Back to black

Aquasky is in and plants have not been affected much by 5 days without light. It arrived on time but I got called away from home for an emergency.

That's 100% as the phone saw it - completely unadjusted. Probably not bright enough if you are looking for a high light setup, but perfect for my tank. Easy enough to set using the app, bit of a gimmick IMO but it saves their production costs by not having to include a remote or display. Nice range of adjustability but I just tweaked the auto mode. 3 Hour ramp up, 3 hour ramp down and 8 hours of everything at 100% in between. Oh and 15 minutes of moonlight at the end of the day.

Close inspection of the Hygger and there was already condensation inside the cover. The cover was just pushed into place and appeared to have no silicone / sealant whatsoever. Perhaps by design - but I won't be getting another.

Cleaned the canister today. Don't tell the BB police - that means hot, chlorinated tap water
I did add a bag of matrix I had lying around to the HOB. It works really well with its coarse sponge, but I needed something to weigh down the rooibos teabags I have started using again

seangee said:

Nice range of adjustability but I just tweaked the auto mode. 3 Hour ramp up, 3 hour ramp down and 8 hours of everything at 100% in between. Oh and 15 minutes of moonlight at the end of the day.

Click to expand...

Well after 8 hours at 100% most of my light meters have not started closing. The tallest ambulia in the shade have closed the top leaves and the ambulia and hygrophila in the clear patch from the spray bar have started. That's in spite of the fact that the outdoor fish got a good feeding of frogbit this morning. So I have upped the daylight setting to 10 hours. It will be a week or so before I can re-assess as I am going back oop norf tomorrow.

I must say its quite refreshing to find a (by all accounts decent) light that is actually designed for low / medium light environments. Yes I know its an upsell opportunity for the planted light (much brighter and more expensive) but most community tanks simply don't need more light. And most of the manufacturers seem set on trying to see how much light they can throw out of their units because of the perception that more light is better.

Arrived home this afternoon. Uh oh the frogbit is trying to root itself

Believe it or not after that last pic I removed 75% of the frogbit and trimmed the rest. Then I left it alone for a week. This weekend I was really busy so all the tanks got a water change but no time for trimming or anything else

Must confess I do like it but I dont think it should go another week without a trim

A little attention needed please

Ok I suppose I can spare 5 minutes

We're at that magical time of year where the frogbit I throw into the fishpond actually grows faster than the Koi can eat it.
It also means water changes are really fast because I no longer have to heat up the water. This one will be done tomorrow as I'm away for the weekend.

Look what I found today! That plant has been MIA for at least a year (best guess). Certainly its not showed up in any pictures for longer than that. I had given up on it coming back but buried what was left of the bulb way back in history. Today I did a W/C and massive frogbit clear out and discovered this.
Used a macro lens - so that gravel you see is actually sand. Plant itself is tiny but that looks like it will change soon. Hope I haven't jinxed it by adding a root tab...

A bit more context:
That is a really old plant - I already had it when I re-did this tank in September 2019. Its also had several periods where it has formed the bulk of my surface cover. I know that they have periods of dormancy where they appear to die back almost completely. It has had several such periods in its lifetime. But I have never known it to disappear completely, or to stay in hibernation for that long.

Wow, that's cool. Congratulations on the bonus lily!