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BBA, green water and wit's end
Hi all,
Much frustration and weirdness going on here and I'm desperately in need
of some advice.
I'm currently fighting the BBA battle, and it's right now at a
standstill. I have cryps, riccia, and some other tall, fast-growing stem
plant in an Eclipse 3 with 60 watts of light. This is not enough, I
know, but I'm moving to a bigger tank (125) and more light soon (as soon
as I finish building the stand). The substrate is flourite with Dave
Gomberg's CO2 setup.
The cryps are doing faintly OK, the stem plant is fine and the riccia,
tied to rocks, is wonderful despite the low light. BBA tends to grow on
the lower, older leaves of the stem plant and the cryps, which gives me
the idea that the BBA is caused by a lack of light. Also, I've added no
extra nutrients or fertilizers in the last six months.
Now for the weirdness. I do a 15 gallon water change once a week and had
been adding about 1/16 tsp of baking soda to boost the PH. After hearing
that such buffers may feed BBA, I stopped using it two weeks ago to see
what would happen.
The PH is in the low 6s at this point, but the fish seem fine. But now
the water has gone cloudy!
My question: the cloudy, greenish water coincided with stopping the
baking soda. Why? The BBA is unaffected.
Like I said, I'm tearing down this tank soon anyway, but I don't want
this problem in my new tank! HELP!
Thanks all!
Amy
amyh at atl_mediaone.net