Flourish Excel and some strangeness...

It has been an interesting week or two watching my tank. First, I had been neglecting it...no regular water changes, no cleaning out of the spirulina that had grown into a sprawling mass that had been sucked into the filter intake, no removal of the black hairy algea that made my tank look so ugly; nothing. I wasn't even feeding them real regularly, the poor critters. I had kind of given up on it at the moment. Then, I noticed patches of what could only be fungus growing on the Gold Gourami's tail and body in a couple of small spots and I knew the tank needed some TLC.

I cleaned it out, did a massive water change, added some Pimafix to discourage the fungus and started feeding them a little better, and everyone looked pretty perky. It was only my tank that looked sad; black masses of algea, no growth and in fact some die-back from the plants, and even the Java fern had some leaves going brown and ugly. I was just waiting for my shipment of Flourish Excel, but honestly I didn't have much hope for it.

About a week ago, the stuff arrived in the mail. I immediately did another large water change and pulled as much algea as I could out of the tank. I added the Excel according to instructions, except perhaps a little more than called for on accident. I expected it to be like Flourish which is dark and smells good, like vegetable soup, but it was clear. I added the "daily" dose again the next day, and by that afternoon it was clear I had overdosed it. My always-clear water had turned cloudy quite suddenly. The fish seemed OK, and the scientist in me wanted to see what would happen, so I didn't add any more but I didn't do a water change either...

The first thing is that all that dark green algea in there turned orange and died. I was ecstatic! It was a miracle cure! Then, the next day (about 72 hours after adding it at first), all of the anacharis leaves also turned brown and died. Uh oh, that wasn't what I wanted to happen. In spite of this, the crypts seemed to be in heaven and started to put out a bunch of new shoots, the aponotogons put out some new leaves, and the Java fern seemed to grow overnight. Also, since the big leaf die-off, the anacharis stems I still have in there have started to sprout bright green fully-leafed branches! The otos happily went to town eating up the now dead algea and all the fallen leaves and are greedily cleaning every surface in the tank. And finally, as of about 2 hours ago, the water went completely clear. It's like I have a whole new tank.

So, freshwater plant fans, DON'T forget the Flourish Excel!!

The algea is worse

It looks mostly like staghorn and black brush and thread algea, and it's choking what little anarchis I have left. I'm going to try to clean a bunch out today but my problem is unsolved...in that it's a lack of CO2. I can't afford the Flourish at the moment, as there is no where in town that sells it and it would have to be shipped. I also think it would help to get some more plants in there; more anarchis and some hygrophilia, or even more apo bulbs, but the LFS has not stocked anything I've wanted to buy in quite a while and the last couple of packages of bulbs from Wallyworld have all been duds. Yuck. I need some good luck (or cash) to help get me out of this mess.

Male tuxedo guppy

Blurry but beautiful, nonetheless.

Black brush algae

My most dreaded algaeform nemesis has appeared: black brush algea. (dun-dun-duhhhhhh) I knew better. I bought a plant from Wallyworld, whose tanks have been battling BBA for quite some time. Although it looked fine, it was obviously infected, and it is now spreading to some nearby crypts and apos. You can see it above as the otos like resting on it but seem disinterested in eating it, unfortunately. It is associated with low CO2 levels, so I'm going to try to remove as much as I can and start adding Flourish Excel, as soon as I can get a hold of some.

Goldboy is in his new home

The gourami is now in his new home--the 29 gallon. I thought when I first bought him that I had made a horrible mistake: blue gouramis can be aggressive. What, you thought he was a gold gourami? Well, he is...something I did not know is that golds are just a color variation of blues, which are the same species as three-spot gouramis. I had one in my ten gallon when I was a kid and I remember him picking and picking at the others; I swore I would never get another one. But I bought the gold, having confused it with the honey gourami, which I had read was peaceful. To compound things, I found he was a male and even more likely than a female to be aggresive (his pointy dorsal fin was a giveaway).

Luckily it wasn't a bad decision after all. Fish, like people, are created with their own personalities, and this one seems to be particularly mild, even skittish. I mean, even the neons seem to startle him! And even though he can move lightening fast, I haven't seen him go for any of his tank mates, not even once.

And the upshot is that he's gorgeous!

Otos win!

