# Splody's Journal: Of fish, of life, of puffed-up cats



## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

So, the paludarium project is done. I've found I like keeping a journal on here, but the title no longer fits and the original topic is now kind of off-topic. (If that makes sense? It doesn't, but whatever.) So I'm switching to a general blog.

Paludarium adventure is here if you missed it:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=412786

A quick catch-up:
The paludarium is finished and gorgeous and Felix, my MG(ish) HM, is loving it (although still won't stop fin biting...) Felix shares the 2ish gallons of swimming space and 4ish gallons of water with his nerite snail, Adagio. (Who's slacking off on cleaning up the algae on the window side of the tank. Grumble.)

Paludarium plants include:
Semiaquatic: Spearmint cuttings, peacock ferns, lucky bamboo cutting.
Aquatic: Plenty of water wisteria, and some java fern babies and a little java moss.

Felix's old 1.5g tank is now an NPT. It's been two weeks since I set it up, and two days since I brought home a lovely little rescue fish. He's coloring up really well and likes sleeping in the generous roots of the lucky bamboo I've managed to wedge in through one of the feeding holes (yes, the top is in the air) and in the java moss. He also actually uses the little terracotta pot to hide in, which Felix never did. There's only maybe 1g of water in this tank, but it should be cycling (as much as such a little tank can do) and it has plants.

This tank's plants include:
Semiaquatic: the big lucky bamboo. But no more s/a plants because this one isn't designed that way.
Aquatic: Some of the larger baby java ferns (there are a lot of them) and the mother plant, and the lion's share of the java moss. It'll get more plants eventually.

There was a gorgeous solid deep indigo VT I passed up for him, and part of my brain is still grumbling about that, but New Boy is growing on me. Besides, he wouldn't have gotten a home being all gray and stress-striped like he was, and I wouldn't have wanted him to stagnate in PetSmart forever.

Potential names for New Boy:
Orion (I almost named Felix this)
Octothorpe (that's a name for the # symbol)
Bromeliad (a plant which can have bright red or otherwise colorful leaves at the top)
Simon (because I like the name Simon)

I think I am leaning towards Simon. XD

Also, can I get a shout-out to the nerve-wracking process of putting these (1) up with these (2)?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

This is freaking adorable, here. New Boy is *so* shy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtvjcoWjDxY


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

I like the name Simon for the new boy.


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## Sabina88 (Aug 24, 2013)

I agree with Simon for your new VT. Plus I think it sounds nice with Felix


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Yeah, I like Simon the best too. It's the only one that really seems to stick with him.

I'm still wondering if that cobalt blue VT I really liked is still at PetSmart. I will have to negotiate my way into going back there... I just got more grad money, and I don't think my mom can protest too well against more fish since I'm paying for and maintaining them.  Besides, all I need is the fish and a Kritter Keeper, and maybe some more plants. (Though if I leave room for air at the top, my mint cuttings are doing a very good job of keeping Felix's water clean.) I have the substrate and an extra heater and I can make cover and stuff for him super easily.

If my mom thinks she can deter me from buying more fish with the "you have no room for this" excuse, she doesn't know me very well... I can shuffle stuff around like nobody's business. Well, I guess PetSmart's business, but that's all. Nobody else's business.

Good thing I've decided that when I go to college, I'm living in a studio apartment instead of the dorms... that way, I don't have to worry about space for my fishies, or drunken roommates doing weird stuff to my tanks. (Among other things, obviously.) I did the math earlier today and the studio apartment's actually cheaper in most places than most dorms.

Think I can get my mom to take me to PetSmart?


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## Sabina88 (Aug 24, 2013)

I think you should, plus you can always use the excuse of "I need to get something for my fish/tanks" 
Plus I bet that VT would be happy to move to large warm clean home instead of a tiny cold cup.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I went back "for water conditioner," telling myself that I'd only buy a fish if it was the boy I'd had my eye on. If I found _my boy,_ he and a Kritter Keeper were coming home with me, stat.

So I directed my dad off to get cat treats so he couldn't pull me away from the fish (I knew he wouldn't find them immediately, he's not a PetSmart regular), and hurried back to look for the fish I haven't been able to get off my mind.

They had about six cobalt blue VTs.

I didn't recognize my boy, and I definitely couldn't choose between them. I left without a fish but with a small bottle of Prime (because I actually did need water conditioner) and a package of bacopa.

I think I wouldn't easily get away with another fish anyway, although if that one boy had still been there and I recognized him, I would have fought for him. But I'm still working on nursing Simon back to full color and health, and I can't quite justify dumping another fish into an uncycled tank even if it's better than an equally uncycled cup. I'll wait a few months before I get another fish, and spare my mother's sanity. 

Well, put it this way... in a few months, my tanks will have overgrown rather nicely, and I can use the excuse of "I've got to have somewhere to put these plants, my fish can _hardly swim_ in this _mess_..." to get another. Especially with the extra plant I bought. Buying plants looks so innocent.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Wowwwwww!

Wowwwwwwwww!

The bacopa looked like a small amount in the package in the store, but when I separated out the individual plants--it's actually a big package! Worth the $9. I had to move rocks out of Felix's tank in order to fit in his share, and there was plenty for Simon too!

Felix's tank gets direct sunlight and a CFL aimed at the tank, and Simon's tank gets indirect sunlight, so the stuff should grow pretty well in both.

I know it's supposed to be a "background plant," but I want my fishies to be able to hide amongst it. So the bacopa, like the other plants in my tanks, is spread around kind of randomly. It's not like there are designer fairies out in the wild, organizing the rice paddies' plants into different height categories, anyway.

It does, however, make checking on my fish kind of resemble a game of Where's Waldo. I think that's a good thing though.

Even in Simon's 1.5g, which probably only has 1g of swimming space, I can have a hard time finding him. Which makes me feel not so bad about the fact that there's so little space. I mean, the top is clear--the tallest plant is the mother java fern and its tallest leaves still leave an inch or two. But the bottom has tons of places to explore and hide. I know it's not ideal, but it's MUCH better than the betta vase Simon would probably have otherwise ended up in.

Felix has a pretty sweet pad now, I have to say. Shallow and wide/long, tons of plants, great temperature, a snail to keep him company, and great food and bloodworms on the regular. He's spoiled. And yet he still bites his fins. DX

I'll have to post pics of these guys and their homes soon. They look pretty awesome and Simon is super red.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Augggghhh... GED testing tomorrow. Why does my school district hate partial homeschoolers so much? I don't know. But it does, and this is the easiest way out.

Simon is being freaking adorable and his faint traces of stress stripes are disappearing by the day. I love how he actually explores his tank regularly... Felix mostly stayed at the front all the time in that tank, wanting food or attention.

Felix is tail nibbling again, but not too badly. I've come to terms with the fact that it's just something he's gonna do, and as long as he doesn't tear out HUGE chunks of fin and doesn't get fin rot, I'm not going to worry about him.

Jake wants me to tell you he says meow. Loudly.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Cleaned out my two bookshelves today. I weeded out old books, adjusted the height of several shelves, organized everything, and now I have...

One shelf's worth of space.

You could say I have a lot of books.

At least there are no more books stacked horizontally on top of other books, supporting another book leaning diagonally onto that stack of books from another stack of books.

I promised a picture update in the near future a few days ago, and here it is!

Remember this guy? 










Now he looks like this.










This is where he lives.










Here's Felix's tank when I was trying to find a spot for the bacopa. I ended up moving about six of his black rocks out in order to have more ground space.


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## Sabina88 (Aug 24, 2013)

Im glad Simon is doing so much better. He looks awesome


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Thanks! I'll pass on your compliment to him. 

Now off to look up cake recipes so I can Frankenstein my own. I'm good at patching together bits of different recipes, throwing in my own assortment of flavors, and coming out with what I want. The only tendency I have is to make them a little dry. Although the last cake I baked, I added an extra half teaspoon of baking powder and it lifted really well. I think I will add extra again, although not quite as much.

I want two different cake flavors. My older brother just had a birthday AND is moving into a new house. And he just had an anniversary, too. We're helping him move in a few weeks (it's only a block or two though). So I'm baking two single-layer cakes for his birthday/housewarming, less because there are two occasions and more because by the time we're all there, we're a party of 6, including an 11-year-old boy, and I want to leave my brother and his wife some cake.

Clarification: I'm 17. My brother is 32. Our parents just really spaced us out.

Anyway, I'm off.


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## Sabina88 (Aug 24, 2013)

Good luck with that, cake baking sounds fun 

lol I know how you feel with the age difference both my brother and sister are in there 30's too and im 17


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

My fish are super weird.

I just found out that Simon, like Felix, is an Erock fan. Whenever I'm playing metal music, they come up close to the speakers to check it out and I've caught them doing a little dance and wiggling their fins. They must like the vibrations in their water or something. 

Felix also totally doesn't care about thunder. It's so loud, you'd think they'd be a little disturbed by it, but Felix doesn't care. I haven't seen Simon react to a thunderstorm yet though.

But if one of the legs of my desk chair rolls into the desk and it bumps a little bit?
Felix: THEWORLDISENDING_HIDE._
Simon: Totally doesn't notice.

Simon is so _normal._ I rarely get normal pets--that's weird in and of itself. Felix is a clown. A weird clown who's aggressive to peacock feathers and apparently hates his own tail. Jake is downright bizarre... he's a rescue cat, the alpha male cat in our house, and a total mama's boy, all wrapped into one. If I've shut him out of my room, he scratches at the door and wails and yells at me, and even if you ignore him for an hour, he doesn't give up. As for our other three cats? I like to say they're a gift from Heaven... except Heaven was on some heavy-duty cold medicine at the time.

I think I'm going to do a blueberry pie and a carrot cake for my brother. I know where to find some cheap blueberries.

Although if the cherry tree in the back yard still has a bunch of ripe cherries on it, it might be a mixed berry pie... we need to use up those cherries. I don't want to think about all the things we'll have to do in order to offload the apricots this year. Last year it was pies, jams, preserves, giving a bunch to the neighbors, using them in recipes... they were delicious, but there is such a thing as too many apricots.

There's also such a thing as WAAAAAAY too many apples. I think I have it posted that I live in Iowa? We're Apple Central. Specifically, my back yard is Apple Central. My house is built on two lots, so there's a huge backyard, and we have three big apple trees (and a cherry tree, and several apricot trees, and a veggie garden, and there used to be a big wild raspberry bush but it's gone now). The apple harvest last year was _insane._ I'm normally the one who picks the fruit and veggies, but when I went out last year to pick things and check on the different things that were growing, I found our main apple tree.

To say it was loaded would be an understatement.

"Guys..." I said to my family, "if you want to save this tree, you've got to pick these apples."

It was mainly the biggest apple tree that had the problem. Golden delicious apples in uncountable numbers. We were filling storage tubs and taking them to Salvation Army, King's Harvest, and the food bank. We were giving away still more tubs to members of our church. My mom bought a tool just to peel and core those that we could manage to eat, and there was pie and pie and more pie, and pie for anyone who walked in our door.

Three big branches, maybe 4in in diameter, broke that year. The tree's okay, though.

The Winesap apple tree also boomed, but not quite as violently. Our other apple tree, which... I don't really know what kind it is, but it busted with tons of tiny apples that were nevertheless ripe. It wasn't dangerous, so I was the only one picking that tree, but I still had to be careful not to trip on all the fallen apples I hadn't managed to collect.

The apple trees didn't bloom this year. I think they're kind of exhausted, and frankly it'll be a while before I want to work with apples again.

It would be nice to have another raspberry bush, though. I have a lot of fond childhood memories of climbing around on my dad's ever-stationary extra stump grinder, which had been sitting there so long that the bush had started to grow around it, in order to get to the higher berries. I became very talented at climbing around on the thing, and also talented at kind of freaking out my parents until they got used to it.

I have the best backyard ever. XD

Once again, I must ask the question... how in the world did I get here from fish? XD

PS: Tips from an Iowa girl...

If you're looking for apples in a grocery store, weigh them in your hand. The heaviest ones are the juiciest and taste the best, although they're usually priced by weight and are more expensive. This is why pre-bagged apples aren't as good; the heavier apples are put on the stand because they'll sell for more. You pay per bag, and you buy the bags because you can see a lot of apples in there. They're usually tasteless and often underripe--which won't hurt you, they're just not very good.

Tomatoes that are slightly squishy are nicely ripe.

If you can smell the produce and it smells good, it's gonna taste good.

Celery leaves are edible.

Pineapples which are heavy for their size, are yellower than average, and have small crowns are tastier. It's easy to prep a pineapple with a sharp, heavy knife, but there's a tool that will cut it into a long spiral and save the juice. I don't know what it's called but it works.

Always look at the bottom of the berry carton before you buy.

A bag of lettuce that's wet on the bottom: not a good buy. Personally, I like heads of lettuce better than bags. They're not hard to prep, and wedge salads ftw (am I right, add the bacon and blue cheese plz)


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Agreed on heads of lettuce. Nice tip on the apples - I had no idea, and I sometimes buy the bags for pies. Scratch that, buying them individually from now on. Our grocery store has _very good_ produce, but even the nicest place is going to do what they have to so they can sell stuff that doesn't make the grade.

Haha, my sympathy on the apple tree - we had a nectarine tree that would over-fruit every year, only instead of doing the smart thing and picking it early, my mom would just have us clean up the rotten fruit. Ugh.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Even at Fareway, where they'll sell good-quality apples in paper bags, you want to buy individually. The gas produce gives off is trapped in those bags and it really ages the apples, as opposed to letting them sit in the open air and circulate.

Apples also have different seasons and harvesting times. You may want to check the Internet on which pie apples are closest to being in season if you're planning on making pies, but it's not necessary because the kinds that are in season are usually the heaviest anyway.

If you get good, heavy apples, you also don't need to add much fluid to your pies--or none, depending on how you like to make them. My mom likes straight-up sugary baked apples in her pies... some people like to have some of that sweet apple syrupy stuff in there as well (I do).

My fishy frustration today: The way Felix's tank does this when I scrub the algae off. Adagio just can't keep up with it, but I don't want to add another nerite for fear of the bioload. Maybe MTS if I can get my hands on them.


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## Sabina88 (Aug 24, 2013)

Maybe if you keep a piece of paper over the side next to the window for part of the day it might keep the sunlight down a bit and maybe not create so much algea?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Except the plants are growing so well with all that light and fertilizer :/

I think I'll stop aiming the CFL at the tank, at least, though. It is getting a ton of light.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Today was the boys' water change day for the week. Both tanks are moderately planted for their size (by my judgment), so a 50% WC once a week seems to be keeping everyone happy. My fish are active and colorful and eat like pigs, so I think it's working.

I *would* like to know the parameters on these tanks, just to know for sure that it's safe, but I've heard that having plants as a sort of biological filter (if that's the right word) means the cycle is silent and can't be measured--in which case, that would be $25 spent that I don't need to spend right now. Does anyone who's still following this know if there's a way to check, or should I go off of fishy behavior like I have up until now? Is it worth getting a test kit right now?

Felix wasn't thrilled at first that I had to cup him in order to change out half the paludarium's water. But I've found that putting plants in with a cupped fish makes them not freak out. It's magical. You stick in something green and they relax.

I wonder if the breeder who supplies our PetSmart puts a hunk of java moss or something in his/her betta cups? It would make sense--that would keep the ammonia down in those little containers. Would the fish remember, and associate that with being taken care of? I don't know. More likely that they just feel safer with the cover. Either way, it works.

Felix is letting that chunk of his anal fin grow back--it's a third of the way regrown--but he's tail nibbling again. That's what's making me a little bit concerned about his water. But he was tail nibbling even when he was in the pristinely kept 1.5g, which got a 50% wc every three days and had plants and a filter... so his nibbling isn't really a reliable sign of water quality.

I was wondering about getting a filter for the paludarium. It's got sort of an odd, stirred-up-dust sort of cloudiness to it sometimes, and it doesn't correlate with water changes or anything like that.

Somebody's shooting off fireworks and Simon is not thrilled. He darted when they shot the first few off, and now he's hunkering down by his java moss and his clay pot, right in the middle of all his plants. Poor guy. I'll start playing music, maybe then the noise won't startle him so much.

A note to anyone starting an NPT who plan on using sand for a cap: Use black sand. Use dark brown sand. Use mixed-color sand. Don't use white sand. You will get soil above the cap, and it'll settle, and it'll stand out against white. Obvious, I know.

I culled out some of Felix's mint, since certain parts of it refused to stay above water and were deteriorating. It's not a problem, since my on-land mint plant grows like a weed for me.

I left Simon in his tank for his 50% change, but I don't think I will again. He's stress-striping now. He stripes easily, I've noticed. I think it'll be a while before he becomes a little hardier. Poor guy... I've never seen Felix stress-striped, and I've made tons of mistakes with him. Simon must have been in awfully bad condition before. The PetSmart lady said that they'd just gotten in a new shipment of bettas and that that might be why he was so stressed looking. But unless "just gotten in" meant they got him about fifteen minutes ago, I think he was one of the neglected leftovers from the old shipment, because his color came in more in thirty minutes after just a little care.

I'm gonna feed him and see if he perks up.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Oh, man, I just figured out why Felix's water is cloudy. It's a bacterial bloom caused either by the ammonia in the soil or the mint leaves that ended up below the water line and died off. Or the dead leaves or "nutrient gel" that came on the bacopa (really hard to get it all, frankly) Or it's the dying algae I've been scraping off the sides of the tank. Or all of those things.

Either way, it's just fine; any other kind of fish, I might be a little worried about oxygen levels, but bettas can breathe air for oxygen and Felix has a nice resting spot near the surface. It should subside on its own, and I'll just pick off dead leaves faster when I see them.

Good to know.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

You could take a water sample to the pet store and have it tested.

