Your sword plant is ready!

See -

THAT. IS. AWESOME!

Everytime I see your tank, I think more and more about ditching the Marine set-up (I'm saving for) and going 6ft planted Amazon tank.

I just detached her from the mother today morning.

Giving the plant a flowering response now. Should have another stalk in 2 days or so and then in a few weeks Joshlikesfish can have his one.

Giving the plant a flowering response now. Should have another stalk in 2 days or so and then in a few weeks Joshlikesfish can have his one.

Nice plant P44,

Is that one of the ozelot x rose

Can you please PM me your flowering trigger techique, I have ozelot flowering in the same tank but so far the ozelot/rose hasn't

yes, same one I sent you. Only this one is more red - possibly because of my new fert regime and ferts!

Yours is still young so give it time - once it's large and about 6 months old or so you should start getting flowers.

you dont need any help taking pics.

a fish tank will always struggle to look as good as a frog though :lol:

but i have a good point and shoot. SLR would be so clear and what have you. :happy2:

yes, same one I sent you. Only this one is more red - possibly because of my new fert regime and ferts!

Don't tell me that Jen has you on Tom Barr's E.I. dosing too :lol: :lol:

I've been doing EI for a long long time now. Ever since I got that staghorn outbreak yonks ago. :nilly:

explain EI?

Please?

Estimative index dosing. It is Tom Barr's theory about not limiting plant growth through adding excess nutrients to the water column. Can be used for high tech or low tech tanks. I can hook you up with a cheap and very effective fert regime if you like. 8)

i googled "Tom Barr's E.I. dosing" and found answers......i think..... :-?

If you have questions just let me know. I can simplify it a bit for you in terms of dosages and the exact fertilisers that you need to put in. To determine dosages, the main thing to consider is how much light you have. You also need to consider carbon (liquid or CO2) as a nutrient (although with low tech tanks this will take on a very different approach from adding carbon to the tank).

Hi Jen, we'd be very interested in hearing about this plan, with my limited google skills I was unable to locate the plan itself, just people talking about it.

Thank you for you time.

To put it very very simply - you basically overdose on micro and macro ferts. (I personally didn't overdose on macros for a couple of reasons).

Because your plants will reach an equilibrium with the lights, ferts and CO2 - their growth won't be limited by the ferts. If you add the right amount of CO2 - that won't be a limiting factor either.

Only thing left is light. With just the right amount of light your plants will grow in equilibrium with ferts and CO2. Too little light and the plants won't use up all the ferts and CO2. Too much light (rare) and you'll increase the amount of ferts and CO2 - but this is the most unlikely scenario.

When you have (this is how I explain it) "A crap load of ferts in the water, the plants will outcompete the algae, and you won't have any algae). You want to add all the possible micro ferts as an imbalance of ferts can cause an algae bloom; but the likelyhood of an algal bloom diminishes as you increase light and CO2".

Then adding macros is another layer on the top. Jen knows her macros better than I do, and I know my micros :lol:

-Comprehensive for one is a micro fert.

Fascinating

Hi Jen, we'd be very interested in hearing about this plan, with my limited google skills I was unable to locate the plan itself, just people talking about it.

Thank you for you time.

Sure, no problem. I made a new post that starts to explain some of this, click here.