Well its been a traumatic week or so in Jonah's fish tanks!
Saturday
The fish gods are smiling the day started out with a near perfect reading on all the tanks but being a worrier I had been talking to my brother, a veteran fish keeper, and I was talking about a possible overstock problem on the 230ltr community tank.
Well he recommended a product that would help keep the cycle and clean the tank whooo result says I. Being a living example of the marvels of modern medical pharmaceutical products I am fairly relaxed with the thought of improving the quality of my fishie pets lives by chemical means.
Make the regular trip to the
LFS, as you do, and there on the shelf is Tetras Easy Balance on special right says I, I will have some of that.
Do the regular look in the Clown Loach tank, spend the required 10 minutes trying, unsuccessfully, to think of a devilishly fiendish way that a small group of them can be added to one of my tanks,
Cue Dream Sequence.
Lets see, 30ltr
betta tank, nope Simon is OK with his Oto buddy but he may draw the line at 3 or 4 12” monsters so that's out.
100ltr Fry tank, nope not really, 70-90 assorted fry, 5 Corys, cute little beggars that they are, 2 Albino BN's, potential breeding stock there one MAY just be a boy, lets see if those bristles grow or not. Englebert and his girls are there at the moment but They can always move in to one of the spare 10gals. The fry have homes to go to when they get bigger so that's only 22” of fish in there maximum oh that's pushing things as it is!
230ltr come on child get real! You already have a Sailfin Plec in there who are you kidding ;(
Reality bites
And so we wander off to the feeder tank, that is always the next port of call anyway and we got Englebert, he is the Endler/Guppy hybrid, there last time! Oh says little one, daaaaaaaaaaad, you know that little voice all 10y/o girls use when they KNOW that daddy will bite, can I have that one he looks lovely. Sure enough there is a male snakeskin delta tailed guppy there! Now he is not by any stretch of the imagination 'show quality' but I don't have plans to show any of my fish anyway. Oh yes child I am sure you can force me to spend 99p on that little fellow. And the 25ltr hex is up and running in case we need a hospital tank he can
QT in there, and he will give 'Tuxy' my male Black Tuxedo guppy some competition for his harem.
Snakey prowling the Community tank.
Englebert the Guppy/Endler hybid not sure yet if I will let him breed or not.
We manage to escape with daddy spending less than £20 in a visit, that is a result, and the girl on the checkout is dismayed, I have never been know to come out without spending at least twice that on any previous visit.
Sunday
Snakey is prowling the new QT tank and he already look better, the clamped fins are now fully out and he look so much happier in a clean tank and not being nipped and stressed in the feeder tank. His tail is still a bit shredded but that will grow back in time with a little bit of TLC.
Take another 4 or 5 molly fry from the community tank and put them in the fry tank which, by my standards, is starting to look the 'bees knees' now that the plants have really started to grow. Had to swap about taking the low light plants out and putting in something with shades on that can withstand 10000k lighting at over 1.5 watt per gallon, it is really having a effect! John Wyndham eat your heart out child, your triffids have nothing on the growth rate of my plants!
Note to self please stop buying plants based on their looks and spend a bit of time researching what the plants need!
All is well in the world I can sit with my books, spend some time on Fishlore and watch my tanks.
Monday.
Hmm Tuxy is looking a bit peaky, its not like him to leave his girls alone for more than a few minutes. Out comes the water
test kit. OMG what is going on? Nitrates 20, nitrites 0,
ammonia 0.5! where has that come from?
Nope no dead fish, plants look OK, no more dead leaves than usual. I know lets ask the folks on Fishlore.
Well looks like Easy Balance is one of those products that really should stay on the shelf, and then Carol comes up with a beaut of a suggestion, did you change/clean your filter she says? No I says, ah and in there lies the problem, that carbon bag you were supposed to take out on the last filter clean, its still there! Now have you seen the size of bag of carbon you can fit into a Tetratec EX700 cannister? Its big, and when it decides to start leeching back into the tank it can do a lot of damage!
(The disaster Zone)
Day 1 of 100ltrs of
water change, with 1 20ltr bucket and no python, that takes some doing, browse eBay, find a Uk supplier of Prime get on and pay now for next day delivery. While we are here though heard good things about Marimo balls and yes there is a local supplier of them as well paypal is your best friend.
