[Build Log] Bouncing back from a total tank loss - Planted High Tech Discus Tank

[sudz]

Should have been a bit more clear. Once I saw algae buildup, I increased bubble count.

Water Parameters as of 22:00 Feb 20th
2 hours after increasing CO2 from 2.5bpm to 3.2bpm

Nitrite/Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrate: <15ppm
PH: 7.46
KH: ~11dKh
Calc'd CO2: 11.4

I'm going to go crazy on wednesday pre-water change and rip out all the BBA I can see

 

[sudz]

I think I need a CO2 reactor. For a few reasons. First: My angel fish keeps attacking the bubbles in the reactor, moving the head. As a result, Bubbles float up, missing the intake of the powerhead. Came home to PH at 7.65, Virtually no absorption. I added a second Air Line Suction cup clip to it - Hopefully that solves the issue.

Second reason: Its pretty. I could have an inline one to the outlet hose of my canister filter. It'd all be under the stand, reduce the number of check valves and 1/4 tubing I have everywhere.

Can anyone recommend an inline CO2 Reactor?

Are the non-powered ones any good?

 

[Delapool]

Can't help there - I use the in-tank tunze reactors.

 

[sudz]

Sooooo I'm pretty sure I made the tank worse.

I mean, I cleaned a LOT of crud out... But it looks so much worse.

Current parameters (1 hour after 45% water change, minor remodling and moving 5+ year old driftwood that has never been moved:

Nitrate: 15ppm
PH (unshook): 7.36
KH: 10 dKH (woohoo!)
CO2 absorbtion: ~13ppm (getting a bit better!)

So yeah, Scraped another side of the mineral buildup, removed the inlet and scrubbed that clean, also removed two pieces of driftwood (scrubbed and returned on)

Wiped down the leaves of my Anubias, replanted it, split Rhizome as well.

Gravel vaced as much of the flakes of minerals that fell as I could, also vacced where all the driftwood was formerly placed (yuck)

and plucked a fair bit of BBA.

I stirred up the tank a bit and my angel wasn't looking to be enjoying it, so I stopped a bit early and filled the tank back up.

HOLY COW the pearling.

https://youtu.be/aXR5mpTwiAE
It was a bit before I started, but after a water change the water is cloudly from all the bubbles emitted by the plants. This makes me think I could do with a lot more CO2 from my CO2 injection.

Anyway, Enough with words. Now pictures!

Before water change... This scuzz - Protein?

After work:

the lights seem. Really. Bright. I don't like the color of them. I hope the 6 blue, 4 red and 4 green make it a bit better.

 

[sudz]

I dropped my automatic fish feeder into the water. *Facepalm*. Took it all apart, dried it all, sat on house vents for a day. Reassembled. While freaking filling it, I dropped it in AGAIN.

Repeat.

I think I need to turn of co2 before lights. PH drops to 7.15 an hour after lights out.

KH down to 9-9.5 degrees. This makes me happy, as I'm getting closer to a level that will make discus thrive.

It's been a crappy week. Waiting for pathology on my finger, but I've been digging through medical papers and reading what results I DO have already, and although I can't confirm without further testing, signs look bad. Life shortening kind of bad.

Trying not to dwell on it as it's not set in stone until round 2 of tests come back in about 2 weeks.

 

[Cindy 64]

Even life shortening health issues vary with each person. Don't let it get to you. Just set your mind..."your swimming against a strong current". Do everything drs tell you & don't give up hope. I've known a few people who had the big "C". The strong-willed determined ones almost always either outlasted their drs expectancy by years or went into remission. Waiting is the hardest. It's really good you have this project to help take your mind off things. Stay busy if you can. Know there's people rooting for you! I have heart problems, living on as best I can because my youngest is 16 & I want to see her graduate. That's why I got into aquariums, I got bored cause I can't do anything by myself... drs think I'll keel over if I drive the car, take a walk, lift anything, etc.At least I can watch my fishy friends until my people friends can take me places. Hope you have an awesome day today.

 

[sudz]

Update: I got a response from my city water works department. Some neat information:
=======================

Hi Alex,
The city’s annual reports under O.Reg 170 are available online at the URL below, however they do not contain the parameters you are looking for.

https://www.hamilton.ca/home-property-and-development/water-sewer/water-quality

I can help with some, but not all, of the parameters you are asking for.

