Patiently impatient...

I tested my tank water this morning... deep blue result, 5.0 mg/l ammonia! Now if only nitrites would start moving. I'm worried that my test kit is tainted - I could swear both drops for Nitrite testing were clear, now the 2nd drops are yellow (and yellow is the baseline result for the test). I will give it a few days, and if still no change I will buy a new nitrite kit.

Here's the promised picture of the 3rd set-up:



But I think I have a little ADHD. I've changed it again! I visited Koolau Pets in the Windward Mall - this place is farther away, so I haven't been there since I picked up my black Tahitian Moon Sand nearly a month ago. My plan was to check out their plants, because they had some decent looking stuff last time around. Well, I was scared to see several tanks with fish covered in ich. *sigh* It was very depressing to see a rainbow shark thoroughly coated, the growths stood out against the black body. Needless to say I was a bit spooked to buy any of the Anacharis or Vals they had in the wall tanks, because I think they all ran on the same filtration. Thankfully there was a small tank on the side full of plants. I saw some Anubias Nana, but it wasn't nearly as pretty as the ones I saw at the shop closer to home. Then I spotted a pretty little "bushy" plant with thin spiraling petioles and cute little slender leaves. I could tell the sales girl had no clue what type of plant it was, although she confidently pointed it out as... Anubias Nana. Um, no.

Anyway, I went home with a new plant! Thanks to my iPhone and Google, I narrowed it down to a plant called a Cryptocoryne. Specifically, I believe it to be Cryptocoryne Willisii. This plant can be grown submersed or emersed as seen here... very lovely.

Here is a picture of mine taken in the car, just minutes after purchase!



Aaand then I decided to get medievel on this puppy and see if I couldn't spread the love.



I also cut off the roots on the majority of the little plantlets. Unfortunately I have since read that you should never cut the roots of Crypt plants. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a miracle!

I've decided that the Hornwort is going to be tossed once the tank is cycled. The danged plant sheds at any type of handling! The filter intake is clogged with the needles. I did a cleaning of the tank, picking off rotting leaves from the Moneywort (from when the temp was too high), trimming some stems, and replanting in a better formation. Then I went to town with my net, scooping up as much floating crap as possible. No more Hornwort, ever. If I ever need to cycle a tank again, I'd go with Anacharis.

So I'm happy (for now) with the layout... I'm not going to upload any full tank shots until I get my bogwood in the tank. I'm also holding the bogwood until I can get the Anubias Nana! There is a slim chance I can grab some tomorrow. I am a little concerned about any tannins left in the bogwood, which will discolor my tank water (it's still soaking in a bucket). I think I can just hang a knee-hi stocking full of activated carbon to clear it out later.

AND! I finally got a timer for the lights. Just in time, as I think there may be some algae starting. The Moneywort had some fuzz on their leaves but I'm hoping it was just crud...! Time will tell.

Is there anybody out there? =9 If so, please keep reading!

Oops, long time no update!

I've neglected this blog completely... but things are moving into place and I can't keep procrastinating!

The tank is coming along nicely. I don't have any Anubias Nana yet, but a visit to a different store turned up some Hornwort (they called it Foxtail) and Moneywort (they called it Teardrop). The reason I chose that store over the one with the Nana, was because I'd seen a tank full of Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I'd asked the sales girl what kind of snail they were, and she said "the normal kind that just grow on plants". It wasn't until I went home that I realized (after a quick Google) that they were the MTS that I'd been wanting to help burrow/aerate my sand! So the next day I raced back (I was struck by this overwhelming fear that they'd clean out the tank and I'd be back to square one) to beg for some snails. They weren't for sale, but they were willing to give me five for free. The poor girl had a heck of a time pulling them off the lava rock backdrop, one of the MTS lost the tip of it's "trumpet". I also picked up a couple pieces of Hornwort, because I felt bad just taking free stuff. So I paid $.61 instead, LOL!