I test using the API test kit, but I also use the Sea Chem ammonia alert, it's a little chemical sensor with a suction cup that you keep in your tank. I talk about it on my journal and some other members chime in about the pros and cons.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

DaytonBetta said:


> You could take a water sample to the pet store and have it tested.
> 
> I test using the API test kit, but I also use the Sea Chem ammonia alert, it's a little chemical sensor with a suction cup that you keep in your tank. I talk about it on my journal and some other members chime in about the pros and cons.


Hmm... a thing that sticks to the side of the tank and detects the ammonia that hasn't been used up by my plants! Sounds perfect, thanks! I ordered one for each tank. They should be here in 3-5 days. 

I still haven't gotten Simon to flare yet. He's so timid for a betta. Felix sees something vaguely colorful and just--puffs up. Simon just hides behind his java moss.

It's like they express the two extremes of betta personality--from the outgoing and aggressive to the shy and timid. If I were living on my own, Simon would probably be in a 15 to 20g with some neons and pygmy cories because he would be perfect for that kind of tank. Whereas Felix can handle... a nerite snail. I wouldn't even trust him with shrimp. I wouldn't even trust him with any other kind of snail, frankly. XD But I still love him to bits. Feisty little dude.

I think I need a trellis of some sort for the mint. I've given up on trying to get peacock ferns to grow in his paludarium, and given up on trying to get the lucky bamboo cutting to stay upright. So I've just culled out the weaker/shorter/yellower mint stems and raised the water level to give Fe an extra gallon of swimming space. He seems to be throughly enjoying it, too. But all those plants will need to be replaced...

I'm working on a plant trade with MameJenny, who is highly awesome and if you ever see her selling stuff, you should really take a look because she's wonderful to work with and has some interesting, rare plants to boot. I'm trading some of my mint cuttings, younger java ferns, a betta tube I knitted and never got anyone to use, and possibly some houseplant cuttings and/or the plants I never managed to get to thrive in Felix's tank. She has a brand new tank she's trying to populate, and there's actually a journal she's keeping on it which you should all go look at. 

Another thing that helps is that Felix's wisteria is growing like a weed, and in a few weeks I'll probably take some offshoot cuttings and plant them, and see if I can't get things to reproduce and fill up the tank to "heavily planted" status.

The paludarium was a neat idea and I think it could work with the right kind of plants and the right kind of tank. I'm not having too much luck with it at the moment and most of my semiaquatics are out. When I take the tank two or three years from now and move into my own apartment near whatever 4yr college I attend, I think I'll just set it up again as a normal NPT unless I figure out a way to make it work better.

Which I'm going to keep working on--I still have plans to replace the lid with something nicer that I'm going to stitch up out of clear plastic material. Like, tablecloth cover material, you know? I'm going to make it an arch-like shape or possibly a triangular prism-like shape. Should be pretty--or at least prettier than the Kritter Keeper lid. Which isn't bad, but it could certainly be nicer!

Anyway, those are my thoughts/plans for now.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Every time I look at Phoenix's thread I'm tempted to buy another one of these, start it up with plants, and tell Seki I've got a home for the poor boy. I don't know if I have enough cash to do it right now though, or enough plants. We'll see after my plant trade if I have enough supplies to prepare a home for him.


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## Sabina88 (Aug 24, 2013)

I think you deffinitly should


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I just spent the last two hours doing a thorough scour of Felix's tank. I think that's the closest I've ever done to a 100% water change, except it was an "all I can reach" change. Cupped Felix, carefully uprooted all the plants and set the plants and rocks in a dish of water.

Then I started stirring everything up--the smelly BGA on the bottom of the tank, the loose dirt, the dirt I'd trapped under layers of shifting sand as I'd worked on the tank. It was a mud puddle for... five gallons of water? I kept taking out a gallon, putting in a gallon, taking out a gallon, putting in a gallon... Then I decided to just scoop out all I could reach into one of my "FISH ONLY" cups, even using the lid of the gallon apple cider containers to bail out the last of the muddy water.

I refilled it and decided I was satisfied with the minimal number of dirt clumps still hanging on there. I took the opportunity to rearrange the plants in the tank, set the mint more upright, and pick off old leaves. Rocks, Prime, and eventually Felix went back in.

The bacterial bloom is still going on, but it should go away soon now that I've gotten rid of the BGA (cyanobacteria) and excess dirt, and of course put in a bunch of clean water. If I were Felix, I'd definitely be happier with the tank now that it isn't slimy and dirty on the bottom!

I really need to get myself a siphon. Stuff like this shouldn't have to wait for a day where I can spare two hours straight.

Felix is busy exploring his plants all over again, but he did show his face for a few pictures of his tank.

Oh, and Simon sends his love.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Oh, and have I mentioned how wonderful those apple cider gallon containers are for water changes on little tanks?

Simon's tank just needs a 2L soda bottle of treated water to replace a ~50% water change. That was too much work for Felix's tank, so I got a couple of Indian Summer Apple Cider containers instead, and they work *wonders.*

And since the one and only thing that has ever been in there is apple juice--no preservatives, no salt, not even from concentrate--it's totally fish safe. In fact, if I ever needed an impromptu hospital tank NOW, or needed an instant temporary home for a rescue, I'd just cut the top off of one of those and cover it with fabric.

Seriously, y'all need to start drinking apple cider.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I am pleased to report that Felix's tank is free of both the cyanobacteria and the bacterial bloom. _Yay._

I think the bloom did leave behind quite a lot of ammonia, though--more than I thought. There's a patch on top of Felix's head where it's a bit pink. Concerned, I quickly changed out a gallon of water. I plan on another gallon change tomorrow. I don't want to stress him out by changing too much at once, but that little patch looks like the first sign of ammonia poisoning, or at least loss of slime coat. Glad I paid attention...

I mean, unless he scraped his head on his heater cord. There is that.

I really do need those ammonia detectors. I hope they come tomorrow, or at least on Wednesday.

Simon also got a 50%, just in case--his tank is slightly more heavily planted for its size and has a filter, but it's also quite a bit smaller. Even though it hasn't had the same bacterial bloom, I was concerned.

The water change visibly stressed him out. He really loses color easily, and quickly. I think that fish that have been stressed badly in the past are more easily stressed afterwards. Never believe the pet store employees when they say that a fish is just stressed because they just came in.

I'm just really glad I'm getting more plants in soon. MameJenny is sending me a pretty big plant package, and I ordered 6 more stems and some baby MTS from another forum member. I'm hoping that's enough for my boys, or will grow to be enough soon.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I got my ammonia detectors in the mail today!

So, do these things need a few days to "equilibrate" with the water (whatever that means) before they start working, or can I expect them to be accurately measuring ammonia half an hour after being put in?

Because, uh, if they're already working, then both my tanks are safe with little (if any) ammonia present. I would really like to not have to worry about that.

I kinda felt guilty yesterday about neglecting the second gallon water change I'd planned... I had three GED tests in a row, and while I scored super-well on the ones that were immediately marked, I was still exhausted afterwards. And today I had another one... basically, ugh.

I'm still really tired, but if someone says that the ammonia level isn't registering right now, I will do more water changes. Until then... I'm going to try to relax. The past two weeks have been nonstop testing and meetings and orientation lectures and more testing, both out of high school and out of basic college classes. I feel kinda like my pets have gotten the short end of the stick. Even Jake is missing my attention.

Heck, even I'm missing my attention. At least I got time to dye my hair again last night, so I don't get the "oh, great, another bedraggled teenager with grown-out hair dye" look from every official adult I meet. I still get the "purple hair?" look, but that one is more easily dispelled once they hear me speak. It's like the difference between having fading, fake tattoos and carefully maintained henna. You know?

I should try henna sometime. It would freak my dad out, so maybe I'll wait until I move out or have a decent excuse, but done well, I think it looks neat--and a little off-beat--which is just my style.

Anyway. I need to eat my lunch before Jake eats it for me.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Congratulations on doing well on those GED sections! It'll be such a strange feeling for you when you're all done with them.

About henna ... have you actually talked to your dad about it, or are you assuming it would freak him out? Since henna only lasts a couple of weeks, some parents are cool with it... we did a free henna program at my work and the parents were really happy with the results.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

hrutan said:


> Congratulations on doing well on those GED sections! It'll be such a strange feeling for you when you're all done with them.
> 
> About henna ... have you actually talked to your dad about it, or are you assuming it would freak him out? Since henna only lasts a couple of weeks, some parents are cool with it... we did a free henna program at my work and the parents were really happy with the results.


Thanks! The GED is not that difficult for me... I'm not actually dropping out, I'm just a partial homeschooler graduating (the school district basically hates us and this was the easiest way to get out of HS).

I'm just grateful for my mom's smartphone. I was on top of remembering which appointments were on which days for a week or two... and now I've completely lost track of everything. I don't even know when my driving school starts.

Haha, I know henna's temporary, that's the only reason I'd consider it. And my dad comes from a Mennonite background. 'Nuff said. The technicolor hair is probably enough for now. XD Besides, I really don't have time for it atm.

Oh, funny story: My hair was long enough for me to sit on until I turned sixteen and decided I wanted to chop it off and dye it peacock blue. My mother was instantly gung ho about this plan--she'd been sick of my hair for ages since all I ever did with it was keep it back in a ponytail or braid. So I brought along my best friend and went to a trusted stylist. Three hours later, I walked out with a shaggy blue shoulder-length bob cut and at least half a long wig's worth of hair for Pantene's charity. (My hair is thick.)

My dad's reaction? "I... actually... don't hate it!"

I'm just really glad I'll never have to go to high school again. Nobody really liked me a whole lot there. Even the "weird" kids had a hard time relating to me, and I'm talking about fandom people, computer geeks, art students, and all the other folks who live on bizarre fringes in a high school. They're lovely folks, but I never fit in with any one group very well.

Introverted, intellectual, and eclectic is a recipe that tends to stick out among teenagers. Just look at Luna Lovegood. Except instead of being an expert on animals that may or may not exist, I'm keeping fish, writing steampunk novels, reading all sorts of books, and playing my ukulele (among other things, too many to list briefly). When you're the strange, quiet girl and people only know you're there because you regularly set the curve on tests, people tend to become a little wary of you because they don't know what you're about or if you'd approve of them.

I'm hoping college will be better. Everyone keeps telling me it will be. They said the same thing about high school when I was in middle school... and high school was better... but that seriously wasn't saying much.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Changed 1.5g of Felix's water.

I'm thinking he scraped his head on the heater cord, or maybe just shed a few scales, rather than ammonia poisoning. I think if it were ammonia poisoning, his gills would be affected first, not a little spot on top of his head. But preventative measures never hurt, right?

Besides, the ammonia alert dot seemed to be registering a very small amount of ammonia (like, .03 ppm) anyway. Don't know how they got that thing so precise.

Edit: Oh, wait. Their site says it's supposed to be that way until it gets used to the water. Whatever. I won't worry until it goes higher.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

MameJenny's plant package came! I managed to fit everything in comfortably. Hopefully there won't be too much die-off.

Felix looked really confused about the duckweed for a few minutes, and then apparently decided it was okay and came back to pose for pictures. XD

I'm doing an experiment with Simon's tank, seeing what happens when I remove his filter. It shaded like 2/5 of his tank, making stuff harder to grow on that side... Felix flipped out when I tried this when he was living in it, but Simon seems to be okay with it so far. He stress stripes when I'm working on his tank, whether I cup him or not. Even with java moss in his cup. (That seems to be his favorite plant.)

He's busy exploring the mess of plants I stuck in randomly. Maybe someday I'll try making their tanks look neater... not until I find out how many of these will make it though. They arrived in really nice shape, but depends how well they adjust.

Simon uses his terracotta pot hidey-hole more than Felix did... Felix just liked sitting in the shade of the filter. Simon doesn't rely on the filter so much, so I think he'll be okay without it. I did give him some of the duckweed for a little shade, though.

Either tomorrow or Friday, I will be getting my plant package from carlos puron, another Bettafish member. I ordered 3 stems camboba, 3 stems limnophila, and some baby MTS. Finding more space for plants will be a mental exercise, but I really just ordered for his snails.  My PetSmart doesn't have them.

Carlos's thread is here (http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=425810). I'll let you guys know how that goes in case you might want to order from him. He was certainly willing to package up an odd deal for me, so there's that. 

I will post pics at some point soon, but I've written this post stream-of-consciousness with no editing... and that's because I have a headache. There's gotta be a storm coming. Having spent the past hour bent over my fishtanks hasn't helped.

One more thing. I did leave Simon's filter cartridge in a thingy of old tank water. Just in case. I'm pretty sure it has a BB colony.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Sounds like we've had slightly similar weeks. I had an important college placement test today (I'm also a homeschooler, turning 17 next month). I've been going nuts trying to study for that, and the actual test took three freaking hours.  And that on top of my job and my volunteer work, and the pets...been a crazy week so far for me. Congrats on doing well on your tests! 

I really want to dye my hair red. Not bright fiery red, but more of a dark cherry color. I'm just afraid that I'll screw something up and end up with horribly damaged hair (which is what happened the last time I tried dying it...goodbye, bottom four inches of my hair ). 

Limnophila is a really, really pretty plant. I'm a sucker for anything with wispy looking leaves. I might have to buy some from Carlos. 

I hope the plants do OK!


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

myexplodingcat said:


> I'm hoping college will be better. Everyone keeps telling me it will be. They said the same thing about high school when I was in middle school... and high school was better... but that seriously wasn't saying much.


You're right. High school sucked, but middle school was worse. Don't worry, everything gets better from here - a bit at a time, a day at a time, and _slowly _- but still, it does get better as you get older and gain more control over your own circumstances.

College was...okay. I went to a commuter school so there wasn't much of a community, though, and never really tried to get involved. Grad school was online, which oddly enough turned out to be more social. Community college was the most fun, but it's also a dangerous land where you discover that the teachers don't care if you cut class, but they will mark you down for low attendance. Go figure on that one. I mean, if you miss class, you're going to do worse _anyway_...also, *never *rely on a counselor from community college if you want to transfer. Check with a counselor from the college you're aiming for, instead. That mistake cost me 2 years. :roll:

You write? Any intention on publishing, or purely for fun? PM me some time if you want to publish. There's a lot of pitfalls for new authors, and I can at least steer you in the right direction, having navigated that maze myself. When you're ready, of course...


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Simon actually flared at my finger just now! That's the first time I've ever seen him flare at anything! I was so impressed, I gave him an extra pellet to encourage him.

I don't have a good picture of him flaring yet... we'll see if he can pluck up the courage again while my phone camera's handy.

...Nope. He mostly just slowly backs away like he's trying to hide his little red body among a bunch of green leaves. Shy little bugger.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

hrutan said:


> You're right. High school sucked, but middle school was worse. Don't worry, everything gets better from here - a bit at a time, a day at a time, and _slowly _- but still, it does get better as you get older and gain more control over your own circumstances.
> 
> College was...okay. I went to a commuter school so there wasn't much of a community, though, and never really tried to get involved. Grad school was online, which oddly enough turned out to be more social. Community college was the most fun, but it's also a dangerous land where you discover that the teachers don't care if you cut class, but they will mark you down for low attendance. Go figure on that one. I mean, if you miss class, you're going to do worse _anyway_...also, *never *rely on a counselor from community college if you want to transfer. Check with a counselor from the college you're aiming for, instead. That mistake cost me 2 years. :roll:
> 
> You write? Any intention on publishing, or purely for fun? PM me some time if you want to publish. There's a lot of pitfalls for new authors, and I can at least steer you in the right direction, having navigated that maze myself. When you're ready, of course...


I plan on publishing, at whatever point I decide that my writing is good enough. Which will take a while. I know I'm always getting better and better at it, and my most recent attempt at a coherent novel is working pretty well for me. I haven't tackled it heavily for a while, though. I've been busy (and had a spell with depression earlier this year that didn't help).

I wish I knew which college I was aiming for. Still have no clue. Aren't the gen. eds basically the same everywhere though? I don't plan to transfer the Associate's degree, that's just so I can get a good job to help pay for college. It's an AAS degree, so I know it won't transfer.

Haha, that thing about attendance has been notoriously untrue for me throughout high school. (College will obviously be different--I don't plan on skipping or anything like that.) I had a Latin teacher who was probably eighty-something years old. I'm not exaggerating--he refused to touch computers, and instead wrote with a typewriter or a fountain pen. Honestly. This Classical Languages class was the only one he taught; otherwise, he was retired. He was a really good teacher, but he had kind of a quirk about me.

I came in with my then-blue hair on the first day of class. He thought I was a punk rocker. About a week later, when it was apparent that this wasn't the case, I came in carrying my big black art portfolio (like 3x2 feet) several times and he tried to "classify" me as an art kid. But once I mentioned I was taking programming classes later on, that didn't fit either.

Later on in the class, I came down with mono. (Unfortunately, not in such a fun way as that implies to most people. I think it was the drinking fountains.) My mom came in to meet with my Latin teacher about the work I needed to make up.

My mom liked him. She actually told me, paraphrasing, what he'd said of me. It went something like this...
"I like her... but I just don't know what to do with her. She gets As on my tests without even studying. I know she hasn't been studying, because she's done this after being absent for a week. She's really smart, but she just confuses me."
My mom informed him that I'd been a homeschool student.
"Oh," he said, realization dawning. He'd found a category to put me in.

I feel sorry for the next homeschooled student to show up in his class. Since I'm the basis for his "homeschool" category, he'll expect them to have blue hair and automatically know the names of the letters of the Greek alphabet. Which I knew because I'd memorized that in the seventh grade one day out of boredom, by the way. And I'd taken four years of French before that class, so I knew a lot of the more modern versions of the Latin words. I'm not magical or a genius. Just very strange.



MameJenny said:


> Sounds like we've had slightly similar weeks. I had an important college placement test today (I'm also a homeschooler, turning 17 next month). I've been going nuts trying to study for that, and the actual test took three freaking hours.  And that on top of my job and my volunteer work, and the pets...been a crazy week so far for me. Congrats on doing well on your tests!
> 
> I really want to dye my hair red. Not bright fiery red, but more of a dark cherry color. I'm just afraid that I'll screw something up and end up with horribly damaged hair (which is what happened the last time I tried dying it...goodbye, bottom four inches of my hair ).
> 
> ...


