will follow up with melting pic or /s
































9/25/2020








































9/27/2020
























9/28/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So all these pictures were taken on 10/5/2020
Here I have pointed out in this fts the melting areas, not sure if I need to siphon that soil up another round, iono. 








zoom in
















































You see some blurr, that is algae on the glass


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I don't think I am different from anyone else. I could've been born a different person and go through their footsteps, but not. But I am no different from you guys. Its just experience and persistance that got me to where I am at. How many times have I failed miserably, how many fish have I killed, how many plants destroyed. Sometimes ego comes as things are going so well but the success is just about anything anyone can do. If you keep at it, keep observing, keep trying, you'll keep learning and just keep getting better at it. Maintaining a planted tank, is very simple. Plants need light and food. Plants are great filters for your water. Everyone can add a light to a tank, everyone can add co2, dose whatever, i never got the saying of balance, maybe a few constants like light and co2, but in realm of of fertilization, there is no balance to what I dose. I go from frontloading a s-load to not dosing at all. All depends if I can get those jugs filled, cause I like dosing after a water change. I get the term established, as this actually means balance ie. rooted in, established bb. The environments of plants are all different, different ranges of ppm and pars, but there seems to be a system to well, grow it all. Plants need light and food, if this is not working for you, then you gotta look at your water quality main thing. You see top growers and wonder, what am I doing wrong? They do got good tap water and they do water change a lot. Well water changes won't help if your water is contaminated. You give your plants light, co2/ferts and they should generally grow. Then there are more aspects into color of plants, thickness, and so on, if you want to persist into perfecting everything. Over 20+ years of experience and I am still learning. Some growers plant spaced out, some plant real close together. You can observe a lot from pictures. But you basically know your system more than the people trying to help you. 

I am trying to perfect all syngonanthus and collect all syngonanthus. The difference I'm seeing right now is the need of nh4 vs not needing. The stems ones root lesser and do really well in over ei macros and such, and the caulescens types do real well in the nh4 leech and get a lot of the soil. I will continue to kill, but as this happens, I will have observed, and gain a bit more experience. When I started into syngonanthus I was horrible. Now the lagos, giants, belems, meta, manaus, etc easier syns, I just can't melt them. Water parameters are too perfect. But I'm still trying to perfect. Right now, main tank, par is low, spread is good. I want to flower these plants again. I don't know if flowering is good or bad with these stem syns, they don't make new plants and they are far from being emmersed, way far. I don't know whether or not to let the stem grow or pull the stalk. I've only flower stalked them once in my lifetime for a period. Im going to try again and I really think it has to do with ph. I'm adding humic acid to my sump. Granules, not the liquid kind which I have too. Water has not turned brown yet. I might keep adding more to see if I can get it just lightly tinted, but the main is getting that ph buffer down. Right now degassed is about 5.4 and co2 peaked is about 4.4 ph. So barely a 1point drop. I'll test again tomorrow. I don't think my ph measurements are on point, I don't wait long enough for the pen to settle in. I'll test tomorrow to see and try get exact measurements. 

Par is low, so the melting is under control. I do not as of now see it spreading. 
Rookies, beginners even novices, you can do it. I have light and co2 on timer, dose whatever, do water changes, and have good soil. If your not getting there I'd definitely check into your water. I'm seeing a lot more growers out there now growing a wide range of plants. Its not super hard. Yes these things have probably already been said, seems like everything has already been said, you just got to search through history-it does repeat itself hee hee.

melting area


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Low par has done wonders for the tank. Gradual continual growth I have found myself with an abundance of plantage. There is algae and it continues to grow, being the best way to keep things clean and in shape are the water changes. Anyone want to dethrone me? Be my guest. Things are all good and all, but I've lost my passion, I am burned out. The kush moments and not kush moments haven't mattered anymore. Viewtime is low. I'm overwhelmed with 3 tanks, I know I want something else for each tank, but I can't get a stable goal anymore. I manage water changes, but that is it. Dosing continues. I had to use algae fix for spiro. There is continuing algae on the glass. But the thing is no melt has happend since I last updated this thread. It stopped and everything grew over. That was one of the main goals wasn't it. But being burned out like this sucks. Feels like such a waste of precious time. The stems, they really like the ei dosing. You can see shifts in color through the timeframe. I added a lot of humic acid granules to the sump, I am in attempts to flower and try get identifications on my these and i've been observing for a very long time I cannot distinguish if the species are any different. So at this time I'm just going to consider all as one species and spread as such. I've really tried a very long time. I'm no longer afraid of melting. The low par has done well, slowed it down until the melting parts grew new green over. 

So left off on 10/7/2020....
so. 10/9/2020

















melted area 10/11/2020

















10/12/2020

















For about a few days after I transferred fish, I got an explosion of bugs, not sure what they are, but they did a great job cleaning plants, and then eventually i guess food ran out and they dissappeared, some still there probably
10/12/2020




10/15/2020
















10/15/2020 melting area








10/15/2020 melting area








10/15/2020 fts


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

10/16/2020








10/16/2020 caulescens with bugs








10/17/2020
































































10/20/2020
the stem that was melting from before now has about 5 splits
















10/20/2020
















10/20/2020 spiro around
































10/21/2020 water change


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## Rare (Jul 18, 2016)

dang, those are lush


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Like about a couple of days or so within me posting about dethrone, not fearing the melt and being not passionate, unmotivated, I started to see leaves melt. I was not worried at all. I should've been (if i could predict the future), but I figured with the low par, i wouldn't have any issue. Well my system f**king imploded. Slowly but steadily. So from the kush shots you saw(keep in mind i had reached my goal of filling the whole tank with the foreground syn but didn't really care), overgrowth came, the plants were drowning each other, I did nothing about this, algae started forming on old leaves. This whole time I was over back and forth debating how to sell what or clear space or propagate and what ID, but I never did anything, nothing, at this time no motivation and things were going fairly well to great. My substrate is powder by now which I think was the issue. So sometimes I get over zealous on eradicating algae and overdosed algae fix, the stuff is fast acting, so this was not wise, I did anyways. I truly am I hope this is the turning point from completely never using chemicals(excel, hydroperox, algaefix, metricide, antibiotics, chemiclean) that are meant to kill algae again. It was fast acting and the algae went away. This is about same point as the very little amount of leaves melting. I'm still not afraid of the melt, but also I can't figure it out. I think it was the powder or old age, lack of trimming, maybe I should've increased light. So the melt started spreading and within a week or so everything was *hit. I did not remove or do anything. The melting became dominant and spreading. Algae developed rapidly. Right now, I think I have all the experience/wisdom I need and have to tackle any algae problem I may have, EXCEPT THE MELTING. With algae it seems to be what stage you are at in your plants/soil or what you have in the water if given you got light, o2, co2, ferts correct. The healthier the algae, the thicker and more stuck on it'll be. This must mean the algae is being well fed, whether it be through nutrients, bio, or feeding off the plant itself. Lucky for me, I've mainly had to deal with soft type algaes. Stuff you can just wipe off with your fingers or just siphon up easily example bga. BBA can be very tough, or easy, I had free floating stuff growing underneath plants, but when it sticks best way is to trim the entire leaf off. Turn off the filter and trim away, then you can net all the leaves away. Gotta put in the work, if you tackle an algae, the next day you'll either see a rebound and spread, or things look on the brighter side and you have less algae. If you have less algae, and it did not grow you can conclude that your conditions are decent. I have no idea with hair algaes and spirog to get rid of only by algae fix, but I haven't gotten it enough to try manual removal, or have i really tried manual removal. GDA just wipe. Scrape the leaves with your fingers. I rarely use scissors when maintaining, fingers are more precise. Sometimes you need nails. GSA, iono? Not gotten it much. For you sumpers, a great maintenance technique you can do, is siphon all your pollution straight into the sump, leave the pump on, so it keeps flowing, the dirt goes into the filter and doesn't affect the tank. So your cycling your tank without removing water, i like to clean, siphon into the sump first, then do a water change. I've gotten good at tear downs/redos. Can do them in a proper timeframe. I once did a redo and kept plants out too long which died, that impact is what made me get things together in redos. A lot of planning in my head goes on and a lot of analyzing, I can't just go right into it. 

