Spawn of the Juvies

I have 7 juvenile half-wild silver angels in the 125 Buddha tank, along with 8 Denison's barbs, an orphaned black neon juvenile and 3 Otocinclus. I have plans in the future to sell the angels and stock with clown loaches, but in the meantime I want to grow out the angels a bit. The orphan black neon came from a Rena Filstar filter I was cleaning out on the deck, and I found it in the canister. The Buddha tank was the closest so I popped it in there. It is still pretty small so I suspect it was from a spawning in the 150 and the fry got sucked into the filter where it hung out for a while. Remarkable!

Over Thanksgiving my husband had a hunting accident, requiring hospitalization and a series of surgeries, and when we finally got home from the hospital I was on the phone with the surgeon when I happened to notice eggs on the valisneria leaves! I almost dropped the phone. "Sorry, Doc, I gotta go - my angels are spawning!"  No, I actually did finish the important conversation (husband doing fine now, by the way) and after hanging up I saw that two leaves were covered in eggs, and the pair were fanning and in the process of laying and fertilizing more. They were chasing off the other angels who approached, but nothing too nasty.

I was surprised, since these fish are only 3" from nose to tail, and have a bit of growing up to do, but I suppose it isn't too unusual. I guess they're happy!

In the video you can see they don't pay much attention to the barbs, but focus on the other angels. They did a pretty good job and kept the eggs going for about 4 days (not sure how long the eggs were present before I noticed them - I was in a hospital with my husband in Harrisonburg for 3 days) before they finally disappeared. I'm sure they'll have several more spawns before they actually get it right. It reminds me of the "Pregnant at 16" TV show - the babies are trying to make babies, lol.

Otos and Pearls

Sounds interesting, right? Actually, I've had a monster diatom outbreak in the 125, which otherwise houses 7 juvie wild-cross silver angels and 8 Denison barbs (adore these fish!). I'm not interested in keeping a pleco in this tank, though I've got plenty in my 150 and could spare at least one. Deborah was looking at the tank, and I was complaining about the diatoms, when she suggested a troop of otocinclus (Otocinclus vittatus, most likely). What a brilliant idea!

This tank is somewhat sparsely decorated, with just a few pieces of wood and rocks, and the Buddha sculpture dominating the back wall. I want to leave plenty of swimming room for the angels as they mature, though I may want to create more areas for them to claim as territories. At any rate, otos did not occur to me, but YIKES there is a lot of diatom algae! I added 5 and they're not exactly "going to town" on the algae like I had hoped, but you can see where work is being done. Fingers crossed.

These fish are notoriously tricky to get established, and, like cardinal tetras, they either die off soon after getting them or they live a nice long life. They are rumored to be collected using cyanide gas in the water to slow them down, which can certainly cause lasting damage, but whether or not that is true they are certainly likely to be somewhat starved while being shipped and kept in a dealer's tank. There is not much to eat for them in these (typically) pristine tanks, since they need algae, which is not usually present. I tried my best to pick some of the more robust of the fish available.

I also obtained a trio of Trichogaster leeri, or the pearl gourami. These fish are in the 45 gallon, recently vacated by the juvie angels. This is a pretty heavily planted tank with a large vertical planted driftwood structure at one end of the tank, going all the way to the surface, and this is ideal for any gourami, since they like to orient themselves next to a structure as they move from the top to the other areas of the tank. Chuck at Azalea Aquariums was able to choose a male and two females for me, and after getting them home I'm sure that's what I have (thanks, Chuck!). They are typically shy and these are no exception. I'm sure they'll relax a bit more in the coming weeks but they colored up beautifully and are very attractive specimens. They are one of my favorite gouramis. I've been wedded to South American species for a good long while now and I wanted to branch out to some Asian species, and that's why I have the Denison barbs as well. I'm not terribly worried about keeping a biotope in either the 45 or the 125, though the 150 is an approximation of one.

I'm hoping my new additions will settle in well and thrive, and I'll try to get some pics and video of these tanks to show off my new additions.

My plants are not doing that great in either setup, though the 45 is having better luck. The 125 is new, so I know the plants need a bit of time to settle in, but I don't think the light is strong enough. With a tank that deep you can't use the typical "watt per gallon" estimation of how much light you need. I'll see how things go after I get through the new tank diatom phase and see if the plants perk up. They're not dying, but they're not growing, either. I have jungle val and regular valisneria, anubias and java fern/moss. The usual suspects! I'm still not sure if I'll add any geophagus or other cichlids to the 125.

Shy Fish

I am accustomed to wild-caught species of aquarium fish showing a tendency to be shy. I believe even domestic discus can be shy as well, rushing off to a corner or turning to face the back glass of the aquarium when the tank is approached. My own wild leopoldi angels got over this, at least with me and my family, though they never showed themselves when I had guests.

Recently I hosted a meeting of my aquarium club, the Central Virginia Aquarium Society, and a good group was in attendance. My normally gregarious and frantic-for-attention orange-head Tapajos were sedate, almost tan in color, and were not looking like they usually do - this went on the entire time I had guests. I knew my leopoldi angel would hide - he always does, but I did not expect the geos to act this way. They didn't hide, but they did not look as glorious as usual. They appeared mildly stressed.

Last night I was looking at them, and the males had iridescent blue/white mustaches, vivid orange heads, iridescent blue stripes mixed in with the deep red stripes on their fins, and the sub-dominant males and females had the spangling and stripes one associates with this species - they were stunning! The mustaches on the males looked artificial - like they had been painted or lit from within like a neon sign.

I wish they'd had this appearance when I had company, but mainly I am intrigued by their response to visitors. Most aquarium fish seem quite oblivious and you assume they don't recognize you, their keeper, but maybe they are smarter than we realize. My wild angel is certainly very discriminating when it comes to being in open water versus hiding in his special cave formed by driftwood pieces. People who don't live with me but are very frequent visitors, like my sister, get to see this beautiful fish. Anyone else can only glimpse a stripe or two in the dim cave in a rear corner.

This is why I need photos and videos to showcase these amazing creatures!

My goldfish, my half domestic angels and my puffer do not seem to discriminate - they never hide or seem shy in the least. They're just always hungry so any being with thumbs is fair game for begging. My Denison's barbs, the lone occupants of my 125 currently, seem to recognize me and come up to the top corner where I usually feed them when I approach, but it took them a bit of time to figure this out. They do not seem to do this with visitors, but rather continue their endless cruising in mid-water.

Maybe it has to do with how many generations away from wild the fish are, but I'm almost certain the Figure-8 puffer was wild caught, since I don't think they're typically bred in captivity, though I might be wrong about that. He's just so desperate to eat that he doesn't seem to care who is doing the feeding, and will shamelessly beg. He's in a very busy part of the house, the kitchen, where two hallways intersect, with frequent foot traffic close by his tank, and I definitely think he prefers this to where his tank used to be, in my office, where there was much less activity.

The Angel Shuffle

Yesterday I added 3 juvenile angels, 50% wild x 50% domestic silvers, to the 150.

The single leopoldi angel rushed out to see, obviously excited to see angels that look similar to him. He has been interacting with them in a semi-aggressive manner, rushing toward them but never coming in contact. I think he is checking them out to see what they have in mind. They pretty much completely ignore him! They continue to poke around, eating voraciously, and don't seem to mind this giant angel getting into their business. I'm still watching things because this wild angel, who has been the only angel in the tank for quite a while, may not take kindly to conspecific interlopers. It might help when I add the extra two tonight, bringing the group of newcomers to 5.

I will then add the rest of the angels from the 45, which will be seven, to the 125 to grow out. Incidentally, when I used an aquarium volume calculator I determined that the 120 is in fact a 125 gallon, so I'll go back and edit my previous posts for continuity. I've got a SCHWEET piece of driftwood, a stumpy, branchy thing, soaking in my pool and I'm eager to get it waterlogged and in place in the 125 as a central feature. I really like how it looks now:

However, I simply must have this stump in the tank so this temporary scape will have to go. I never planned on keeping this arrangement, but was using the rocks from another tank as seed material, and the driftwood along the back is very nice that I collected from the James River, so I'll keep that, and some of the plants. I'll post pics once I get this stump in place.

I'll be adding Acarichthys heckelii (threadfin acara) to the 125 for the bottom. I was going to have them, then I wasn't, and now I think they'll be a good choice for this setup. I'll give up on the rooted plants, I think.

Then I'll have the 45 to empty out and redo. Am thinking about loaches and/or gouramis for that tank, since I have not had an Asian setup since my dwarf puffer tank. I know there are Denison barbs in the 125 (for anyone who is even remotely paying attention to this....) but I still consider the 125 to be essentially a SA tank.

