Update on my 29G tank, light, water, and HC

So obviously, my older post about HC melting because of temperature is just some BS. The reason they were fine in the first couple weeks was probably because it halted/hibernated at growing, because there was not enough light or CO2. As soon as it tried to start growing again, it melted. The actual reason is mostly lack of light, secondary was not enough CO2. That's why the ones near CO2 reactor melted first, because it the condition turned a bit better cause it to leave hibernate state earlier.

I latter updated the lights of the tank.

First, I put in 3 10W LED flood light in the front hood (the one can open). I just drilled the holes and screw them on the hood. It is slightly tilted, makes the light pointed a bit towards the back, which is prefect. The light may not have the prefect spectrum for plant grow, but they are super bright, and the watt don't lie. Given the wattage and the lighting efficiency of LED in general, it should be pretty helpful for the plant. But after that, I feel the light is still not strong/bright enough. So I continued to replace the 17W T8 as well.

Second, I replaced the 17W T8 with 55W duo T5 light from a DIY kit. I picked the 6400K daylight bulb because I was not enjoying the kind of red color the 2700K T8 was giving out. It is decided for plants, so it should have better spectrum than the LEDs. But for brightness, it is a bit lower than the 3 LEDs.

This is how they look like:

Altogether, there seems to be enough light for the plants to thrive, and they are giving out a lot more new grow, including HC!

Another important factor I learned for lighting is the water clarity. Before, probably because of the driftwood and the almond leaves I put in for the discus, the water was always yellowish. Also I was not changing the water often because the parameter was just fine (always 0 nitrite, probably because all used up by plants). At the time all the new lights were installed, I bought a new pack of HC to give it the last try. After a week or so, it is not doing well and some of them seem start dying. That mean the light was still not enough. However, the top of my tank had already ran out of space for another light. Also, algae started to grow like everywhere. First is the green algae that cover the front glass of the tank that I can barely see the fish, and those on the top part of the glass were pearling! That mean the light is strong, but can't efficiently reach the bottom of the tank. As a desperate attempt, I tried to increase the clarity of the water. I got a product Seachem Purigen, and did a 50% water change. The result came out to be amazing. The water stay clear for weeks and never turn yellow again (before it always get back to yellow after couple days), and the HC started to giving out new leaves, slowly but surely. After I wiped out the green algae from the glass, they did not come back. So the plants were competing with it for light and nutrition and win.

However, the black brush algae, which started out break in the same time as the green algae, did not die out, but instead getting bigger. After some searching, I found that CO2 is the most likely solution to BBA, and Flourish Excel would be the easiest way as treatment. So I started to dose Flourish Excel. Initially, I doubled the dose for both initial dose and the daily doses after. The results are quick. Couple days after the initial dose, the BBA started to turn green, which mean it was dying. After a week, it is almost all gone. The Flourish Excel not only cleaned out the algae, but also made other plants thrive better. HC is now growing out big bright green leaves, looks nice and healthy (I also added some microswords, to see which can grow better carpet given my tank's condition):

As Flourish Excel is just mean for temporary treatment because of its price, I added the second bottle to the DIY CO2 to bring up the CO2 level constantly. Hopefully the plants will live happily ever after.