Tragedy and Triumph

I've been unexpectedly hit by an onslaught of fish deaths. Yesterday alone I was forced to bury 5 fish. I'm afraid my guppies won't make it and it's really taking a toll on my self-esteem. I introduced a powerhead to help circulate the water in my 55 gallon tank (which I've decided to go low-light low-tech on) and the powerhead sucked up and killed 2 of my neon tetras. (I knew I should have added a sponge prefilter to block the intake!)

More on my 55 gallon though...it is fully planted and therefore I've decided to cut the filter and let nature work its magic. So far so good. The reasoning is this: I cover the top of the tank at night so when fish & plants respire and emit CO2 that gets trapped inside the tank during the night. Then, during daytime when I turn on the lights, the plants will use the CO2 they emitted throughout the night to support growth. So far, it's working. My pH has lowered to 6.2 due to the CO2 and my fish are doing fine. (pH is down to 7.0 due to the Florabase, and CO2 lowers pH further). The good news is that ammonia is not toxic at all since the pH is low..even if I had a lot of it, it is in its non-toxic form, and plus plants love that stuff! No more yeast and sugar DIY CO2 for me! (It was a hassle anyways...bleck)

My only concern is that there are many suspended dirt/dust particles in the tank that's making the water unattractively cloudy. I tried introducing a powerhead but that turned out terribly...the idea is that it will eventually sink to the bottom of the tank to create "mulm" or fertilizer for the plants.

My hope is that the plants will thrive off the nutrient rich FloraBase layer and I won't get too bad of an algae problem because hopefully there won't be too many nutrients floating about in the water column.

--I read an interesting idea which was that to reduce algae, add floating plants such as duckweed or salvinia..their roots will absorb excess nutrients in the water, thus depriving the algae...hmm. Since my lighting is technically considered "low" for a 55 gallon tank, I'm praying I won't get large ugly brown patches of algae. I do have slight dots of brown algae on the leaves and small hair algae strands, but hopefully that will go away eventually.

My lighting is thus: 2x 32 watt Philips aquarium bulbs (8400 k total) and a Coralife Colormax light bulb (28 watts, 6700 k) This total of 92 watts for a 55 gallon tank is pretty low, but the effect is quite pleasing and still looks pretty bright to me. (I SHOULD be opting for around 110 watts in case you're interested)

I will keep you posted and hopefully take photos soon!!


I highly suggest reading this article for anyone interested in doing a low-light no filter (natural) setup...

http://www.malloftheworld.com/aquarium/part1.htm

Eck!

My 29 gallon tank has been completely infested by a single sick guppy I introduced last week. As a result, that guppy died and infected 3 of my other guppies (so far). I believe it's fungus rot of some sort. Eck. Dealing with sick fish all day is a major downer. I am treating a hospital tank with fungus cure right now. Hopefully I won't have to use this green stuff in my 29 gallon tank.

edit--

Now ALL my guppies have been affected. I've opted to use 3x the regular dose of aquarium salt instead to treat this undiagnosed disease. I heard that randomly giving all sorts of harsh medicines will just make the fish weaker.

On a brighter note, my 55 gallon tank is now setup and everything is looking good. I've added tons of plants - I think I want this tank to be my planted masterpiece. So far I have: Amazon sword plants, giant anubias, jungle vals, water wisteria, water sprite, bacopa, ludwigia repens and Java moss & Java fern. It's looking absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I'll post pictures once I find my darn camera...

My DIY CO2 supplement is NOT WORKING for some reason and all the sugar I used for the setup is attracting tons of ants into my house. Not cool.

edit--

I used newly bought yeast and now co2 bubbles are being produced. The bubble ladder is not flowing smoothly though...hmm.

My betta is recovering from fin rot...So far he's doing well.

6 Neon Tetras

So, I haven't been keeping up with my updates. Shame. Anyways, in case you're interested, here's some exciting (and not so exciting) news:

- I have cycled my 40 gallon tank and it is currently housing 6 big fat neon tetras and 2 Amano shrimp. Fully planted.

-My betta + one guppy both got fin rot so they are in a hospital tank being treated with Melafix. Hopefully they'll heal quickly.

-Sadly my other honey gourami and one of my catfish died yesterday. They were struggling for reasons unknown, but I suspect internal parasites. All my other fish seem fine though....

-I have acquired 6 Kuhli loaches in total now, and they are adorable but shy. They hide in the driftwood all day long and only come out to eat at night..but their cute little mouths nibbling is a sight to see!

Update

- Guppies STILL gasping for breath at tank surface even after Maracyn treatment.
- One of my Gouramis died after using Maracyn
- Bought 2 used 55 gallon tank
- Bought 2 used Fluval canister filters & an Eheim filter (more on that later)
- Tons of used equipment...that I will sell

- Bought 7 new species of aquatic plants (including Cabomba, Jungle Val, Amazon Swordplant, Water Wisteria and 2 other ones...)