Going back to the main tank, the soil is wasted. I am going to get some amazonia, but not looking forward to it. It takes time and progression and work to get it to where i want it to be with the new soil. It melts easier than the malaya I have now. Its tough, not for the feeble, that new soil. But it breaks down slower than malaya, africana, light. It can also show the glory of the plant. Full robustness and splits of crazieness. One of my favorite things about syngonanthus is the splitting. The implosion I really did not get at all. I can only think the soil/old age plants. Low par, high co2, high macros. I wasn't doing the gh, but I'm sure there was plenty of ca/mg from past doses. I wasn't dosing traces or iron. I don't think that was the issue, trace toxicity to non existent traces, I'm sure there was enough from past doses, that I do not know though. I put a lot of humic acid granules in the sump. Kind've overdid it, but the additions of the granules did not make the tank look good or add anything of difference. I don't think it did anything but hurt the system. Pure ro like always. Actually rodi. Tds is 20-30. ph 4-5s. kh 0. Maybe this particular plant is just prone to melt, stages of melt, I'm sure if I did all belem no melt guarenteed as the others, just not this uaupes. I did not mention, all the bugs are gone now. Maybe the micro critters faced an apocalypse. 

Pics to come next post. bit tired...


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I haven't really been successful lately with my moss walls. I plan to do moss walls on this tank or moss segments walls. I figure the more plants I can pack into the box the more filtering and depolluting and cleaning the water, and it keeps going in full circle. More plants can only benefit, plus always the algae on the wall looks bad. So I got grid but need to order suction cups. Eager to start as they always take a little while to adjust then bloom and fill in.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

DennisSingh said:


> Like about a couple of days or so within me posting about dethrone, not fearing the melt and being not passionate, unmotivated, I started to see leaves melt. I was not worried at all. I should've been (if i could predict the future), but I figured with.........
> ................ others, just not this uaupes. I did not mention, all the bugs are gone now. Maybe the micro critters faced an apocalypse.
> 
> Pics to come next post. bit tired...


10/23/2020








10/25/2020








10/28/2020








10/29/2020
























10/30.2020
spiro forming
























10/31/2020
























































11/1/2020








11/02/2020
algae fix rapidly work
































Notice the coloration of the green leaves turning more yellowish
11/4/2020
























11/5/2020









11/11/2020 melting starting stages

























11/16/2020 just horrible

























11/19/2020

















ok, time...delay...procrastinate...need to do something










Its amazing because the (CURRENTLY) the bugs that went away now the population is back with plenty of algae to feed off


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So another tear down, redo, 11/22/2020, seems like an occuring thing. Still learning though still acquiring new skills. I've got my passion back big time. With 3 tanks, gotta do something. 
These are just progression pictures to catch up.

11/20/2020
extract all plants, clean them, trim them, toss them, store them until the redo (not too long, big mistake if too long)









Added buces only to remove them weeks later, weren't giving the colors i wanted
11/21/2020

















11/22/2020 redone


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Catch up pics
11/23/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Catch up progression, TESTING ONLY PHOTO UPLOAD, checking quality
12/01/2020









Bump: Catching up
12/1/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Merry Christmas everybody. Holy smokes, look at these splits, I don't think I could of produced this without urea dosing. 
12/23/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Left off on 12/1/2020, just going to skim through and fast forward the rest of the month. Here are pictures.. Pretty much in and out of algae. But stable growth. I'm trying to do at least one thing a day on tank or tanks. If I do not, its a day lost. Whether its removing algae, waiving detritus, siphoning, water changing, propagating, at least something. I added a vietnam moss wall, spiky moss wall, and prabktiana wall. 

jump: 12/19/2020

































Bump: 12/20/2020
water change random shots
after the redo back up there no melting


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

forward
12/23/2020


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So getting tired of the same ol same old uaupes everywhere, I'm in propagation mode of the other syngonanthus, but besides that it seems always the same so I began a manzanita wood build. The build took me about 4 hrs with breaks, spaced out different days. I did not realize the cigarette filter and super glue was so darned effective. A solid bond it creates. Add saw dust and its natural looking. I wanted the build to be small so I can still have all my syngonanthus in somewhat a abundance. I got a little too carried away. 
This is already 3 pieces together, total pieces together is about 25 to 30 manzanita woods. This is awesome, spreads my horizon in a wide range of what can be done. Prior using the cig filter I gave up too fast, now getting really better.








































































































FINAL build










I'm sure this will look awesome in water.

Bump: Guys, anybody, need your help, without use algaefix, hydroperoxide, e

Bump: Guys, anybody, need your help, without use algaefix, hydroperoxide, excel or any other chemicals how would one get rid of this algae? Its hair or spirogya...


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So my old tank is leaking on both sides, luckily petco has 1$ per gallon sale right now on 20 long. Got new amazonia in stock. So I've got a whole tear down to do and wood not sunk yet (now its in another container). I dont know how long it'll alll take. 

Wow this really pops out.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

1/8/2021








1/9/2021








































1/10/2021


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## Scully (Nov 20, 2020)

My tank has always had that thread like algae in it. Manual removal along with increased flow in the problem area seems to keep it at bay. I have one bad dead spot in flow due to my hardscape and I have a big clump of it, it doesn't bother me all that much anymore there though because my shrimp love it. Hitting it with peroxide in trouble areas makes quick work of it though, but you'll definitely need to increase flow to these areas or it will come back.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Thanks @Scully. Plants are low in height, way near the substrate. I manually removed it or most of it on the redo. Its coming back though with new amazonia, but I change 80% water daily, I may just end up using algae fix on it if it becomes too much. I'd say its safer than the peroxide on these plants. 

Will be last update for now until the tank grows in more. I made the mistake of planting the uaupes' too close together, they'll need maintenance when they grow out. Got blyxa alternifolia on the left side. I've got ludwigia white coming in the mail I'm going to try out. Fissidens splachynoides and vietnam moss on the wood. Random buces, hopefully brownies. Syn uaupes, manaus, meta, lago grande, variegated, belem, giants.

Brand new tank, but tank rapidly gets algae on the glass is easy fix. 
1/10/2021 caught up.








1/11/2021 caught up.
















closer


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

syngonanthus la lindosa
This is my biggest challenge syn so far. This tank is the same as my main tank except it doesn't get water changed as much.
So here are progressions
the lindosa totally stunted, threw out flower stalks, i eventually pulled the stalks and then eventually split, i pulled 2 tiny heads and put those into the main tank. Now one tiny main stalk remains. I had also purchased a new la lindosa with sideshoots, that stem is not prime but i received it prime.
Left is caulescens, right is la lindosa


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

3 species I got in in january
la lindosa (had one, bought another for main tank)
white stripe (discounted as a lot of green), has thrown a green sideshoot since, slowest grower i've seen so far
is it vichada or vinchada? got one with plenty of sideshoots
credit goes to seller, just planted picture








white stripe








same, growth from seller, vichada








my caulescens threw a lot of stalks, and is sideshooting a bunch


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

So its been almost a month since i've updated
I'm really liking amazonia and can't believe over the years I've wasted on my stables africana and malaya, both which contain way less nutrients, deplete faster, and crumble down faster. Those soils give about a good month of good plant burst, after ud need to supply more nutrients. Amazonia would've saved me good amount of $ more long term. Now theres a bunch of soils out now really good but i stuck to ada for the sure thing. My other tank got fresh amazonia, so i already trialed the syns i have in there. So I knew they would grow. Pretty much in this month I added syn caulescens, la lindosa, vichada, white stripe. I took out the wood. I dosed algae fix x3 doses. Water changed a whole lot. Put ada bottom plus under certain species, not stem species, you can probably guess which ones. Dosed ei, or target range dose, switch from dry to liquid. Turned my pump flow all the way down, now gentle flow. Raised my lights, turned my lights all the way up. Photoperiod is 5 and half hours. Blasted 5 hrs, but at a height. 
So here are current pics
2/9/2021
thats dead algae on the moss wall, the grey, killed from algae fix
I see only benefits from more and more water changing


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

After the algae fix, seems to be my mistake with la lindosa, the plant got torched. I'm left with the babies from the other tank. 
2/10/21








i cut it apart hoping the bottom would give sides but the whole plant including sideshoots torched.
2/10/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Vichada
The plant is cool as it can group together without leaves damaging the other plant
1/16/21








2/6/21








2/11/21








2/27/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

The walls were growing decent spiky moss being the best one growing out in uniformity and from top to bottom. Callicostella prabktiana did the worst and got covered completely drenched in bba. I trimmed the walls and they're not growing back the same at all.

