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McStephenson posted:Ugh. How's Huey Lewis today? I hope he came good in the end. The war against camallanus update: beacon tetras are all very feisty today bar one, I think it's the male who is hiding because the others are so boisterous. I can only see one worm left hanging from the largest tetra. Levamisole seems to be doing a great job. No deceased snails. The young scrawny female guppy is alive (but hiding and laying on the bottom still). The four (!) worms coming out of her vent are visibly dead. She doesn't appear to have any injury externally to her vent, which I am relieved at as I have heard of severely infested fish rupturing as the dying worms try to leave en masse. I hate to think what state she is in internally or whether she will be able to pass any of the worms before they begin to putrefy and poison her. I know better than to try pulling a dead worm out since they apparently have barbed heads, I'm just hoping she gets well enough to eat something to help dislodge the worms and push them out.
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Jun 25, 2015 07:38
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Boil peas and remove the outer skin, smush it a bit and feed to your fish. They're readily eaten by most fish and make great intestinal scourers.
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Jun 25, 2015 07:53
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Yes, the main tank regularly gets peas since the rosy barbs go mad for them to the point of stealing pieces out of other fish's mouths. Since the discovery of worms I've been giving them peas every day instead of every couple of days like usual. I've been feeding frozen brine shrimp too hoping that it gives everyone a chance to find a palatable source of roughage. I'd got them as treats initially but for now everyone gets treats until everyone feels better. I just checked on the small female and it looks like the worms are out a bit further and she was momentarily swimming strongly enough that I mistook her for one of the others. Perhaps she'll be able to dislodge them, I think once one or two go it will be easier for the rest to come out. They're quite big ones and she's still tiny, I would say six weeks old - she could be 1/5 worms by weight or more for all I know. I really can't believe she's still alive especially since she's not eating. Guppy females are built to get ridiculously fat in the middle and full of live creatures though so I think this might be a contributing factor to her survival so far.
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Jun 25, 2015 08:35
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Stoca Zola posted:Yes, the main tank regularly gets peas since the rosy barbs go mad for them to the point of stealing pieces out of other fish's mouths. Since the discovery of worms I've been giving them peas every day instead of every couple of days like usual. I've been feeding frozen brine shrimp too hoping that it gives everyone a chance to find a palatable source of roughage. I'd got them as treats initially but for now everyone gets treats until everyone feels better. Here's to hoping she pulls through! That is some hair-raising stuff but its good to hear that things might go well. Luckily my tank held: Huey was breathing and acting normally the next morning. Now i'll definitely be letting my water sit overnight before adding it! Weird thing though, Huey Lewis is now messing with The Beatles (my 4 cory catfish). No damage to them, but he's consistently down there with them and opening his mouth quickly (which i am to hear is a dominance behavior). Could this be because of not getting enough food? the Zebra danio are so fast that i actually kind of worry about Huey getting his food. I've been putting in one or two sinking wafers for the cory cats and I swore i saw Huey going for one of them... What would be the best way to feed these tanks so i'm not over feeding danio, underfeeding the gourami, and making sure the corys eat at all?
