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Consistency Deficiency
- Thread starter Hufsa
- Start date
Yes. Go for it.
I will celebrate my reactors unexpected blessing by Hanuman with some pictures of moss, obviously. I even cleaned my glass, isnt that something!
The Hooker Moss has sprouted a lot of little tips. I chopped it up into smaller ~1cm sections when I got it, I wasnt sure if it would take kindly to this but if its going to live in my tank its gonna have to get with the program and not be fussy. So far it seems to have worked out.
The assumed Riccardia sp. is also growing, albeit slowly, as Riccardia does.
Fissidens fontanus
Three out of four tiny Fissidens sp. samples from the hobbyist
Queen Moss is a pretty fast grower, look at this
Cameroon moss is slower in comparison but working on it
Plagiochila asplenioides(?) did a lot of sprouting but has since slowed down. The older growth is brown because of diatoms.
This picture and the next illustrates my phone camera well. It does whatever it wants with the colors and the intensity. Picture below taken at a slightly different angle is more how I see it in real life. Super Red has moved in with the Hydrocotyle and seems happy there. Spot the new leaf on the B. Dark Achilles
The Hooker Moss has sprouted a lot of little tips. I chopped it up into smaller ~1cm sections when I got it, I wasnt sure if it would take kindly to this but if its going to live in my tank its gonna have to get with the program and not be fussy. So far it seems to have worked out.
The assumed Riccardia sp. is also growing, albeit slowly, as Riccardia does.
Fissidens fontanus
Three out of four tiny Fissidens sp. samples from the hobbyist
Queen Moss is a pretty fast grower, look at this
Cameroon moss is slower in comparison but working on it
Plagiochila asplenioides(?) did a lot of sprouting but has since slowed down. The older growth is brown because of diatoms.
This picture and the next illustrates my phone camera well. It does whatever it wants with the colors and the intensity. Picture below taken at a slightly different angle is more how I see it in real life. Super Red has moved in with the Hydrocotyle and seems happy there. Spot the new leaf on the B. Dark Achilles
Some little bits and bobs I need to write down so I wont forget to mention them.
02.02 I doubled the fert dosing, partially to prepare the tank for CO2 and partially because the Ammannia kept getting redder and H. polysperma is slightly pinkish at the tops and I want it to be green.
I realised I havent turned off the filter and taken pictures from above in a little while, so I did that just now. I find it to be much easier to spot problems from above.
It suddenly became much clearer that Hydrocotyle tripartita has been running a little lean for a bit, judging by these pale new leaves.
Its a beautiful little rascal of a plant isnt it, especially viewed like this 😊
From the side they look really pale, but they dont look quite as bad as this in real life. But, I know pink tones are really good at hiding chlorosis, and I do feel they arent quite right.
From above, here my camera chose to make everything yellow
and I couldnt fix it in photoshop without making the Ammannia look wrong.
My bid to increase fertilizer levels hasnt been entirely successful so far, because I am changing stupid amounts of water and not manually replenishing the ferts I am taking out. The autodoser just cant keep up with several 80% water changes every week, its not set up for that.
The reason I am changing so much water is because the bl***y scutariella keeps coming back and I am fighting with everything ive got to get rid of the b****rds
Since last week I have been doing a one day treatment of Levamisole (Esha ndx) at the start of the week, then a large waterchange the day after as instructions for ndx say, and then a three day treatment of Praziquantel (Esha gdex) after that. Then more water change and repeat.
I dont know if I have managed to get a resistant strain or what but the f****ng b***ers are right back the next day, every time!
The scutariella that are reappearing are much smaller than the ones I started out with, so I assume I am observing freshly hatched parasites on my shrimp.
I cannot be having parasites surviving treatments like this, its like the textbook way to get resistance and I want them gone, gone gone gone.
I wonder if not all the eggs are hatching at the same time, but that the eggs are held back by the individual molting times of the shrimp. Because I think I read that the eggs are hiding inside the shrimp carapace until the shrimp molts, and then they spring into action. So then it wont be over until every single shrimp has molted, and no adult parasites have survived long enough to lay any new eggs.
I am hoping that if I just keep killing them as soon as they hatch, again and again and again that eventually they will run out of eggs and I will win this seriously drawn out battle.