1/30/21








2/11/21








1/20/21








1/20/21








2/11/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

full tank shot progressions TANK 1
now u see older leaves yellowing, i have seen this in other tanks but never mine, I am claiming gh or kh toxicity here. Not the degree itself, but the amount added all at once. I've heard people growing the uaupes in gh 4 or 5 or so. I had it i think about 1 degree and then I added 3 degrees more at once. I'm debating putting shrimp in here, but never got around to it. Kh is added in amounts of .06 the booster says so i doubt kh. I'm doing water changes maybe around every 4 to 5 days now. I manual remove algae often it is bga, very easy. Dosing is really cool and I'm going to stick with it. I just do pinches. PO4 on the higher side pinch. kno3, kh2po4, salty shrimp gh booster, miller and dtpa 10% are what I use. Co2 is double injected into two mr. aqua co2 turbo diffuser 400s and I get about a .9 drop. 5.4 to 4.5. Redoing just partials of the tank is a lot easier. As time passes I'm getting lesser energy. Its much easier than redoing the whole tank.
2/21/21








2/24/21








3/2/21








3/2/21








3/2/21








3/3/21








3/8/21








3/10/21








3/15/21








3/19/21








3/21/21








3/21/21








3/24/21








3/24/21


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## robmcd (Sep 8, 2020)

Great thread. I've been going through it all day at work. Thanks for sharing all the ups and downs.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2 Frag shrimp n moss tank Update
This tank is 36"x30" x 12"high
Has a ati fixture, wetdry filtration with a cerges reactor sump
Water is pure rodi remineralized with salty shrimp gh booster to around 4 degree gh. Tds is around 80ppm at this point. Feedings daily bring the gh to 5 and tds to around 100ppm. I do give feed break especially if i see the water starting to get cloudy. Top offs done mostly. Water change here and there. 
So as soon as I remove the all every single last fish, within days I see neocardinia babies, blue dreams. I did not document this well(pictures). Fish tore up the population for quit a long time. I'm thinking I could've fed them more often, instead you see them pin point and peck around the biofilm, i'm only guessing their main source of food was shrimp. 
shrimp foods i now feed are shrimp king by dennerle products, i bought the sample pack, i'm getting bacter ae soon, hoping for higher successful baby rate, the neos are prolific enough but i don't think i'm getting 100% from the caridinia, for food i smash it all up into a powder, sometimes different varieties sometimes x1 variety, then toss it into different sectors of the tank, i have to swish the surface with my hand to get all the powder to sink. I find in this 56g tank its much easier for the shrimp to find their food and eat. 
From when i got the crs tilll present only 2 shrimp have died that visibly i am aware of, both female, both adult, 1 bd, 1 crs, since its been pretty flawless. I am not sure why they died.
Shrimp are great hiders, i suppose they would be for survival, so visibility is different each day, i never see them all out at once, but it doesn't worry me
1/28/21








1/26/21








1/28/21








1/29/21 I receive my cbs x10, bb x5, bkk x5, wine red x5








Same night, I thought i was male heavy, which in turn I did end up male heavy, I bought 10x crs adult female, 2 of them berried already, still got 1-2 males








1/29/21








1/29/21








2/11/21








2/11/21








2/14/21








2/15/21








2/18/21 very stoked, see my very first baby to juvie crs, 1 month in, babies are not this big








2/18/21








2/19/21, i have to wipe the mesh over the overflow everyday maintenance or the water level builds up








2/22/21








2/24/21








2/24/21 moss recovering, i had stored moss in a ro container, this was a big mistake, some mosses got torched, i think its because they were face down








2/24/21








2/25/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

2/27/21








2/28/21








3/1/21 berried crs








3/2/21








3/1/21








3/1/21








3/1/21








3/1/21








3/1/21








3/1/21








3/2/21 added walls








3/2/21 walls addition








3/3/21








3/3/21








3/3/21








3/3/21








3/3/21








3/3/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

3/3/21








3/3/21








3/4/21








3/7/21 








3/12/21








3/12/21








3/14/21, first taiwan bee berried, takes lots of patience








3/22/21








3/22/21 cbs first? berried


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2 update
all my taiwan bees have taken a very long time to produce, my guesstimate 1.5x longer, so month equal month and half etc
3/25/21








3/29/21
berried cbs








3/30/21
propagating fissidens








4/1/2021
berried red wine 








4/1/21








4/3/21
blue bolts have been my most incosistent as in regards to color








4/3/21
Its just a game of patience right now for the population to increase and boom








4/12/21
first cbs babes spotted?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2
4/4/2021 both videos
first a bkkpanda and then moments later a red wine comes in and I believe its the same exact female
copulation
copulations


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2
4/12/21
more cbs








4/12/21
more cbs








4/12/21
more cbs








4/12/21
overhead view








4/16/21
crs growing








4/16/21
crs








4/16/21
this is how one of my blue bolts turned out in color








4/20/21
cbs n crs


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2 cont
4/24/21
buce flowering








4/24/21 
same








4/30/21
have no idea what this guy is


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Buce skeleton king
several months submerged, it loses leaves, loses veins, and the leaves are not broad and prominent. So if you see someone trying to sell it off as submerged, this is how it should look.
I don't know if I posted this already or not, but the pics are newer
all 5/2/21
























see those white roots? those took months to develope


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2
Old full tank shot
5/5/21








5/7/21
eh








5/7/21
another








5/15/21
almost solid white


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2
5/16/21
nice, this is what the patience is all about








5/16/21








5/16/21
berried








5/18/21
pilo moss








5/20/21
bkk








5/20/21
i don't know maybe wine red








5/20/21
amost solid white


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 update
I had id say upgraded my lighting to a PRIZM black box.
I'm very happy with the light and I'm promoting it. 
There may be better, but this is one of the best lights I've had. Compares to the sbreef i used to have.
My ati? I haven't put it to good use to know what can be done I only use for moss and buces and only 2 bulbs.

Cons
Needs better program options
Needs lcd display
Dimmer limits
Maybe some useless led colors

Pros
Wide range of spectrum
Good intensity
Timer
One cord
3/27/21
For now I haveto set the lights straight onto the tank
You can see the different led colors reflecting








3/27/21








3/27/21
see where the green led hits








3/27/21








Light is the main control of any tank
3/27/21
Giants flowering, what happend with this was they flowered and then the stalks eventually dissappeared with the stem still healthy, presently I've got a few smaller giants stalking.








3/28/21
shot








3/28/21
shot








3/30/21
once again you can see led reflection








4/2/2021
I'm trying to expand more on range of plants besides this jewel


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 update
Algae woes
Everyday I would clean my plants and do manual removal of algae. Eventually, I just haden't needed to do it anymore. If the algae isn't spreading and its softer removable algae, getting used to manual removal is very easy. More fertilization makes plants stronger, but if the algae is growing/establishing, they get stronger too. 
4/4/21








4/4/21








4/4/21
eventually I just ditched the walls, I used the moss for my other tank, where the microbio, snails, and shrimps take care of the algae rather fast.








4/5/21
shot








4/5/21
I have witnessed this twice in two different sections and two different time periods. The Giant is the strongest rooting syn hence, I call it an algae buster and don't think I could have such a good tank without this plant filtering


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 update
So having the light sit straight on the tank, hindered me from maintenance vastly. I'd have to get my hands in at certain angles, and spots you see under the light you can't see and get at. This tank of a light limited me to water changes and lesser maintenance
4/8/21








4/8/21








4/8/21








4/8/21








4/9/21
the thing i like about the syns is it fills in fast, splits and just fun for me to propagate. Thats if I don't ditch a stem here and there for leaf melt. 








4/9/21








4/10/21








4/10/21








4/10/21








4/10/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Any waste comes from snails. These snails survived algaefix, co2, low gh. None of those got rid of them. So forget it, I now maintain my gh to 4 or 5. In turn my belief is they made the system healthier. But they have added more work for me. Not only do i think they eat dead leaves, but also chew right through healthy stuff too. Some syns are chippy because of them that wouldn't otherwise if they weren't in the ecosystem. 
4/12/21
You can see the bits on the leaves, just waive it off and siphon it into the sump or jug on water change.








