Life Is All About Changes
I'm getting kind of peeved about conditions in the 30-gallon tank. Not only has the algae returned with a vengeance, but I noticed some frayed fins on a couple of the albino cories that upset me. I'm suspicious that the dwarf gourami is the cause. Apparently, he's not satisfied with the flakes he gets, and he often swims to the bottom to peck at the food pellets. I see the cories become startled, and I am inclined to believe that he's nipping at them. This even happens with no food at the bottom, and the DG will just cruise there and harass the albinos. So one way or the other, either by direct nipping or DG-induced stress, I'm afraid he's leading to fin rot or something or other. It's worth noting that it seems to only be affecting a couple of the cories.
As for the algae, not only is the green hair algae becoming overwhelming to me and the plants, but other types of algaes are springing up and quite frankly, flummoxing me. Red algae growing on the edges of temple, spot algae on the leaves of my wendtii, dark-green algae tentacles woven in my ludwigia... they all must go.
After airing the issue in Aquamaniacs, I bought a Gh/kH test kit to help figure out my dissolved CO2, but basically, with my pH so high (~7.8), I knew the CO2 has to be pretty low. So I set out to make a "CO2 reactor" to replace my bubble ladder using these directions. First, I was pretty sure the Rio pump I got was defective because it was so noisy. The new one was a little less so, but I soon realized that the main problem was that choking the flow by restricting the flowrate caused the noise. I needed to hole out the top of the vacuum to allow the full volume of flow through (no necking). In the mean time, I'm using the behemoth vacuum I bought (I really wanted the large-diameter hose that came with it) for the reactor volume. Because it is so big, it canoot point down as directed, so I have it awkawrdly placed in the front of the tank shooting down at an angle to churn the CO2 bubbles. This will have to suffice until I get the smaller vacuum prepared.
As for the algae, not only is the green hair algae becoming overwhelming to me and the plants, but other types of algaes are springing up and quite frankly, flummoxing me. Red algae growing on the edges of temple, spot algae on the leaves of my wendtii, dark-green algae tentacles woven in my ludwigia... they all must go.
After airing the issue in Aquamaniacs, I bought a Gh/kH test kit to help figure out my dissolved CO2, but basically, with my pH so high (~7.8), I knew the CO2 has to be pretty low. So I set out to make a "CO2 reactor" to replace my bubble ladder using these directions. First, I was pretty sure the Rio pump I got was defective because it was so noisy. The new one was a little less so, but I soon realized that the main problem was that choking the flow by restricting the flowrate caused the noise. I needed to hole out the top of the vacuum to allow the full volume of flow through (no necking). In the mean time, I'm using the behemoth vacuum I bought (I really wanted the large-diameter hose that came with it) for the reactor volume. Because it is so big, it canoot point down as directed, so I have it awkawrdly placed in the front of the tank shooting down at an angle to churn the CO2 bubbles. This will have to suffice until I get the smaller vacuum prepared.
posted by k-maub @ 5:31 PM
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