Daily average pH readings in 2016 ranged from 7.64 – 8.25, averaging at 7.91.

Your hardness reading seems very high. In 2016 treated water hardness values from our accredited lab ranged from 116 mg/L to 129 mg/L, averaging at 122 mg/L.

Total chlorine in 2016 ranged from 2.17 mg/L to 2.63 mg/L, averaging at 2.49 mg/L.
Very little of this would be free chlorine (hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite anions), where values ranged from 0.04 mg/L to 0.11 mg/L, averaging at 0.067 mg/L.
Combined chlorine (monochloramine) in 2016 ranged from 2.09 mg/L – 2.42 mg/L, averaging at 2.42 mg/L.

Ammonia concentrations (ammonia + ammonium as N) in 2016 ranged from 0.41 mg/L to 0.74 mg/L, averaging at 0.56 mg/L.

===================


I am assuming he's looking at general hardness, and not Carbonate hardness.

The Ammonia is surprising. I have never detected ammonia in my tank (nor ever bothered to test the tap water for it...) I guess my Filtration has been able to handle it. Its something I should be aware of and perhaps Never do more than 50% water changes.

The Chloramine is annoying as well. I don't have the facilities to pre-treat my water. I usually just dose 1.5 recommended on the decholorinater as I fill the tank (100% at beginning, Extra 50% after WC is done.

I'd recommend anyone on City water to contact their Water Works department to get some baselines!

 

[Delapool]

Update: I got a response from my city water works department. Some neat information:
=======================

Hi Alex,
The city’s annual reports under O.Reg 170 are available online at the URL below, however they do not contain the parameters you are looking for.

https://www.hamilton.ca/home-property-and-development/water-sewer/water-quality

I can help with some, but not all, of the parameters you are asking for.

Daily average pH readings in 2016 ranged from 7.64 – 8.25, averaging at 7.91.

Your hardness reading seems very high. In 2016 treated water hardness values from our accredited lab ranged from 116 mg/L to 129 mg/L, averaging at 122 mg/L.

Total chlorine in 2016 ranged from 2.17 mg/L to 2.63 mg/L, averaging at 2.49 mg/L.
Very little of this would be free chlorine (hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite anions), where values ranged from 0.04 mg/L to 0.11 mg/L, averaging at 0.067 mg/L.
Combined chlorine (monochloramine) in 2016 ranged from 2.09 mg/L – 2.42 mg/L, averaging at 2.42 mg/L.

Ammonia concentrations (ammonia + ammonium as N) in 2016 ranged from 0.41 mg/L to 0.74 mg/L, averaging at 0.56 mg/L.

===================


I am assuming he's looking at general hardness, and not Carbonate hardness.

The Ammonia is surprising. I have never detected ammonia in my tank (nor ever bothered to test the tap water for it...) I guess my Filtration has been able to handle it. Its something I should be aware of and perhaps Never do more than 50% water changes.

The Chloramine is annoying as well. I don't have the facilities to pre-treat my water. I usually just dose 1.5 recommended on the decholorinater as I fill the tank (100% at beginning, Extra 50% after WC is done.

I'd recommend anyone on City water to contact their Water Works department to get some baselines!

That is surprising on ammonia.

Chlorine sounds about right to here. The pool test kit gives 1 to 2ppm chlorine.

I wasn't sure what they meant by ph readings - I thought it would be more constant than that.

 

[sudz]

My area gets water from Lake Ontario. I'm sure during the spring all the road salt and runoff can cause some spikes. Road salt is usually sodium chloride with a fair bit of calcium and magnesium, the former doing a lot to spike the water supply. Not harmful to us to drink... But I'll be keeping an eye on it To avoid any big ph swings.
On another note, water parameters last night looking great!

KH: 9.5
PH: 7.16!!!

Co2 is finally over that 20ppm. Noticable reduction in algae. I had a film of it within 3 days last weekend. Since scraping glass it's been 4 days and nothing visible. Also, the BBA is looking noticeably unwell. Still some work.

I've decided to make a new hood.
It's going to cover the full tank however will include ventilation to cool led systems, mounting spots, bit of storage for electrical, fish feeder and have an internal hinge that opens the front half of the hood for cleaning.

