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Week Five - February 27th, 2004
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| What a week! So - per the update - I found Ich in the tank last Friday after finishing last week's writeup. As per my Update to last week's writeup, I decided to just pull all the fish into a different tank, and dose them there. The main tank would be left 'fallow' for at least five days, which should be enough time for any Ich in the tank to hatch and die for lack of fish to live on. The treatment is going wonderfully, the fish are happy, and the big tank is being overtaken by algae. I made a couple changes to the tank - first, I pulled the "Treetrunk" and the two larger "Rocks" out to make it easier to catch the fish. I haven't put those things back in yet, and I haven't decided whether I will or not. I have all those new plants coming in soon, and they should fill up the tank very nicely. I'm debating on cutting a big hole in the top of the "Stump" and installing a pot to make it into a sort of planter, but I haven't decided on that, either. The other change is that I pulled out the old standard 36" 30Watt flourescent strip lights that were the original lighting on this tank and put them back on, in addition to the big 96Watt Power Compact flourescent units I got when I started this project. With that addition, I'm just right at 2 Watts per Gallon. The tank didn't seem much brighter - but the difference was immediate and amazing. A) the brown algae basically stopped in it's tracks, followed by B) a massive infestation by green beard algae - beginning directly after I took all the fish out (naturally). However, these were accompanied by C) - the Plants are now 'pearling'! Little bubbles of oxygen form under and on the leaves of the plants as they respire - and the Pennywort is actually sending up those characteristic little trails of tiny bubbles from it's stems. I really, really wish I could get a picture of this - but the camera just won't resolve the detail - the bubbles are too tiny. Since all the fish were out of the tank, I took the opportunity to do a couple of really unreasonably massive water changes, and cleaned the surface of the gravel fairly carefully. As a result, the nitrate level in the tank is finally down to a manageable 20ppm. This is down from over 300ppm - the highest my test kit would read. The test kit is a dip-strip that has a pad that will turn various shade of pink to show the concentration of nitrates. The deeper the pink color, the higher the concentration. The first time I tested after getting he test strips, the Nitrate pad turned a color that was so hot pink - as soon as I finished with it, it ran out to catch a flight to the Castro district... ;-) To try and combat the Algae, I went and purchased six Black Mollies on Thusday night. Brought them home along with a bottle of Maracide. Since the tank had been clear for four days (144 hours), theoretically it should have been completely clear of the Ich parasite. But - just in case there were a few left, I dosed the tank with Maracide at half strength, and threw the Mollies in. The Mollies loved it! They started picking at the algae immediately. This evening (Friday), I decided to pull the Otocinculus and Plecostomus from the treatment tank back into the big tank to help the Mollies. That's the plastic thing on the left end of the tank - I was still acclimating them to the tank temperature when I took the picture. I am not feeding the tank flake food - I want the Mollies to stay hungry enough to work on the Algae.
Anyway - so that's how it is. My main contingent of fish is in happy repose in the hospice tank. The algae crew is happily living in a 125Gallon salad bar and munching themselves silly. The plans for the coming week go something like this: This weekend, I'll do another big water change on the main tank, just on general principals. I'll also continue doing medium water changes on the hospital tank, and keep it dosed against the Ich. On Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll drop a powerfilter loaded with carbon (filter charcoal, for chemical filtration) on the big tank to clean out any residual Maracide before reintroducing the regular fish. I'll also drop the carbon back into the filter on the Hospital tank, to take any residual Ich medicine out of that water, so the fish can start getting it out of their systems. The new plants should (hopefully) arrive next Friday. I'll take some water out of the big tank, and start aquascaping. I may not take the picture and do a web update until this is done - or if it takes too long, I'll take pictures early, and work on it the following Saturday. Then, on the following Sunday, after the big tank is done and ready, I'll start moving the fish back in, and eventually drain and shut down the Hospice tank. At least - that's the plan. I've mentioned my "Mystery Plant" several times in these pages. It's very clear in the picture at the top of the page - the red plant with the purple tinges under it's leaves on the right end of the tank. I beleive this plant is actually what is called a "Red Water Lily" or Nymphaea rubra. Here's a closeup.
The only thing I'm really worried about is that this guys is rooted very deeply into the gravel, and I'm afraid to try and move him when the new plants arrive. He's such a gorgeous plant, I'd like to bring him more to the middle and front of the aquarium to show him off - but I'm afraid if I pull him up, he'll 'shock' and possibly not really come back. Depending on how the new incoming plants look, I may just leave him where he is, to hold court in one end of the tank. He's also sent out some sort of little scout - there's another one of these guys sprouting almost halfway across the tank, right up against the front glass. I dunno how he did it - seems like a long way to send a runner under the gravel without any other sproutings. Oh well - I guess it doesn't matter, really. That's it for this week - see you next Friday! Or, possibly sooner, if there's another calamity... ;-) |
Friday afternoon, I got a somewhat panicky call from my roommate,
who reported that there were "all these little black things swarming all over the big
tank!" Yep - one of the Mollies had been pregnant, and had waited until she got
to me before dropping her brood. What's more - evidently the other Mollies were so
stuffed on Algae that they completely ignored the babies (Mollies tend to snack on Baby
Mollies given the chance). The babies immediately dived into the plants and started
foraging on the algae as well. Wah HOO! My algae crew is actually multiplying
on it's own! How cool is that? And - they're working very diligently.
The overall infestation of green beard algae at the time I took the picture tonight is
very noticably reduced over last night.