So Much for MECH 371

Well, despite the best laid plans of mice and men, it appears my self-made Python is not going to work without some additional modifications. I think I understand the Venturi effect in principle, but I'm not getting it to work for me. I assume whoever designed the waterbed fill & drain kit has put a lot more thought into this, so I'm going to have Ace Hardware online send a kit to the local store so that I can still make use of all the tubing I bought.

As a consolation to my ineptitute, I got some new plants for the tank from Alamo Aquatics. Since some of the plants are doing so well (the foxtail is growing everywhere, and I'm always replanting water sprite pieces), I had to be creative about where I would put stuff. The new hornwort, I put in at the side of the tank around the CO2 diffusor, and I'm hoping it can't somehow steal it all before it gets to the other plants. The glossostigma needed plenty of surface area, of course, so I put it at the far left-hand side and helped some of its tentacles find the soil.

Wary Excitement

I think I might actually know what I'm doing sometimes (knock on wood). I checked the nitrites in the planted tank, and they're at zero. I'm tentatively declaring it cycled! Stuff actually happened as I would expect!

I went to Home Depot after work (because Fintique is closed on Tuesdays) and scouted parts for my DIY Python gravel cleaner. I had previously gone and declared it hopeless, but after re-reading the directions, I'm convincing myself I can do it. I forgot my faucet attachment, though, so I'm going to have to go back and start buying stuff depending on the connecting threads to the faucet.

Tomorrow, then, I need to get those parts from Home Depot, but I'd also like to swing by Alamo Aquatics and get three more oto catfish to supplement the two I have. They seem to be doing fine, but the tank's just too big for the two of them. I think the snails, ironically enough, may be helping, but it's hard to say. I don't have a problem with algae in and of itself, but a lot of times it seems to be chocking out and harming the plants on which they grow. I'm suspicious by what I've read that since it's only growing on a few different plants, those may not be healthy enough to ward it off. AlgaeFix may be helping to an extent, but green spots are multiplying on the uptake (whose filter I cleaned) and appearing on the front glass.

Speaking of plants, I noticed the CO2 bubbles had significantly slowed down (perhaps contributing to this algae problem), so I replaced the contents of the bottle. The insides smelled like beer and bread, but looked pretty much like clear water. Too bad my garbage disposal's not working. I think whatever I poured down there will have plenty of stuff to munch on.

No Place to Run... Lots of Places to Hide

As a preventative measure, I've intoduced a little more ground cover for the remaining Cory to hide under. The neons have also taken a liking to it. I got it at Petsmart (manufactured by Imagine), and it's basically a plate with very short lilly, leafy things (they call it lake ivy) that spring up and give good cover to my more vulnerable friends. I was very tempted to get more than one. Between that and the cave that uses a plant to block off the bigger holes, I'm hoping to reduce the stress, and subsequently, future diseases that the less aggressive fish would be subject to.

Further improvements to the smaller aquarium include cutting open the filter pad (I'm sick of buying new ones, and all the forums say you can reuse them for a long time after rinsing them out) and throwing additional activated carbon I bought into all the vacant compartments of the filter system. I'm hoping this will knock down the sort of sour smell it has, after reading that carbon helps control smells.

R.I.P. Cory

Sadly, the sick little Cory did not make it through the night. I couldn't find him in the morning, so I feared he was snacked upon, but fortunately I found him in a deep corner of the new rock dome I bought. I will try to take a small solace (undeserved as it may be) that he died in relative peace, tucked away from his more agressive brethren.

Retrieving him was very little fun, but once I got him out, I noticed his gills were even more discolored than previously. I don't know if this happened pre- or post-death, but I took some pictures to record the illness for further study.

After work, I swung by Petsmart and got sucked in to buying all sorts of things. First off, I ended up getting a Freshwater Master Test Kit that will test pH, high range pH, and more importantly, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. I hesitated because Petsmart offers to do the test free once a month, but I figure the convenience to do it at home as well as the flexibility to do it as often as I need was worth the $25. I also got some more ground cover for my remaining cory and the neons, and got a veggie clip so I can give the otos something more to eat.

Coming home, I brushed off Pepper as politely as I could, and got to testing. First in line was the sour smelling 5-gallon that may or may not have directly led to the death of one of my beloved cories. Ammonia, 0 ppm. Nitrites, 0 ppm. Nitrates.... off the chart! >160 ppm. They should really be below 80 ppm. So yes, the biowheel was doing its job, but there was not enough relief of the nitrates it was producing. I realized the problem was severe enough to do a water change without waiting a day for the chlorine to evaporate out, so I did ~20% water change.