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Jun 25, 2015 17:55
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She's managed to dislodge 2 worms but one of the ones she's got left is quite a big one. She's still alive, and still quite capable of vanishing and reappearing so I think she might pull through unless that big worm just won't let go of its death grip on her. What are gourami like when feeding? Their mouth placement makes them look like versatile feeders so maybe you could get some little sinking pellets and feed both Huey and the corys at the bottom while the danios feed at the top? According to my sister her danios leave the bottom alone completely. You'd probably want to distract the danios by feeding them first so that the pellets get a chance to make it to the bottom, or you could get one of those glass feeding tubes that let the food fall all the way down for bottom feeders. I had a little trouble trying to feed both rosy barbs and beacon tetras in my tank as the tetras were a little shy but feeding them frozen community food worked quite well since it kind of hangs in the water and the shy fish have more of a chance to do drive by food grabs than they do when they're pecking at the surface. I chop the blocks up into pieces though, a whole block seems like way too much food. Edited to add: guppy gal hasn't gotten rid of those worms yet. I think they're out further but it's hard to tell, she's managed to get one bent up on each side of her like, uh... Salvador Dali's moustache comes to mind. She's looking very tired 
Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Jun 26, 2015 |
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Jun 26, 2015 11:29
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Spotted some worms that have survived the praziquantel and levamisole blitz. I haven't seen these shovelnosed worms before and for a while I was worried that they were still-alive camallanus, however close inspection with a better lighting showed a row of bristles either side which makes them some kind of annelid, best guess aeolosoma so I've put them back in the tank. As far as I know no freshwater nematode has bristles. During the post-worming vacuum I took the opportunity to clean up some of the plants and found 2 more guppy fry, one of which looks about 2 weeks older than the others. They've been relocated into the fry box now too. At least if my little female doesn't make it, I've got a chance at a female from this new generation of guppies. At the moment its a sausagefest, there are 8 male guppies now to 2 females in the main tank (found another female struggling to pass a big worm so I've moved her to the little tank to recouperate in peace). The small female only has one big worm left to pass but it seems to be rather stuck. I saw her pass the second to last one, and one side of the dead worm was visibly mouldy so the sooner she passes the last worm the better.
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Jun 27, 2015 13:26
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I just added 4 Harlequin Rasboras to my 40g aquarium yesterday (with the intention of adding more later), and apparently they've started schooling with my Zebra Danios. I have 8 of those guys in there and they're all swimming together with the rasboras. I've never seen two different types of fish school together so it's pretty neat to see these guys be aquarium buddies.
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Jun 27, 2015 14:37
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That's super cute! Something not so cute, managed to dislodge the apparently still alive camallanus worm from the big guppy female and got some close ups of it. This is after three days of Levamisole, it looks like this worm did not get a high enough dosage to outright kill it. It seems like its still functioning on some level, even if its not able to wiggle it was still able to feed. Definitely going to soak the food in Levamisole as well as just dosing the water on the second treatment in 2 weeks.
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Jun 27, 2015 16:39
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I was looking at David Bowie and his fins and tail look kinda ragged so I did some googling. Now I'm afraid he has a mild fin rot. Anyone know how to get a good clear picture of a betta so I can post it here for for someone to confirm it?
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Jun 27, 2015 17:00
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Got rid of that stupid big elbow and used a 1/4 to 1/8 reducing street elbow. Is anyone else using pressurized CO2? before:  after: 
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Jun 27, 2015 17:59
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Git Mah Belt Son posted:I just added 4 Harlequin Rasboras to my 40g aquarium yesterday (with the intention of adding more later), and apparently they've started schooling with my Zebra Danios. I have 8 of those guys in there and they're all swimming together with the rasboras. I've never seen two different types of fish school together so it's pretty neat to see these guys be aquarium buddies. I have like 18? and they will school with anything. Even if it's not a schooling fish. Lately they like to follow my Three-spot gourami in a massive pack, but they've also latched on to the Festivum and Kribs.
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Jun 27, 2015 23:36
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Well, it's now evident that: 1. My past readings on Camallanus meds weren't entirely right on all of them wiping out invertebrates 2. Fenbendazole is kind of a pain in the rear end compared to Levamisole. 3. I need to find a source of Levamisole if I want to get back into keeping anything again. Avitrol Plus seems like an au/uk thing.
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Jun 28, 2015 00:20
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I don't know how you are handling that worm infestation without setting yourself on fire and running for the hills, that's what I'd do anyway. Horrifying.
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Jun 28, 2015 02:15
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I filmed a couple more hours of my backyard pond with a gopro- does anyone care enough for me to upload it? I could use some tips on how to get the water cleared up as well. Cleaning the filter media 1-2x per week doesn't seem to be helping.
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Jun 28, 2015 06:16
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What sort of clearing up? Is it cloudy or just tinted?
