Fish Tank Blog

New Site Link

2010-01-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

Woops, I just re-visited this blog and realized we forgot to mention we were moving our blog to a new site url: http://www.fishtanknewbies.com/

see you there!

Indian Dwarf Puffers + Cherries

2009-05-01T01:15:00.001-07:00

They get along and the puffers eat up all the snails :-)

no more tiny snail outbursts!

The 13.5 Full with plants

2009-04-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

The fixture is 55watts, so I get about 4w/gallon @ 6700K. Co2 is coming from a pressurized system with about 1 bubble every 2 seconds. The plants in this tank are: green rotalas, Ludwigia inclinata var. CUBA, dwarf baby tears, hairgrass, anubias nana, japonica, rotala arcuata, stargrass, Bolbitis heudelotii & java moss tied to the wood.

3.5 Gallon in April

2009-04-26T17:14:00.001-07:00

We decided to finally introduce new plants to this tank: Myriophyllum simulans/foxtail (the soft feathery green one), Myriophyllum tuberculatum/red foxtail (the brown/red thin long needles), and the one that sort of looks like rotala indica, but looks more exotic: Didiplis diandra.

55 Gallon Update

2009-04-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hair grass in full force, baby tears in a close second. We've discovered staghorn algae, so we've since trimmed the grass and added some Do! Aqua clearing agent... supposedly gets rid of excess phosphates. We've since added a couple flag fish and a couple of flying foxs to deal with the thread algae. My guess is I'm adding to much liquid fertilizer? Used to add 6 drops a day, now 3 drops a day. Usually 15 drops on a 50% water change. The thread algae blossomed first before the stag. We used blow-out combs to comb the alage out, then for some reason I read somewhere that phosphate pads are bad for planted aquaiums so I removed the one I had going form the canister and then 1 week later the tank was infested with staghorn. ARGHH!! phosphates good? or phosphates bad? how much is ok and how much is not ok? Also anyone know of a safe dechlorinizer for tap water... i read potentially my conditioner drops could be adding crazy amounts of phosphates.

and a new 13.5G!

2009-04-26T16:48:00.001-07:00

We found an amazing store in Santa Monica called Nature Aquarium (2836 Santa Monica Blvd.) and it turns out to be an amazing store for planted aquarium enthusiasts!!! They had a giant ADA sticker on the window in the front and pretty much after that, we walked out with a new tank set up kit (not Amano's ADA stuff, but the store carries really good gear for a good price, along with the ADA products.) We did get to use ADA power sand and lake soil for our substrate,
woop woop!

3.5 Gallon Update

2009-03-16T02:03:00.001-07:00

This tank will be one year old in May. The dwarf baby tears have grown really thick in this tank, and the micro chain swords interweave through the baby tears making a net that anchors them down into the substrate. Just have been adding a little bit of excel liquid co2 every other day and once every week or two weeks a water change and the plants have been doing great.

New 55 Gallon Set up

2009-03-09T19:47:00.001-07:00

New tank set up!!!

The substrate is a base layer of coarse regular sized black gravel to give it height, then we added a 2-inch layer on top that is a finer soil/gravel mixture that comes with water in it as well - the idea is to have organic matter brewing already in the substrate so starting a tank takes much less time.

There are 33 glolight tetras that look unbelievable when they school together!
6 Head & Tail Light Tetras
10 ghost shrimp

waiting for a shipment of: 40 black forest shrimp
6 emerald green shrimp
6 orange shrimp
8 zebra nerite snails

For plants, we planted pieces of dwarf baby tears along the edges, it should spread into a thick ground cover. Then there is dwarf potted hair grass, the purple plant is a bunch-pogostemon stellata, and next to it is going to be a tall leafed plant - Cyperus Helferi, and the ruffled edged plant in the middle is a Crinium Calamistratum.

eee

3.5 gallon mini update

2008-08-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

first time blogging!

2008-08-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

So....i know this post has been a long time coming but finally i have learnt the ropes of the blog world (hopefully i do this properly) and I AM READY!

