Good News: Finally, just finally do I now have an appropriate nitrate reading in the tank. This should prevent Cyanobacteria from returning. This came after adding more ferts to the plants like API's Leafzone. I'm trying it out. Still looking into getting a better Macro fert (NPK).
Bad News: Hair Algae. Brown and Black and Green! >.< Too much nutrients perhaps. I manually removed most of it, as much as I could. I've added some Excel... Time to get an Amano Shrimp...
Monday, July 16, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Cyanobacteria Infection
Well, I ended up getting a Cyanobacteria infection in the tank. Manual removal was unsuccessful... and mostly this is caused by the lack of Nitrate in the tank. I've been regularly testing my water and I've gotten 0ppm for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates across the board.
I was unable to secure a critter that would eat the cyano such as an Abalone Snail. I'm considering that my biological filter may be in need of some new animal life if only to add to the nitrogen cycle. Or, I'll need to dose the tank with Potassium Nitrate. In the mean time, I ended up dosing the tank with some anti-biotics. I didn't do a full blackout, but did a brownout, basically turned off my lights. I stopped CO2 and added an air stone.
Some of the plants had become overgrown since I left the tank to it's own nature for the past 2 weeks or so... and unfortunately, some of the plants didn't really make it. The glosso... too much of a pain in the ass. I've decided to remove the glosso completely and stick with the dwarf sag. The dwarf sag is doing wonderful and has even produced some runners.
Yesterday was the weeding out of the tank, trimmed back a lot... but I got new ferts, put in some root tabs, added some macro ferts and today some micros... got my replacement CO2 canisters, replaced my CO2 indicator fluid, cleaned out the filter and added new carbon to it.
Ottos are munching on some zucchini, even the snails came to feast a bit on it. All in all, the dosing of the tank and other provisions seemed to work - while there was plant casualties it was successful and now the tank is nice and clean and bright.
I was unable to secure a critter that would eat the cyano such as an Abalone Snail. I'm considering that my biological filter may be in need of some new animal life if only to add to the nitrogen cycle. Or, I'll need to dose the tank with Potassium Nitrate. In the mean time, I ended up dosing the tank with some anti-biotics. I didn't do a full blackout, but did a brownout, basically turned off my lights. I stopped CO2 and added an air stone.
Some of the plants had become overgrown since I left the tank to it's own nature for the past 2 weeks or so... and unfortunately, some of the plants didn't really make it. The glosso... too much of a pain in the ass. I've decided to remove the glosso completely and stick with the dwarf sag. The dwarf sag is doing wonderful and has even produced some runners.
Yesterday was the weeding out of the tank, trimmed back a lot... but I got new ferts, put in some root tabs, added some macro ferts and today some micros... got my replacement CO2 canisters, replaced my CO2 indicator fluid, cleaned out the filter and added new carbon to it.
Ottos are munching on some zucchini, even the snails came to feast a bit on it. All in all, the dosing of the tank and other provisions seemed to work - while there was plant casualties it was successful and now the tank is nice and clean and bright.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Untouched
It's been about 10 days since my last post. I've held off on any trimming or touching the tank, mostly to let everything establish. The glosso is holding up well - though it's growing up and not out... I plan on trimming that when I come back from vacation and replanting the runners. The pennywort needs to be cut back and replanted as well as some of the bacopa.
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Monday, June 4, 2012
New Plants
Things I have added:
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| Side view... the Bacopa is in the back next to the pennywort and on the side back behind the Hygro, the dwarf sag is in front of the hygro and behind the lilies for now. |
Glosso mat - supposed to root, but after weighing it down with washers, I went to remove the washers and the plant really has not taken yet to the substrate... I'm going to leave as is for now, but I plan on removing the mat to cut into plugs and replant in plugs. We'll see how it goes.
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| Betta loves the frogbit |
Wish I had gotten a picture of it, but one of the otos decided to rest inside my tweezers as I was removing the washers from the glosso mat. It was rather cute.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
The Move...
I won't be getting my new plants until next Friday.. I'm always impatient with these things.
I pulled out the HC and found why it likely wasn't a success... looks like there was some salt particles still attached to the roots and settled under it in the substrate.. I didn't rinse it enough clearly... At least I think it was salt. Hopefully, the Glossostigma will do better.
The snails are already gorging themselves on the algae that has developed throughout the time the tank was cycling. And Notch, my beta is settling in.
I pulled out the HC and found why it likely wasn't a success... looks like there was some salt particles still attached to the roots and settled under it in the substrate.. I didn't rinse it enough clearly... At least I think it was salt. Hopefully, the Glossostigma will do better.
The snails are already gorging themselves on the algae that has developed throughout the time the tank was cycling. And Notch, my beta is settling in.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Wo0t! Nearly cycled...
Did a testing of the water - Nitrites have finally dropped! 5ppm to .25ppm ^.^ Soon enough, I'll be able to move the rest of the tank inhabitants over!
WOOOHOOO!
In other news, I am planning of pulling up the HC and getting glossostigma, some dwarf sag and some barcopa.
WOOOHOOO!
In other news, I am planning of pulling up the HC and getting glossostigma, some dwarf sag and some barcopa.
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