For anyone reading this I am sorry if it is extra incoherent, I am just so angry and a bit confused.
Normally people report dosing once, waiting two weeks or so, and then dosing again, but this hasnt worked for me.
I dont want to use Fenbendazole because it might kill my snails, and I dont want to taint the sand I have in this tank with snail unfriendly medication that wont come out again.
Im preparing to do another waterchange now, since its been approximately 24 hours since the Levamisole dose, and then dosing Praziquantel right after into the new water.
Levamisole is supposed to be more effective at treating scutariella than Praziquantel, but Levamisole doesnt seem to kill them instantly like Prazi does, so im utilizing a combination. I love seeing the parasites start twitching wildly as soon as the Prazi hits the water, and the shrimp just rub them right off their noses. I dont love seeing new parasites back the next morning
If anyone reading this is religious, please pray for my tank..
02.02 I doubled the fert dosing, partially to prepare the tank for CO2 and partially because the Ammannia kept getting redder and H. polysperma is slightly pinkish at the tops and I want it to be green.
I realised I havent turned off the filter and taken pictures from above in a little while, so I did that just now. I find it to be much easier to spot problems from above.
It suddenly became much clearer that Hydrocotyle tripartita has been running a little lean for a bit, judging by these pale new leaves.
Its a beautiful little rascal of a plant isnt it, especially viewed like this 😊
From the side they look really pale, but they dont look quite as bad as this in real life. But, I know pink tones are really good at hiding chlorosis, and I do feel they arent quite right.
From above, here my camera chose to make everything yellow
and I couldnt fix it in photoshop without making the Ammannia look wrong.My bid to increase fertilizer levels hasnt been entirely successful so far, because I am changing stupid amounts of water and not manually replenishing the ferts I am taking out. The autodoser just cant keep up with several 80% water changes every week, its not set up for that.
The reason I am changing so much water is because the bl***y scutariella keeps coming back and I am fighting with everything ive got to get rid of the b****rds
Since last week I have been doing a one day treatment of Levamisole (Esha ndx) at the start of the week, then a large waterchange the day after as instructions for ndx say, and then a three day treatment of Praziquantel (Esha gdex) after that. Then more water change and repeat.
I dont know if I have managed to get a resistant strain or what but the f****ng b***ers are right back the next day, every time!
The scutariella that are reappearing are much smaller than the ones I started out with, so I assume I am observing freshly hatched parasites on my shrimp.
I cannot be having parasites surviving treatments like this, its like the textbook way to get resistance and I want them gone, gone gone gone.
I wonder if not all the eggs are hatching at the same time, but that the eggs are held back by the individual molting times of the shrimp. Because I think I read that the eggs are hiding inside the shrimp carapace until the shrimp molts, and then they spring into action. So then it wont be over until every single shrimp has molted, and no adult parasites have survived long enough to lay any new eggs.
I am hoping that if I just keep killing them as soon as they hatch, again and again and again that eventually they will run out of eggs and I will win this seriously drawn out battle.
For anyone reading this I am sorry if it is extra incoherent, I am just so angry and a bit confused.
Normally people report dosing once, waiting two weeks or so, and then dosing again, but this hasnt worked for me.
I dont want to use Fenbendazole because it might kill my snails, and I dont want to taint the sand I have in this tank with snail unfriendly medication that wont come out again.
Im preparing to do another waterchange now, since its been approximately 24 hours since the Levamisole dose, and then dosing Praziquantel right after into the new water.
Levamisole is supposed to be more effective at treating scutariella than Praziquantel, but Levamisole doesnt seem to kill them instantly like Prazi does, so im utilizing a combination. I love seeing the parasites start twitching wildly as soon as the Prazi hits the water, and the shrimp just rub them right off their noses. I dont love seeing new parasites back the next morning
If anyone reading this is religious, please pray for my tank..
Oh right I almost forgot in my rage over scutariella. Still getting algae of all kinds, no longer sure root tabs were the main cause, working theory is increase in debris and gunk accumulating in the tank, which was just tipped over the edge by a nice little spike of ammonia from osmocote. Makes a little bit more sense at least, but I dont think thats the whole picture still. There might still be too much stuff in the sand, but right now I have too much other stuff on my hands to do extensive vacuuming. I just feel bad for my plants, they're still getting covered in algae on the old leaves and I had to snip snip a lot of my umbrella plant colony 
The buces arent looking great either..