I do too! The boys are blowing a ton of bubbles in appreciation of all the new plants.  They look super happy and Felix's water is really clear today--like maybe they sucked up all the extra nutrients that were causing the algae/bacterial bloom.

I hope you scored well on your test. 

What color is your hair naturally? Mine is an almost black brown. Came as a shock to my mom--she'd been used to my long hair being auburnish from being around so long it'd gotten sunbleached. What happened last time that damaged your hair so badly?

Ukulele, in case you guys didn't know, is a really fun instrument. I was learning guitar for a few months until I got really busy... and I suck at it. Really. I'm terrible. I don't have the finger strength for it, or the flexibility--it really wants you to twist your left hand oddly. But ukulele is way easier, especially for weensy tiny hands like mine. I'd still like to play guitar... but it will take quite a lot of time and concentration I can't afford right now.

Here are a few pictures of my fish I took just after planting their tanks yesterday. Both of them are like "what just happened..." Simon was considerably more freaked out than Felix about the food monster's hands in the tank... but now he's really liking all the java moss he got. c: Felix's tank in this pic is pretty cloudy, probably from my stirring everything up and whatever bacteria was left. But now it's crystal clear. I might be able to get a good picture tomorrow when the sun comes back up behind it.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I think I will share my rooibos tea with Simon. I have a little bit brewing extra-strong in a separate cup for him. Since he's so easily stressed, I thought I'd try... I'll let the tea steep overnight, though, since I'm going to filter out the little leaves (it's loose-leaf). There's nothing strange added to it, no vanilla or sweetener or anything... like rooibos needs it! So it's perfect for aquariums.

After all, if I decide I really don't like the tea look, I can always change it out. But it's worth a shot to see if it'll help Simon relax a bit. (Although I'm glad to see he's showing some spunk on his own!)


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Oh, and hrutan, I forgot to ask--what did you publish?


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Urban Fantasy. A werewolf federal agent is hunting terrorists in Los Angeles.  Ebook only - the title is Silver Bound. Working on the second half of the story arc...gotta get that submitted soon if I want to keep to a 1 a year schedule.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Ooh, that sounds like an interesting read. I'll keep it in mind.

My boys really don't like my green nail polish, I think! Simon and Felix both flare at it. Simon is finally flaring! But it has to be either at my fingers or at his reflection when his tank light is on in a dark room. I can show him the fish-sized peacock feather all I like, but it's my nail polish he'll puff up at.

The big thing I did today with my tanks--I took out the slope in Felix's tank. I know I went to a lot of trouble to get that, but it just wasn't working for me. I wasn't really able to keep my semiaquatic plants alive, and although the gravel support stayed in place, the sand cap didn't no matter how hard I tried.

Also, as I was filling the tank, I found out it's a 3g and not a 5g. I don't know how I didn't catch that earlier. I think one would need a bigger tank and more experience with semiaquatics in order to pull off the slope thing. In a 10g tank, you wouldn't have to worry so much about balancing between keeping your slope and giving your betta room to swim. Maybe I'll try it again one day, but not in such a small area.

But nothing is set in stone! Everything is changeable when it comes to aquarium setup.

Changing it was hours of work and quite a bit of mess, but I did manage it. I rinsed everything out, and Felix is swimming in an ordinary NPT now. It looks much cleaner aesthetically. And it has a lot more space for him, probably an extra gallon, which has to be huge to a betta fish. He appears to approve of the change.

While resetting his tank, I tried my hand at aquascaping, putting the larger plants around the edges and the smaller ones up front. Of course, I don't really have any traditional "foreground plants," and the ones that are smaller now will become tall later. But that's okay. If it ends up mattering, I'll just re-trim them. For now, though, this lets me keep an eye on any plants that might be melting.

I'm just hoping I didn't swish too many baby MTS down the drain. They're basically indistinguishable from the lumps of dirt I was rinsing out of the sand.  I'm hoping they were mostly in the soil, which didn't get rinsed or anything. I know I saved at least one of them by picking it out of the sand though.

Since I disrupted the soil, there's a minor bacterial bloom in Felix's tank again, but it should go away soon. The Ammonia Alert dot is changing toward light green (.05 ppm)... It should be okay because the plants will likely take care of things, but if it hasn't gone back to normal yellow by this time tomorrow, I'll change out a gallon.

The white EE roundtail boy I picked up for MameJenny (yep, that happened, I don't think I mentioned it before here) is eating well, very happy, and has blown a nice little bubble nest. As soon as I can, I'll pack him up and send him off to her! Mame is super excited and I'm really glad to see her get the betta she's wanted for so long. :-D

Simon just caught me watching him and did the fastest little turn to glare at me. XD Dude's telling me he's hungry now, but I know his tune... he's a little piggy and he's had enough to eat today. He is getting more black trim to his fins. I like it--it kinds of sets him apart from the rest of the red VTs.

Apart from those moments when they're learning that duckweed ≠ pellets, all the fishes are happy here! Even Jake is pretty happy, because I've stopped messing with my tanks.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Just updating to say Felix's tank is nice and clear again. I'm pretty tired right now after driving school (Iowa's current laws force everyone to take driving school for their license).

Oh... and I didn't mention this. Adagio the nerite snail died... I don't really know why because he seemed fine before, he just stopped moving one day and smelled terrible when I removed him. Maybe PetSmart sold me a sick snail that was just dying really slowly? I don't know. I didn't have him terribly long, maybe a month or something like that.

Felix liked him, so maybe I'll get another nerite if I see one that's pretty. But I don't particularly need it, since the KK is small enough that I usually just scrub any green dust algae off the tank walls or heater with a fish-only toothbrush.

Anyway. Tired.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I'm trying to feed Felix's MTS. I have no idea how many are in there--hopefully at least two--but I buried a small pinch of betta pellets in the soil layer. I'm trying to "overfeed" the tank without overfeeding Felix, so I get more MTS and can transfer some to Simon and maybe the extra KK (which I don't know if I'll keep running).

I also fed the three boys. I'm super pleased with Simon's little tank. If a betta can live well in such a small tank, he is. He loves his plants, is active and perky, has great color, and even built a nice big bubble nest for me today. I wish the KK I got wasn't so badly scratched up, or I'd put Simon in it once MameJenny's white ships out, and use his current tank for plants and maybe a few MTS or a ghost shrimp, and as a QT tank if I ever needed it.

I think that if I can, I will exchange the scratched KK for a nicer one... or just buy a nicer one and set the old one aside. Upgrading Simon to a better tank should really be my next step.

Well, actually, shipping MJ's white betta will be what I do next with the fishes. Jake has taken a liking to him, so I've made sure to shut Jake out of my room when I'm not there, lest I stress out the little guy with a kitty pawing at the front of his tank. I really want to get him out to Mame... if I were driving on my own, he'd probably be on his way to Colorado by now. Just have to get the parents to the UPS store to grab what he needs for packing--and I guess to PetSmart for those fish baggies?

My driving school is... not great. If I could, I'd slip a little sedative into my in-car instructor's LifeWater... then maybe he'd stop yelling, panicking, grabbing the wheel, and using his brake so much. When I drive with my mom, she doesn't have to give me much instruction, but this guy keeps up a constant litany that's really distracting, and he freaks out really easily. The girl who I take turns driving with is about the same skill and practice level as I am, and he doesn't freak out nearly as much with her.

What's the difference? I have purple hair, and am two years older than my partner. I think he thinks I'm some kind of delinquent who hasn't been _allowed_ to drive up until now, and didn't believe me when I said that I was busy with other things when I was fourteen, and driving took a lesser priority than the other stuff going on in my life at the time.

Actually, the vagueness of that explanation probably confirmed to him what he'd been thinking. But I don't like to go through exactly what was going on, because it sounds like bragging and complaining by turns (which makes me sound like a snobby brat, especially to people who already have a negative idea of me), and because it's a really long explanation on a subject I don't like revisiting.

It has to do with my high school not letting me skip the dumb prerequisite classes that I'd already covered in my homeschooling--and making them let me skip them took months of finagling and jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Then it was stuff about partial homeschooling and how I would be allowed to graduate and what age I could take the GED (they lied repeatedly). There was also an incident where my guidance counselor told me that my schedule was all set up with all the classes I wanted and that we didn't need to see her about anything... and we came back the next year and there was nothing done.

Basically, it was a bunch of crap that the school district threw at us because we, as homeschoolers, refused to go along with their butt-stupid system. I went along with their butt-stupid system in middle school and freshman year, and hated it. My parents decided we weren't going to do that any longer, so they got involved and made paperwork, and started forcing school board people to do what they're paid to do. Well, the school board people didn't like that. They also didn't like the idea of getting me and my (at the end of freshman year) nearly 4.0 GPA into higher-level classes where I would get lower grades and thus lower the school's GPA. So they gave us an endless runaround that took up a bunch of my time.

That's the explanation. If the person hearing this knows me well, they understand that we went through that because I don't want to waste months of my time in unnecessary classes. But if they don't know me well, they think I'm a) arrogant, for being confident, b) entitled, because I'm saying the classes they're giving me aren't good enough, and c) snobbish, because telling that story sounds so... yeah.

And whenever the subject of school comes up, answering simple questions leads people to find out about my bizarre circumstances (wait, you graduated when you were sixteen?) and stuff like this always comes up. I can say, "It's a long story," and "The short explanation is that...", but sometimes that just doesn't cut it.

Whatever. My driving teacher can... shove it up his jumper. (Thank you, rude British expressions. You have given me many an American euphemism.*)



*I like using British cuss words. They aren't technically curse words in America. Most people generally know what they mean, but they're not as offensive. I much prefer them to ordinary euphemisms. No matter how you look at it, the way you speak says things about you, and what sort of exclamations you use, doubly so. There's a stigma against people who say "Dang it!" when they're really frustrated (well, depending on what kind of company you're in), and there's also a stigma against people who use more, uh, descriptive language (which I won't use). But nobody really has a prejudice against someone who swears in a different culture. Saying "Bugger!" or "Bloody thing!" in America might get you an odd look, but nobody makes nasty judgments about you. They just figure you watch a lot of British TV. Which I do.


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## Pippin (Apr 11, 2014)

Well, the British people give you the odd looks. (Me!)


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I do know a few swears in French... some of my classmates purposely looked them up, so they'd probably know even more. But since I don't often run into British folks except sometimes on the Internet, I do prefer your phrases. They're classier.

Do you read Terry Pratchett by any chance, Pippin? Being a British author (and, um, knight), he's obviously better-known over there. Just wondering if you'd heard of him. I'm a big fan.

Also, it says you live in Alaska on your profile! Is there a story behind that? 

A quick update...

MameJenny's white, shipping supply progress: Getting there! I have a styrofoam box, bubble wrap, and some nice big fish bags I grabbed from the Wal-Mart fish section. (Yeah, I know... I'm a delinquent, stealing two ounces of plastic.) Not sure if we're going to have to ship the styrofoam box bare, or if we can find a box that we can actually fit it in neatly. I have never done this before. Obviously.

MameJenny's white also got a 50% water change today... the Ammo. Alert indicator I borrowed from Felix's tank was saying it was fine (one fish, three gallons, a fair few plants, some rocks with established BB on them), I figured he could probably use a bit of a change.

Simon got a 50% WC too. His ammonia level's also been fine, but it's been a while and it's a small tank, heavily planted or not. The lucky bamboo growing out of it seems to be enjoying sitting in fish water, too.

Felix's tank has a little GDA on it again... predictable because it's in front of a window. It's not really a nuisance or anything. I'm just kind of missing seeing the little chompy snail tracks in it though. Adagio always got to the green dust algae first and left his little dotted gaps in the algae before I brushed the rest off.

I found a LFS that carries lovely zebra nerites and real marimo moss balls and all sorts of stuff. They carry Kanaplex! I've never seen a store carry Kanaplex! Actually, they had a whole fish pharmacy over there. Malachite green, methylene blue, a ton of stuff. And a huge variety of plants. It was super cool.

My mom was just enthralled by their saltwater tanks, but she wouldn't get into it because you really have to spend money to get a decent setup, not like freshwater tanks. Definitely not like betta tanks, where a beginner can have everything they need to keep a betta for about $100--yeah, I've done the math--that's talking about a 5g tank with filter, light, adjustable heater, decor, water conditioner, food, substrate, and probably water testing supplies... assuming the fish doesn't get sick, that's enough to keep them going comfortably for life. And when you get your next betta after that, probably you just need to buy water conditioner, and maybe food.

Except that by the time the first fish passes on, you probably have five tanks because that's how bettas go. Just keep one? Yeah, right.


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## Pippin (Apr 11, 2014)

No I don't. My Mom probably has. 

There isn't really very much of a story. so, my mom(She was living in England) was bored one day, and went on an online chat site, and started chatting with the random guy from Alaska. So they liked each other, and she moved to Alaska, and they married and had me and my sister!. So, I always count myself as being British, but I've never actually lived there. I do know lots of words from both languages, which can be a bit awkward sometimes. 

I know. I think it's a curse, making it so you can't have less than five tanks. I have eight, but I want to divide a ten gallon, and move some of the bettas into that. And maybe they can start there own Kill Mickey Mouse club.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Writing from a suburb north of Chicago, staying with my older brother and his wife. They loved the blueberry pies I baked them, and my brother really seemed to like the harmonica set I got him for his birthday. c:

Obviously not much to update on the fish front, because they're several hours away. So, just updating to say I'm still alive, and I'm gonna leave your fleeting Internet attention spans in the capable hands of Vance Joy. Oh, and also, this. Ooh, and this. And also, if you haven't heard of The Decemberists, just... especially this one!

Pick a link, any link. But especially that last one. The student video that goes with it is excellent and amazing and wonderful.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Remember when I said that Simon would be the perfect fish for a community tank, because of how mellow he is?

Remember when I said I was going to exchange the scratched Kritter Keeper I was using temporarily and get an unscratched one?

Guess who just found a 10 gallon tank for just over the price of the KK I was exchanging?

YEP.   

where DOIG this man, were amking this HAPPNE.

It's just a basic glass tank. Here's what's in it so far:

- Rocks, gravel, sand. It's kind of all mixed together and not enough to cover the bottom really at this point. But that's okay. The rocks that are in there may or may not be seeded with BB depending on if any was growing in my planted tanks or if the plants were doing it all. I never know, but it won't hurt to try putting them in anyway.
- Plants... water wisteria, green camboba, java moss, bacopa, and a few juvie java ferns. And a bunch of duckweed. No heavy root feeders since this one isn't soil based.
- Water dosed with Prime. About eight gallons of it. Water line is about an inch from the top, I think it'll actually hold nine gallons, but that's pretty normal. After filling it up, I traded some of its water with Felix's and Simon's, so it should have a minimal amount of ammonia in it.
- Plastic wrap over the top so the cats don't try to drink it.

It also has my octopus lamp aimed at it--I moved the lamp to the other side of my desk to light it. Felix doesn't need it because his tank is in front of the window, and because I moved another (softer) lamp near his tank.

Here's what it still needs, and the non-fish things I'm going to put in:

- A heater. Don't have one, definitely need one. Maybe 50-75 watts? My room is really nice and warm, to the point where Simon's little tank stays at the perfect temperature without a heater. It wouldn't hurt to get a 100w, though. Depends how expensive they are.
- A thermometer. Obvious reasons.
- Driftwood or a large-ish ornament of some sort for the center.
- A lid. Still waiting to get plastic material from Jo-Ann's. I keep forgetting about it.

Fish that I'm thinking about putting in...

- Simon. He really should be out of that 1g tank. I mean, the water quality's just fine, but there's not actually that much swimming space, and as he's becoming more active, it's mattering more and more.
- Snails--either ramshorns or nerites. Not a big fan of mystery snails or--ugh--apple snails, which would eat my plants.
- 5 dwarf cories? They're super cute, but I don't know how I'd QT them in the 1g. I'm not sure if I'd rather have them or more platies. And they're so sensitive...
- Platies, variatus platies! Platies are great. And I can just get one at a time and QT them on their own. The only thing is that they might munch on my plants, or that they might reproduce like nuts. But I don't think those will be major problems, seeing as my plants grow super fast and they tend to eat their own young... and if they don't, I know a good LFS that might take them. It's the same LFS I'm planning to buy from, so I can ask when I'm there.

I don't want to do guppies, too risky with a betta. Mollies are bullies, and Simon's shy, so that's a no-go. Neon tetras are pretty cute, so I might think about those, but most people say bigger schools mean they don't pick on the betta so much, so I'm wondering how much I can fit in there.

Once the tank has a heater and a thermometer, Simon can go in. (I don't care what people say about fish-in cycling... one betta in a lightly planted 10g tank is not going to kill anything, especially if I change a gallon or two per day.) Then, once Simon's established his territory (which should take a while) and the tank has a big piece of cover and maybe some more plants, I can QT one platy, maybe two, at a time and then add them.

I feel safe adding platies. Don't know about the cories. I think that would be stretching the bioload, seeing how sensitive cories are to water parameters... and with more fish, there's the higher chance of sickness/needing medication, which cories are also sensitive to. Besides, my mom has a thing against catfish in general and she already thinks I'm crazy. XD Course, she's had some odd experiences with platies, too. That's another story.

I think I would feel okay adding six platies to this tank. That allows for a nice 2M/4F ratio, leaves a buffer room for their fry, and doesn't crowd the tank--which I don't want to do. Simon's a rescue, easily stressed, and I want him to have a really nice home where he feels safe and has plenty of room to swim. 

Folks with more stocking experience... what do you think? Am I over- or under-shooting my limit here?

