Long waits....

Whoa! Been so long. Not much has changed in the 20G. I have a 2.5G soon to be seeding a 2.5G so I can bring my fish home over break.

I removed a bunch of Water Wisteria and now can see my fish again... though the Danios want more swimming space also the feeding schedule has changed a bit. Danios get flakes and I feed the cories at night and they seem happier.

Overgrowth

A two week wait huh? It's been a busy week.... but I return with a picture of just how overgrown this tank is coming :) I have to do some serious pruning.

Now you see.... lol

They say let it ride

I'm no longer trying to raise the pH of my tank. Anything I do and it jumps back to 6.0 or below. Can never tell. However if I do get some sea shells, I might add them. The fish seem to be doing just fine so why tamper with it.

Also I realized my tank is in direct sunlight... yeah.. fun stuff... algae is finding a way to grow even woth all my plants in there.

On a side note two of my plants are growing sideways. I don't have a clue why. And I mean they are almost completely horizontal.

Sad day....

So he is gone, but not forgotten. Poor thing... I don't really have much more to say...

Though I did notice that Water Wisteria has a morning and night routine. At night the growing leaves point upwards and then in the morning falls down... it's interesting...

Sad week...

So pH is still low... working on getting in a filter change so we can see what is goin on in there. I've realized that my cories seem to be fine except for one. Upon closer inspection during the QT I found he had on 2 barbels one of which is bent and the other is shortened. Today I woke up and found him lying on his side.... but still breathing... I believe he has just given up.. he no longer searches for food or swims for air...... :(

pH drop!

So pH is really low... so it's time to take measure to correct this. The one cories is unusually lazy this morn. hope all is ok... would make sense he was fine in the QT jar... cause it was aerated. Which can raise pH. We may have found a cause...!

THe Mix

It's weird having Danios and Cories together cause they are so different yet the same. The cories spend all day cleanign the Wisteria or burying their heads in the ground. The Danios like to inpesct and see what they are doing. It's an interesting balance.

Also I have what looks like a sick cory, but I don't have a QT or meds. He is breathing and eating just not doing anything else. So I took him out. He barely avoided the net and then put him in a plastic jar put aquarum water in it, some aeration, and a bit a Stress Coat+. Oh and to flakes of food. He nibbled a bit a and began to swim more.. so I left him in for a hour and he seemed fine. Dropped him back in the tank.

Two cories seem to be mating up and when I dropped him back in the other cories swam with him... so touching.... /tear

New Cories!!

So I now have 4 peppered cories in now. They seemed very skiddish at first. Before I could get them in the aquarium I had to do I 15% water change, vacuum the sand, do some filter maintenance and wipe down glass. BUT all is well now. Added some anacharis to balance out the tank. Pics coming in the next view days. The dual 3000K lights I have definitely give a slighty yellow sheen to everything, but it makes it look more.... regal at night. I like it and apparently so do the plants. With all 4 of my Water Wisteria producing side shoots of which two of them I have already popped off and replanted. So right now the only down fall to 3000K is it makes taking pics very difficult. Completely throws off white balance!

Long time no blog?

Whoa! Many updates to come today. First things first the aquarium hood is now functional. Still have to add things like a fan and what not to rid the hot air or my tank water temp will increase a bit... which I do not want.

So I think the only way to get this rolling is to show a visual timline of my tank.. from when it started to now...

So this is what the tank first started as during the cycling process. No hood. A single 15W bulb. Clean by not very pleasing to the eye.

This is after cycling. All but some of the Bacopa died off and the good strand in the middle became a holdfast for the huge mass of Java Moss that was growing wildly. The 8 Danios loved the "Java Tree." It was a very minimalist set-up right now with I actually liked..

Then I moved to State. I have difficulties in travel and transport. Lost a thermomater and 4 of the Danios. My cycle crashed and I basically had to start over. Before I left I picked up some Water Wisteria... which seemed to be one of the best investments yet. Now the Java Moss was put back in the corner for the time being.

And this is where we are at now with 3 rocks... 5 Bacopa 3 of which I'm trying to bring back to life... and 4 Wisteria stalks. The hood is functional and adds the yellow tint to the tank which I like right now. Makes it seem like the tank is kinda under a canopy of sorts yet is still bright.