Here is a retrospective of my journey with starting the tricky art of fish tanking in the last two years. I've moved houses 3 times and each time I've gotten a bigger tank :)

It started out pretty well because Alex showed me everything. The first tank had some great riccia which then died...and then there have been some dark times...very dark times, which are pretty funny/sad looking back, but its gotten better and better.

I now have Alex's tank and am trying to keep it going and looking well.

i just got a red tiger lotus which is growing bigger everyday and i love the colour with all the green. Also I have a new aquafrog...no pictures (he likes his privacy) but he's AWESOME!

So now that I've finally uploaded these images I will start sharing pictures regularly because I want Alex to know that he's left his tank in good hands and also because I will need some pointers from ......THE FISHNERDS! (there was dramatic music there)

Update on the mini

2008-08-05T15:12:00.001-07:00

It's getting really lush right now, star moss might kick in soon too!

the mini 3.5 gallon

2008-07-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

This is our small Amano tank we got from ADA. It's approx. 3.5 gallon. We have a miniature canister filter, we add a little amount of excel fluorish to it everyday for carbon and we're lighting it with 31 Watts of 10 000K light. In this tank we're using the power sand and then a layer of amazonia soil on top. Growing in it is really bright green tiny leaf plant, we think its either "Glossostigma elatinoides" or "Hemianthus callitrichoides" but we're leaning towards the latter, because it seems even more tiny and lighter than the glosso.

We also ordered some star moss from Thailand, it took a serious beating when we had a huge algae bloom in the tank, which was cleaned out after we cut the light back, did a a lot of water changes and put in 4 amano shrimp. The star moss isn't thriving like we've seen in the pictures, where its supposed to get very pointy and bright green.

Spring Cleaning the Cherry Tank

2008-05-19T18:58:00.001-07:00

New C.R.S. Tank

2008-05-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

In an attempt at revival, I brought back the small 5 Gl. java moss tank from a dark state. I unplugged the tank to kill off a hair algae problem. There was nothing in the tank then, and since java moss will survive almost anything you throw at it, and flourish under colder darker conditions, I tried to kill the algae by making the conditions less than favorable for it. But yesterday, I threw a couple Eheim Liberties to polish off the water after syphoning all the detritus out and a after adding a new layer of gravel. And now its the home for my new Crystal Red Shrimp—Caridina cf. cantonensis. I picked them up on Saturday, it was my nerd-out day, at Big Al's in Scarborough. They where selling them for $5.99 or 3 for $15.

Owens Valley River Gets Another Chance

2008-01-14T14:48:00.000-08:00

This is one of those stories where when you read it, it offers you a bit of hope. In this article by the New York Times, a river which was diverted into an aqueduct a hundred years ago is almost magically refilled. I had always hoped to hear a story like this one, but never thought I would.

Check it out.

More 35 Gallon Pictures

2008-01-04T20:47:00.000-08:00

Bringing The Cichlid Tank Into The New Year

2007-12-31T14:36:00.000-08:00

After two years, the Cichlid tank has been doing really well. The fish have grown larger and were starting to make the tank feel small. So we added more rocks to the landscape, about 10 new ones, filling the tank completely. Now there are several caves, and hideouts for the fish, so maybe more babies will come along too, we noticed one baby during the new set up.

We're also running a new 75gallon BioWheel filter in there, for more filtration, the nitrate levels were above average amount.

This year we're trying out some java moss and java fern by attaching it all to the wood. So far the Cichlids haven't been nipping at it, I saw one fish trying to eat the moss, but it just spat it out.

Hopefully the plants will kick in nicely in a few months!

Happy New Year

Fertilizing Tips From ADA

2007-12-18T13:44:00.000-08:00

"In a newly set-up planted aquarium, a balanced existence of trace elements is vital to stimulate the sprouting of new roots and buds. Nitrogen, Phosphorus or Potassium are not included, as these may only induce algae development at this stage when the plants nutrient requirements are low.

