Carbonation!

So the latest news is that the female Ancistrus has not expired, and I have seen her recently. She does not look that different but maybe perhaps a little less rotund. Not so much like a Weebil anymore....

Also, the 150-gallon tank appears to be full of carbonated water. There are tiny bubbles everywhere. This is not a case of excess waste that can contribute to a collection of filmy bubbles at the top of the tank on the surface, but this is in the water column. I did a big PWC after I found the dead cory (see below) and moved the CO2 diffuser into a less visible location, which was next to the intake for the Fluval XF5. It could be nothing more than the bubbles collecting in the filter and being dispersed, though the quantity of bubbles seems excessive.

I am, at the same time, having trouble getting my pH to drop with CO2. It would typically run for a while and then shut off, and turn back on only when the pH crept up past 6.4, but now it has to run all the time, and I can scarcely get it below 6.9. Not sure about that, other than that my tap water is moderately hard and alkaline (buffered) and this recent PWC sent the KH and GH up (possibly, did not test), making it difficult to manipulate pH with acid. That seems like a stretch but my chemistry is rusty. I have added more Indian almond leaves, which ought to contribute to lowering pH but no dice. Incidentally, I did calibrate my pH sensor and it was not off at all - it was exactly correct.

So, the tank looks cloudy with the tiny bubbles. The fish are acting normally. The tank used to be rather clear prior to this episode.

I have also fixed my old Rena Filstar XP4 that I had running on the 55 prior to getting the 150, and got some new tubing for it, and have started that running on the 150 as well in case that will assist with resolving the bubbles issue. It mainly has mechanical filtration to remove fine particles and we will see if that helps. There is right much water movement in this tank, which is not necessarily what the leopoldi would prefer, but it seemed like I was not getting adequate turnover with the FX5. This is likely my imagination, since the thing is the size of a large Shop Vac and must be blasting water in and out. I thought there was too much debris not getting filtered out.