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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #1474


Cavan:

> Gary Lange wrote: 
> 
> >If you've got that much junk on the bottom of your
> >tank what the heck
> >is wrong with actually doing a water change??  
> 
> Nothing, and I do a 1/3 change every week or two.  All
> the detritus re-appears about 3 days after a change,
> so I have a heck of a time keeping up with it.  I have
> had problems with slightly deformed leaves in H.
> angustifolia since I started using tap water again,
> but that's another issue.     
> 
> 
> >Then perhaps you won't have so many  of your algae
> >outbreaks if you
> >keep up the water changes :-) 
> 
> Except for a small amount of time after I made changes
> in the tank, it has been almost spotless for the last
> two years.  The latest problem occured after I
> replaced two T8 bulbs up front.  My tank was overrun
> by a pearling grey slimy gunk crap from hell.  Tom
> Barr is identifying a sample of the stuff for me now. 
> It originally showed up, I think, because the brighter
> bulbs induced a nitrate deficiency.  Now macros are
> fine but not being used up at the rapid rate they were
> when I corrected the situation for some reason, and
> the stuff is showing up again.  I don't get it.  All
> parameters and levels are where they should be.  It's
> one big mystery.  (Insert page long string of
> profanities here)   
> 
> 
> 
> Pittsburgh water isn't so bad.  
> 
> Not bad, but not great either.  I suspect the
> calcium/magnesium ratio may be a bit off.  Lots of
> insecticides and so on.  
> 
> Cavan

The only things that can come out of the tank are (re) combinations of
what goes in.  Carbon from CO2, food, fish, plants.  If you can
identify what the detritus is (plant material, fish flesh, etc.), that
could be a big help.  

Your aquarium setup doesn't seem to be able to break down and cycle the
amount of stuff you're putting in, even though you are doing 30%
changes and presumably, vacuuming at least some of the gravel when you
do the changes.

Too much CO2?  Not likely but easy to observe and fix.

Too many plants?  If they are dieing off or shedding so much material
that's building up out of control, that could mean too little (fish or
plant) food and CO2 to keep them flourishing.  It seems you are
checking the nutrition/trace issues with Tom.

Too many fish? Depends on the size and how much you feed (or overfeed)
them.  But Fish food can build up fast in an aquarium, whether it
passes through fish first or not.

I still think that all of these cannot be ruled out.  But which can?

Scott H.

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