More to come..

Flirting with Ferts

I've decided to start dosing my low-tech tanks with some simple ferts. I have no plan and am only using what I have on hand, which includes:

Seachem Root Tabs
Seachem Flourish Excel
Seachem Flourish Iron

I'm using the package directions and we'll see if I can detect an improvement in plant growth. My tanks have good lighting and no algae problems, so we'll definitely be able to determine if the ferts cause an algae outbreak or if the plants suddenly respond with new growth. I'm too lazy to calculate exact ratios of each specific nutrient and mix up a batch custom for each tank, so we'll see what happens.

If it seems to be helping then to save $$ I will likely need to go back to bulk ferts that I mix up myself in specific ratios, like I used to do when I had high light CO2 injected setups. That was a bit of a pain and, obviously, I gave it up for the time being, but we'll see. I'd like to see my plants look just a bit healthier.

The Trouble With pH

There's no trouble with pH, just kidding!!!

Well, sometimes there is. When you're importing your wild caught Altum angels you're probably going to be using R/O water and keeping your pH at 4-5 because these fish will keel over at the mere mention of neutral pH.

All kidding aside, some species, especially those collected straight from the wild, need to have the pH matched to their habitat to maintain them comfortably or to have them spawn for you, but oftentimes they can adapt slowly to the pH of your tap or well water.

However, for all the rest of us folks who mosey down to the LFS and admire the offerings, with plans to add them to our tank, or to set up a new tank with them, we don't have to worry about pH. I very, very rarely even test for it. When I was dosing CO2 into a high light, heavily planted tank I did measure pH as a way to monitor my CO2, but otherwise I don't test. I don't need to. I do plenty of weekly water changes (see the end of my last post for details about water changes) and this helps avoid Old Tank Syndrome, so I'm not worried about my pH dropping over time. It WILL drop over time in the presence of nitrogenous waste, and our tanks are a nitrogenous waste factory. Keeping up with the debris and excess nitrate will prevent a buildup of decaying material that acidifies the water, dropping the pH, and rendering the tank unstable. We do NOT want this!

So often I hear at pet stores or read it online that people need to adjust their pH. A customer will bring in a water sample to determine why the fish aren't doing well, and they always test the pH. The conversation goes like this: "Oh, I see your pH is at 7.4. We need to get that down to 7. Here's a product you can add to your water and it will take care of that for you. This is your problem." I have to speed walk out of there when I hear that, because I just might blurt something out involuntarily.

On the web I have read this type of thing as basic instructions for setting up a tank, or doing water changes. "Prepare your new water going into the tank with water conditioner for chlorine and chloramines, and then use your pH adjuster to get the pH to 7."  Click. I'm out.

Most currently available species of fish you'll find at the pet store or from your local hobbyist can do just fine in whatever pH your tap water might be. Honestly.

Years ago, in the early 80's when I was new to the hobby, I was told upon arriving at my new home in South Florida, with my fancy goldfish in the Coleman cooler after a 14-hour journey, that the tap water there was moderately hard and had a pH over 7, so it was not good for aquarium fish and would kill them. Wow! I had no idea! I collected 3-4 plastic 5-gallon water cooler jugs (the water was not safe for people, either! Wow!) and even used one glass 6-gallon carboy to tote water home from the grocery store water dispensing machine ($$). I am strong like bull and I did that for 9 years. I actually sold those goldfish when I moved back to Virginia, them having come from Virginia with me originally. Great fish. What I didn't know was that most aquarium fish are bred and raised in Florida, and, in fact, the water in Richmond, where I came from, is moderately hard and has a pH of ~7.4. Boy. I feel like a real dummy now, but, as mentioned in a previous post (kids, brace yourselves) there was no internet in 1984 and I relied upon the information provided in books and from the LFS. (People also did not carry cell phones back then, but I don't like to overwhelm anyone with prehistoric facts so we'll move on)

So, the upshot is, use your tap/well water and see how it goes. You'll need to test it for things like Nitrate (NO3), since excess nitrate is not uncommon in many water systems and even in wells that are close to farms, and that can cause algae problems and even health problems in the fish if it is at high enough levels. The pH is probably fine, and if it is on the alkaline side more's the better, since it will be easier to keep it there. When you start adding pH reducers then you're what we like to call, "chasing the dragon" and that means fighting the natural tendency of the water to creep up to a more alkaline level. Unstable and variable pH is harmful to fish, much more so than a steady higher pH.

I have kept, and still keep to this day, wild caught Leopoldi angelfish from the Rio Negro in Brazil in pH of 7.4 to 7.6 without any problems. I know they won't breed for me at that pH, and that's fine, but it does not affect health or vigor. They were adapted over a period of months and it went just fine.

At this point in my life, with young children at home, it would be too much of a pain for me to try to maintain tanks with low pH, with R/O systems and mixing vats, etc. It is doable, and plenty of people do it with great success, but I don't have the time to fool with it. Right now I am able to maintain 6 large tanks at home and 3 at work with straight tap water PWCs (Partial Water Changes) and everyone's happy and healthy, with an easy regimen that does not take me very long at all.

That's why I'm so glad that I can keep most available species of fish in my tap water just like it is without worry. You probably can too. This is the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Silly.

Feed Those Hungry Bacteria

I was doing a search on the web recently, trying to collect data about the exact process of seeding a new tank with bacterial colonies. I wasn't looking for information on HOW to do it (I've been doing this for many years) but specific measurements of when and if ammonia and nitrite are measurable, or do they never show up at all, and how many hours/days before nitrate shows up in a new tank that's been properly seeded. We all consider this to be "instantly" or "silently" cycling a tank, and I've never bothered to actually measure the process and see if I can measure anything happening, or if it is truly and indeed silent. My fish don't seem to be affected negatively and the tank seems to be cycled right away, and off I go.

I came up empty in my search, however. There was an abundance of information about seeding a tank, why it was a good idea, and how to do it, but no data collected in the process after it is done, and how long it can take.

What prompted this post was some disappointing advice I found being given over and over on general advice sites like Ask.com, and it is something I have run into frequently on the fish forums I frequent. People new to the hobby who are setting up a brand new tank have enough information to know that the tank has to be cycled, and they know the probably should not do it with fish, and it is at this point they are told to "seed" their new tank. Friends who have aquariums offer to help, and the new person will announce that their buddy is giving them a sack of gravel from their tank and they will pop that sack into their new tank, wait a couple of weeks for the bacterial colonies to grow, and then add their new fish. Another advice site had a person giving out lots of recommendations, since she said she had quite a few aquariums, and she said that you needed to set up your tank and let it run for a couple of weeks without fish to allow the "bacterial colonies" to establish before putting the fish in. She assured the reader that if they had any questions at all about their aquariums she'd be more than happy to help. Bless her heart.

I don't pretend to know everything about the freshwater aquarium hobby. Far from it. The more I learn the less I seem to know. I have killed a lot of fish from pure impatience or ignoring what I know to be true, thinking that maybe this time I can fudge the natural progression of a tank settling into stability. The good thing for me is that there was no internet when I was new to the hobby so I could not embarrass myself too badly on the worldwide web with my ignorance, because I'm arrogant enough to spout off at the mouth without really knowing what I'm talking about. Now I do it on my blog, where I'm allowed to spout whatever the heck I want! LOL!

However, I do know a few things, and one of the few simple truths about an aquarium is the nitrogen cycle. Ammonia produced by fish and inverts or decaying food will foster the colonization of bacteria that consumes this ammonia, which is extremely harmful to fish. The waste product of those bacteria is nitrite  (NO2), and another species of bacteria colonizes to consume that nitrite, which is also harmful to fish. The waste product of those bacteria is nitrate (NO3), which is harmful to fish but less so at low levels, and it is the NO3 that we control with water changes.

So we've got two sets of bacterial colonies that we must wait on to get their act together and make the tank inhabitable for fish. Every established tank you see, with fish swimming happily about in good health and eating well is loaded up with bacteria that render the fishes' waste harmless to them. It can take quite a while for this process to finalize itself - in experiments I've done it has taken as long as six weeks for a fishless cycle to complete. There are other factors, such as temperature and pH that affect the cycle, and different bacteria colonize in brackish and saline environments. It can be frustrating to wait, looking at this glass box of water that has no fish and no apparent purpose. If you don't have a source of seed material then a fishless cycle is the way to go, and that's what I'd do if I found myself with no other tanks and no friends with tanks. Just settle in and wait, and it will eventually happen, dosing the tank daily with pure ammonia. Ammonia is food for the bacteria and is mandatory for the cycle to happen.

