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Fungus among us
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Author:  hydrophilia [ Jan 21st, '08, 12:42 ]
Post subject:  Fungus among us
Hi, all,

My window box system was set up mid November with some crayfish and mosquito fish (gambusia). The 50-gallon tank is a few feet away. Whole thing is flood/drain about 15-minute cycle. The growbed is only about 6" deep as we did not want to block more window.

A week or so later we tossed in a dozen or so wild crayfish/crawdads/(yabbies) and lots more gambusia (50 total?). The system quickly stabilized with some seed gravel from my garden pond watercress diversion. Since the leaves have fallen from the trees we've finally started to get sunshine on the growbed, but things are still yellowing and doing poorly, although nitrates are up to 40 or more, nitrites and ammonia 0, ph always sitting at 8.0. I just added some chelated iron today for interveinal chlorosis (thanks, guys!). Every couple weeks I toss a big weed (washed roots) into the tank that the crayfish eat and enjoy.

My main question concerns fungus. About two weeks ago I suddenly noticed some fungus (white mossy) growing on bits of dead plant. It is also growing on some fig cuttings I stuck into the growbed to try rooting. The crayfish are more sluggish, not as hungry or aggressive, and have been mating. The fish seem normal. My thought is that the fungus growth is probably a phase of biological succession and will pass without interference. Any thoughts or advice? I'd rather not treat what isn't a problem, but don't want to ignore what is.

Thanks

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Author:  Filip [ Jan 21st, '08, 13:21 ]
Post subject: 
I think you should remove any dead plant material you have on your plants/ grow bed . Fungus will prefer it over any living material. You can get sprays to spray your plants that are safe, but the grow bed is your Bio as well so anything that would kill fungus would probably kill the good bacteria too.

Most crayfish will have a decreased appertite after mating especially the female, she'll mostly hide away occasionally coming out for a bite.
Author:  arborlow [ Jan 21st, '08, 19:58 ]
Post subject: 
I like your idea here and am thinking of doing somthing similar. Tossing around ideas in my head at the moment.

IMHO I think that maybe your siphon is adjusted too high for your grow bed. Can't really tell from the picture but you should allow a good space (guessing) 2 inches of grow bed above your siphon line to keep the top of your medium dry. Water will defy gravity and travel upwards through medium for a short distance. Nutrient rich water and sunlight = algea / fungus.

On the side how much water is drained from you tank to fill the grow bed? Does it effect your livestock? Maybe a small sump could be a solution to keep the water level constant.
Author:  NicholasC [ Jan 21st, '08, 20:23 ]
Post subject:  Re: Fungus among us
In the top picture have you treated your tank with methylene blue?

Is it fungus and not snail eggs? is it transperant?

Can you get any closer pictures of it?

Nic
Author:  arborlow [ Jan 21st, '08, 21:02 ]
Post subject: 
What are you intending to grow in your window boxes? If you intend to grow food, the ultimate end of AP, then I would not treat with aquarium products.
Author:  hydrophilia [ Jan 21st, '08, 23:48 ]
Post subject: 
arborlow wrote:

IMHO I think that maybe your siphon is adjusted too high for your grow bed. Can't really tell from the picture but you should allow a good space (guessing) 2 inches of grow bed above your siphon line to keep the top of your medium dry. Water will defy gravity and travel upwards through medium for a short distance. Nutrient rich water and sunlight = algea / fungus.

On the side how much water is drained from you tank to fill the grow bed? Does it effect your livestock? Maybe a small sump could be a solution to keep the water level constant.


I don't really have a lot of choice on water level...it comes to about 1" below gravel surface, but since my grow bed is only 6" deep I can't lower it much without having nearly flow-through. No algae or fungus problems on the surface of the bed, though. Just a bit of algae here and there, but nothing major and not increasing.

My bed is small and my tank is large, so the tank level only fluctuates <1".

I wouldn't use anything in this system that I would not use in a production system as this is a test. I scale up to blue barrels, goldfish, crayfish, and food plants in a few weeks...after I clean the hot sauce out of the barrels.... :)

The fist picture is just well water in a clean tank before I started to circulate through the gravel. No chemicals added.

The fungus itself seems to have died out in the tank or simply hasn't liked my current plant materials, the other place I found it was on the bark of the fig cuttings where it looked like someone had used the cutting to stir toilet paper in water and some had clung to the stick. Here is a pic (with some bits of redish gravel sticking to it.)

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Author:  janethesselberth [ Jan 22nd, '08, 01:45 ]
Post subject: 
I don't think it's a specific problem other than for the fig cuttings. I'd say remove things with fungus and leave the rest of the system alone. Fungus spores are ubiquitous. You'd never get rid of it all.
Author:  hydrophilia [ Jan 22nd, '08, 09:49 ]
Post subject: 
Thought so. Thanks, Janet.
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