speedy sweet potato vine

Looks like both my QT tanks are going thru a mini-cycle now. Or small ammonia spike from something.... I am doing partial wc as needed. Found out it's difficult to siphon the bottom when there's leaf litter and (in the paradise fish's QT) free-floating subwassertang. My method now is to do most of the wc with siphon hose, then use a turkey baster to gently get mulm out from under the leaves and among the subwasser. The paradise fish's QT has quite a few dying fronds on the bolbitis- going through transition. Black algae coating some upper leaves, hair algae. Also two new fiddleheads coming up from the rhizome, so not too worried. I cut out the necrotic fronds- he has less cover now, but maybe the dying plant parts were causing the ammonia.

Got the corner filter quieter on the ten-gallon QT. It had some air bubbles stuck inside among the sponge layers. I carefully removed the lid while it was still in the tank (unplugged) and using a wooden skewer gently worked around the edges of the sponges to release the bubbles. Now it runs a lot quieter. You can see how crazy quick the roots of sweet potato vine grow- I put these cuttings in the QT for the serpaes just four days ago:

Incidentally, I no longer believe what is said that bare-bottom tanks make fish nervous. My serpaes that were acting nervous in QT before? probably because they were unwell. These serpae tetras act just like those in my main tank- come up to the front in hopes of getting fed, spar among themselves, I have even seen spawning behavior. My cherry barbs played in QT. Behavior really can be telling. I think the ones that come in from chain pet stores exposed to myriad disease and probably traumatized from being handled roughly or bad water conditions- they cower, hide, act nervous and shy. This paradise fish from the good lfs, these serpaes from the home of another aquarist- they act totally confident and look vividly healthy (knock on wood).

I have added sweet potato vine to the paradise fish's QT bin as well. I moved it last night. I had the two quarantine tanks sitting on one piece of furniture- this low cabinet that seemed sturdy enough- I asked my husband dubiously if he thought it would be okay and he shrugged: sure. But yesterday I thought I saw the tanks had a slight tilt to them, towards the center of the cabinet. I got out the level and my eyes were not playing tricks on me- they were both leaning into to center. I realize the ten-gallon weighs over 110 pounds when full, and the bin QT holds 8 gallons, that's another 66 pounds. I don't want this piece of furniture to collapse on me! So I moved the bin QT off, onto a bar stool. I looked up its specs: supports max weight of 220 pounds. It will be okay.

It was the easiest fish move I have ever done. I scooped out water into a clean five-gallon bucket and put the largest plants in there. It was down to about three inches- enough to just cover airlift tube of the sponge filter. I simply lifted the bin over to the stool, fish still in there. He swam around a bit probably wondering what was happening, but didn't hide or freak out. I slowly replaced his water and the bolbitis, and he looks fine. Gobbled his peas this morning! I'm calling him Perry.

When he's done with QT I'll move his sweet potato vine onto the window tank. There's a few open spots now. Sweet potato vine does so much better growing roots submerged than pothos. I removed some of the pothos stems which are just not thriving, the lower end of stem looking like it will rot. Three left which have nice roots, but theirs are brown where the sweet potato vine a more healthy-looking white.

They have grown so much in here, I had to trim a bunch of roots out on maintenance day. Some had reached all the way down to the substrate and were starting to loop around. This is after the trim: