Si's Low Tech Tank Journal

[PDSimon]

My crypts appear to be 'melting' Although i'm not sure whats going on. They never melted when I first got them, do they occasionally do it or are they dying, please enlighten me!

He wondered what I was up too

 

[Biulu]

Crypts do melt regularly in the beginning when you get them. How long have they been in your tank?

 

[PDSimon]

3 months...

 

[Biulu]

3 months...

Mmmm, normally they melt quicker... basically in the weeks after planting.

 

[ian]

I'm stumped by that one si!

Have you had any water condition change?

 

[PDSimon]

Nothings changed they appear to only be doing it on the right hand side too...

 

[ian]

The book The Natural Aquarium handbook by Ines Scheurmann on page 65 claims that Cryptocoryne Rot is caused by an excess of Nitrate.

Cryptocoryne plants are used to an environment which contains plenty of ammonium and so the plant are not evolved to break down and use nitrates. So they store the nitrate internally as waste.

When there is a sudden change in the aquarium water or substrate, the plants are shocked and release their stored nutrients (including the unwanted nitrate) and so these nitrogen compounds poison the leaves and can kill the entire plant.


ISBN 0-7641-1440-9
Published by Barron's 2nd Ed. 2000AD
Original German title - Das GU Aquarienbuch


^^this is 10 years old now, so i don't know if its changed in the way of research. But i found it quite interesting.

 

[PDSimon]

Well I did a waterchange on sunday, it may have influenced it? Cheers for the info... hopefully the whole plants don't die they've been doing quite well

 

[PDSimon]

I have been gone for a while Been busy with uni... my last year of the course so any spare time has been doing absolutely nothing!

The tank has a few problems which I am yet to fix... I have been continuing to maintain it though, just havn't had time to research and fix the problems.

- The drop checker works for a few days and then it just seems to be stuck on green and then goes almost transparent and yellow eventually. It has a weird gooey gel underneath it? i'm not sure what that is. I turned the CO2 right down and worked back up again to ensure I wasn't overdosing so the drop checker is just not effective for unknown reasons

- the other problem is algae, getting black brush algae I think, although it looks a bit more bluey green than black.

I'm dosing the easylife range and easycarbo too which seems to be keeping the algae fairly at bay. some slight glass algae but that comes of with weekly maintanence. The algae isn't really a problem but I don't want it to become one plenty of flow in the tank btw, 2000lph almost (theoretically)

Every other day

2.5ml of phosphate and nitrate

every other (other) day

3.3ml of ferro, profito and K

I think the BBA is more due to CO2 than fert balance, so sorting out the drop checker should help.


The drop checker looks like this (the gel acts like a film almost when the drop checker is in the water)

Heres my tank

you can see a bit of glass algae at the bottom by the parvula grass, its difficult to remove the algae there without removing the grass too... doesn't bother me too much but any help as always will be appreciated

edit:

Forgot to mention... You can't see any fish! They're all hiding because I just did a waterchange. They're all still well though. No pairings unfortunately but they all seem happy

 

[ian]

Looking good, Si! You have a proper jungle going on there!

Did the BBA come when you turned the C02 down?

Are you using 4dkh water for the checker?

 

[PDSimon]

Thanks Ian

Nope the BBA has been going for a while now, even though the co2 was consistant... the water is 4dkh yup. I was thinking trying another pH tester, i have a pH test kit, is the liquid the same kind? it looks the same colour if that helps lol.

 

[ian]

and water changes where done on a regular basis?, i read somewhere about BBA also being attributed by the organic build up from high tec tanks.

If it was me, i'd up the C02 slightly, buy a new PH test and up the water changes for a while.

 

[PDSimon]

30% every week, and last week i did about 40-50% and a big clean up.

 

[PDSimon]

Going to throw a sword plant and some java moss unless anyone here wants it? might sell the piece of bogwood on the right...not the anubias on it tho

 

[lljdma06]

I agree with Ian, up the CO2 and the waterchanges for now. Just out of curiosity, what's the filtration?