I went shopping for fish yesterday. The LFS was a disaster...lots of diseased tanks, sick looking fish, and not one species I wanted, except for one albino bushynose pleco for a low low $33.00. There was no way I was going to pay that much for a fish from a place with fish in such bad condition and a refund available only if it dies within the first 3 days. I did see a Betta I liked, though, a gorgeous red and blue veiltail, so I picked him up as he had just come in the previous day.

On a lark, I went to Walmart with my sis in law who was visiting. Walmart's fish looked much better... And they had a nice batch of gold gouramis. She enouraged me to get one, so I picked out the smallest, brightest one. Then, I saw some playful otos, and I caved. I had waited for weeks for the LFS to get in a bn pleco, and when they finally got one it was way too expensive. So I picked out 3 otos. My tank is already being cleaned of the algea, I can't believe how fast it's dissapearing. And they are so playful! I'm happy with my decision.

Fish tuberculosis

I guess it's dawned on me this morning that a few of my fish are showing signs of fish TB. It's a very common disease, impossible to treat and can live in a fish for a long time before the fish shows any sign of illness. My evidence starts about eight months ago, when I was having to be on a lot of bedrest the last part of my pregnancy and I couldn't take care of the tank the way I wanted to. I'm sure the nitrates were sky-high. At that time I had one of my four zebras danios die. When I got them a couple of months earlier they were all about the same size and conditon, but this one was skinny. About that time, one of the males started to get smaller and skinnier.

After that, my female guppy got rather skinny and died suddenly, which I wrote about earlier. Since then, I've had a real problem with the fins on the zebra danios that I have also pointed out, which apparently can be caused by TB as well. When I combine that with the skinny male and a female that constantly looks overfed and/or egg heavy (indicating interior growths?) it seems pretty obvious that this is what is going on.

So, plan B: I think that I'm going to take the zebra danios out and put them in the 10 gallon, and possibly the blue danios as well. I don't know, they look a lot more healthy than the zebras and they are pretty in the tank...so I'm a little torn. The thing about the danios is that they make the tank look a little too frenetic. What to do...?

Pleco or otos?

So, for the last three weeks I have not been able to devote the several hours neccessary for me to clean my tank. As it is still very new it does have a variety of algae, the most prevalent being orangey diatoms and white, whispy thread algae. It's really not too bad for three weeks growth, but it begs the question: should I get some algae eating fish?

I had decided a while back that I would really like a bushy-nose plecostamus. With all this growth of nice, soft, filmy algae that I'm relatively sure a pleco won't bother with on all the plants, however, I'm starting to think that maybe a trio of otos would be a better choice. The thing is, my tank already looks so busy...the idea of adding so many more fish doesn't seem to be a good one. I know my tank can "handle" a few more, but can I? I just don't know what to choose; a pleco or otos.

Well, the proof is in

I guess three weeks was enough time to be able to see some regrowth of fins. I would say they are all looking a lot better, although not as regrown as I would expect. I think that they were probably dealing with a little finrot that was instigated by the constant re-injuring of the fins by lil' missy who is still living by herself. I think I might wait until her fins are completely completely healed and then trade her, as she is definitely the responsible party.

She's outta there

I've got the big bossy danio on her own in the ten gallon tank now. She's really pretty, gold with black stripes, very healthy, etc., but she is too aggressive I think. I'm watching to see if the tails and fins of the others grow back for "proof" it was mostly her. I'm not sure what will happen then.

In the meantime, I will be getting a bristlenose plecostamus in the next week or so that will have to be quarantined, so she won't be completely alone for long.

Reunion!

Well, this is it. I've added the new fish. I just could stand to see them in quarantine any longer. Everyone else has been looking very healthy, no other diseases, although in reality I should have waited another week.

I added the danios last night after I cleaned the tank, rearranged and trimmed plants, etc. Today I added the neons. My single neon schooled with the first one I added; he seemed so relieved to finally see some of his own kind.

I am having a problem with the danios. After only a night in the new tank one of the blues has a ripped tail fin. I think one of the female zebras in particular is very aggresive... I'm so tired of seeing these ripped and slashed fins; they just start to grow back when they are tattered again. I'm pretty sure it's not bacterial, but it will be if they don't leave each other alone. I'm debating taking out the troublemaker and isolating her in the 10g to see if the others start growing their fins back.

Anyway, they all look pretty good together.

One more disease

Well, the ick treatment worked. About 4 neons had it and then the two danios, but for about 5 days everyone seems pretty healthy. Given the lifecycle of ick I think that they are in the clear, at least for that.