I'm including pictures of the tank now! They're probably oversized, sorry... usually I resize my pics with Photoshop, but that isn't working since I switched to Mavericks and I can't get them to resize in GIMP because I have no clue what I'm doing.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

The size came through just fine. Haven't gotten to start my community tank yet, so I can't offer insight...still, seems like a fun project.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

What do people think of this heater in a 10g tank?

http://www.amazon.com/Hydor-50W-Submersible-Aquarium-Heater/dp/B00061UQ6G/ref=cm_rdp_product

The "most helpful" positive review was where someone put it in a 10g, so I'm gonna say it's probably good...

Anyone have a suggestion for a light filter of some sort for this tank? Not urgent, but I'd like one. Not sure if I'm cycling or planting this one. Plants get expensive.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

If you want something really gentle, get a sponge filter. They have the added benefit of being cheap, and the sponge material makes an excellent home for beneficial bacteria. All you have to do to clean them is give them a swish and squeeze in your old tank water during a water change once a month. You need the filter itself, an appropriate air pump, and tubing.

No opinion on the Hydor - I use a different brand, but I forget which one it is.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

I would suggest putting your smaller, less aggressive fish in first. Wait two weeks to make sure they are healthy and then add your betta.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

DaytonBetta said:


> I would suggest putting your smaller, less aggressive fish in first. Wait two weeks to make sure they are healthy and then add your betta.


Gotcha, thanks!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I've decided it's going to be 5 same-sex platies, a nerite snail (because duh), and Simon in this tank, and I want to do a double sponge filter.

Is this air pump okay? I see an adjustment knob... There was one four bucks cheaper but I didn't see a knob, and I thought that was probably not what I wanted. Anything I should know about this? Is this one any better? Any quieter, maybe?

Once I get the filter running and maybe some driftwood, I will put several platies in the tank in order to cycle it. I'll replace a gallon of its water every day and leave the plants in there. Hopefully I can get a test kit, but if not, I'll change 2 gallons/day just to be on the safe side and test at my LFS or, if they won't, then at least PetSmart.

Alternatively, I could set it up NPT-style right now, set up the filter, and allow the dirt ammonia to cycle the tank. I haven't decided whether I'm going full-out NPT. Thoughts? Plants are my favorite way to keep a tank's ammonia safe, but it's just so... big. But I guess that means it's even harder to change my mind later since I'll have all these fish. I might do that. I'm gonna go see if we have the right kind of dirt.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Acquired: One bag of plain topsoil, well-sifted with cat litter scoop.

Duh-duh-duh-DUH!!!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

i haz a mud tank lolz

Seriously, "dirt based tank" ≠ mud puddle. Usually.

Hoping it'll settle down. I just dumped the wad of stem plants back in without rooting them. They won't mind, but I'd like to make it all pretty again... right now it looks like I'm displaying some weird 3d modern art piece.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

A cat litter scoop? Seriously? Oh my goodness, Rebekah, you are a genius and I might love you. What size holes? Is it one of those serious sifters or one that just has slits?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

hrutan said:


> A cat litter scoop? Seriously? Oh my goodness, Rebekah, you are a genius and I might love you. What size holes? Is it one of those serious sifters or one that just has slits?


Um, it was just one that my mom was using to scoop dirt for repotting plants.  It just had ordinary slits like a half inch wide, so it just sifted out the big clumps that were way too big for the tank. It was right there, so I just used it 

I mean, if you wanted to really work at it with one of those thingies that's like the consistency of craft mesh or whatever, more power to you, but I wouldn't have stood hunched over that long. It took long enough to sift out a gallon of dirt with that scoop, and I did have a generous "toss" pile.

I'm just glad a gallon was pretty much perfectly what I needed! I wouldn't have had the stamina or the dirt if I needed more.

If this tank doesn't clear up by tomorrow morning, I'm gonna attack it with serious water changes... >:/


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

LOL...I thought that you put actual cat litter in your tank for a second! :lol:

You're going to have so much fun with a bigger tank. :-D Don't worry, the disgusting mud puddle phase is only temporary. It sucks, and it looks like you have a giant mess proudly displayed in your room, but it's temporary. :-D Has yours started smelling like dead things yet? lol

I really like the Tetra Whisper air pumps. They're really quiet, and also very reliable. I've never used anything else. (I've literally owned two for the 3 1/2 years I've had fish.)

It's probably a good idea to get a test kit if you're doing a platy-in cycle. At the very least, get ammonia and nitrite kits. I have an uncycled tank and a fish-in cycling tank at the moment, and I can't imagine not being able to see what the levels are whenever I want.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

AUGH. So tired.

It's been a day and three-quarters. Nevertheless, I came home and changed most of the tank water. (It seemed like a good idea at the time. My cat is just glad I'm sitting down. So am I.)

I have not in fact gotten to the dead things stage! Maybe I'll put rooibos tea in it when I get there to counteract the smell. I've never had fish water smell so good. And, yes, a cat litter scoop ≠ a scoop of cat litter. XD I'll definitely get the Tetra Whisper one then, if I end up using a sponge filter! This may or may not be the case, BECAUSE...

I mentioned the filter to my mom, and she seems to think she might have a charcoal filter stuck away in our basement. This is unsurprising. Our basement is a time capsule crossed with a junkyard crossed with a spider factory crossed with Kreacher's hidey-hole in the Black family mansion.

Mostly Kreacher's hidey-hole, though.

It's a conglomeration of all the things my dad has "rescued" and hoarded. My mom tells him to throw something away, there might be a 50% chance he'll do it. If it's something big that he thinks can be "stored" and "used again," that chance drops to maybe 25%. 10% if he really likes it. My mom and I have gone through the basement and found...

...quite a few pairs of pants from the 80's, complete with pleats... a litter box, hooded, filled with cat litter, and _yes, used_... quite a few spiderwebs... not that many actual spiders, because very few spiders actually want to live there... kids' toys with no off button... that pink insulation stuff... cassette tapes... old-fashioned slides... assorted tables... a TON of my old stuffed animals... at least one toilet which might actually be there for a reason... weird baby bouncer type toys that my older brother hasn't claimed for his future kids yet... games we rarely played even when they were upstairs... an EVEN BIGGER TON of old exercise videos... old computers... and some stuff that neither my mom or I was able to identify, which we just threw away anyway.

There was more, actually, but you get the idea.

In that mess, there are probably two or three aquarium filters. There's probably equipment for seven assorted sports none of us play. There are probably snowshoes and canoe paddles. I wouldn't doubt that we'd find one of those stuffed reindeer that sing when you squeeze the red nose, even though my mom really wanted to burn all of those.

No, the question isn't whether or not there's a filter in that mess. The question is whether it works, and whether it works for this particular tank.

Whoa. Light is actually penetrating this tank almost halfway. I think the water change helped. I mean, still opaque, but that's like an inch better than last night.

Might just be that the duckweed moved over slightly, though.

...No, I think it actually is better. It's hard to tell though.

Whoo.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Still busy turning the mud puddle into less of a mud puddle. I've capped it with gravel... not sure if it's a small enough size, but OFL's NPT thread says it's just there to hold the dirt down until it gets waterlogged and sets up, and after that you just have to keep changing water until it's clear, and the dirt that will stay will stay. I think I'm past that point and it did its job.

At this point I'm just filling it half to 2/3 of the way and letting it sit for a few hours before I attack it again. I think I'm on my fourth round of water? Maybe fifth? Fourth sounds right. I can see it's gradually getting, um, less dismal. Like, I can't use it as a makeup mirror now. There's some actual light penetration, almost down to the bottom.

I would like to go to my LFS and find myself some driftwood, check their heater prices, see what they have for platies and maybe shrimp even though I'm not ready to buy those yet. I'd LOVE to go on a plant shopping spree there.  They have amazing plants.

I'm thinking about getting either Excel or setting up one or two DIY CO2 reactors for this tank. Mostly 'cause... dwarf baby tears  And all those other plants that do so well with CO2! And then I don't have to worry about plants melting in my tank. Though that isn't such a problem since I switched to dirt based tanks.

Anyway! It's late, so that's all for now.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I'm off to clean a mud puddle... the muddiest puddle of Oz.

I admit, that was a stretch.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Bluh, so muddy. Every time I do a change, it looks terrible until it settles down... but it settles down rather too slowly for my tastes. I guess I wouldn't be doing, like, 90-100% water changes when it has fish in it, and wouldn't be pouring the water in nearly as roughly as I am now... but I don't want it taking so long to settle when I just go in to plant stuff or move things around.

That's why I'm being rough. I know I could pour the water in much more gently, but I also know that would leave a bunch of these "muddy" particles there to kick up later on, when I have fish in the tank and can't do massive water changes like this. 

Yet, I can't be too frustrated. It settles faster and is clearer with every water change. So I guess I keep going.

There's a virus going around our house and I want to be done with this before I catch it and the symptoms hit... I don't want to be stuck with a mud puddle while sick. And I have the WORST immune system, so I WILL catch it, no doubt there.

Going back to do more changes. Looks like it's settling again.

Note To Self: when buying future house, make sure fish room either has a filtered-water sink, or is on same floor as kitchen.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Realized I was being stupid, and should be using the 3g bucket to mineralize the soil. Tank is now mostly empty. I'm gonna just do this in the kitchen sink. Carrying water up the stairs constantly is killing me.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Okay, I thought I mineralized it well enough in the bucket and now it's back in the tank. We're looking at a SERIOUS mud puddle here now. Not sure if what I just did was counterproductive or what. Turns out there's a TON of organics in topsoil... why did I not think about this. x/

Oh, well. I think there's still about an inch of soil/gravel mixture left, so should be enough for plants. If it isn't, I can always mineralize more soil in the bucket and add later. Now that I know what I'm doing...

I've got this Glad dish of water and plants that are still waiting to be put in this thing, and I'm getting kinda tired of letting them sit there. Dunno how long it's okay for them to be there.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Now proudly displaying once again: giant black tub.

Oh well. At least the workspace is clean.

I think it's still not as bad as the first time I filled it, but it looks like after the first or second water change. Hopefully it just looks worse than it is. Fingers crossed.

Hm. Did it just get better in the last thirty seconds, or is that wishful thinking? Probably wishful thinking, but I'm putting a ruler up next to it anyway.

Tank completely full, light penetration almost halfway. Not terrible. I'm still wondering whether I've made more or less work for myself by scooping everything up.

It did let me recover my little aquascaping thing where I piled up dirt in the back corners, though. I was having a hard time doing that before, but now that the dirt and gravel are more mixed up, it's much easier because the gravel will hold the dirt there.

And what I'm not seeing are those little particles sticking to the side of the tank. Either that, or they are all very small. It's hard to tell. I wonder how much of the cloudiness is bacterial bloom from whatever organics are left. The top four inches, for example, is cloudy but not dark--so I think that's what that is.

Tomorrow is my last day of driving school. I will not miss it when it's over.

Edit: Just realized this is my fifth post in a row. Ah, well, you know what I said about blogging in real time!


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Did you cap it with anything? Without something like sand to hold the dirt in place, you might just end up with a perpetual mud puddle.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I was using gravel, because this suggested you just need it so the dirt can soak. My gravel was a little larger, so I waited between water changes... starting with 1 WC per day, completely filling and emptying, and then later filling up less and WCing more frequently.



Oldfishlady said:


> That is what I thought too.....dirt+water=mud....But it isn't like that if you set a dirt based tank up correctly. The sand or small diameter gravel you cap the dirt with will help keep the dirt in place until it become water logged. Once the dirt is water logged and starts its life under water-it stays in place......


I think I've lost most my dirt, actually. It said small diameter gravel or sand, and I probably should have gone with that. It's just that I've tried using sand, and you get a bunch of dirt stirred up when you plant your plants if you're not uber-careful.

Frankly, I don't really know what I'm doing. There's a ton of conflicting and unclear information on the Net, so I'm just experimenting and finding out what works for myself. Sometimes that's the only way to do it. Experiments = experience!

On the other hand--it's looking better! Light penetration is all the way down to the substrate again. Since I can't see to the bottom of the tank, I can't tell, but this may be mostly because I don't have much dirt left.

I think I need to prep some more topsoil and add it. I don't have any ordinary topsoil left, but it's not hard to find. Would also be nice to know if I'm actually washing everything away when I do this in a bucket... or if there's just a ton of stuff I don't want in here.

If none of this ends up working, I'm gonna go the route I went with my other NPTs and just dump soil in the bottom with sand on top and fill up the bloody tank.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

You could try using some Jungle Clear Water (potassium permanganate), if you have any on hand. I put some in my tank twice when it was going through the mud puddle phase, and it definitely helped. You'll want to do several large water changes before you add anything living to the tank, though - I think people use it to kill snails.

I'd definitely get either some fine gravel or sand. If you get sand, RINSE IT FIRST. (That mistake made my mud puddle much worse. D How much gravel is on top of the soil? If you use less than an inch or so, a lot of soil will end up in the water.

Try waiting a day or two between water changes, if you can. Also, make sure that you don't disrupt the substrate when you pour in fresh water.

Also, happy to hear that you're done with driving school. :-D


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

More weird updates...

Early this morning, I found a tiny leak in the tank I'd never noticed before. I'm not even sure it was there before, in fact. So I asked my mom to go to PetSmart and find us some aquarium silicone.

She was angry that PetSmart had sold me a leaky tank. The PetSmart lady didn't want to give us a free tube of silicone like my mom was heavily hinting, and wanted us to buy the $7.50 tube ourselves. This didn't earn any points with my mom. The lady clearly thought that this purple-haired teenager had obviously wrecked the tank herself, and tried to get me to say something stupid that would suggest I'd put the leak there.

Frankly, I don't know if the leak is new or what... but I do know I've done nothing that would cause it. And I don't like being patronized. In fact, that's one of the things I like least.

I'm going to empty out the tank, and we're going to exchange it for a new one. (This new one will be tested THOROUGHLY.) That is that. It's not as hard as it sounds, because there's just the substrate in it. Still irritating though.

I did take the opportunity to pick up API-brand liquid CO2, though. They didn't have Excel in stock right now because they're renovating, doing inventory, yada yada yada still.

I also got a bag of FloraMax substrate. What are folks' opinions on this? They also had fluorite, is that better? Since we're going back soon, I can return it if the other stuff is better.

It's just that the dirt prep has been killing my back. >< Hopefully this stuff is just as good. My mom's still making fun of me for making her buy a $15 bag of dirt, but she knows why I want it.

Anyway.

Now that I'm done with driving, I can also soon go back to babysitting. That means money! And that means plants!

I know, I'm pathetic. But I really like the Planted Aquariums Central site... it's just that their shipping prices are only worth it if you put in a substantial order (like, $70 in just plants means $25 in basic shipping, if you order much less than that, the shipping is half the price of the plants). So basically you need to spend $100 in order to make it worth it.

One day I WILL order from them. I'll only stop filling my tanks with plants when there is literally no more room. And then I'll let them grow, and make a little of that cash back from selling my extras. :3

That would be a ridiculously optimistic prediction if not for the fact that I really don't have anywhere to put more and bigger tanks. In two or three years, when I move out and get my own apartment, though, all bets are off.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I searched FloraMax in the planted section. Looks like people like it, but it seriously needs to be rinsed. I can do that.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I'm researching aquascaping now. RussellTheShihTzu is holding a few pieces of cholla driftwood for me; I'm planning on making the larger piece into the focal point of the tank on the right. If I can manage keeping it in place, I'm going to arc it from a low spot near the front a little left and toward the back and absolutely fill it with plants. In the corner that the driftwood would cut off, I'll loosely plant with green camboba and limnophila sessiflora (if I spelled that right. I have both of those plants.) This would be a good place to hide the heater.

The second piece will probably be turned into a little cave on the lower left. I'll use gravel to boost up the substrate like I did when I was working with Felix's tank as a paludarium, and use a few of my larger black river stones to brace it in place. On top of that, there'll be more FloraMax and some foreground-type plants with the mother java fern thrown in near the wall just to break the "lawn," then some slightly taller midground plants like crypts or bacopa or wisteria near the back. Some lagaro would work nicely there, too, although I'd have to really trim it regularly. Lagaro explodes when it gets near the surface!

I may also spice up the floor with little spots of sand sitting on top of the FloraMax, unless I decide it would sink into the FloraMax too easily.

I think I'm going to order from Umar in order to kick this off, but if I can get like fifty or sixty bucks together from babysitting, I may also order from this web site I found last night--it's similar to Planted Aquariums Central, but the prices and shipping are lower. I mean, the shipping is WAY lower. WAY lower. You can order smaller amounts of plants and have it still be worthwhile, and if you buy enough, the shipping actually costs less and less. I mean--yeah!

They also offer a service where they'll work out an aquascape design for you for $20, but I don't really want that. I'd rather do it myself.

When I bought Felix and his little Aqueon Minibow 1 and his single java fern, I had an idea of what he needed to live happily because I'd done some research, but I had no clue how much goes into fishkeeping. Biology, chemistry, horticulture, art, even mechanics in a way. It's super cool.

Though I'm kind of glad the critter purring on my lap doesn't require a lot of this fancy treatment. X3


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

http://fish-etc.com/aquascaping-main/aquascaping-a-planted-aquarium

Anyone who's learning aquascaping--this is what I'm reading. It's very interesting!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Should have read more carefully. You still need root tabs, even with FloraMax.

Argh, I'm frustrated. First the leaky tank, now this substrate thing again. I'm really P.O.'d... I think I might need to step back from this stupid tank for a few days.

