Assorted Issues - Important (long)

[Cavan <millsman7 at yahoo_com>]

Here's the latest.  As I've been talking about, I just
converted my ten gallon to a serious planted tank. 
I've got some good test kits and besides the co2 (for
now), nutrient ranges are where they should be I
think.

Issue A.  

I am trying out the submerged riccia thing.  I got
some nylon mesh and stapled it to two pieces of
driftwood.  I got the riccia from a friend of mine at
my club's tank.  It had some hair algae in it but I
figured it wouldn't be a problem if I run the tank
well.  Wrong.  The hair algae is outgrowing the
riccia.  There is currently none in the rest of the
tank.  

Do I: 

1. Bleach dip the riccia.  I doubt that as I don't see
riccia as a plant that could take it.

2. Take out the riccia driftwood and keep it in
darkness for a couple days.  

3.  Start over with new riccia.  if so, anybody got
some?  I have Eichhornia diversifolia, java ferns, and
a bunch of LARGE Vallisneria spiralis available.  If
you want the last two, speak before about 1 tomorrow
or it goes to the LFS.

4.  Get those three tiny Caradina japonica at the LFS
and hope they don't get eaten by two Pelvicachromis
suboccelatus and/or put my two SAEs in from my 30
(which I will probably remove anyway so they don't
destroy any more moss).  

Issue B.  

I just got my Lamotte 6-7.4 PH kit today.  I tested
the water in the ten and it came out with a yellowish
greenish color that doesn't match anything in the
comparitor.  Is one 1tsp/2 cups sugar yeast reactor
too much for a ten?  I think the PH may be really low.
 I made up a 1/2 tsp batch to see if that makes a
difference.  The KH was 2 and the GH 5.  I added a
bunch of calcium carbonate and the KH is now 5 and the
GH 7.  The PH reading did not change.  I added a bit
of the calcium water to the PH vial after adding the
reagent and getting a reading and it did go up.  I
will be hooking this tank up to my pressurized system
but for now...  

Issue C.  

The subocellatus have barely come out of their cave at
all.  Either it's the 3.6 watts a gallon of PCF
scaring them, the PH issue, or both.  

Issue D.

The water in my 30 appears to get harder over time. 
The only possible thing is that the old gravel under
the Flourite is making that so.  I doubt that the
calcium in Flourish could do it (2.5 ml daily).  Do I
just keep doing water changes with pure distilled
water?!  I thought the GH was 6 and KH was 5.5 the
last time I tested a while ago.  Today it was 9 and 7.
 Taking out 5 gallons of water and replacing it with
distilled dropped it to 7 and 5.5.  This did not
reduce the PH in 2 hours so I upped the co2 slightly
and it went down to 6.7.  

Issue E.  Ludwigia arcuata in the 30 and 10 has grown
a few stems with puny, down curled leaves.  A stem of
Blyxa sp "Vietnam" raced twoard the surface before
stunting badly when trimmed.  Two stems of Ammania
gracilis have done the same (from Tony Baker). 
Ammania from another source has not.  The plants
seemingly have everything the could need.  

The 30 has had 3.3-6.6 nitrates, .2-.7 phosphates,
2.5ml per day of Flourish, 1ml per day of Flourish
Iron, 12-15 ml per week of Flourish Potassium, bright
light, good co2, and a GH of 6-9 (again the upward
creep of GH and KH).  

As mentioned, there is nylon in the 10.  But not in
the 30.  Paul mentions that it can cause calcium
deficiency like symptoms.  Paul, are you sure it
wasn't something else on the nylon you put in your
tank that did it?  Using nylon for Riccia seems to be
faily common.  

Issue F.  

A while back I let macros go too low and beard algae
showed up.  I corrected things (to the current
conditions mentioned above) and it went away.  Or so I
thought.  I have a bunch of Hydrotriche and I have let
clipped stem pieces float where they often develop a
bunch of side shoots.  The main stem often gets
exposed to air and stunts.  Today I was removing grown
side shoots when I found a bunch of the stems infested
with beard.  The healthy new growth was not affected
(coming from the infected stuff).  I found one pich of
the stuff on a nearby java fern leaf and on a snail
shell in the middle of it but nowhere else.  The rest
of the tank is spotless.  What does it mean that the
vast, vast majority of it was limited to the bad
stems?  

I don't think this makes the plants mentioned above
untradeworthy.  As I said, the rest of the tank is
clean.  Couldn't spores of algae come in on a plant
even thugh there is no actual growth on the plant
itself?  

I think that's it.  Help is much appreciated.

Thanks, Cavan     

  

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