Consistency Deficiency

[Hufsa]

Did this go-to setting work? If it did then I see no reason not to go back to it or something similar.

Yeah the go-to worked, so there is no reason it shouldnt be safe to go back to that setting.

The ludwigia sulked, new growth was small and more green than red. My heart was telling me increase the light but my head said don't

I put mine in a different location in the tank where it received more light, worked a treat and brought it back from the dead. Sometimes you dont have to increase the overall light level, just the light the individual plant gets.

Fairly confident you'll fix these issues, keep the faith 👍

Thanks 😊 I will power through

Does BBA appear in tanks that don’t have driftwood?

It does appear in tanks with just rocks also, and can grow on glass too if conditions for it are good

Do you have root wood in your tank? Wondering if there’s a correlation.

I do have wood, they would seem to be roots, I think all "spiderwood" / "red moor" wood is root growth. If you have any bark left on the wood, BBA will usually be very thick at those places, same with thin branch pieces, extra thick BBA growth. I think it has to do with those areas breaking down more rapidly than the rest of the wood.

Its an interesting thing to observe, but I think BBA should not get to rule our life and decide what kind of hardscape we have, or if we have any at all. Its far too easy to get lost in small details. Ive never really had any success trying to deal with algae directly, focusing on the plants and getting it just right for them is the only thing that has worked for me
So if I were to follow my own advice for once, I should make sure my ferts are on point. I have started running the doser for ~10 seconds manually after every water change, im not sure how much that adds, I should make the effort to find out, or just do 20 seconds I suppose 😁


I got the replacement regulator yesterday, it doesnt have a complete solenoid and theres goop on the needle valve, so it looks like the tech team has done something to it. It passed the 1st step of the test as usual, and for the 2nd step, the second stage chamber lost only 2 psi over a 12 hour period, this seems good enough for me. Step 3 involves testing with an open solenoid, so Ive shot off an email to CO2Art again asking for instructions as I assume they have something planned.

 

[Hufsa]

..doesnt have a complete solenoid ... I assume they have something planned.

Wasnt much to it other than removing the plastic nut and switching the black solenoid-y bit over.

Had the CO2 running for most of the photoperiod yesterday, regulator seems to be working well.
Got up early today to squeeze in another large waterchange before the lights came on, and currently running the injection at 1 bps (0.5 bps yesterday).
Drop checker is so far entirely unimpressed. Otos are not bothered.
Will maintain this level for today and then increase slightly tomorrow. Repeat every day until I reach my desired color.
During the night some water creeps into the CO2 line from the reactor, and stays there for ~10 minutes after the gas turns on, before it is suddenly cleared out. I assume the gas needs a little bit of time to build up enough to break through the check valve (black lump in top of picture). Is this normal operation?



I think I may be on the final lap in the war with Scutariella, tank got Levamisole on monday, waterchange tuesday and after that a dose of Prazi, followed by half dose wednesday and thursday as instructions for Esha Gdex say. As mentioned they got a water change today (friday), and another starting dose of Prazi.
Plan is to do another three day treatment and then another Levamisole on monday, at which point I will stop treatment and just observe the shrimp. Plan subject to change.
Havent seen visible parasites for a few days, and im removing molts from the imprisoned shrimp religiously several times a day. I think catching them has really helped, its easy to check over all the shrimp for parasites and get all the molts.
Catching an entire population of shrimp in a planted tank is probably totally unfeasible for proper aquascapes, and was at least a major pain in the behind for my modest tank, even though I have mostly epiphytes that are easy to remove. Im happy that it seems to have worked at least.
Im planning to keep the shrimp in the fry rings until I am certain there is no recurrence and all the parasite eggs have hatched, im definitely not in the mood for catching all the shrimp twice.

They're not super thrilled about being imprisoned, the rings are more crowded than I would like, and I have lost a few shrimp. But no more than I was losing when they were free in the tank. Im sad for every one I lose, I imagine the ones left behind will be thoroughly medicated shrimp with unprocessed emotional trauma and many stories to tell "from the war". They can sit their future grandshrimplets on their many knees, wearing an eyepatch and sporting lots of scars, talking about the time the evil fud-giver imprisoned them in the "place above", and made them sit cramped in bright light for two weeks. They have some Hydrocotyle to hide out in, but they are grumpy with me regardless. The Hydrocotyle on the other hand is loving it.

Last week I removed a pretty young leaf off my Buce. Black Ventii that had a large hole in it. I thought my otos had lost their marbles and eaten it, fed them a little bit more and then didnt think too much more of it. Then this week I see the same thing happening to another new leaf on a different Black Ventii rhizome. Its actually melting. Sorry for suspecting you my darling otos. Im not sure what the deal is with the plant, maybe it got a bit dried out by accident or just got offended by something. Maybe I trimmed it a bit too hard? No matter, I am pinching off the melty leaves and will just monitor the plant.