Oh well.. I will keep trucking on - one day at a time like they say
The buces arent looking great either..Oh well.. I will keep trucking on - one day at a time like they say
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KirstyF
Member
Me neither 😁 But I figured I could use all the help I could get!
I almost emptied my entire tank earlier without having replacement water ready. Silly me forgot to check if the water barrel was up to the right temperature.
It was 15 C. Bit chilly!
Gonna sit up and wait until its ready, however long it takes.
I bet the scutariella would love if I didnt dose any meds tonight, theyd be up all night laying eggs and snickering evilly in tiny high pitched voices
KirstyF
Member
😳 At least you realised before the tank was empty!
Patience is a virtue though and you will have the last laugh when you have finally vanquished them all…..with treatments and persistence….or the invention of a really really small death ray! 👍😉
Patience is a virtue though and you will have the last laugh when you have finally vanquished them all…..with treatments and persistence….or the invention of a really really small death ray! 👍😉
Cant say the JBL bubble counter has had awe-inspiring quality 
Over night it has started leaking from the out port and the check valve inside appears to have failed entirely.
If it wasnt for the backup check valve I went for I would have had water in my needle valve
Luckily the whole thing was not connected to the regulator because I was still running tests on the reg.
I will be asking the LFS to send it back as not fit for purpose, I will be very disappointed if they fight me on this. They were not helpful when I had an issue with my brand new Eheim canister, which is ...unfortunate. When I choose to buy an item from a local store despite the higher price because I want to support them, I expect them to at least provide a little assistance if things go sideways.
The question is also if I should go for another one of the same kind, im not keen to be honest..
But then what bubble counter to use instead?
Over night it has started leaking from the out port and the check valve inside appears to have failed entirely.
If it wasnt for the backup check valve I went for I would have had water in my needle valve
Luckily the whole thing was not connected to the regulator because I was still running tests on the reg.
I will be asking the LFS to send it back as not fit for purpose, I will be very disappointed if they fight me on this. They were not helpful when I had an issue with my brand new Eheim canister, which is ...unfortunate. When I choose to buy an item from a local store despite the higher price because I want to support them, I expect them to at least provide a little assistance if things go sideways.
The question is also if I should go for another one of the same kind, im not keen to be honest..
But then what bubble counter to use instead?
Hi all,
Have a look at <"Duckweed Index says.....">, this is iron deficient Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum).
cheers Darrel
It looks like an iron (Fe), most likely, or manganese (Mn), less likely, deficiency. Because the new leaves are smaller and paler than the older leaves it will be one of the <"non-mobile nutrient"> where lack of causes chlorosis in new leaves. @Happi might have some ideas?
Have a look at <"Duckweed Index says.....">, this is iron deficient Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum).
I can hear them.........
cheers Darrel
Yep, its not unexpected to me because the plant mass had increased without me increasing the fertilizer, and then in addition many large water changes have removed most of the ferts I was dosing.
I ran the doser a little bit manually this morning to get some ferts back in, and I think it will correct itself when the scutariella business is over and water change amounts go back to normal.
Got a reply to my email to the LFS, of course from the grumpiest employee..... sometimes I wonder why I want to support this store.. Hes saying I "overfilled the drop checker" and thats what caused it. Didnt address my question of me bringing it back to them and wanting a refund. Im not sure what to say honestly. I dont like confrontations but I am very tempted to let this man hear what I think about their customer service attitude and I dont think he will like it very much. Does he not understand that every time they do this it makes me not want to buy from them in the future? Maybe they would lose money on that one faulty item, (unless they send it back to JBL which I think they should,) but they will lose a lot of future sales they will never know about if they're so argumentative about everything.
What do you think I should do? I could use some support
What do you think I should do? I could use some support
I'm extremely non-confrontational. I let my wife handle these things. She ends up usually not only getting a refund but a discount on the next purchase.
Shes like a little bottle of nitro- glycerin , you don't walk fast near it, you don't shake it, you don't make loud noises.
