Januari 2004
Catching up…

There are many facets to that phrase for me right now. As you are probably aware I have not done an installment in a bit and there is a lot to catch up on as to what has been happening with the tank.

As you might recall I was having a run of problems with algae in my tank of various types. Looked like I was getting a handle on all of them at the time of the last installment and was cleaning the tank up of some hair algae.

Things were going along fine with the planted tank for a bit but the algae decided to be stubborn to say the least.

As some might remember over here where I am located we had a major power out that for my lasted 48hrs. The planted tank survived through this and so did the fish in it. Problems started soon after this not only for the planted tank but also for my small hatchery. I use an inline carbon filter that filters 1 micron. This filter is rated for 15,000 gallons of life and or 3 months. Just before the blackout, I had replaced the filter with a new one. I usually replace the filter every 2 months time just to be on the safe side as we live in an old building and I do not consider the water to be so safe with all the old pipes. One week after the Power out I had loss of pressure on my line and couldn’t figure it out at the time. Went around to the building maintenance staff to see if they were doing any work on the lines and or if anybody else was having problems with their water pressure.

It never entered into my mind that it could be the filter since was only installed 3 weeks before. Just for the hell of it I looked at the filter because nothing else was popping up as to the explanation for my low water pressure…Low and behold! The dang thing was so clogged with gunk that not only was the filter probably 3 times as heavy now and covered with a disgusting film the water in the filter was thick with the stuff too!

Took the filter housing apart, through out the filter and cleaned every surface in site and replaced filter again with a new one. I ran a whole bunch of tests on my water with all of the test kits I have to see if there were any changes due not only to my algae problem in the planted tank but also was now having problems in my hatchery. A lot of my fish were turning dark and scratching’ on stuff nibbling on food, not devouring it as usual plus other quirks.

Nothing! Not a thing wrong with any readings at all, no spikes no matter when readings were taken (ant I took quite a few over course of a week).

Fish in the hatchery were getting worse over the course of a month or more. Won’t get into all of what was up with them due to this being about the DPH Tank but will just say that since the power out have lost about half of my fish stock and I am not the only one in my city. Due to many a conversation with other people in the hobby it would seem that the problems are with the water supply.

Also now my filter (Inline Carbon) was getting clogged up every 2-3 weeks so was pointing more and more that all the problems I was having in the house (hatchery and planted tank) were from my water supply.

With this knowledge in mind and not being able to afford to have my water tested I just kept up with being very diligent about changing my Inline filter.

This brings in the other aspect for me of catching’ up…seems like all I have been doing since the power out has been trying to keep up and then just trying to catch up to all my problems.

As you know from the last installment I had to prune the tank back pretty far and re aquascape it due to the very bad overgrowth of all algae problems I had. Since that time this has happened again twice for a couple of reasons. One being as said above, my water quality. No matter what I have tried and done, I have had swings so bad in so many different types of algae in the tank with them taking over, that I have had no choice but to take drastic measures and prune like crazy. Even with all parameters constantly stable. The other reason is me spending far more time playing catch up with my hatchery and just trying to keep my fish stock alive. This has had a negative effect on the planted tank due to me not spending as much time on it.

Well my water has not gotten any better, mind now I am only having to replace my Inline Filter every month so it is changing again. Algae problems are still plaguing the tank.

About two weeks ago I decided I had nothing to loose. I took all of the plants out of the substrate and pruned back all leaves with algae on them, through out those plants that were so bad that in my mind had no chance of bouncing back at all. I sucked the tank so clean of detritus was sparkling and re aquascaped the tank again with the plants that I had left over. Below are a couple of shots of what the tank looks like now.

As you can see in some of the shots the algae has returned yet again on some of the plants. All I can do at this point is keep up with trying to prune it all off. As said above all perams are in range.

I am not sure what is going to happen to the tank nor where it will go over the next month or so. One thing I am looking forward to is moving. We have to move due to our building being torn down to make condominiums. So far have looked at a few places and what we have looked at that we can afford will not allow us/me to have my hatchery, not only that there may be no space for me to keep the DPHTank.

Will take it as it comes and keep you readers informed…might be a bit sporadic as I am sure you can tell there is much to be busy with in my life right now. My apologies in advance.

I would also like to thank those that have been very generous to me during this time with plant cuttings and advice. TY Big time :)

Davis