So last night I installed the first half of the moon lights to the 30g tank. It looks awesome. I love watching the tank while I fall asleep, and having it moonlit is even better now. I need to run a second light to the other end of the tank and it will be all done. Luckily they both fit into the existing light hood with almost no modifications needed. I had to drill a small hole to fit the cord into it, but thats about it. A little hot glue holds it in place. I'll get some photos of it tonight when its dark enough to see the effect.
Did water changes on both tanks today, and the ammonia levels are still huge on the 30g. I really would have thought that they'd be coming down by now. The fish don't look stressed out at all, so I dunno. I'm somewhat at a loss. I have some new plants coming in for the planted tank, and I think I'm going to have to put some in there to soak up all the excess ammonia. Damn messy goldfish. I'm really hoping to not have to change the substrate out, so I've got my fingers crossed that some floating plants will make the difference and bring the imbalance back in check.
Speaking of goldfish, I kicked the small one out of the planted tank and threw him in the 30g. He kept pulling up the micro sword, and we just can't have that. So after a trip to the local fish store, there's now 4 harlequin rasboras in the planted tank. I think I will probably add another 6 rummynosed tetras down the road. I got confirmation today that the plants I bought will be being shipped tomorrow. YAY! The forums at aquatic plant central are a goldmine for plants from hobbiests like myself at reasonable to super cheap prices. Not to mention super friendly people to help you out when you have no clue what you're doing.
I'll get the photo's up tonight or tomorrow.
Ok, so I had some trouble with the silicone that you use for sealing glass tanks, when I was trying to use it to seal up the air line tubing on the pop bottle caps. Go figure, eh? Yeah, so on the way home from work I picked up a hot-glue gun, and that did the trick nicely. Plus you don't have to wait for anything to set up, just let it cool down and there ya go.
So its bubbling nicely now. I don't have a good diffuser for it yet, I'm waiting since I can just get a nice little submersible pump next time I order shop stuff from one of my suppliers. I figure it still can't hurt to have it just running through an airstone. I put the lid back on the tank, so there should be a healthy amount of CO2 buildup across the top of the water in the tank at least.
Also in the planted tank I noticed that things are growing nicely. There's even a nice little new branch coming off one of the anacharis, and everything has this really healthy dark green to it. That stupid goldfish though keeps nibbling on things and pulling up some of the micro sword, so he might just have to fend for himself in the big tank if he doesn't knock it off.
Speaking of the big tank, the water is really getting clear. I didn't check the ammonia last night, so I'll have to do it tonight. I really really hope there is some sign of the ammonia going down.
Ok, the UV sterilizer is really working well on the 29g tank. The water is almost completely free of green when I do a water change. I use a white 5gal bucket so its easier to see if there's any color change to the drained off water. The water is really starting to clear up as well. At least now you can see the back of the tank. I'm guessing the remaining cloudiness is the result of the tank cycling. I didn't check tonight if the ammonia levels are decreasing yet, I'm just tired of it not showing any drop.
On the planted tank I added a DIY CO2 system. Just hooked it up, so I keep watching to see if there's any bubbles yet. I know, I know, watched pot, boiling, all that. So while I'm waiting, I'll fill you in on the plants. Still don't have an exact name on the bunched plants, but the micro sword is the brazillian type. All the plants are really liking the increase in light as well as the better soil than they had in the LPS. They have greened up considerably and are showing signs of being much stronger.
The CO2 is foaming nicely and bubbling into a secondary clean bottle / bubble counter. Its still pressurizing the line and pushing the excess water out, but it looks like my seals are holding and that it should work. I hope. Anyway, I'll get a pic up when its up and bubbling.
I've been doing a lot of tank maintenance, and this hobby has really grown to the forefront of my attention lately. A while back we picked up a new 29 gal tank for our three comets and since we had the room, we decided to pick up a few more. Some made it through the growing pains of tank maintenance, some didn't. What we have currently is 1 large comet, 1 dojo loach, 1 betta, 3 small comets, and 2 small catfish of indeterminate type.
In the same room is a 250w Metal Halide growing light that I use to propogate mint for our shop. Unfortunately, it also propogates green water. What a frustrating single celled organism. To make matters worse, my limited knowledge of aquariums led me to clearing out most of the beneficial bacteria in the tank, which led to a pretty crazy ammonia spike I'm still trying to deal with. That'll just take time for the tank to cycle. In the mean time, I purchased a UV sterilizer to deal with the algae and it seems to be helping. Just hooked it up yesterday, so we'll see.
As if the one tank wasn't enough, I decided to get into having a planted tank. I love plants normally, so plants underwater should be even better right? RIGHT? Well, the jury is still out on that one, but as you can see in this photo, the little 10g tank is sparsely populated and needs a lot of decorating still. Its a work in progress. That aside, I'm really loving the planted tank. I think I spend more time with it lately than my large tank. Anyway, here's the promised photo.
I'll work on getting a shot of my 29gal tank up as well.
Oh yeah, the planted tank has one comet (that I'll move to the other tank) and one oto catfish. I'm sick of goldfish, so I think on this tank I might go for something like tetras. The plants are micro sword and 2 random bunch plants that I've been trying to identify. EDIT: They are anacharis.