Tomorrow is Turkey Day

Crap. I'm getting ready to leave for Thanksgiving, so I did some preventative maintenance to prepare for a lengthy departure. For one, the water sprites were floating at the top, and besides blocking out light, they appear to be inhibiting the circulation from the spray bar. Mulm is accumulating at a record pace, so I decided to do some vacuuming before I left.

Well, one of the rasboras must of been hiding in the temple, because something went up the tube and blocked the flow. Sure enough, a rasbora had managed to get in there, so I quickly reversed the flow and spit him out. It was one of the one-eyed guys, and he came out with his fins all frayed, but otherwise looking fine. To make myselg feel better I did a head count, and I only counted 11 rasboras. I located the two one-eyed rasboras, so one of the "healthy" ones has obviously disappeared. It's unsettling to think that one of them got sick and died (and was presumably consumed) before I noticed; with the last curviceps gone there is no big fish to kill them anymore.

I forgot to pick up a feeding block, so I hope they all make it through the next 4+ days, on a little fast. Especially the freshly injured one. I also hope too much algae doesn't grow without my daily fertilization routine; the lights and CO2 will be unchanged for the long weekend.

Found another eyeless rasbora -- time to save him and the rest of them by getting rid of the cichlid

duckweed starting to become a pest

New Tool in the Arsenal

I was excited to see that my TDS EZ meter arrived today. I was pumped to try it out, and the early returns are in:

tap water: 303 ppm tds (consistent with what I research in September)
30 gallon: 543 ppm tds
5 gallon: 551 ppm tds

I'm not sure what level of trust to give these, yet. The specs of percent accuracy aren't terribly flattering, but I notice some consistency between consecutive dips at least (within 10 ppm or so). It kind of surprised the measurements in the tanks are so similar; for whatever reason I suspected that the 30-gallon would have a higher reading, but that was probably silly of me to think. After all, the 30-gallon gets a lot of fertilizers, but the light allows the plants to use a lot of ferts. In the 5-gallon, I add no fertilizers, but growth is slow as a result.