Day 168 "Metaphor": Blyxa Japonica Removed, Ludwigia Red Added, Monte Carlo Recovering Nicely

Phosphates 
I continue to dose high amounts of KH2PO4 but test kit shows I'm still shows 0.5 mg/L at best. There's been consistent improvement with plants so that's good. Maybe I should consider reducing it next week, probably around 10-15 mg/L.


Trace and Iron Dosing
I measured Fe before dosing anything in one afternoon and I got 0 mg/L. Then I dosed 4 drops of Rexolin APN liquid which is approximately 0.2mg/L of its powder form. With that dosage, I should get at least 0.1 mg/L if my bottle concentration is 100g/120mL. I measured and indeed found 0.1 mg/L! It might be true after all that the concentration of this bottle is as accurate as it says.
However, when I dosed 0.4 mg/L, I'm able to measure only 0.1 mg/L in the tank. Is the soil absorbing excess Fe to limit it to 0.1 mg/L just like phosphates being limited to 0.5 mg/L?


Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo carpet has gone through major trimming last week. I left the back lawn untouched. It is growing well without a problem. After a week it grew nicely. It's still a few more weeks to go before the lawn gets thick and lush but it's on its way there. No more new growth in bad shape.
There's very few older leaves that melted but it's not so bad, still will keep a look at them. Some very old leaves are not as healthy. Their color is dark green. Are they just really healthy? Were they covered by top leaves and are deprived of light? Are they covered by GSA? Not sure... Any ways, here are some pictures.

Middle front starting to grow nicely

Right front corner growing nicely as well

Back lawn spreading

Ammannia Bonsai
Not sure what happened in this plant. There were 4 original stalks planted. About a week or more It has established itself and growth is slow but good. Then I trimmed and replant. Now, all trimmings are gone, and the original 4 are dying... it's in the corner of the tank with poor circulation and CO2 so there's that.
What's interesting is I planted one stalk from the original pack in the Discus (Low-tech) tank. It's growing fine but very slow. I rather not touch it though.

Ammannia Bonsai melted for some reason so I put some MC trimmings in their spot instead

Blyxa Japonica Removed
As planned, I removed this plant in order to give room for Staurogyne Repens and AR mini. Those two are the plants that I'm not able to grow consistently nice. This time, I'm placing them in the best spot to grow.

Ludwigia Red Added
These are trimmings from my an old plant in the  Discus (Low-tech) tank. It's in bad shape and I'm hoping it recovers here and grow well.

And finally, the tank's latest shot...

Day 161 "Metaphor": Good Days Ahead

Increasing Trace, Now Using Rexolin APN

Half way through last week I continue to see poor health on new leaves in Monte Carlo, despite the increase in Fe dosage and dosing frequency. So I decided to start increasing trace dosage as well.

Using Rexolin APN, I start dosing at around 0.2 to 0.4 grams per day until the end of the week. It seems a lot but I just want to saturate to make sure we are not limiting this nutrient. I didn't notice any negative effect though.
In fact, I start to see improvement in Monte Carlo. New growth are now in good shape. The new leaves are much more green now and the leaves are bigger than usual. This is a good thing.
I will continue to dose more trace next week. I will also keep Iron at the same dosage as last week to ensure we are not limiting this nutrient as well.
Even Blyxa Japonica is a lot more green now. It's new leaves look thicker than before and they pearled a lot like I never seen before so obviously we're doing something right here.

Monte Carlo Growh at Middle Back Area of the Tank

Another Shot of Monte Carlo at the Back Area

Monte Carlo Front Lawn is Trimmed to Allow New and Healthy Growth

Increased Phosphates Dosing Continued...

The aquasoil kept buffering it down to 0.5 ppm so that's good. It means I can just keep "overdosing". I don't see any negative effect on plants nor algae bloom trigger.

Dosing Summary From Last Week

Below are the dosing total (in mg/L) from last week. That's a ton of phosphates and Iron right?  It's fine. there were no algae's at all. not a single BBA. Not a stain of green on the glass walls.
Nitrate is naturally high on the tank so don't need to dose any. I will continue to monitor it however because if nitrate bottoms out it will affect plant growth significantly

.NO3	6.140
.PO4	22.373
.K	46.979
.Fe	3.635
.Ca	4.982
.Mg	1.500
.Cu	0.026
.Mn	0.275
.B	0.109
.Zn	0.133
.dGH	1.032
.Co	0.004
.Mo	0.025
.Na	0.020
.Cl	0.177
.S	9.951

Replanting Staurogyne Repens

Since increasing phosphate and iron dosing I see improvement in these plants. New leaves look healthy and green. It used to be that "burns" appear all of a sudden on middle leaves but I don't see any melting ones like that anymore.