Let's lay out what I still need to do... (this is more for my use than it is for the journal, so if you're casually reading, feel free to skip)
1. Exchange the tank for one that isn't leaking junk all over the place.
2. Test the new tank out on the deck with the hose, over a piece of parchment paper or something. Wipe down all sides, take a quick lunch break, come back and check everything. If it's another leaky one, go back to step 1, obviously.
3. Figure out what I want for the aquascape. The plan I mentioned above won't work; the driftwood pieces I was looking at were actually way too small. (I'm terrible at judging size, even when given good measurements and a ruler.)
4. Buy hardscape. Place hardscape.
5. Find more topsoil. Use FloraMax as the cap, it's fine enough (good thing I'm not doing cories, they'd hate the FloraMax--it's like pumice). Not gonna bother mineralizing, but I am gonna sift the TS.
6. Buy this filter. Start cycling. The ammonia from the not-mineralized topsoil should be plenty to start this up. Also get this tank an Ammonia Alert.
7. Buy this heater AND A THERMOMETER. I keep forgetting to get one, and I'm already short a thermometer.
8. Buy suitable lightbulbs for the plants, so I can put them in the octopus lamp.
9. Make a hood out of plastic material now that all the hardware's in place.
10. PLANT SHOPPING SPREE. That is all.
11. Time to stock! I plan on starting with three platies, a snail or two of some sort, and maybe some shrimp if I can find them. That's all cool.
12. Let them adjust.
13. Add Simon; see if he's okay with this big tank and its extra inhabitants.
14. Adjust if the tank isn't happy. Be prepared to spend a ton more money, as usual.

I think I'm gonna go binge-reread Homestuck now.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Let's see... I'm actually finding out what else I could put in that tank instead of all 5 platies.

AqAdvisor says I could keep:

1 betta
3 platies
7-8 dwarf rasboras OR celestial pearl danios

That fills AqAdvisor's tank stocking level to 99%. It's safe to assume a few snails or shrimp will not hurt anything in a well-planted tank.

A small school or neon, black neon, cardinal, or green fire tetras might work, but I'm really leery of putting tetras in there because they're awfully nippy and active. If this were a 20+ gallon tank, maybe... but yeah. White cloud minnows are nice-looking, but they prefer cooler temperatures than I'd put a betta in. If Simon decides he likes his little studio apartment tank better than the big frat house tank, I might consider them.

I also may add shrimp later on, when the tank is mature. Species suggestions? Color would be really nice.

This tank will probably stay at 76 degrees. Got suggestions for other schooling fish?

Also, what kind of snails should I get?  Nerites are cool, but a big yellow mystery snail or some colorful ramshorns would look really nice too.

Cute thing for the night: The other day, I caught Jake sound asleep, his little tongue flicking in and out of his mouth. Must have been something very tasty he was lapping at in his dream x3


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Perhaps ramshorns? They have the benefit of breeding, which gives you the possibility of selecting for color over generations, and watching them color up from babies is exciting. Mine climb up the side of the tank, grab a piece of duckweed, and whiz around the surface until they fall...and it is hilarious. Plus their red skin is striking.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

LOL! I love it XD Ramshorns it is, then :3

Speaking of snails, the couple pond snails in Felix's tank were actually _riding around on each other's shells_ while I was trimming the plants. It was very silly-looking, especially when it was the larger snail on top of the little baby one  Right now, they're eating the algae off the duckweed, although not as entertainingly as hrutan's. It must be easy for them to eat algae off this duckweed, as it covers almost half the water surface and likes to cluster together near the sun. It's like a fifth tank wall for them.

I did not realize how much the lagarosiphon had actually taken over the tank until I decided to trim it  It's like it established itself, and promptly went bonkers.

Simon's like, "hey could you just rinse out my java moss already?" so I should probably do that next.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

myexplodingcat said:


> L
> I did not realize how much the lagarosiphon had actually taken over the tank until I decided to trim it  It's like it established itself, and promptly went bonkers.


Told ya it would do that! :-D I never realize that I have 30 twisty stems of the stuff until I start trimming it. :shock: If you just leave it to its own devices, it eventually forms a thick lagarosiphon jungle. 

That's funny about the snails. My many bladder snails like to go around upside down _on the surface of the water._ They don't even need duckweed. I don't know how they can accomplish that.

Sorry to hear about all your trouble with the leaky tank. Hope it goes better this time...

I agree about how much goes into fishkeeping. It can be as simple as a betta in a 1g tank, or you can have a bigger community tank, or a super fancy, complex, expensive reef tank. I think that's why I like this hobby so much.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

I spotted a couple of Ramshorns coasting around with no duckweed today, too. I think sometimes they get a bit too much air in their shells and they become buoyant, haha.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Well, I'm really glad the lagaro is growing so well, because I have a 10g tank I'm gonna have to outfit soon!

I still haven't exchanged the tank yet. My mom has a terrible cold :c She looks miserable... basically all I can do for her is bring her tea with lots of honey and hope she doesn't feel as bad as she sounds. She's had this cold for twice as long as my younger brother had it. I haven't caught it yet, and I hope not to.

Tomorrow I have to go sort out my college schedule, which means I'm dragging my mom out of the house anyway, so hopefully I can return this tank and get myself some more topsoil.

I've been playing with some different aquascaping ideas, but I keep coming back to my first one. I drew it out and "planted" it on paper, keeping in mind some of the plants I'd picked out on aquariumplants.com. I'll post a pic of my drawing. The plants will cost $70 shipped, so I need to get back to my babysitting job in order to afford them, but I won't be buying them for a while.

Oh... and part of the hardscape will be a round Gladware dish turned upside down with a giant hole cut in it and the edges sanded down. I'll need a tube of aquarium silicone to stick it in place. Ironic, huh? I know one thing for certain--I'm not buying that silicone from PetSmart. It's really expensive there.

Ordinarily I'd just go to the LFS and buy the silicone and repair the tank, except I have only the vaguest of guesses as to where the actual leak is. Seeing as I didn't notice any leak until I filled it all the way, I think it's high up, where the glass corner meets the rim. But it's hard to tell. I'm exchanging the thing, anyway.

I'm going to go at least mid-tech with this thing-- 2.6 wpg from a 6500K daylight CFL, Trace and NPK and Flourish and liquid CO2 additives, a nice filter recommended to me by MattsBettas, and dirt under FloraMax cap. I can grow basically anything that doesn't require mass amounts of CO2 with that, and, while expensive, it isn't too crazy. I may make a DIY CO2 system later (this tank would only need one reactor anyway), but I don't think I'm ready for that level of crazy just *right* now.

Here's a peek at my plant list! I know a few of these plants may complain about having only liquid CO2, but I will deal with that if and when it happens. Most of them will be perfectly happy though.
Anacharis
Red Camboba
Red Crypt. Wendtii
Myrio Mattogrossense
Myrio Tuberculatum (Red)
Glosso
Dwarf Lily (Nymphaea Rubra)
Golden Nesea
Ludwigia Peruensis
Crypt. Undulatus
Red Tiger Lotus
Dwarf Four Leaf Clover
Narrow Leaf Dwarf Chain Sword
Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera Reineckii)
Dwarf Baby Tears

That, plus the plants I already have set aside for the tank...
Water wisteria
Green camboba
Limnophila sessiflora
Duckweed (which will have to be kept under control in this tank)
Java ferns (including the mother java fern)
Bacopa
Lagaro
Java moss
and maybe the lucky bamboo?

Yes, I'm planting really heavily. Platies, remember? Besides, if I'm ordering online, I want to spend $50 that lets me get a better deal on shipping, even if it means I'm stuffing my other tanks too.

Correction. ESPECIALLY if it means I'm stuffing my other tanks too.

Anyway, here's the scape I have planned. I know I made the drawing a little longer in proportion to the actual tank... but it'll work anyway. I decided to replace that banana plant that's by the cave with the dwarf lily or maybe the tiger lotus (the other plant will go by the driftwood).


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

One more thing. You guys need to listen to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afoCvYWxeLQ

It's like if aquariums had a soundtrack, that would be one of the songs.

And while we're at it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XdYvUr7UsM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp1qr5pn0R0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwY2FABsY60
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UFJlMG4x1U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4scMkQYzs

Andrew Bird: an extremely handsome musical genius.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

That is a lot of plants! You might think about paring the list down a bit.They will fill in and grow a lot.

Anacharis is sensitive to Excel, so if that is the liquid CO2 you intend to use,you'll need to reduce your dose and dose every other day. I'm not sure about your other choices, I've heard to that cryptocoryne are also sensitive. I have both,and they do well with the reduced dose.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

What Dayton said. If you have a bunch of plants in a tank, it's harder to keep it looking organized. The quick growing plants will grow everywhere and block the slower growing plants. Not too bad if you like the wild look, but you'll be doing a lot of trimming. 

Just curious, why are you planting heavily for the platies? My tank is heavily planted, and they spend most of their time in the open area darting around. Maybe I have oddball platies. 

The plan looks good, though! :-D


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Simply because platies are messy--I wasn't talking about cover, but ammonia reduction. Simon will appreciate the cover, though, being as shy as he is.

Thanks for the heads-up--I'll ditch the anacharis/crypts, then. I have the API CO2 booster, but I think that contains the same chemical that's supposed to melt things.

Part of the reason I'm thinking about ordering so many is that I can't really afford overnight shipping easily--it's super expensive--and I'm going to guess that something will be damaged on the way. Or decide it doesn't like my tank when it gets here. Or maybe it'll turn out to be radioactive and turn Simon into the Hulk/Mr. Hyde whenever it's in the tank. (Maybe not that last one. You get the idea.)

If I order <$50 in plants, overnight shipping is $45... which is ridiculous... so the idea of ordering fewer plants in order to just overnight them is definitely not cost-efficient. Two-day shipping is much less crazy, even under $50, but everywhere I've been reading about this says to plant generously first thing even if it's more expensive.

Plus, if the single portions I'm buying turn out to be way too huge, I can just sell the excess to other forum members, and since, unlike aquariumplants.com, _I _don't have to mark anything "LIVE PLANTS," shipping is cheaper for me (read: for you guys). That makes back some of the money I'm spending, and also makes you guys happy because you don't have to pay lots for shipping ;-)

Even if the portions aren't too much, I'll probably be selling trims... which I totally don't mind doing. Shipping plants is super easy. If this were about shipping fish, it would be a big fat NO, but all you have to do with plants is package them up correctly, stick them in a flat rate box, and send them out.

Also, remember, I have two more tanks which would look great if I pimped them out with colorful plants  Felix's tank is looking a bit sparse right now except for all the lagaro, because the plants I had set aside for the 10g were from his tank. I guess I should stick them back in really, because I won't need them for a while :/

I bet in a few months you'll probably have the right to say "I told you so," when I'm like "wait this is seriously a huge tank full of plants that grow like those just-add-water dinosaur toys." But if this is one of those purchases where it pays for itself in time out of the profits, then so be it!

Yes, I'm insane. Careful--it's contagious.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Found a piece of driftwood! It's got sort of a masculine feel to it... looks a little like antlers? It's strong and sort of organically curvy, not so sharply angular as some driftwood. I know curvy and my description of it as masculine doesn't quite match up, but you'll get it once you see it.

I thought it would be the right size/shape for this scape, but I'm not really finding that... either I ask my dad to help make it work (which is a possibility), or I rework the scape idea itself.

I'm gonna work on this.

Also got a clip on lamp, which is... rather stubborn but should work with a few adjustments. The new tank is not leaking--yay! I ordered those 26w CFLs, too.

The LFS had java ferns on sale for $2 apiece. I asked for three; they gave me seven with about three leaves apiece. I don't know how that translates to three ferns, but that's all they charged for, so yay! I even rescued the couple of snails that hitchhiked in the bag. For some reason, snails have not been a problem in my tanks at this point, and as long as they don't go overboard with the breeding thing, they're a plus for me. I wouldn't have the heart to crush them anyway, and wouldn't want to rinse them down the drain (ew).

...you know what, I bet if I mirror-imaged the scape, it'd work perfectly

...

Yep. Turned the driftwood around. With some finagling, it no longer seems ridiculously bulky. There is room for the cave and everything. I think the lighting will even work better this way.

I'm not sure if I want the driftwood taken off its slate base, though. Maybe I do? It's high up and some of the detail is lost behind the rims. The top of the wood is also sticking up a few inches. It's just screwed on. If I want it unmounted, I can just ask my dad to unscrew it for me--he loves doing this sort of thing. 

My mom is starting to give in to my contagious fish craziness. In the LFS today, she pointed to a 4 gallon tank and said: "Christmas is coming up. If someone wanted to buy me a four-gallon tank and a small angelfish... I would like that."

She used to have an angel she kept in a little tank for several years until my grandma overfed him.  (My grandma and animals never mixed well.) Funny thing is... I was the one who originally suggested that gift idea, and at the time, she said, "No. I do not want a fish. No fish. No. Rebekah. No."

I did research on the suckers anyway after that, and found out they need way more than a little tank (which is usually the case...). AqAdvisor recommends a 15g tall tank for one angel, and even then says it might outgrow the space. That would be good, although a 10g would also be entirely doable. Especially since mine will probably have enough plants to fill hers in just a few weeks, and she could pick out the kinds she liked the most 

I pointed out that the 4 gallon might keep the angel for a little while, but he would soon outgrow it and she'd have to keep upgrading. She said she'd just feed him less (yes, she was joking).

Where can one find a 15g tall and a stand? 0 Just... hypothetically.  I know all I have to really do to find a stand is go around antique shops looking for the right table, and once I find one that looks and feels really sturdy, lean my weight on it to see if it could support me--and, therefore, the tank.

For reference for those of you who've seen my pic in the "put a pic to the name" thread, I'm actually quite a bit heavier than I look. So, yes, my sitting/leaning heavily on something is a pretty sure test. Hey, you know what they say... never trust a skinny cook.


I also got aquarium silicone today, and plastic for the hood and some basic curtain sheers for the back, which I'll silicone-glue on. And organic potting mix! I'm just all over the place with progress today. 

But I didn't JUST do aquarium-related things today! I actually got some other important stuff done.

I scheduled this semester of college classes! I'm taking a math class, a technical writing class, Intro to Programming Logic, and Foundations of IT. Intro to Programming Logic sounds like a derp class I don't need (guys, I can in fact make a flowchart, and I've already programmed in several different languages... I know how this works), but I need to always be taking 12 credit hours at once for the scholarship and I'm not keen to load myself up with difficult classes first thing. I already tested out of Comp I and I'm not sure I even need to be taking technical writing. The guy who was setting things up was kind of green and, while he meant well and was a nice guy, really didn't know what he was doing and he wanted to talk about dogs and tractors and robots and deer. (He's a geeky Iowan. What can I say? Those are normal conversation topics round here with older guys.)

I think it's basically sorted out though.

I also told the couple I babysit for that I'd start to be available again for sitting. And I do want my income back... I've got an order of plants I want to buy  The kids want me back because they like me; the parents want me back because I live next door, am sometimes available on short notice, and charge $5/hr for two kids.

Anyway, to finish this rather extended post off, some weird (mostly instrumental) Homestuck music for ya. You can listen free online, or download for a reasonable price. The web comic is super cool too, but not really kid-friendly (sexual references, extended gratuitous use of a certain word by several characters). Oh, and I'll also warn you: the writer will kill off all your favorite characters at least twice, sometimes more, bring them back to life in about seven different ways (or not), possibly give you nightmares about serial killing alien clowns, and definitely take over your life until you finish all 8000 pages. BUT IT'S WORTH IT. 
http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/colours-and-mayhem-universe-b


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Hmm. If I get a second job tutoring or as an intern, maybe I could give her one of these kits to start off.

http://www.petsmart.com/fish/aquariums/aqueon-deluxe-aquarium-kit-zid36-16689/cat-36-catid-300065

It actually looks like it has a decent heater and filter in that thing. I'd need to get her Prime, decent food, a thermometer, and probably the lighting would want replacing in order to keep plants in the thing. But it's tall enough for an angel, at least, and even the small size is large enough that I wouldn't feel bad about giving it to her.

The 26g version looks even better, but I'd have to find a decent stand for it... that's even heavier. I don't think she'd have to upgrade that one. She would even be able to keep a few lyretail mollies in there, and I know she really likes those. I wouldn't give her anything larger, though.

I bet she'd like it if I made it look like a little garden in a box, with a white sand pathway and little clusters of plants. I think there are a few plants that even flower underwater? Not sure. I could make it colorful either way, there are enough pink and gold and green and bronze plants out there that would give it variety. And with an antique stand, she'd love it.

Lady should know better than to ask for a 4g tank. XD Here I am, thinking about getting her something at least 4x as big. I'm a horrible daughter. XD

Ooh... what about little stone walls, like an old English garden? Stuck together with silicone? I'm really liking this idea.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

"Horrible daughter," HA. Right. So horrible.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I think I've talked her into a 20g tank... or at least have started getting my way there. I still think she doesn't believe me when I tell her that a heavily planted 20g tank will be way easier on her maintenance-wise than a 5g tank.

C'mon, mom... it's not the size of the tank, it's what you do with it (*saucy wink*)


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

ACQUIRED: One piece of driftwood, unmounted and trimmed neatly to size. Ta-da!

One cave, siliconed down firmly to tank floor. Ta-da!

One bag of organic potting soil, ready to go. TA. DA.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

*HUFF* *HUFF* *HUFF*

Two buckets full of... *HUFF* gravel, both *HUFF* normal and *HUFF* FloraMax.

*huff...* Those things are heavy.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

This potting mix is really fluffy and soft. I don't think it even needs sifting. And it has peat moss in it! I hope that helps make a blackwater sort of tank. If it doesn't, I'll probably add in some rooibos tea later on.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Envy, envy. I bought organic potting soil and it's filled with twigs and things. Soooo much sifting that I'm dragging my feet...


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

That sounds really fun to set up a tank for your mom. My parents live far away, or I would be tempted to do the same. My mom always talks about the Angelfish she had in her school classroom when she was a teacher in the 1960's. Angelfish are so beautiful in a planted tank. I think giving someone (who is interested and motivated) an aquarium is a great gift, especially if you can help take care of it!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Okay, got the soil and cap layers down! I've siliconed some rocks in place to keep dirt piled on top of my cave, and I've siliconed dirt to the part of the cave I can't cover so it hides the plastic. Gotta find my phone, and I'll take pictures while I wait for stuff to dry.

I'm definitely not going to fill until morning, and I'm not going to do more work on piling soil and cap on top of the hill until at least midnight (it's 9:00 now, but will be later by the time I'm done writing). If I'm up that long. Which I'd be kidding myself if I pretended I wouldn't be, you know? What can I say, it's summer and I'm 17 years old. I got up at ten this "morning." That sort of thing.

