state of the tank

Yes, I'm a bit obsessed with my still-new hobby in the aquarium. Daily I find myself lingering near it for long periods, staring into the little underwater world, watching the movements of the fish and admiring the green plant life. I am not nearly satisfied with the look of it yet. Up close I love the texture of the ferny Watersprite and the smooth running wood grain and the broad Anubias leaves with their little root hairs clinging below, tiny tenacious many many fingers. But a step back and it all looks untidy, jumbled. Patience is a big part of aquarium keeping, so I imagine a time when (hopefully) the plants will fill in with masses of green.

While I was gone a slight algae bloom began. I close the window blinds against the sun but a crack always marks the aquarium from the gap at the edge of the window. So there's some algae. Brown on the leaves as well- this might be diatoms, not sure. Still learning so much. I let it be for now, because I plan to get Otocinclus, and they love to eat algae, hungry for it, want to have a good amount to feed them happy. But they're sensitive (so I read) to environmental changes and the instability of relatively new tanks, so it might still be too soon to get them. Some advise to wait six months...!

I'm content with my Danios for now.

Something else has changed, and I can't figure out why. My pH was relatively stable at 7.4 for weeks, now when I return from vacation it's almost 8.0. That seems a big difference. My first thought was that I altered something when I stripped bark off the driftwood and removed all the fungus growth. But Hector's tank, relatively untouched, also had raised pH. Then I thought perhaps it's my water supply and tested the tapwater- nope, still 7.4 there. Puzzled.

It might be early as I'm still relatively unexperienced, but I'm letting a week slide by without the regular water change. Tested the water just to know what is going on unseen- all parameters seem great- Ammonia and Nitrite zil. I was surprised that Nitrates also read zero. Perhaps because a week with no food, there was minimal waste build up- and then I came home and did a water change...? Maybe that also has something to do with the algae growth, if the balance between fish output and plant uptake was skewed from the small norm I've established so far. As the purpose of water changes is to remove harmful Nitrates, but I don't have any, I refrained from doing one this time around. People say a planted tank should maintain 10-20 Nitrate anyways, to give nutrients to the plants. So... I leave it be. And just watch the fish.

I did trim the Watersprite a bit, and took a few dead leaves/stems off here and there, wiped green algae off the front pane of glass. I look in closely through the clear walls, assuming that the little microsystem I've created in there is functioning well and taking care of itself, but not sure enough yet to quit thinking and mentally fussing over it...