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RE Bev Starting Over
Dear Bev
When I first set up my tank (60gal), it was poorly organized, but I just
wanted to give everything a chance to take a hold. Two months after the
tank cycled and all the plants were doing well, I went away for two weeks
and when I got back, I had a jungle in my tank. Now that I more or less
knew what was happening, I decided to do some major pruning and major it
turned out to be, I tossed 25 gallons of various plants (all the plants
had produced offspring. Those with runners were removed in strings up to 6
ft in length! I started with 3 swords and removed 8 and this is with 2
still in the tank, the stemed plants were bushes, the vals were 6-8 ft in
length!). I think I over did it. Before I knew it, the tank was bare, so
with out intending to do so, I now had to start over.
The few plants I had in the tank were carefully pruned further to get
cuttings or split, so that I could re plant. Most plants after this major
prune stopped growing for a while, or progressed very slowly. For the
first time, I also started to get hair algae. I hadn't had it before and
maybe there was alot more light due to the near empty tank and a lot less
plants to absorb the nutrients. This went on for two weeks, and I carefully
pruned to try to encourage new growth.
A month has gone by now, 3 X 25% water changes and thank goodness it's all
starting to come back.
Another thing I noted was that the water in the tank, before I started
pruning or ripping out plants, was crystal clear! No, no, no, I really
mean "crystal" clear. The tank was so "bright". Must have been due to the
fact that it was a really stable and balanced environment ( I am assuming,
as thing were growing well and all the fish were health). I can only hope
to achieve it again soon.
Hope this helps.
Alfred
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 14:44:28 -0600
From: Chuck Gadd <cgadd at cfxc_com>
Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #1147
> From: "Bev" <bevgreen at cygnus_uwa.edu.au>
> Subject: Starting again (sort of)
> However when I first set the tank up I bought many boring common plants and
> planted them with my then extremely limited knowledge of how they grew.
<snip>
> My plan is to simply up root all the plants and sort them out and then re
> plant them as desired.
<snip>
> has anyone attemted this ? what are the results?
> Algae blooms? what could I expect!?!?!?!?!?