What people with more than one tank have done for years is to "seed" the new tank with bacteria from the old tank. The bacteria in the filter of an established tank is a precious commodity, and we take care to protect it. We clean out our filters carefully, avoiding sterilizing techniques and being sure not to use chlorine-laden tap water to rinse out our sponges and pads.

I'm very glad to see lots of advice being given on the web about seeding a new aquarium to avoid New Tank Syndrome. This is great, and I'm glad this bit of news is getting out to newbies right off the bat, since it used to be you had to learn the hard way.

When I started keeping fish in the very early 80's as far as I knew there was no such thing as a "cycle," and ammonia removing chips were my friend. I was constantly battling ammonia spikes, cloudy water, and fish gasping at the surface. The advice I was given at the pet store was the following:

• You have to remove the ammonia with Ammo Chips in your filter. There's no other way to remove it, and if you don't your fish will die (this part, at least, was true).
• Don't do too many water changes - just top off the water when it evaporates for best results. Changing water screws up the natural balance the tank has achieved.
• If your water is even slightly hard out of the tap you can't use it for your aquarium - it will kill your fish. 

So, times have changed and the information has slowly tricked out there, so even though I'm still hearing pet store employees advising people to use pH adjuster to get their tap water to 7 (that is for another post, please don't get me started on that now....), for the most part new people to the hobby are starting out with more knowledge than I did.

What's wrong with the information provided about seeding a new tank? Well, the very important fact that the bacteria needs to be fed to stay alive. It will die (I wish I had a reference for you) within hours without a source of ammonia. When you get that sack of gravel from your buddy be sure the gravel was collected from only the surface, because lower than a few centimeters you've got anaerobic bacteria (reference goes here) and the bacteria we need for cycling a tank is aerobic bacteria (reference goes here). Once you get that gravel it will be better utilized, since the bacteria is aerobic, to place it in a filter, or at least hang the bag in front of the aquarium outflow, so water flows over it. Lying in a lump at the bottom of the aquarium, in a corner where there may be very little water flow depending on the filtration and flow you have in your tank. it will likely do you no good, the bacteria dying without access to the ammonia in the water column.

This is why the advice to set up your tank and run it for a couple of weeks to let the biological bacteria accumulate is nonsense, because in the absence of ammonia, which I presume is the case in a newly set up aquarium, no bacteria will grow. Bacteria needs to be fed, and if you don't have your fish at the ready that seed material is going to go to waste. High or low temps will kill it as well, so be careful when you transport it from one tank to the other.

Think of it like a heart transplant - have the needy patient (your new tank of fish) ready and willing to accept the gift of the new heart (bacteria) and while no ambulance or police escort is required, put the dirty filter material or gravel seed material in a cooler or other container that will maintain the tank temperature and conditions until you can get it into the new tank, where it can go right to work oxidizing ammonia. If you've got your own established tank then you can just walk it over to the new tank and get it in place quickly for the best results. You can start your new tank filter on an established tank for at least two to four weeks to get it seeded, and be sure the filter material has brown goop on it - that's the good stuff! I tend to run at least two filters on most of my tanks so I can mix and match, swap and reap the benefits of bacterial colonies at the ready.

I know that as long as there is the World Wide Web there will be all kinds of information supplied, and it is up to us to do our own research and determine whether the source can be trusted. I'm sitting here polluting the Web with my own opinions and experiences and some may disagree with me (please comment if you do - I'm a big girl and can handle it, and it would let me know that someone out there is reading all this crap I write), but I have achieved some degree of success by doing a few things:

• Protect your bacteria - it can be delicate. Feed it and provide the proper environment for it to thrive and don't disturb the tank much at all for a few months after the cycle is complete. A well intentioned gravel vac on a brand new setup can cause a mini-cycle. Even your betta bowl is cycled, so when you dump it out every week (yes, every week, the betta will thank you for it) don't scrub the sides or the substrate too much. Your bacteria is there doing God's work for you. 
• Change your water. Every week. Even if it is only 10% do it regularly. Once I began doing water changes like clockwork my tanks became very stable, without illness or water quality problems of any kind. This might be the best thing anyone can do to maintain a healthy tank. 
• Overfilter
• Change your water.
• Be patient in all things Aquarium. 
• Stock carefully and pay attention to your fish and their behavior with each other. Remove anybody causing problems. When you remove this troublemaker now you can set up another tank! Yay! 
• Change your water. Every week.
• Plants almost always help keep a tank stable, if you have fish that won't eat them. There are several species of plant that don't require substrate and are hard to kill for all you people out there who think they have Black Thumbs. I'll bet you can do it. Try, anyway. A little bit of fluorescent or natural light and some fish to provide nutrients and you're probably going to have success with plants like Java fern, Java moss, Anubias sp., water sprite and even duckweed. Crypts are pretty easy too, with low lighting requirements for the most part, though they are heavy root feeders and need a good layer of gravel or sand. 
• The final recommendation, if you do NOTHING else, change your water. 

The Silent Cycle. Sort of.

My plans are coming together and it is time to put some fish in the 120. I will start with some Gambusia, or mosquito fish, which were collected locally and live in a large tub on my deck, eating mosquito larvae. This has definitely made a dent in the mosquitoes we encounter outside.

I put 7 full-bodied females in the tank, and the next day I took the gunky Filstar XP3 off the goldfish tank at work, which is a 45 gallon and houses 5 fan-tailed goldfish about the size of walnuts or ping-pong balls. I figured the filter, which has not been cleaned in a while, would have more than adequate biobugs for the Gambusia. I brought it home and removed one of the clean XP3's off the 120, swapping it out for the dirty one from work. I then put the clean one on the 45 at work for the goldfish.

Typically in a well established tank you can literally replace the filter completely with a brand new one without showing signs of a cycle. I would not do this on a tank that was set up less than 6 months ago, though, because it is easy to cause a mini cycle by this type of disruption. I have even created a mini-cycle by being too aggressive cleaning substrate in a tank that was younger than 6 months. The 45-gal at work has been set up and stable for a year.

Cut to 12 hours later and I tested the water. I typically don't do this when I seed on a massive scale like this (using the whole filter off of an established tank with a heavier bioload than the new tank), but I was having a discussion about silent cycles and seeding new tanks on the CVAS forum, so I wanted to document how a silent cycle might progress. To my surprise, I found 0.25 ppm NH3, or ammonia. There was zero NO2, or nitrite, and 5 ppm NO3. The fish appeared perfectly normal and happy, and the water was crystal clear.

12 more hours pass and I'm getting the same readings. I started to wonder about my so-called "silent" cycle, and was surprised that I was seeing the ammonia, though a low reading. I don't like seeing ammonia at all, since any exposure at all can be permanently damaging to the gills of a fish (Reference Here). I decided to take action, though I could have waited another day, perhaps. I think this kind of thing is typical, but since when I do my usual seeding procedure I never test the water and everything works out peachy. I go by the appearance and behavior of the fish, and have never had a problem to date, so it never occurred to me to test the water right after the new tank is seeded.

Anyway, I took some gunky filter sponges off my snail tank filter (AC30) and squeezed that goop into the 120, which clouded everything up, of course, but, lo and behold, 12 hours later I was showing zero ammonia, zero nitrite and 5 ppm nitrate. The cycle is done!

However, this is not the time to stock willy nilly. Patience is required, especially at this delicate point. The tank is very vulnerable to a mini cycle now and I must be careful not to disturb the decor, substrate or filters for several weeks, at least - the longer you wait the better. I will add stock, though, since I'm not going to keep the Gambusia in this tank - they're needed back outside. Our warm weather can linger well into October so mosquitoes will be with us for a while to come. I'll be replacing the Gambusia with the Denison's Barbs soon, since the ones I'm looking at are about the same size as the Gambusia, and will have almost identical bioload.

After they're settled in for a couple of weeks I'll add a few angels, but I might add about 6 angels at once and add more seed material at that time for insurance. These angels are still small, about quarter to half-dollar size in the body, but when it comes to cichlids they can be territorial, so adding one, then another, then another later on might be a bad idea - the newcomers will almost certainly be bullied by the ones already there that have set up a territory.

Since I have so many established tanks up and running right now it won't be hard to get more seed material when I add the angels. MTS is paying off!

Stocking the 120

One of the most enjoyable parts of a home display aquarium is planning. What to use for substrate, what to use for hardscape and decor, planted or not planted, biotope or not, lighting, filtration, etc. I love every aspect.

For this 120-gallon I did not have to decide much about the equipment, substrate and decor, because I'm determined to use what I already have to keep my costs down. Having so many different setups over so many years I have quite a collection of equipment and supplies.