Current fish residing are 7 Zebra Danios soon to add some Cories.

I'm thinking of adding a air pump to keep the surface of the water broken and some anacharis...

Oh these fish...

Again waking up with the fish below my Java Tree. I dunno if it breeding or if thats just where they spend the night, but I like it. These fish have are too much fun.

They recognize me when I come to feed them. Keep in mind this isn't a "Its this time of day where is my food" type deal. I don't feed on regular intervals. Sometimes it's everyday sometimes its not, but everytime I come they come to the glass. Even when I want to take pics. I've stuck my camera inside of the tank and they actually took turns giving my blurry pics.. lol

Camera is waterproof.........

The 10G is running but it is just dying really. It was to be used as a Qtank but know I can only bring one 20G max I've stopping cycling it. It's evaporated down to like 60% now...

Awesome fishies

So I woke up with my Danios all on the bottom of the tank. Not dead, but swimming as if they were searching for something. My thought is they are eating the eggs of a no longer pregnant female. But it is still weird to see a bunch of mid/top dwelling fish scouring the bottom of a tank like a bunch of Cory cats..

Danios!

Oh the 5 Danio are exactly what I wanted. They are so fun and full of energy. Also with the way I set up my tank. There is a strong current in top in the tank and they love it. They take turns swimming through it and going back to the front to do it again.

I love these fish.

And the catch up

Insert cycling here... (now this took weeks.. contrary to what the blog says) I have cycled the baby and the Anacharis did not make it... I don't even think it tried. It seemed to be growing at first but then algae took over it and it went down.

Java Moss has become acclimated to the tank and has slowly begun growing. Yays? I've heard horror stories about Java Moss and how it can get out of control. :-D

Bacopa.. only 3 stalks left. 2 in the middle that the Java Moss have begun attached to and 1 just hanging out in the corner. I hope they make it.

Oooh... time for fish!!! I already know what I'm gonna get.. 5 Brachydanio rerio.. Zebra Danios!! :-)

Poor Bacopa

So the Bacopa either does not like being moved or hates my tank cause they are dying like seals in a great white cage. Anacharis shows no growth but just staying strong... I hope. Java Moss is just sitting there.

Still trying to figure out what to do with the nymph...

Plants!!!!

So to begin cycling I'm using pure ammonia and some plants. I threw in some Anacharis, Java Moss and Bacopa. I thought it looked nice. The sand was very bright exactly like I wanted. Seemed like everything was in order.

See. Kinda bland. Kinda simple and I'm missing the hood still. I will use this opportunity to build a custom hood. :) But then I noticed somthing.

In my excitement of getting back on the horse I forgot to wash the plants. Now I was lucky and didn't get any snails. Got a couple flatworms or something, but I of all people got a dragonfly nymph. Don't ask me. I didn't even believe it.. but yeah.. a dragonfly nymph.. in an uncycled tank!

So here we go.

So getting back into the wonderful fish keeping hobby I decided to clean out two tanks. One 10G one 20G. It's been sitting outside for a while... potentially over a year. The hood is bent and mangles but luckily the light fixture was inside all this time

Yeah... it's covered in leaves and everything. I filled it up with water to clean the sand and check the integrity. Everything was up to par. Then...

As you can see on the bottom in the middle water is coming out. It wasn't doing this before. After closer inspection the concrete the aquarium was on was just slightly concave enough to put all the weight on the middle and the silicone failed, then later the corner cracked. Twas sad indeed, but I did not fret cause before that I had already secured another 20G on Craigslist that was supposed to be a long but turned out to be the exact same tank. A blessing in disguise. So what I ended up doing was just cleaning out my 10G and giving it a power filter. I have moved to filter sand as a substrate and I don't think I will ever go back...

End of Hiatus

Ok now things are about to get underway. I've got plans on my 20Gal now it currently holds 5 Danios which I'm probably gonna increase later. The original plan was to turn it into a freshwater kelp forest using java moss and string but after having the moss in for months it grabbed some Bacopa which it is currently holding on to. It a giant mass in the middle of my tank and the fish love it. I find them swimming under, through and over it some I'm gonna first contsruct a custom hood and base and then add some carpet plants. Then secure the Java Moss better seeing how it is holding on to aother plant.