However, older leaves that were already suffering from GSA long before increasing phosphates and iron continue to be covered by GSA. This make the plants look unsightly and gives a false impression that they are still suffering from nutrient deficiency. They are also likely to remain this way and die off eventually. 

So the best option is to pull out the plants, remove all infected leaves and replant them. But the long term plan is to remove Blyxa Japonica in the tank and move Staurogyne Repens to their spot.
I intended to do all these this weekend during maintenance but decided to hold off this plan for now.

Staurogyne Repens Getting Better But Older Leaves are Still in Poor State

New Filter Outlet Pipe

This is not just for aesthetics. I find this design is the best outlet lily pipe for canister filters with in-line CO2 Reactor. It has minimum resistance to flow and the opening mouth does not twirl the water coming out so much. It also points downward so CO2 gets dispersed far and low reaching the carpet plants conveniently. 

Day 154 "Metaphor": Pearl Weed Replanted and New Plant Added

Pearlweed Replanted (Not By Choice)

Accident. I pulled a few stalks off the soil at the back during maintenance. No way to push their root down the soil because that spot is surrounded by rocks that are almost sticking to the glass wall so I leave them be. Since the plants are still attached to neighboring plants it didn't float. However, they melt in time and eventually lifted up. When I tried to pull them out for replanting, the rest of the plants got pulled as well. They are all connected through main stem and roots at the bottom.

So here's the side of the tank with newly planted pearl weed.

Ammania Bonsai, New Plant

Added this a couple of weeks ago. The picture is not the best out there but then again It isn't really in best shape yet so let's just wait until they grow before we take a more professional shot on them.









Installed Seachem Purigen in Canister Filter

After replacing the impeller, I also put in Seachem Purigen (in a bag) inside the canister. I heard so much good things about this product but have yet to use one so this is a chance. So far it does not affecte the nitrate levels in the tank. After water change, nitrate was at 0 ppm but it went up to its normal level of 20-40 ppm the next day. I don't really see any difference in water clarity but then again prior to using this, the clarity has been absolutely pristine often times specially after water change. I hope it improves on controlling the amount of organic matter in the tank though, stuff that you won't normally see.


Pumping Iron This Week

Plants' response on increased phosphate dosing is positive. Growth rate has increased in monte carlo and all the plants just look a lot green than before. What I noticed now is that several new leaves of monte carlo are transparent and melting so it could be suffering from iron deficiency this time. It might also be trace issue but let's figure this out one nutrient at a time. This week, I will be dosing Seachem Flourish iron at more than twice the amount I was dosing and will do it everyday as well. Target is around 5 ppm total for the week.

Day 152 "Metaphor": Addressing Nutrient Deficiencies

Dealing with Phosphate Deficiency

Staurogyne Repens with unhealthy leaves at middle node

Over the last couple of weeks I increased my phosphate dosing to 20+ppm. I significant jump compared to my previous dosing amount of 4-5 ppm. This is in  response to the long ignored issues such as GSA and instantly melting leaves in staurogyne repens, melting and slow growth on monte carlo, and iron deficiency like symptoms on AR mini.

Visible GSA covering most of the old leaves

I am dosing KH2PO4 on daily basis to ensure there's enough on water column all the time. I have to dose 4+ppm everyday just to keep up with the 0.25-0.5ppm amount on water column. At first it's strange that the plants seem to absorb too much but then I realized ADA aquasoil is likely to be absorbing most of them. That's fine because I read somewhere before that phosphates are best absorbed by plants through roots (I need to confirm this later).

Perhaps in time when there's enough phosphates in the soil, it's not going to absorb too much any more so I can dial it down a bit. I just need to keep taking measurements on a weekly basis to monitor the tank's uptake.

I will keep up with this because I start to see huge improvement on monte carlo. It's a lot greener now and the stems look firm. Growth's been fantastic too!

