Starting new tank - codename Frankenstein - critique wanted

[Biollante]

Hi Florin,

The odds of saving small finfish were marginal at best.

Shrimp may not be very bright, but they are not suicidal!

I am taken aback by the apparent aggressiveness of your Dwarf Cichlids.

What you are seeing in your substrate is analogous to what is happening in your bio-filters. It is fascinating stuff…

I think the whole tank is on track as far as operating, I just think there is something else going on… More on that tomorrow.

The chlorine forming chloramines is quite possible and fits with my sense that there are residual DOC in the tap water. Still activated charcoal and RO, then DI should remove pretty much everything.

So how is the water pressure?

Biollante

[Florin Ilia]

NH_3/4=0.02 ppm
NO₂=0.009 ppm
NO₃=4.0 ppm
KH=64 ppm=3,6 dKH

Red site:
t=25.5ºC
pH=6.63
TDS=205 ppm
DO=7.68 ppm
ORP=188 mV
CO₂=39 ppm


4 beaker test (4, 4, 8, 12):



After the measurements I performed a 60% water change.

The water change brought out 2 RCS, unfortunately dead So they're there, just hiding very well.

The fishes' colors are on the dull side (stress?). I haven't seen one of the 3 P nicholsi females in 3 days.

The blackness is almost completely gone but now there are 2 patches of greenness (or blue-greennness? I can't say for sure) developing.







Sorry for the unsightly diatoms but I am not cleaning on purpose, to see how things evolve.

I tested for ammonia the tap water I had left about a week ago. In the picture below is the endpoint from the ammonia test, from left to right:

1. DI water from my filter (left to sit more than a week)
2. cold tap water (left to sit more than a week)
3. warm tap water (left to sit more than a week) (well it was warm a week ago)
4. cold tap water (fresh)
5. aquarium water (fresh)

Degree of green is proportional to ammonia content, yellow = no ammonia.



While the amount of ammonia that "develops" after a week or so in the water is very small, it kinda bothers me, but I don't think there's much I can do.

Florin

[Biollante]

Hi Florin,

That ammonia thing is intriguing; I have long believed I was missing something regarding your water.

No intentional use of chloramines, though at minimum monochloramines must exist.

Tosylchloramide, chloramine-T pops up in my notes (conjecture) a number of times…

Then some weird enzymes…

The DOC is coming from somewhere… “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”- S. Holmes.

I suspect the mystery ammonia and the continuing low ORP is the key.

Whether I or anyone reading this has the wit or wisdom to understand, is another matter.

Actually, I think the diatoms or brown algae is probably helping and will not be a problem.

Biollante

[Florin Ilia]

Hi Bio,

I am not one to give up easily but I can't help thinking aquaculture is not my thing.

Anyway, ...

The green (blue-green?) stuff is retreating from above the substrate, where it had gained a small foothold, but is spreading under the substrate.

One of the Asian Crinums got uprooted - more like up-bulbed - since it has produced almost zero roots since I last planted it. One of the African Crinums has a putrid halo around its bulb - it is probably rotten. I will have to remove and clean everything again.

Some Nimphaea leaves are rotting as well.

I tried to make a culture of dero worms and Moina together, but it failed repeatedly - the first time the moina died, recently all the dero worms died.

There is no detectable ammonia in the tank and the nitrites are at the lowest value ever, 0.004 ppm.

I added some critters - 4 Congo tetra and some snails. The previous snails, after a brief period of prosperous breeding, at some point during the last weeks stopped prospering and died off. I only had some Melanoides tuberculata left (the Planorbella disappeared, also the very resilient Physa I had introduced by mistake).

Florin

[Biollante]

Hi Florin,

Hang tough.

I think it is the water and maybe one other thing…

More later…

Biollante

[Htomassini]

If your city uses chloramines then ro will not pull out the ammonia. You will have to degass it with an air stone overnight. The di cartridge will pull it out.


Henry tomassini
www.theplantedaquariumstore.com
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Florin Ilia]

Hi Henry,

They use Chlorine, I asked.

Thanks,

Florin

[Biollante]

Hi Florin,

I am not sure, why you should be having all the problems with the Crinums, the only thing I can think is that my advice damaged them. Or, perhaps there is an infection that until the other problems are under control cannot be addressed.

Was this a symbiotic culture of Daphnia Magna and Dero Worms, you purchased?

I have heard of them, but never tried them. I culture Microfex in oatmeal/cornmeal mixture fed yeast and a few other goodies.

How are your infusoria doing? The lettuce in water thing.

Biollante

[Florin Ilia]

Hi Bio,

Was this a symbiotic culture of Daphnia Magna and Dero Worms, you purchased?

Close The guy selling them calls the water flea "Daphnia moina" but they're small and Google insists that Daphnia and Moina are different species - I think mine are Moina.

You can see the worms in this video from when I had just started the culture:



Allegedly these guys can live together indefinitely in a small water jar if I simply feed the worms. In the latest die-off I think I overfed the worms and the water got [too] dirty.

I'll test for infusoria happiness and let you know.

Today I noticed new things in the "Frankenstein" tank:

• the male P nicholsi has duller colors, does not eat and does not relentlessly chase females (which has been his hobby ever since I've met him)
• some of the Planorbella duryi I recently introduced sit motionless on the sand. This reminds me of my other tank, the one with unhappy snails. How does the current tank compare to the old one?
  
  • different size
  • different substrate
  • different filtration
  • different plants
  • different fish
  • different fish food
  • different fert regime
  • same water source
  • same CO2 target, about the same pH
  • same owner

As for the Crinums, I don't see how your advice may have damaged them, but they do seem to be either part of the problem or a victim of whatever-it-is. I love them but at this point, if you agree, I am ready to remove them at least for a while and see if this changes anything.

Also, yesterday I took apart the canister filter with the intention of cleaning it. But halfway through I got so demotivated that I simply stopped......... I never put it back again...... I'm not proud of that but hey, at least I didn't smash the tank as I was also inclined to



Florin

[Biollante]

Hi,

As the great spit ball pitcher Elwin Charles "Preacher" Roe said once-upon-a-time after being pulled from a game in the second inning, "Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you.”



Biollante