To quote from Ghostbusters,
never cross the streams.
Over the last week, things haven't been going well, and there have been
a lot of people saying flood the tank. So more research. And with the help of the the likes of Ceg, I have learnt more about the pros and cons of the DSM. (Every time I think I'm getting the hang of this aquarium lark it turns out I know bugger all!)
So I decided to flood the tank.
Then I read Ceg's next offering of expertise … and kind of wished I hadn't flooded it.
As part of the flooding process there was a bit of rushed pipe bending (and in the process of rushing it, I forgot one of the lessons I'd learnt from my earlier experiments and they're not as good as they should be.
blahblahblahblah!) At the moment the pipes are temporary – there are no holes in the spray bar, just a spare nozzle taped on the end, and the intake has the stock Rena sieve taped on the end. They will be finished properly as soon as possible.
To make life “easier” I have only put about 8” of water in the tank so far. (About 60 litres.)
This covers all the Hair Grass (including on top of the cave), all the Crypts and all but the tips of the tallest Swords' leaves … and most of these are dying anyway.
I decided not to fully flood the tank on a couple of grounds:
1 – I figure the first few weeks are going to involve the most maintenance and less water means less getting wet for me.
2 – it gives me the opportunity to keep an eye on the floor as it becomes more loaded, and how the tank settles on it's polystyrene pad. (I'm not nervous about this. Honest.)
3 – it means there is less water above the plants to absorb the light, and the surface area to volume ratio is reduced, so there should be improved gas exchange. Both of these will, I hope, be of some benefit whilst the plants are establishing.
Having flooded the tank, I then read the afore mentioned comments form Ceg. One factor of which I remain oblivious, is whether my plants were initially grown emersed or submersed. Now there had been some signs of new growth on some of the Swords (the plants that have suffered the worst), and it seems that whilst those leaves that have died already may have been submersed form leaves suffering from being emersed, the new growth may well be emersed form leaves that will likely suffer from being submersed. Hey ho.
The water's in now and I'm not in a hurry to take it out. We shall see how things go.
I can't say whether flooding has made the situation worse, but with no water in the tank it was harder to see quite how many of the leaves had died. Now that the decaying shadows that used to be leaves are gently wafting to and fro in the current, the horror is all to plane to see.
I've tidied up many of the casualties
This plant floated free in the process and appears to have had it almost completely
although I replanted the roots in deluded hope.
… and this is the pile of over 25 leaves I removed.
These are what's currently left of the Swords.
Whilst I've trimmed off the truely dead leaves, I've resisted the urge to remove leaves with some green left. I'm assuming that whilst there is still some chlorphil in the leaves they're still photosynthesising and still have
some worth.
The Crypts and Hair Grass have shown no significant changes since their last photo call, except that although the tank has only been flooded for 3 days, the Hair Grass is developing brown filamental algae.
(Not great pictures but you can just about see it on a couple of the clumps.)
The one thing I am considering at this stage is CO2.
I can't justify the cost of a pressurised system, so I'll probably go for a Schweppes bottle, ordinary air line, and an air stone, all of which I have lying around. Not a brilliant system, and not long term, but it's free. (There is even some yeast in the cupboard
) I know that algae can benefit from CO2 as well as plants, but I'm wondering whether this might be of benefit at this stage.
I know I'm probably being impatient, and the whole thing isn't going great just now, but
thoughts from the experts please?