Don't know if that helps, but I thought you'd like to know you're not alone, and solutions to this problem can be slightly "extreme"
Unfortunately I am the wife and designated returner of things in our household, so I dont really have any way to get around it 😕 Its not really that I am particularly good at it, more like that I am the least bad at returning things.
It helps, nice to not be alone about it.
Theres been some back and forth with the store since my last post. After proving to them that yes, i had indeed mounted it correctly, he said he still doubted that there was anything wrong with the bubble counter, and said I should try running it without the backup check valve because he thinks it will work again then. I told him very politely and with great restraint that I could not do that, as the backup check valve was the only thing keeping water from going straight into the regulator. I told him again that I want to return it, and was told to bring it to the store so they can test it themselves.
I swear to god...
..and the rest of what I want to say about it is not appropriate for the forum
Havent got any good news to update with.
My aquarium joy is weak again, I am telling myself it is just taking an extended holiday and will be back once things get better.
I was visited by a rare friend this morning. He thinks plants are stupid and in the way.
I dropped in some tasty sticks from TA Aquaculture in the area he was hanging out in, and by hanging out I mean angrily thrashing around pushing strands of moss out of his face. The sticks start dissolving after a while and release a lot of food particles into the water column, he seems to like it.
My regulator is still sitting next to the tank waiting for customer support, its leaking too much gas and I want them to replace it at this point.
I wish support would get back to me more rapidly, most of the times its just one email per day and sometimes I wait several days for replies. Maybe they are swamped with customers at CO2Art, but its still frustrating for me as an individual when I feel like this could have been fixed sooner.
I got the faulty bubble counter returned this weekend, and with some unnecessary discussion also got my money back. Despite me saying a few things about it I dont think they are going to be better about returns. I didnt lose my temper and start saying all the things I wanted to say or start crying so I guess the result is passable. Im going to do my future purchases elsewhere as much possible.
Scutariella still present on my shrimp. I thought I could have won before the weekend, had two days when I couldnt see any on the shrimp. But then they were back. Today is monday which means another round of Levamisole. Im so tired of this, and the shrimp are too, sadly.. all the water changes and medication has taken a toll on them and I have lost some along the way 🙁 I feel terrible about it, but I dont know what else to do. I cant just give up and let them live with parasites.
Im gonna search even more and see if there is another threatment I can use that wont kill all my snails.
And all my algae is still present. I tried lowering my light a bit more, but I dont know what else to do.
Theres a thick ribbon of diatoms around the edge of most slow growing plant leaves, staghorn and BBA is growing on old leaves and even stems of some plants, and thread algae is thriving. I dont fully understand what caused the tank to take a turn so suddenly this winter and why its so resistant to recovering.
I feel like a total hypocrite trying to help out on the forum when I dont even have my own tank sorted, so im going to stop posting much because I really dont like this feeling.
The filters are cleaned, the hoses are clean, im keeping the tank cleaned of old leaves and debris and im removing the worst affected plant leaves on most plants.
Short of taking the sand out and washing it in the shower I cant think of much else to do?
I dont feel like one should have to take substrate out and legitimately -clean- it like that, it feels very wrong and bad for the balance of the tank.
Im desperate at this point so im going to try vacuuming out the top layer today and give it a good rinse.
The sand is the only area I can find any brown particles, everything else I have cleaned repeatedly.
The algae is confusing me a lot, diatoms suggest to me unstable immature tank, which means it should be left to mature, and staghorn tells me old, built up gunk which means more cleaning is needed.
WHICH ONE IS IT TANK? HUH? Why are you giving me such mixed signals, thats not fair!
BBA thrives on imbalance, ill give it that, theres a lot of fluctuations right now. But the BBA is not my main concern.
Im wringing my brain trying to work out what is different now compared to before. I only have a few leads, one being that right now I have no fish living on the bottom, which I have -always- had. I have always had sand, and always had bottom dwellers. Before, I never had this much brown gunk in the sand, and it was only if I dug very deep.
I have thought about getting some kuhlii loaches, they are an old favorite of mine and I have no doubt they would stir up the sand with their sifting activity.