Unfortunately, I noticed that one of the neons was hanging back and not swimming with the others. On closer inspection I noticed that a little bit of blue stripe was dull and I could see a pale wedge shape on its abdomen on one side. Looking up the symptoms on the internet I decided that my initial thought was right: neon disease, or false neon disease. Both are bacterial infections, with neon disease being untreatable, fatal, and highly contagious. Much to my dismay, I had to take out the sick fish and euthanize it before it spread. I will be watching closely to see if the others show any signs of this yucky disease.

RIP little guy.

Eeek! Ick!

Well, my new fish are doing splendid except they have ick. Not too surprising really, but I'm glad they are quarantined. I'm trying to cure it by raising the water temp to 86 degrees, adding a bunch of salt, and waiting it out rather than using meds. I have that too but I would rather avoid it if I can.

Fish food

Well, I don't know what happened, but the quart jar I was keeping the danio fry in sank in the 10 gallon where I'm quarantining the new danios and neons. I can't find him and I think he became fish food. I'm really bummed.

The day finally came

Yesterday I worked all day to get the 29 gallon ready for fish, even though it had not completely cycled yet. I hope I'm not making a mistake about that... Anyway, I had to clean the green spot algae that had started on the glass, move some plants so that it looked more balanced and even, prune the new growth, and do a massive water change. This took most of the day.

In that time I made a quick trip to the fish store to pick up buddies for my neon and danios, who are in sore need of a bigger school. For once the LFS had what I wanted and healthy-looking specimens, at that, so I quickly picked up 2 danios and the rest of their neons. They had to stay in a stainless steel pot until the 10 gallon was ready for "quarantine", where they will live for the next three weeks to make sure that they are disease-free.

After that period I will consider adding a pleco and possibly some harlequin rasboras. The 10 gallon will probably become the home of a betta and some ghost shrimp. In the meantime, the fish seem to really like their new home.

29 gallon fishless cycle

Day *	Ammonia mg/l *	Nitrite mg/l *	Added ml *	PH
1			5
2	1.5	0	5	8.2
3	1.5-3.0	0	5
4	3.0	0	0
5	no data
6	no data
7	1.5	0-.3	5
8	1.5-3.0	.3	3
Day 9: my plants arrived!
9	1.5-3.0	.3	2
10	1.5	.5	0
11	1.5	.8	0
12	.25-1.5	1.6	2
13	0-.25	3.3+	2.5
14	0	3.3+	3
15	0	3.3++	0
Day 16: Changed water, cleaned tank, and added fish from the 10 gallon

You ordered a what??

Yep, that's right, I ordered a snail with my plants. (sigh)

The first thing I noticed was that it had made a nice lunch out of my ceratopteris.

Then of course came the snail eggs...
which hatched 24 hours later.

I know my Yo-yo's will take care of the babies, and this snail is really quite lovely, but I don't know if I will let it live in the 29 gallon. It might have to be a 10 gallon resident. I moved it there shortly after I "discovered" the plant damage. I invite my own disaster...

The planted tank

Well, this is it! It looks pretty nice and the water smells really good--sweet like fresh creek water. The trouble now is keeping them thriving. You can see in front all the Aponotagon bulbs I've dropped in the water, as well as the jar where the danio fry is making its residence until it gets big enough to survive with the others and not get eaten!

This an example of crypt "melt", where the leaves of a recently moved crypt just melt away. They don't like getting disturbed. Luckily I've seen relatively little of that from my plants--the willisii was looking pretty perky yesterday and today even the wendtii is coming around.

10g with "extra"

This is what my 10 gallon looks like today with all of the extra plants in it. They will be moved over to the new tank when the fish from 10g are moved.

Fishless cycling

Cycling is something you have to do to a new tank in order to establish a biological filter capable of eating up your fishes' waste. Every tank, no matter what the manner of filtration, needs this community of bacteria, and usually adding a few fish themselves will generate enough waste to build this community. Fishless cycling, on the other hand, is a method by which the biological filter is built up by adding the chemical ammonia to the water instead of fish (which is much easier on the fish).

When I first fishless-cycled my 10 gallon, it took well over a month. At first I thought it was because I had no tank gravel or filter material with which to "seed" my tank. In retrospect I think it was because I added too much ammonia, which can cause other problems. This time, I have my own established tank to seed my new one, so I don't anticipate it taking too long. Plus when the plants arrive I may not wait for the cycle to complete before adding the fish as plants change the equation a bit.