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Jun 28, 2015 06:18
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SynthOrange posted:What sort of clearing up? Is it cloudy or just tinted? Cloudy like this imagecap. Lots of particulates floating around in a 300gal pond despite circulating constantly with a 700gph pond pump. Compare it to earlier video I took where the water is clear enough to see across the pond's body of water. 300gal pond Pondmaster model 7, 700gph pump lifting ~12-18" above surface level Tetra ClearChoice PF-1 bio pond filter. Also have a UV clarifier in-line as well to cut down on algae bloom.
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Jun 28, 2015 06:30
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If you've eliminated sediment disturbance, that looks like a bacterial bloom. Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Jun 28, 2015 |
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Jun 28, 2015 06:34
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Len posted:I was looking at David Bowie and his fins and tail look kinda ragged so I did some googling. Now I'm afraid he has a mild fin rot. Anyone know how to get a good clear picture of a betta so I can post it here for for someone to confirm it? I've had a few with fin rot before, not Bettas, but they'll stop swimming alot and just kind of hang in hiding spots and you'll see like a film/puss like clump enveloping the area
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Jun 28, 2015 09:59
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SocketWrench posted:I've had a few with fin rot before, not Bettas, but they'll stop swimming alot and just kind of hang in hiding spots and you'll see like a film/puss like clump enveloping the area That may not be a thing he has then because he's pretty active most of the time. I'll keep an eye on him and see if he changes. I've still got the smaller tank he started in to use as a QT one if it gets worse.
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Jun 28, 2015 13:36
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The little guppy didn't make it, I found her dead this morning having apparently exhausted herself failing to get rid of the big worm. The other female wasn't showing any more signs of worms so I moved her back into the main tank and started draining the little fluval ready for a cleanout - the water level got down to about 1cm before I noticed a guppy fry hanging about near the end of the siphon hose. I found another one in the waste water tub who had survived being sucked through 2m of 4mm airline  but that was all, I guess the mother guppy ate the rest before I moved her. Since the little breeder box isn't really big enough for 14 guppy fry that meant I had to rush ahead with the tank cleaning.I've soaked the filter in 45º ish water hoping to cook any residual camallanus eggs without completely destroying the filter bacteria, hosed out and then blow dried the tank and all the parts (the ones that didn't easily blow dry got a soaking in hot water too). Sadly the sand I'd planned to use seems to have gone mouldy, I didn't know that was even possible but it doesn't smell right and it has little blue fluffy lumps in it so that plan is out. Instead, the tank has some loose java moss, random bits of other plants that are stuck in the moss, and a single piece of java fern with a bare base, at least it will be easier to clean I guess, plus the usual duckweed. Just waiting for the water to warm up before I move the guppy fry across to give them more room to grow. Livebearers apparently have a reputation for carrying camallanus and I wonder if it's just that physically the body cavity of females suits camallanus and protects them. The levamisole treatment I did wasn't enough to get rid of every single worm in the guppies, even though it did a great job in the narrow bodied beacon tetras. I'm definitely going to try to dose the food as well in future otherwise the guppies will continue to host these revolting worms and reinfect the other fish. I've had no snail losses from this medication but I am too scared to try it with my shrimp. I'm just going to assume the shrimp may be contaminated and keep everything completely separated between the fish and shrimp tanks. It looks like levamisole was pulled from the market in North America too but you can probably still buy it online, there was a guy selling powder at a marked up rate but its in bird wormers, horse/cow/pig/sheep wormers, and there is heaps of info out there on how to get the dosage right; although there are rumours of resistant strains of camallanus too. I don't know how much of that is just worms that were able to hide inside the fish because the medication was only put in the water and not also in the food, and how much of that is actual resistance - a worm doesn't evolve fast enough to develop resistances in the same way that bacteria do so I am inclined to think the "resistant" worms are just ones that were more able to hide inside their host. I have to admit parasites used to horrify me, and I'm still super paranoid about washing my hands after doing anything in the tank because I know snails can carry liver flukes, fish tuberculosis can infect skin, etc. But having had a rescue cat who had a really bad case of tapeworms, I just had to deal with it, and it got a lot easier after that. Kind of like exposure therapy, I guess. At least with parasites you can identify them and treat them and the medications are fairly safe, unlike bacterial infections where it's a stab in the dark to guess exactly which treatment might work, whether the dosage will be effective or whether it will stress the fish without helping etc. I hope you get your finrot sorted out Len, if that's what it is - the other option is if your flow is too great David Bowie might be sleeping somewhere where the current rips his fins. He might be getting damage without the rot; either way fins can regenerate a surprising amount so once you get the issue sorted there is a good chance he will heal right up.