4/12/21








4/12/21








4/12/21
rio ***** side by uaupes








4/12/21
see patches of empty, usually sales, but sometimes i get to the point where i can't unload and the stems get tossed out and dried to death








4/13/21








4/13/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

The sump is far superior to any other filter imo
The only problem is evaporation/ keeping the water level up. And power outs, if the level is too high it could overflow the sump.
Other than that, Its my preferred way to go for filtration
4/13/21
here you see two co2 reactors, mr aqua 400 and 600, a steady stream of co2 goes into both reactors. I've seen lesser than this amount recommended for a 75g. 








4/13/21
uaupes








4/15/21








4/15/21








4/15/21
the main reason for lighting upgrade, i still have a goal of getting deep reds








4/15/21








4/15/21








4/15/21








4/15/21
big mistake is snipping vichada in half, it will sideshoot that way, but the shortness i cut it it just eventually got tossed. An adult vichada with throw a ton of babies, mass propagation of this plant is super easy and as well leaves can touch each other plant to plant








4/17/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

4/18/21








4/18/21
just cleaner and cleaner








4/18/21
sectaceum kimberly, while it looks nice and bushy and softlike plant, i despise the size it grows, it sells really well but it doesn't belong in this tank imo


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Got light brackets made from a good friend. Now I can get in and out of the tank at my leisure. My head fits under it too for good field of vision. As well, the light both channels is dialed 100%.
4/22/21








4/22/21
rotala mexicana red addition, this is a beautiful plant when fully red








4/22/21
shot








4/22/21
shot








4/22/21
lago grande








4/22/21
Watch how many uaupes propagated in the next post. This is a 20gallon long reminder, and its not even filled up with this one species








4/22/21
with the new light stand, now i can more versatility


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 update
4/22/21
continuation propagation uaupes
sorted by shape/size, spitting stems
You can either spread this plant really fast or kill it really fast








4/22/21
spaces








4/22/21
spaces
I like planting really close together and watching fill in








4/22/21
spaces








4/23/21
so plant and fill just nicely








4/23/21








4/23/21








4/23/21








4/23/21
any maintenance its always nice to follow up with a wc








4/23/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 update
4/24/21
I've got to get these stems to color up. I use kno3, k2hpo4, miller, csm, dtpa 10%, all of these, i try daily, but here and there I forget.








4/24/21
still have the la lindosa, i really like this plant better than caulescens








4/24/21
lago grande is one of the harder syns to grow but not the hardest








4/24/21
see the yellow giant, i have no clue why giant stunt, just one out of all of them, can you spot it?








4/24/21
vichada babies start forming








4/24/21
another








4/24/21








4/24/21
i love the fact i can get in and out of the tank with such ease now, i've considered lowering the light bracket, but first, i need to find out what my par is


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 update
4/29/21
I had grown many reverts and unloaded them, but with syn white stripes i have only noticed that white grows out from the actual white spot of the stem. My revert full green stem, I grew out to maybe around 8-10 stems, all full green so i just got rid of them. This revert with little bit of white has thrown 3 fully white crowns, one i detached and 1 you can see in the picture later on becoming 2, well 3 total, thats what counts. but the crowns are very tiny and not growing much








5/2/21
good overall visual appealing to me, the spectrum blends now








5/2/21








5/2/21








5/2/21








5/2/21
la lindosa in front, x2 of them, all behind is all caulescens








5/2/21








5/2/21








5/2/21








5/2/21








5/2/21








5/2/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

tank 1 update
5/3/21








5/5/21
leaves folding or something, iono, on a caulescens








5/5/21








5/5/21








5/5/21








5/5/21








5/8/21








5/8/21








5/8/21








5/9/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

tank 1 update
5/10/21
new additions








5/10/21
erio rat








5/10/21
tonina lotus blossom








5/14/21
theres hidden ar pink panther in there








5/16/21
shot








5/16/21
shot


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

tank 1 update
5/16/21
i'm trying prop as much vichada as i can








5/16/21








5/16/21








5/16/21
i pull them too prematurely sometimes without even roots








5/16/21








5/16/21








5/17/21
ar pink glimpse








5/17/21
ludwigia white revert, grown to the top, the whites are way slower growing than this particular revert, but fast at sideshooting


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 update
5/18/21
ok basically caught up now, i've got rotala sunset coming, this will be a hard plant for me








5/18/21
not sure where i'll put it








5/18/21








5/18/21








5/18/21








5/18/21








5/18/21
flower stalks








5/18/21








5/19/21
uh oh, algae problems, see the cyano on the moss wall








5/19/21
full tank shot








thanks for viewing


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

DennisSingh said:


> 5/5/21


There is a question mark on the leaf lol


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 3 progressions
This tank gets the least maintenance and least viewing time just for the fact its in a different room. When I get algae or problems, I tend to take less pics and videos. With this tank, I've gone through different types of algae, it seems once I manage one a new one appears that i've never battled before, I wonder what the heck how did that get introduced,. My main goal, since I have achieved it is a clean tank, all 3 tanks clean. Maybe like 5% algae, mainly on walls or something. With this 3rd tank, death really created it. I gassed out 4 puffers because I didn't have a bubble counter on the regulator, in which I use myself gauging co2 would be via bubble counter. I didn't know with this regulator(ista regulator) turning the needle valve just the slightest is increasing the rate tremendously. So I killed those 4 dwarf puffers, I didn't really notice as I thought they were within the plants and gone unnoticed. By the time I redid the tank I only found 1 dead body. I was getting mass spread of algae daily. As well was manually removing algae daily. But that death, caused the bunch of algae as well I believe it soaked up into the substrate, and gradually as the ammonia went away, this became more progressively to perfection. Like new soil, hard to handle. Lots of water changes needed and its wearing down filling jugs. Inspiration, motivation, and patience will be key to achieving my goals in the planted tank. Theres a lot of progression left out because I didn't record
Trent reznor is the only artist I know that I like that doesn't put out the copyright protection, even if I download a new song on itunes, that gets protected and blocked.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Post be split in two, picture limit

Does anyone know if a caridina can cross breed with a neocardinia? I heard one time only i read on the forum and this is way back. I'm wondering as I've spotted 3 so far juvie shrimp, 2 with 4 white spots on the fan tail, and 1 with 2 white spots on the end sides of the tail, all with a translucent bluish body. I thought maybe bkk but I don't see any solid black. I have no extreme bb but thats blue on white. So I'm thinking one of my blue dreams crossed with one of the caridina(but i don't know which). The last two photos is with a t5 camera with flash. Others samsung cam phone.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

this is more representative of the bkk but little bluish/greyish


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 2 video progression update
This is my shrimp and moss tank
Main thing going on with this tank is a bacterial bloom that has lasted a long while now. If it gets really cloudy if I do something, it'll clear up fast within hours, but only to a certain point. The light cloudiness is always there and everytime I think I messed it up badly would clear rather fast, but but, only to a certain extent. I've tried floaters, purigen, and a uv sterilizer which i stopped using. The uv size I could only fit in the sump, all walls are covered with moss, so in the sump there is mulm too, just let it go and it did the cloud and light clear up. I eventually stopped using it. When I did my sales on blue dream shrimp after it all, my blue dreams stopped reproducing. Checked my tds and its in the 90s, so I am slowly trying to get it to 120, and gh to 5 or 6. I rarely test ever. Each water change which are rarely done, except to try clear bloom, I remin to around 4 to 5, so I am not sure whats remaining in the tank after taking water out and putting a consistent level gh the same amount putting in, but tds gives me an idea range. Caridina are booming, and despite the bacterial bloom, I have not witnessed any deaths.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Your tanks are awesome!

What kind of filtration are you running on the tank? I've had good luck with adding sponges in order to clear water up. 

I'm also a fan of HOB filters with UV built-in. AquaTop is one of the resellers in the US but there are a bunch of Aliexpress and the like. Have you considered trying one of those?


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## rzn7z7 (Aug 17, 2013)

Great video!...thanks for sharing....a couple of questions:

1. What are the shrimp feeding on at the 15:20 mark?
2. What is the plant at the 17:55 mark?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

somewhatshocked said:


> Your tanks are awesome!
> 
> What kind of filtration are you running on the tank? I've had good luck with adding sponges in order to clear water up.
> 
> I'm also a fan of HOB filters with UV built-in. AquaTop is one of the resellers in the US but there are a bunch of Aliexpress and the like. Have you considered trying one of those?