I have been very happy to have just the otos and boraras, light stocking of fish suits me fine and I wasnt really looking to add more fish. (Unless Corydoras hastatus shows up but they are rare)
It feels wrong to me to get fish to "fix a problem".. The tank should be a good setup for them, heavily planted, fine sand and many hiding places, its mostly my motivation behind getting them that is bothering me. I wouldnt mind having them, with their eely antics, hanging draped over plants like clothes hung out to dry, and their tiny derpy little faces that look a lot like guinea pigs. I will continue to think about it.
The other possible lead on the algae is that I have removed some of the filter media.
I see so many of the pros on here saying not to overfill your filter, plus @dw1305 who I highly respect says oxygen is the limiting factor in most filters, not surface area / filter media (paraphrased). So I finally felt ready to gradually remove some of my media from my entirely filled up canisters.
Could the diatoms be caused by that, if the remaining filter media is still working on finding the balance again?
Im aware that some on this forum do not like the word balance, but I think it has its uses. In this case, when I say balance I mean that all the factors in our tanks has had time to adjust to each other, and are working together in a relatively stable fashion.
If you have any input or ideas please let me know
My aquarium joy is weak again, I am telling myself it is just taking an extended holiday and will be back once things get better.
I was visited by a rare friend this morning. He thinks plants are stupid and in the way.
I dropped in some tasty sticks from TA Aquaculture in the area he was hanging out in, and by hanging out I mean angrily thrashing around pushing strands of moss out of his face. The sticks start dissolving after a while and release a lot of food particles into the water column, he seems to like it.
My regulator is still sitting next to the tank waiting for customer support, its leaking too much gas and I want them to replace it at this point.
I wish support would get back to me more rapidly, most of the times its just one email per day and sometimes I wait several days for replies. Maybe they are swamped with customers at CO2Art, but its still frustrating for me as an individual when I feel like this could have been fixed sooner.
I got the faulty bubble counter returned this weekend, and with some unnecessary discussion also got my money back. Despite me saying a few things about it I dont think they are going to be better about returns. I didnt lose my temper and start saying all the things I wanted to say or start crying so I guess the result is passable. Im going to do my future purchases elsewhere as much possible.
Scutariella still present on my shrimp. I thought I could have won before the weekend, had two days when I couldnt see any on the shrimp. But then they were back. Today is monday which means another round of Levamisole. Im so tired of this, and the shrimp are too, sadly.. all the water changes and medication has taken a toll on them and I have lost some along the way 🙁 I feel terrible about it, but I dont know what else to do. I cant just give up and let them live with parasites.
Im gonna search even more and see if there is another threatment I can use that wont kill all my snails.
And all my algae is still present. I tried lowering my light a bit more, but I dont know what else to do.
Theres a thick ribbon of diatoms around the edge of most slow growing plant leaves, staghorn and BBA is growing on old leaves and even stems of some plants, and thread algae is thriving. I dont fully understand what caused the tank to take a turn so suddenly this winter and why its so resistant to recovering.
I feel like a total hypocrite trying to help out on the forum when I dont even have my own tank sorted, so im going to stop posting much because I really dont like this feeling.
The filters are cleaned, the hoses are clean, im keeping the tank cleaned of old leaves and debris and im removing the worst affected plant leaves on most plants.
Short of taking the sand out and washing it in the shower I cant think of much else to do?
I dont feel like one should have to take substrate out and legitimately -clean- it like that, it feels very wrong and bad for the balance of the tank.
Im desperate at this point so im going to try vacuuming out the top layer today and give it a good rinse.
The sand is the only area I can find any brown particles, everything else I have cleaned repeatedly.
The algae is confusing me a lot, diatoms suggest to me unstable immature tank, which means it should be left to mature, and staghorn tells me old, built up gunk which means more cleaning is needed.
WHICH ONE IS IT TANK? HUH? Why are you giving me such mixed signals, thats not fair!
BBA thrives on imbalance, ill give it that, theres a lot of fluctuations right now. But the BBA is not my main concern.
Im wringing my brain trying to work out what is different now compared to before. I only have a few leads, one being that right now I have no fish living on the bottom, which I have -always- had. I have always had sand, and always had bottom dwellers. Before, I never had this much brown gunk in the sand, and it was only if I dug very deep.
