From The Ashes. Another Planted Journal

[Alm0stAwesome]

Oh! I dunno if anyone has suggested these but what about corydoras similis, smudge spot cory? I saw them this weekend they are soooo cute! Their little "smudge" looked kind of iridecent.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Oh they are cute! My real problem with choosing my cories is that I like almost all of them!

 

[FishFanatic04]

Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! I emailed Coryologist to ask about the C. Sychri and C. astropersonatus. He wrote a thorough and very friendly response back. It was awesome!!

The best part is that he has a shipment on the way that should contain C. Sychri cories!! Insane! I am very excited just to have a few positive things happening. Now I had better find some money somewhere, or those corys will be going to someone else.

 

[gregswimm]

Oh they are cute! My real problem with choosing my cories is that I like almost all of them!

Corydoras julii or agassizii are my favorite :3

 

[FishFanatic04]

Looks like I'll be doing daily water tests now. I just tested and the ammonia was at 0. Nitrites were off the chart of course. I'm going to continue my weekly water changes for the plants and dose ammonia to whatever a few teaspoons add. I'm guessing around 1.0 ppm definitely under 2.0.

For one thing: I don't see a reason to dose higher and for Two things: I will be slowly stocking my tanks and keeping them quite understocked for many months. I have a move coming up in Nov/Dec.


Thanks for the offer of media Gregswimm. It looks like I won't need it, my tanks will be cycled before I would have had any spare cash.

 

[FishFanatic04]

oh and to add....I have diatoms. again. still. whatever. IT sucks

First thing I want to do is buy some kind of algae eaters.

 

[gregswimm]

oh and to add....I have diatoms. again. still. whatever. IT sucks

First thing I want to do is buy some kind of algae eaters.

Test your phosphates, I have found that the high phosphates in my my water may be causing my algae to explode everywhere. Also I read that fast growing plants can out-compete that stuff. So more more plants like B.pennywort, Hygrophila corymbosa, Hygrophila difformis, Cabomba caroliniana, Ludwigia etc.

From the pic I see, it doesn't look like you have enough

Edit: I also have not been able to find anything that eats diatoms/BGA, my ottos/plecs never touched that stuff and the plecs seemed to make it worse. MTS/nerites are a big help in removing excess organic mater with in turn should help your diatom problem. And almost any shrimp should help with leftover organics.

 

[FishFanatic04]

I certainly don't have enough plants I lost 3/4 of my plants to melt after the bleaching. There's even less now then there was in the picture. I am thinking of lowering my photoperiod. I have the lights on 6 hours right now, but I think I should lower it to 4 hours until the cycle is through. The high ammonialevels won't be helping with the algae.

The stems were the first to die off.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

My BNs annihilated my diatoms I think the MTS helped as well

 

[FishFanatic04]

*sigh* Won't be adding anything until the filter is cycled though.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Ah well, it'll just be ugly for a bit then ma dear! When you're ready, add a pair of baby BNs and it'll be clean in a week!

Have you made a decision about algae eating fish yet? If you don't accept all of my fish recommendations I'll be really offended you know!




*cough* smudgy corys*cough*

 

[FishFanatic04]

lol I have close to decided to have some type of BN's. There are lots of them on aquabid where you can get a bunch of baby ones cheap. I could then toss some in my 46g. The other option were some Oto's but with my bad luck with fish so far, I'd rather not buy anything the dies on the luckiest of fishkeepers.


I'm going to move some plants around on the next water change, I'm trying to transfer out some of the crypts and move in the smaller swords from the 46g. Heading in the direction of my biotope slowly, and one plant at a time.

The 46g won't look as nice as it does right now, but there are no algae issues there and I need the higher plant mass for the larger tank.

 

[gregswimm]

Did u still want that filter media? I remembered that I have a spare piece floating in my filter (that i totally forgot about) for such an occasion. I could send with it a few small cuttings of B.pennywort from my tank if you like.

Also in my local lake there is a TON of Vallisneria spiralis. These valls are like 4-7" long, very impressive things. There are also things like Nymphoides cristata, Limnophila ?sessiliflora?, Hygrophila ?polysperma?,Hydrocotyle, and sometimes Ludwigia. Im often in the lake anyway hauling out hydrialla, which is a huge problem down here; so grabbing a few nice specimens, cleaning them and sending them over with the media is not such a big deal. I would of course bleach them and dip them in antibiotic for ya. . Im not 100% on any of the species but the genus should be nearly accurate.

Try getting your fish from a small local LFS, support your local fish stores

 

[FishFanatic04]

lol My small LFS gave me Fish TB, and caused this whole issue. Now they refuse to believe that it started with them. {They should be sanitizing their tanks} I did a fishless cycle and theirs were the only fish I added. Add to that that in a 40 mile radius the three fish stores share the same 2 suppliers. I have no idea if they could all be contaminated or not.

The antibiotics I am on are making me ill so I am not willing to risk any local purchases which could affect my kids. They are crawling and playing all over when I do fish maintenance. My tanks are safe as of now. I will take the shipping hit and stock slowly until I move. Fish TB is rare enough, as soon as I move I will become BFF's with my lfs's and keep them in business with tons of tanks.



I really appreciate your offer and accept!! You have no idea how much I would appreciate it actually. Dealing with this whole situation is very draining on one's spirit. Pm me if you need any compensation and I will figure something out. If not, I will certainly find a nice way to thank you in the near future.

 

[FishFanatic04]

hydrialla looks a lot like Egeria densa / eldoea/ anacharis