I am making blackberry wine and I think I messed up my batch within the first two days. I added campen tablets to my smashed blackberries and then let the bucket sit for two days instead of one. Now I see what I'm sure is mold.
Do I have to pitch it now and start over? I didn't expect mold to begin developing this fast with everything being sanitized.
I have a male betta that is between 2-3 years old. I have had him for about a year. He is in a 10 gallon planted tank, with a heater (kept at 77 degrees), filter (no carbon), and light. The only tank-mates he has are 'pest' snails. A few weeks ago he began to develop a white spot on his back tail fin with what looked like a white head. After monitoring it for a few weeks I decided to medicate him with Maracyn because it looks like a bacterial infection.
He was moved into a 2.5 Gallon hospital tank five days ago and has done five days of maracyn treatment. I also added a catappa leaf and 1 TBS of salt on the first day to help with stress and swelling. There hasn't been much change to his injury (maybe its more swollen? It looks like its going to pop!). Now I am wondering if it is either a tumor or a serious abscess. I wanted some opinions on whether I should dose another five days of Maracyn, dose with Maracyn 2, or just move him back to his main tank.
His temperament has not changed since he developed the injury. He is pretty energetic and eats.
Pictured is a close up photo of his current injury on day 5 post treatment (photo 1 and 2), photo 3 is of his original tank, and photos 4-5 are distant photos of his original injury (before I moved him into the hospital). The original injury was difficult to capture and it doesn't show the 'white pimple' like part that has always been there. In hindsight I would have taken daily photos of his progress.
If you are curious about my tank: the water parameters in his tank are fine, I have had this tank cycled for two years and its stable with no ammonia spikes or nitrate spikes. I do water changes once every two weeks (10%). I feed him daily (except while in the hospital) with as much as he can eat in 1-2 minutes. He is fed TDO chroma boost. The only decor is a small piece of driftwood.
My camellia tree is my new composting challenge. It drops about 5 gallons of flowers and leaves a day. I was leaving them on the ground to dry and then I would throw them in my compost bin. I have now learned that even dry they are most likely all "greens." Unfortunately, now my bin is a big stinky wet mess of 80% camellia flowers.
Will no amount of drying turn flowers into "brown"? I would rather compost them myself than put them in the city compost bin, but I can't keep up.