Your compliments are very appreciated.

I run a wetdry filter sump on this 56 gallon tank.
The overflow is guarded with ss mesh and floaters. I've still gotten shrimp in the sump. I've counted two in the long months the shrimp been setup. Not like I look into the sump all the time though. The drip tray has two filter pads before water goes down as well as two purigen bags on top filter pads. So water goes into the overflow straight into the purigen then through the pad and drips into bioballs. I'm sure of it if I add more sponge pads itll clear up more but I procrastinate with tasks like that. Instead of trying to fix the bloom spuratically I'm now gonna wait it out like I'm doing. I like those hob uvs, I'm not sure if itll fit the rimless acrylic I believe is 3/4 inch thick. I'm fan aquatic with the prices and decent qualities.

I dont know if I said what caused the bloom, but the soil is a year+ old and I uprooted all my erio Vietnam to emmersed and the cloudiness never cleared up.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

rzn7z7 said:


> Great video!...thanks for sharing....a couple of questions:
> 
> 1. What are the shrimp feeding on at the 15:20 mark?
> 2. What is the plant at the 17:55 mark?


Thanks.

1. They're feeding on wood stored outside in a plastic bag and dead moss tied to it. Anything wood or moss new I introduce into the tank they're all over. I dont understand this as the wood was stored in ziplock no water. Even if I take a piece of wood, detach moss and retie it, the shrimp are all over it eventhough nothing new was introduced....
2. I think ur looking at fissidens miroshaki.
I've massed a good amount of it but debating forever to either sell some or make a centerpiece for the tank using a couple other mosses as well.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

DennisSingh said:


> I'm sure of it if I add more sponge pads itll clear up more but I procrastinate with tasks like that.


Best part about it, since you already have other biological filtration, it'll be easy to remove from the tank for rinsing until it's clear. I like that method because it allows me to do the least amount of work. Accidentally messed with the Aqua Soil in one of my tanks last weekend and had to run a sponge overnight. Cleared it up perfectly.

This lazy shortcut us one of the reasons I keep a spare sponge filter and air pump near every tank I've got. Even my salt tanks. Makes quick cleanup a breeze.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Last video progression update. Will go back picture updating until I rack up more videos and do it again. I took this video progression way too far back than I wanted to, but I don't want to put in more time on it editing. So I didn't use all progress, and so some were skipped through.

This is tank 1 update, but I would like to start and say that each thing you do is a new skill acquired or skill mastery in progress or plain mastery. I can't believe I started doing certain things so late in the game. Things could've been a lot better, I should've been doing it a certain way all along, or not. Each thing you do though you get better at, you learn no matter, otherwise the brain might go dead. Practice, you can only get better and better, sure maybe your tank can get worse, but your skill gets better. Explore for yourself, there is limited information that you really need to create success. I'm incomplete myself in the science of it all, but i manage good stuff. Motivation and inspiration is hard at times, if you see the tank too often or your not seeing enough pictures online, i find its good to take a break away and not observe, but I cant carry away too long, there is always something I can do on the tanks. Skills acquired for examples, this just pertaining to maintenance, however it can go into lighting, filter cleaning, etc. So these skills for example, regards to maintaining: fluffing, fluffing and siphoning, removing algae by hand, by siphon, by trimming, its much easier with nails, more precision, Suctioning plants, suctioning soil, trimming, topping and rebottoming ( this skill is a bit harder for me as plants bush out and take more room up, so the plants are grown and you trim but theres not initially the room/space you had in the first place as other plants grew in thick) so I need to work on this one more, scrubbing the glass, (pet peeve of all time so far: uprooting a plant accidently, whether it be redos, maintenance, flow, or even a fish swimming, i hate it), cleanliness is close to godliness. So all these are just in the maintenance category and you get better at it. A nice tank of healthy plants and no algae is a taste of heaven. 
Overgrown plants to the surface or close to it has unlimited access for food, yet more of the bottom, still gets algae.
My panatanal reaches the top and is the fastest growing plant and still manages algae.
My rotala aragauaia looks so nice especially tops, growing from middle to top still manages to get this hair like algae
I've wiped away bga with my hand only to see a fully healthy green syngonanthus beneath it. 
I've never understood why if a plant at the surface has unlimited access to all light and nutrients and gases, why does it get algae. All this has made me question whether healthy plant growth is really the main factor for cleanliness and algae. My main tank, honestly some plants arent' doing the greatest, but there is no algae. Sure its a plus, but I don't think its the key statement everyones been floating around. 

So heres tank 1 update
I added 6 rainbow shiners to the tank. I believe I sucked one up on water change as I never see number 6 again. Number 6 disappeared rather early, and number 6 didnt cause algae, thats why i think I sucked him her up. I really want to focus on fauna health. These rainbow shiners are terrified of me, its getting better, but mostly they hide on me. They're so spastic, always swimming and darting, but when they're scared they tend to choose a spot and just float there. They're eating everyday so that is good, they've colored up, and I believe a female is pregnant, otherwise it has a belly tumor or something. I always thought it was the co2, so I kept lowering with same results, because i do maintenance every other day (it should be everyday[snail waste & fish waste and excess food]) so i think it contributes to the fear. 

[awhile back]
I redid the tank which was a huge mistake, which every redo I do a full water change, but I didn't follow up with water changes after that, I don't know the issue (but that question mark on the leaf prior posts seems to been the warning) in my opinion after the redo excess detritus, so i killed my la lindosa (it eventually faded out/melted away) and more significantly I decimated mostly my entire uaupes colony. Well I've said sensitivity to excel, h2o2, excess ammonia, dirt can kill the plant, but i just don't know why I get melt after 4 years experience with the plant. Others can't keep it going and I never see it for sale anymore. Melting of the uaupes those reasons above, but I will likely never know how to truly grow the plant without melting it as well. I'm lucky to still have stems of it in both my tanks. Cause this one was scary. The plant seems to always stabilize at one point.

Reading the ada amazonia soil lasts up to a year, I started not to dose. Plants are not best but cleaniless is great. As you know, I've never had a stable dosing routine. I can't even go a month of consistency with fertilization. So I don't know how long I stopped for. But seeing plant health (this mainly refers to uaupes, la lindosa too, vichada not splitting) I wanted to replicate new soil growth. For maybe a week now, I'm microdosing urea, nh4so4, and a little kno3(safest of the 3), I have not replicated new soil growth yet. I intend to increase those salts in greater quantity. Other trials, adding a small amount ada bottom plus under certain plants. 

An interesting thing, I added two woods possibly introducing microbio. No one really talks about the microworld, which is probably one of the most important factors. The littlelest guy could have one of the biggest of impacts.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Haven't shared for awhile now. I like sharing but the time it takes to compile and the very little reward keeps me procrastinating.
Shrimp Tank update:
I finally switched out my sump filled with mulm to a sun sun canister filter and its really helped a lot in clarity and keeping adult shrimp from climbing the overflow and getting caught into the sump and dying. I don't know what happened to my wine reds for awhile now but other taiwan bees are doing well. Maybe there are some offspring but I cannot tell, i think i saw a juvie the other day. I'm feeding daily as my population is a good size. I've had shadow pandas pop up without any initial breeders of shadow pandas so they must of been bb's crossed with the bkks or the genetics were already there in the adults. I'm currently not seeing any berried shrimp though. I plan on expanding the mix off caridina with some others but i'm not sure what and may not have the funds available to at the moment. What I'm really worried about on expanding to other type of caridina is the seller mainly(not a specific one). In past purchases, get parasites or pests or theres always something off, thats what I'm afraid of if I want to expand on different varieties like boas or red fancy tigers and so on. Things are perfect right now, I'm loving the tank because I dont have to do anything but feed and watch and speculate. All enjoyment, no real maintenance, thats how I'm trying to get all my tanks to be, as little work as possible and just the ability to observe everything and really enjoy and take photos and videos. I still want more shrimp in this tank although I have a lot, I want them literally all over the place without feeding and I want higher end type rather than the crs, cbs, the timeframe I should have more, but the wetdry and water cloudiness and lack of feeding i think all was holding me back.

