tenner update

Today I deep-cleaned the second half of substrate in my betta tank. First time around I had only cleaned the left side, avoiding doing all at once for how much ammonia that would create. The job went a bit easier this time- I still had to siphon out over 20 gallons of water to get it clean enough, then did two nearly-nintey-percent water changes to remove ammonia- in all refilling the tank three times. Samblu is in the temporary bin again. With a proper sponge filter this time that I squeezed in some of the dirty water- so that he will have the good bacteria to keep the bin parameters relatively steady. It all seems to have gone smoothly. Afterwards the tank only has 0.5ppm ammonia, and the bin itself 0.25. That's better than last time. So I think Sam might be above to move back into his home tomorrow, or the day after.

The tank looks the same as before; I didn't really rescape just put plants and harscape back where it was. Tuft of algae on java fern leaf tip is staghorn. It's the same gray fuzzy stuff was on the driftwood I took out. Typically shows up in tanks with low c02 and high ammonia, no surprise there. I hope my tank will stay in better condition, now. Would like to introduce a few trumpet snails again, but not sure if they will survive. I'm wonder if they simply starved- as there is no algae, and Sam eats every bite I give him, what is left for the snails. I had never thought to actually feed them....