t.j.t

2 days ago i was in petland grabbing some dog food for my puppy when i saw some driftwood that was cheap so i picked up 2 1-2 foot sections. I brought the wood home to go into my 90g planted tank that currently has some drift wood already in it and i put it into my bathtub for about 24 hours to let is soak and let the yellow come out of it. The wood was floating as i expected it was pretty dry, but after a day i put it into my 90g tank to finish getting water logged. Yesterday and even more so today the wood has begun to submerge on its own, but it now has a pretty dense white film over 90% of it. This slime isnt on anything else in my tank, it seems to be only on the new wood. im just wondering if i should pull it out and clean it, or maybe leave it? The wood is very branch like, it isnt the normal driftwood thats the dark brown and usualy a chunk of wood, it looks like a branch off a tree. I just found a picture of the "slime" im talking about but this person had it form on a rock. http://sites.google.com/site/symbianmkd/aq1.JPG and another one any info is appreciated. thanks.

thats fine im curious as well :welcome:

Im starting to get my ferts/cot under control, i have no algea on my plants glass anything other then the small amount of bare gravel in the front of my tank, but ive lowered the lighting period and it seems to be dissapearing, while i still have great plant groth. My question is, is there any type of large flowers that you can grow submerged in your tank? i havent gotten into red plants yet because i dont know how to douse iron yet(maybe something i should consiter next) but i was curious if there were any compleatly submergable flower plants.

Thanks for the tips, it seems i may have hit the panic button a bit early as they look to be doing a lot better. The red eye blues diamonds are swimming around a lot more. Although when i feed they still seem to get what the golden and melon dont eat. but they are eating. The red melon alsmot looks more territorial but at one point i though it was ready to die(couple months back) I know it was getting thin in the head because it wasnt eating, i would drop food near it, away from it, flakes, solid, bloodworms, it wasnt intrested in anything for the first couple months i had it. Like i said this fish was on death row. I also treated with metro and it didnt change anything. It wasnt until i put garlic in some tube worm cubes i have... the first time i did that he really took intrests and over the next couople weeks he began eating more and more until now where i dont use garlic and he actualy goes for food when im feeding instead of hiding. Id say my golden is about 3.5"(and a very nice thickness), the melon is about 3" because it didnt eat for so long its starting to grow/fill out. the 2 new blue diamonds i got are around 2.5-3" as well they both look very nice and im really happy everything seems to be taking well in my tank. Tonight ill try to get some pictures up. Also when Discus pair up, is there some "noobie" way to realize this, because the 2 blue diamonds spend all there time together and the golden and the melon spend all there time together as well, but i havent gendered either of them so i dont know if they are just framiliar with one another. The mad darting and nipping has really eased up, at first the blues were getting darted at so much they were jumping out of the water or into the glass at times.

Ive been threw this twice now. First two discus i bought i had them in a 25g tank so i couldnt put many more in it. One became dominate the other was very skiddish and wouldnt eat well. Long story short i lost the agressive blood pigeon when i changed too the pelet food because he ate too many(and i fed him too many) and he ended up bloating up and was dead a couple hours later. After that i bought 3 more discus and at this point i had them all in my new 90 galon tank. I was fighting algea for a while and lost one of the new ones, but again the blood pigeon that WAS skiddish and wouldnt eat took over the tank and forced the other 2 fish to the coners of the tank and would nip and "dash" at them whenever they swam out into the open. one of them hid so much i was days away from putting it down myself because i could start seeing its skeleton and its forhead was caving in. I didnt think i had any other option but to pull the blood pigeon out of the tank because i was told they could become territorial(at this point i thought it was already). I sold it for nothing but it was for the better i thought. So i had a Golden Leopard witch was doing ok, and then the Red melon that was near death. I added Co2 injection and started to add garlic to the food i was putting into the tank. The algea cleared up amazingly well and the red melon began to eat... eat... and eat. At this point i was like yay, problem solved, the melon and the leopard were getting along well. So i went out and picked up 2 red eyed blue diamond. I dont have a QT tank setup so i drip acculmated them to the tank, after about a hour and a half i got them into the tank. Once i put them in the tank they began to swim around checking things out... and it was right out of Jaws... The Golden Leopard took sight, watched, slowly moved in, and darted. So i was like, well lets give this a day or two. basicly since i put them in the tank ive seen them twice. both times they come out, both times the Golden leopard and the Red melon just dart at them and they look like they just want to swim around but the other 2 fish wont let them until they go hide behind the rock in the back of the tank again. Its really dissapointing, ive heard if you rearrange your tank it can fix it, but it didnt do anything with my blood pigeon. Plus i can only do so much its a planted tank and the plants have taken really nicely and i cant uproot them all. I run my tank at 85-86f, thats also what the lfg keep there discus at. My co2 lvls have been a bit high but all other water peramiters have been in check. I really dont want to see these fish starve and i really dont want to have to get rid of my golden leopard but i cant help but feeling like its the same as when i had the blood pigeon and the red melon just about starved to death. And hints? ideas? how long do discus usualy take to get along if at all, i was always under the impression they are a soacial fish but the only time i seem to have a happy is tank is with 2 discus. yet i always read they like to be in big groups. Im sure someone will say add more and they will be less agressive towards the same fish, but im just worried ill have 4 fish hiding, and at 40-60 bucks a fish i can think of better things to do with my money if its just going to hide on me clearly im doing something wrong, and sorry for the long post but any ideas would be great.

they wont do any harm if i leave them on the glass to fall off themselfs?