*The quality of this video has been butchered, very dissappointing..*






Up next main syn tank update
notes: tired of algae, tired of trimming, wc, etc..


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Here is a picture of syngonanthus rio ***** giant. It had been in the tank for maybe about a year until finally withering away. It grew tall, lenghty, and very chippy. There was no co2 and lighting was very little. The fact that it lasted so long proves that the major factor of syngonanthus is pure water parameters/chemistry. Soft acidic water. Then u add the co2 and lighting and you can grow a good plant. The plant was highly lacking in nutrients, very deficient but it held on for so very long.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

As u all know, I can grow mosses well. I have this theory and was hoping others with more science can expand on this, here or elsewhere. That one of the keys to good prime compact moss is in the lighting spectrum. I've grown some of my best mosses in 50/50 type bulbs. With my prizm lights which is more geared to stem plant coloration, my mosses seem to grow lenghty and more upwardish. With same water parameters and same type flows I have come to this conclusion. Par levels do not seem to matter much at all. I think it's all about spectrum. That's why we go high $ on lighting, it's the main factor. Co2 I've never measured but I've seen my stem plants grow in very low levels. Ferts, we have all the nutrocentric talk. Higher ferts does equal thicker growth. I've seen in my syngonanthus the differences in lenght and internodes with more red or more blue type lighting's. I've witnessed a video on red light vs blue light where in blue the plants grow more compact. The video was presented to me by @happi A long while ago. This makes me think there should be more research in lighting if it already hasn't been said or done and in spectrums further into it. I've seen low co2 and high co2 and low fert vs high fert. Theres a lot of leeway in those topics but most information is based on getting algae or not which can coexist with plants. So hence I've had very low co2 but also tons of algae alongside with healthy plants. What I think is that spectrums should be studied more as in my prizms I can grow stems well but mosses while they do grow I'm not getting the prime examples as I want to get. So for example getting weeping moss to weep is a lot of what I see. I dont think its flow, nor par, I bet it has something to do with blue type white type lighting. With red type u get that upward look. Fertilization will determine thickness as well as co2, par will determine algae as well bio/fauna will determine algae as well as ferts will determine it, we all know mosses require little fertilization. Regardless plant tanks are not only spectrum but the whole "balance" everything interconnecting and intertwined one thing causing the other, so theres a centric for everything, lightingcentric, nutrocentric, co2centric, maintenancecentric. I keep hearing theres many ways to skin a cat, this is true, but I'd like ppl going in further on lighting and how it can really shape a plant. I'm just gibberjashing here.

Notes: nh4so4 seems to be a game changer


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

I remember you saying NH4 is like steroids wayyyy back. 
Did you change your mind? 
Did NH4SO4 behave different to NH4NO3 or urea?


BTW I don't see any difference between spectrum to be honest.
I'm not a huge moss guy but I've kept Riccia long enough 
but never seen much difference in compactness between super-warm growlight(it turns everything yellow and orange) and red-blue RGB light.

If any RGB light ones grow faster (but thats probably because I dose nothing to growlight tank.)


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

MoreliaViridis said:


> I remember you saying NH4 is like steroids wayyyy back.
> Did you change your mind?
> Did NH4SO4 behave different to NH4NO3 or urea?
> 
> ...


I have old soil right now so I was looking to replicate new soil growth with the addition of nh4so4. I have not changed my mind, unless I said something different, I'm all for nh4. I've witnessed maybe half booming growth adding it compared to new soil. I have never used nh4no3 so I dont know. Urea in my opinion always leads to more algae and I'm not sure how well its absorbed. With both nh4so4 and urea dose very lightly. I'm currently doing ei daily off the calculator but I think it's too much, will try every other day as I have lots of algae. Ya I believe nh4 is like steroids.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

MoreliaViridis said:


> I remember you saying NH4 is like steroids wayyyy back.
> Did you change your mind?
> Did NH4SO4 behave different to NH4NO3 or urea?
> 
> ...


Specific plants I'm not referring to. I only observed with my syns and going back on memory with mosses. Riccia maybe if u submerse it rather than float it, would show the lenghtiness but I really dont know. But u saying that it's a mix of all which is best. My theory was in red vs blue. U can try only red channel and only blue channel


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Basically literally any light will grow plants. But different plant structures I must emphasize


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

Ahhhh your thread make me miss syns










No one here keeps syns anymore....
I can't even find Belem now...let alone lago or 2006 or other tasty stuffs.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Sometimes downsizing is better for management. A bunch of x1s imo just doesnt look right. Plants that grow tall and fast need more maintenance. I have gotten rid of plants that I hope dont die out from the hobby in case I ever want them again. I'm more into shorter low growers now.

Plants that died out on me were
Syn vichada
Syn la lindosa
Syn caulescens
Ludwigia white
Ar opicus (so much potential in this plant, only seen one person, not me, grow this plant in good potential)
Rotala macrandra variegated

Plants that I got rid of were
E. Sectaceum kimberly
Erio rat
Syn bahia
Rotala mexicana red, green, goias, and aragauia
Bacopa salzmanii singapore version
Pantanal
Syn manaus
Syn madeira
Syn macrocaulon
Syn meta (hope this is still around, great alternative to manaus and madeira)
Ar pink panda
Erio goias
Rotala tulunadensis
Downoi red

So now things are easier to manage, cuz I dont really trim well, takes a lot of energy to prep up and top and bottom, I dont really ever trim and leave bottoms for plants to grow sideshoot tops. Im trying to get all my tanks into low maintenance mode, give me a bit of ease and not burnout. Besides my moss and buce tanks here is what I keep now

Syn uaupes
Syn vichada (just purchased)
Syn caulescens (just purchased)
Syn la lindosa (just purchased)
Syn lago grande
Syn giant
Ludwigia meta (cant tell any difference from pantanal)
Tonina lotus blossom
Tonina tocantins


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## LidijaPN (12 mo ago)

Somebody just gave me a cutting of ludwigia meta, any advice? I feel like it probably won’t make it in my low tech low flow medium light tank but if there’s anything I can do for it, I’m willing!


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

LidijaPN said:


> Somebody just gave me a cutting of ludwigia meta, any advice? I feel like it probably won’t make it in my low tech low flow medium light tank but if there’s anything I can do for it, I’m willing!


I'd say just lots of fertilization. It's a heavy feeder. I have no doubts it can grow in low tech tanks but u might not get the best of colors.


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## LidijaPN (12 mo ago)

DennisSingh said:


> I'd say just lots of fertilization. It's a heavy feeder. I have no doubts it can grow in low tech tanks but u might not get the best of colors.


Awesome! I really don’t mind the color as long as it grows and seems reasonably happy 😊


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

DennisSingh said:


> I have gotten rid of plants


Wuss



DennisSingh said:


> Syn vichada (just purchased)
> Syn caulescens (just purchased)
> Syn la lindosa (just purchased)


Lucky you 
Finding just regular belem took me few weeks here lol


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

MoreliaViridis said:


> Wuss


Yes I admit, I'm big time sissy


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 progressions
I've gotten really burned out at times. Got tired of water changing, trimming, dosing, algae growth, just maintenance in general. I thought theres gotta be a better way. So I tried some different things over the course of this year and last year. I'm trying to gear all my tanks into low maintenance to no maintenance. This has been accomplished with my two other tanks, for my syn tank, i think I am getting there, but its been a long hard battle. Especially with algae. It seems though, once you get rid of algae and its spores, it never comes back. You can dose more, raise par and have more leeway in the things you do and it never comes back. This leads me to believe that algae spores introduction is a factor. 
Here are progressions of my syn tank:
7/1/21








7/3/21








7/4/21








7/5/21








7/9/21








7/17/21








Slowly the caulescens and vichada melted away. This is a nutrient issue, depleted soil. I have found that in la lindosa, vichada and caulescens that fish waste provided the plant will not wither away even in depleted soil
7/21/21








7/26/21








7/29/21








7/30/21








7/30/21








8/3/21








8/4/21








8/5/21








8/7/21








8/9/21








8/11/21








8/12/21








8/16/21








8/25/21






Notes: uaupes and water change, tds/"pure" water


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tank 1 progressions continued