3 months after planting, roots and leaves of aquatic plans have matured and begun normal growth. Among other trace elements, aquatic plants require Iron in this period, and iron deficiency often causes whitening of plants buds or leaves. Green Brighty STEP 2 is rich in Iron.

An aquarium older than one year often has a hardened substrate which prevents development of roots and eventually impedes the growth of aquatic plants in general. Green Brighty STEP 3, formulated with Iron and Potassium, helps photosynthesis and improves the conditions of the aquatic plants which are often obstructed by an hardened substrate."

QUOTED FROM ADA "STEP SERIES" FERTILIZERS

2008 ADA Catalogue

2007-12-18T12:53:00.001-08:00

ADA issued the 2008 Catalogue. As a GD nerd I find this stuff really great!

images via

book via

Sulawesi Shrimp

2007-12-11T22:53:00.001-08:00

New species of freshwater shrimp discovered in the ancient malili lake system of Sulawesi, Malaysia.

via Aquatika.

50 Gallon December

2007-12-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

Many months of trial and error I think I may have reached a happy balance. Every day in the 10th hour (basically sunset time for the aquarium) a magnificent display of photosynthesis happens. Everything starts pearling.. even the xmas moss.. its really breathtaking. I've checked my KH and GH and I seem to be running a little high on CO2.. higher than what it should be, so I've adjusted that. My PH is 7, I'm running lights at around 5.2 watts per gallon, and I have a pressurized CO2 system leting out around 3 bubbles a second.

Last few months I've been fighting hair algae thats been accumulating in the clover and glosso beds in the foreground and sides... I think I have it at bay finally. Just weekly water changes, reduced lighting schedule and good ol' PMDD drops did it. The water changes I think are the strongest fight.. you can almost watch the algae die every week with new fresh water (up to 30% a week replaced). The layout is is pretty thick and bushy, but I have a plan my friends!! See you next year!

20 Gallon early Dec.

2007-12-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

Since November the Krypts are continually taking off strong and the thin Vals are multiplying adding more depth to this 20 gallon world. The giant siamese algae eater I had was donated to a new and bigger home, and since I've noticed new moss growth, now I have a cambodian siamese algae eater who I suspect does not eat the moss (hopefully).

This is the new filter set up. It's a DIY canister filter made with glass parts and tubing from Active Surplus. The pump cost about 55$ and all the materials including the media cost about 30-50$, still cheaper than an Eheim canister but it has its problems. It's not quite air tight as it could be so air gets little by little which makes an annoying sound when the air gets into the impeller.

amanda's first post

2007-11-20T06:39:00.000-08:00

firstly, i think I just made everyone in the group receive an email with their log-in info... sorry! this is my first ever blog post, and i'm off to a pretty crummy start : )

this is my fish bowl, and these are my plattys! my husband and I started with two plattys, i'm guessing about 3 years ago. They had 3 kids, and they eventually had several. Over the last few months we've had about 10 new babies at different intervals, so there's several different sizes in there.
This past weekend we gave them a big cleaning with a new plant, and they all had to be caught and kept in a bowl for a couple of hours. My plan was to count them, but I lost count at around 15. My guess is about 30.
Their ecosystem is as simple as it gets, a plant light and a plant. The glass needs de-algaeing every two weeks, but the water stays pretty clear. : )

Fish Tank from my iPhone camera

2007-11-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

some shots

5 Gallon Blackwater Cherry Shrimp Tank

2007-11-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

Here is the blackwater tank I started earlier in October.

Here are the specifics on it:

5 gallon (30cm) tank, 26 Celcius, custom canister filter (found chemistry equipment), 13 watts cfl 6700K, pH 6.4, KH 120 ppm, GH 75 ppm, NO+2 0mg/L, NO-3 0mg/L

Flora: Weeping Moss (Vesicularia ferriei)

Fauna: Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda var. red)

The weeping moss is sparse now, but with the hopes that it will look really nice when it grows in on it's own from those few strands. I did something similar in another tank and was really happy with the results, all be it a very slow process. I'll post that tank when I tinker around with it a little more.

