June 20, 2007
Fish on Fire Yet?
(As you can see, I've moved stuff around.
There are more pictures of my tank here.)
So, I felt like I should maybe put up some sort of update about my poor fishes. They've had a rough couple of weeks. I had some really bad algae problems in the tank and I had to remove and sanitize my plants (frikkin black algae...). This upset the fish because they had no cover for a half hour and I was messing with their environment before and after that.
The serpae lived up to their fin-nipping reputation and the littler one now has a shredded top fin. He's starting to recover, but it'll be a while. His tail is fortunately almost healed at this point. I got all the stuff back into the tank as quickly as I could to keep them calm. After some discussion with one of the aquarium store guys, I reduced my light to only 10.5 hours a day (it was at 12) and have been more careful about how much I feed the fish. I still had to deal with a reddish algae bloom on the walls of my tank, but after I cleaned it off this Sunday (traumatizing my fish still more), it has greatly slowed down it's growth.
I'm gathering from my online research that reddish algae is normal during the cycling process, so other than cleaning it up some I'm not too worried about it. The black algae hasn't come back yet, which I was extremely worried about last week. I've been doing 20-30% water changes every week rather than every two weeks in the hope of keeping the bad chemicals in the water down some. I don't know if this is affecting how the tank is cycling or not. On one hand I'd like to buy the required test kits, but on the other they are expensive and I don't know how much the knowledge will help me at this point. I definitely will need them after the tank is finished cycling to insure that things don't go horribly wrong later on.
The aquarium store guy said I should come back at the five week mark with a water sample, so that's one more week to go. In the mean time I'm trying to sort out my aquarium decorations. I have a piece of drift wood I want to use, but I need to boil it so that it will be sanitized in the scale of a few days rather than a few months. I haven't been able to find a pot/pan big enough so far. I think I'm going to have to go with my plan to put it in a huge pan in the oven at 200 degrees for a day or two. This won't be as fast as boiling it on the stove top, but it should be just as effective. Then I'll have to weight it down, since I'm not patient enough to wait for it to stop floating. We shall see how well that works. I'm not too worried about it turning my water black/brown, since all the reports I can find suggest that tetras like that sort of environment. It will probably depend on what rocks I end up going with. So far I have found a good source for zebra rock and slate, but not the round river stones I'd like to use.
I want to get some java moss to put on the drift wood as well as some Hornwort to plant in the tank. I'm trying to keep in mind that the tank will be viewed from both sides. I don't want to obscure it too much of the view from the back/kitchen. I know I'm going to want to sanitize any plants I bring in, since all the shops I've been to have rather skeezy/dirty plant tanks. I think Hornwort can take a short soaking in 5% bleach, but I'm not sure about java moss. Ideally I'd like a more reputable plant source, but I, sadly, don't know any aquarium plant enthusiasts in the area to go to (obviously the fish shop isn't going to help me there). There is one more large shop on the south west side that I have yet to try.
I'm debating what my first fish after the serpae will be. I think I want to keep the serpae until they tank decoration is sorted out, since that will be a bit stressful for whatever is in there. I guess that means I may have to live with them for a few more weeks, but that's alright. I'll probably go with some pygmy cories once the tank is decorated (to keep the algae down) and then start bringing in the neons a few at a time. I've debated about getting a pleco, but I can't find any breeds that are small enough for the space.
I've ended up with a surplus of interestingly shaped driftwood. I'm torn about what to do with it. If I ever have another tank I don't want to have to go through the whole search again. On the other hand, none of the big pieces match each other, so if I just get a bigger freshwater tank I'll have to go back to square one. I also don't have a convenient back shed to store things like this in. The wood will have to live inside, which means I need to sanitize it before I store it to avoid possible nasties. It's kind of a lose-lose situation, since I'm definitely not getting a new tank now just for the sake of keeping driftwood in it.
Comments:I left a couple big old pots I once used for fabric dying at Mama De Smet's house. You're welcome to use them if you like.Post a Comment
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