A word on filtration:  This tank came with two Rena Filstar XP3 filters, and this is one aspect that made me choose to answer this particular ad on Craig's List. I have several other Filstar filters, including an XP4 on the 150, an XP1 on the 45, and an XP3 on the 45-gallon goldfish tank at work. One great thing about these filters is that the hose connection is identical on all different sizes, so I can take the body of the filter away and put another size on the tank and the connector will fit - plug and play, so to speak. I had been using the XP1 on the goldfish tank at work (it came with the tank) but that is inadequate for a filthy goldfish tank of that size, so I simply left the hose connector assembly on the tank when I removed the body of the XP1, since when you lift the handle to remove the hoses from the body of the filter it closes a valve, so you don't lose your siphon in the hoses. I brought an XP3 in and connected it under the tank, and away we went. I put the XP1 as extra filtration on the 45 at home, and it snapped right on. This is a very handy feature of these filters.

Also, since the two XP3 filters on the 120 are both brand new with all clean media, I can take the well cycled, gunky XP3 filter off the 45 at work and bring it home and it will fit right onto the hose assembly of one of the filters on the 120, and take the clean filter body to work and snap it into place like it was there all along, thus seeding my 120 (when fish are added). Another great benefit of having multiple tanks with similar equipment!

Back to planning:  The main thing I need to decide is what to stock in this tank. As previously mentioned, I had plans for a native tank, which I have always wanted to do, and I feel that a large tank is required for most native species. However, after researching the natives I decided they were not really what I want right now.

In keeping with my desire to set up this tank with things I already have, I'll plan on putting in some of the angels growing out in my 45. They're getting some size on them now and since there are 11 of them in this tank I'll need to remove some pretty soon. Some are destined for the 150, but I can't keep all of them in that tank, either. I'd like to retain a pair for the 45, but no more than that. These are great-looking wild-type angels with impressive finnage already.

Next, I'll put some of the Geophagus "Tapajos" in the 120 as well, maybe just 3 or 4. When you look at the bottom of this tank it is not really all that much room, not like a 5 or 6' tank would have (which is really more appropriate - most species want lateral space rather than height), so I don't want to load up the bottom. However, I DO admire the Geophagus altifrons, which is a larger species but very impressive, and I could have a pair in this tank. I'll start out with some red-head Tapajos since I have them on hand but I will plan on the G. altifrons at some point in the future.

Now, we need some sort of dither fish, don't we? I was inclined to stick with what I have and put black neons and rosy tetras (H. bentosi, H. rosacea) but I wanted something different, and I found it. I'm going to add some Puntius denisonii. These are NOT true to the biotope by any means, coming from India, and are expensive and large schooling fish, but this is a species that I have wanted to keep for a very long time. I just love their markings and they truly do school very well. They get about 6" long, so you need some space for them, and I think they will round out the stocking of the 120 very nicely.

The angels are the only wild cards here, since it is impossible to determine in advance whether a group will get along, since pairing is inevitable and a pair of angels can be a problem, even in a large tank. We'll have to wait and see. Fortunately, I have the two other tanks where I can shuffle the angels around, or sell some off if  I have issues.

Denison's barbs, aka torpedo barb, redline shark, roseline shark, etc. are peaceful for barbs, and are apparently endangered in the wild. They are not cheap, either! I saw some on Drs. Foster and Smith for $38 per fish. My local PetSmart has them for $9.99 and I think that is a bargain. I've seen some that did not look so hot there, but they were very small and may still have retained some juvenile markings that I did not recognize, but they could have been hybrids. I'll save my money and bide my time.

Once I decide to stock the tank I'll be able to move the filter over from the 45 at work and hook it to the hose assembly for one of the XP3's on the 120, and take the uncycled filter off the 120 and put it on the tank at work. That tank is mature enough to handle having a new filter, and the seeded filter will jump-start the cycle on the 120. I'll probably start with some of the Denison barbs to get thing started with the seeded filter and once I'm confident we've got a cycle completed (a silent one, I hope) then I'll add some of the angels.

This is fun!

Enter the 120

It's here, it's here, it's here! A few days ago I picked up a pristine 120-gal aquarium with stand and canopy, and got a very, very good deal through Craig's List. It came with TWO Rena Filstar XP3 filters, along with an Emperor 400 HOB, plus media, fitted hinged glass tops, and a 4x36w (?) T5HO fixture made by Solar Systems Lighting, a company with which I am not familiar and I can't locate any information on them online. There was also quite a few other items that were sent along with the tank, including a large pirate ship wreck bubbler decoration, a skull decoration, a large cave decoration, air pumps, powerheads, plastic plants, a 5-gal bucket of gravel, etc., etc.

This is a 4' tank so it fit quite easily into the intended location, and the space looks meant for it. The tank is completely unscratched (erm, at least it was before I took ownership.....) and is a great dimension, being 25" front to back and 24" high.

The cabinet was brought in, and then Rick and my next door neighbor, Paul, who was kind enough to help, brought the tank in. Interestingly, as indicated in my post below, 30 Gallons, Shmerty Gallons, the tank holds 30 gallons less volume than my 150 (amazing feats of mathematical wizardry, I know!) but the glass is thinner than the 1/2" glass of the 150, and it weighs half as much empty, at about 200 pounds. This is a huge issue in terms of moving a tank this size. I guess going up that 30 gallons plus being longer, at 5', means it required thicker glass and a glass brace. I don't know, but am glad this tank is almost as big and nowhere near as heavy. Rick is happy as well.

Rick then began working on leveling the tank and being sure it was sound, and there were no issues - I think we found the one single piece of floor in our house that is actually level.

Meanwhile, I began scrubbing out the XP3's that I would use on the tank. I'll save the Emperor 400 for another setup or sell it at our club auction. The filters had been drained out but they were still wet, stinky and gunky with mulm, so the pads and ceramic rings needed a lot of rinsing with the hose set to "power wash." I noted that the previous owner did not utilize much in the way of mechanical filtration, but both filters were loaded up with very coarse gravel and ceramic rings. The tank used to house oscars so I know they were right on target to have so much filtration, of whatever type. I will use a bit more in the way of mechanical filtration to polish the water, with regular poly floss. It requires a bit more attention but is worth it.

I then decided to take the second black acrylic overflow box out of storage, which used to be siliconed to the inside of the 150 (a drilled tank when I got it) and park it in the back left corner of the 120 to hide my filter intake and outflow, similar to what I did with the first box in the 150. For that tank, I cut slots into the acrylic corner box to permit flow of water to the intake, but that tends to clog with bits of debris and the subwassertang and java moss plants that sometimes go rogue on me. I decided to drill holes into this box, and that's what I did. The box is just two sides, meant to be siliconed to the side of the aquarium to create the box, but I just prop it against the side of the tank so I don't have to commit to the location.

I spaced the holes and put what I consider to be enough of them to permit flow of water, eyeballing their placement more or less evenly, and placed it in the tank, hiding the equipment, which is my goal in life when setting up an aquarium. It truly is the foundation of my aquascape and that's where I always begin. The design of the setup always kind of declares itself, in a form follows function sort of way, once I determine what I will use to hide the hardware.

It is important to hide the hardware, but at the same time care must be taken not sacrifice proper flow of water to the intakes and not block the outflows, though the intake is much more important. The outflows will blast the water no matter what you've got jammed up against them.



In this pic you see the holes drilled into the short side, but there are also holes drilled in the long side as well. I did pretty well eyeballing the grid pattern! I am SO impatient and could not be bothered to lay out a grid before drilling away. I got lucky this time, but recommend careful planning to anyone - this is something you'll be stuck with for a long time so it pays to do things right.


Next I gathered up the substrate, which in this case, as in most all of my tanks, sand. I just love the way it looks, and since this tank will most likely house eartheaters of some species or another, I'll stick with sand to be safe. If I keep natives they encounter sandy bottoms in their natural habitats so it won't hurt there, either.

Aside:  I am almost against the idea of natives for this tank now. I know I had plans to turn a large tank into a native setup, with sunfish, darters and whatever else I might find, but mainly sturdy sunfish of some description. In my research I'm just not feeling excited about them, though the pumpkinseed and blue spot sunfish are very appealing. I just don't know how to discern where to collect them locally - all we seem to have are bluegill, and I'm definitely not a fan - something about their faces! I think I'll start out with a few of the G. red-head Tapajos I already have, some of the angels I'm growing out, and, for a schooling species...... I'll get into THAT later.