21 Borden Biotope

2007-11-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

Fish Desktop

2007-11-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

add this one to your nature desktop, booooyeah macro lens photography :)

This Store Sells Really Cool Moss

2007-11-07T23:37:00.000-08:00

Aquatic Magic

The 20 Gallon & a Snail in the 5

2007-11-04T15:39:00.001-08:00

M C Escher Tank

2007-10-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

50 Gallon in the Fall

2007-10-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

I moved so the 50 gallon had to be taken apart and here we are 8 months after I set it up in our new place. New characters like the dark fern in seen in the center, much more rotala this time around, the clovers I've had for two years and only now really took off. In fact they only really took off when I bought some of the pearl grass (micranthemoides) and I think it didn't like the competition and sprung to life spreading across the tank bottom. Bottom most picture is one of my favorite plants, potamogeton gayi, I don't know why but i love the tall wispy look and the color variation from new to old leaves.

New 5.35 Gallon

2007-10-16T08:42:00.001-07:00

This new tank setup will be a moody/dark/cool tank for low light things. In this lurky little tank there is a thick layer of onyx black fluorite for the substrate which you can check out here. Today is day 1, so the water is going to have to sort itself out, but I don't think it will take too long because I filled 3/4 of it with water from my other tank, so its got rich start to begin with. Floating in a container up top is some christmas moss and the plants at the bottom are Anubias Barteri.

Aquatic Moss

2007-10-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

A comprehensive site on aquatic mosses. Check it out.

Chemical Brothers Fish Video

2007-10-13T16:48:00.001-07:00

Lock n' Lock Canister Filter

2007-10-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

Because everyone knows that an eheim canister filter, as nice as they are, is nothing more than a Lock n' Lock with a submersable pump.

20 Gallon Plant Tank

2007-10-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

Recently I've stopped using the Red Sea Co2 pump because it would do a lousy job of spitting out the Co2 in small enough sized bubbles. Instead now the Co2 bubbles are released into the tank through one of these (only the one I have is plastic and made by Eheim). These don't really work so well with a make shift sugar +yeast method of making c02 because the pressure is never consistent like it would be if you had an actual compressed co2 tank. So I bought a regular cheap little pump/miniature 5 gallon filter for 15$ and put the diffuser underneath it, so now the bubbles collect in the filter and spit out much smaller and all over the tank.

Mike also adopted this method and it's working out for him, he skipped the diffuser part and hooks up his tank directly into the filter and it does the trick as well.

That + the Poor Man's Dupla Drops have been keeping everything in my tank growing really well.

Also, Mike had borrowed back his Siamese Algae Eater and it turns out he was keeping the algae in my tank in check, because since he left a lot of light hair algae was growing everywhere. He's back in my tank now and in 2 days he cleaned it all up again...

And the Clown Loach I have has been doing a really good job controlling the baby snail population, and now the plants aren't being chewed up anymore.

Now, I have 3 Leopard Danios, 14 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Kuli Loach, 1 Clown Loach, 5 Amano Shrimp (maybe, hard to count), 1 Siamese Algae Eater, and 1 Peacock Gudgeon

Also, I'm using 3 T5 Light fixtures now which brings me up to 84 Watts, 4.2W/Gallon.

I think now that its finally at peace, I'm going to start trying some new things out and see what happens.

Cichlid Tank Update Oct.2007

2007-10-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

Specificities of My Thirty–Five Gallon Freshwater

2007-07-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

I recently picked up a mating pair of bristlenose catfish (Ancistrus sp.) and they are great. I heard that they need wood to help their digestion, good thing I just added a huge root. In the pictures above, I caught the moment where the male bristlenose was defending his crib from the discus. I think he's looking for a spot to make babies.

I feel sad for the cherry barb, he's a longe–timer from fistank 1.0. I don't think he's going to make it past the next few days, peace, it's been a wiggle.

The paded plant is something I scooped up from a stream that is doing suprisingly well for the difference in the water. I know I shouldn't do that, but I was responsible, I only took a piece of a larger group and never took more the one specimen and only from a group of plants. It will hopefully lead to a larger scope of work; more to come in further posts.

