The krib crib (10g low-tech)

[Colorblizzle]

So today I finally saw my Kribs eat they don't care for spirulina flake or new life spectrum pellets but they love frozen brine shrimp! The male still doesn't leave the cave tho, idk what his deal is :/ he just sticks his mouth out and eats not even his whole head. And I checked my parameters today since I just bought a test kit. PH 7.8, amm .25ppm, nitrite .25ppm, and nitrates 10ppm. I'm confused about my PH tho I raised it to 8.2 with baking soda to get to double the GH and KH I wanted then cut half the water with RO water which should have a PH of 7 or 6.8. So I figure halfway between 8.2 and 7 would be 7.4-7.6 why is my PH still high? My natural PH is 7.8

[Colorblizzle]

My male krib was out of his cave today behind just proves to me that he does come out sometimes. As soon as he saw me tho he darted back inside the cave. Also I hve dust building up on my plants, I shake it off but it comes back. It's just suspended in the water column so I'm being told its probably too much current from my filter. Switching to a canister soon. And my nana and wendtii are getting some brown spots Nd the nana has yellowing on the edges of the leaves and some deterioration I'm being told this could be a missing nutrient? I'm showing 0 nitrates which means the plantsbarenusing them...I'm gonna add 6 cardinal tetras this week hopefully it doesn't create a mini cycle but should create more nitrates for the plants to eat as well as dithers for my Kribs

[scapegoat]

Maybe consider some floating plants as well as some dither fish.

I've noticed these guys really like plant coverage and are more active with other fish swimming around. A smaller species of something being active out in the open means there are no predators around; this makes them feel more comfortable.

and don't worry, those guys will soon realize you're the food provider. Mine must feel my foots steps because they're all up at the corner I feed from before I even get to the tank.

[Colorblizzle]

I've had Kribs in the past and had to buy zebra danios as dithers. They work wonders for them. I'm not gonna get any floating plants at least not at this point. But my tank is only 12" tall and my rotala indica drape across the top of the water creating shade as is. I have to trim it weekly I'm thinking. Seeing as I had to cut 5" of after being in the tank 3 days

[Colorblizzle]

This is my c. Wendtii. Notice the brownish blotches all over the leaves? Another leaf has very small holes in it as well. Anybody know possible causes?

[Colorblizzle]

This is my a. Nana it also has the brownish spots and yellow around the edges and the leaves seem to be deteriorating from the edges in :/. Again. Anybody know potential causes?

[Colorblizzle]

And this picture is just to show the dust that collects on everything. I shook all the plants off YESTERDAY and this is today :/ with that inhibit photosynthesis?

[Colorblizzle]

After doing some reading I'm thinking the brown spots might be diatoms? I thought plants outcompete algae for food?

[Colorblizzle]

Just made a deal with a breeder from my club getting 6 purple passion danios Saturday for $5! Gonna use them as dithers and hope it works. If it doesn't and they become more of a nuisance to my Kribs then ill throw them in my mbuna tank. They should be alright its plenty tall and I have 2 tame species in there.

[Colorblizzle]

Made some adjustments got polishing pads and put them in my filter put a prefilter on the filter stem and got flourish iron which will hopefully help the yellowing of the leaves. Rubbed off as much algae as I could which I think may be from too many phosphates so in not gonna dose phosphate for a few weeks and see what happens. Also bought the marineland hidden LED for the from and ludwigia repens and some cryptocoryne parva starting to look a little fuller

[Colorblizzle]

New plants cryptocoryne parva and ludwigia repens

[Colorblizzle]

In this picture you can see the hidden LED's. so I'm gonna guess and guess a little low and say I have 65 PAR With 45 at the front

[Colorblizzle]

http://youtu.be/-nQeUaMVGCY

[Colorblizzle]

I'm thinking of making the jump to "hi-tech" liking at the fluval 15g kit. It's 20grams of CO2 and says fill the diffuser twice a day. So I figure if I fill it once a day that should be good right? Idk, kinda scared I don't wanna mess it up and kill all my fish thoughts from anyone who may or may not be reading this?

[Colorblizzle]

Well for now I started using excel to help kill the algae. Started doing 1.5X the normal dose and am gonna continue to do so until I can afford to build a good pressurized CO2 system. Also I changed my schedule from a 20% PWC biweekly to a 40% PWC weekly at least for now til the algae is gone then I may go to 20% weekly. Unsure at the moment. I also stOpped dosing fertilizers since all I'm feeding is the algae. Continuing with the iron tho. I will start using ferts again in a few weeks hopefully