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Jun 28, 2015 16:12
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Fewer things are more frustrating that arguing with someone that no, them keeping a redtail catfish in a 65 hex "just until he can get an upgrade one day" is a bad idea. Perhaps the people arguing back that "telling him to get the bigger tank first ISN'T what he asked, he asked what a good price was." I really wish some fish weren't on the market.
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Jun 28, 2015 17:54
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Guys. What the hell is this? It's in all of my tanks and I don't think it's an algae, but it looks like poo poo and is super invasive. I can't find info about it anywhere on the internet. Does anyone know what it is and how to remove it once and for all?
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Jun 28, 2015 19:35
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Cowslips Warren posted:Fewer things are more frustrating that arguing with someone that no, them keeping a redtail catfish in a 65 hex "just until he can get an upgrade one day" is a bad idea. Perhaps the people arguing back that "telling him to get the bigger tank first ISN'T what he asked, he asked what a good price was." Ooooh, I just joined that FB group like a week ago. There are some dumb people that want to raise fish in AZ. I'm setting up a 55 gallon salt right now and I do not plan on getting a drat thing that will outgrow that tank. I'm okay with it being coral, some clowns, and maybe a goby or two. If it doesn't have a tank that can handle it at full size already set up, cycled, and waiting, it shouldn't come home from the store. edit: I noticed he quit posting, maybe you actually made a difference. That or he got annoyed. Neitherman fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Jun 28, 2015 |
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Jun 28, 2015 19:43
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Utricularia, also called Bladderwort, is a carnivorous plant: the little cysts suck up passing infusoria. I had some but only have a tiny bit left, either my snails or my rosy barbs ate it. I never got to see it flowering. I'd heard it was invasive but it must also be delicious to someone. I don't recommend you get barbs or snails to get rid of your bladderwort though since they'll destroy any plant you hold dear.
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Jun 28, 2015 19:49
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Stoca Zola posted:Utricularia, also called Bladderwort, is a carnivorous plant: the little cysts suck up passing infusoria. I had some but only have a tiny bit left, either my snails or my rosy barbs ate it. I never got to see it flowering. I'd heard it was invasive but it must also be delicious to someone. I don't recommend you get barbs or snails to get rid of your bladderwort though since they'll destroy any plant you hold dear.
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Jun 28, 2015 19:56
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Weird, most of my snails are ramshorns too. Ok must have been the rosy barbs that ate it then, the greedy little fuckers. If it's growing fast enough that you're having trouble keeping up with scooping it out, at least it's performing some good nutrient exporting to keep your water nice, eh?
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Jun 28, 2015 20:02
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Yeah, I generally just spin a toothbrush around it and pull it out when it gets too unruly. I'm just glad to hear it's not actually algae. I just wish I knew where it came from.
