Week 12 - A Week Not Without Incident
So my Panda Garra made a second bid for freedom, another 4+ft plunge onto the cold tiles.
Fortunately my 3 year old was on hand to raise the alarm and my wife plopped him back in good time. He's doing well and acting like nothing happened.
Come on PG learn the lesson.
Usual water change on Tuesday followed quickly by a slight PH crash (from 7.4 to 6.9) - Crushed coral on standby (tap KH0, tank sits around KH1-1.5) - and capillary action got the better of me.
I had hung the bags of coral over the side of the tank, held with a cloths peg. Overnight my tank water wicked up over the lip and dripped slowly down the glass. Outcome - a water damaged cabinet
I wont be doing that again in a hurry. Coral bags now sitting on the substrate.
Further investigation on the PH drop revealed my tank KH had dropped to 0. Perhaps the coral bags are becoming exhausted through over use? Even then the two tsp's of Gypsom I put in the tank after Tuesday's water change should have ensured at least 1dKH.
I might go back to dosing Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3), but it's slow to dissolve and tends to powder coat the plant leaves. I'm considering adding 1 tsp directly into my surface skimmer, in the hope that most of it is sucked directly into my canister filter.
The thinking is that the particles will be caught by my main sponges, then my fine filter sponge / floss, prior to getting to the impeller. There it can take some time to dissolve without powdering the plants.
I'll do this on Saturday after a gravel vac, if I don't hear screams of Nooo!! from this board.
All the above pushed me on to make a closer inspection of my water. 545 TDS, just where I expected. 21GH, wow!! Tap normally 1GH, this week it's 3GH, I have been adding Gypsom for Ca and Epsom Salts for Mg, aiming for 8GH. - I should have been monitoring this more closely - 21GH
I will cut back drastically on my Ca and Mg dosing and keep a better eye on this going forward.
On the positive side the diatoms I've been struggling with are clearly on the way out. Still some small patches, but it's diminishing every day.
The minor Cyanobacteria (BGA) outbreak is well in hand. I'm getting virtually none on the plants, a couple of very small patches (2-3 pebbles worth) on the substrate, but have been getting some larger clusters building up under the substrate against the glass.
I started tackling the BGA with Phyton Git Sol - which I've discovered to be an excellent spot killer. A couple of drops on a patch of BGA and the next day it's gone.
Even on the larger clusters under the substrate, a healthy squeeze of the pipette (1ml) held under the substrate and it starts to turn Red and Grey and is obviously dying.
I've not been consistent with the treatment, leaving two or three days at a time, and the under substrate patches have require two doses to kill completely - and therefore I'm still unsure if Phyton Git Sol will eradicate BGA from my tank completely or if new outbreaks will always appear after one area has been successfully spot treated.
I've got some UltraLife Blue/Green Stain Remover on standby, but for now I will continue with the Phyton Git Sol as an experiment.
(There's another example in the above photo of the cabinet damage)
So with all this going on - what of the plants?
Well I'm delighted - getting great growth and everything feels as though it's coming together:
The Ludwigia sp. Super Red was planted on Thursday and is still in it's emersed form.
I might be a stones throw from Borneo but Bucephalandra is still priced like gold! I couldn't believe the diminutive size of these stems - at 8 quid a stem!!
So a colourful week, but I'm happy with the progress
