It seems this tank is jinxed!
The last scape journal ended with a CO2 dump killing off the inhabitants.
I'm afraid this journal will be ending on a sour note too.
My wife rang me at work this morning and it seems that my 3 year old son woke up and came downstairs on his own (we've tried stairgates etc but he makes mincemeat of them and has done for over a year!.) I think he was trying to emulate his dad (me) by copying my adding ferts to the tank. This wouldn't have been a problem apart from the fact that the fish cabinet is locked. He improvised andused washing up liquid.
When my wife awoke she came downstairs to a tank of bubbles and many dead bodies on the substrate. Good job I wasn't there or I may be on the 6 O clock news tonight.
Anyway, we now have a plant only tank which I shall be growing on to fill out the amount of Crypts in there for the next scape. This will still be in a couple of months time or a little less because I can now run the CO2 into the yellow.
One thing I had been meaning to post was that Bolivians had got Cammalanus worms in their intestines which began to show through last week. They were still full of colour and energetic so I was pretty confidednt that given the right medicine that this could be cured through the food method. I had ordered some Panacur (Dog Wormer) because there are no longer any decent fish meds available for this kind of thing and therefore we have to resort to using medicines intended for different animals. Levisimole is the best but is darned hard to get hold of in the UK, even when asking a vet for a prescription. Sods Law, this arrived today when there are no fish now that need deworming!!.
Oh well. This time I am not considering giving in because this is avoidable. The children's bedroom now has a bolt on the outside. A fire risk it maybe, but I consider this less of a risk than them in the kitchen each morning eating anything they want, drinking god knows what and having access to any implements they want (the cupboard locks are also no good anymore)
I think I will send my 3 year old on some Krypton Factor type competitions so that he can win me some money. Maybe I will buy him a Rubik's cube tomorrow.
Will post some pics in a few days once I have removed all the 'froth' in the tank.
Andy