As for Staurogyne repens, I see improvement but GSA is still on older leaves. Some leaves in the middle of the stalks are still suffering from holes and instant melting but it's not a lot, at least compared to when I was dosing much less phosphates. This might be due to other deficiency which I am also addressing at the moment.



Iron Deficiency in Alternanthera Reineckii Mini

I am using Seachem Flourish Iron as Iron fertilizer and dosing it 3 times a week at minimum suggested level via EI method. Bad idea. Flourish Iron is based on gluconate as chelating agent and iron gets consumed or precipitate in just a matter of minutes after it's dosed in the water column. It is suggested that when using Flourish Iron, it's best to dose it daily to ensure its available for plants most of the time.

Alternanthera Reineckii Mini New Leaves Melting

I've been dosing a total of 1.5 ppm Iron per week using Seachem Flourish Iron liquid fertilizer. I stagger it every other day. This week I triple the dose and dose it everyday instead. Flourish Iron uses gluconate as chelating agent and it does make iron get consumed quickly by plants or precipitate in a matter of minutes. Not dosing it frequently may leave plants without Iron supply for a period of time.

In any case, I managed to get EDTA and DTPA Iron powders and will use these in future. Those chelators will keep iron longer in the tank and I will probably be able to measure its uptake.

As for the plants, staurogyne repens improved after increasing phosphate dosing but certain problems remain. as I mentioned before, older leaves still suffer from GSA and some leaves in the middle stems still suffer from holes. It will probably get better in time and it may not be iron deficiency at all but it probably won't hurt to increase iron dosing.

AR mini shows the most obvious iron deficiency symptoms. Just a few days ago, It's middle and older leaves improved and it appears more red. But new leaves are melting like crazy. This is after increased phosphate dosing for a few weeks.

Although monte carlo has improved significantly, I still notice a few new stems and leaves melting and this maybe due to iron deficiency as well. However, this may also be due to magnesium deficiency.


General Hardness: Magnesium and Calcium are "Secondary Macros"

Monte Carlo with a few new leaves melting 

Although water hardness is at 5 dGH, there may not be enough magnesium. I have no way to measure this so I'm going with a guess if either magnesium or calcium is lacking in the water. In any case, I haven't been dosing Seachem Equilibrium in the tank for several months. This would have probably addressed this issue so last week I dropped at least 8g of Equilibrium and my GH jumped to 8. Is there improvement with the plants? Yes, but I can't tell its because of magnesium and calcium from Equilibrium that caused it. Note that I am also dosing increased amount of phosphates and iron at this stage.

Potassium
Do I need to worry about this? Since I started increasing phosphate dosage I also increased K. I'm dosing at 40 to 50+ppm per week now. Unfortunately I have no test kit to measure the tank's uptake but I think it's something I should worry about. Experts claim it's fine to have a lot of K floating around the tank and with a weekly water change, you always keep it under control.

In any case, we still see some leaves at the middle of the stems in staurogyne repens melting and having holes so it's best to have enough potassium floating around the tank all the time.

Nitrates
Now this is the one I have abundance in the tank. I always have 40+ ppm floating around that last week I dosed only a total of 2 ppm. This week I won't even bother to dose any but I need to keep measuring to ensure there's enough in the tank for plants to take.

Algae? What algae?
With all the fuzz about over abundance of fertilizers in tank will cause algae bloom, I think it's all hogwash. After increasing dosage levels on all nutrients, there's been no sign of algae of any kind in the my tank. In fact, water's quality has never been this better. I might be saying things too soon so we'll in a few more weeks...

Day 142 "Metaphor": It's Been A Long Time!

Well it's been a while since my last update. But hey it's better late than never! Anyway, from now on I will be posting updates more frequently. So here are the latest images of the tank. A lot has changed...

AR Mini replaced by pearlweed
Pearlweed grows fast but i don't mind. I find them one of the best plants for "scaping" due to their ability to grow thick, compact, and lush in a very short time. It's also nice that the lower part of the plant does not melt in time - either due to high light or pearlweed just don't need much light source. Other stems plants like rotala rotundifulia and Luwigia sp. red has their bottom part melting in time, at least from my experience.