I've also recently recreated my 5 Gallon Freshwater in 3D, you'll have to be on a pc for now, and download the player here.

In memory of the krib babies

2007-03-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

As my first post on the fishtank newbie blog I'd like to post the first batch of babies my kribs had a couple months ago. Since then, the female died, and as a result none of the babies made it. Just recently I got another female and the male didn't waste any time, the two had 50 plus fry who have for the past 3 days been parenting them very well, protecting them diligently against the other tank inhabitants. The photos posted on this entry are of the original few who didn't make it, future posts then will be of the newer group of fry.

50 Gallon Nov 2006

2007-01-02T01:26:00.001-08:00

To see more images check out this gallery.

Cichlid tank 2007

2007-01-01T23:39:00.000-08:00

November

2006-11-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

Sept-Oct

2006-10-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

Sep 29

Oct 30

PMDD Poor Man Dupla Drops

2006-10-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

After just a couple of weeks treating the water to 8 drops of the PMDD mixture a day, the rotalas started to grow bigger more red leaves.

October 2006

2006-10-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

September 2006

2006-09-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

August - 50 gallon

2006-08-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

August

2006-08-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

Fish Huntin' Season

2006-06-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

Babies

2006-05-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

Kribensis had babies recently and I've tried to take some pictures. The parents are super protective and have been keeping the babies away from me and other fish. What I really need to do is show a video of them in action, quite hilarious. Anyways you may need to click on these photos to get closer to really see the babies. The babies you see here are about 3 weeks old. Every once in awhile a tiger barb catches one.. usually all the babies swarm their mom or dad, but occasionally we noticed one swims away from the pack.

55 gallons from scratch

2006-04-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

November 2005

January 2006

February 2006

March 2006

Fishies

2006-03-26T05:15:00.000-08:00

'if they don't eat than you should'

2006-03-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

If your flag fish don't work for you may I recomend:

FLAG FISH SOUFLLE
INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 pounds fish fillets
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoons melted butter
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest

stop freaking out

2006-03-10T12:27:00.000-08:00

I just talked to the fish-nerds at the store where I got my flag fish at, turns out they need 7-10 days to get used to the tank, and it might take a little longer for them to actually realize there is a lot to eat in their environment. So I just need to be patient, in the mean time I'm going to trim down that algae cloud, I doubt they'll eat really long strands. Also the fish-nerd said that I should add some spirulina or some shrimp to encourage them to start eating.

Who's hungry?

2006-03-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

O.k, so this is what my algae looks like now, those florida flag's have not touched anything. They just float and once in while play in the current. It's been a week? Am I being too impatient? I need a serious algae eating army soon before I have an algae tank.

Micranthermum micranthemoides (aka Babytears)

2006-03-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

Ahhh babytears, yes indeed.
This plant has an amazing green color.. very bright kind oof green. My lights are all 6500K if that helps you understand what you're looking at. Babytears spreads by shooting out horizontally. You'll see in one of the pictures how it actually crawls along the gravel.

pearling is so cool

2006-03-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

Today I came home. And My Riccia is pearling !
I'm psyched. I hope you are too.

Feeding Time in the 55 gallon

2006-03-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

Its Brine Shrimp Fest in the 55 gallon this weekend. Tiger Barbs eat the most out of all these fish. Its pretty crazy how fast they are compared to everyone else.. trick is to feed on both sides the tank.. harder to control. Over and out.

Clearly I'm a Beginner... chill out algae.

2006-03-05T14:09:00.000-08:00

It’s now been 2 months...

I never did solve the algae problem, the staghorn grew really long till it had to be removed by hand. It grew back, and has successfully spread all over most of the other plants too. Is it possible that rubbing the algae off the leaves spread the spores more?

It’s the same colour as the staghorn I had earlier, only now its more dense and closer together... Sort of like fuzz algae but instead mini staghorns...

I added 2 pencilfish, I should get 3 more because the male is bored and picking on all the other fish. Although, last night, I saw him get along with one of the otto’s. It’s quite suspensful.