I have thought about getting some kuhlii loaches, they are an old favorite of mine and I have no doubt they would stir up the sand with their sifting activity.
I have been very happy to have just the otos and boraras, light stocking of fish suits me fine and I wasnt really looking to add more fish. (Unless Corydoras hastatus shows up but they are rare)
It feels wrong to me to get fish to "fix a problem".. The tank should be a good setup for them, heavily planted, fine sand and many hiding places, its mostly my motivation behind getting them that is bothering me. I wouldnt mind having them, with their eely antics, hanging draped over plants like clothes hung out to dry, and their tiny derpy little faces that look a lot like guinea pigs. I will continue to think about it.
The other possible lead on the algae is that I have removed some of the filter media.
I see so many of the pros on here saying not to overfill your filter, plus @dw1305 who I highly respect says oxygen is the limiting factor in most filters, not surface area / filter media (paraphrased). So I finally felt ready to gradually remove some of my media from my entirely filled up canisters.
Could the diatoms be caused by that, if the remaining filter media is still working on finding the balance again?
Im aware that some on this forum do not like the word balance, but I think it has its uses. In this case, when I say balance I mean that all the factors in our tanks has had time to adjust to each other, and are working together in a relatively stable fashion.
If you have any input or ideas please let me know
I don’t have anything that could help, but I really really appreciated the help you gave me with fertz.
I think part of the allure of aquariums and aquascaping is micromanaging “the experiment.”
Things are bound to go sideways, I know I got unduly attached to my fish that were feeling poorly and I’ve only successfully treated ich once.
It turns out I poisoned them by not understanding what I was doing and did a water change while using cupramarine. They all eventually died, and I felt like crap for weeks, convinced this hobby want for me.
I thought maybe if I just made a planted tank and went slower things would get easier. Lmao, regardless, The interactions with people like you make it fun and you do have a lot to offer.
Keep your head up.
I think part of the allure of aquariums and aquascaping is micromanaging “the experiment.”
Things are bound to go sideways, I know I got unduly attached to my fish that were feeling poorly and I’ve only successfully treated ich once.
It turns out I poisoned them by not understanding what I was doing and did a water change while using cupramarine. They all eventually died, and I felt like crap for weeks, convinced this hobby want for me.
I thought maybe if I just made a planted tank and went slower things would get easier. Lmao, regardless, The interactions with people like you make it fun and you do have a lot to offer.
Keep your head up.
KirstyF
Member
Keep smiling hon! I wish I could offer sage advice but I think you probably already know way more about this than I do.
What I can say is that your advice is hugely helpful to lots of people and will be just as helpful, even if you are having a bad patch with your tank right now. Your posts also make people think and make people smile. Folks like you are what makes this forum fab so don’t you be running off on us now.
And…..I’m pretty convinced that anyone who can describe Khulii loach in the wonderful way you have above, is most certainly not keeping them for the wrong reasons! 😉
plantnoobdude
Member
Nonsense! your tank looks great, and I think you're being wayyyy too hard on yourself. as for the algae, how often have you been cleaning the filter? when i had a lot of media i had to wash it every two weeks to maintain flow in my tank. now i have a couple small cubes in my eheim classic filter and it runs mainly as a co2 "reactor". "oxygen is the limiting factor in most filters, not surface area / filter media" then surely reducing filter media and relying on substrate should work? who's to say, but i think reducing media is a smart choice, keep media clean, and flow consistent.
Thank you so much @swyftfeet @KirstyF @plantnoobdude and everyone who liked their posts ❤️ Im shedding a few tears as im reading your replies but they are happy tears.
I can do this.
I got todays water change done as planned. It was a bit of a herculean task with how my health has been lately, but I persevered. I struggle a lot with fatigue and sometimes a water change + a lot of extra stuff is at the limit of what I can manage in one day. I took the mosses and rhizome plants out in buckets (again) and gave the sand a light stir and a good waft in places with rooted plants. I havent been able to see it before because the plants were hiding it but there were a lot of diatoms coating the sand in the back. I didnt know it was quite this extensive, I think the tank is more out of balance than I thought, and I dont think I should hassle the substrate any further. The substrate looked like someone's newly set up tank with a big diatom bloom. Yikes.
