Recent content by NielsenE

The otos have been doing a great job of cleaning the glass and have moved on to the algae on the red melon swords and rosette swords -- haven't been helping with the more wispy brown algae that's coating/choking my cabomba's. However after 6 days of happy otos and no ammonia or nitrites, I've...

Nitrites were zero this morning; dosed to 2ppm this morning, and was back to 0 ammo/0 nitrite by 6pm, nitrates under 20. I went to the fish store and picked up 6 otos. Five look very happy, can't find the sixth, but I know they can be very good at hiding. Four are attached to the glass doing...

Nitrites have dropped below 1! Getting close, finally. Hopefully they'll hit zero and stay there soon, and I can find a time to get to the store mid-week.

And the nitrites are finally dropping! The test still reads 5ppm, but it took the full five minutes to develop to that color, instead of the usual instant color change. I've been adjusting the pH a little higher since that favors the second stage bacteria, maybe that's been helping jump start...

Looks like my Apon U, is sending up a flower spike! I must be doing at least something right.

So was lazy and only did a 25% WC. Nitrites are still through the roof, but at least nitrates are reading non-zero (more than 0 less than 5) for the first time, so maybe the nitrite consumers are starting to work. Course the ammonia bacteria are a little too active :) I don't want them to...

These nitrites are crazy... All told today I've done an effective 66% WC (several serial smaller WCs... I know they are less effective than a single large one but easier to avoid disturbing plants, etc). Nitrites are still above 5ppm. Did an additional test using 1/3 tank water, 2/3rd tap...

I seem to have a fair bit of biofilm :) that's why I thought to get some ottos to help control that. At least it looks like pictures of brown algae, growing on large rocks, glass, and hanging off some of the more fine plants. References are saying ottos love it :) I don't dose glut or...

Cool, I'll swing by a Lowes later today. Tank cycles ammonia like there's no tomorrow (2ppm to 0 in under 24 hours), but nitrites are at crazy high levels (off the chart after a 40% water change). Going to do another large wc change in a bit. I'd really like to be able to get a few ottos soon...

Got the BML today, already setup over the tank, looking good. Visually it looks about as bright as my existing light (but you can tell its biased towards the red end of the spectrum. I'll get some pictures later. Going to have to control it manually for a bit -- just noticed the wall timers I...

BML should be here soon, but switched to PPS-Pro today (from all the Seachem stuff previously), and wow, so much more pearling! Hoping the stem plants recover now that other parts of the aquarium seem so much happier

Oooh, my BML has shipped... soon, soon :) Guess I'll swing back by the LFS tonight, wanted to pick up some more DBT, now that I know I can make it happy in my tank.

I'll check the texture of the dots on the leaves when I get home, I suspect based on appearance I have two different types of things growing. I'm just happy that I've managed to save the DBTs. The main fix was just keeping the light fixture directly above them, and moving one of the stem...

I'll pass on the assassin's I think I'm getting them under control and I think my cycle's starting to work, finally seeing a good nitrite spike and dropping ammonia. No rising nitrate's yet, but until I see the nitrites drop, rapidly, I assume the plants are consuming nitrates faster than...

I'm hoping I'm about the turn the corner on getting the things dialed in. Planning to do a 30-40% WC change this weekend(was hoping to do 10-20% multiple times a week and avoid larger ones, but this week's been hectic) and some pruning of the less healthy shoots, might pick up a few more plants...