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Jun 29, 2015 15:41
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There's a drain fly stronghold in the bathroom and I guess that's what keeps spreading downstairs to my tanks. I don't even feed my turtle inside his tank, so there's no food matter at all in there to rot and attract things, but still I see drain flies flying in there and I'm sure their mass amounts of wriggly white larvae stuck to the glass will show up soon. I just added a bristlenose pleco and four ghost shrimp in with my betta in my 10 gallon tank that's had a lot of problems with drain flies and new tank syndrome since I got it, and I really don't want them to get stressed or die from having to tear everything apart to get rid of drain flies. My tank seemed to actually be cycling properly this time too. I think maybe I should find some fish that love to eat drain fly larvae since none of mine seem to touch it, but I'm not sure a fish could survive in close quarters with my turtle and am scared to risk it. Will a pleco suck the larvae off the glass? Any ideas of a fish that could live in warm water peacefully with a betta, and just eat all the larvae, would be cool. Also before anyone kills me for adding more fish(/shrimp) before the tank was fully cycled, it was a surprise from my boyfriend while I was at work that I didn't have any say in. Personally I would have waited until the tank was stable to increase the load on it, but I appreciate the sentiment behind him getting me a present for my tank. republicant fucked around with this message at 09:05 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 09:03
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republicant posted:There's a drain fly stronghold in the bathroom and I guess that's what keeps spreading downstairs to my tanks. I've had drainflies and the larvae I've seen are black and not really that wriggly - are you sure your masses of white worms are drainfly larvae? They could be some kind of aquatic detritus worm, or something else. From what I've seen drainfly larvae just drown if you put them in deep water. They aren't good swimmers. Get some pictures of your worms and paste them here, I'd love to see what you have. If they're too small to get a good picture (and if you just have a phone camera) you might be able to rig a macro lens from an old webcam, if you have one with an unscrewable lens. Poster putty the reversed webcam lens to your phone camera and you can get some nice magnified pics but it only really works with stuff that is sitting right on the glass of the tank since the focal length is quite short. Google DIY webcam microscope macro lens or similar to get an idea of what I mean. Do you want to get rid of them because they're gross or harmful or...? You're probably right that you'd be doing more harm than good pulling your tank apart to get at them. You could try sucking them out with a turkey baster or similar - I've got some cheaparse plastic pipettes from ebay that I use for sucking up planarians, poop, excess food, etc so you might get some mileage out of something like that - just make sure you get it new, give it a rinse in old tank water and only use it for your aquariums, don't mix up your kitchenware and tankware. Very handy to have a quick way to spot clean your tanks. Like this: 
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Jul 1, 2015 09:12
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Yeah I've had definite drain fly larvae, the much larger black worms that crawl around in the gravel, I guess I just had a giant brain fart in referring to these tiny white worms as drain flies. But I was right in figuring that a white worm population explosion would follow my seeing drain flies in the bathroom and unspecified flying things in my own room. I'm sure they are some other sort of larvae since I haven't introduced anything new into my tank and I keep the tank very clean. I just did a 100% water change yesterday, vacuumed the gravel, and it seemed like as soon as I plugged the filter back in a cloud of tiny white worms came out of the filter. It really sucks that they have to infest my filter media so that getting rid of them means completely destroying my bio cycle. BUT it seems like the worms are not thriving in my very clean tank that I don't put any food into whatsoever. Before I had pretty dirty gravel and they were all over everywhere, crawling on the glass and being blown around in the water. Now there really aren't many stuck to the glass, they're mainly in the water, getting tossed around by the current and sucked back up by the filter. It's just weird because they sound exactly like detritus worms, but they're not being introduced from another tank or anything. Wouldn't it be unusual to have a sudden burst of detritus worms in a tank that had JUST been cleaned? None of my other tanks currently have them, and after my last outbreak I bleached all my nets and gravel vacuum etc. It really seems like they're some kind of larvae, coming from eggs that are being laid in my filter. I should probably find a way to cover up the hole in the top of my filter that these things are getting in through. After I post this I will go try to get a picture of them if I can find any stuck to the glass. And yeah I finally came to the point where I'm just prepared to accept them. My initial kneejerk reaction of being super freaked out made me react very rashly the first time, but tearing everything apart just does more harm to my animals than to the worms. I've never put ANY other kind of animal in with my turtle because I don't want to expose him to any kinds of disease, but I considered putting a couple tadpoles in with him in the hopes that they would eat all the worms. Unfortunately my turtle is a turtle, and started trying to eat them while they were acclimating in a Ziplock bag, he actually chomped down on the bag and wouldn't let go. So I'm just going to keep the tank as clean as possible and do frequent water changes, sterilizing all my stuff between tanks so I don't spread these stupid things. And your pipette idea is awesome. I have a length of oxygen tubing that is perfect as a tiny suction hose for very small >1 gallon tanks, but something like that would work much better for targeting individual little things in the tank. Going to put it on the shopping list.
