Look at the difference a couple of weeks can make ...

Wow.

So I put these images together to better show the progress of this tank ... it's pretty cool I think!

Dirt Tank Update!

Well looks like I might have beaten the cyno!! Yayyyyy!!!

I applied lots of H202 and then hooked up a DIY co2 because my dad has had amazing luck with his tank and been doing that for years and since there isn't any fauna in the tank except scuds and snails - it's not like I can overdo it. lol.

I am dosing with Tom's excel every other day and then Flora Pride as well to add in iron and pot ash to the water column ... but thinking of stopping the flora pride, and opting to find Iron Fe by itself, maybe.

Anyways, here is what it looks like now! Here is the full view ...




Close up of the left side:




Close up of the middle:




Close up of the right side:




Looks like I'm going to have to trim real soon! The growth is amazing! I kept hearing that, but nothing really prepares you for the real deal I don't think! LOL!

Betta Tank

So here is Ray's betta - we just upgraded him from a bowl to this little 3 gallon tank (a Tom Deco Kit) because his fins were getting black from fin rot because his water quality was just not great.

Now he has a filter, along with his favorite crypt plant (he likes to sleep on the leaves, or on the rocks underneath the crypt) and his own little light (going to have to get a different bulb, this one is just too blue).

The tank sits on Ray's desk beside his cameras and nick nacks.

25 Gallon Tall with ADA Aqua Soil

This is our tall 25 gallon that we plant to use as a stem plant farming tank.

This is the first time that we are using ADA Aquasoil with Power Sand underneath so I am very interested in how this substrate will help with overall plant growth since I've heard sooo many fabulous things about it.

Just finished setting it up and planting it this weekend - most of the plants we got from our plant groups at the swaps and auctions!

Should be interesting to see this one fill in!

30 gallon MTS update

Well, so we've been struggling with a variety of algae blooms and also a bloom of cyanobacteria as well. Plus many plants have melted as this tank is just seeming to take FOREVER to settle down and get its groove going.

Anyways, here is the update on where it's at now, it's not pretty but I've had worse, so not complaining! LOL!




Here is a close-up of this blue-green slime algae as it is called (it's actually a bacterial bloom and not algae at all) and how it's spread ...







Good news though, (I hope anyways! LOL!) ... I got C02 started on it! So tonight I will be scraping off as much of that gunk as I can, doing a 50% - 70% water change (no fauna in it as of yet so I can do whatever the heck I want to with it to get it under control!), squirt on some H202 on all the cyano I can see, and then clean out my filters and I'll remove the charcoal and the floss and see if that helps at all. Treating it with Maracyn at double the dose for 8 days did not see to really affect it at all unfortunately, so hopefully these other measures will help.

Taking Pictures!

Okay sooooo I have decided that I *HAVE* to wrestle this camera until it OBEYS me and does what I tell it to cuz my point and shot camera SUCKS.

So I made Ray help me a little bit with the settings and though it's still not where I want them to be, they are MUCH better!

Here are some of my attempts tonight off some of my tanks ... hope you like them!


Here is one of the Melanotaenia Splendida Splendida fry that I hatched out of eggs back in October! Getting a bit bigger, he is!




Here are two of the orange shrimp that I got this weekend next to one of my little kuuhlie loaches! I am trying to figure out what species they are. They are very pretty though!