Hmm. I don't like how wobbly the driftwood is, even with the soil around it. I'm going to attack it with silicone. Who knows if it'll even stay down, even with silicone and dirt... but I don't really want it toppling on any of my fish.

I think I like the idea of two or three platies and a school of CPDs or dwarf rasboras better than all platies. Add some variety to the tank. AqAdvisor says this is fine. It's always been conservative. I'm not entirely sure though. I have to think about this.

(Yes, I have lovingly nicknamed this tank The Frat House. After all, it's all males sharing a space, right? Hopefully it's not a particularly rowdy frat house. If my fish start holding raves, I'll have to send an email to AqAdvisor.)

Like I said, I might add a few shrimp if I can find them. Or a few nice-looking ramshorns.

I would like the idea of dwarf rasboras if I can find them. They'd like the way I'm planning to set things up, with shady spots and lots of cover and black water. Besides, they like the same temps that the bettas do. They're from a similar habitat. Pretty as they are, CPDs really aren't my first choice. Although AqAdvisor considers them to have the same bioload, I don't like them as much as the rasboras because they like cooler temperatures. I also like the striking red and black color the rasboras have.

I'm gonna bug my LFS on their Facebook page, asking if they've got any of either species. I forgot to check last time I was in there, was doing so many things at once.

I'm liking how this scape is turning out already. It's gonna be so cool by the time I'm done with it! After I get this part done, I need to buy my filter and maybe a platy or two and a test kit so I can cycle it... then my heater and thermometer... then my plants!

Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to put in this mass of plants I finally dumped in Felix's tank >< I didn't even bother rooting them, just left them in a floating wad. Felix doesn't seem to care because he's as plant crazy as I am. His tank looks like a jungle now though. I don't think Simon would care if he lived in a jungle or a tank with just his terracotta pot and his java moss. As long as there was plenty of java moss, he'd be happy. XD Although he seems a little weirded out by the extra ferns floating in his tank.

I've forgotten I was writing this post about three times in the process. I'm just gonna post it, and come back when I have more fish things to say.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

DaytonBetta said:


> That sounds really fun to set up a tank for your mom. My parents live far away, or I would be tempted to do the same. My mom always talks about the Angelfish she had in her school classroom when she was a teacher in the 1960's. Angelfish are so beautiful in a planted tank. I think giving someone (who is interested and motivated) an aquarium is a great gift, especially if you can help take care of it!


Yeah! What changed her mind was when I showed her all the different aquascapes people have made. She really likes the simple nature ones, like where people have made sort of "bonsai trees" out of driftwood and flame moss or African water fern, or this one where someone made a cute little hobbit-hole XD

I'm hoping she'll commit to the idea by the time I buy plants. Then I can get her input on things she likes, so I won't be over-ordering so much.

Maybe I'll work out a few potential aquascapes for her. Somehow, though, I think she's going to get into it and want to do it herself XD At least I can give her ideas, because I kind of know what's out there already and what she needs. 

It's going to be a bit of a trick planting heavily enough, because she likes the really simple, clean stuff with not much clutter. I think staurogyne repens as groundcover may be our simple answer to that, though.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

The tank is filled and has some plants in it! It also has a bacterial bloom in it, so I can't get decent pictures. >< But that's okay, it should be clear in the morning. Since there are no fish in this tank as of right now, I OD'd Flourish and liquid CO2 to give the plants a head start. The peat mixture in the soil really wants to float, but the FloraMax is holding it down pretty well. I didn't get ANY mud puddle issues! Just the bacterial bloom, which I expected.

Well, I also ordered the wrong light bulbs... they are 2700K when I need them to be 6000-10000K. That's all right, though, because the ones I got were $2 apiece and we'll use them anyway. I still have one in the lamp, lighting the tank, because it probably does at least something for the plants.

There's also a little snail randomly floating in the tank. It hitchhiked on the plants from Felix's tank. Whatever. You go, snail. You go.

Speaking of Felix's tank, that dutiful, reliable little preset heater--failed on me today. It was a warmer-than-average day today, and when I checked Felix's tank, it was _ninety degrees._ Felix, hardy as he is, appears unaffected. I immediately unplugged the heater, of course, and after the tank cooled down a bit I added some room-temperature water and Prime. That heater is now out of the tank and sitting in a drawer...I'm really getting tired of PetSmart stuff. It's time to Amazon a 25w adjustable Hydor, I think. Until then, Felix is just going to have to go without a heater, and have a towel wrapped around his tank to minimize fluctuations. I'm sure he won't mind the dark, and his plants are just going to have to DWI.

I'm liking how the scape is turning out, though. I live near the Mississippi, and this tank looks quite a bit like part of a sandbar, or a marsh. You'd be surprised about the species diversity in those areas.

At a college camp, I once visited a slough on the river where the guide told us a birdcall expert had identified over 80 different songs in one visit. Depending on the time of year, you can see chickadees, kingfishers, geese, all sorts of ducks, eagles, hawks, the normal robins, sparrows, starlings, swallows, and there are cranes and other waterbirds too. There were also countless dragonflies, a million different varieties of plants, and of course there were probably catfish swimming underneath us that we couldn't even see.

The Mississippi isn't actually muddy. It's shallow and sandy. It's only four feet deep in parts. Barges can sail it, but no traditional cargo ships, no matter how small. When we anchored the little outing boat on one of the sandbars for lunch, I found shells and wood that was in the process of being petrified--it was almost coal, according to the geologist with us.

Maybe I'll bleach/rinse those shells and wood really thoroughly and use them. I still have them in my desk drawer.

I didn't think about modeling this after a biotope. It's just that it ended up most strongly resembling my home, and the parts of nature around it that I've been most taken with. Funny how that happened.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I'm thinking about putting the "overachieving" heater in the 10gal and letting Felix loose in it temporarily. Would that be better than his towel-wrapped tank?


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

I don't know. I'd be wary of a malfunctioning heater, personally.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

The new heater is ordered and should come on Monday. For now, he's staying in his tank. The towel is keeping it at about the right temperature without too much fluctuation. At the hottest part of the day, it was about 80 or 81 F... now it's 77 or 78 according to the thermometer. Felix has seen worse than a 3 or 4 degree fluctuation. He will be fine until Monday.

I don't remember if I'd mentioned my mom being sick earlier in this journal, but for the past week she's had a really nasty cold. Personally, I think she's fighting off pneumonia or something else... either that, or the cancer meds have really made her immune system take a dive. I've spent the past few hours doing some housework to make the kitchen and dining areas habitable for human life, and then I made a well-seasoned vegetable soup for dinner. Her stomach seems to be taking it, which I'm really glad of because her stomach hasn't been taking anything that well today.

Although it's funny too, because my concoction had about ten different spices in it since I cook on the fly. I glanced at a ratatouille recipe online, abandoned it at my computer, and went off to throw what we needed to use up in a big, deep frying pan.

Since everyone liked it so much, here's the recipe. It's a miracle I remember everything I put in. I tend to throw the kitchen sink into soups, but they usually work, either despite or probably because of it.

*REBEKAH'S SPICE RACK VEGETABLE SOUP*

BASIC INGREDIENTS
2 zucchini
1 tomato
1 green bell pepper
A handful of green onions (I have small hands)
Basically any other veggies you need to use up. Those were what I used. Just keep in mind how long it'll take for your veggies to cook thoroughly and get soft enough for soup (potatoes and squash need longer, for instance, and you NEVER undercook kidney beans because they're very unpleasantly poisonous raw).
2 little cuppy thingies of Knorr's chicken base (available in the canned soup aisle, usually). Brand is important!
3 1/2 cups water
A generous spoonful of canola oil
Highly recommended: a loaf of italian bread. Ciabatta rolls or a baguette work too.

SPICES/HERBS/SALTS
Sea salt - generous
Fresh garlic - two cloves
Black AND white pepper - to taste
Celery salt - to taste
Paprika - sparingly; it's there for body, not to make it taste like paprika
Sweet curry powder - sparingly, like paprika
Cayenne - very sparingly, but you should notice just a bit of the heat when you taste it. YOU NEED THIS. The soup will be bland without it.
Saffron - just a few threads! Saffron is expensive, and a little bit will be plenty. It's strong stuff!
Fresh sweet basil - best if you have a pot of this growing, but store bought should be fine. I used about a golf ball sized portion.
Sugar - about a tablespoon if you're making dinner for a few people. The amount isn't critical but it needs to be there.

1. Get a big frying pan, start it up, and throw in the oil. It should be enough so that if you add it in and tip it around, it covers a good part of the pan's bottom.

2. Peel and rinse your zucchini. Then chop it up into little chunks. It's easiest to slice long ways first, into like six long strips. You'll feel some of the starch still remaining, but you need that.

3. Your oil should be good and hot. Pour in your 3 1/2 cups water, and then add your chicken base. Let it warm up for a few minutes (make tea!) and then add your zucchini. Throw in your sea salt (not too much... you can add more later if needed), and cover the pan. You want to get this zucchini nice and soft.

4. Prep your green onions. Cut them into little chunks... then add to the pan. Add your sugar now. By now the pan is probably bubbling well. If it is, leave the cover off; if not, replace it. Go make more tea, take the cover off, and then let it sit for a few minutes while you drink your tea.

5. Prep your tomato and green bell pepper. Throw 'em in. Stir.

6. Now you add all those other spices I mentioned. Smash that garlic with a vengeance, give it a few chops so it's not in huge chunks in someone's bowl, and put it in. Start small with the ones I marked to use sparingly, taste the broth, and add what you think you need. Sniff your spices if that gives you a better idea of what you might need. The soup should NOT taste flat at this point.

7. Ladle the hot soup over two generous slices of bread, or a torn-open ciabatta roll. Eat. Dodge questions as to what you put in this stuff, because you may or may not remember. Explain that all rumors of kitchen witchcraft were exaggerated, and yes, this is a soup made of mostly vegetables.



My mom's one of those weird people whose favorite comfort food is Indian food, and who appreciates a bit of heat in a sick meal. The first thing I ever cooked without supervision was curried potatoes, because Dad was picking her up from the hospital and I wanted to surprise them.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

The 10g is still going through its bacterial bloom stage... awfully cloudy for decent pics. Hopefully it's starting to cycle, and the bacteria are colonizing that nice big piece of driftwood there. I don't think the plants can eat up all the ammonia the soil's producing, not in such low light and not when the tank is planted this sparsely. I mean, in a 2g tank I might consider this number of plants fairly dense, but no bigger.

I'm officially a college student! I've enrolled in and paid for classes. I'm pretty sure my first day is the 25th. Whoo!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Felix's heater is due to arrive on Wednesday. The towel is temporarily off of his tank because Felix is a social fish and I know he's been missing seeing me.

Simon's mad at me, though! His little tank was looking like a jungle, and I was like, "No way does this fish have swimming room!" So I moved two of his java ferns and some of his moss into the big tank and gave the bacopa a little trim.

He's pissed. Right now, he's rocketing around his gallon of water, flaring like crazy. This is the fish who only started flaring regularly after I taught him to do it for food. So when I replaced his lid and he started doing it this time, I gave him a bit of food thinking he was just really hungry, and he _attacked_ it! I think he actually jumped and attacked it!

Well I realized what it was, and I gave him one of his ferns back... he hasn't stopped! He's been doing this for a few minutes and he really isn't calming down.  In fact, he's becoming even more, um, energetic.

I think I need to give this fish some more of his plants back.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

One more java fern, a few bits of wisteria, and a piece each of water mint and green rotala later... and he's calmed down. Like, instantly. His tank is a little jungle again and he's happy about it. XD

Wait, nope, he's trying the flaring thing again to see if he can get some more plants out of me. This is hilarious. Oh my gosh, I love this fish. cx

He just stopped again, but he caught me looking and started rocketing around like before. Simon, dude, I don't think I can actually fit more plants in that tank. Look around. Is there any space for anything else? No. There is not.

My, that's an impressive beard when he really goes for it. I rarely see the full extent of Simon's beard, but it's more impressive than a hipster's.

Right now he's going, "THERE IS STILL SPACE AT THE TOP. WHAT ARE YOU DOING WOMAN. FILL THIS UP AGAIN."

He's actually making me feel kind of guilty. XD

Well, if I had any doubts--ANY doubts--as to how heavily I should plant the 10 gal... they are gone. It needs to be a jungle. Simon will settle for nothing less. XD


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

myexplodingcat said:


> My, that's an impressive beard when he really goes for it. I rarely see the full extent of Simon's beard, but it's more impressive than a hipster's.


That is one hell of a beard.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Simon's calmed down! I think he didn't like that I'd moved him up to the desk again, because he was kind of being backlit... maybe he feels safer on the set of drawers by my desk. I also helped things along a bit with a bag of pure rooibos tea 

In other news, I've found a guy who wants some plants off his hands and doesn't want to just trash them, so he's kindly RAOKing them to me  I'm not sure I'll be able to successfully keep everything he's giving me, but it's worth a shot, huh?

The ones I'm kind of hesitant about are the Hygrophila pinnatifida and the Erio. parkeri. The erio may do just fine in the back of the 10g with the liquid CO2 overdosed a bit, but it's supposed to be pretty picky. I think the hygro looks really cool--it's an interesting shape and it'd probably be really neat creeping along the driftwood--and a few sources say it's easy to keep even in pretty low tech as long as it's well fertilized... but other sources say otherwise. I guess I'll find out.

Soil based tanks can get away with more as far as plants than other substrates, though. I'm hoping that'll give me the leeway I need. At least I don't need to worry a whole lot about water quality at this point, because there are no fish. Obviously I don't need any more algae than I already have, which is some algae, which is already more than the ideal amount of algae, which is very little to no algae.  But I can afford to have a few plants die on me without worrying about something else dying too because they're messing up the water quality.

This package also includes myrio matto, green rotala (which may like more light and CO2 than I'm gonna have, but we'll see how it does), and a red crypt wendtii which will probably go in Felix's tank because I'll probably need a lot of liquid carbon for the 10 unless I just bite the bullet and look further into DIY CO2 or this other CO2 setup my LFS uses that's supposed to be not too pricey.

I just realized I still haven't posted a pic of the 10. Of course, my phone is absolutely dead right now. *facepalm*


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Oh, and Felix's heater came today! His tank is now a cozy 80F, and he appears to be one happy fish.

...Simon's current bubble nest spans like a 4x4 inch area. It's huge. O.O


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I'm not entirely sure what this algae that's clouding the 10g is. It doesn't really look like I thought green water algae would look like, and it's not obscuring the tank. It looks like little single thread fibers suspended in the water column. They're not attached to anything, and they aren't really obscuring the tank like I've seen in pictures, just kinda clouding it. It's pretty eerie, actually. Looks like time stopped in this little box because nothing's moving.

My plant package is in the mail!


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Uh oh. I hope that's not hair algae. How long are you keeping your lights on for?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I haven't decided on a set time, but the lightbulb isn't the right one anyway. Should be too low on the spectrum for any plants to see, since it's 2700k. Either way, I've turned it off.

I don't think it's hair algae. The fibers are short and you have to look in order to really see them, and I haven't observed them getting longer as of yet.

Whatever it is, the pond snail I put in is gobbling it up. I'm a bit more concerned about the cyano on the floor, but I think I got that because I overdosed the tank too much on ferts before the plants were well enough established.

Once I get the filter and some more plants in here, I think it should clear up. To paraphrase the wise words of MameJenny: Algae is not a disease, it is a plant; thinking of it this way makes dealing with it easier, and you do not have to completely eradicate it for a "healthy" tank.

I wonder what a tank would look like if you used mostly red plants, with a few greens for accent, rather than the other way around? Maybe I'll do that with Felix's tank. I've been thinking of turning his into a Dutch scape.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

If you do, post pictures. 

Those are good words to think of.. the only reason I was upset about hair algae was because it took over in this horrible tangle and spread from plant to plant like lightning.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Ahh, you quoted my whole algae thing! :-D Yes, IMO that's the best way to think of algae...it's an aquatic weed, not a deadly disease. I've pretty much stopped worrying about little bits of algae. I just scrape it off when it starts taking over.

Could it be green fuzz algae? It has really thin fibers. I don't know the exact name of it, but it looks like this - except more loose and fuzzy: http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5681/02022009348rr3.jpg . I usually don't get it that bad, but there's always a thin cobweb-like layer over my java moss and hairgrass. Actually, this could just be some type of hair algae, but it's very loose and fuzzy. It's not really a bad thing. I just pull it off my plants when I do water changes. It doesn't really kill the plants, it just blocks light when it gets really thick. 

CO2 will help a bit, if you go that route. Don't be afraid of the CO2 - if you go for DIY CO2, it's literally as easy as putting yeast, water, and sugar in a 2 liter bottle, waiting a few hours, then connecting it to an airstone or a diffuser. Actually, that reminds me - I need to go refill all of my bottles, lol.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

MameJenny said:


> CO2 will help a bit, if you go that route. Don't be afraid of the CO2 - if you go for DIY CO2, it's literally as easy as putting yeast, water, and sugar in a 2 liter bottle, waiting a few hours, then connecting it to an airstone or a diffuser. Actually, that reminds me - I need to go refill all of my bottles, lol.


What testing do you need? And what diffuser is the best? It looks like those ceramic diffusers have problems with needing pressure, to judge by the Amazon reviews.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

myexplodingcat said:


> What testing do you need? And what diffuser is the best? It looks like those ceramic diffusers have problems with needing pressure, to judge by the Amazon reviews.


I don't do any special testing. I do test the pH sometimes - the dissolved CO2 makes the pH drop. Mine usually sits at around 6.6-6.8 when the CO2 is at max. production. (It's normally about 7.4-7.6.) You don't need to worry about testing too much, though - most DIY CO2 setups aren't really productive enough to be dangerous for the fish. 