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Jul 2, 2015 04:08
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Worm chat has got me thinking about setting up a tub to culture some black worms. Anyone tried it? Looks pretty straight forward as far as growing live food goes. Having my own tub would mean knowing they come from clean conditions too. The local store sold my sister 5 neon tetras, she got home and noticed ich on the tails of two of them and before long they were swimming on their sides/upside down and bloating too. Lasted less than a week and I have no idea how the rest of her fish survive since she keeps buying replacements from the same place. She's got 2 danios, a single white cloud and a single peppered cory who seem to survive no matter what. I'm at the point where I don't care how cute the panda cories are that they've got in, I'm not risking bringing contamination from that place into my house. It's hard because I know the fish are RIGHT THERE and I could go get some without having to wait but I just don't want to risk it.
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Jul 3, 2015 08:01
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Keeping blackworms alive in the fridge is one thing, culturing them another entirely unless you have a good size to start up. No more Catalina titanium heaters for me. The one I had on my zebra pleco tank decided it didn't want to shut off, and I caught it at 87*. Pulled that fucker out asap. Zebras like warm water, yes, but that's loving pushing it. Eheim Jagers any better? I know Ebo Jagers dropped in quality a few years ago.
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Jul 3, 2015 11:20
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The idea of a little tub of black worms in the fridge does not seem as fresh and appetising as storing them like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr6JIEO3TWY trigger warning for republicant: icky worms I guess it wouldn't matter to me if it wasn't a self sustaining culture, just seems like it would be easier to avoid gungy sick or dead worms storing them like this where you can see what the worms are up to. I've seen a guy use a double layer of mesh as the substrate to make it super easy to get them out and clean their poops, if I was going to try it I'd try that rather than the oft mentioned burlap or brown paper methods or trying to dig them out of sand. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Jul 3, 2015 |
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Jul 3, 2015 16:50
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We got a new tank of craigslist because it was a smokin' deal ( a Fluval Osaka 260L for $300 ) with the idea of moving all of our old 46G into it. The seller included everything - from a nice looking ADA soil, tons of plants, even some shrimps. The soil is so fine that over a week later it's still very cloudy ( brown - not white ) all the way from the bottom to the top - maybe 2-3cm visibility. The LFS told me to just use a water clarifier ( flocculating agent ) which would solve the problem in just a few hours. Well it has been almost 3 days since putting in the recommended dosage ( with the filter running & full of floss ) and it looks completely unchanged - no better but no worse. I've done daily water changes & filter cleanings up to this point and it's like trying to clear up the amazon river, the muddiness never goes away and the filter content is almost muddy. I can't find ANY solid info about this type of scenario. There are a billion websites & youtube videos about clearing up bacterial & algal blooms, but only ONE hit in the first 5 pages of a search and all it says is "Silt is easy, add a water clarifier and it will clear up in a few hours". Not so much. None of the clarifiers I've looked at even mention multiple dosages either - it's just "put in this much and you're done". The only thing almost relevant I could find was on a marineland site that consistently said to wait 72 hours but always in reference to a pond or something larger with only minor cloudiness. Are we doomed to a tank full of fish we'll never be able to see? Should we do a full drain again and start over? 
TollTheHounds fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jul 4, 2015 |
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Jul 4, 2015 19:05
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TollTheHounds posted:Are we doomed to a tank full of fish we'll never be able to see? Should we do a full drain again and start over? I googled ADA aquasoil cloudy and got tons of hits - people seem to be recommending doing lots of big water changes over a few weeks or capping the ADA with a different gravel to keep the silt in. Looks like it's not supposed to happen but some batches of aquasoil seem to do it while others do not? You might have got a bad batch like this person posts about.
