FISH BLOG #3, What Happens When Sei DOESN'T Perform Water Changes...

Remember when my tank looked like this?:

Now it looks like this:

Yes, this is some of my fault.  It's mostly the fault of my mother's, though; unfortunately she got more into my aquarium than I ever thought she would, and...  Well, she now considers it a piece of furniture.  It's now sitting in front of a window that doesn't have blinds to go with it.  My solution was to buy a UV Sterilizer; a device which is marketed to get rid of waterborne pathogens (Like Ich) and also get rid of free-floating algae particles -- the cause of Green Water.  That should arrive in 3-5 days, and should take about three days to take effect.  Hopefully, after the UV Sterilizer my tank will once again be clear and mostly free of nastiness.

I had to perform a huge overhaul of the tank before I took this picture.  It was covered in algae (More so than it is now) and frankly looked a little bit nasty.  Smelled like it too.  That was the result of me not being a smart pet lover and allowing it to grow as I usually did, while sitting next to direct sunlight.  Won't make that mistake again.

I've taken pains to replace the filter cartridge and have set my to-do list to remind me to do this every first of the month.  We'll skip next month since we've already cut into half of this one.

There are no plants in my tank anymore; due to my mother's stupidity, I had to uproot them all.  They're in plant heaven, but I"m thinking of replacing them with fast-growing plants to compete with the algae in the face of the sun.  Since I have no money, however, this bit of the overhaul will have to wait until I'm done with everything else :P.

The fish themselves have gotten bigger -- about 1 1/2 inch.  One of the Gold Pristellas actually grew so big (and fat) that he can't swim straight anymore; he has to continually keep himself at an upward angle in order to move forward.  xD It's kind of cute.  All of the females in the Cherry Barb group have long passed -- I don't know what it is, but I continually have trouble keeping those.  The males, however, have both survived and are doing well.  Mr. Pleco is just fine too.  Honestly, he seems a little fat.  So I kind of assume he's happy xD

I've also started feeding the fish something different.  Instead of just flakes, I feed them THERA+, a brand that came out of my local fish store and seems to do well for their color and their immune systems; extra garlic does that, apparently.

Aside from those things, there really hasn't been a change in my aquarium.  Once the water looks less nasty I'll post another Fish Blog :3 I can't wait for it to start looking normal again. xD

What the Hell is This?

Okay.

...Okay?

I'm sorry, I love cats was rather put off by this awkward display of emotion. I wanted to share the... love Awkwardness.

People find really weird shit to go viral with.  I mean honestly, E3 and the horrors it brings are enough.

FISH BLOG #2, What Happens When Sei Performs a Water Change?

Oh my effing gawd.

Okay, before I get all Zomg spazzy, the test results as of 01/07/11 (By the way, Happy New Year everybody) are:

pH: 8.0/8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

THESE RESULTS MAKE ME HAPPY.

They mean that I actually set up the tank properly!  W00t!

The new inhabitants of the tank include 6 Cherry Barbs (3 males, 3 females), 6 Kuhli Loaches, and 1 Albino Bristlenose Pleco (At this point...  I'm really not sure if it's a guy or a girl.  I think it's a girl though.  More updates to come.  xD)

This is Pleco.  He's shy, as he was just added today, so he's hiding.  We'll see if he does a decent job cleaning the algae out of my tank, though.

 
 Most if not all of my Cherry Barbs.

A single loach.  And you guys better appreciate me getting him on camera, because these things are fast little fuckers D:  Much easier to catch on video from a distance.

Speaking of, shortly after performing my second water change I caught all of my fish having a really huge dance party.  Well, everybody except Mr. Pleco that is.  The Barbs dance like:

But the loaches are a liiiiiiiiiiittle more spazzy...

