Well... I got all excited and planned a trip to WalMart yesterday. Turns out I should have called. They stopped carrying any canning products at all. Can you believe that???!?Then I went to a big grocery store...they carried lots of canning stuff but only pectin nothing like Mrs. Wages. What other types of stores might carry this product and what is it exactly? I was so disappointed.
So, for now the aiptasias live on. Yech! I had tons of tank maintenance planned but getting rid of the aiptasias was first on the list
I don't do enough regularly scheduled maintenance although I am "good" about water changes, 30% once a month. I carry the water
80 lbs. up some stairs from the garage.I get my water from a local fish store. Salt and fresh. I don't blow my rocks off nearly enough. Today, if I can find Mrs. Wages (or equalivent ) I planned to blow off all the rocks really well, vacuum my very shallow sand bed, run fresh filter media and charcoal, and then change it after I stir things up a few times. I will vacuum my mini-sump and clean the bak-pac skimmer as I can see some detris has collected in the bottom. Hopefully all these things will help keep the aiptasia down to a managable number. Mostly they stay out of the display and live in the mini-sump/fuge and overflow. I put a peppermint shrimp in my tank about a year and a half ago but I have never seen it!:eek2: I think some monster that lives in my rocks ate it.:evil:
I would love to be able to have more flow in my tank. Right now I have a Rio+1700 return pump and 2 1200 maxi-jets in the front but hidden behind rocks. These combined with the close fitting hood tend to heat up the water.:doubt: There is just a small cut out in the back of the hood. I usually run 1 96 watt PC 50/50. I have another installed but running both adds about a degree to the temp. which is already 80F! And I really got the second one because I wanted to try to have a monti C. grow in there. It did well and was putting out new growth for a while, the nitrates crept up and I had to go on a trip and when I got back most of it was bleached/dead
My tank is a fairly old tank. I would say it was close to top of the line when it came out. I am guessing sometime in the early '80's.
Nitrates have always been present, no 0's here! It's hard to keep them below 50ppm. For a few months I had my hands in the tank all the time cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and got them down to 10ppm according to a salifert test. But my skin didn't like that much.
They would sting after having them in the tank for so long. I haven't tested lately but I am guessing nitrates are about 100ppm. I have mushrooms and xenia growing in the tank, oh and some zoo's. The zoanthids seem to be the most sensitive to the nitrates.
Sending along a picture. any suggestions are most definately welcome!
Thanks!