I usually just use a decent quality airstone, which I put right under my filter intake. Wood airstones are best, since they produce the smallest bubbles, but they're hard to find. You might be able to find them as protein skimmer accessories (AKA, expensive reef tank equipment). The trick is that, whatever you use, you want the bubbles to stay in the water and get moved around as much and as long as possible. I've never used a real diffuser, so I can't help much there.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Hey, how many yellow shrimp could I keep in Simon's 1g once he's in the new tank? (For reference, yellow shrimp are basically the same as red cherry shrimp, just a different color.) I love the yellows, and they're supposed to reproduce like mad.

Needless to say, that tank would be pretty much sandblasted with plants, as usual.

Also, where would I buy these? I'm finding Ebay sellers and so on, but is there someplace people like buying where it's not like six dollars a shrimp? I know... they're just expensive. Maybe I can get my LFS to special order them with the dwarf rasboras...


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

MameJenny said:


> I don't do any special testing. I do test the pH sometimes - the dissolved CO2 makes the pH drop. Mine usually sits at around 6.6-6.8 when the CO2 is at max. production. (It's normally about 7.4-7.6.) You don't need to worry about testing too much, though - most DIY CO2 setups aren't really productive enough to be dangerous for the fish.
> 
> I usually just use a decent quality airstone, which I put right under my filter intake. Wood airstones are best, since they produce the smallest bubbles, but they're hard to find. You might be able to find them as protein skimmer accessories (AKA, expensive reef tank equipment). The trick is that, whatever you use, you want the bubbles to stay in the water and get moved around as much and as long as possible. I've never used a real diffuser, so I can't help much there.


Okay, sounds good! So if I put it underneath the filter output, would that help?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Felix's tank just got... well, it wasn't really a drastic enough change to totally warrant the word, but rescaped! Sick of seeing dirt and algae on top of white sand, I decided to take all the plants out, stir the dirt and sand together (huge mess), and cap it with FloraMax.

I tried refilling it gently with a cup, but that stirred up a bunch of dirt, so I took out all the dirty water and discarded it to try again. This time, I put a plastic grocery bag down inside and poured onto that. Came out a bit cloudy, but I could kind of see what I was doing, at least until I started stirring things up with planting. It's still cloudy... Felix is waiting with his duckweed in a Glad container that holds about a third of a gallon. He seems pretty chill for now. I'm just waiting for the water to warm up so I can reacclimate him, don't want to make him go through the fluctuation if I don't have to.

Instead of randomly scattering the plants out again, I planted the lagaro in two areas towards the back corners, in clusters of two or three stems per hole. Since the water was cloudy, I was kind of planting blindly, so I hope it turns out nicely. I put the bacopa kind of in front of it, his two java ferns together in the very back, slightly left of the middle, the camboba kind of hanging out in its own back cluster, and the assorted shorter stems of wisteria and what's probably ludwigia up near the front.

I know, it's not the most original layout, but it will probably look more attractive than his random jungle. Even if it doesn't, well, I don't think Felix cares at least.

I don't know how much to trust the Ammonia Alert thingy. Not once have I even seen it turn green (.05 ppm). I've never seen either of them signal anything, actually, not even in the 1g. I don't know if this means the plants are actually taking care of the water that well, or if it just doesn't work. I guess I should find a bottle of straight ammonia and test it.

Finally: another Andrew Bird song for you guys. Instrumental this time, very cheerful and kind of bouncy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMj3KuMnLPc


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Welp, that was my first day in college! I can't express how glad I am not to be in high school right now. One of my classes has all of ten students in it.

I got the RAOK plants today! The myrio unfortunately melted, but the awesome dude I got it from threw in a bunch of other stuff too. I can't identify all of it and some of it needs some TLC, but there are (probably dwarf) baby tears with some other spiky leaves growing out of them (erios?), multiple crypts, a plant with a thick stem and dark green oval leaves with red veins, a plant that looks kind of like hygro corymbosa to me, and, as promised, the hygro pinnatifida and rotala macandra. Not sure if those DBT will be okay, or the mystery plants, but we'll see!

My mom seems a bit put-off by the idea of DIY CO2 when I mentioned it to her. She wants to get me this other gadget our LFS has, where you just give it a shot of CO2 every day. I'm not sure how that works, but if it does work, then yay!

That's dinner, calling my name. Hear it?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Now, what you've all been waiting for! TANK PICS!

I also have a question... what are these little white specks? I recall seeing this question asked before at some point so I know it's not unusual, but I don't remember what the answer was. Ignore the snail I used to focus the camera and the green fuzz algae in the background.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I still have no idea what those white specks are, and now I'm seeing a few worms. They're about half a centimeter long and VERY wriggly. I've only caught sight of a few, but I don't know if they're something's larvae or the next life stage of the white specks or what.

There are, again, NO fish in this tank. A few snails, lots of plants, but NO fish.

I'm still hoping it's not callamanus worms or something nasty.

I'm not sure if I can get a picture of one. They wriggle really fast. Anyone have any ideas?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

They're kind of silvery and they act like they have a head. They're skimming the surface of the water and the tank sides and so on. Could they have been fish eggs that hitchhiked on my plants or something? I don't see eyes... but they're really tiny.

I think insect larvae might be my best guess...


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Could they be detritus worms or planaria? I've seen something fitting that description in some of my tanks. I assumed that they were detritus worms. I don't think they've hurt my fish.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Let me look those up...


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

They definitely have silvery heads and I'm not seeing any worm pictures that look *quite* like them. I think aquatic insect larva is a good guess. I don't think they'd survive out of water. Might be mosquito larvae or something, mosquitoes like still water and the tank has no natural predation. I'm gonna go ahead and pick them out and throw them in the trash when I see them.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I'm gonna throw a platy in there today to eat up the larvae. The temp is just fine for them, and parameters should be perfectly fine also. The only thing is if the water's too acidic for them, but I think that's easily solved.

Plus, if these worm thingies are dangerous, a platy makes a decent lab rat. They'll eat anything. Risking one fish is OK by me if it means ensuring the rest will be safe.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

And the platy will be like "NOM NOM!" haha.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Yep, he's one lucky platy. 

He's sitting on my desk right now. Time to acclimate, so I'm gonna go do that. Ciao.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

That platy is going to have a feast.  My platies love frozen bloodworms. I keep thinking that I want to start some sort of live culture for the fishes. I think they'd like that.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Hmm. It seems silly to name my bettas but not the platy. He is a male sunburst platy, rather like this one.

http://www.patfullerton.com/fishman/info/platy3.jpg

I kind of like Sol, but Apricot is up there too.

I'm happy with him. He looks very healthy and active, and the rest of his tankmates were too (unlike the red wags in the tank next to them, one of which didn't look so good...). He's very attentive, probably because he wants food. You'll get food in an hour or two, buddy... all the food you could want. Plenty of algae and fun critters growing in there to munch on. And later (like, three days from now), he can have veggies and betta pellets. Until then, he has a grand buffet waiting for him.

It's hard to remember he'll get so big later on, as big as Simon. He's so tiny and cute.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

I love the orange platies. They look like tiny goldfish.  Mine are named Biggie, Blackie, and Mustache. OK, I wasn't very creative with their names. 

Mine are still quite a bit smaller than a fully-grown betta, and I'm pretty sure they're done growing. Granite is a smaller guy, and he's still bigger than the largest of the platies.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Really? Most sites say they reach two inches or so. Maybe they're measuring to the end of the tail or something strange. I'm glad yours are doing well, and their names are cute. Especially Mustache. xD I do like their colors. :3

Sol/Apricot/derpfish is in the tank now, happily devouring the algae on the surface of the water. He is one happy platy.

I think I still like Sol better than Apricot... but that poses another question: pronunciation. "Sole" or "saul?" What do you guys think sounds better?

(Note: There has to be that one person to tell me that "sole" is the "CORRECT" pronunciation, because of Latin and junk. The correct pronunciation is the one most commonly in use, IMO. Language does that. It's not "wrong" unless people can't understand you, or in some cases when it makes you look bad/incompetent/low-class.)

...Maybe I should consider "Derpfish." Maybe "Derpish." That actually sounds like a name.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Mr. Derpfish is a goner, I'm afraid. :/ I think I'm overdosing CO2. I'll change some water, let the plants eat some more up, and try a platy from a different source.

Now, here's why I think my water was the issue.

Platy Boy was just fine in his bag on the way home... when I set him loose (after two hours of floating in his new tank), he started failing a little... pausing while he was swimming and sinking before he got his energy back. I thought he was just adjusting to the new water, so I didn't think a whole lot of it--but I think he was pausing to catch his breath. Since the change was so immediate, and he died <7 hours after I brought him home, I don't think it's disease that struck suddenly, and I doubt it was something he ate. He didn't look like he'd gorged himself, anyway.

I'm going to guess that it was either my low pH, or CO2 suffocation. Either way--time for a water change, and try a fish from a different store just in case he did have a bug, and the new water stressed him out and he gave.

Poor guy. I'm a little sad to see him go. He looked really happy, at least for a couple hours. :/


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about the little guy. :-(

How much CO2 were you dosing? I assume you were using Excel? Did you do DIY CO2, or some type of fancier setup? 

I lost a few platies really suddenly a few months ago. This might sound strange, but is there any way that test kit chemicals could have gotten in the tank? Like, from dipping a test tube in, or shaking the tubes by the tank? I still think that's what killed my three.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I'm using this Fluval mini pressurized thing. It uses one of those cup diffusers. I was told it would be inefficient, but it obviously isn't.

It's either that, or low pH. Platies aren't supposed to like soft/acidic water, apparently. I'm still thinking it was the CO2, from the way he was acting.

I'd kind of like to get another sunburst from PetSmart and stick him in a plastic bucket for a few days, just to check that it wasn't disease or anything that's going to bite me in the butt later on. But I don't think my mom will go for that. "Why would you want a fish that could be sick?" That sort of thing. The reason I didn't do that with this guy is that I didn't want him getting eaten by my cat. :/


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Whoa, it's been a while!

I now have three male platies, happily thriving in the 10g and swimming around playing with each other and sort of schooling together. I originally asked the guys at the LFS to give me two males, and they gave me a male and a female who looked kinda like a male when she clamped her fins. They were okay for a while, and I thought about getting another female... but she started getting bullied pretty badly, so I took her back and got two more boys, thinking that it'd probably be bad to put just one new guy in with the platy who's been aggressive to the female and has already established his territory.

Since I've been busy with college, I've been neglecting my ferts :/ I've been keeping my fish healthy, of course, but the plants have fallen into a lower priority. A bunch of the harder ones I was sent died off--mainly, the hygro pinnatifida. Some of the other plants are growing just fine, though.

Today, I got my filter and heater in the mail! The heater's the 50w Hydor and the filter's the AquaClear 20, on which I've turned the flow way down.

Right now, Simon is floating in a cup in the tank. The original male platy seems intrigued by Simon. Simon, for his part, is going *poof*. Full beard and tail display. I've put some java moss in his cup and am hoping that he'll just calm down soon when he realizes that the platies are not going to rip him to shreds.

He's totally fine when they aren't right up next to him, and the other two platies are leaving him alone and derping off on their own, but I'm not sure about Simon and this other guy. None of the platies is hanging around the cup constantly, but that first guy just comes back, wanders off, comes back, wanders off. He doesn't seem too aggressive towards Simon, who is larger than he is (though not by a ton). Then again, I can't tell what they're saying to each other, so...

Course, Simon also just doesn't like being cupped--at all--and when faced with an entire 10g tank that everyone else is getting to swim around in, he's not terribly pleased. There's a chance he'll settle down completely once he's made his space and explored a bit.

Under this better lighting, I can see Simon has some blue in his fins! I never noticed that before. I like it. 

If Simon can live happily in the 10g with the platies, I'll move his plants over, and also give Felix's tank a quick trim and move some of those plants over too. Extra cover, y'know?

I'm gonna let Simon chill there for maybe three or four hours. Then I'll try putting him in and sit at my desk for the next hour or so to keep an eye on them. Wish me luck.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Good luck!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Even after four hours of letting him float, he immediately _sought out_ the platies and started charging them and trying to bite them. >: | I knew there was a possibility he'd do that, but I'm kinda ticked that he actually did. So I just grabbed him up again, stuck him back in his cup, and now he's floating in his little tank again.

I guess tomorrow I'll try floating Felix and see if he does the same thing. Felix is a macho little clown, but at least he doesn't stress as easily as Simon. It's worth a shot, but I don't really think it'll work.

If it doesn't, I don't know whether to return the platies and let Simon have the swim of the place, or if I let Simon keep his bachelor pad (where, after all, he's been happy so far) and make the big tank into a general community tank where the stocking doesn't revolve around the betta.

I guess I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it. Maybe Felix will be cool with roommates.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

It's worth a shot. Every fish is different, and sometimes they don't do what you expect.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Proof.

Felix is, right now, swimming all around the 10g. He's parading around and flaring at everybody, and they get out of his way, but it's just a normal swimming away like they do from each other--not darting for their life like before. Simon charged at them at mach speed with his mouth wide open, snapping at them, but all Felix is doing is displaying at them and wiggling and kind of pushing them around. And the platies aren't being too pushy with him, either... maybe they've learned.

I'm not going to move Simon for another day or two until I can decide for sure whether Felix is gonna be okay with these guys permanently.

Oh, man, just look at him pushing these guys around on purpose. He's all puffed up and kind of chasing them around, but he's not really doing anything to hurt them. Dude is all bark and no bite. The platies don't even look really scared. Kind of annoyed, but not frightened. They swim faster from each other than they do from Felix.

I think Felix is enjoying the audience. He also doesn't mind the filter flow, but I knew he wouldn't anyway, especially since the driftwood blocks off part of the tank from the current. And he likes resting on the driftwood, I think. There are spots near the surface where he can chill.

I'm gonna take a guess and say that once Felix has established himself as the Supreme Fancy-Finned Overlord, things will calm down some.

After a minute of letting him out in the tank or so and seeing minimal aggression, I decided to feed him and encourage his tolerance. Well, my fingers were wet, so I accidentally put about ten pellets in the water instead of three. I wasn't too concerned, because I know from the first time I fed him (following the container's instructions) that he's not the type to overeat.

Then a platy came up. It was the bold one, the sunburst that's been there the longest. The one that's kind of aggressive. He ate a few pellets, right up next to Felix. And Felix let him. That was a better display of fish logic than I was expecting... I was expecting, "This is my food, she put it next to me, you are eating my food, I will eat you," and I got, "Meh, there's enough here that I don't care."

That kind of gives me some hope that he'll work in there. He's still making a big point of pushing everyone around, but he's taking breaks, and the platies don't seem to mind coming near him only to be chased away. So maybe he can do this!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Felix is still chasing them around some, but nobody's hurt. It actually looks a lot like what the platies do with each other... which may be aggression, or may be playing. I'm gonna leave him in overnight. Hopefully everyone will still be in one piece in the morning.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

How did it go?


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Everyone is still okay! Felix seems to be not taking anyone to pieces, and he looks pretty happy with so much space to swim around in. He does like chasing the platies around, but I don't think they mind too much since they do that to each other anyway.

I'm going to put Simon in Fe's KK now.

I sort of want to make the little tank into a shrimp tank with lots of yellow cherry shrimp. Maybe the 10g could host a few adult-sized ones without them being eaten, once the 10 has a ton of plants in it.

But right now, everyone looks pretty happy. Nothing pressing.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

I was hoping that'd be your answer. My little Mystique, who is a vicious, evil snail-killer, got put in the big tank due to desperation (lack of space). She made friends with the pleco. They sleep next to each other, cuddled up under a piece of driftwood.

You just never know...


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Simon is now zipping around the 3g, flaring at stuff. I wonder how badly he's terrorized the pair of big bladder snails in there.


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## Sabina88 (Aug 24, 2013)

I just realized that you changed your avatar. I like it 

How are your fishies doing? Well I hope


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Everyone is doing super well! Things have settled down nicely in the 10, and everyone's looking happier and more active than I've ever seen them before. I think Felix actually *enjoys* having company. It's weird. o.o

Meanwhile, Simon has been trolling around the 3g. I haven't seen him un-spread his fins once. XD


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Ahhh. It's been a while since I updated!

The platies got ich D: They're fine now though! I moved Felix out (as he was unaffected) and all of the plants too... I put them in a 2g bucket together.

Platies, being livebearers, really don't mind salt. Kinda like mollies, but maybe a little less so. Anyway, treating the tank heavily with aquarium salt was just fine once I'd moved out all my plants, and almost a week later two of the three platies were fine. I had to wait a few days longer for the last one to get over the ich, but he is fine now.

I was keeping the temp in the tank on the high end of what platies will take, because of Felix--it was still well within what pet store fish should adapt to--but I think they were just too used to the cooler pet store water and their immune system went all BSOD on me. That's why Felix was all, "derp, I don't notice anything"--his immune system was fine. (And due to the nasty "survival of the freakishly fittest" conditions of pet store betta keeping, his immune system is probably exceptional anyway.)

A couple of my pond and a couple of my bladder snails stuck it through the salt treatment, although I was trying to keep most of my snails in the green 2g bucket... hopefully I didn't dump them out with the water... I always forget about snails <.<; But the ones that kept going through the salt treatment are still around. Probably plenty of snails made it back hitchhiking on the plants again.

My plants were none too pleased about being in a green bucket with minimal light for a week and a half, but the plants I have are hard to kill anyway. I just had java ferns and cabomba and bacopa and lagaro and wisteria and the like. There were a few last stems of rarer, less hardy plants I was RAOKed, and they're gone... but they were mostly gone already because they'd spent a lot of time with no CO2.

Hopefully, the remaining salt after my 80%ish change won't hurt them. I'm just hoping the dirt isn't holding onto the salt too badly or anything weird. But like I said, they're hardy. I found a java fern plantlet hiding behind the driftwood a week in  It was still fine.

Anyway, I did my massive water change, scrubbed off all the algae from the sides of the tank, replaced the plants, and let Felix back in. He looks really, really, really happy. Like, REALLY happy. He's chasing everyone around and having a blast. I'm not kidding, this fish loves having company.

