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Comment by Fabiola Burgos on October 16, 2012 at 6:29pm

thanks for your help!

Comment by TCLynx on October 16, 2012 at 7:07am

worms (like earthworms) in media beds or any filter material are a fine thing, they eat fish poo and any other decaying organic matter (actually they eat the bacterial slime that is actually what is breaking down the organic matter and the worms promote the good bacteria and poop out little worm castings that are great plant food packets.)

Little tiny red worms under water are actually midge fly larva, great fish food if the fish can get to them.

Caterpillars eating your plants, they are not so good,  You can use a bacillus thuringensis product against them like dipel dust or thuricide.  Follow the label directions since it only works if the caterpillars eat some of the leaf with some of the bacteria on it.  IT IS NOT systemic it will not work by dumping it in the system.  You must spray the plants with it for it to work against the caterpillars.

Comment by Fabiola Burgos on October 16, 2012 at 4:35am

i see them in  the plants on the water!

 

Comment by Ken Elrich on October 15, 2012 at 7:00pm

 Fabiola where are the worms? in with the fish or the plants?

Comment by Fabiola Burgos on October 15, 2012 at 3:48pm

hi i am started like two months everything was going good i have good filters and everything bur i have start to see lil worms what should i do? or what im missing? please help

 

Comment by Vlad Jovanovic on September 30, 2012 at 12:13pm

Yeah, you definitely want a test kit (or digital meter) other than the API one that goes low enough. I use a pH test kit from TetraTest, it goes down to 5.0. They can be had for $4-$6 and you can test 59 times with the 10ml bottle...

Comment by TCLynx on September 30, 2012 at 11:46am

What Vlad says is right.

However it also assumes you are testing your pH with some method that can read below 6.  If you are using the API freshwater master test kit that only reads to 6, then you should not let your pH get below the next reading up since if it reads 6, it could be way below that and you don't really have any way of knowing how far below 6 it is without some other accurate means to test pH.

Comment by Vlad Jovanovic on September 30, 2012 at 10:33am

John, a pH in the low 6's is awesome! Particularly if it is relatively stable. You should be gloatingI bet your plants are loving life...

Do be testing 'regularly' though, so's that when your carbonate buffer (seashells) get's used up, your'e not caught with your pants down. High to mid 5's would be 'last call to take action time'. Maybe have a strong fast acting buffer like potassium hydroxide (KOH) on hand, and more seashells at the ready for when that day comes

Comment by TCLynx on September 30, 2012 at 10:26am

Just some shells isn't always enough.  Some Calcium carbonate (garden lime) or Potassium Bicarbonate might be in order.  The tricky part is you have to be careful not to over do it.  You want your pH to be high enough that you can be certain of the actual pH but for most people wanting to grow plants more than fish, you don't want the pH to be very high.

Calcium Hydroxide (hydrated lime) can also be used to buffer pH but you have to be more careful with that since it is much faster acting and you don't want to move the pH more than about .1-.2 per day.

Now where/how the water flows around your sea shells will affect how much they can buffer the pH.  Depending on the type of shells, sometimes they can stop working when the calcium carbonate runs out but you might still see shells there because there are other materials in them that don't dissolve or do any buffering.

Comment by John E Windsor on September 30, 2012 at 10:15am

Our pH continues to be low, near 6, even though I added a bunch of sea shells in early July. I understand it takes time, but 90 days with no real effect? Then again, it might be even lower without the sea shell in there.

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