Continued Troubles

I’ve continued to make adjustements with the tank and things have not improved too much.  Slowly, I’ve been increasing the BPM on the CO2, but I can’t seem to get it up over 3ppm.  Today, I changed the count from 84 to 148, so we’ll see how much of a difference that makes.  I’ve been doubling it every week to ten days since I installed it.

I pruned my plants quite a bit last weekend.  I pulled out some of the smaller Java Fern that didn’t look to healthy and had Hair algae growing on them.  I also trimmed all the Rotala that were brown.  More have died since last weekend so I’ll likely do some more pruning tomorrow.  I pulled the dead/dying leaves off of the Kleiner Swords as well.  Those plants seem to be doing very well.  Each of the two swords are building an inflorescence now and it looks like there’ll be two, maybe three plants on each.  Don’t know what I’ll do with those.

The driftwood that I removed a few weeks ago and boiled is still hairgrass free.  Some green algae now, but that, in the past, has been easier to remove from the tank.  I soaked my small rock in bleach last weekend to remove the algae from it.  This weekened, if time permits, I’ll pull one of the two remaining pieces of driftwood and boil it.  I’ll treat the third one in a few weeks.

I added five more Otocinclus Catfish last weekend.  One died during the week, the rest seem to be doing okay.

Tests from last week show that the NO3 (Nitrates) are high.  I’ll be doing some reasearch today on how to lower that.  The weekly water changes help.  I am pretty sure the spike is due to the dying plants, which I’ve been hesitant to pull because I am hoping the CO2 injector provides them with what they need to get healthy.  Iron was low too, so I added 40mm of Floragrow last weekend.  If the Iron content is still low tomorrow when I test, I’ll add another 40mm.  I’ll probably do that each week till I get it up to .25-.50 ppm, which research indicates is where it should be.

Water is getting better, plants are getting worse…

This weeks water tests are promising. The CO2 and FE (iron) are on their way up. GH is on par with last week, which I’ll take over an increase any day. I did see an slight increase in the nitrates, which is most likely due to the decaying plants, which aren’t looking too good. I pruned the big plants and the java fern. I pulled two of the small java ferns out because they weren’t looking too good. The Rotala Nanjenshan are looking really bad. They’re turning brown, even with the increase in nutrients and CO2. Most likely, I’ll have to pull most of them out of the tank next weekend. I did notice at the base of each plant there are some very green sprouts coming up, so we’ll see how those develop.

I believe my centerpieces are Kleiner Bar Swords and they seem to be doing okay. In fact, one is starting to sprout. When I first put it in my tank, two sprouts came up and bloomed. I replanted one of the sprouts and that’s how I ended up with two of these. The fact that one has started to build an inflorescence I take as a good sign. Coincidentally (or not) that plant sits right next to the CO2 injector.

During the course of the week, I increased the BPM on the CO2 injector from 16 to 35, and then on to 56 a few days later. The in-tank CO2 indicator is still showing blue, which means it is still too low. During the cleaning I moved the CO2 injector and it didn’t fire up right away when I plugged it back in. Had to switch the valve to full on so the whirlpool would start, then reduce it. I have it set to 60bpm right now.

I spent a little extra time on the tank this morning and removed my big rock and one piece of driftwood. I put them in a bucket and added boiling water. I let them sit for 30 minutes. Didn’t look like much had happened, so I scrubbed the driftwood and washed/rinsed it. Did a pretty good job removing a lot of the beard algae. The rock, my thermometer and my thermostat I soaked in a 5% bleach solution for 20 minutes. The bba on the rock and other pieces that got soaked in ammonia turned white after just a few minutes. I assume that means it’s dead. I’ve read that the siamese algae eaters will go after that to finish it off. We’ll see.

I rinsed everything and let it all soak in a bucket of water with an ample supply of AmQuel+ (ammonia remover). The rock soaked for about 90 minutes before I put it back in the tank. The other pieces soaked for closer to 2.5 hours so hopefully all the ammonia was removed.

I opted to not soak the driftwood in the ammonia solution because I didn’t know how pourous the wood would be. I didn’t want to put it into the tank and have it leach ammonia for the next two months. The boiling and scrubbing helped. Once I put the wood back in to the tank and saw it under the lighting, I noticed that the algae changed from the grey/black color to green and, in some places, orange.

I did a 5 gallon water change and vacumned the substrate. Not too much detritus came up during the vacuum. I’ll be vacuuming every 4 weeks, as instructed by the guys at the Aquatic Warehouse. The Rotala I added a few weeks back came with some snails. Right now, the population seems to be under control. I figure this is due to the loaches (who were introduced years ago to deal with a previous snail invasion). If it gets worse, I’ll get a new loach or two.