Oh I forgot to mention fry tank is on a south facing wall in front of a south facing window so it gets lots of light, I cant add any more plants its like a jungle in there already and we still have green algae problems in the water.
(The Fry jungle, see what I mean about green but there is no other place it can go!)
Tuesday
The Serpae tank is being broken down a lady with a brand new fish room and very few fish is going to give them a new home sorry to see the blighter's go they are attractive and a joy to watch when feeding but I really didn't buy them for a species tank and they are too aggressive to go back in the community tank even if it wasn't broken. And you really can not keep 10 Serpaes hwever small they are in a 35ltr tank for very long. Simon does not mind however he is going to move from his hex tank into their old house, he doesn't need the extra space but I am sure he wont complain. The tank is an odd shape Tall and bow fronted so it is difficult to divide looks like he will just have to slum it. He has company in the form of the only Oto that survived acclimatisation in the old 10gal fry tank.
Off to LFS to get some more stress coat + as my next day delivery of prime has not arrived. Stop in hardware store on way home and get another 20ltr bucket. Out comes the siphon and off we jolly well go.
While we are here lets start doing dailys on the fry tank it wont hurt will it. Pop 3 of the 5 Marimo balls into the fry tank at the same time at least they arrive next day and they were of postage free not next day!
Simon came home in this
and now he lives here
Wednesday
Another hour spent doing water changes, with stress coat+ as prime has not arrived still! Snakey is really looking good now though so its not all bad, do 10% changes on QT and fry tank as all the gear is out
More good news, Son and GF have had their offer on a house accepted so he will be moving out in 4 or 5 weeks to his own place, not only is it good news that he finally is leaving home at 25 but that means all the furniture we are storing in the garage for him will be moving out as well. And you know what that means don't you? I may yet have space for a fish room! I did think about his bedroom as that's insulated already but Wendy said NO, spoilsport!
Thursday
Big tank is getting quite cloudy so we are having a bloom, things are processing But they could be quicker! Another hour spent changing water and the Prime is STILL not here! Ammonia around 0.4ppm
nitrite 0 Nitrates 20+
But good news I can see the back of the fry tank, those Marimo balls are working a treat! Spend 20 mins or so aimlessly taking pictures of the fry tank who knows I may even have 2 or 3 good enough to post!
[IMG]
[/IMG] See What I mean about Green!
Friday,
Bloom is getting bigger, buckets are getting heavier, arms are tired, Pime ARRIVES, well that's a big -point on feedback for postage and delivery. But my goodness the fry tank looks a lot clearer.
Saturday
Big disappointment today no trip to LFS no new fish while tank is in mini cycle, but the water changes go on, and on, and on! Hmm that BN has a problem and so does that Honey Gourami he is really struggling with the water. Think says I, what can you do? Ok Snakey son you have to go into the tank regardless
The QT might be only 25ltrs but its got to be better place for Tango and Sandals than where they are now and while we are at it lets try and get that neon with the odd cottony spot on his back. Frantic netting ensues but I win and they are all in a nice clean tank! Small? Yes. Compact and Bijou it may be but at least its clean and its only a temporary thing.
Now there is a story here, when we first cycled the tank Me and baby went to LFS for a couple of fish she wanted a corydora, I wanted a small plec, we went to Pets@Home bit like your Petsmart chain in the US. Daughter gets to name the fish so the Albino Cory becomes Dora and Dora's buddy is Boots, so Boots and Dora come to live. Dora unfortunately was not a particularly strong fish and did not prosper in the tank, in those days I was an even bigger fool than I am today, hard to believe I know, and I was not aware that she needed company and the guy at Pets@home either didn't know or didn't care to tell us, she only lasted a week or two, certainly she passed before we made our 2nd trip to the store 2 weeks later. But I digress Sandals the fish. As the BN are added to the tanks the names have to fit with Boots who we have become aware is not a dwarf Pleco but a red sailfin! So the new fish are Sandals and FlipFlop! Sandals is a normal BN and Flipflop is a long tailed one so they are easy to tell apart when she came she had been roughed up a little in the tank at the store so her tail was split so it sort of flip flopped about when she swam and the name fitted, its nicely healed up now but the name was far too good to change. Shoes & Slippers albinos BN's live in another tank.
