still more setup work

with the forty gallon aquarium. I've got the new glass lid and light strip on there. This canopy has fairly thick glass- I think even if the cat jumped up there he wouldn't break it. It took two tries to get the LED light programmed. I have it set to have a gradual two hour sunrise, then colored set of lights for an hour, then six hours full lights (all the colors and whites) three hours of dusk (just colored lights again), two hours sunset (gradual fade out) and then three hours moonlights (blue). Eight hours darkness. Not sure if this is what's best for the plants, but I'll just have to see and then tweak it.

The one downside so far is the heater- thermostat doesn't seem to be working properly? If I have it unplugged, the water drops to room temperature (about 70°). Plug in the heater it goes up to eighty. This is fine for the fishes and okay for the snails, but I did try to turn the heater down a notch and no change. I'll try adjust it further but if it still doesn't drop have to assume it's faulty.

I was surprised and glad to find today that it appears to have cycled already. Of course, the filter still had media from previous owner. I'd had the tank sitting with nothing actually running for several days, but I guess it kept moist and the room was warm enough the bacteria didn't die. It tested at 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite and 20 Nitrates today. That's cycled! The pH is holding steady too at 7.6.

So I brought over some plants and snails. The trumpet snails immediately started digging down into the substrate- a few found their way over to the anubias and a bit of caught watersprite on base of the root piece.

All my floating watersprite and a few small java ferns that had been drifting loose around the tank- now tied onto the fake root piece where they look very small and inconsequential. The watersprite has put out tons of fine, white root hairs so I think it is finding nutrients in the water.

Also a small anubias I took out of Oliver's tank.

It's a start.