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Jul 4, 2015 19:34
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Stoca Zola posted:I googled ADA aquasoil cloudy and got tons of hits - people seem to be recommending doing lots of big water changes over a few weeks or capping the ADA with a different gravel to keep the silt in. Looks like it's not supposed to happen but some batches of aquasoil seem to do it while others do not? You might have got a bad batch like this person posts about. Wow thanks! I suck at googling then because I didn't think to search for ADA or the soil itself. I was just searching variations of "can't remove cloudy aquarium water/how often to add water clarifier". That "bad batch" post is *exactly* what our water looks like. Thing is, this is not "new" soil fresh out of the bag, it is established ( as was the filter - a fluval 405 ) - the guy had it setup for over 2 years and it looked pristine in his pictures. So I don't know if that might be relevant. We did pour the water in slowly ( going over a hand too ) but it didn't seem to really do much in terms of keeping sediment down. Normally we would have just left the water with no movement/filter going to let it "settle" for a few weeks but because the guy drained everything a day prior and had the plants/shrimp/cories/loaches in containers with no exposure to air, filtration, or water movement ( he felt they were replaceable and didn't think it was necessary to try to keep them alive ), we were worried about them all dying off and so felt we had no choice but to fire things up and hope for the best. He just had the plain soil though with no gravel/sand or anything on top, so that probably isn't helping. The shrimp are doing a good job of kicking the sediment down/pulling actual gravel-sized chunks up, but you can still see puffs of silt around them as they're working. I guess we'll have to look at doing a nearly complete drain and then try re-filling with the "coffee filter" method again. It is a 260L tank though, not a nano, so it's going to be a long process I guess. TollTheHounds fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jul 4, 2015 |
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Jul 4, 2015 21:00
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It might be worth looking at capping it with something else then if it is mature soil, I don't think that stuff is meant to last forever structurally, and yours might be at the point where it is constantly breaking down and releasing particles thus the flocculants can't keep up. Not sure how roughed up it got in transit but that could have been the trigger for this happening if it looked fine before you moved it. Or maybe it had already started, the guy got sick of doing huge water changes every couple of days to keep it clear and that's why he decided to sell up! Good on you for rescuing the livestock though, I get so mad at people who have the "they're just fish *shrug*" attitude. I've never used ADA myself actually so this has been just conjecture based on what I've read while I was researching substrates for my own tanks. I've got one tank using small sized gravel with a sandy zone, another with fine sand, and one of my shrimp tanks has a baked "plant minerals" style granular substrate. That stuff is probably about a year old and I can already see signs of it breaking down but then I don't know how similar it is to ADA and I know I haven't been super gentle with it when rinsing it in between uses, but it is plausible to me that this kind of stuff could break down and go powdery at some point. Hope you work something out, anyway.
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Jul 4, 2015 21:56
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If that soil is 2 years old it is probably time to get new substrate. Might be why he broke down the tank, the substrate was nutrient depleted.
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Jul 5, 2015 01:16
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If not for the cloudy water issue, would the substrate still be usable by sticking in root tabs in order to make up for the age of the substrate? I don't know much about that kind of stuff, like you can wash old sand/gravel and reuse it but that baked substrate seems designed to wear out and need replacing and washing it seems like it would make it worse. I've had bronchitis all week and I'm not looking forward to the weekly vacuum of tanks today. Knowing my luck I'll have a coughing fit and fall off the top of the stepladder 
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Jul 5, 2015 05:34
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| # ? May 16, 2024 16:41 |
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SynthOrange posted:If you've eliminated sediment disturbance, that looks like a bacterial bloom. It's plant material. Either the filter's not keeping up, or koi/carp/goldfish are dirty, dirty motherfuckers that rip any plant matter into tiny pieces.  http://imgur.com/a/p3KUY
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Jul 5, 2015 20:37
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