Eirmotus octozona

[Vale!]

0930:  temp 27.8C ;  conductivity 102.7uS ; pH6.04 ; nitrite 0.075mg/l

1830:  temp 27.6C ;  conductivity 106.9uS ; pH6.21 ; nitrite 0.05mg/l

Added 2 drops nitrite solution.

The temperature as measured by the conductivity meter (which I trust) was 25.4C this evening - more than two degrees below what the standalone thermometer claimed. The latter was treated to a new battery as well! I'll cross-check it with a traditional thermometer tomorrow.

I spent an hour unplugging things this morning but didn't get a definitive idea of which device was causing the mains interference. The best candidate was the left-hand Tunze nano pump. Anyway I've decided to power the pH monitor with a battery for now. A battery is supposed to last a couple of months or more if the monitor's run 24/7, but I probably won't have it switched on continuously.

I'll do a water-change tomorrow if the weather's nice. And it's about time to give 'my' oak tree a quick inspection!

[Vale!]

The current Post It note is full, so I'll transfer its contents to here …

Tuesday

1000. Nitrite was c0.03mg/l ; pH6.25 ; conductivity [EC for brevity] 114.3uS

         Glass thermometer suggests that the standalone thermometer is more correct than the one I've been 'trusting' up to now! 

         Turned the heater stats down a click.  Did a very large water-change, after which …

         pH5.74 ; EC 28.9uS.

         Added 4 drops nitrite solution (to bring in-tank value to c1.5mg/l).

         Robbed some moss, Bucep and Java fern from the Chockies' temporary residence and went beserk with the stapler.



                     


Wednesday

0800. Nitrite c0.03mg/l ;  pH6.08 ; EC 49.4uS. Glass thermometer claiming 26.5ish.

1900. Nitrite c0.025mg/l ; pH6.21 ; EC 56.4uS. Water now very dark indeed.



Thursday (today)

0800. Nitrite c0.025mg/l ; pH6.33 ; EC 61.1uS.

         Did another very large water-change with just peat-water. Water coming out of the tank was really black!  After change …

         pH 5.53 ; EC 9.1uS.

         Added 4 drops nitrite solution. Turned the heater stats down another click.

         This photo of right-hand compartment (inclusive of bonus reflections and water marks on glass) taken just after refilling.






I'm thinking of removing the frontmost piece of bark from the right-hand compartment. I'll decide at the next water-change.

Next little job is to put some foam-board 'insulation' on the sides and add a bit of trim at the top to mask the water-line.  May not get around to that today, though.

[plankton]

It looks good V!.

[Vale!]

Another Post It dump …


Friday

0800. Nitrite c0.025 ; pH5.92 ; EC 28.7
         
         Water getting dark again.


Saturday

1200. Nitrite c0.025mg/l ; pH5.54 ; EC 39.3uS

          Pretty sure nitrite is actually zero [I get the same 'result' from established tanks, too] - I'll double-check after next water-change. 


Sunday (today)

0900. Nitrite c0.025mg/l ; pH5.49 ; EC 44.3uS

         Water now so dark that it's like looking at a switched-off television screen! It must be the gavel, because it's definitely a black fog rather than brown. 

         Here's a colourless-plastic bottle full of it :





         Desperate measures required …

         I prepped the next butt of change-water (used 1.5 grams of Aquadur this time).  Syphoned the gravel out of the tank and gave it a severe washing in the utility room sink.
         This will have undone some of my efforts to get microblighter-life into the system, so I'll have to remedy that.

         Rinsed several times in RO, then put it back.  Drained the rest of the water from the tank. I did take off that bit of wood after all, and repositioned it. Turned the heaters down
         another click. Turned the pumps to minimum flow.  All this took a while, so I had filled a spray bottle with change-water and used it to keep the moss from drying out. 

         Refilled the tank - its pH can settle in-tank rather than sitting in the butt for a couple of days.


 

          Immediately after the change :

          Nitrite c0.025mg/l (!) ; pH6.10 ; EC 41.4uS

          Added: some more Protogen pellets ; 2 drops nitrite solution ; and 20mls JBL Denitrol.

