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[APD] Haze



I recently rewired my CFL lights with help from the list (thanks, esp to 
  SH) and got my tank back up and running.  I decided this time around 
if I didn't get the growth I expected then the hobby wasn't right for me 
and I would sell the tank.  Thankfully, this time around something just 
clicked and my plants are going nuts! ... Except for a few small 
annoyances that I thought I would share, and request help with.

The biggest annoyance... I have a 90G AGA w/overflow.  The actual sponge 
that is on the overflow will, after a long while, get completely clogged 
with gunk.  Normally I leave it alone because of precisely what I'm 
writing about.  When it does get completely clogged, I feel the need to 
kind of 'rinse' it, which always helps the flow of water, but never 
helps the quality of filtered water.  I'm really amazed how much this 
small, round little sponge does for my water appearance.  After this 
most recent iteration of rinsing, as usual, I get a white haze in the 
tank.  This has lasted almost a month now and I can't figure out how to 
get it to go away!  Before rinsing, the tank was beautifully clear.  I 
could see straight through 4' of water without a problem, now its like 
someone poured a bit of baking soda in there and mixed it up.

Now, when I rinse that sponge what I do is shut off the sump pump and 
let the tank water gather in the sump.  I then take off the sponge and 
gently squeeze it in the sump tank water.  I read somewhere, some time 
ago that you should only rinse in the aquarium water to not disturb the 
colony in there too much.  As I rinse the sponge out, the sump turns a 
disturbing color of brown and the gunk falls away.  After which I 
replace the sponge in the overflow, drain the sump and do my regular 
water change, fill and hope for the best.  Well...as I've said, this 
results in a white haze that doesn't go away until the aquatic gardening 
gods smile upon my fearing being ;-)  (That is, I have no idea what I do 
to get it to go away, sometimes it gets worse!)

Here's the info, ph ~6.8-7.0, kh 6, gh 4.  Pretty much all the rest of 
the components I have no good way to test for.  Nitrites are 
unmeasurable and nitrates are at a reasonable 5-10ppm.  I have an 
extremely light fish load consisting of 3 zebra danios, one neon tetra, 
two small plecos, about 4 oto cats and 1 SAE.  2, 48" CFLs each with 2, 
65w bulbs, ~11hr photo period (the timer isn't great at time selection). 
  I dose about 1 tablespoon of a pre-mixed PMDD a la Greg Watson's site 
info.  It contains KH2PO4, CSM+B, K2SO4 and KNO3 in quantities described 
by his site (phosphate limiting).  I've lightened my feedings lately to 
about 1/wk, but even still before this kept moderate feedings because of 
the light fish load.  I have injected CO2 which puts me at about 
20-30ppm that runs 24x7.  My substrate is 1/3 Laterite mixed with and 
topped with sand blast for a total depth of about 3-4".

The other annoyance is that my Amazon Swords are displaying a strange 
deficiency that I cannot recognize because this is the first time I've 
gotten such growth.  I've looked up deficiencies on the web but found 
none that fit this.  The newer leaves are a very pale green, wavy and 
appear almost translucent.  Other plants also display this behavior, but 
not quite to the same extent.  My anubius leaves eventually get covered 
with very dark green spots and seem to melt away from those spots.  My 
Java fern seems to be doing alright, although, seems to be growing at a 
far slower rate than other plants listed.  I'm not sure what my plants 
are all complaining about?  The only one that seems to somewhat enjoy 
the current chemistry is a rubin sword, though it also has more wavy 
tendencies than before.

To those that have braved the total email, my thanks.

-Dave
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