I recently did a 4 day blackout of my tank as well added a Co2 injection to take care of some algea problems i was having. They both helped a ton and my tank hasnt looked this good/clean since i got it setup. im still trying to balance the co2 somedays its high, somedays low, others just right but im comfortable with the setup and i should have it accurate in the next couple days. I also picked up some snails that the lfs said would help keep the tank clean and they seem to be doing a wonderful job. BUTTT the other day i noticed some white spots on the back of my tank glass. never seen them before and they dont seem to be changing size or color. I took a couple pictures of the spots, as well as the snails i got because im fairly certain they are snaileggs even though i have never seen snail eggs before. i just dont see what else would put a "egg" like object on the glass. so here they are. http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6206/p5190203.jpg zoomed out http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8818/p5190204.jpg and the snail that i got. http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6326/p5190206.jpg sorry about the glare its faily bright in my appartment right now.

This can be deleted, Ive found out the attachment doesnt change, the fish store sold it to me said it was universal, but looking at the packaging it says it for standard co2 cylinders not paintball cylinders. Ill be taking a trip back to the lfs tomorrow.

This is what i need the part too look like http://rc.marinedepot.com/IMD/250/RS2317/RS2317_1.jpg but his is what it looks like right now with the arm on the bottom. http://www.f3images.com/IMD/250/RS2315/RS2315_1.jpg

I just bought this red sea co2 system, but im having problems hooking the regulator too the co2 tank. It says it connects too 3 diffrent tanks, and the nut on the end of the regulator screws onto the tank, but theres a extention "arm" on the regulator preventing the pin on the tank being pused allowing the air too release from the bottle. There arm/steam has a hex shape on it, and ive tried to turn it left and right and it turns maybe a quarter then locks up again. Im really worried about over losing this or tightening it if its not meant to come off. The install book shows the regulator without the arm/steam but i cant figure out how to do it, and im scared to break this off. Anyone have any advice? ive googled about 20 diffrent things i could call it, the redsea website doesnt even have a help forum or online install pdf. even went to youtube. help before i break this thing trying to figure out how to get this extra steam off. Thanks.

Went with the black out for 4 days method. I put some ferts into the water, i must have been confused as i thought extra light/ferts is what caused algae break outs. I didnt realize ferts would help fight the algae. Anyways funny short i bagged up my tank last night, went to work this morning got home a couple hours ago and noticed light comming from the TANK. I realized i turned my lights onto another setting that they came on today anyways... so anyways ive started my 4 day black out period TODAY once this is over and i get my injected co2 into the tank this weekend i hope to be able to get some ground covering plants. Ive always liked the look of plants covering the gravel but never had any luck with DYI Co2 and ground plants.

I do but i just put my tank in a 4 day black out to deal with some algae, after i take care of that ill post a picture.

I just cleaned my tank, and did a 50% WC. Im going to go ahead with the plastic bags on the aquarium for 4 days too see if that helps. I put a powerhead in the tank that breaths bubbles into it and also raised my spray bar above the water level in the tank to help with gas exchange. I hope this helps. Ive also left my 1w moon light on in the tank so its not compleatly black, i hope this is ok. Is there anything i should keep an eye on or suggestions people have. Or is this as simple as leave the tank for 4 days(feed fish) and then it will be gone when i remove the garbage bags? will there be lots of "waste" in the tank once these stuff die's? Thanks for the help. I also picked up a Red Sea Co2 injection system so once im done with this black out period ill hook it up too the tank.

Yeah that sounds and looks just like it, it only grows on the exposed gravel and rocks that are in the light, my plants are growing well and the gravel under the plants are all clean so does it sound like its from too muhc lighting? i just cut back to the 2 6700k bulbs.

I have a 90 galon tank. Its only housing 2 discus and 4 rosey barbs and 10 oto's. I dont have Co2 but i have a coralife 4x65w housing unit. it has 2 6700k bulbs and 2 10000k bulbs. im pretty sure this is from overlighting so ive turned off the 2 10000k bulbs. I guess is there anything i can do other then get Co2 to correct this problem? is having 6700k bulbs going to help correct this or maybe make this worse(should i turn the 10000k on instead maybe?) Its a dark green almost green/blue. its not hairy looks more like a velvet texture. Its basicly growing over all the gravel thats exposed too the light, any gravel under a plant is clear of this. Any help would be great if i should pick it out or maybe just go get Co2. Thanks. Ill post a picture tonight.