This is the other side of my tank showing where my lovely forest of Myrio USED to be - I had to take all the bare-naked stubbs out and replace them with the Greek temple. Shows also my Kleiner-Barr sword with the algae and all the shmutz.
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Very VERY V E R Y frustrated
I'm still a relative newbie to planted tanks and tanks in general, having only had one for two years. When I started putting serious plants in the tank, I ordered an all-glass, hinged tank top for the light to sit on and get the most light to the plants. Over time the pieces of the top have developed some sort of crud - you can't feel it, but you can sure SEE it. I generally use vinegar and water to clean this top and let it dry out well before replacing it. But besides the usual salts and other deposits, this clouding or whatever this BLEEP is, is impervious to vinegar, and commercial glass cleaner. I can't even scrape it off with a razor-blade!:frusty::frusty:I just KNOW this damned stuff is cutting down on the good light to my plants.WHICH IS ANOTHER THING!!! ARG. I see all these pictures of these mind-blowing, jaw-droppingly gorgeous planted tanks, with their crystal clear water and full lush, green (or red, or pink or whatever) plants in all their thick foliage and with branching and all manner of new growth - algae is nowhere to be seen, everything is its own beautiful color, not some green-black lump. Three or four times a year I drop mumbley-mumble amount of dollars on online ordered plants, dutifully put them in with they own little fertilizer tabbs and a month or two later all the beautiful Myrios are but naked stalks, my wonderful Kleiner Bar sword's leaves are getting a thin coat of shmutz that has turned it a really unappetizing vague brown-green. The little shamrocks have been grazed to pitiful green nubs; the Ammania has either shredded, rottend from the stem:twitch: or gotten eaten from the ground up. The wisteria seems to be the only plant that is still looking pretty good but even it resembles trees more than bushes. I didn't think tetras ate plants - or is it that bleeping Rainbow shark? Or do I go on a snail pogrom? I've both the long good ones and the >other< kind.
Do ALL you people who have heavily-planted tanks really have such pristine tanks all the bleeping time?? Ok I guess my questions are - what is that crap on the glass top and how can I deal with getting rid of it - short of ordering another one? Annnnnnd do I have to completely tear the tank down and start from scratch or is there some way I can sorta roll the current substrate back (figuratively speaking) and put other better stuff under it?
No CO2 - I'm not a technowhiz.
Sorry if this is in the wrong thread. I'm sooooo tired of scraping at whatever is on that top I can't see straight.:twitch:
I'm stomping out the word "HELP!" in the snow and waving my arms to you Illuminati!!
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Regarding the deposit on the top glass, If it doesn't come off with steel wool, it is the glass, itself, etched and redeposited by water. When the lights turn off, the top layer of the water is warmer, and water vapor condenses on the glass, and the water dissolves a little bit of the glass. When the lights go on again they heat the glass and the condensed water dries up, depositing the dissolved glass. As time goes by, this process of etching and depositing builds up making the glass cloudy. This is really hard to remove. I suppose it is possible to get it off with the grinding and polishing compounds people use to grind their own lenses for telescopes, but I just live with it until the deposits are so bad that I have to buy new glass top plates. I have tried scrubbing the glass with silica sand, and that removes some of the deposits, but doesn't make any impression on the etching. I have thought about trying the lens grinding compounds, but have not done it yet.
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When I bought my cory there was a sign posted NOT to use salt because it will kill them. I don't use salt, however, I have used it in the past when I kept goldfish.
The glass under the light may be cleaned with oven cleaner! I know, it is poison, but, you can wash the heck out of it when you are finished. Then I would run it through the dishwasher with salt as the cleaning agent, or baking soda. Then, rinse, rinse, rinse. I often wash items used for my animals and fish in the dishwasher using sea salt. It works very well. You can even wash the rocks you have, since they are rather large, use a colander to keep them together.
Sorry you are having such a hard time with your plants. I went for a lightly planted tank since I want it to look like a river or stream. I come from the NW and our streams have small gravel and rocks. I know the rivers where my fish come from are probably mucky, but, I don't want to look at muck.
Good Luck!
The glass under the light may be cleaned with oven cleaner! I know, it is poison, but, you can wash the heck out of it when you are finished. Then I would run it through the dishwasher with salt as the cleaning agent, or baking soda. Then, rinse, rinse, rinse. I often wash items used for my animals and fish in the dishwasher using sea salt. It works very well. You can even wash the rocks you have, since they are rather large, use a colander to keep them together.
Sorry you are having such a hard time with your plants. I went for a lightly planted tank since I want it to look like a river or stream. I come from the NW and our streams have small gravel and rocks. I know the rivers where my fish come from are probably mucky, but, I don't want to look at muck.
Good Luck!
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