I dug around in my eaves where I store all my aquarium equipment, past and present, and found a sack of clean, dry cichlid sand, which is black and white, like salt and pepper. I also had a sack of clean, dry Aragamax sand from my friend, Deborah, who had some extra and gave it to me for this tank. The two collections of sand, blended together, make a nice mix, so I added that, and it is just about enough. It took remarkably little sand to cover the bottom. I think for eartheaters I'll need a bit more for them to play with, but I can rob more out of the 150, which has too much sand. I also have more Aragamax sand up in the eaves that used to be in the 37-gal stored up there.

The tank came with some Mopani driftwood, which is always nice, and I took some leftovers of my own and propped them with some rocks against the overflow box. I have A LOT of rocks in my possession, after a few very fruitful collection trips to the mountain streams in Bath County and nearby.

I think I will go on a hunt for more driftwood, or, more specifically, a small stump that will still have branchy roots. Or, at least something pretty branchy and not slab-like, which is what you typically find commercially available for the aquarium trade. After that I will plant some valisneria and maybe cabomba, with rocks protecting the rooted bases from the geos, and call it a day. I like the simple and clean look this tank has, and I'm not going to jam it up with cairns or rockwork and plants stuffed everywhere, like in the 150 and the 45, which is so cluttered up I honestly don't know if I'll keep it like that. I'm picturing some moody dim lighting, sand, and round, smooth river rocks, plus driftwood. If I can have some branchy pieces of wood that go from the surface down to the substrate, it will mimic a SA river, like Rio Orinoco, for instance, which doesn't have much in the way of plants but has reeds and branches submerged. Rick commented that the tank looked "Zen-like" after I placed a few round rocks and a single valisneria plant, and I'm going to try to keep it this way. Try. It might be hard, as my tendencies are to move the aquascape up and down and all around the tank, but I'll really make an effort!

I forgot to mention that this tank came with a canopy that matches the stand. The canopy is simply a frame that rests on the top rim of the tank, and is open on the top in front, closed in the back, so apparently you would reach into the opening at the top to lift the glass top to feed, etc. Well, for someone who is 5'0" tall this is not very practical. The stand is not terribly tall, not nearly as tall as the stand for the 150 (this is why that tank looks so much more imposing than the 120) but adding this canopy, which is not hinged and does not lift away from the tank easily, makes it more of a challenge for me, and I'd have to get on a stool every time I wanted to feed the fish. I won't use it now, though maybe someday in a different location I will. I'm keeping it in storage, like everything else! It is in perfect condition so it will prove useful someday.

As for lighting, the fixture that came with it is a 36" fixture, which is short for the tank from a visual standpoint, and it has a silver polished aluminum surface like a Coralife fixture. It has 4 CF straight-pin bulbs, 2 actinic and 2 6500K. I am not using the actinic and will have to replace those for FW use.

 I have a Current Nova Extreme fixture that is 48" long, 2x54w T5HO and is slim and black, with legs, which would look nicer on this tank. This fixture is essentially new, sitting in storage for years, but the bulbs were burnt out so I've ordered new bulbs and when they come in I'll try that on this tank. The tank is viewed from a distance in the kitchen so you really notice things like the light fixture propped on the top, so I'd like it to look neat and tidy. The 150 has a hinged hood that hides all sorts of things, so it doesn't matter much what I put up there for lights, or how I attach them.

Here's a pic right after setup and filling, and you can see the shims on the floor, which have since been chiseled off flush and the ends of the shims colored in with brown magic marker to make them less conspicuous against the floor. The tank is a bit cloudy right now with some sand dust, but that since cleared.

The rocks and wood are not in their final position. More to come....

30 Gallons, Shmerty-Gallons.....

Well, the tank build idea has fizzled, since it seems that the effort and expense for the components alone are costly. Now I'm more certain than ever that people are getting WAY too little for their large tanks when they unload them. The small ones have thin glass and actually could be built DIY pretty easily, but these large ones, with the necessarily thicker glass, are much more expensive. It is no longer a $1 per gallon proposition, that's for sure. 

When you factor in the cost of all of the materials, glass cut to fit for the panels as well as center bracing, silicone, straps to hold things together as it cures, the wood, paneling and molding plus paint to build a stand and canopy, much less the filters, lighting, substrate, etc. it gets very expensive (not to mention the beer and pizza you'll need for the guys helping you balance giant sheets of glass!).

So, its back to Craig's List. Not that I mind - it is a fun place to go to peruse the listing of people's castaways and treasures. Sometimes you stumble upon some very interesting things. Just from an aquarium standpoint I saw listings for a 130-gallon cube tank, which is a unique dimension, as well as a 200-gallon cube (sort-of), which would also make a stunning centerpiece. Then there's the acrylic wonders in cylindrical shapes and curved shapes, plus the truly monster tanks of 600 gallons and more that are for sale out there, supposedly meant for the lobby of a building or a restaurant. There are "man cave" bar tanks, retail counter top tanks, and on and on. I also saw some ridiculous prices being asked for very small tanks, like $350 for a 10-gallon tank and stand, for instance. When you consider the people selling 55-gallon tanks for $35, it is hard to justify! That's the other thing I noticed: there is a glut of 55-gallon tanks out there. This must be the universally most popular tank size. 

I saw some serious candidates for my purposes in the form of 110-gallon tanks that are 4', which seems to be the most common length for a 110-gallon tank. Other large tanks are more likely NOT 4' in length, so I have to be sure to check, but 110's seem to be 4' more often than not. I did see a 110 that appeared to be like two 55-gallons placed end-to-end, in that it was a very long but narrow tank. I'd love to have a 6' or 7' tank someday, but not this time.

One of the 110's looks to be in pristine condition, and comes with a stand and a hood, at a very reasonable price (again, really a steal when you break down what everything cost new) but it has nothing but the tank and the stand/canopy - I'd have to save more money for lighting and filtration. The rest of the stuff I already have, but I need decent filters, or build a sump if it is drilled. 

Aside:  That is the other issue when contemplating a large tank - a sump type filtration method is the most practical and efficient way to filter, but you've got to be very careful with your bulkhead seals and your overflows, and rig up a siphon break mechanism so if the power goes out your tank doesn't drain into your sump and onto your floor. They also tend to be noisy, and this may or may not be a factor depending on where you put it. For me, I would not mind if I heard some splashing or bubbling in my living room, but I've never had a sump and I'd have to take a crash course. I wound up siliconing thick glass panels over the drilled holes in my 150 for this reason - I just went with canister filtration. This would not be a deal-breaker for this current tank search, but must be considered. Always ask if the tank is drilled when buying second-hand. As a freshwater fishkeeper I have the luxury of going either way with filtration.

The other 110-gallon tank I was looking at has an excellent Eheim Professionel III filter, which is worth A LOT of money all by itself (more than what was being asked for the entire setup), plus a canopy and lighting, but no stand. I'd have to either build one or find one. I was doing some research on finding a 110-gallon tank stand, but I had zero luck even finding one for sale that would fit. Building it would not be a problem, since we could use the model of the stand for my 150, which is an excellent design and we certainly have the tools and the skills, but it would mean time and effort and money for quality lumber, paneling and molding, then primer and paint. I'm not really interested in a DIY project like that now, especially since we nixed the idea of building our own tank. 

So I kept looking. I figured at some point someone would be practically giving away a complete setup, or if it was only the tank/stand/canopy for super cheap then I'd just leave it empty until I could afford the filtration and lighting. I was not in a rush, for once! I had seen some filters and light fixtures being offered on Craig's List as well, so I could get the components piece meal.

Then I found it, though it is 30 gallons smaller than I had originally intended for this space. A 4' 120-gallon setup, with stand, canopy, CF lighting (with brand new bulbs, they were careful to point out), two Rena Filstar XP3 filters plus a Penguin 330 double HOB filter, driftwood and substrate (likely won't use the substrate - I already have sand). This tank measures 48 x 24 x 25 or thereabouts, and this is a perfect dimension for my 58" wall space. Everything I need is included, which means I don't have to purchase anything. I have rocks, tons of rocks, plus extra driftwood in the Gambusia (mosquito eater) tub that sits on the deck. 

I also have fish to go in it, which will be some of my baby angelfish that are growing rapidly in my 45, plus some black neons and rosy tetras. I have heaters and everything I might need.

I made arrangements to pick up the tank Saturday. It is in the Lynchburg area, which means a 2-hour drive, but it is worth it for what I'm getting for the price. He insists the tank and stand are "pristine" and worth a lot more than he's asking, which is definitely true based on what he's listed. This tank ought to weigh about 200 pounds empty, as I think it has thinner glass than what was used in my 150 (1/2" glass for the larger tank) so it won't weigh near as much, and the seller is confident we'll be able to move it. 

