I think you should stop adding bacteria. I haven't added any in the past six years. It occurs naturally. You mention slugs so my guess is you are seeing the jelly that surrounds snail eggs. The eggs are very tiny and clear at the beginning and difficult to see. If the "white strings" appeared since you began medicating the fish it might be the result of the medication. Normal fecal matter often appears as strings of various colors that dangle from the bottom of the fish. There shouldn't be a lot of it unless you are really over feeding the fish but the meds could be giving the fishies insides a workout. It is hard to tell without more observation from you. Observation is good. The round pellets are likely from plants in the area or could be from insects. It could be what is called frass, or droppings from larva (caterpillars). It could even be from a soil additive in potted plants. Walnut trees could be responsible. It is not fish poo. More description(size, color, texture) is needed.

When I had a couple of roses that I thought had RRD, I kept cutting back and cutting back. I didn't know what RRD was at the time and the only think I knew was that these roses had deformed growth and looked like they had a bad case of powdery mildew. The following spring one didn't comeback (Mr. Lincoln) and two showed continued signs of abnormal growth (Pearlessence and Gemini), so I SP'ed them. The 4th, St Patrick came back fine and has been fine ever since. Probably if I had been on here back then and knew it had RRD, I would have SP'ed it as well, but I didn't. Perhaps you cut back enough that you got rid of all the infected tissue? Who knows. I'd keep an eye on it though.

Yes, 56 processes in the background. XP is known for having a lot of background processes running. Some of the processes are normal operating system stuff. If you want to know what a process is then put it in Google. The Answers That Work website maintains a great list. Find out what you can shut down and what you need. You can download StartUp Control Panel from the link below. Install it and use it to control what runs at startup. Pooh Bear Here is a link that might be useful: StartUp Control Panel

I have been at this FlyLady stuff for a little over one year. And lately, I just find my hands moving to declutter something without any conscious decision beforehand. It's kinda weird to realize that what once was a seemingly insurmountable chore has started to become somewhat automatic. Somewhat. I sometimes still need to talk myself into the daily zone challenge. Sometimes, I don't even get to it. But that's OK. The general trend is toward improvement. I have finally gotten to the point where I truly believe, all the way down to the bone, that I deserve to live in a clean, harmonious house. The motivational reading helps with cultivating that "I deserve a nice place" attitude. At least it helped me. So don't stop reading, just try to put a bit of it into practice as soon as you can bear to make yourself get up and get started. Momentum. That's a good description. I think it's also the contrast of seeing how nice one area looks, and the desire to see the rest of the house looking that nice. I wouldn't say I'm FLYing yet, but I am definitely aware that I have wings, and am starting to flap them a bit. I have learned that procrastination takes a whole lot longer (and a lot more bad feelings because I haven't done "X" yet) than if I just make some time to do even a little bit of the job. I hate to pass by the same mess over and over, and feel bad each time I see it. There is still so much I'd like to do to make our home look nicer; I think I need to prioritize. I ask myself, "What will make the biggest improvement?" If I chose a 15-minute job that shows big results, the feeling of accomplishment boosts me along. Maybe that's the momentum of which you speak.