8/27/21








8/31/21








9/1/21








9/3/21








9/4/21








9/10/21








9/12/21








9/16.21








9/19/21








At this point i was only micro dosing urea and nh4so4 dry dose, nothing else
9/19/21








9/19/21








































9/22/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Syn tank progressions continued
9/25/21








9/28/21








9/29/21
























10/4/21
overgrown, leads to algae








10/4/21








10/8/21








10/13/21








10/30/21








11/3/21
redo, recap a little bit of soil, replant and redo








11/3/21
















11/6/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

11/9/21
algae easily forming with new cap of soil, its not as easy as just new soil and water changing, especially using rodi, other factors play role, i always thought new soil and water change was the way to kush but naw








11.12/21








11/21/21








i started adding bacteria to see if that would help rid algae, trying to establish micro organism colony, first attempt fail








12/2/21








12/11/21








12/15/21
















12/21/21








12/29/21








1/2/22
this algae was here to stay, I couldn't get rid of this hair algae for a very long time


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

1/4/22








1/14/22
see you can have algae and at the same time plants will grow and not die out








1/17/22








2/9/22
another redo








2/11/22








2/12/22
















2/22/22
same exact hair algae coming back, on the redo i remove most of it then replant








3/1/22
here i try again to establish a colony of microorganisms, i took the mulm from my canister filter from my shrimp tank and squeezed the sponges all over the syn tank








3/2/22
the plants don't die eventhough they're covered in mulm, if they do die the mulm isn't the reason








3/3/22








3/4/22


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

progressions continued
3/8/22








3/9/22








3/15/22








3/17/22








3/21/22








3/24/22








3/27/22
still can't rid this hair algae type








3/29/22
add caulescens, la lindosa, vichada








3/29/22








4/4/22








4/9/22








4/10/22


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

Mmm tasty stuffs


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## rzn7z7 (Aug 17, 2013)

Man, that is quite the saga....and then there's this pic....I know you added the mulm but if my tank looked like that I might've just quit



DennisSingh said:


> 3/1/22
> here i try again to establish a colony of microorganisms, i took the mulm from my canister filter from my shrimp tank and squeezed the sponges all over the syn tank


You are brave!


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## Eric Tran (Jul 7, 2016)

The was amazing to see the progressions, your battle with algae and the steps taken to combat it slowly. I agree with the above, seeing that much algae would cause me to throw away and redo everything. What a lot of people don't realize with battling algae is that it's not an instant thing. You need to take the steps and to correct the problem and you won't see results until weeks later.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

progressions continued
so the addition of the mulm failed, i stopped 2 weeks in with light water change, then started doing the large water change maintenance. I initially first water change got beneficial results but then going into it more the algae came back, at this point is where I cheated and used algae fix. 2 doses. After the first dose a vast amount of algae got killed off, waited 3 days as per instructions and did the second dose, and it fully got rid of the hair algae. I was scared cause in the past I killed la lindosa using algae fix, but that was overdosing the chemical. This time around I dosed the right amount, the chemical is very strong and potent and you see results the next day. The hair type algae never came back after that. At the point of using algae fix from there on till this day I have not water changed my tank. So about 4/11/21 till this day, I've only lightly topped off the tank. You can see water levels and the outflow doing surface agitation, I'm not never worried about co2 loss. I was able to lower my light bracket and increase par with no real ill effects and increase in pearling in the tank. 
4/11/22








4/12/22








4/13/22








4/15/22








4/16/22
























4/17/22
I start using black water powder to keep the ph balance and try mimic natural habitat








4/20/22








4/23/22








4/25/22








4/29/22








4/26/22








4/29/22








4/30/22
















5/2/22








5/4/22


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

5/3/22








5/5/22








5/5/22








5/6/22








5/6/22


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

MoreliaViridis said:


> Mmm tasty stuffs


scrumptous? still not good enough for me, seeing past photographs, ive done way way better




rzn7z7 said:


> Man, that is quite the saga....and then there's this pic....I know you added the mulm but if my tank looked like that I might've just quit
> 
> 
> 
> You are brave!


I've learned to be patient, but the span of the timeframe I've had the algae was way too long, you learn a lot and sometimes realize its out of your control whether the tank is doing good or not. As long as the plants are not dying or melting though I can tolerate the algae and once again have patience with it. I cannot believe I resorted to chemical but it seemed to be the only way. The algae was really tough and stuck that manual removal was not possible. Manual removal also wears you down when the algae just keeps coming back.



Eric Tran said:


> The was amazing to see the progressions, your battle with algae and the steps taken to combat it slowly. I agree with the above, seeing that much algae would cause me to throw away and redo everything. What a lot of people don't realize with battling algae is that it's not an instant thing. You need to take the steps and to correct the problem and you won't see results until weeks later.


Yes it is not instant, with anything as well, deficiencies, growth, I used to want things so fast. But I really think algae gets introduced by spores, cause I introduced plants from another tank that had that hair type algae and thats when i started getting it. Same as introducing duckweed. The algae fix seems to completely eliminated and it doesn't seem that it'll come back. And you can range your variables like more par and dose more without ill effect.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Here is progressions of tank 3 before i try to aquascape it into a tree of life scape. It was never maintained so i tore it down for easier management. Got rid of various plants, so just buce and moss and shrimp tank now makes it quite a lot easier. I don't get how people are to manage so many tanks at once, i can't even perfect 3. I don't take pics everyday so thats why you see the irregularity in dates
7/2/21








7/3/21








7/3/21








7/4/21








7/5/21








7/9/21








7/12/21
only one channel of light on








7/13/21








7/13/21








7/18/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

progressions tank 3 continued
7/19/21
belem to the top, thats why i've switched to lower grow species or slower growing species, too much to keep up with








7/19/21








7/20/21








8/3/21
rare water change








8/11/21
la lindosa at its finest. I have since killed it once again, now is the time to give up on the plant, i'm never trying it again, i also killed off syn regular caulescens (these both plants present day i am referring to)








8/12/21








8/19/21








8/23/21








9/1/21
co2 is very low, lack of water change, lack of trim, without each of them algae starts to build too








9/4/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

progressions tank 3 continued
9/4/21








9/4/21
teardown redo time








9/4/21








9/4/21








9/4/21








9/4/21
every redo, the water always clears very fast








9/5/21
need to extract these roots though








9/5/21
extracted plants








9/5/21
recap of soil, will probably never recap soil again, it causes too many problems, and dosing nh4 gives me pretty satisfactory results








9/5/21
a bit clearer


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

tank 3 progressions cont.
9/5/21
uprooting last of the roots causing murky water








9/6/21
redo starts, planting








9/6/21








9/6/21








9/6/21








9/6/21








break time resume 9/7/21








9/7/21








9/7/21








9/7/21
i think the combination of the filter and the plants clears up the water very fast








9/7/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

tank 3 progress continuation
9/7/21








9/7/21








9/7/21








9/8/21








9/12/21








9/18/21








9/26/21
back to algae again, almost 0 maintenance








9/27/21








9/29/21








10/18/21


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

random picture thread


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

random pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

random pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

random pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

pic post


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

I smell cyano _sniff_



DennisSingh said:


>


God damn.. Meta?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

MoreliaViridis said:


> I smell cyano _sniff_
> 
> 
> 
> God damn.. Meta?


Yes meta


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## Le duke (Jun 29, 2021)

Is the red plant pictured in the post that @MoreliaViridis quoted blood stargrass?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Le duke said:


> Is the red plant pictured in the post that @MoreliaViridis quoted blood stargrass?


Naw its ludwigia meta


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

....pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

......pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

....pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

....pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

....pic post


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

picTure posT


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## MoreliaViridis (May 19, 2021)

DennisSingh said:


>


Whats this?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

MoreliaViridis said:


> Whats this?


