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.

The Plant Problem

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.

Diary of a Fishtank…

Over that last few years, I’ve read a lot on the Internet about how other people had success or failures with their tanks.  I’ve had a mixture of both.  I’m no authority, by any means, but I thought I’d put my experiences down to help out the next guy that comes along.

A history…

I’ve been a aquarium enthusiast for the past 6 years.  I started with a small 6 gallon tank with 4 fish.  Four years ago, I got a 40 gallon tank.  It came with a 20 watt lighting rig (wow) and a 50 gallon aquaclear filter.  I tossed some rocks and glass beads into the bottom, threw in pirate ship and filled it with tap water.  Naturally, I put fish in that day as well (what’s a fish tank without fish).

The Present…

I still have that same 40 gallon tank in my family room, but my how things have changed.  I buy my water now, the RODI (Reverse Osmosis/DeIonized) water to pull out all the crap in the lovely San Diego tap water (you should see the carbon build up on my tank lid).  I’ve got a 3 WPG (Watts Per Gallon) lighting rig with 7500 and 10000K bulbs in it on timers.  I have 4 different species of plants and about 15 fish.  Today, I added a C02 injection system to combat the algae and revive the plants (we’ll get to that later).  What an addiction this has become.

For the last six weeks, I’ve been struggling to get my tank healthy again.  A few months of neglect after the birth of my son earlier this year left my tank in pretty poor condition.  What am I dealing with?  Green spot algae, beard algae, some dead fish and some dead plants.

Green spot algae

For this, I did about an 8% water change each week for the last 6 weeks.  It started to get under control till I added the liquid plant fertilizer (explained later) and then there was a big bloom on the back of my tank (of course, the hardest place to clean).  I added some otocinclus catfish as well.  I try to cure as much as I can without adding chemicals.  My plan is to continue with the water changes and to stop using the plant fertilizer.

Black beard algae

I did a lot of research on the internet.  The universally agreed cure for this seems to be Siamese algae eaters. I added three.  I have seen a reduction of the algae, but I think they’ll need another year or so to get it all (it’s pretty thick in there).  While I was at aquaticwarehouse (btw – if you live in SD, this place is great!) I talked with Sam and he recommended a lot of alternatives for me.  Namely, CO2 injection. I didn’t want to drop $200 that day, so he gave me some carbon additive which I’ve used twice now.  It’s called FlorinAxis and it’s a CO2 supplement and Krebs Cycle Stimulator.   My CO2 is still really low, so today I bit the bullet and bought the injection system. I found one that was compatible with my old paintball CO2 tanks, so I saved fifty bucks

side note – the CO2 injector I bought is the one by Red Sea.  It came highly recommended.  They have a paintball version and a regular CO2 tank version.  CO2 tanks are expensive.  Paintball tanks are cheap.  You have to refill them more often, but a 20oz tank is only $20 bucks online and $3 bucks to fill.  I’ll let you know how long it lasts once I have to refill it.

Dead Fish

The fish that were dying was most likely due to infrequent water changes and a build up of nitrates/nitrites.  I didn’t do any water tests at first and had done at least to water changes before I started testing.  I haven’t had a fish die in the last six weeks (knock on wood). At least not one that I’ve seen.  Those Oto’s are pretty small. Here’s a list of what’s in my tank right now

• 3 siamese algae eaters
• 4-7 otocinclus catfish
• 3 yo-yo loaches
• 1 redtail shark
• 1 dwarf blue gourami
• 1 irian rainbow fish
• 1 sunfire molly
• 2 dwarf albino catfish
• 1 angel fish

The plants I’ll cover in my next post, as it’s fairly lengthy and it’s time to go.