It seems ambitious and I'm worried about rear tank access... So maybe I'll make the back open too, and just never do this project at all. Lol.

Other option is to make a structure on top of the tank k to house everything, and then just put a pretty wooden box on top of it all. That way I can move the lights around and get easier access to the tank.

... That sounds better. Maybe a front flap to access the automatic feeder.

 

[sudz]

Just spent a few hours on my tank. Water hasn't even cleared yet, so forgive the nasty photos please.

I ended up ripping about 70% of my Crypts out. SUCH a mess. Holy root system batman. So hard to gravel vac.

I then did a 30% water change and a quick vac of the entire tank to get rid of all the shmegma that settled everywhere. (no idea what its actually called, some people say it hosts the nitrifying bacteria...) (...basically its crap?)

Anywho, I went to Big Al's, my local decent fish store... and I had a $50 gift card from "my daughter" (wife) that was burning a hole in my pocket. Wife and daughter came so I was under some time constraints. Minimal googling. Much impulse buying.

Ended up spending a wee bit more than 50 dollars ($90 total) and honestly, the tank looks worse.

I bought 3 clumps of plants:

Forground/cover: Littorella

Sides, low-mid height accent plant: Rotala 'Bonsai'

Anddd a 3 dollar mystery moss, which is already making a mess of my tank. My driftwood isn't mounte don slate, so I attached it via elastics to the other driftwood I have in the tank for the time being. (I don't know if it tolerates being floated for a week or two)

Planting all the tiny shoots was tedious and fun. I basically plucked a tuft of BBA every time I went into the tank with a fresh clipping. Made some headway.t here was a lot hiding in the crypts.

I also finally bought some decent sissors for this tank. They're 12 inches long and SO sharp. I had a panic moment where I dropped them into the tank and they poked through the substrate like it wasn't there. SOOO lucky it didn't hurt the bottom of the tank. I can't imagine how horrible that would be.

Anyway, wife is calling. I leave you with a picture of my newly "planted" tank, cloudy, dirty tank. It looks horrible. Hopefully it grows out nicely!

 

[Toad]

I think it looks like lovely crap lol, you should be proud of how far it's come

Sent from my SM-G930T using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[sudz]

the grass seems to keep floating up. replanted a lot of it when I got home from dinner.

The clown loaches have found new inventive hiding spots now that there isn't a horde of Crypts and BBA to hide in. I like how much more visible everything is. The BBA is no longer in mass swaths of turf (heh, I guess I did have a ground cover plant...) now they're like tumbleweeds rolling through my tank. When I see a paticularly big one I go out of my way to grab it, but my tweesers aren't long enough so I have to get an arm wet. Can't do it every time I want to if I'm busy and don't have time to wash after.

Some photos now that it's cleared up a bit:

This moss thing is pearling like mad. Quite satisfying. The mats floating at the top are almost foaming.

The grass on the back left (can't remember name) has more than doubled in size within the past 2 weeks since CO2 was re-introuduced.

I am starting to really like this driftwood arrangement. It lacks some sort of cohesion - Like it'd never happen in nature that way... but just the visibility with still providing a cozy place for the clown loaches is pretty nice. I don't know what I'm going to do. None of the driftwood is in its final place.

I bought a piece of slate to mount my big driftwood (that I boiled in an earlier post) but Alas - My masonary bit wasn't up tot he task as I don't have a hammer drill. Hope I didn't make it FUBAR by trying. (I probably did :-()

Every new job needs a new tool!

Also, I went out and bought Angle iron (Aluminium) so I can braze/drill it onto the heatsycs when they arrive.

Oh, and I also bought 100 pocket screws, to go with my christmas present (A Kreg Jig) and about 6 bucks in select Pine so I can start on my new hood at any time. (finding enough consecutive time will be a challenge. also my garage isn't heated, so I can't even glue in there until it thaws out up here.)

Stay tuned for that. I'll probably make a different post and link to it in a later post.

 

[sudz]

Decided I'm making a new hood. Wife is getting annoyed at the lights while trying to watch TV.

Follow that thread here

This is becoming quite the project.

