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A few questions (cyanobacteria, bubbles, lead, sandy)



I'm fighting my first real skirmishes with algae... after the move up to
a new tank, it's taking a while to stabilize.  

First it was the diatoms, which incidentally disappeared as quickly as
they'd appeared, although I hadn't done anything...

Then it was some hairlike algae on the swords, sort of a cross between
the green thread algae and the dryer lint stuff?  Hard to describe. 
Anyway, that's been easy to keep under control, because it wipes off
easily.  

Now it's cyanobacteria.  It attaches to the plants on the surface, not
anywhere else.  I had huge patches of rotala and ambulia happily growing
along the surface, waiting for the PVAS auction next month.  No longer,
I've clipped off the tops and ditched them.  Cheaper than buying
antibiotics.  I'll have to wait and see how well the affected stalks of
ambulia recover.  I've rubbed it off the lily leaves, and removed the
floating bits of water sprite.  I think it's time to put the lights back
on a timer, they haven't been and the new, higher-wattage lights have
been on sometimes for up to 16 hours.  Am I diagnosing this correctly? 
Maybe, maybe not?  The other algaes were no real problem, but this one's
truly offensive, and I'd like to get rid of it, not manage it.

Second question, after the trimming last night, I noticed that the ends
of the broken stalks of ambulia and rotala were bubbling fiercely.  I've
never gotten bubbling from my plants (presumably since I don't inject
CO2).  Perhaps I'm just not observant enough, but I'd also never noticed
that the ends of the stalks did this after a trim.  Presumably I had a
high level of dissolved gases still in my water, because I'd done a 10%
water change less than an hour before.  How does the biology of this
work?  I guess i didn't realize that the plant would be transferring O2
or CO2 to the leaves through its stalk.

Third question, when I buy new plants, I've always removed the metal
wrapper that attaches the stalks together in clumps.  Is this
necessary?  I picked up some ludwigia yesterday, and I've had trouble
keeping it planted in the past, especially when I damaged the stalk.  I
was thinking about leaving the (lead?) wrapper on, under the gravel, to
prevent both problems, but in the long term, is it poisonous to fish or
plant?

Fourth question, I've got a sandy in my paludarium, and the emersed
sections are fine, but the submersed section looks yellowed and has no
leaves.  Can this plant grow new roots if you chop off the bottom, or
no?  I suspect no, but from the look of the plant, perhaps.

Sorry to lump a bunch of questions into one post, but hey, the digests
are usually slow on weekends, right?  If anyone has suggestions on one
or all, it would be appreciated!  

Alysoun McLaughlin