The problem is/was that my plants were dying. I had three breeds of plants in the tank. 1 was dead and the centerpiece plants weren’t looking to healthy. The javafern seemed to be doing okay (big suprise) but did have clusters of the black beard algae growing on it’s leaves. It was May 18th when I started trying to nurse my tank back to health.
The first water test showed a KH of 11 and a CO2 content of 6ppm. That meant the KH was too high and the CO2 was too low. I also had a 0 iron content and the GH (General Hardness) was off the charts. That day, I did a water change of 7 gallons in my 40 gallon tank, plus I vacuumed. That’s about 17% if my math is right (and that’s not very likely). On the 20th, I added 40ml of FloraGrow and then on the 22nd, I added 3 siamese algae eaters. They were to combat the beard algae, which I knew was effecting the plants (competing for nutrients).
Note – Between the tests on may 18 and 25, I had an increase in green spot algae. I attribute this to the addition of the FloraGrow, but have no proof of that, merely suspicion.
On the 25th, I retested the water. I am careful to do my tests around the same time each week, not knowing if time of day has any impact. This seems logical anyway since it gives me an equal amount of time between water changes and water tests. My KH had dropped to 6, but my CO2 had also dropped (which is weird because from what I’ve read, they should be effecting each other inversely). My PH dropped from 8.2 to 7.6, where it has stayed since. The iron content rose to .1ppm, which is still too low, but better than 0. The GH was still off the charts. I did another 5 gallon water change and vacuumed a different section of the tank. On the 25th, I added a softener pillow to each of the filters. I recharged them and readded them on the 29th.
By June 1, the GH had started to come down some. I had seen a mild reduction in the beard algae. KH stayed the same at 6, but the CO2 content continued to drop. I decided to hold off on doing a water change to see what efect that would have on the CO2 content. This had no effect on the CO2 or KH. It did cause an increate in teh GH and Ammonia in the water. Weekly water changes it is. For the next three weeks I continued my regimen of 5 gallon water changes, recharging the softener pillows once a week, biweekly doses of FluoroPride and started weekly treatments of FlorinAxis. Two weeks ago, I started using RODI water instead of tap. I’ve pruned as necessary during the water changes to remove old or decaying leaves.
On June 16, I added some pellet fertilizer to the soil. I broke 2 pellets into several pieces and planted them near where I have the plants. I also added 3 cords of Rotala Nanjenshan. I had some issues with these floating to the surface after I planted them. My Loaches were rooting at their bases, so as they popped up, I replanted them much lower. Made me realize I probably didn’t plant a lot of these deep enough. Could be bad.
I ran my tests again this morning. The CO2 injector had no impact in the 36 hours it was running prior to the tests. I know that’s not a lot of time, but I’m not real patient, so I adjusted the valve up to 22bpm (Bubbles Per Minute) from 7. I have an in-tank CO2 monitor now, so I’ll watch that closely. A nice suprise this morning was the reduction in the GH of the water. It’s still very high, but it is coming down. I removed the softener pillows when I installed the CO2 injector. When I test again next week, if the GH has stayed the same or gone up, I’ll readd them. I think the hardness coming down is more likely from the RODI water than the softener pillows, since they’ve been in the tank for 6 weeks and I saw the biggest drop after changing water sources.
The plants do not look good right now. The javaferns have brown streaks through their leaves. The Rotala are turning brown. They’ve been this way for the last week or so, which is what motivated me to get the CO2 injector. The iron level was back at 0 today. I haven’t added the FluroGrow in a few weeks, so I’ll end up dropping in some of that this week. I don’t like to add chemicals the same day I do a water change (except stress coat). Incidentally, I typically will add tap water conditioner and stress coat when I do a water change. Since I switched to the RODI water, I haven’t added either. The fish seem to be doing fine. Color is good. Lots of movement.
Some info I picked up from Sam at AquaticWarehouse is that my five gallon weekly water changes are a good amount for my size tank. He also let me know NOT to vacuum every week, but more like once a month. I’ve started noting in my spreadsheet when I do vacuums so that I can be accurate. Eventually, I’ll post the spreadsheet. Pat at AquaticWarehouse also gave me a tidbit of advice. Aquariums are fickle. Don’t make too many changes in to short a period of time. This makes sense but is hard for me because, as I mentioned before, I’m not paticularly patient.