Althernethera 'pink panda'


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

SYN. UAUPES AND WATER CHANGE

I've come to the conclusion that uaupes doesnt like lots of water changes. This is what my supplier said to me a long time ago and I never listened. Youve probably read that Plants to every water parameter change need to adapt. And this is a very sensitive plant. I've seen it before, I've gone without water change for long periods of time. And the plant remains in good health. With fresh soil there was a time where I changed water everyday, uaupes would melt and rapidly, I could never understand it. Going back to adaptation, the water is different in parameters. Eventhough I use the same water everytime (rodi) with tds rising just a tad little, It's not the same water as the tank water. I use rodi and the water is pure, close to zero tds, neutral ph (7.0) I'm assuming, compared to established water mixed with co2 and fertilizers and established, so at the very least the difference is in ph swing. Maybe adding humic acid to each change could remedy it but I havent explored this enough. So water change is a difference in parameters. What I do is change water every 2 to 3 weeks, tds is my control, with a full water change and remineralization the tds is 70 to 80, I dose everyday until I get tds to 120 to 200 then I water change only because of accumulation. The more I dose the faster the tds rises hence the range of 120 to 200ppm. So how to keep algae away with so infrequent water change? I dont know, but I'm guessing plant health and/or organisms and microorganisms. For plant health I've been dosing daily with good results urea pinch, nh4so4 pinch, kno3 7.5ppm, po4 1.3 ppm, 5.3ppm k, with light doses of csmb and miller microplex all daily. I dose daily until the tds reaches between 120ppm to 200ppm then water change. I havent yet reached the 200ppm tds yet, highest I've gotten to is 168ppm. People have gotten away with water change and uaupes but I'm referring to my specifics and then again the whole usa who I've sold to has had the plant die out long term or short term. I've have gone down to 3 stems and am multiplying it as fast as I can. Ive now gone from 3 or so plants to over 20. I almost lost this precious plant, that wouldve been devastating and I would likely quit, but observations and the experience kept it from dying out. If u do see melt I'd advise u uproot the whole plant and strip to the bone all melted leaves and replant. This plant splits a lot. So it's easy to propagate fast. If u cut it in half the bottom will throw sideshoots, a mother plant will throw sideshoots and sometimes a small plant will split even as well. So propagation can be very fast. You dont even need roots for the plant to regrow. This is my favorite plant and my goal is to have the whole tank full of it but it will be hard to rid of all my other species, I like them too. I plan to supply no one, but it maybe hard cuz I get urges to sell however not as much as I'd like so it maybe useless to sell to one or two people and lose the power and prestige just for minor sales. I like I'm the only one that has the plant. That being limited of information since u dont get others viewpoints and perspectives.

so here 5-22-22, i have 3 stems, to the right of the co2 reactor 2 stems and the mother plant on the right side in between the left tonina and right tonina








5-31-22 mother stem of uaupes splitting








6-14-22 bottom stem splitting








6-15-22 bottom stem splitting








6-19-22 bottom stem splitting








7-12-22 bottom stem splitting








7-13-22 u get the point








7-13-22 close up








7-20-22 see the split?








7-24-22








7-24-22








so from 5-22-22 to 7-25-22 roughly 2 months i went from 3 stems to 33 stems, very fast propagation


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## rzn7z7 (Aug 17, 2013)

Perhap uaupes should have its own tank? I know that may not be feasible for many reasons but if its requirements are so unique and/or incompatible w/ the rest of your plants then what other option is there?


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

rzn7z7 said:


> Perhap uaupes should have its own tank? I know that may not be feasible for many reasons but if its requirements are so unique and/or incompatible w/ the rest of your plants then what other option is there?


My goal is to have predominantly a tank full of mostly uaupes.
But no, it doesnt need it's own tank, the method I have adopted is suiting very well mostly all species I am keeping. They're compatible. I'll update with pics later.


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

I have switched my t5 bulbs in my shrimp tank back to my giessman bulbs and within a week or two my bucephalandra new leaves have better red coloration. They've been green for the longest time with coralife 10000k and 6500k. This shows how spectrum plays a role in buce coloration. Par is very low I assume, it's only 2 bulbs hung on conduit on a 36x30x12 tank. Water parameters never change except for top offs.

before
























after


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

before after-lago grande, utricularia heterosepala, rio ***** giant
from 6-10-22 to 7-25-22
6-10-22 before giants








7-25-22 after giants
at this point i can propagate the snot outta giants, but i just don't have any room anywhere to put them, so i let them keep growing, they don't melt despite major overcrowding








before 6-10-22 lago grandes








after 7-25-22 lago grande








6-11-22 before, utricularia heterosepala








7-25-22 after, utricularia heterosepala


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

tonina genus has become one of a favorite of mine. They don't take much room up and they grow straight up. they split a lot especially if you top it and the bottom will shoot out for easy propagation. I get melt out of nowhere, I don't know if its lack of trim or overcrowding or lack of water change or overgrown. I think its between overgrown and trimming. I don't know though. they're also way easier to emmerse compared to syngonanthus. My goal of a uaupes tank I'd probably keep tonina in as well.
uaupes tank goal, like before
















tonina 7-12-22 to 7-13-22 pics


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Here are pictures of an emmersed setup I did the beginning of this year. It was a huge failure. I get really cocky sometimes and expectations fail out. Like purchasing new plants I cannot grow. Right now I redid my entire syn tank and changed to new soil and I am very cocky about it being successful, but we'll see. This emmersed setup the uaupes died out overnight. It was setup with sand, root tabs and a ultrasonic humidifier you can see in the gap of water. Syns are really hard to transition emmersed, maybe thats why theres not much or no tissue culture of the submergeable species. Belem would be the easiest but still hard to do. So all these in the emmersed setup died or gave out and eventually died anyways. What a waste of plants. Trial and error you still learn out of it. I hate throwing away plants but its a necessity if you can't sell or unload them, room is always running out. 
all pictures 1/21/22


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Syn tank progressions continued, trying to catch up here to current status
5/11/22








5/20/22








5/22/22








5/26/22








5/29/22








5/29/22








i owe a lot of growth to this one fertilizer here








5/31/22








6/7/22








6/7/22








6/10/22
redo of tank, this is not the redo with new soil








6/10/22








6/11/22


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

syn tank progressions continued
6/11/22
















6/13/22
despite how you plant or if you botched your planting layout its really the growth, healthy growth that makes things look really nice, algae is so ugly








6/14/22








6/15/22








6/15/22








6/19/22








6/24/22








7/1/22


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

syn tank progressions cont.
7/1/22








7/9/22








7/11/22








7/12/22








7/13/22








7/13/22








7/17/22








7/20/22








7/20/22









what i notice everytime with syngonanthus vichada is it booms growth right away, thick leaves, lots of splitting, then it starts withering away, thin leaves, not much root growth and eventually dies out. I believe this has to do with the soil, I'll see in the coming month
Now I got to sort out more pictures don't know how long it will take to update more


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

Tree of Life
I think this is my last scape attempt, I don't know. The tank is now torn down. With nature scapes I think your kind've limited on the amount of species you can keep and I love getting new species. So who knows, whether I'll get that itch or not. This tank ranked 1439 in the iaplc contest of 2022 (which i think I could've got higher if the water was crystal clear, I had removed the intake and gear for the picture and it got a little bit cloudy) and first place in the v-aquatics facebook buce contest. Low tech seems to be super easy for me now, I think i myself have mastered low tech. And the amount of maintenance needed is cake walk. 
20g long tank
old soil ada amazonia and amazonia lite mixed together
tom barr stump of manzanita glued together with cig filter with other small pieces of manzanita
rodi water, gh remineralizer salty shrimp gh+
prizm led light
sun sun canister filter
co2 diffused with a cheap atomizer diffuser

First off was the building of the hardscape
Like stated I used a TOM BaRR stump i purchased a long time ago from him. I glued accents of manzanita wood to it. 
Here is the original stump with nothing glued
1/17/22
























1/25/22 started working on it
























1/25/22 finished product
























1/27/22
























into the tank it goes
used slate rock to sink the stump tree, it only took a couple of days for it to be water logged, it was sunk before but has been out of water for a very long time


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

1/27/22
















1/28/22
my mistake it only went overnight to get waterlogged








































1/31/22








you can see the patches of cig filters super glue and sawdust


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## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

1/31/22
















buces to be used








installed 3 moss walls, all vietnam moss
















time to glue buce and fissidens splach to the tree stump








































when glueing you gotta do it lightly and press/pressure lightly otherwise it sticks back to your fingers, i do not use tweezers to glue stuff








rolled over to through the night to the next day around 12 am
2/1/22


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## LeperKuN (5 mo ago)

I learned a lot from reading your posts on this thread! I really want to experiment with uaupes and vichada. They're both awesome plants. I just like short plants, lower maintenance with scissors and tweezers.


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