Turning to the planted tank, I ran the gamut of tests again (even though the fish are doing fine and it smells good). This time, the ammonia came in at 0 ppm, but the nitrites came in at 0.25 ppm, which is low, but it should really be zero. Nitrates were probably 40 ppm or less. It's kind of hard to tell since all the colors in the important range of that card look more or less the same. This is a real shame since most of the measurements in a fully cylcled tank will be of nitrate levels in that range. I'm hoping I'm just at the tail end of cycling the tank, and that's why there is no ammonia, low nitrites, and a significant amount of nitrates. I'll check again in a week and the nitrites should (hopefully) read zero.

Two New Members

I swung by Alamo Aquatics on my way back from work. On the one hand, I forgot to get replacement filters for both of my aquariums. On the other, the store carried Otocinclus affinis (known at the store as "O" cats)! According to Tim's Tropicals, the literature suggests keeping them in three's, but they had previous success with one by itself. I brought home two. They were indeed, very small. Jackie has named them "Otto" and "Radar" (palindromes are cool!).

They took up on the glass walls of my aquarium initially, but the albino corys would run into them as they swam back and forth along the wall. One tried hanging out on the fake driftwood in the middle (nice camoflauge!) and the other tried adhering to the CO2 tube for a bit. They are not very active, but the corys provide all the action I need for now. One of them actually did end up on a plant leaf with thread algae on it, but I didn't observe him actually eating any. When he did move, as if to snack, the neon, ahem, discouraged the smaller fish from hanging out in his swimming space. So it will be seen if they are effective against the algae I am concerned with. If not, there's always algae wafers or fresh cucumber, I suppose.

On the plant front, two more hornwort stalks reached the surface, so I'll either have a forest of them soon, or kill them all by chopping them to bits. If they grow as aggresively as it seems, I'm going to have to reconsider the variety I intended to have.

The 5-gallon tank had a lot of junk on the bottom after I probably overfed last night (and no filter because the carbon would remove the medicine). The problem is that the fish seemed so hungry, and the buenos aires kept grabbing wafers off the ground and choking them down whole. I didn't want the corys to be left wanting in their hour of need. Concerned about nitrates, I performed ~20% water change, diluting the medicine in the process. By gradually cranking up the heater over the past 24 hours, I've almost got the tank to that critical 83 degrees.

I'm not sure if the rest of the fish appreciate the dynamic nature of their surroundings right now, but I can't bring myself to just sit by and do nothing while one of my favorite fish dies. As for the sick cory, he's still hanging out motionless when he can, but the other one is as chipper as ever. As a side note (because he is still behaving normally), the one black-skirt still has a white patch on both his pectoral and tail fins. Hopefully, though, this medicine will kill two birds with one stone.

Maintaining the Status Quo

Had to change the water today while football was on. With less gravel and less over-feeding in the 5-gallon tank, I noticed a lot less detrius (or mulm) when I vacuumed the gravel. I dropped some new Fungus Clear in (as per the directions after a water change). While a lot of the white bits were still on fins, I think the barbs were a little better on the cory catfish. We'll see if it gets better.

As for the 30 gallon tank, I did a partial there, too (probably closer to 10% than 25%) and managed to get a little of the mulm off the substrate by removing the cylinder from the siphon tubing. I hope that helps the nitrates just a little and foils the algae some.

Speaking of algae, I believe I have a strategy for getting rid of it. There's a little fish called Otocinclus affinis (or "Otto catfish") that stays small and leaves the plants alone, but will go after the algae. Now I just need to find the damn things for sale somewhere.

It's later tonight, and I'm afraid my second cory in the 5-gallon tank is on his last legs. The fish in the tank are really hungry (the Buenos Aires has developed a taste for the corydoras' sinking tablets), but he's not eating the food that gets down there. In fact, he's not moving at all unless someone deliberately bumps or nips him. I added some MelaFix in a last ditch effort -- hopefully that doesn't interfere with the Fungus Clear and kill all the other fish, too. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

After doing some more internet research, I'm suspicious that my catfish has Enteric Septicemia. I'm not sure there's a whole lot I can do for him, but right now it's at least as important to keep my first cory from meeting a similar fate. Apparently, ES cannot live at temperatures above 83 degrees F, so I'm adjusting my heater to keep the tank a little warmer than its normal 79 or so.

I really hope I'm not in the process of stressing and killing the rest of my fish.

Time for School

It was aquarium-day today. The first order of business was to swing by Alamo Aquatics and get answers for the questions I had accumulated over the past week. Some I had answered myself (those black dots on the leaves? Not algae... dirt!), but others that I needed clarification on.

Q: What's the deal with the white mucus at the outlet of my CO2 tube?
A: Nothing to worry about. Probably something related to the sugar medium the yeast is living in.

