Status report, or "where's Mandy"

[steve]

I liked reading the daily reports we got from Mandy. In her absence,
and her honor, I'll be doing a daily report on my algae problem. Since
I'm a bit behind, Monday thru Thurs. will all show up today.

Monday, day 1
Fuzz algae out of control, threatening to take over 55g tank, if not
the entire rec. room.

Solution, BLACKOUT.

Status:
Tank is black

[steve]

Tuesday, day 2

Blackout status:

Tank is black

[steve]

Wednesday, day 3

Blackout status:

Tank is black

[steve]

Thursday, day 4

Blackout status:

Tank is black

[Happy'Cam'per]

Let me guess.....its still black is'nt it? :)
--
"In the beginning, God said the four-dimensional divergence of an
antisymmetric,
second rank tensor equals zero, and there was Light , and it was good."
"steve" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Thursday, day 4
>
> Blackout status:
>
> Tank is black
>

[spiral_72]

Good grief....... HA!

[steve]

Happy'Cam'per wrote:
> Let me guess.....its still black is'nt it? :)
> --


Hey! No fair! You're supposed to be sitting on pins and needles
impatiently awaiting my next report! How'd you know! Even I haven't
seen it today!

:)
steve

[Mandy]

Hey Steve,

LOL you need some ottos! My little guys even got the super hard stuff
on the glass that others told me only a razor blade could get.

I'm thinking about getting a tiny little tank just to grow algae for
them. lol

Oh, and sorry about my reports - I was starting to bore myself! I'll
update today.

[steve]

Saturday
Day 4

The unvieling!

The tank is spotless! All blue green slime gone. All furry fuzzy hair
algae gone from leaves of plants. A green coating on 3 rocks and two
places on the glass where I didn't clean before. I removed and cleaned
the rocks, planted two more bunches of fast growing plant, ramped up
the C02, counted the fish, fed them a bit.... Looks like I'm good to
go.

To rid a tank of blue green slime cyna bacteria, I reccomend the
blackout treatment. At a cost of zero dollars per gallon, and a 4 day
treatment length, I think it's the best option.

I'll post an update in a week or so if I think it stopped it enough for
me to catch up with proper nutrients and C02 to keep it at bay.

steve

[Margolis]

what kinds of fish do you have, and how did they handle it?

--

Margolis
http://web.archive.org/web/20030215212142/http://www.agqx.org/faqs/AGQ2FAQ.htm
http://www.unrealtower.org/faq

[steve]

Margolis wrote:
> what kinds of fish do you have, and how did they handle it?
>

The occupants:

2 male A. Borellii cichlids
2 female A. Borellii cichlids
13 neon tetra
5 ottocynclus
3 Cory Cats (salt and pepper speckled)
2 Amano shrimp

All came out of hiding and woke up within about 15 minutes. All acted
quite normally when I offered food. The cichlids were paired up in
opposite ends of the tank. I didn't see the shrimp for a couple of
hours, and was pleasantly supprised when I saw them. I made an effort
to get a few flakes of food down to the shrimp. When the flakes were
floating down, a Borellii male grabbed a big one, and started chomping
on it. The Amano shrimp crawled closer, smelling the flake, and
reached out and grabbed a chunk right off the piece in the cichlids
mouth! I said out loud, "way to go!"

steve

[steve]

steve wrote:
> I'll post an update in a week or so if I think it stopped it enough
for
> me to catch up with proper nutrients and C02 to keep it at bay.
>
> steve

Update. Still no signs of algae, fish happy, plants are growing with
exuberance! Finally!

I lit the tank on Saturday after a 4 day blackout. After a 50% water
change, I dosed 1/2 teaspoon KN03 to bring the measurable nitrates to
15ppm. By Monday, the nitrates measured 20. Hmmmm. I also, for the
first time, measured Phosphates. 10ppm! Damn! I checked my tap water
and it was 5ppm. 50% water change, no KN03 and no food for two days
and I ramped up the C02 to 30+ppm.

Wednesday: Nitrates still at about 10, P04 at about 5. I don't have
any pure Potassium, which is what I'd like to add. I've ordered some
potassium chloride. I fed them just a dabble of dried bloodworms. The
good news on Wednesday was the condition of the plants. They were
streaming 02 and bright new growth was sprouting on most varieties.
Now I know how they _can_ grow. Before, they just looked healthy, but
not really showing any signs of growth. Now I have a feeling I'll
measure decreasing levels of both nitrates and P04 in the days to come
as the plants consume those.

This is a picture from Saturday, right after the blackout.
http://www.geocities.com/erviservy/Jan20c.jpg

I'll post a more recent pic and show the lavish growth. My Tarzanian
jungle is on it's way!

steve