Blyxa Japonica is getting a lot of attention
Every time I posted images of this tank in a social network or planted tank community, the first question i'm ask is "What is that plant to the right?". If I'm one of those that saw the pictures, I will probably ask the same question. I didn't intend for this plant to look this way, but it did. Blyxa Japonica is a plant I don't see often used by professionals. But I think it has a lot of potential for creativity.

Do I need to dose more potassium?
I have been dosing less than 20ppm of potassium in this tank since the beginning. Plants such as hydrocotyle tripartita and staurogyne repens were struggling to grow from the start. I had to remove almost all of the hydrocotyle tripartita because it looked really bad. Then last week I started to dose more than twice as much potassium as I do, and immediately I noticed staurogyne repens looking really green and lush. I'm starting to suspect that I've been depriving these plants of potassium all along. I will continue to dose potassium at more than 40 ppm a week and see if these plants will rebound.
Pearlweed and blyxa were fine though. I guess they are more into nitrates than potassium and this tank never had nitrate deficiency so that probably explains that.

One dwarf puffer for all the snails in the world.
At one point the tank is infested by limpet and ramshorn snails. they populate very fast. adding one fresh water dwarf puffer fish solved this problem. I never seen the fish hunt or eat one but since it has been introduced, the population has dwindled drastically. At this point, I cannot see any of them any more. It used to be that they crawl all over the glass and scatter their eggs everywhere. Unfortunately one day I saw the puffer fish on the floor. I didn't know it can jump as well. It was probably spooked. I'm pretty sure there's still a small population of these snails hiding in the soil and will soon wreak havok again sometime, but i'll be sure to get another dwarf puffer when that happens.

BBA vs. Excel: Excel Wins!
BBA got a little bit out of control at one point but thanks to Seachem Flourish Excel, they are gone now. Every week, before I do water change, I spot dose any BBA i see in the tank. Then I leave it for 15 minutes before I start draining the water. It worked, their reproduction rate decreased greatly. Now I only see 1 or 2 small clumps sticking in the rocks every time I do water change. In time, I don't expect to see any.
I also installed a small pump to improve water flow in the tank. That might have helped reduce presence of BBA as well because I notice they either grow in a dead spot or in an extremely high current area in the tank like outlet pipe opening.

Monte Carlo is still in progress
It has finally exploded in growth over the last few weeks. It filled the front lawn and required me to trim so as not to let the bottom area to melt. The back lawn and the sides still need some growth though before it can fully fill the whole tank. I hope it happens soon. It's been a long time!

So in summary, things are getting better. It still has a long way to go before it reaches the goal I have in mind for it but it's in the right direction. I'm considering to add a new plant to make the right side more natural and put a little balance on that side. I'm thinking of ammania sp. bonsai. From here on, I will try to be post updates more frequently.

Day 54, "Metaphor": Siamese Algae Eaters Take Down Green Algae

It's been a while since my last update. A lot has changed since. After the diatom stage, green algae started to infest the tank so I introduced Siamese Algae Eaters to combat them.

Here's a summary of changes that occurred since the last update.

• Siamese algae eaters introduced
• Minor rearrangement on equipment
• New light fixture
• Added more Amano Shrimps
• Introduced Siamese Algae Eaters 
• Brazilian Pennywort is replaced by Pearl Weed
• Althernanthera reinikki mini needed major trim
• 
  

Siamese Algae Eaters Loves Green Algae
Once the diatoms die down, green algae started taking over the tank. I ignored it for a while as they slowly cover the rock surfaces. Then they started getting very thick and hairy along the rocks and glass walls become unsightly as they started covering them too, so I added 3 new SAE's and they clean them all up in a day.

Inlet/Outlet pipes relocated to improve water flow
I rearranged the equipment in the tank to optimize space. If you compare the picture below from my previous posts, you will notice the differences.

So the following were the changes:

• Filter inlet/outlet pipes were move to the back. I was able to do this now because I replaced the inlet strainer with a smaller one. This allow me to push the pipes back without hitting the rocks and soil mound.
• Surface skimmer is moved to the other side. The small current it produce help the flow around the tank.
• CO2 drop checker is moved into the spot where inlet/outlet pipes were previously located

Odyssea QUAD 60-80cm 4x24W T5HO with LED "moon light" 
I replaced the light set with a new fixture. It features 4x24W 6500K T5HO bulbs with blue LED's for "moon light" option. Every pair of bulb has its own ballast and power plug so I can control each pair's lighting schedule, The LED moon light option is also powered by a separate DC adapter so can also have its own lighting schedule.