 

[Hufsa]

Drop checker finally budged a bit, looks like we're sitting at around 8-9 ppm today according to JBL's 20ppm liquid



Will have to proceed very carefully tomorrow.

Im actually kinda surprised the drop checker is changing already, I thought I was gonna need a lot more bubbles per second. Does this mean that I dont have enough surface agitation? (@Wookii ? ) The setup now is that the skimmer is set to run at night, and I moderated the up angle of the spray bar so instead of going for "as much ripple as possible without breaking the surface", which was for maximum aeration in low tech, its pointed more straight forward and creates a nice ripple. Im willing to change any of that, I dont want to run on the edge offgassing-wise

Put in a little bit of elbow grease and got some BBA infested leaves out of the tank, also snipped off more Hydrocotyle to double the amount in the shrimp gulag.

Im planning an order of plants, im telling myself to wait at least a week so my CO2 will be a bit more settled, but it hurts because I'm of course very impatient and want stuff now 😁 Plan is to get a bunch more stems (+some nice preciouses), so they could potentially help the tank get settled again quicker. But I don't want to buy them too soon and risk killing them instead. Dont ask me where I intend to place said plants, that's a problem for future me. I have been thinking of reducing my large amounts of java ferns and bolbitis, and getting more room for stems that way.

 

[Wookii]

Does this mean that I dont have enough surface agitation? (@Wookii ? )

Do you have a picture of video?

 

[plantnoobdude]

Plan is to get a bunch more stems (+some nice preciouses),

oooh! do tell us more.

as long as the tank isn't completely stagnant, I wouldn't worry at all about gassing your tank. those co2 levels are pretty low and insignificant. you can also make your own drop checker fluid, so it goes lime green at your desired co2 ppm level.
if 4dkh is lime green at 30ppm
2dkh water with bromo blue is lime green at 15ppm. hope that helps

 

[Hufsa]

Do you have a picture of video?

Yessir, I dont have a good way to share videos but these pictures give an impression. If anything it is a bit more than what it shows in pictures. There is the slightest hint of a surface film, the skimmer doesnt work as efficiently when I have the spraybar like this, I think the film is pushed to the front so much that its not allowed to reach the skimmer to be removed.

Sorry for the cruddy images, in the first one I moved the shrimps out of the way so there was a clearer view of the surface.

 

[Wookii]

Yessir, I dont have a good way to share videos but these pictures give an impression. If anything it is a bit more than what it shows in pictures. There is the slightest hint of a surface film, the skimmer doesnt work as efficiently when I have the spraybar like this, I think the film is pushed to the front so much that its not allowed to reach the skimmer to be removed.

Sorry for the cruddy images, in the first one I moved the shrimps out of the way so there was a clearer view of the surface.
View attachment 182985

View attachment 182986

It’s difficult to see, a picture from above the surface is probably better. It looks a little still to me, so I’d probably want to spray bars angled upwards a little more.

 

[Hufsa]

Thanks 😊 The lights have gone off for the day, so ill have another go at pictures tomorrow, and do some pics before adjustment and some after I angle it up a bit

 

[Wookii]

This is perhaps a reasonable (approximate) example of what you might want to be aiming for with a spray bar for good gas exchange:

 

[Hufsa]

This is perhaps a reasonable (approximate) example of what you might want to be aiming for with a spray bar

How do you guys manage to keep floaters with this amount of surface agitation? The ghosts of my dead floaters just died a second time looking at that clip
I angled my bar up more early this morning, forgot about the pictures though, it was still dark in the tank.
Also increased to 1.28~ bps, drop checker stayed mostly the same color as yesterday, so seems like they just cancelled each other out. But not a bad thing

I may have gotten a few little friends on my way home from the city today.. guinea pigs i mean kuhliis
There was one in the group that isnt a kuhlii, its a different pangio species, very slender silver/gold colored loach. Maybe Pangio anguillaris or Pangio doriae. From the little I got to look at them doriae looks the most similar, but these noodles dont exactly stay still in the bag, and I didnt want to stress it out by putting it into a different container for photos, so they were just let into the tank after a couple hours acclimatization.

I stole a quick photo of the butt end of a "normal" one hiding in a group of sorry looking B. sp Red.
Im gonna get rid of this variety of Buce, the colors cant compare to the others I have and I need the space.


