tank notes

Things are good with the aquariums, now.

I feel like I have finally reached a balance of lights, ferts and water changes that works. Still not ideal probably, but stable. Both tanks have steady levels of nitrates since last week, just where expect them- 5-10 in the ten-gallon, around 20ppm in the main tank. Last week I noticed the java ferns in tenner had very dark veins, all the searching I found this can point to low iron, which is supplied via fish food/poop or micronutrients. I gave a very small additional dose (.10 ml) of micros halfway thru the week- I think the plants look better (anubias looks great) will see if this is helpful.

In the twenty things continue- a few older leaves to cut out, most of my smaller aponos are finally growing new shoots, the rotala is trailing arcoss the water surface and watersprite scions are growing like mad. I carefully moved another bunch of watersprite from center into back left corner, it now looks like the quick photo taken above. I took care to make sure uprooting the plant wouldn't pollute the water too much- first I filled the siphon hose and let it rest inside the tank, so it was ready to go. Kept the filter running while I slowly pulled up the plants, just easing the roots out so less mulm gets kicked into the water column. Put the plant in its new spot, then turned off filter and began the regular water change, siphoning out extra debris around the plants to keep clean. This seemed to work well last week. I didn't have any ammonia spikes. Once again the cherry barbs are playing in the filter flow after refill, even the kuhlis were winding around each other excitedly up and down the sides and around corners (mating behavior?)  Buster's nicked dorsal fin is growing back in, its hardly noticeable now.

I also cut the intake pipe for my filter shorter. Tired of the constant splashing noise since it's been raised up all week. (Plus the splashing used to alert me that water level was getting low- can't do that if its already splashing all the time) I figured since I had to shorten the prefilter fitting to get it on there without hitting bottom, I can always add the extension back on if/when I get a larger aquarium. So I cut 3/4" off the plastic pipe and put it all back together. It's still just barely above the gravel bed, but don't have clothespins raising the filter box off the tank rim anymore- quiet again. The kuhlis really like hiding under the sponge prefilter base- I find them there more often than under the log, now. And the new sponge is doing its job- when I moved it slightly to get the intake pipe off, a bit of fine mulm - or the bacteria waste- rose into the water. Even though its too bulky for my tank I'm glad I added this.

Here's a quick pic I took of Pinkie a week ago (while the lights were out)