GrahamC

What about purchasing some triploids to populate the pond?

The left plant is the windelov which parts of it are turning brown from the tip inwards. Other leaves are dark at the tips indicating new growth. The middle shows what's left of the ordinary java fern and that seems to be some new growth from the rhizome. In the background and elsewhere you can see BBA.

I've read that flourish excel will also kill off the java fern. Mine were bought off trademe and were pulled from the tank immersed.

Heh. Provoked a 30% water change now!

It depends on how you started your tank cycle. With no fish one wouldn't expect any ammonia. If you used some type of soil or compost as your substrate, your nutrients and nitrates might be quite high causing this algae.

What are the NO3 levels in the tank?

BTW, how are you cycling your tank? If you didn't add any ammonia, you might be able to put in a goldfish to eat up all of this algae for you ....though you'll have to watch it carefully in case it takes to your plants once it polishes off the algae.

White filamentous (hair) algae? Looks like this ? http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... 1217428085

Yes, runs at 24 deg C

I noticed I had BBA around the roots and wondered if that were causing the issues hence the use of algae cide. I have read that the fern can regrow from the rhizome if it is intact. At present only 10% of the plant is affected so I would like to stop it spreading. I shall make an offering tonight to Haumia-tiketike.

The tank is right next to a window. My understanding is that java fern does well in low light but can do even better in bright light. So, it was growing well in summer but now in winter it seems to be dying. I only use artificial lighting for a few hours in the evening.

Must have got septicaemia from the infected injury. That's tough as nothing but systemic antibiotics would have helped.

My ordinary java fern died off and now the windelov is doing the same. But in other tanks it is doing fine. Let's see if algae treatment helps.

So, a result of injury then?

The main example of fitness being better than being fat is the Japanese Sumo wrestlers. But unfortunately as soon as they stop wrestling and fitness declines, their health takes a bit hit.

My Java ferns have started to die off leaving just the rhizome behind. These are tethered to drift wood. I had a bunch that was free floating and I moved it to a different tank in case it were some type of nutritional deficiency but it has just continued. Even the plantlets at the leaf tips died off. Nitrates are high so nitrate deficiency is not this causing it. PH neutral. No idea on magnesium or iron. I do have a bad case of BBA in the original tank and wonder if this might be causing it by smothering the roots. I have started tonight dosing with API Algaefix to see if I can clear the BBA.

There are medical definitions here. For caucasians. BMI > 25 is overweight BMI > 30 is obese. For asians, and ethiopians, use a lower level ( 23 for being overweight ), and for pacific islanders, add a couple of points. Most people don't believe how much weight they need to lose. I generally ask them what they weighed at age 18 or so, and they now weigh 10 kgs more than that and generally more. Peak bone mass is reached in early 20s so this combats the self delusion that they have "big bones".

Pigmentation in response to UVA/B is a defence against UV induced DNA damage so UV lighting will increase the fish colour. Furthermore some fish are said to have reflectance in the UV range which increases their sexual attraction. Presumably this only happens in fish which live in the zone that experiences UV radiation. http://biology.unm.edu/biology/kodric/P ... tterns.pdf

I don't have a marine tank ( yet ), and my office is on the wharf. But I see those fine layers of oil on the water from the fishing trawlers ... and that kinda puts me off using that NSW.

Sounds like you want to do what is called a silent cycle ( silent because you don't get any spikes ). See this article http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_silent_cycling.php I didn't bother with CO2 injection.

These nitrate reactors are mainly sold for marine tank use where water changes are a bit more work.

There may be some conversion of nitrates back to ammonia in an anaerobic or hypoxic environment (dissimilatory ammonia production ) such as in sludge at the bottom of the tank NO3- => NO2- => N2O => NH4+ but presumably there are enough nitrifying bugs to make this not important. I think you'll find that in a DSB, the anaerobic processes mainly favour denitrification where nitrates are converted to N2 gas. Which is why these reactors are usually quite tall so that the deeper the water goes, the more oxygen is removed by the upper levels containing aerobic bugs to create the anaerobic environment in the deeper levels.

The nitrate reactors advertised I've seen run anaerobically, and at much lower flow rates than a standard cannister filter to get that result.

I would have thought the main source of nitrates would be from contamination from fertilizers ie. inorganic nitrates.

Thanks