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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #311

>
> Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 23:16:14 -0700
> From: schmidt at coyote_csusm.edu (Michael Schmidt)
> Subject: The Pits
>
> >From what I have read here and elsewhere, having a tank get hit with all
> sorts of problems at once is not uncommon. Well, my tank's there right now.
>
>
> You may remember I was asking about BGA last week, and I thank you all for
> your thoughtful replies. Someone (forgot who, sorry) commented that my tank
> seemed nitrogen limited; I thought this seemed correct and started adding
> KNO3 to bring the concentration up to 3-5 ppm (as suggested in
> Sears-Conlin). Turns out it took quite a lot; I'd get the NO3 up to 3 ppm
> in the evening and it was back to 1 ppm the next morning. Added more KNO3
> in the morning; by evening, back to 1. Too many plants growing too fast, I
> guess! I thought I was ok adding about 0.3 g per day to my 10G tank,
> because I was measuring NO3 twice a day, and it wasn't getting out of
> hand--but I forgot that I was adding K+ too, and I wasn't monitoring that.
> How much K+ can one add before it starts killing fish? I did a partial
> water change today to lower the K+. I guess I need to get some fish that I
> can actually feed.
>
> I was going to take the advice of Roger and just wait for the BGA to go
> away by itself, but then one of my Otos started getting a red mouth. I
> remembered that BGA can be toxic to fish, and I thought maybe grazing on
> the mixed algae including BGA was giving the Oto a rash. So I treated with
> erythromycin. The BGA is dying back, but the Oto still has a red mouth and
> is looking more sluggish. I checked with my LFS; they had never heard of
> the problem before, but they thought it was some kind of bacterial/fungal
> infection and suggested SuperSulfa. SuperSulfa directions say to remove any
> other antibiotic before use; however, I'm only three days into my
> erythromicin treatment. Is a hospital tank the only option here? My Otos
> seem utterly uninterested in algae pellets; what would the Oto eat in a
> clean, algae-free hospital tank? Would he get hungry enough to eat the
> pellets?
>
> Finally, my tank was looking suddenly cloudy this morning. Not
> green-cloudy, just cloudy. What is this stuff, any ideas? (I have a half
> dozen ideas, none convincing.) I understand my options are either a
> polishing filter ($$$), some of that commercial clear-water treatment ($),
> or just waiting for it to go away on it's own. Any recommendations?
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice and/or consolation.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 23:54:44 -0700
> From: schmidt at coyote_csusm.edu (Michael Schmidt)
> Subject: Ooops--calculate BEFORE posting
>
> I wrote the following:
>
> I thought I was ok adding about 0.3 g per day to my 10G tank, because I was
> measuring NO3 twice a day, and it wasn't getting out of hand--but I forgot
> that I was adding K+ too, and I wasn't monitoring that. How much K+ can one
> add before it starts killing fish?
>
> Then I did the calculation: 0.3 g KNO3 g in a 10G (40L) tank is about 3
> mg/L K.  Even if none of this is being used up by the plants (unlikely)
> 3ppm/day is probably not a significant change if natural waters often have
> K+ concentrations in the 10s, and even 100s, of ppm. So I'm not going to
> worry about this one, as long as I do regular water changes.
>

K concentration in fresh water is typically in the 1s - world average
river water contains 2.3 mg/l K+.  Natural concentrations in the 100's
probably are restricted to sea water (380 mg/l) and various rare brines.

As to the other problems...

The tank I recently treated with erythromycin (repeating... I don't
recommend the use of antibiotics) had 8 otos in it, and none suffered
during the treatment.  Otos are, however, notoriously delicate for a while
after shipping and might have any number of different problems.

The cloudy water can have a lot of different causes.  As I recall, this is
a new tank and you haven't given it much time for its microflora and
microfauna to come to much of a balance.  Your antibiotic treatment and
fertilizer changes certainly aren't helping.  Cloudy water by itself isn't
a problem other than for its appearance, so I think you should just
maintain the good circulation that you're already providing, maybe add
some aeration if there's any hint of oxygen shortage, and wait for things
to settle down.  Think about cures for the cloudy water problem after the
obvious causes (the numerous imbalances) are remedied.


Roger Miller