          Crossing fingers that my gravel laundering has improved matters. If not I'll probably abandon the manado gravel and change it for something I'm used to!

[Vale!]

The water is black again! However, a control that I set up a few days ago (same gravel plus change-water) shows no discolouration.

Infuriated that I didn't know why, I thought I'd have a closer investigation. As a result I now think I know the reason for the dramatic darkening of the water - well, if not THE reason at least a significant contributor. I'll be able to put up a pic but domestic duties will delay me for an hour or so.

[Vale!]

[There wasn't as much washing-up as I thought!]


Well, the water is full of these things:

                                                    x40



            
                                      x400


                                                                           

The pics are low-res 'snapshots' from video.

These are rotifers, their genus being (as close as I can get to ID by Googling) Euchlanis.  A rough count of the population of one drop of tankwater, multiplied up, suggests at least one thousand individuals per millilitre ; in reality probably many more.  I couldn't see anything else in the water that would block light, and the water itself seemed clear/colourless enough.


As this hasn't happened in other tanks that have been using the same change-water, candidates for their source include: cysts on the wood I've used (though the Hoy tank had the same wood and I didn't have the problem there) ; or the gravel (I will redo the control paying closer attention to detail) ; or the bit of extra moss that I bought because I felt that I wouldn't have enough for the tanks I have in preparation).  The moss is currently No.1 Suspect and I'll examine it in due course.

Now what do I do?! 


First thought is to whack up the temperature - but I don't know what temperature might kill Euchlanis (or whatever) and yet not discomfort the plants.  I'd rather not use chemical intervention … except maybe I could try upping the redox - though I don't have any hydrogen peroxide at the moment, which would be the safest option for that.   I could try filtering them out, but there's no way I'd get all of them and, following the last water-change which was as close to 100% as I could get, we've seen how rapidly they multiply. I'm not sure what they're feeding on, so I can't imagine a strategy that would involve starvation. 

Crikey!  Any other ideas?

[plankton]

Will shrimp eat them? Or fry (Impossible maybe?). Then you are getting the tank ready for the "barbs", so that probably won't be a good idea.....and it's very late for me.....

[Suelo]

Any way you could deprive them of their oxygen supply? But without killing off your filter munchers of course. Or if you leave them, will they multiply to such an extent that they will experience a population crash?

[Vale!]

@P:  Shrimp would likely do their best, I guess - but I imagine I'd need several hundred 'normal' shrimps to make a dent in the population statistics? However would just a few fan-feeders have a noticeable effect, I wonder?  #1 LFS doesn't have any at the moment ; and I don't suppose S. would lend me hers!

The Improbables are currently busy on a contract …





… which is scheduled to last a few weeks yet.  Adult Improbables wouldn't be able to see them in any case (I don't think)?


@S: I turned down the air pumps this morning - good thought!  Yes -  I'm leaving the tank alone, water-change-wise, for a few days in the hope that most of them eat themselves out of existence. It's very dark at the moment as you can see from this, taken first thing this morning - the lights were cranked up as bright as they'll go:





I took a sample with a 5ml syringe as soon as the tank was lit (through the left-hand feeding-hole as per prior and future samples) and … nothing! I couldn't quite believe my eyes, so I tried again : not a single Euchlanis was bumbling around.  The turkey-baster drew a sample from near the substrate: same result. 

So I've spent much of the day baffled! I checked again this evening (5ml syringe through same hole) and there they were back again - zillions of them!  I'll see if the pattern repeats tomorrow!

In the meantime I'd greatly reduced the air to the sponges and had resolved not to add Denitrol or nitrite solution : an overnight thought was that because I'd been adding nitrite, the nitrite-munching bacteria in the Denitrol had flourished, and the explosion of hungry rotifers had followed as a result. 

I've set up some open-top tanks (well, OK - they're pint glasses) to have a go at finding out where they came from. 





One of the glasses has some moss in it ; I'll put some Protogen in the other in due course.

[plankton]

Contracts at their age?!! Whatever next......