Since I have the 150 overfiltered with a Fluval FX5 and a Rena Filstar XP4, I can take the XP4 off the 150 and put it on the 120, plus one of the XP3's, and put the extra XP3 on the 150 with the FX5. This is a lot of X's and numbers, but you get the idea. 

I definitely could filter the 150 with the FX5 alone, but I'm nervous about having all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, and I like to have 2 filters on my larger tanks. I've got an XP1 and an Eheim Classic 2215 on the 45, which seems to be barely enough filtration, for some reason, though technically the Eheim ought to do the job by itself. I like to have my biobugs spread out, especially if there is a tank crash somewhere I can take a filter off one tank and use it in an emergency, leaving the other filter running. Or, if a filter fails (I have never really had this happen in 20+ years) there'll still be another one on there to do the job. 

That said, I could technically filter the 120 with the XP4 alone, but I don't consider that to be adequate by any means, or maybe its just my skewed idea about how to filter a tank. This method has worked very well for me so far, though, so I'll continue to overfilter! 

Here is a handy link to AqAdvisor, a site that calculates the filtration you have/need based on the size of the tank, the type of filter(s) you have running (it can accept up to 2 filters) and the stock you have in the tank, including a way to account for juvenile fish and their smaller size. They utilize drop-down menus and you select the species and how many of each fish, what filter you're using, and it tells you if you have adequate filtration for your setup. It also notifies you of incompatible species, and special requirements of certain species. The database is quite large, so you are bound to find your exact species or a close approximation for the calculator. 

What I like is that when they factor in the type of filter(s) you're using, they base the calculations on 65% of the manufacturer's recommendation for tank size. This takes into account the real life applications with filter media, etc., and is a more realistic view of what a filter can do for a certain size tank. I've always felt the manufacturers were extremely generous when rating their filters, so this reassures me that the estimate you get on AqAdvisor is closer to an accurate estimation.

Sooooooo...... according to that site, even with just the FX5 on the 150-gallon I'm something like 300% of the recommended filtration! Lol! I guess I should not worry about putting the XP4 on the 120 then, huh? That is a fun, fun, fun calculator, and you ought to try it out, even for a future fantasy setup. It is very helpful. 

I will cross my fingers that everything goes well with this tank move and I'll post pics and provide updates once I've got it up and running. 

There is one other important factor that may have gone unnoticed unless you read the previous post. My dogs, a bullmastiff named Major and a Great Dane mix named Sirius, are fixin to be displaced! There is a very large crate in the room, about the size of a refrigerator turned on its side, which is used daily when we're gone (Sirius), and the door is always open so one or the other of the dogs goes in there to use it like a cozy den when we're home. I need to find a place for the general purpose dog bed, though, and I could get away with a smaller one. They don't spend a lot of time on that bed but they DO use it, and I feel a bit guilty taking their spot right by the door. I'll come up with something....

All right, all right, I'll build it MYSELF!

I have an area of my living room that needs an aquarium. I have a 50" TV on one side of a very large stone fireplace, and another space on the other side of the fireplace that begs to be filled. Right now I have shelving on the wall and the very large dog bed on the floor for my Great Dane and Bullmastiff. 

When I got my 150-gallon aquarium (if you read way back in my posts I'm sure I mention this issue) I had planned on putting it next to the fireplace, but that is a 5' tank and the space between the wall and the hearth is about 58.5". Doh! I found another place for it in the next room, no biggie, but I have ever since wanted a tank for that spot, and not a small tank. 

I'm looking for a 4' 150-gallon, or something similar that can fit in that spot. I've seen a few of these on Craigslist but they want way more than I can spend for them. Considering I paid $300 for my 150-gallon, including a very solid stand and matching hinged hood, I am expecting a real steal for my next big tank.

My husband and I are talking now about building the tank ourselves. There are some issues, of course, and one is the material we'll use. Glass is easy to maintain but a tank that size will be pushing 400 pounds empty. My current 150 is a beast to move so acrylic has appeal. However, acrylic scratches, and I'm assuming I'll be wiping the algae off it (I always have a little bit in my tanks) on the inside. 

One of the members of my club, Central Virginia Aquarium Society, is trying to get started in the acrylic tank building business, and I'm going to join forces, I think, and see if we can get a custom tank built for me. It is really going to depend on cost, for sure, but I'm determined to make this happen!

Foiled Again!

Today I had a buyer for my Geophagus red-head "Tapajos" (orange head, red head? I don't know!) and last time I sold fish from this group I snatched them up in the dark early in the morning. I caught 4 on one occasion and another 4 the next week when I had another buyer.

I plan on keeping most of the rest of them since I want to grow them out and see what I get in terms of pairs, but I promised 4 more to a Central Virginia Aquarium Society club member, Alleykat (thanks, Chris!) but I was able to catch only 3. They really got wise to me this time and dove for the rocks. The group was getting really stressed so I had to stop trying.

This is the problem with selling fish out of a display, but I don't really have anything but display tanks, so that's how it will have to be. :-/

Once they get 6-7 inches it will be harder for them to hide, though, and I can thin the group out more then.

A Banner Day!

Here's some pics of Peckoltia L147, which is a species that is often accidentally caught with Clown Plecos (Panaque maccus), so they are often sold as such. I received the fish from a member of my fish club, the  Central Virginia Aquarium Society (thanks, Donald!).

My daughter named her (we're pretty sure this is a female) Banner, because of the flag-like tail fin extension. She's now in my 150 gallon with lots of hiding places, and she's staked out a cave for herself. I don't expect to see her out and about much, but I can drop food into her vicinity easily. This is not a pleco that is going to suck on the glass and scrape algae, but will dine on sinking veggie/catfish tablets for the most part.

She's about 6" long with the tail (as you can see she barely fits into the fish transfer box) and is full grown.

*Cue the Choir Singing*

Only a matter of HOURS after adding the Tetra SafeStart, I am measuring zero nitrite and 5 ppm nitrate, zero ammonia. This is a wonderful product. I think my little issue was temporary anyway, and likely would have resolved in the coming days anyway, but I don't like to have any measurable nitrite in my tank and this was easy enough to resolve. I'm very impressed and relieved!

I shut down the bubbles and all the fish are acting like the greedy little pigs they are! My lil' Angels.....

You Can't Win for Losing (what does that even MEAN?)

I had a bit of an issue today. Yesterday I got a plant assortment ("low light") that included 12 species of plant, but I got extras of some species. These plants came in looking wonderful, and I have to give a shoutout to Mike's Wet Pets  on Aquabid. What a load of wonderful healthy plants it was! 

Cabomba purple (really purple) and green; hornwort (a bit the worse for wear, but anyone who has shipped this plant knows to expect this); three varieties of java fern, with the regular M. pteropus, the lace windelov, and then a third variety that I can't for the life of me remember the name of - the leaves are large and long with a single split on each leaf, like the thumb on a mitten; two Crypt species, the wendtii and spiralis; several pots of anubias, coffeefolia and I don't know what else, valisneria (at least 10 separate plants) and several of those large and clumsy-looking jungle vals. All of the plants are very healthy so I'm thrilled. 

I put the cabomba and hornwort in the snail tank (I removed the Gambusia from this tank previously - definitely eating the snails!) and put some extra valisneria in there as well, along with a pot of Anubias for safekeeping until I know what to do with them. I'll definitely have too much so I'll share with friends.

I have had only a thin layer of sand in the 45 because I had plans to put Geos in there, so I needed more sand for the rooted plants. The 150 has too much sand, though the geos really do enjoy digging around in it and when they are larger they'll move more of it around. However, I could spare about 4-6 cups out of there no problem, and it is the same type of sand in both tanks. I scooped it out and gently poured it into target areas of the 45 where the plants would be placed, along the back and left side, and in the middle in a hollow made by a driftwood branch. I planted the jungle vals and the regular valisneria along the back, where tall narrow plants are needed, and the spiralis crypt on the left next to the C. walkeri that I brought home from Rufus' tank (the red betta) at work. I planted the C. wendti in the middle of the tank where the driftwood branch splits. That piece of driftwood is just a narrow split branch so it frames the plant beautifully.

I placed the java fern and Anubias pieces around here and there and got things like I wanted. The fish were out and absolutely loving the plants, poking around in them and enjoying the cover they provide. I stayed up to 2:00 am watching the tank. It was a tiny bit cloudy initially from adding that fine dusty sand (I rinsed it outside on the deck prior to putting it in since it had not been properly rinsed when it went into the 150 originally) but cleared by the time I went to bed. I got video for my YouTube channel.

This morning the angelfish looked odd, not acting ill or gasping at the surface but all clustered around the driftwood in a way they don't usually do. The rams were begging for food and the single cardinal and the bentosi tetras were skittering around like they do when they know I'm going to feed them. I decided to test the water and found low levels of NITRITE! Yikes. The tank is cycling. Lawd-a-Mercy.