They haven’t touched my algae, and its been close to two weeks now.
I just recently added an extra 24 watts of light, so now i have 54w... which is about 2.5w/gallon. I notice now streams of oxygen shooting out of the plants. I thought I’d try groing riccia too now with the added light.

I also added 3 Florida Flag Fish, hoping they will get to work and that algae, they’re pretty weird. So far they hang out by the red plants at the very surface of the tank and just sit there. I don’t know... they look good though.

I also added 5 more amano shrimp, which makes a total of 7 shrimp in my tank, they’re nut cases, they just go at it all day, but they’re not touching the ugly looking algae.

Why?

I think I’m going to start eating the algae, maybe they’ll all follow along. Or I’ll bottle it and sell it along with all that other expensive blue-green algae health weirdo stuff.

55 gallon Planted Tank

2006-03-01T00:04:00.000-08:00

This is our 55 gallon planted tank. Set up late summer 2005. We started with 130 watts of power compact flourescent light and 2 DIY CO2 reactors and had pretty nice results. Then upgraded the lighting to 260 watts and noticed a dramatic improvements in growth of leaves, rooot systems and of course algae. You can see a couple blue colored fish in the center.. those guys are called Florida Flag Fish. Florida Flag Fish basically rid the tank completely of hair algae in a matter of a week. Once the hair algae was gone they started munching on other plants. We had 8 originally but got rid of 6 of them because in a big group they tend to gang up on select plants. Now with just two left they leave all the other plants alone but still take care of any hair algae they find. The more fish food you feed the less hair algae they eat, so when you run out algae, start feeding them twice a day so they keep off your other plants.

This is a mid tank view. I add like 2ml - 4ml of potassium and iron every week. I do about a 30% water change every week as well. Its great for the plants, they love it, but that much water change is bad for the fish. So to make up for stripping stuff from their water every week, I feed them frozen food which has been soaked in vitamins (like Zoe) overnight. I'm not just geeking out, I lost a bunch of fish before and couldn't figure out why, I tried this vitamin formula and the fish are all strong and very active.

The aquatic clovers in the foreground are called Marsilea Minuta and the larger ones are called Marsilea Quadrifolia. These are the only foreground cover plants I've had any luck with.. they took off like a week after I planted them. Everyday there are a few new leaves. I tried riccia fluitans, but I think i didn't have enough light.. also the thread I used to tie the plant down into a mesh with kept disolving or someone was eating it. I have some bits of Pellia still kickin around as well and Glostima, which I managed to kill like 6 bunches of. These clovers never even had a down time or acclimation period.

The plant coming out of the tank is Water Sprite. Interesting plant, super easy to grow, you can plant it, let it float, whatever you like. I personally love seeing the roots come from the surface down into the tank. I have a team of Siamese Algae Eaters that spend most the day in the roots nibbling, so I'm not the only one who likes it. The leaves change over time depending on how you trim the plant, and how much light its getting. The leaves became needles when I up-ed the light from 130 to 260 watts.. All in all this plant is great at covering the less attractive "under construction" areas of the tank.

In the foreground, Sarah's Fuzzy Green Ball (Marimo Balls). In the distance Christmas Moss.

Pictures!

2006-02-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures from the Cichlid Tank. Dad's been feeding them very well.

The African Cichlid Tank: 26 fish and counting

2006-02-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

This tank is a 120 gallon.
There are 24 african cichlids,

- 2 jewel fish
- 2 rusty's
- 6 yellow lab's
- 1 Livingstonii
- 3 Lavender Mbuna's
- 2 Golden Mbuna's
- 3 Edwardi's
- 1 Neolamprologus leleupi (firecracker)
- 1 Copadichromis flavimanus
- 2 Black Cichlid's
- 2 corydora's

The pH is alkaline.

There's a big Magnum filter running, 1 small fluval, a power-head for circulation, bubble wand, a heater, & 1 powerglo & 1 marine glow for light ( 8 hours/day).