For anyone who remembers the "little traveller" caridina shrimp who hitchhiked with my moss shipment a while back, I have good news. I thought it had died but today I spotted it in one of the shrimp rings It would look like a dark blue dream at first but when I look closely I can see the color is different. Also in a different light his eyes are light brown, completely different to the other shrimp. I am happy to see him, I wasnt sure if my tank was suitable for caridina shrimp but he seems to have stuck with it

 

[KirstyF]

How do you guys manage to keep floaters with this amount of surface agitation? The ghosts of my dead floaters just died a second time looking at that clip

I have many in the same graveyard. My salvinia are now doing great sitting in the middle of a curl of Val leaves but that’s probably not the answer you want. 🙄 I bought floating rings and that was not a success. About to try Co2 tubing to corral my next lot. Will let you know how I get on with that and will be interested to see other suggestions.

Lovin the Guinea Pigs 😍 Been seriously thinking about some of these for my tank but at 12GH/KH I think my water may be too hard 🙁.

Happy to see ur starting to win the battle against the Scutariella. I’m sure your shrimps are looking forward to freedom day!

Looks like progress is being made.😊 👍

 

[Tyko_N]

Maybe Pangio anguillaris

This is a regular on at least one Swedish wholesalers list (although I don't think that I have ever seen it in a shop). So, assuming their identification is correct, P. anguillaris is probably your best bet. It doesn't really matter though, since all Pangio-species are such lovely fish

 

[Hufsa]

Im planning an order of plants, im telling myself to wait at least a week..

Lmao a week yeah right I couldnt stop myself so the order was placed now Make or break I want the shinies now. Will post the list once they are safely home, a bit complicated shipping, especially this time of year so fingers crossed 🤞🤞

 

[pat1cp]

Your sand is like a Caribbean beach. Mine is like the gravel in the Thames.

Looks lovely 👏

 

[Hufsa]

This is a regular on at least one Swedish wholesalers list (although I don't think that I have ever seen it in a shop). So, assuming their identification is correct, P. anguillaris is probably your best bet. It doesn't really matter though, since all Pangio-species are such lovely fish

Not unlikely I dont think this one was imported on purpose though, more likely a bycatch. It was the only one I could see in a tank full of "normals".
I think I saw a pair of nasal barbels in the dim morning light, which would make it P. doriae rather than anguillaris.
Apparently in the years since I was hardcore into loaches, there have been some "new" Pangio species, some of which are relatively unmarked like this.
So I should consider those as well. Seriouslyfish states that doriae;

"It’s included in the P. anguillaris group of closely-related species within the genus and can be distinguished from other members P. bitaimac by presence of scales on the cheeks (vs. absence), P. lidi by presence of pelvic fins (vs. absence), and P. lumbriciformis by lack of dark saddle-shaped markings on the body (vs. presence)."

So I will gradually get some good photos of it as they become accustomed to my tank so I can be sure
Luckily as you say, all pangio species are lovely little noodles and im really stoked that I got this oddball

 

[swyftfeet]

I think floaters are the crutch for us low tech / lean dosing folks.

With CO2 you would not need the safety factor of them occluding the light, taking up the excess nutrients, being the only non CO2 limited plants.

I agree they are great sentinels a la the duckweed index. However, if you're dosing EI and have CO2 the need for the duckweed index is kinda washed away, especially if you have an over powered, greeater than 5:1 (gph : tank volume) turnover canister filter.

Even the best paper airplane cant fetch your mail.

 

[swyftfeet]

If you can't live without your duckweed, I have this crackbrained idea. could prob grab some clear plexiglass from a home improvement store and make a deflection plate. you can heat it up on the bend lines with a heat gun and bend it quite easily.

 

[Wookii]

How do you guys manage to keep floaters with this amount of surface agitation? The ghosts of my dead floaters just died a second time looking at that clip

😆 I guess that’s the sacrifice with a spray bar - they are one of the most efficient ways to distribute CO2 and maintain good surface agitation but they do apply it to the entire surface!

As an alternative to @swyftfeet’s idea above, could create a large corral out of some sealed hollow tubing (airline might bow so some hollow small diameter Perspex tubing might be better), such that you leave a 100mm or so gap at the front and ends of the tank for your floating plants.

 

[swyftfeet]

😆 I guess that’s the sacrifice with a spray bar - they are one of the most efficient ways to distribute CO2 and maintain good surface agitation but they do apply it to the entire surface!

As an alternative to @swyftfeet’s idea above, could create a large corral out of some sealed hollow tubing (airline might bow so some hollow small diameter Perspex tubing might be better), such that you leave a 100mm or so gap at the front and ends of the tank for your floating plants.

well that would be A LOT easier. But Rube Goldberg is my thing.

 

[Karmicnull]

you could create a large corral out of some sealed hollow tubing (

I used airline to keep mine out of the most turbulent area and it worked fine, although my spraybar doesn't reach right to the end of the tank, so the airline itself wasn't getting buffeted.