The key to this mystery, however, is something I found when I planted the new plants: anaerobic pockets in the existing sand. I could not believe it. I could smell the rotten egg smell and saw that the old sand was darker when I planted. WHAT??? There was scarcely a 1/4" of it in that tank! Most of the bottom had rocks on it anyway, and the underside of the rocks were black. No actual bubbles came up when I did the planting, so I didn't think it was too bad. 

I did a very large water change last night after that discovery but I'm sure that is why the tank cycled, or I'm guessing so. I had not messed with the filters or removed anything from the tank - only added heavily rinsed sand and a ton of plants. I also put 2wpg on the tank to get the plants going - I have a pair of Coralife double-bulb strips from the 40-gallon I recently took down, with each strip having 2 21-watt T5 bulbs, and that is very nice lighting, so I'm hopeful the plants will be able to get rolling and oxygenate the water. I left the lights on all night to give the plants a boost, since the lights are off all day.

This morning after discovering the issue (no ammonia and low nitrate) I cranked up the bubbles big time, since I had cut them back to a mere trickle and may eliminate them altogether if the plants suffer from it, and added SafeStart, that Biospira additive from Tetra that I've kept on hand for emergencies. I started using BioSpira when it first came out as a Marineland product, one that had to be kept refrigerated, and it gradually became unavailable. It was sold to Tetra, and either Marineland developed it into a bottled additive that could be stored at room temperature on the shelf, or Tetra did after buying it. At any rate, I saw it advertised and have been pleased with how it helps to cycle a new tank.

I also went over to the 150 and scrounged around for some trumpet snails, and added them to the sand in the 45. I know the rooted plants are going to travel through the sand but I have zero problems with anaerobic sand in the 150, since I stir that pretty vigorously once every couple of weeks and never find any discoloration at all - looks pristine. The geos are too small right now to really get all through the sand that's there and I know the snails help. I will just deal with any overpopulation in the 45 by picking them out by hand - that is better than anaerobic pockets. The 45 hasn't even been set up for that long! I'm baffled as to why such a thin layer of sand in the tank for only a few months would go anaerobic on me.

The angels are very young, still dime to nickel sized, and I'm hoping they'll get through this okay, especially since it has not been like this for long, and I've taken action. I may add a bit of Otis' marine saltwater solution if they look to be suffering. I'm sure by tonight this will be resolved, but YIKES.

The annoying thing is that I was due to take a Panaque changae from a club member who wants to rehome it, and that would mean catching the bristlenose Ancistrus from the 45 and move her out to the 150 with the other BNs I have there. This Panaque is territorial and would really appreciate having this little woodpile all to himself. Now I think it will be a bad idea to tear up the tank to catch the BN, and also a bad idea to add this Panaque to an unstable tank. We'll shelve that for now, and I'll see if the guy in my club is willing to hold onto the catfish a bit longer for me. Here are pics of the tank this morning when I discovered the nitrite, after planting everything last night:

Gray and Proud (OFF TOPIC!)

WARNING:  If you are one of the two's of people who read this blog, this is not about FISH! Run for cover........

This post is about Gray Hair. Yes, I "transitioned" several years ago to a head of mostly silver, with a good bit of brown in the back. You'd not think this was a subject worthy of a blog post, but, sadly in our world it is notable. 

I pulled my first white hair from my head in 7th grade, and have slowly been sliding towards silver ever since. My father began going gray at a very young age, around 18 or 20, so I come by it naturally. I spent most of my young adulthood coloring my hair, not necessarily to cover the gray but for fun and to change my look frequently. I stopped coloring when I was pregnant, both times, but resumed soon afterwards, especially after the last pregnancy when the gray was really evident.

My husband, Rick, began to make noises about me perhaps letting my hair go gray, and I laughed - are you kidding!?  In this day and age to take a step to actively make yourself look older when everyone else is clamoring to look younger?  It was counter-intuitive.  Then I began to really examine why I did not want to let my natural hair color grow in. Do I have something to hide? Am I really fooling anyone? Is there a good reason I should not look my age?

My hair grows very quickly and that gray stripe began to appear about every 3-4 weeks, when I'd break out the good old headband, scarf or hat and soldier on until I could get a touch-up. The coloring treatments can be expensive, and since my hair was relatively long it was difficult for me to do it myself properly, though I certainly did plenty of times when cash was low. It would come out uneven in the back, where I could not see, and I got sick of the mess and chore of it. Professional dye jobs can be exorbitantly expensive, as most women know, and this was starting to seem like an unnecessary expense.


Then, and this is a demonstration of my rebellious personality, I began to be offended that society was telling me I had to color my hair, and I was doing it willingly. I was living the hardcore punk rock life from my teenage years to my early 20s, and I don't like being told what to do, from WAY back, as my mother will tell you. I don't even like an automatic transmission in a car deciding when to shift - I'll make the decisions when I'm behind the wheel, thank you!  Here I was, going along with this social norm because I thought I should, and I was vain enough to think I would no longer be worthwhile or valued if I had gray showing. People go to such great lengths to cover their gray, after all; the consequences must be DIRE! 


The older I become the more annoyed and now offended I get with the ageism in this country (uh oh, here she goes....). We value the young, which is fine, but we'd prefer to let 18-year-olds make decisions for us, apparently, because everyone is desperate to look 18, so 18 must be the age when we've got everything under control, right? As a former 18-year-old and the mother of a 19-year-old, all I can say is, "HA!" The older we get the more we know, and the more we have to offer. We're still the same person we were when we were 18 and looked 18, except we are so much smarter, and have learned so much about life. This is not recognized, but it is reality. I am mainly speaking about life as it pertains to women, mind you. I'm not really a feminist, but it is certainly true that you fellows can go gray and still achieve plenty of success in your professional lives, but women might not get that promotion or get that new job based on looks, specifically if she looks "old." 


"Old" means worn out, out of touch, unhealthy, closed-minded, apathetic, boring, sluggish, depressed and depressing. Young women, or young-looking women, are exciting, up to date, hip, interesting, active, knowledgeable, capable and fun. Two women of the same age applying for the same job don't have equal chance if one colors her hair and the other doesn't - the one who colors is likely to get the job if both are qualified. The one who doesn't color her hair has "let herself go" and is therefore less valuable as a person.


This all upsets me quite a bit, as I'm sure it does everyone as they age, but considering that everyone is aging (sorry, young people, it will happen to you, too, God willing) you'd think the older people of the nation would unite and work on changing the societal norm of being youth-obsessed. No, this is not the case, they are the ones pushing supporting the ageism movement. 


Now, once I got good and riled up, and wanted to rebel against society telling me what to do, lol, I agreed to stop coloring my hair and see how it went. Rick was very happy about this, because he admires "natural" women, whom he considers to be strong, powerful and attractive. He thought I'd look great with gray hair. Silver ladies, pray he, or a guy like him, is the one to conduct your next job interview.

For anyone who has lived through the transition of growing out hair color without literally buzzing your hair down to the skull, it is not much fun. I'm sure women who are well endowed in the chest know the feeling, but this is the opposite - people's eyes constantly flit upwards to your hairline instead of down to your boobs. You can see their mind pass over the reasons you've allowed your roots to show:  she's really low on money, poor dear; she doesn't realize she needs a root touch-up, poor dear; she's MUCH older than I thought, poor dear.... etc. I, like many women, resorted to wearing headbands when the white stripe was too strange-looking. I had one tipsy guy at a party once lift the edge of my headband and say, "It appears that the color of your hair is very different at the front than at the back." Congratulations! You win the Observant Award! Then he asked me why.  Why? Because I'm letting my gray come in, dummy. I had a question or two for him about his look and grooming habits, but I was raised better than that. 


The real question was, "Why aren't you covering the gray in your hair?" This went on and on, and on and on, because it takes years to grow out color, and it takes years before you don't look like something went horribly wrong on the top of your head. Styling choices took on new meaning - a bun means your dark color-treated hair is plopped right atop the shining white part, and you look like you have a fake bun, but wearing it down shows the clear line where the new growth was not colored and it is more noticeable. You can cut it all off or not, try low-lights or color washes to ease the transition, etc. It was a long road!


