fish notes

Today was tank maintenance. Both of the aquariums got their regular cleaning with a 20% water change. In the ten-gallon this included a light gravel vac job, wiping down the outside glass and cleaning the cover glass. I gently brushed brown algae off the anubias leaves and a few of the java fern without removing them- it was a bit tricky but they look better now. It wasn't as much as before, to clean off. Also trimmed the java moss. My prior water jar of it sitting on the desk had grown quite full so I sold it- five bucks on craigslist and the lady was eager for more-

and started a new one:

Even caught a glimpse of my kuhli loach, it scurried out and moved around in quick, undulating waves when I nudged the driftwood, darted back into hiding pretty quick. I saw both loaches in the 20gal as well, when cleaning they got momentarily disturbed and wriggled out, then back in. Like little banded snakes. I think I have finally realized what's going wrong in my main aquarium: too much nutrients. I tested the water, nitrates were over 40. I carefully brushed off the aponogeton leaves

it was mostly brown algae coating on there. It grows enough the plants can't photosynthesize and the leaves die back. Difficult to clean off without tearing up the leaves themselves, especially the aponogeton and watersprite, but I managed enough that it looks improved. Cleaned some off the java fern and amazon sword, too.

Dismayed that this simply puts the algae into the water column, but I hope the filter pulls most of it out (I rinsed the filter media a bit today too), and I've cut the photoperiod down by a half hour. Maybe the new lamp is brighter enough that it caused another algae bloom.

To make the tank really clean in preparation for introducing the blue platies tomorrow, I did some gravel vac in here- this pulled out a few black clouds from the root tabs I once stuck in there. Which might also be too much nutrients? It's hard to know for sure. People on forums said don't do root tabs (with the low tech setup you need to not overdo it) but add more fish. I'm not quite fully stocked yet, so I did add a half-dose of the liquid plant food today, less than before. The plants seem to be growing more again- I have a lot of new java fern leaves (center in pic)

also see the bigger aponogeton specimens and the crypt sprouting new leaves so I'm hoping soon I will get the balance right here.