The 20g Long Progress

[Sovereignty]

Aww my tank is cycling without my aid. How thoughtful of it hahaha.

 

[Sovereignty]

This is my source water, btw. Its RO. So I sure would like to hope these are the results hahaha

also. I did just no reduce my light period to 8 hrs. It was 11... oops. I got the light and honestly didn't even bother playing with the time function hahah. Just opened the app, saw when it came on and turned off and went with it. My bad.

 

[Byron]

First, with RO you should see ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at zero. The increase in nitrite and nitrate is likely the "soil" aspect, this is not uncommon depending what is in these. I assume you are not trying to cycle this tank with artificial ammonia.

As for the algae, common green is to be expected but any type of what I refer to as "problem" algae is due to an imbalance in the light/nutrients. Provided the light is not too bright (intensity), duration can control its effct, along with floating plants. The majority of our aquarium fish do not appreeciate overhead light so keeping it dim is best. The other thing is the nutrients in the "soil" are difficult to assess. And, new tanks are naturally biologically unstable until the system becomes established.

 

[Sovereignty]

First, with RO you should see ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at zero. The increase in nitrite and nitrate is likely the "soil" aspect, this is not uncommon depending what is in these. I assume you are not trying to cycle this tank with artificial ammonia.

As for the algae, common green is to be expected but any type of what I refer to as "problem" algae is due to an imbalance in the light/nutrients. Provided the light is not too bright (intensity), duration can control its effct, along with floating plants. The majority of our aquarium fish do not appreeciate overhead light so keeping it dim is best. The other thing is the nutrients in the "soil" are difficult to assess. And, new tanks are naturally biologically unstable until the system becomes established.

Oh no, I'm not cycling atm, whatever is happening is happening solely based on what's in the tank.

I figure did be experiencing some issues as the tank continues on. Algae though wasn't something I was looking forward to... I always struggled with it in my low t3ch tanks in the past, was hoping the co2 would help keep it at bay. Hopefully as my plants grow more they'll fight off the algae.

I hope the slightly reduced light hours will help too.

 

[Sovereignty]

Added
hygrophila salicifolia (Hygro Blue)
&
Broad-Leaf Pogostemon stellatus
The other day.

I moved the pennywort that was in the back around a bit as it was having too much of a happy growth spurt and covering my hygro that's there next to the log. I want it long enough to where i can start wrapping it up around the log a bit. Its not quite thetr. I've also decided to point the powerhead the other direction to get some flow going through those back panels.

Bought some cheap toothbrushes at the store so I'm heading home to give things a good scrub hahaha.

 

[Sovereignty]

Little better now hahah

 

[Sovereignty]

Another day another picture. After scrubbing off most of the algae and diatoms they certainly haven't been returning as fast. I also finally got my light riser in! Yay. No longer uneven or sitting awkwardly across my tank.

 

[Sovereignty]

Happy Monday all

 

[Geoffrey]

What an amazing tank!

 

[Sovereignty]

What an amazing tank!

♡ ty! I can't wait until it fills in!

 

[Sovereignty]

Last view I'll get before I leave for a week. It will be interesting to see it when I get home. I fly out tomorrow but it qill be too early in the morning to see the tank.

So enjoy the last shots for a week hehehe.

 

[Sovereignty]

Woooee oh boy. Hahha been got since Friday morning. Looks like they need some tlc. Still got some algae to deal with but my hygro has gotten big. Haha. What's the best way to trim these? Cus I don't want them to get twiggy.

 

[Uberhoust]

Tank is looking great. I wish I had your sense of design.

 

[Sovereignty]

Tank is looking great. I wish I had your sense of design.

oooh thank you <3 i can't wait till the diatoms fluff off so i can appreciate the pure green/red of these plants. XD I think, since its been sitting for so long, I gotta go refill my jugs of RO tomorrow but I think i'll do a big water change. P: They're rooted enough in there now I'm not worried about them floating/falling off stuff.

 

[Sovereignty]

Some maintenence. Scrubbed glass, tried to get as much off the leaves as I could. Trimmed my hygro and removed some pennywort (that stuff is going crazy)
Might pick up some nerite snails and maaaybe shrimp or a hillstream loach or 2 tomorrow. We'll see. Will depend on what my LFSs have in.