Spoiling the fun, unfortunately, is all the algae that's slowly overcoming my tank.  Big brown spots (Diatoms) are growing.  Likely, a result of my stupidity in not investing in an auto-on/off switch for the lights, and also partially because I might be overfeeding the fish.  Maybe.  Still, this is supposed to be good for the algae eaters in my tank.  Pleco-dude(ette) should be in heaven once he comes out of his proverbial shell and actually lives a little.  I won't be surprised if he develops a little bit of a gut with all the stuff growing on the back and sides of his new home.  By the by, just saying but...  They keep A LOT of Plecos in the same tanks at pet stores.  There were tons of little albino and chocolate Pleco-lettes hanging onto one single piece of driftwood when we were there.

Algae D:

 

There's tons and tons of algae on the roof of the tiki hut.  I'm pretty sure Pleco's gonna have fun chewing all that up.

 

If you can see it, hair algae is growing on the bamboo stalk.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, I've replaced the (Dying) Amazon Sword plant and the (REALLY ANNOYING) dark plant things with four little bunches of Wisteria.  They're very pretty, and I'll take a picture of them next time so that maybe I'll actually have a tankful and it won't look so bare, but the Barbs keep munching on the leaves (And thereby killing them).  I somewhat wonder if this is good for the plants in some way, because it kind of serves as "pruning" them, but uhh...  I think they might be munching a little too fast...

FISH BLOG #1, Day 27 (Since 9/2/1o): Intro & Test Results

I purchased my first fish tank somewhere around the end of November, beginning of December.  It looked like this:

That was a standard Aqueon 14 gallon tank kit, filled with black gravel and a couple of decorations and plants.

And now the tank looks like this.  It is, obviously, a larger (And better) 46 gallon Marineland Bowfront, with a Marineland Penguin 200 model Filter (And a heater, of course).  Note to self, it loads "C"-Sized filter cartridges. I personally love the dragon, and the aeration it provides to the tank.  Maybe I should buy another one for the other side?  I'll think about it.

As of right now, I believe two plants have died (or...  More like are in the process of dying).  The Wisteria plants and the Amazon Sword didn't do well at all (This is perhaps because I didn't inherit my grandfather's green thumb), so they're going to have to be replaced.  Mr. Java Fern and Mr. Bamboo Stalk are just fine though, if a little hairy (I'm hoping that whatever algae eaters I get actually eat hair algae...  It's not very pretty to look at and I seem to be growing quite a bit of it.)  Pictures to follow.

As of 9/9/1o, the Ammonia (At well over 8 PPM on said date) in the tank has been slowly deteriorating, replaced slowly with Nitrite and Nitrate levels.  The most recent test shows:

We're sitting on:

pH: 7.8 (Bad)
Ammonia: .25 PPM (Though, I added more Ammonia to further feed the bacteria that I'm sure is starving within the tank without fish waste, so more pictures to follow)
Nitrite: 0 PPM (WOOP WOOP)
Nitrate: 5 PPM

This is good.  Except for the pH, I'm really quite sure that I should be able to add fish to the tank whenever I want (Provided I get the money and add a couple more plants for coverage and less stress).  I confess, I haven't really been keeping up with Nitrite/Nitrate tests as well as I should (I couldn't afford those tests at the time and was running on crappy Mardel test strips, which aren't very accurate at all), but it's been about a month.  I'll run more tests throughout the week and if the pH stabilizes itself, I'll be happy.  If not...  I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that.

12:10 AM: Have retaken the Ammonia test and readjusted the pH test accordingly.  The new results, after adding around 3/4tsp of Ammonia:

pH: 8.2 (BAAAAAD.  But, I've learned that it's mostly an imbalance of Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide levels.  Easily fixed, being as the pH is very high mostly because my tank is being heavily aerated)
Ammonia: 4 PPM (Now the fun begins.  I'll test the whole thing over tomorrow night and see how much has changed!)
Nitrite: 0 PPM (WOOP WOOP)
Nitrate: 5 PPM

Small updates, during this crucial time (Cycling) will follow, and I'll have (hopefully) large weekly updates scheduled every Friday.  Hope you guys enjoy this blog...  I'm going to have an adventure writing it.