This is the lighting (and CO2) schedule now:
1st Pair: 1PM to 10PM
2nd Pair: 3PM to 11PM
LED: 10PM to 7AM
CO2: 11AM to 9PM

The light starts and ends at lower intensity but peaks in the middle of the day until evening. Moonlight then starts at night until the next morning.

I also replaced 2 of the bulbs with 7500K 24W to provide a wider range of spectrum. The performance is great. Light intensity is very obvious and I can see the althernanthera reinikki mini with stronger red coloration.
The plants reacted positively with the new light as well. Over the last couple of days since I installed it, they "pearl" like I never seen before. It's like there's a stream of air stone injecting gas all over the tank. Below is the video of pearling in action.
From here on, I will be dosing fertilizers at maximum rate in order to keep up with light and CO2 supply.

More Amano Shrimps.
To strengthen the numbers of my clean up crew, I added 9 new Yamato shrimps, also known as Amano shrimp. They are great scavengers and very good competition against otocinclus with regards to eating algae. They are also hardy. The downside is that they may occasionally jump out of the tank if they are not happy or threatened and that happened to me before!


Hemianthus micranthemoides (Pearl Weed) replaced Brazilian Pennywort
As much as i love brazilian pennywort, it has to go. The leaves are just too big to fit into the aquascape. Too bad they are perfect place for shrimps to hang out. It is replaced by pearl weed, which has very small leaves and compliments well with monte carlo.

4 weeks in and Althernanthera reinikki mini met my expectation.
It is very beautiful. None of them that I planted actually died, The leaves are big, smooth, and wide. The stems are stiff and roots are not messed up. It is a strong contrast in my experience with AR roseafolia. Unfortunately, with the build up of green algae, it covered some of this plants leaves. So I decided it's the perfect time to trim them. After a few weeks, I expect the growth to be more compact and smaller leaves.

Casualties...
Borneo sucker didn't last long. It died a couple of days after It was introduced in the tank. It is known to be very sensitive and prefer a river stream type of water, meaning high current. My tank has very gentle water movement so it's not the best environment for it. I guess I won't ever get this fish again. Too bad they are really gorgeous.
A total of 4 ember tetras died as well since a few days after they were introduced. I'll take it as that they just didn't acclimate well in the tank. Water parameters are fine and the rest are swimming and eating fine. In any case, I will continue to monitor water condition to ensure they are in a habitat ideal for them.
Two of the amano shrimps also died just a few days after they were introduced. These shrimps are typically caught in the wild and due to the amount of stress they go through upon reaching our tanks, it's not surprising that some of them die. In general, they are hardy shrimps and can live for a very long time once they acclimate in the tank.

Day 28, "Metaphor": Otocinclus In, Diatoms Out

Water Parameters (4-March-2015)
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: 6 pH
KH: 1 dKH
GH: 5 dGH





Otocinclus

Latest water parameters show it's now safe to add livestock so last week, I added 12 otocinclus fish to
combat diatom infestation. They never disappoint. The tank has been suffering from diatom infestation for days and they can be seen building up on rocks, plant leaves, and glass walls. Once the "otto's" are in, about 90% of diatoms were gone the next day. And as of the moment I can barely see them, except on some plant leaves which I believe will also be gone in a few days.

Fire Red Shrimps

I offered to give away some of the plants from my old tank and one of the fellow hobbyists who took it passed me some of these shrimps so it was a good deed.

They are now in the tank and doing well except for one that died the next day. I guess it was just not able to acclimate itself. The rest of them are fine though.

Diatoms

I know there's still a lot of silica and imbalance in the tank for diatoms to continue to flourish but with otocinclus fish in place, they will be under control from now on. Regular water change will still be on schedule but I will do it once a week from now on unless I see a huge build up of algae or spike in ammonia.

Hemianthus Callitrichoides "Cuba"

Compared to monte carlo, this plant's growth is extremely slow. I'm not surprised. I did not intend to keep this plant as my tank is not setup for it. I'm not using a chiller to keep temperature at 25C or below and i will not spend hundreds of dollars for an equipment just to accommodate this plant. Maybe in future, when i decide to use this as my main carpet plant on a new tank setup.
I can either keep this for now or just replace it with monte carlo. I'm leaning with replacing it as the monte carlo on other parts of the tank has grown considerably well already. Also, my old tank still keeps a thick carpet of monte carlo so it's probably a good idea to pull out some of it and move to this tank. I'll decide in a few weeks.