Q: What do I do about the hair algae?
A: Try AlgaeFix. It doesn't hurt plants.

Q: Should I be worried the tops of the hornworts are turning red/brown?
A: No. They are just getting color (red) from exposure to light. It's how it should be.

Q: Should I be worried about the leaves dying at the bottom of the hornwort?
A: No. It's nothing to worry about, especially since the growth near the top is fine.

Q: Is there a trick to cutting and replanting tall plants?
A: No. Just pinch off the top section and spear it into a new piece of ground (he demonstrated this brashly with one of the plants in his tank).

Q: Do I need to help the shoots of the grass anchor in the substrate?
A: No. They send runners that spring up from the surrounding substrate.

Q: Should I replant the above substrate roots?
A: No, this is normal. It's just another way for the plants to gather nutrients.

Q: What's wrong with my water sprite?
A: Some plants just don't adjust well. It's not necessarily anything you're doing wrong.

Q: Do I need to worry about the dirt on top of the broad leaves blocking photosynthesis?
A: Probably not.

So that was nice to get all those questions addressed. Almost as nice, I saw a lot of the same problems I was having with my horwort and water sprite in Alamo Aquatics' plants, too. I'd love for all my plants to do well, but if something suffers, I want it to be "just because," and not something I'm doing wrong.

After clearing up most of that and getting my AlgaeFix, I headed over to Petsmart again and got seven more black neon tetras to bring the "school" to a full dozen. So already, I have more fish than in my 5-gallon tank. I'd like to slowly introduce the fish to this one, not only because it's safer, but I would like to spread out the fun a little bit.

Crazy Cats

Sure enough, I broke down and got my corys ahead of schedule. Specifically, four albino Corydoras aeneus, again from Petsmart. I just couldn't stand to see all that flake food sink past the tetras to the ground and try to spike my nitrates.

One cory was kind of bigger than the others which I wasn't thrilled about, but they settled in quite nicely and are very active, indeed when they aren't sleeping.

While I was at the store, I also invested in Fungus Clear by Tank Buddies (MelaFix wasn't doing it for me... or my tank) in an attempt to clear up the cottony growths in my 5-gallon tank. A couple of the black-skirt tetras have it on the tips of their fins, and more disturbingly, the newer cory has had half of the flesh of one of its pectoral fins eaten away. So I disolved half a tablet in the tank and took out the carbon filter to keep the medicine circulating. It turned the tank an exotic shade of turquoise, but hopefully it's healing everybody. I'm going to give another dose in a few days.

Let There Be Life!

Today was when it all went down. I went to Alamo Aquatics and basically bought one of everything (that was $5 or less). It gave me a really good variety, and was a lot of stuff to put it. I understand it's important to start out with lots of plants from the get-go to give potential algae little chance to use the nutrients. They also convinced me to buy all this supplement stuff to help the plants out. On the one hand, they might be trying to help me help the plants, but on the other hand, it's there job to sell me stuff. We'll see...

After removing the lead weights and securing most of the plants in the substrate, I went to Petsmart to get some black neon tetras (Alamo Aquatics didn't have any). I started out with five because I wasn't quite sure of the water quality, and I didn't want to sink a bunch of money in fish that would surely die. They seemed to do okay though, but I could not see them eat any of the food I dropped in. I think I'll be adding those corys sooner than originally planned...

One Step Closer...

Now that I'm back from Long Beach, I'm pretty excited to get this thing under way. I bought three 20 lb. bags of "eco-complete" substrate, not because I necessarily think it's essential to a healthy aquarium, but more because I'm not really sure what else I'd do. I think experimentation with different substrates is best left for future aquariums.

Anyhow, because all the water was already in my tank, I had to kind of drop the bags in one at a time, cut them open, and gently pour the contents along the aquarium floor. Now, I don't know how I could have been more effective, but not surprisingly, the water was very dirty after this. I had wisely brought no fish home, and I gave it overnight to settle down and clear up. The reason I could not put this down before adding water is because it's supposed to have lots of beneficial bacteria colonies already, and adding chlorinated tap water would likely kill most of them. By waiting, I not only saved alleged bateria colonies, but had established some on my bio-wheel by running it with fish food all week.

I also went ahead and bought the lamp I'd be "feeding" my plants with. My plan was to get the Coralife they were using to light the aquarium in the front of the store, but they didn't have the bulbs to go with there 36" fixture. So instead, I got the Satellite brand fixture that needs its own bulbs that I'm assured are just as good as the Coralife bulbs. It cost $10 extra, which bought me a single LED to light the aquarium at night. Whatever.