Battle plan:
-Defeat evil horde of Scutariella
-Wait for diatoms to recede, ignore most of the other algae
-Buy adorable kuhlii loaches when tank seems more stable
-CO2 addition will theoretically (hehe) make the CO2 levels more stable, could help with BBA
-Plants will grow faster, outpacing the rest of the stupid algae
-???
-Profit
While I had most of the plants out today I caught most of the blue dream shrimp. If only it was as easy as writing this sentence is, it took hours 🙄
I almost put up a quarantine tank for them in the kitchen, but then I became unsure if the filter shrimp can act as carriers, and decided against treating them away from the main tank.
So they are imprisoned in two fry rings floating at the top of the tank. I had much more shrimp than I thought, even accounting for all the ones I have lost, the numbers surprised me. Thats kind of always the case isnt it. Its like when you see one spider, you know that there are probably at least five more spiders nearby, hidden.. (..plotting
)
Having the shrimp in the fry rings will allow me to easily see how much Scutariella are present, and will allow me to remove molts quickly, something that is impossible to do in a densely planted tank. I think it will be a little bit easier this way, even if I still have to treat the entire volume of the tank. The amount of medication I am going through for a 250 liter tank with full-out-crazy-war-dosing is 💸💸💸
I hope the shrimp wont be too stressed in there, I harvested some Hydrocotyle they can hide out in and ill keep a close eye on them.
CO2Art have agreed to send out a replacement regulator, im crossing all my fingers, toes and miscellaneous appendages that it will be in good working order.
Some of the Fissidens in my Pepsi bottle terrarium is growing already 🌿
I can do this.
I got todays water change done as planned. It was a bit of a herculean task with how my health has been lately, but I persevered. I struggle a lot with fatigue and sometimes a water change + a lot of extra stuff is at the limit of what I can manage in one day. I took the mosses and rhizome plants out in buckets (again) and gave the sand a light stir and a good waft in places with rooted plants. I havent been able to see it before because the plants were hiding it but there were a lot of diatoms coating the sand in the back. I didnt know it was quite this extensive, I think the tank is more out of balance than I thought, and I dont think I should hassle the substrate any further. The substrate looked like someone's newly set up tank with a big diatom bloom. Yikes.
Battle plan:
-Defeat evil horde of Scutariella
-Wait for diatoms to recede, ignore most of the other algae
-Buy adorable kuhlii loaches when tank seems more stable
-CO2 addition will theoretically (hehe) make the CO2 levels more stable, could help with BBA
-Plants will grow faster, outpacing the rest of the stupid algae
-???
-Profit
While I had most of the plants out today I caught most of the blue dream shrimp. If only it was as easy as writing this sentence is, it took hours 🙄
I almost put up a quarantine tank for them in the kitchen, but then I became unsure if the filter shrimp can act as carriers, and decided against treating them away from the main tank.
So they are imprisoned in two fry rings floating at the top of the tank. I had much more shrimp than I thought, even accounting for all the ones I have lost, the numbers surprised me. Thats kind of always the case isnt it. Its like when you see one spider, you know that there are probably at least five more spiders nearby, hidden.. (..plotting
)Having the shrimp in the fry rings will allow me to easily see how much Scutariella are present, and will allow me to remove molts quickly, something that is impossible to do in a densely planted tank. I think it will be a little bit easier this way, even if I still have to treat the entire volume of the tank. The amount of medication I am going through for a 250 liter tank with full-out-crazy-war-dosing is 💸💸💸
I hope the shrimp wont be too stressed in there, I harvested some Hydrocotyle they can hide out in and ill keep a close eye on them.
CO2Art have agreed to send out a replacement regulator, im crossing all my fingers, toes and miscellaneous appendages that it will be in good working order.
Some of the Fissidens in my Pepsi bottle terrarium is growing already 🌿
You've probably already tried this @Hufsa but have you tried contacting CO2 Art through live chat? They always got back to me very quickly, sometimes within the hour and stayed on the chat until it was resolved. (It's possible you've done this already in which case this is redundant).
Also, how do you keep your sand so immaculate?!
Also, how do you keep your sand so immaculate?!
