how the aquariums are doing

Today before maintenance tested the nitrates in my aquariums again. Sill fairly stable- the tenner is just below 5ppm the main tank at 20. I've been dosing dry ferts with the standard recommended levels in the tenner and the adjusted levels (because nitrates already present) in the main.

Oliver is still doing great (but doesn't hold still for his picture).

I've been gradually culling out baby trumpet snails, simply scooping them off the water surface when they float about. Once or twice a week if I notice it looking messy, siphon snail poo off the leaf surfaces- anubias looking pretty good, no algae just some fine debris particles. I'm trying to remember to add the small dose of liquid ferts (micros) midway thru the week, but it's not a habit yet and when I forget, notice that anubias starts looking a bit yellow (the smaller lanceolata one on right here under bigger leaf)

Don't want to do this long term though, so I'm hoping to add some substrate that will hold nutrients and slow release. Reading up on all that. Only thing really to note in this tank right now is that the java ferns still continue to do poorly.

And quite a while ago I dropped in one small apono bulb that was getting banged around in the main tank- it's very slowly resprouting green in here.

I haven't made many notes on all this lately because felt dismal about the ill cherry barbs. I moved the first female back into main tank earlier this week- thought she was looking good. No more ragged fins, alert and active. Still have two cherry barb in QT hospital tank- the female has pale marks on her body that I can't quite tell if its still lesions, or just uneven mottled part of her coloring. Her fin edges are still ragged, but not as bad as before. Little Mr. Red with her looks good but pale, stressed coloring. I'm doing small water change every other day, because it seems the biofilter never recovered in here. Trying to decide if I should treat with another med, hold them in here longer with continual water changes, or cross my fingers and move them back into the 20gal. ::: But I wrote this paragraph before taking photos with tank lights on, of the fishes. With the brighter light and camera stopping the movement, I can see that particular female I put back in the tank, still has symptoms. She's paler than the others at small stress of camera eye near the glass, and I can see pale marks on head again- were they ever gone? or is it coming back

I do like that these photos show off my rotala greenery! and here a black kuhli got caught in the background, and you can see Pinkie slipping behind the rotala wall.

So the main tank

Overall I'm happy with it. Levels are remaining stable. I've put back in a small sponge filter in corner, with slow airflow. It keeps that from becoming a dead corner- better circulation. And I like that when doing a water change, I can leave this little filter running and the heater on (it's low down near substrate now- doesn't get exposed) just turn off the main filter for time being. Vallisneria is growing more than I ever expected it to, watersprite doing its regular thing, I'm even becoming pleased with the crypts- they look robust. I just have a remove a few older leaves now and then, and occasionally gently tug a plant up when its base starts settling too far down into substrate (not supposed to bury the crown). Java ferns still lagging in this tank, too. I still don't know what's going wrong with them... My biggest apono is doing fantastic,

the smaller ones are slowly recovering from getting moved- I'm expecting them to look peaky for a while. I'm glad I took the trouble to move the rotala across the back- that's looking so much better, and I can't believe how quickly I've been able to fill it in. Older leaves on bottom do get yellowed but I think this is normal- as the plant grows up the lower leaves that get less light die off. Right now I'm trimming off scrawny bits and some stems that seem to be accumulating algae. There's a patch of very dark, almost black algae on the filter intake tube (since I added on the sponge prefilter) and it looks like it spreads to nearby rotala leaves. Last week I tried rubbing that off the pipe, it didn't remove easy. This time I got a lot more off with algae scraper. Not sure what triggered its appearance- probably from extra stuff kicked into water column when I moved plants or added root tabs.

pieced three pics together here, not very cleanly but has more detail

I've had to quit using the fish trap to feed kuhlis, because a barb found out how to get in all the time. So now when I feed release the pinch underwater so a lot drifts down to bottom where kuhlis can get some- but it's messier and not as precise (to target feeding them). Here's Moe hanging out on top of the thermometer for a moment- funny snaky fish.