The Scourge is Gone! (Sadly)
Well, he was never really a very agreeable guy, but I was still sad to find my albino Buenos Aires tetra dead at the back of the tank. I don't imagine the rest of his tankmates are too sad to see him go, as they are probably under much less stress these days. With the extra "room" in the tank, and the sad state of my bucket, I moved the three neon tetras (which had remarkably survived there for some time) back, and I bought three more neon tetras. So while it's maybe slightly overstocked, I think it's at a good place for now. When I was putting the last cory in for medication purposes, I bought some extra hiding spaces, so the neons have plenty of places to hide from a mostly benign school of three black skirt tetras.
The "powdery film" is still a problem, and I cannot have any old, broad leaves without it. I'm now spotting a fine layer of green hair/fuzz algae on the green foreground plants and some of the older water sprite branches (which were promptly cut off). The foxtail that's growing is still looking algae-free. I'm going to try to scale back on the Excel a bit (while making sure there's plenty of CO2) in case all the extra carbon I'm adding is contributing to the mysterious problem (the Aquamaniacs forum has been little help in identifying the cause).
An additional, inexplicable occurence is the termination of otherwise healthy-looking rotala indica stalks. The top leaves tend to spay out, in a starburst pattern, taking on a green tinge (despite the normally red tips) that is also suggestive of algae. The rest of the stalk, however, looks fine, and while they can continue growing, growth must begin with a different stalk emerging from a lower node.
I'm excited about the Greg Watson ferts I ordered. About four pounds of stuff for a little over $20. It should add up to a huge savings over the Seachem Flourish products. Plus the potassium sulfate and potassium nitrate are exactly what is called by the algae-free paper I'm trying to follow. Speaking of which, at last check my iron levels were closer to 0.4 than 0.1 ppm, so I'm going to lay off dosing for a while.
Next on the list to get is a bubble counter (might end up builing my own) and a pressurized CO2 system. I might have it by now if the welding supply store near work didn't charge so much for the bottles.
The "powdery film" is still a problem, and I cannot have any old, broad leaves without it. I'm now spotting a fine layer of green hair/fuzz algae on the green foreground plants and some of the older water sprite branches (which were promptly cut off). The foxtail that's growing is still looking algae-free. I'm going to try to scale back on the Excel a bit (while making sure there's plenty of CO2) in case all the extra carbon I'm adding is contributing to the mysterious problem (the Aquamaniacs forum has been little help in identifying the cause).
An additional, inexplicable occurence is the termination of otherwise healthy-looking rotala indica stalks. The top leaves tend to spay out, in a starburst pattern, taking on a green tinge (despite the normally red tips) that is also suggestive of algae. The rest of the stalk, however, looks fine, and while they can continue growing, growth must begin with a different stalk emerging from a lower node.
I'm excited about the Greg Watson ferts I ordered. About four pounds of stuff for a little over $20. It should add up to a huge savings over the Seachem Flourish products. Plus the potassium sulfate and potassium nitrate are exactly what is called by the algae-free paper I'm trying to follow. Speaking of which, at last check my iron levels were closer to 0.4 than 0.1 ppm, so I'm going to lay off dosing for a while.
Next on the list to get is a bubble counter (might end up builing my own) and a pressurized CO2 system. I might have it by now if the welding supply store near work didn't charge so much for the bottles.
posted by k-maub @ 8:05 PM
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