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Helina

New Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2024
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Location
Finland
Hello!

I searched some information in the internet about aquarium plant fertilizers since I recently started using a new brand and needed to ask a follow-up question in one of your threads. So, therefore I found and became now a member of your interesting forum. Hello! :)

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My aquarium details:
I have a 4 years old freshwater aquarium, which brand and model is Eheim Aquastar 54 litre LED. I've upgraded the filter to an oversized EHEIM biopower 160 litre filter with mechanical filter media, Eheim Substrat Pro and Seachem Purigen (50 ml) in it, finished with a surface flow pipe for water exit. Light is Eheim classicLED Daylight 7,7 W with 7-8h light per day and Eheim thermocontrol 50 W heater is at 24 Celsius. I'm loving the Purigen effect on the water clarity. I added it just recently after the sunken wood started colouring water.

Water treatment:
Tetra AquaSafe 5ml/10 litres and fertilizers are Tropica Premium Nutrition 2ml (1 pump) /50 litres 3 times a week (every other day) and root tablets are JBL ProFlora Ferropol Root. No added CO2.

Plants:
From the left, Tiger Lotus, Cryptocoryne, Leopard Vallisneria, Amazon sword plant and 2 moss balls in the shadow at the right.

Animals:
About 15 green neon tetras, 5 Macrotocinclus affinis (Otos), a few bumblebee snails and 1 Amano shrimp.

Recent changes:
I added the first 2 plants on the list only 2 weeks ago as an early birthday present to myself, after which I increased the lighting time to 7-8h per day and started using fertilizers again. I got algae eater Otos 6 days ago on Friday 22th November to keep algae away. All the plants have appeared with new growth just recently, with tiny new leaves!

I'm experimenting with fish foods:
with several brands and amounts (frozen, freeze dried, flake, waffers, sticks, pellets) since my green neon tetras easily spit the food out. All the unaccepted foods had risen the phosphate levels a bit in the last water test this Monday, so I'm cutting back the amounts of food for tetras, but still try feeding them now with flakes a few times per day. I also made home made jelly mix of the unaccepted fish foods and algae tablets with which I finally today had a success with feeding Otos after having them already for 6 days! I mimicked the commercial algae "shrimp sticks" with rubbing that jelly on a wooden sushi stick. The happy Otos were on it several hours feeding and making me a very happy fish keeper!

Routines:
Daily monitoring the status of the aquarium and feeding tetras with flake food and otos with a jelly which is mimicking the idea of Repashy Soilent Green, which is unavailable in Finland. Currently, weekly 20-30% water changes by hoovering the bottom of the tank which removes leftover fish foods and debris. I also clean the filter media in the removed aquarium water in order to preserve the beneficial bacteria and scrub the front glass, leaving other glasses to grow surface film for Otos.

Am currently a very happy fishkeeper. :)

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