It became part of my identity, and still is, obviously, since I'm blogging about it. It gets brought up nearly every day by someone, depending on how many places I go. Now that it is mostly grown out, or at least it looks natural and the darker areas are in the back and at the ends so it doesn't look like a beauty school accident I don't get the odd looks, but people do the double-take. I'm 46 so certainly not one of these really young women who sport gray hair (this is a stunning look!), but people definitely seem surprised when they realize I'm not a much older person, or I'm guessing that's the reason. When I'm paying for something, or dealing with the general public directly I often get compliments about my hair, or with a new or casual acquaintance they'll say, and this happens a lot to me, "Well, it looks good on YOU, but I could never do it." To me this is not a complement, but I'm not sure why, though they surely mean it to be. Am I really getting away with something? That's sad!

My own mother, who is in her 70s and still colors her hair brown, was initially upset that I was letting my gray grow in - she was not happy having a daughter with gray hair. Most of my other family members were supportive, and even a cousin or two told me they were going to do the same thing. Someone even told me that I would be "unhirable" and that you must keep yourself up to get a job these days, with unemployment so high. 


The main thing I get is that I'm "brave" to do it. If this is bravery, what do you call what our troops are up to in Afghanistan? I guess in our culture it IS brave to take something that can so simply and easily be corrected, and choose not to correct it, like not shaving your legs. 

My hair is so much healthier and shinier, and it feels soft. It takes a bit of extra attention to conditioning so it doesn't look frizzy, but that's not hard to accomplish these days with the array of hair care products available. I use a blue/purple shampoo to keep the white bright, since it can yellow with sun, chlorine, pollution, etc. I feel freer somehow, like I have a secret, though I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would recommend I resume coloring it. I saw a woman recently who is in her 50s and has a gorgeous straight angled bob of gleaming silver hair, and she looks wonderful - I don't know that I'll look wonderful but I'm looking forward to my hair being more gray than brown. 

To that end, I can say the worst is over and I'm on the road to pure silver. Hopefully this will not keep me from succeeding professionally, but the medical field is a little more forgiving than some other fields might be when it comes to appearance. Being well-groomed and professional in manner and attire can make up the difference, I hope. At the least maybe it will give others the idea that maybe they don't need to color anymore, either.


Ultimately, I am happy I did it, and far more people give me truly genuine and heartfelt compliments. My husband loves it, and is my biggest supporter - he considers it his life's work to do what he can to make me feel beautiful. Well, maybe until I stop shaving my legs, but that's another post. ;-p

The wee fishies are here: 12 wild crossed with domestic silver (50/50) angels. I ordered 10 but got a few extras. All are in perfect condition and very healthy, packed 4 to a bag. They were packed beautifully - very carefully done with cool packs. Big shout out to Jim Scarola (Prontodelivery on Aquabid) for some lovely specimens. He was very, very prompt to get back to me to answer my questions and shipping was fast and just as requested.

Sorry for the crappy pic but I'm at work and using my phone. They're acclimating slowly to the local water (my house is 5 minutes away) and I will bring them home and acclimate them again to the tank they're going into, which has params very close to this tank at work, except the tank at home has almond (catappa) leaves to acidify the water slightly, giving it some antiseptic properties.

Today's the Day!

My wild Peruvian "Altum" (scalare) angel cross fry come in today! Will post video later.

Summer Shakeup

The tanks have been in a static situation for the past few months. I've been watching the Geophagus grow and start to color up, and am keeping the 45 gal cycled and using a quarantine for new tetras. I've obtained quite a few more H. bentosi, or at least something like that - there are several very similar species on the market right now that mostly resemble bentosi, though I'm sure I have "rosy tetras" too, H. rosacea. They are doing well in the 150 and I wanted a nice large group.

Now the geos are at a good size to start thinning out the group, as a I have a dominant male who seems to have chosen a mate and staked out an area of the tank. This is not causing any problems, since this species is pretty peaceful, but I'd like to remove about 8 or so of them and see how things develop. I sold 4 yesterday to a CVAS club member (thanks, David!) and I've got another 4 ready to go at the end of the week (thanks, Chuck!), so I'll have my group pared down a bit. I may wind up removing more down the road, but it will depend on how the male/female ratio works out, and how big they get. They are not the fastest-growing so I have some time. Their colors are just starting to express themselves, especially in the dominant male, with blue in his ventrals and tail along with the red stripes. The others are coloring up too. The Bolivian rams have great color as well, though they look a bit washed out on the video below:

I'm keeping the 45 cycled because I have been wanting to add wild angels to the 150 to complement the geos, who occupy the bottom. My single wild P. leopoldi could benefit from some tankmates, though I don't plan on more leopoldi, unfortunately. I'm more interested in the Peruvian scalare variety, with more impressive finnage.

However, the wild imports I've been keeping my eye on are pretty expensive for me right now. I was hoping to simply save up for them, but maybe it's not worth it to me - the wild fish need very special attention and slow acclimation, and I'm not sure I have the time (well, I KNOW I don't have the time). When I worked at home this was much more easily accomplished, but I'm at work full time these days. Not only do the fish need to be quarantined in water conditions close to their native environs, they also need to be dewormed and treated for parasites before introduction into the show tank. I don't mind quarantine, and I strongly recommend it even for fish bought and traded locally, but for wild fish this is mandatory, and my tap water is very different than what the wild fish are accustomed to. The wild leopoldi angels I got previously sat at the LFS for quite some time before I got them, so the acclimation and deworming had already taken place.

I came across some domestic wild crosses, or a wild crossed with a domestic silver. The wild is described as a "Peruvian altum," which is, in fact, not an altum but a scalare from a particular collection point that produces higher-finned and more altum-like scalares than other locales. This fish is crossed with a domestic "zebra" silver, and the fry I'm getting are the offspring. I'll be getting 10 dime to nickel-sized fry and they'll reside in the 45 for a while as I see how they do. I will likely retain a pair for the 45 and the rest go into the 150 to see if they pair off, and hopefully they won't wreak too much havoc on the tank when that happens. There might be enough room for a pair to stake out some real estate without having to kill off other cichlids. This is always a possibilty with angels. I will almost definitely be looking to remove extra angels from the 150, since 8 will for sure be too many once they are grown.

Fortunately, I belong to a growing aquarium club,  the Central Virginia Aquarium Society, and have contacts with local fish stores so finding buyers for the extra fish ought not to be too difficult. I'm anticipating impressive finnage on these fry, and though the wild types are not terribly sought after in general, I think they will be attractive and have some appeal, at least for those wanting to insert some wild blood back into their breeding program.

I've been spending quite a bit of time on Finarama lately, as well as The Angelfish Forum (TAF-2) and have a renewed obsession with angelfish. I really want to focus on them now, and may be able to set up additional tanks for breeding pairs. I freely admit that I have an aversion to "engineered" fish, and have probably mentioned this in my blog before, but there are some angelfish phenotypes that I like. I strongly dislike long-finned versions of any fish (my goldfish prove this statement to be hypocritical, or at least highly selective) and do not find veiled angels in any way attractive. This goes for plecos and cory cats with long trailing fins, long-finned tetras, etc. To me it looks like a defect rather than an adornment. I do hold interest in the blue/silver variety, which looks like a wild fish but with a gorgeous peacock blue. I also like black angels, especially when you can still see the wild stripe.

So, in the 45 I have some H. bentosi, a single female BN pleco and a pair of Bolivian rams. I'll probably move out the tetras when the angels arrive Tuesday but I'll see how things look. I cleaned the filters last week and today did a large PWC on all tanks. This is something of a chore, but with the Python and the fact that all of my tanks are now on the first floor, it goes more quickly than you'd think. We're watching the summer Olympic games while I work on the tanks. With the planted tanks and the snail tank there is quite a bit of tidying up that is required, especially the tanks with almond leaves (catappa), which gradually soften and disintegrate. The snail tank is just gross, with quite a bit of debris that collects. Otis, the F8 puffer, has a messy tank too, with quite a bit of mulm that I can never seem to get ahead of, even with weekly 70% PWCs. I keep 100% marine water mixed in 5-gal jugs and use that mixed with tap water to get the brackish conditions he needs. I have a specific gravity gauge that floats in the tank, so I can see how much SW needs to be added. Otis has proven to be a very hardy fish, now with me 4 years.

The goldfish tank's only challenge is trying to suck up the poo, which is too heavy for the Python, even with the water going full blast out of the tap. I change about 80% of that tank weekly, since it is a relatively small tank (20H) for 3 full-bodied fancy goldfish.

The bettas tanks are easy, slurp them into a cup, rinse out the little tank under the tap, wipe down the inside walls and you're good to go. These are the fish belonging to my daughters, but of course I wind up doing the water changes!

The water out of the cold tap this time of year is around 80, which is a bit on the warm side for some of my fish, but I can't do anything about that. I can add an ice cube or two but that's hard to calculate. In a couple of months I'll be standing there with hot and cold taps running, with my hand under the water waiting for the perfect temperature to be achieved.