Anyway, Tank is coming along. Plugging away at the BBA. Going to start targeting bigger snails soon - Clown loaches don't look very fat (seem to go for the fish food over snails...) so I've got to take some drastic squishy action. (or crunchy. Regardless. gross and murderous)

Grass keeps getting uprooted. I think its the snails. The ground is alive with them. The Siamese algae eaters are also pretty rough with the groundcover. We shall see what happens. I've started to bury them deeper. Hopefully the feelers can root, as I doubt the "parent" will survive when the heart of the plant is below ground level.

And of course, some pictures. (pretty well the same, but at the end i'll see if I can make some sort of animation of growth)

If anyone is curious, the equipment up top is just sitting on the 2X LED's I'll be selling. Left to right:

• KH GH test kit (box)
• Yellow Fish food (Colorbits)
• Empty Plant cups.
• Glass Jar is my "trimmings" glass.
• Lazer Themometer. Great accurate temps from water, but also the heatsync. I was worried it was getting to hot but its JUST within spec (127f, 130f is max for the LED's)
• Razor Blade to scrape glass (nothing beats good old fashioned standly straight razor)
• my Digital PH Meter (gives ballpark... accurate within 0.2 by my experience)
• 18 inch locking pliers,
• Syringe for taking water from middle of tank for tests, Dechlorinator etc.
• the automatic fish feeder. (3 feedings daily now, one rotation. probably about 30-40 pellets per feeding.

 

[sudz]

So my cordless and corded drills and a masonary bit were NOT up to the task to drill through the 1-2cm thick slate I bought. I hope I didn't ruin the bit.

But my motto: Every new job needs a new tool!

I bought this badboy: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B004T4WA7Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And it came in. If I have time tonight I'll be putting the new driftwood in and relocating that weird floating moss. I may also put a Anubias in it. Fingers crossed!

I'm a bit worried about scraping the glass and kicking up a bunch of scum, so I may do this befre I do my gravel vac and water change for the day. My nitrates are down to 5ppm, even after ripping up 70% of my crypts and making it look like a poop tornado went through the tank.

Hopefully another update tonight!

I'm afraid I'm posting too many updates and boring you all to death - Let me know if thats the case or not!

 

[TMaier]

Not bored! I love your tool motto. My hubbie follows the same approach. He had to buy a diamond bit drill for our slate project. We paid so much we joked he should wear it on a chain.

 

[sudz]

Tonight I managed to drill a singular hole into my Slate. I mounted the wood to it with a stanless steel screw, and put it in the tank. That Moss I bought is garbage. It doesnt stay together no matter how much I wrap it in thread. I should have paid the 13 bucks for the weeping something-something that i saw and loved. Instead I wasted 3 on mystery moss the LFS said would work great for what I wanted to do. (it doesn't)

I'm starting to notice that my Anubias isn't doing so hot. I'm unsure why. The nitrates are low, but the substrate is impregnated with all manner of nutrients from years of neglect.

CO2 seems to be stable around 20ppm. My CO2 tank is down to 500 PSI now so I'll be swapping it out soonish.

Anyway, Pictures!

I did this fairly close to lights out, so I don't have any pictures after the water has settled. Sorry!
Don't know whats going on with my White Balance. Tank is not that green.

I may have to shorten it a bit. Or maybe tilt it. I LOVE this piece of wood... but I'm not really liking it in the tank... which is odd. I think I need to have it on more of an angle, and have the branches go upwards a bit so it doesn't look so stubby and cut off. :-(

The garage becomes a dumping ground over the winter as its unheated. So messy. Can't wait for spring! Soon! SOON!

 

[sudz]

My snails are going NUTS!!! I went up to check on the tank (lights out) and every single snail was on the glass, plants or anywhere but the ground. I checked PH, Ammonia, Nitrates - All within norms. I'm SO confused. Fish seem totally fine.

 

[TMaier]

Some snails are nocturnal. MTS will come out at night out of the substrate and have adventures.

 

[sudz]

Shows how neglectful I was of the tank to be surprised by this. Also, ive tripled feedings in the last month... I never see uneaten food though

 

[Barliman]

I'm starting to notice that my Anubias isn't doing so hot. I'm unsure why. The nitrates are low, but the substrate is impregnated with all manner of nutrients from years of neglect.

As far as I recall, anubias doesn't feed from the substrate: its roots are anchors, only. I think it draws its nutrients solely from the water column.