My 10 Gallon Fish Tank Photos

Here's a photo of my 10 gallon tank (before & after)

1. The "Before" Photo taken 2-3 months ago. Fake plants. Poor upkeep. Betta + 3 frogs. Small
riverbed stones for substrate, 2 fake plastic plants, moss and anarcharis.




2. The "After" Photo I took 5 minutes ago. All live plants, 5 species, Betta + 5 cory cats + 3 shrimp. Large decorative stones + nice driftwood piece. Ultra fine pea gravel substrate + fertilizer.

DIY CO2 Diffuser

My plants aren't thriving as well as I'd like.

My KH is 20ppm, which should be okay considering my pH is at 7.4. But it needs a boost of CO2 so it can reach 30ppm. (The only reason I just wrote that was to sound nerdy. I really still don't understand what KH/GH is all about...something about hardness of the water...All I know is I need to raise CO2 levels in the tank to get better plant growth!)

So I decided to try my hand at a Do-It-Yourself CO2 diffuser. I'm cheap and CO2 canisters cost a lot! I watched a YouTube instruction video and assembled the following things:

- Empty 2L Soda bottle (or you can use any other plastic container/jug)
- Rubber cork/stopper
- Airline tubing
-Check valve
- Airstone
- Yeast
-Sugar
-Water


What you do:

1. Rinse plastic bottle.
2. Drill a hole through the stopper, which should fit snugly into opening of bottle.
3. Insert airline tubing (used for air pumps) into the coke bottle for fitting.
4. Combine some sugar, yeast, and water in the coke bottle.
5. Stopper the bottle and shake.
6. Attach the receiving end of the airline onto an airstone (if desired).
7. CO2 bubbles will then be released.
8. Check valve turns CO2 on and off.
9. Do not use an air pump simultaneously as that will drive the CO2 out of the tank.
10. Replace as needed.


I will assemble this in the next few days and report my findings. After my fish tank is done with its Maracyn regime, I will start CO2 fertilizers and see if my plants thrive better.

Funny/Weird/Stupid Looking Fish Tanks

Here's some pics of really ugly/weird/stupid/funny looking tanks and my nicknames for them.

1. Beer Tank. What a waste of a perfectly beautiful fish tank.




2. The Office. Goldfish busy at work.





3. Did someone say "dirty"?




4. Cichlids Say They Wanna Puke





5. What a Jolly Pink Buddha!





6. "Scarlet Fever" It's like looking at a fishy massacre crime scene.



7. Tacky Much? The Gravel Looks Delightful. *Wink*




8. Rainbow Colors. Is that a plastic cactus growing in the corner??


Some I found on google, others from the following link:

http://www.gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14592

Setting Up New 40 gallon Tank

So I bought a used 40 gallon breeder tank and decided to set it up! Today I rinsed about 50 lbs of gravel for almost 2 hours and then added it to the tank. I will start planning a design and plant additions RIGHT NOW, and I am extremely excited. The tank came with a heavy-duty 48" long lighting fixture which is longer than my tank. The tank will probably not be super pretty at first but I'll upgrade as I go. As of now, I intend to use a cheap Tetra 200w heater and an Aqua-Tech 20-40 filter. We'll see where it goes from there.

*********************************************************************

I want to set up a low-maintenance tank with hardy but attractive plants, but knowing me, I probably won't stick to the plan. I wish I was cool enough to do a minimalist design and add like 20 schooling tetras in there and leave it at that but I absolutely LOVE trying out all sorts of complicated designs so I'll probably be overdoing it again.

~~~~Tentative Plants to Buy/Add List ~~~~

- Java Fern (definitely)
- Water Wisteria?
- Java Moss (definitely)
- Crypt
- Anubias (seems to grow REALLY slowly in my other tank...ehh)
-Sagittaria

I am definitely going to consider adding like 20 cardinal tetras to a simple aquascaped tank though... ;)

Air Pump

So turns out my fish may not have gill disease...Instead, they may be suffering from lack of oxygen or ammonia/nitrite burns. I checked my water parameters and they are all at "0" so that just leaves lack of oxygen as the cause for their rapid breathing at the water surface and red/inflamed gills? I may have also created an ammonia/nitrite spike when I added 8 fish within 2 days due to over excitement. Oh what a newbie mistake!

I have since aquired an Elite air pump to increase aeration in my 29 gallon tank. All I did was connect it to a long airline tube with shut off valve and stick the other end in the tank. It's creating monstrous bubbles and I think that's giving my fish some relief. They aren't gasping anymore so I take it that's a good sign. ;) Air pumps displace air, shifting stagnant air laden with CO2 towards the surface, where gas exchange occurs and the CO2 leaves the tank and Oxygen enters.

I am rehoming my 2 Mickey Mouse Platy today (finally). They have been tortured by my guppies for months. The male guppies take it upon themselves to chase the platy around to near exhaustion. I feel so sorry for them! Especially the female, who was receiving way too much unwanted attention.

Now my tank feels so empty without those overexcited orange fish! I may setup a 40 gallon fish tank today...