My husband surprised me with a tank ornament, a castle. We both like fantasy/medieval things, and we'd been looking at larger (much more expensive!) castles at the different stores. Although I'd decided to go with a "natural" themed tank (picked up some bogwood, which is soaking in a bucket), love won out and the castle is in the tank!



I was a bit unsure of myself when it came to planting, so I ended up shuffling things around quite a bit. The floating Hornwort was nice, but after adding in the extra two strands, it was also driving me crazy - you can see below I tried using airline tubing to corral the stuff, but the water flow kept dragging the plants under and shoving them by the intake. Finally, I decided to try planting it!



That lasted about five minutes... then I read on multiple forums that when planted, the hornwort dies and rots. So then, I cut the strip of saved "lead" that came with my Moneywort lengthwise and bent it around two different bunches to help sink the plants. I didn't get photos of this yet, as it got dark and I am leaving the hood off in order to keep the water temperature below 78-80 degrees.

As you can see in that second picture, I've got a shrimp in my tank! I started off throwing in some crumbled flake fish food, but things got a bit unsightly (especially on a dark substrate!), so I decided to try the shrimp. There are many recommendations online to do this, as the decomposing shrimp helps with the nitrogen cycle. Before I did this, my ammonia levels were a modest 1.5 mg/l but less than a day later my ammonia jumped to 3.0 mg/l - the next day it was up to 5.0 mg/l! Now I am waiting for the nitrite to start spiking... at first I was checking the water every day, but I've decided to calm down and let things "do their thing" for a couple days.

Here's a picture of the shrimp right after I added it to the tank:



Can you see the color difference? It's bright orange now, like a cooked shrimp! I have it in a sandwich-sized ziploc bag with some holes poked through it. At first I used a meat tenderizer, but then made some larger slits with a small knife to allow more circulation. I'm hoping this will work better, and create less mess, than using a nylon stocking when it comes time to lift it out.

Living in a tropical clime like Hawaii has it's benefits - or so I thought. No heater needed for my tank! I ran the filter for almost a solid week and the water stayed around 75 degrees. But once the plants were in, I had the light on all the time. Because I was worried the Moneywort wouldn't get enough light, I also employed a small side lamp as well. This was also when I was leaving the lights on for more than 18 hours a day! Well, soon my Moneywort leaves and the tips of my Hornwort were turning brown! I checked my water temperature, and it was peaking right around 83 degrees, yikes! The great people at Aquaria Central's forums answered my questions and advised me that 6-8 hours was the limit I should be leaving the lights on for the plants. Today I left my hood off all day, as well as the main tank light on (11 hours!) and the tank was below 80 degrees... I think the little side lamp was contributing a lot of heat. A plug-in timer for my lights is on the way, I should get that hopefully tomorrow night. Then I can set my lights to turn on a little later (I leave the house at 5:45 a.m.) and turn off after about 8 hours (versus the 11 hours when I get home at 4 p.m. to turn them off). Once I have the timer, I will test how warm the tank is with the lid on and with the light on for a shorter period. Perhaps on at 9, off at 5? There is ambient light from the living room windows (with closed mini blinds), so the plants will get a little more time for photosynthesis. If the water temp is still high, I am considering doing away with my hood and instead building a rigid screen top for my tank. We'll see.

While doing some aquascaping today, I was thrilled to see roots on the Moneywort! It appears I'm doing something right! And the Hornwort has definitely grown since purchase - although I hear it's a pest plant and grows like the weed it is, not much skill there.

My soaking bogwood didn't do anything for several days before finally beginning to leach some tannins into the water. I changed the water today after a week, and hope that it won't leach much more. I'd like to pick up the Anubias Nana at the end of this week (if they still have some!) and attach them to the bogwood. I'd love some Java Fern or Moss, too. I'd like to get a small terra cotta flower pot and cover it wish Java Moss so it looks somewhat like a natural cave.

I'll end this uber-long post now, but will be making it a habit to touch base here on a much more regular basis. Hopefully I'll be able to start stocking the tank by the end of this coming weekend?? *crosses fingers*