Editing Time

2006-02-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

Feb 01 '06

My dwarf Hygrophila's grew the fastest. A lot of them however had mushy brown roots and some were completely dead on the bottom. A lot of leaves on the rotala's aren't doing so well towards the bottom of the plant, towards the tops they're thriving. I ended up doing a big clean up today, cleaned the gravel, took out all the dead plants, switched a few around, and trimmed the bushier side so that some of the plants could get a chance to root better.

photograph of the leaves that aren't doing to well Feb 01 '06

Overall it got pretty messy, hopefully where I moved my hygro's they will thrive better. Once most of these plants settle and get their roots in deep and their stems look healthy, I'm going to get some more plants and play around with the scene a bit, it's really boring me now. My new pigmy chain sword just spread two runners, so hopefully I'll soon have a nice bed of grass.
I'm seeing a little bit of green mildew all around the tank now too, haven't looked into that yet.

photograph of a new patch starting feb 01 '06

Hair Algae: The Week After the Diatom

2006-01-31T22:08:00.000-08:00

The pH level in my water was around 8.0. This is too alkaline for plants and freshwater fish, it's recommended by most to keep it between 6.5-7.5. Toronto water is fairly alkaline. I did some research on the web and read about pH down chemicals you can add to lower your pH. It was recommended by most people to not use the chemical pH down since there is a high risk it contains phosphate which is what algae thrive on when the plants have had their fill. Click here to read more about that. The alternative to using those chemicals is peat moss for your filter. I didn't follow the alternative and went ahead with the pH down stuff. I added a few drops, way under the required amount each day to make the whole process gradual, it worked, but a few days later I started to see a whole new algae develop on my plants. I'm not 100% sure if thats what sparked this new algae growth, but I went out and bought peat moss for my filter instead.

photograph of Staghorn Algae, Jan 31 '06

I never saw this kind of algae before. I searched the web for a bit and found out after reading a bunch of skewed descriptions the exact kind of algae I had. It's Staghorn Hair Algae.

A good place to identify the kind of algae your experiencing would be here.
The solution to this problem is to add a few Florida Flag Fish.

Brown Algae: the first presence of life in your water

2006-01-31T21:48:00.000-08:00

Within the first week that I had set up my plants my tank started developing brown algae everywhere. I found out that this type of algae is called Diatom Algae, attached to this name is a link which takes you to a useful site for help on problems you might occur and advice called TheKrib.
It is recommended by everyone to get Otocinclus (suckermouth) catfish to solve this problem. In about one day they cleaned it all up and were really well fed and happy.

The First Month

2006-01-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank.
– I'm running an AquaClear filter for 30gallon
– Red Sea Turbo CO2 Bio System
– A 50 watt heater
– Another pump for more water circulation and air at night
– (2) 15watt 18" fluorescent tubes, one is a lightning rod 11,000K (daylight),
the other is an Aqua Glow
– Weekly I use Potassium supplement and Big Al's multipurpose fertilizer & Bio Support

Here is a list of the plants I added on Jan 11, 2006, the second week of setting up my tank.

– (2) amazon sword
– (1) narrow leaf chain sword
– (1) Cardamine lyrata (Bitter Cress)
– (3) Rotala indica
– (1) Cryptocoryne wendtii ''green''
– (2) Micranthemum umbrosum (baby tears)
– (2) Dwarf Hygrophila

A week later, Jan.18, I added three suckermouth catfish and so far things have been going well
in my tank. I'm starting to get a green mildew on my petrified wood, and hair algae on my cryptocoryne. The narrow leaf chain sword is starting to spread, hopefully it'll cover the foreground. I've been having a problem with the dwarf hygro's, some of their roots are becoming soft and dark at the base.

I'm adding more potassium to the water to see what happens.

I have quite a few baby snails I keep catching every other day, will have to get a clown loach to eat them since they're eating my plants.

This week will be my fourth week.

Week Number 3

2006-01-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

This site will be a record of my plant aquarium's progress. I'm a beginner, so watch me make mistakes & learn with me.