Sunday
The girl's have decided that to cheer me up after not being able to go to LFS yesterday I can take them on a 200+ mile round trip shopping for some trinkets that they can sell at table top sales to help fund raise for Boo's guide camp in Mexico. Yes my middle daughter has not only won a very prestigious young achievers award presented to youth by a well known UK philanthropist this year but she has also been selected to represent her region at a guide jamboree in Mexico, we were told when she went to the selection weekend that as she was so young at 14 she would probably get a local camp somewhere in Europe if she passed selection. (sorry had to sneak a bit of pride in there)
Up early My goodness look at the improvement in Tango since he went in the QT tank! But Hang on Wazzup with the big tank? It looks really bad today. Oh no the filter is dead, panic, then panic some more, and finally panic ensues! Logic Jo you can fix it even if your name is not Bob. Oh there is no light on the power strip, I know fuse has blown, three fuses later and still no light on power strip. Girls are getting impatient so we jury rig an extension cable to the filter and fortunately the filter is fine it is just the power strip. Out come buckets and siphon and 150 litres later we are ready to leave. Only an hour late.
Into car plug in radar detector, program satnav, and off we go, all the time thinking How do I move a 4 ½ foot long fully filled 230ltr tank on its cabinet far enough away from wall to remove the old power strip and replace with the spare? I am still trying to work that one out. When we get to our destination Wendy says that she has felt safer on previous trips with me driving. But its like I always say, why have a fast car and drive slowly?
Finish shopping and return home, this time not attempting to break the British Saloon car land speed record, leave the girls to get set up with all the bangles baubles and beads that they have invested in today, mind you I did think the mood rings were a steal. And I get down to the serious business of sorting the tank. Last nights catastrophe was worse than initial observations suggested one of my Otos didn't make it, that's 2 that my stupidity has cost me so far! But far, far, worse neither did one of the Zebra Dannios I thought they were almost indestructible and that has really surprised me, I am glad I got the most affected fish out yesterday! But I did find another couple of Molly fry in the tank, I have no idea how they have survived but they are netted out and put in the fry tank.
Things are not looking better on the tank cycle, Ammonia is sitting still at 0.5ppm but I am now showing traces of Nitrites in there at about 0.1ppm and nitrates at about 12ppm changed another 80ltrs and primed the tank for the night.
I took out 100ltrs last time but I have left the level a bit lower than normal so the spray bar on the filter can really break up the surface on the tank and keep the oxygen levels up.
I am starting to wonder if I am going to make it through this idiotic self induced catastrophe with any fish left at all!
Tomorrows water test will be the big test I suppose, if Ammonia reduces and the nitrites go away again I will start to feel better. But more to the point so will my poor fish.
Monday,
Have to get the girls to school but the tank is looking surprisingly clear this morning, and there have been no further casualties over night, not only that but the biggest surprise of all is seeing a little guppy swimming round the tank! . But as we all know that may just be hiding a multitude of sins the pre PWC water change will reveal all.
School run finished, guppy is in fry tank and out comes the test kit.
Starts out with an amazing 0 on the Ammonia test!
Not so good on NitrItes still looking at less than 0.1ppm its not quite there but its definitely not clear either!
Nitrates a respectable enough 20ppm.
So while my cycle is still not a nice circular thing of beauty it is at least Ovoid and not a Rhumboid, Trapezoid or some other linear shape.
Now do we do a 50% PWC, decision time, no I think we can get by with 20% given those readings and a couple of 10s on the fry and Hosp tank.
So that is the next port of call but 1st coffee and lets have a browse on the forums, reply to a thread or two and then out comes the buckets and the siphon
And to cap off a perfect week my breeding male Guppy now has a prolapsed intestine!
one Poorly Fancy male Guppy
So Tango has had to go back in the main tank as he was giving Tuxy a hard time not surprising as the tank is so small but I had to decide which was the sickest and base my decision on that.
When the gods do smite they do so verily!
Tuesday
And today the Cycle is a circular thing of Beauty!
Amm=0 NitrIte=0
nitrate <10 woot!
But we do a 10% change just in case lol.
The Community tank Showing off its Blue Lights
All the changes are done so now to post this ongoing saga of misery I do hope I have not bored you to tears but at least I may have found a cure for insomnia.
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great pictures though. i've tossed my easy balance as well, bummer it doesn't really do much.