90 Gallon Update: The Heady Days of CO2

90-gallon Update

The Heady Days of CO2 

After just 21 days since my last post, I can already see a great deal of new growth in the 90-gallon tank. I've had to trim the valisneria at the waterline to keep it from blocking the light over the alternathera reinicki mini, the red plants on the left side of the tank. What's worse, the vals were developing those long strings of algae at the top of those long, beautiful strappy leaves, and I was not surprised, given the fact that they were as close to the lights as any plan can get. I had to resolve that algae issue as soon as possible. I know how hard it can be to get rid of that air alga once it gets established, so I'm always looking out for new strands to remove them as soon (and cleanly) as possible. Any little piece that breaks off can start a new strand, so I have to go slow and carefully each time. Trimming the leaves just seemed to be a more effective way of getting rid of both issues in one fell swoop.

I cut back a couple of leave at the water line first, just to test it. I wanted to see if the leaf would die and melt away. If so, I wanted to see how that affected the plant. To be honest, I don't see that it hurt much at all. In fact, it might be the reason why those vals are threatening to overrun the tank! It definitely made removal of that hair algae much easier.

It's pretty clear that the vals are booming. They are sending out runners everywhere, and growing by the day. I'm definitely going to have to remove several of them soon before they overgrow the tank.

The little blue basket up in the top right corner of the tank is where I am holding about 20 baby ancistrus.  I intend to move them over to the mini-fish room in the garage to grow out, but I'm somewhat hesitant because I had so many die that way last time (I know at least one of those babies survived, but it looks like it was probably only that one because I haven't seen any others in a really long time). I treated that tank with meds and water changes a few weeks ago, and everything has been fine for a long time, but I'm still a bit wary. I want them to get a little bit larger before I move them.

Speaking of ancistrus, here is one of the larger ones in the 90-gallong tank. I wanted to demonstrate with this picture how much the stringy little alternanthera reinicki mini has grown and how strong it has become (check my last post), given a steady supply of CO2 and smaller, regular doses of ferts.

Since it kind of fits with the whole theme of aquatic plants and nature too, I decided to share a picture below of my youngest son on a recent class field trip to Billie Swamp Safari on the edges of the Florida Everglades. Alligators are "kind of our thing" down here in South Florida...