Thursday, February 15, 2024

Getting there!



I went on a week of vacation on Madeira island, and after coming back I noticed that my Rotala Macrandra stalks were turning from red to black as they were simply rotting. I needed to make some emergency adjustments and couldn't leave it as it was, as it would only deteriorate more. So I pulled out all the Rotalas, cut out the black leaves, and clipped the stalks above the rotten parts. I've replanted them spread out across the tank as I thought it would be a good idea to change the plant location as it clearly was unhappy with the previous spot. I did clean the filter pump also, be mindful about this and remember to always clean it in the water taken from the tank as otherwise you will flush out all of the beneficial bacteria that are living there.


I did my first measurements of the water parameters and noted the following values:

  • NO3 75/100
  • NH3 0
  • pH 7,4
  • PO 0
  • NO2 1,5
  • KH 4
  • GH 8
  • Fe 0,1
  • CO2 5


So it was obvious that I still needed to wait some time as my NO2 and NO3 were still out of acceptable bounds. Now it is all about waiting, hopefully, the nitrogen cycle will close itself in a week or two ๐Ÿ™