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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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