Weekly Post 6: Merry Christmas

So its Christmas time again. I will not be posting to through the holidays until I release four posts on January 3.
Merry Christmas and thank you for viewing the blog.

Weekly Post 5: Co2 Puzzle

This week I have been faced with a problem I thought I just recently fixed. Once again there is water in the line of the Co2 system. I have ruled out fizz from the reactor because of the separator. My one lead is that the system is bound to have small leaks in it. Maybe the Co2 drops off between times when you shake it and water gets sucked in? Other then this the tank is doing good with strong plant growth and healthy fish. 

Chosing new fish

So I have decided to go the easy way with lighting by upgrading the hood of my aquarium instead doing a DIY LED job and I know what plants I will get once I get the new hood but I'm still trying to decide what to get for new fish. I currently have the three Platys and three minnows in the 29 gallon. I am looking at giving away the minnows as they are quite aggressive and attack each other and well be incompatible with peaceful fish. So the thing is which fish should I get. Here are the ones I have been looking at.

Neon Tetra

A very common and good looking aquarium fish. It is easy to keep very attractive and is not severely affected by hard or soft water which is good for me because my tap water is around GH 120 and over time the minerals tend to concentrate over time and water changes. They are also very good looking. But they put a considerable amount of strain on the tank because they need to be kept in schools of around fifteen or up. with my limited water capacity I might be better of to get some cardinal or rummy nosed tetras which also look similar but the rummy nosed can be kept in smaller groups.

Black Molly

These fish are quite a good choice for me as they can be kept alone or in small groups which but they also benefit the tank in other ways by eating away at algae including string algae which other species often avoid. also there streamlined shape and black colour contrast nicely with the boxy red bodies of my Platys. These are an almost guaranteed contender for my tank and I plan to get two to four of them.

Lemon Tetra

I actually quite like the like the look of the lemon tetra. It's shiny yellow scales, flat body and red ringed iris is more what you would expect from salt water fish. They also need to be kept in fairly large groups of eight or more. this would take my tank to about half of its capacity with my current fish so it limits what else it puts in. Also these fish dislike hard water which is what takes them out of the picture seeing mine at around GH 120 is quite hard. If not for this I would definitely have these at the top of my list.

Dwarf Gourami

These larger and social fish are very peaceful and come in a variety of colours they should be kept in pairs and have interesting social behaviour. I quite like the look of them but will wait till I have the schooling fish established before adding some.

Blue Ram

 The second larger fish I am considering also with interesting behaviour is the blue ram. These fish also need to be kept in pairs and are less shy then Gouramis. I like there colouration slightly less but they are slightly easier to keep in that they are less shy and thus less prone to shock.

Emperor Tetra

Lastly we have the possibility of the Emperor Tera. This peaceful and shy fish is very good looking in the tank and thankfully it can be kept in small groups so it doesn't put a large strain on my limited water space. I find its grayish blue colour and translucent fins a nice addition to the tank. It needs a good deal of plant growth though to hide in from more aggressive fish and to keep away from schooling fish.

In conclusion I haven't really figured out which fish I will pick yet but I have narrowed it down considerably.

Weekly Post 4: New Things to Come

So in a nutshell things in the tank are doing all right. I lost one plant from rough handling but the other few seem to be doing all right and excelling with Co2. They are low light plants though so I'll still need more light to get more variety. After inspecting the Co2 system a found a leak in the separator cap and after disconnecting it I beefed up the silicone and now I have one bottle running again. Fish seem to be doing fine except that the minnows seem  to be fighting each other. I'll have to give them to someone if before adding any more fish as I want to run a community tank. Other than that stay tuned for a How To on Co2 Production next week and on new weekly posts I will be putting in readings for Gh, Kh, pH, and nitrite and nitrate levels.

Plants in the Aquarium 3: Cover for Fish

As well as providing the operating surface for bacteria, production of oxygen and destroying toxic substances plants have one more important role to play in the aquarium. They provide cover and spawning areas for fish. Fish are not used to bare tanks. In the wild fish are surrounded by plants that provide cover from predators, block out light, provide places to spawn and places to rest. In a bare tank fish can lose colour, be stressed leading to illness and disease. Disease in a tank can spread extremely quickly and have high lethality rates if the fish are stressed out. Also the chance of fish spawning in a bare tank is next to nothing because they will be stressed and many fish lay there eggs in the leaves of plants. Lastly many fish come from partly blurred or muddy water and plants can give them a darker place to hide from the light. Beware though that the bright lights required to grow plants can stress some fish if there is no plants to shade them or hide under.

Leaky Co2 System

Over the last few days I have realized that somewhere in my Co2 system there was a flaw. I noticed that after several days the water would come part way up the tube. At first this seemed trivial because I would shake up the bottle, the yeast would be redestributed around the bottle and gas production would increase and the water would be pushed out the pipe. I thought at first that this was regular but as it happens every two days or so I started to get suspicious. Then I realized that there must be a leak because the gas would be pushed into the tank until the pressure on both sides of the diffuser was equal then it would stop. So there must be a leak in the system releasing pressure out causing a pressure difference causing water to come into the pipe.

Weekly Post 3: Decisions

Firstly everything in the tank is doing OK. The minnows are fighting but that's OK because i have a friend who will take them for his aggressive tank. The plants are doing decent, one unfortunately  is dying from damaged leaves but the others are growing and looking green with Co2 installed. Now I have to do a few things. Plug a leak in my Co2 system in one separator, and I also have to decide what lights I am going to put in. I will talk about this more in my next post.