My plants arrived!

My plant order arrived from Florida right when they said it would (mailed Wednesday, arrived Saturday). Unfortunately many of what I ordered, including the Java Moss, were not in stock so my order was much smaller than I initially planned. Fortunately this doesn't matter much as there is so much in the way of stem plants...

Everything is in good condition, very healthy. Now to get planting.

New pics of the baby

Swim fishy swim...


Yep, he's still alive. And he's growing! I've been keeping him in a quart jar which I do a water change on every day. He gets fed finely ground flake food and dust from crushed freeze-dried daphnia. I can't believe this little guy has survived thus far.

Danio Fry??!! In my new tank?

I found a baby fish in my 29 gallon tank today! It was such a surreal moment, as I couldn't figure out where it came from. Read more about it from my Fish Forums post.

Preparing the tank

This is what my 29 gallon has looked like for the past six months. You can see it's not very exciting. Today I am going to get her ready for fish and plants. The first thing I need to do is add the peat moss, which is going to be the bottom layer in this tank. I want to add more than just a dusting so I mixed it with water before I placed it on the bottom of the tank.

After the peat moss was added I carefully poured 3/4 of a 10lb bag of SAPS onto the peat and evened it out.

As I was afraid the SAPS is too light to hold down plants on its own I added 3 5lb bags of gravel from Walmart. Before I did that I added some mulm (fish poop and debris) from my 10 gallon tank to aid in starting the bacterial filter. I then placed the rocks I had boiled a day or two earlier and added some water so the mulm wouldn't dry out. (Being a nursing mom I had to do this in stages over the course of the day.)

Finally I set up the filter and the heater, filled the rest of the tank with treated tap water, and turned it all on. Voila! Elle est finie. As a final step, I added about 5ml of ammonia so that I could start fishless cycling before my plant order (yet to be placed) arrives.

That cool driftwood looking piece in my tank is actually petrified wood! I just happened to have the perfect specimen sitting in our front yard. Next, the fishless cycle...

Substrate

I got the substrate for my tank today. It took some phone calls here and there all over town, but I finally found what I was looking for: the ingredients for an inexpensive but effective medium to grow plants in the 29 gallon tank. I have been doing research on various methods for months, and I finally settled on a fired-clay material called Turface, or Profile, or Soil Master, or Shultz Aquatic Plant Soil, or Shultz Soil Conditioner, name brands for essentially the same material.

Of all of those brands I found only Shultz Aquatic Plant Soil, or SAPS, available; at the local Home Depot. I bought a 10lb bag, and I also picked up a bag of peat moss to put down as an initial layer on the bottom. As our tap water is very alkaline I'm hoping that this will make the tank water slightly more acidic. I had read that SAPS is very light and a little difficult to plant in for this reason, so finally I stopped at Walmart for ordinary natural colored gravel to weigh down the top. I wanted something a little darker in color, but I have to stick with what I can get. Everything cost around $20, a much better price than the fancy substrates only available, for me, through online ordering. And it's very expensive to have shipped! So I feel like I did pretty well, leaving more money for plants.

Some new yo-yo friends

A friend came over to watch the kidlets so that I could take some stuff to the second hand store (it is so difficult to deal with boxes, etc., while juggling little kids). Well, it just happened to be on the way to the LFS, so I hopped at the opportunity to stop and look at fish without being encumbered. After looking at what stock they had and being reasonably disgusted with the state of their tanks, I asked if they ever got in kuhli loaches, which I had never seen there. I had read on the forums that loaches eat snails, and as I have an ongoing snail problem I knew I would have to have some for my 29 gallon.

The answer, to my surprise, was yes, and the lady showed me where they were hiding. And then I saw they were with some yo-yo loach buddies, very cute, at only $1.59 a piece. Although I was dubious about the snail-eating capabilities of the kuhlis, I was sure the yo-yos would make those snails go away for good. I couldn't resist, and I bought 3.

They are quite charming and they have quickly become my favorites. Now I really have to get moving on the 29 gallon so that they can have a proper home.

Decimation post-snail

You can see how my plants have dissapeared, except for the crypt, which is quite big.