Ember Tetra, Gold Tetra
I want small schooling fishes. They create an illusion that the tank is big. I also prefer tetras, as they are amazingly beautiful. I choose Ember Tetra and Gold Tetra and there are now a total of 50 of them in the tank.

Yamato Shrimps, Borneo Sucker
I also added 4 yamato shrimps to complete my army of maintenance crew. While I was purchasing the shrimps I come across this fancy looking fish called Borneo Sucker. It's a type of pleco but with a unique looking mouth. I bought one and put in the tank as well.




Hydrocotyle Tripartita, Blyxa Japonica, and Brazilian Pennywort
It looks like a mess now due to diatoms but it's growing a few leaves everyday. I have to trim some of them during water change to keep them spread out.
The brazilian pennywort has established itself. However, as planned, I will soon replace it with pearlweed because the plant looks out of place in the aquascape.
Blyxa, just like tripartita looks like a mess too due to diatoms. But I'm not worried about these plants. They will be fine in time.

Staurogyne Repens, New Plant
I took a few trimmings from the old tank and plant them here. I will added a few more stalks in the next water change. These are one of my favorite plants. Unfortunately, I was not able to grow this properly in my old tank. I hope I can be more successful this time.

Bugs
I think they are cope-pods. They jump around very quickly on the glass walls particularly the area where there's build-up of green algae. I'm leaving them for now as they are harmless. They are feeds for fishes though.

CO2 Drop Checker Liquid Indicator turning clear
Well, I since replaced the liquid indicator and since then, the color has not turned clear. It seems that the problem will remain a mystery. It just got fixed on its own. Anyway, it's a minor thing so we'll see if this problem happens again. In the mean time, case closed.

I'm getting a new light set and hopefully I will have it installed before the next update. That's it for now. I'm happy with the progress so far and it's all coming along now. Just a few more weeks and the tank is expected to stabilize.

Day 19, "Metaphor": As usual, diatoms.

Here's a quick update on the tank :)

As expected, diatoms started building up and covering most of the glass, rocks, leaves and soil surface so I make sure to keep up with water changes every 3 days. Latest tests show a much lower ammonia levels and nitrate is building up.

Ammonia: 0.5 ppm
Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm








There had been noticeable growth on all  plants and most of them have established already, specially alternanthera reineckii mini which has very visible roots in the soil. New leaf nodes are present as well.



Blyxa japonica has a lot of new leaves but the older ones are melting so I trimmed it. Monte carlo and HC had a few trims as well. Plants are pearling actively specially after the latest trim and water changes.

Although the brazilian pennywort grows nicely, It does not seem to fit in the scape. It looks out of place so I plan on replacing them with pearl weed.















New Equipment - Ocean Free Surface Skimmer
As advised by a fellow hobbyist, I installed a surface skimmer. It's an Ocean Free brand that looks like Eheim 350 Surface Skimmer, but a lot cheaper and in my opinion looks nicer. It's performance is great so far and has kept the water surface clean all the time. Its water pump also add water flow allowing me to remove the wave maker.

CO2 Drop Checker Issue Is still a mystery
I mentioned about my issue with the drop checker last week that the liquid indicator turns clear in a few days. I pulled it out of the tank and have it exposed in the air hoping that its color will turn blue. It did not, so I can conclude that the loss of color is not due to too much CO2. so i'm down with two possible cause and what should I do to confirm this:
1. liquid indicator is expired or defective - I will try another brand or stock
2. Drop checker has a leak, mixing aquarium water onto the liquid indicator - I installed the checker back into the tank with fresh indicator and solution. I also installed another checker that is known good (from my other tank) and place it beside the other one in the same tank. I will observe both their indicator's color in the next few days.

Bugs
I noticed some small and very fast crawling bugs lurking around the glass. I cannot identify them as they are too tiny. Unfortunately I don't have a good camera powerful enough to take a good picture of them. Anyways, I'll ignore them for now and I expect them to be handled by the fishes (specially SAE's) once they are introduced in the tank. That will be next week, hopefully when ammonia is gone.