Stan's freshwater 240 gallon extravaganza. Trials and tribulations of a sunlit aquarium

Ok,I did it again. I moved the Bolbitis from the shade to the sun and ..shockeroo!..Its really green..but under my artificial lights it looked black. It does have some brown algae..I think I mentioned I am trying fertilizer ,6-12-6 sticks?..yeah and a few days later now,I see algae.
The Bolbitis? You ever loved something to the death? Or as they say "Worry it until it dies"?..This plant is driving me nuts. Nothing else,no plant, has gone front to back and left to right searching for the answer like the Beatles to a Guru. I put the Echinodorus grisebachii in the back middle in 2018 and its still there..same for the C. balansae.
But the Bolbitis is green,alive and now I have three...the largest sten broke in half. With last year's piece from Hans making a good comeback...I now have some Bolbitius to the left and Bolbitis to the right!..hedging that one spot should be THE one.
At least no stem had died back. Good omen.

WOW ! That big huge tank is totally awesome ! So cool. So very cool. I have to go lay down now after seeing that. Please show us a video.

Thanks Fold!..I made some changes. Bolbitis heudelotii is now to the left and in more light. Funny that its looks green again..no black. In moving it I broke the stem in half,reglued the broken half to a petrified rock. It's the fern on the far left. I also reduced the Vallisneria from a 7" square pot to a 4"..still plenty and it shouldn't be the solid green column it was...thinned to wave in the current. You can see the java moss pole is at a rakish angle with young Java Fern at the end..in back is electric blue Ram. Also two lotus plants..one sort of purple and the other a reddish brown with Apistogramma cacatuoides.
I noticed I might have spoke to soon on the miracle grow sticks I stuck around certain plants? It did make the Echinodorus grisebachii an even darker green..but boy watch very carefully you dont over do it.

Looking good

Thanks Viking. I also yesterday took scissors to the Star Grass. No pinching like before. I cut like I would a lawn with a mower..just straight across at what looked low enough.
I then re planted any stem I could. Star Grass? It has a fantastic ability to root from tiny pieces shoved into the gravel or sand. I have to admit,a carpet does sort of pull the look together and really adds to the lushness. For well over my first year in this setup,I didn't want a carpet.. I wanted white sands. Seeing Corvus on youtube and TAI's videos of Star Grass in the Pantanal of Brazil..got me.
The wife would kill me if I took out the stargrass OR let it get wild. She really likes the lawn look too.

Yes, it does look good. I am seriously thinking at having it in my new sunken woods tank, I think it will match with the background picture I am looking at. Still deciding on what type of fish- so many fish to choose from, so little room in my tank

There's always the can't go wrong Triangle Rasboras...they live longer than most fish their size and type..schoolers. The larger Tetras like bleeding heart might be a little aggressive- mine look great but they tend to either stick together when worried like at tank cleaning or they divide the tank into five zones-lol Seems like for their five. I think Emperors are mild mannered and are out and about. Haven't seen those for sale in years now.
Or go for those Corydoras that have neon streaks. I saw those. But $30 each was just too much chance. Still,if you see very small ones at a good price..they are another way of using hardy fish that are not common.

Here's the Bolbitis now. Away from fluorescent and LED,lights...it's become green from black appearing. Also BBA that was all over it before...has seriously died back. It's pretty much living on window light/spectrum now along with my dosing. SLow grower though with no Co2..largest new fronds are half the length of the old ones but at least they look perfect and maybe not full grown. It's going to take more time for the stems to get stronger,grow more roots too.

I got a good deal at LFS for Rotala wallichii. It's the Rotala with pink leaves that are so narrow and fine you could mistake it for a Myriophyllum. Not much to show..I put most along the back wall to get the most light...since its not in your face being kind of small stems,I put three stems near the center of the tank as a dash of color behind the purple Lotus.
I hear it's a hard grow. So,I gave the aquarium a heavy dose of iron and tossed in Potassium gluconate pills.
Thus,I add to my journal.

ps The BBA you see on the Bolbitis from Friday? Is gone. Even what it had was much less than before. All I've done is move it from mostly artificial light and closer to the window and mostly that is its light. Even the wife laughs at how it's now green after we both saw it go near all black before.

Here's a night shot of the Syngonium. It's about 3' and the roots reach to the bottom of the 24" deep tank. Plus,what you dont see is from the outside,the Syngonium cascades down and bushy at least another 30"..could be 3'. So its eating bad nitrates and helping the tank from getting way too much sun. I know,because last year all summer was pre Syngonium and hair algae was by the pound seemed like. I think it works better than Pothos myself and I've had Pothos do great also..but its bigger and wants to climb the walls like its superglued. Syngonium won't do that.

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Heres in the day a pic of the roots.

Well,posts MIGHT be slower as I'm pretty much tapped out on adding plants or fish. Its really just a matter with most plants to just get them larger. Others prune.
I have stretched out water changes and as usual,the reaction from plants is mixed. Most are ok,some fast growers like Swords and Star grass,Vallisneria, seem much greener. Others like Ammania/Nyseae haven't liked at all the near 2 weeks of no change. You might want to avoid that one if you have many fish or no Co2. Others seem the same,Anubias,Tiger Lotus,Bolbitis. I have added more iron and potassium. Java fern and moss are fine. The Ammania might be on its way out. It REALLY likes new water.
Fish seem fine on a two week wait.
Really,if it wasn't for the Nyseae or Ammania ( not sure which it is exactly) I could go longer on no changes...that Syngonium is another great filter in its own right.

Added two Panda fish. I figger the grand daughter will love them. She's the reason I have two pink skirt glofish. One thing..those fish have never been a problem. Healthy and not fin biters that I've seen.
So anyways... Andy and Pandy have a new home. For life.

Stan510 said:

Added two Panda fish. I figger the grand daughter will love them. She's the reason I have two pink skirt glofish. One thing..those fish have never been a problem. Healthy and not fin biters that I've seen.
So anyways... Andy and Pandy have a new home. For life.

Click to expand...

I like their names

Back in the 1950s in the UK there was a children's TV programme called Andy Pandy.....

Andy Panda goes to the end of the 1930's. I saw all those old cartoons in the 60's when they were on TV. So,she likes the names,the wife thinks they are cute.
It's a wonder Andy Panda hasn't made a comeback with all the Panda craze that started in the 90's. I might start a craze for Andy Pandy fish.