Snails and disaster

There were a couple of baby snails in the plant I brought home; two pond snails and what looks like a Malaysian trumpet snail. They were still pretty small when I first found them weeks after I had bought the plant, but they didn't stay that way. And they started to make babies.

Well pretty soon the orange gunk that has been plaguing my tank was gone. I was marveling at how fast the snails were growing, and before I knew it there were a few baby snails. And then there were a few more. And then they were everywhere! They looked like tiny mobile bits of gravel, and my tank was really, really clean. The thing was that the old leaves on my Aponotagon bulbs, which were all about ready to go dormant, were dissapearing. The snails were eating them! My tank went from lush if grungy to clean but barren...

In the meantime, maybe out of depression from my plants being eating by the snail infestation, I began to ignore the tank. Water changes became less frequent, and subsequently feedings were less frequent for fearing too much waste. I neglected the Wonderland!

First, the danios' tails started to fray, like they did around the time my youngest son was born six months ago and I didn't change the water until he was 2 months old. Then, one of my two remaining neons got thinner and thinner until one morning I found him sucked up against the filter intake. Finally, I saw that my female guppy was starting to get thin, too. I did a water change and cleaned the tank good. Thinking she had lost her reason for being in that she hadn't been pregnant in a while and there was no male to chase her around, I bought a male guppy at Walmart that matched her coloration perfectly, but when I got him home and prepared to do another water change I found her just laying on the bottom of the tank. She was still alive, but very lethargic. I gave her a salt bath and seperated her from the rest, but by morning she was dead. I am very bummed because she had good coloring for a female and they would have made a good pair.

Rest in peace little guppy.

On the upside, most everyone else seems to be thriving. I removed some of the snails, the crypt is looking very good with just a few bites missing here and there even if the Apos are pretty much gone. Ya win some, ya lose some. In the meantime I have to be better about water changes!

My stuff arrived

I want a bigger tank, so I scrimped, begged, and saved.

$90 later and I get my shipment from Big Al's. I got a 30" T-5 light with 2 bulbs; it will provide about 1.3 wpg for the 29 gallon tank, an Aquaclear HOB filter, ammonia test refills (I used everything in my kit the first time I cycled the 10 gallon) and some gel-type fish food.

Next I need enough $ to get the potting soil, gravel, and plants to start things off right; about $60 should do it. Seems like a lot for a 29 gallon tank that I got used for $20, but I want it to be a real aquatic habitat...

In the meantime I've got to do a water change in that tank that I do have. The fish seem pretty happy if the gravel is orangy.

Tank looking good, but...

I really want to be able to keep plants in my tank. The Aponotagon bulbs I got from Walmart have been doing great, but I recently purchased my first "real" plant from the LFS, a crypt, which after about 2 weeks is looking a little sickly. And I have a recurring problem with the brownish green diatom growth that seems to take over my tank on a weekly basis. I still have a lot to learn, apparently.

Current tank residents are down to:

1 female guppy
2 neons
3 long-finned danios

One fine day

I was on Balsam street getting my hair cut. Kris was watching Liam for me and I just couldn't resist walking the 100 feet or so down to the pet store. I walked in and looked at all the fish, trying to remember the names and prices. I had a tank, but I needed to get the stuff that goes with it. What comes in a "complete aquarium kit" anyway?

I asked the ladies at the counter if they had an aquarium kit that was seperate from the glass aquarium. It took a moment for them to understand me, then one said "hey, actually I think we do!". She then pulled out the wrapped plastic bundle that comes with an aquarium and told me that a reptile owner wanted the tank and hood only, so they sold to him for $15.00 off the total price of the aquarium. I could have what was left for $15.00...

I could barely afford it, and I didn't know what was in it, but I didn't care. I bought it that afternoon. My aquarium was officially started.

In the beginning

This 10 gallon tank had been sitting empty on our porch for over a year when I finally get the idea that I could have an aquarium again. Matt had brought it home from Walmart for a baby scorpion he had found out on the ranges but scorpy never made it; we were very lax at feeding the poor creature. I got the idea around my birthday a couple of months ago when my Dad sent me $300 as a present. It was a very sweet surprise. I immediately thought of using some of the money to have the aquarium I had had over 25 years ago and had never forgotten, but the money seemed to trickle out here and there for other things and not a cent went towards the still dusty aquarium dream. I didn't forget about it though.

Well, it's a start

This is the place I will post my aquarium journal. For it will be a journey to remember, I am sure...