forty second day

with the fishes in it. First thing in the morning checking on things.

The filter burble in Oliver's tank did not sound right- I found a crack in the airline so the flow through filter was diminished. Replaced it with new airline tubing and now it sounds/functions right again. Got my old bio-wheel filter on the big tank now; it doesn't splash as much as the aqeon HOB that came w/the tank did, is very quiet actually and if it does splash, that alerts me that the water level is low. Both tanks don't quite smell right, they don't have the nice musty bacteria smell but instead smell kind of acrid. I remember noticing this on my 20gal when it was first set up, though. I tested the water parameters- pH just where it's supposed to be, no ammonia, no nitrites, looks like the biofilter is working well. But yikes the nitrates were high! somewhere 50-60ppm. I guess I should have tested to see what the levels were before automatically dosing ferts this friday- substrate must be holding nutrients plenty well.

Did a water change this morning- about twelve gallons-, that got the nitrates down to about 30ppm. I'll check it again tomorrow. The fishes look fine and dandy.

There are no clamped fins, and only Sangre still looks a bit pale. Nobody is hiding or appears stressed at all, and they came up to eat without hesitation. I like the way things look in ambient light-

When the lights first come on, it's really warm colors

I took keeley cook's suggestion and cut out spaces on the cover of my filter box

to fit two cuttings of arrowhead plant in there. Will take up more nitrates and thrive, I'm sure.

Aponogeton this morning

I did put my hands in the tank again to move a few things, now that I can see everything clearer. I've sloped the substrate up quite a bit from back to front (maybe too much) and behind the rotala is a higher ledge that can see the kuhlis resting on (they think they're hidden behind the screen of plants, but in plain view on a kind of horizon line). On the opposite side, behind the fake root piece the substrate drops down kind of a ditch under the heater, a good hidey spot. Bit of rotala and the vallisneria planted in that corner.

and last but not least, a few better pics of the watersprite root hairs.

Even the tiny baby bits of plant have wild strong roots growing, which makes me think these are really going to do well now.