FISH. BETTAS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE THAT.

It looks like he took another big chunk out of his fin--dorsal this time--either while in the bucket or when I cupped him. Idiot fish. At least his fins grow back pretty quickly.

The ich would have gone away faster and I would've been done with all this faster if I hadn't had midterms right now. As it is, I didn't have a lot of time for my fish (or my plants, or even just the normal things I do to keep my space clean... I did a bunch of laundry today). Wasn't helpful. I've passed all the midterms I've taken so far, though--including the one that was supposed to be really difficult and that I was expecting to fail (I got a 77, which is way better than I expected).

Now the tank looks all pretty again and the fish look super happy, and I'm just glad to be done. Hopefully, it'll all stay happy for a while.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

Oh boy, midterms! Glad to hear they are going well so far.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Wow, it's been a while! I haven't had time for much regarding my fish because of college, but I think I'm getting the hang of things re:school. I finished my first semester with pretty decent grades and I'm going to have some more interesting classes in the spring.

Simon and Felix are happy as ever. Unfortunately, at one point, two of my three platies died--for no discernible reason. Felix and the remaining platy have had the run of the 10g and don't seem to be sick or even lethargic, so that's okay and I'm concluding it's nothing wrong with the tank. They were pretty large platys, almost as big as Felix excluding fins; I think they might have just died of old age. After all, I have no idea how long they were at the LFS.

Simon is still terrorizing his tank snails. That guy--once I got him out of the 1g, his personality kind of exploded. :/ I think that brief encounter with the platies in the 10 made him more visibly aggressive. The 3g is about the right size for him and he's been making the full use of it at mach speed.

I was at PetSmart today. Unfortunately, I didn't see the guy I like who works there today. But I did see something that made me happy! They were keeping a few bettas in tanks of other fish--there was one in with their zebra danios and another in with the neon tetras. They looked so happy and colorful and content, it was beautiful. I wish the rest weren't still in dirty cups, though. But I think someone is trying to take care of them.

Felix is so cool and contented with his platy friend. It's a really bright sunburst platy, too. I don't think they're nipping each other; it's hard to tell if Felix is being nipped because he trims his own HM fins when he thinks they're getting too long and sometimes he's overenthusiastic about it. Right now he resembles a 3-year-old who gave himself a haircut... you know, the kind where said kid ends up with a buzz cut in his school pictures? I wonder if it's because the two platys are gone and he's getting bored again.

I've been thinking about getting him some more tankmates. This time, I think I should just go for it--I'm reasonably confident Felix won't kill anyone, and I think platies would do better in kind of a larger group. Besides, I'd like Felix to stop overtrimming his tail again.

Namely, I'm thinking about another two platies, a school of five or six neons, and two or three guppies. Yeah, guppies. Felix never bothered the platies apart from some playful chase-and-tease business, and they're really colorful. Felix doesn't even nip them. The platies nipped each other sometimes when there were three of them--I saw the occasional little bite taken out of a tail here or there--but now there's just the one platy and Felix, and the platy's tail is always intact. I don't think the guppies would be in danger, honestly. If all else fails, I stick Felix in the 1g temporarily until I can take the platies back. No biggie.

The full roster plan, again:
1 betta
3 platies
3 guppies
5 neon tetras

A really active tank, no? But there are plenty of hiding spots in case the shier fish need a break. Water wisteria is great stuff. And the more active fish have a large enough group that they can bother and chase each other until their fins fall off.

AqAdvisor only freaked out a bit about this arrangement, telling me I'd be 130% stocked and my 20g filter is only 82% of what I'd need for this 10g tank stocking. It also questioned my sanity about the idea of keeping guppies and a betta together (in three different bullet points) and reminded me to keep a 1M:2F ratio on the livebearers. 

I translated it like this: It's fully stocked--or just overstocked--with that setup, the filter's fine, I need to watch that Felix doesn't spontaneously turn into an ax murderer, and I'm getting all male livebearers because having little baby fish swimming around WOULD be overstocking (although I'd never need to feed Felix again).

I love how I go to that site for advice and then disregard basically everything it tells me.

As for getting the actual fish, PetSmart is having a $1 fish Christmas sale, and it looks like somebody's really taking care of the fish right now because they're ridiculously colorful (and because of those gorgeous bettas in the bigger tanks!).

I would probably get the fish in two or three rounds... don't want to shock the cycle, and don't want to QT everyone at once because that would be a mess.

I want Felix to be happy and perky again... he looks lonely.  A betta fish, getting lonely. How weird is that?! But I'm not kidding. He's less active and colorful without the others around.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Felix hasn't been eating. I knew he'd been acting sickly and lethargic for a while, but his favorite lounging spots are out of the way and I haven't been sitting at my desk for a while... so I didn't notice how skinny he is He just randomly stopped eating and now he won't take anything I'm giving him--even bloodworms, which are his favorite. It's really strange. The platy is fine and happy as ever--I don't think it's a problem with parameters. I cleaned out the 1g tank with vinegar yesterday and gave it some java ferns, and today I let Felix loose in it. He's just been lying on the bottom and only surfacing to breathe. Sometimes he lies on his side. Poor guy...

Considering I've had him for 8 months, maybe he's on his way out. I'm keeping him under observation in the 1g, trying to see if there's something I can do for him. I'm not sure what's wrong, so I'm just keeping him in a clean space on his own, with plants to help him get to the surface and a shorter distance to the surface than in the 10.

If he's spent, he's spent. He's at least a year old, so I wouldn't be too terribly surprised, especially since I got him from an ordinary pet store where their bettas aren't always in the best shape. And heaven knows I've screwed up with his environment a fair few times, being the first fish I've had since I was a kid and the first fish I've tried to keep properly. It's possible this is just his time and there's nothing I can do, in which case, that's okay.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I've given Felix's 1g QT tank a teaspoon of AQ salt and a rooibos tea bag. I also got him to eat a few pellets and swim around a bit. Right now, he's still lying pathetically in the corner, but it was good to see him move around and take food like he hasn't given up.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Felix is gone  Poor guy.

My mom knows I'm upset and is being sympathetic even though she thinks my fish affinity is pretty silly.

She doesn't really think of them as animals--more like little colorful specks that brainlessly swim around. Maybe the neons are, or even platies, but bettas have more brain than that.

A fish that's able to have and express its likes and dislikes, that's intelligent enough to have a personality and even sometimes learn tricks, that's an animal. It's not a colorful dot. Now, I don't like to see other fish sick or anything, but they just don't have the kind of intelligence bettas do. So they matter more to me. Is that silly?

Either way, she said, "We need to get you another fish." I wonder how nuts the pet store people would think I was if I asked to float a betta cup in a tank with some platies or guppies and see how the betta reacts. It'd be awfully nice to have another community betta.


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## LadyNightraven (Jun 30, 2013)

I'm sorry Felix didn't make it. SIP

I don't think it's silly to care more about the bettas than the other fish. I hear over and over that bettas have unique personalities while many common aquarium fish don't. I haven't kept any fish other than bettas at this point, but I've definitely noticed and appreciate how my bettas each have unique quirks, likes, and dislikes. They're smart little fish!

I hope you can find a new betta that suits you.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Thanks, Lady.

Now the platy that was living with him is gone too... Maybe something is wrong with the tank.

I have some new fish in the 10g that have been in there a few days--five neons and a guppy. They're happy and healthy, but the platy looked happy and healthy too. I don't know what this is. Maybe the platy got whatever Felix got... I couldn't see anything wrong with him. It's not water quality. I think it's disease of some sort, but what sort of disease shows no symptoms?


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

I'm sorry about your fish. 

I agree that bettas are a little different from the others. Sammy is our only fish with a name.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Thanks, Dayton.

The little school of tetras and the guppy are still A-OK. They look super healthy and pigged out on crushed OO betta pellets last night. I'm not going to worry too much about plant material in their diet; this tank grows a little bit of several different kinds of algae and some fish I've had in here even like nibbling the organic potting soil. (Mostly the platy did that, though. Platies are little piggies.)

Oh, and Simon is still Mr. Attitude. What a doof. XD

Also: The tetras don't seem to care too much about staying together and swimming in a full-out "school." I often see them swimming in pairs and they definitely enjoy each other's company, but I thought they'd want to stick in one big group a lot more than they do. Maybe it's just because they're still exploring the driftwood and tank equipment and all the plants, or maybe in a 10g tank, they can't really be too far away from each other and so they still feel safe. Oh, and they like the guppy.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

I'm sorry to hear of Felix's passing.

I suspect a 10g isn't really big enough to show schooling behavior. There might also not be "enough" with 5, I've heard 7 or more is best.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Yeah, maybe I should get a few more. It's not like I don't have room.

I finally figured out how to deal with java ferns... by tying them down to black aquarium rocks with black acrylic (i.e., plastic) yarn. It won't degrade in the tank, and if any fibers escape, the filter should catch them pretty quick. Doing this has let me spread out all my java ferns over the back corner of the 10g. The driftwood is too bulky to have them tied on there, but the aquarium rocks are perfect.

I'm hoping to get a package of cryptocorynes at PetSmart soon and maybe some more water wisteria. I think a simple style with just three main plants might work well in this tank--java ferns in the back, a big carpet of crypts, and if I can get some water wisteria to grow behind and over the driftwood, that would be really neat. I can't actually afford more than that, seeing as I don't know anyone right now whose computer needs fixing and my freelance web maintenance gig has been pretty quiet.

I'd also like to look at some bettas sometime soon. They've always been my favorite  But it just snowed like five inches here in the past day or so, and I don't think it's stopping anytime soon. I'd rather pick one of the less freezing days for buying fish.

The tetras and guppy are still fine. I've learned that I have to feed the crushed pellets right next to the filter outflow so they distribute throughout the tank--if I don't, then only one or two of the fish find them and pig out. And I need to crush them really well. I had one of the tetras spot the food at the surface and immediately go for the biggest chunk, which he could barely fit in his mouth! Possibly because it had been soaking in the water a bit. He managed it eventually. And then he went for the next biggest chunk. o.o In other words, they need to be absolutely pulverized. Otherwise, I get one guy with a really round belly and the rest don't eat.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

I could swear the neon tetras have visibly gotten bigger since I introduced them to the tank 

I bet it's the protein-based food. They snap up the little crushed pellet bits so enthusiastically. Now they're visibly bigger in just a few days and their colors are brighter. I think one or two of them is greedier than the others, though--their belly is bigger than the others' after they're done eating. The guppy is a bit smarter and has figured out that the food starts up top and he can eat from there, but his fins make him slower than the tetras so it all balances out.

I took a picture of the tank as it is right now, for your viewing pleasure. I still think it needs a LOT more plants and I hope I get a chance to buy those crypts and wisteria soon. I used my crummy phone camera, but even so you can see like three of the tetras. They're a lot brighter in person though.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

*New fish picture dump!*

Look who I got~~~

I haven't come up with a name for him yet. I think he looks like the Rainbow Fish from that kids' book, though. He's got half the color spectrum spread out over his body and fins.

He's exploring the 10g now. The guppy and tetras tried to school with him. He doesn't care and is leaving them alone, and they don't seem to feel threatened. He likes the plants, though.

Here is is in his cup (to show off his colors!) and exploring the 10g.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Ooh, he's gorgeous! He looks so shiny in the pictures. He must be especially pretty in real life.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

The second cup picture is really accurate. The reason the in-tank ones look so mediocre is because I planted some new stuff I got from the pet store, and stirred up a bunch of dirt while I was arranging. Tropica wendtii crypts (=bronze?) and water wisteria as planned.  The water wisteria was in its emersed form, it looks super different from the way it grows underwater.

Unnamed Rainbow Fishy is really interested in all the different plants. Or, he was five minutes ago. Right now he's busy flaring at the filter like he's indignant that it had the audacity to push him around.

He was sold as a HM, but he has a Delta spread. I don't care. I like him as he is.

Hopefully, the mystery bug that Felix and the platy died of isn't something that's hanging around. I should do a reasonably large water change soon to be safe (which I don't need to do terribly often, since this is a cycled, understocked, planted tank).

It's entirely possible that I did something stupid like neglected to put water conditioner in during a water change, or, come to think of it, there's the way I didn't get to the two dead platies immediately back when they kicked it (as I was sick at the time). Maybe it was just a liver thing.

It's snowy and freezing out, so it was super quiet in PetSmart. The fish lady kept turning our conversation into some kind of pissing contest. I had asked to float one of the bettas in with the guppies, and she said they normally just dumped them in when one of the plastic cups broke and there was never an issue, so I shouldn't be worried as long as the other fish had been in there first. I said that I'd tried introducing two different bettas into community tanks before, and both times had let them float for hours, and one of those two times it didn't work. She ignored me and kept trying to "demonstrate" that he wasn't showing aggression towards the guppies... the poor fish had just been unceremoniously dumped in the tank and was now surrounded by a horde of colorful guppies. I think he was just too overwhelmed to attack anything.

"See, he's not puffing up his gills," she said. "That means he's not showing aggression."

I *wanted* to be all like, "yeah, I know, it's called flaring, I've kept these before and I'm not an idiot."

She kept trying to tell me about their "proper" care, insisting they could be in a gallon bowl or a vase and didn't need a heater, and she was very proud that they changed the betta's cup water twice a week. I insisted just as strongly as she had that they did indeed need a heater--that they were tropical and preferred a temperature closer to 80 degrees. I pointed out that the ammonia still built up like crazy in those little cups, and they should keep more of the bettas in the tanks. I wasn't trying to be confrontational, but she seemed to take this as a personal offense and started telling my mom and me about how extensive and difficult her job was, how she had to clean 130 tanks every week and yada yada yada...

Never mind that keeping bettas in with the other fish like I'd suggested would CUT DOWN on her workload.

As for her response to the heater remark? "It's not 80 degrees in here," she said.

I pointed out that the bettas were stressed in these temperatures, citing the fact that they colored up when taken home.

"Well, they're stressed in the cups, yeah," she said.

She seemed to miss the obvious conclusion that _this means you can't use the fact that it's not 80 degrees in here as evidence that lower temperatures stress them out._

She kept trying to prove that she knew more about fish than I did, but in the process, she revealed a lot of things she didn't know. She didn't know that bettas and gouramis are related, and had in the past put bettas in with gouramis. (Genius.) This served as evidence to me that in overcrowded tanks, fish are more likely to be overwhelmed and not attack each other (although, unsurprisingly, she had seen some aggression in at least one case).

What is even up with people. I don't know what training they give these PetSmart people--I mean, she had some of her facts right--but whatever they said, this lady took their word as gospel and was determined not to be out-fished by a teenager.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

That sounds horrific. I've talked about proper fish/plant/coral etc. care to a couple of employees before, and they responded very well. There was one Petco guy who thought bettas were pretty much tiny sharks who would kill everything in sight, plants included, and therefore had to be kept in tiny vases - he honestly seemed fascinated by what I told him about my community bettas. 

Also, side note, I hate when people don't take my opinions seriously - especially when I know what I'm talking about! - because I'm young. (Luckily, it doesn't happen as much, now that I'm 17 and look 20ish. ) It's incredibly frustrating, though.

I forget - is your 10g covered? If the deaths were sudden and you didn't see any signs of disease, another possibility is that something toxic ended up in the tank. I still think this is what caused me to suddenly lose three healthy platies back in July. I shook the test kit chemicals over their tank, and my test tubes were very leaky, so I think some ended up in their tank. Just a possibility to consider. 

Sorry to hear about your losses. :-(

Oh yeah, and you should definitely name him The Rainbowfish.


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## MameJenny (Jun 11, 2012)

Oh, and I just realized that I entirely missed where you said that he looked like The Rainbow Fish. lol. I loved those books as a kid.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

MameJenny said:


> That sounds horrific. I've talked about proper fish/plant/coral etc. care to a couple of employees before, and they responded very well. There was one Petco guy who thought bettas were pretty much tiny sharks who would kill everything in sight, plants included, and therefore had to be kept in tiny vases - he honestly seemed fascinated by what I told him about my community bettas.
> 
> Also, side note, I hate when people don't take my opinions seriously - especially when I know what I'm talking about! - because I'm young. (Luckily, it doesn't happen as much, now that I'm 17 and look 20ish. ) It's incredibly frustrating, though.
> 
> ...


I look 20 most of the time too (you're the same age I am! I didn't realize), except when I have visible acne. That's the case today.  

I wonder if this lady actually keeps fish. I'm sure she would have been one to pull the "I've been keeping fish for X years" card if she had. Pet store animal behavior is never like healthy, relaxed animal behavior.

She also told me part of the reason they kept the bettas in cups was so that if one died, it would be easier to replace D: They wouldn't die so much if they were in the bigger tanks.

The 10 is covered, but it does have holes in the plastic. I don't know if that's what it was. Felix was lethargic and had been mopey and tail-bitey for a while, but the platies--no symptoms, they just kicked it out of the blue. :? Again, could be that I did something stupid and introduced cleaning spray or something to the tank via my hands on accident.

It's really funny that you thought of Rainbow Fish too. XD I think that will probably end up being his name. My mom suggested that I use the Swedish word for "rainbow," since the book is originally Swedish, but I can't pronounce it because they have some veeery strange vowels in Scandinavian languages.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

The semi-named Rainbow Fish is showing some attitude now. All of a sudden, he built a really tiny bubble nest around the driftwood where it pokes out of the water, and he's been defending it with his life. That is to say--he's been flaring at everything else in the tank. I'm kinda glad it's not fully stocked; he'd have a heart attack.

RF also has a few little spots of ich. He hasn't been rubbing up against things that I've seen. It's just stress from moving into a new tank, and then thinking that everything else is going to eat his nonexistent babies. He'll get over it. I'm warming up the 1g QT tank all the same, but I don't think it'll be needed. Most freshwater tanks have the ich parasite present; it's just when the fish's immune system drops that it causes a problem. RF should get over it on his own and I don't think it will spread to the other fish, as long as they aren't too stressed out by this huge rainbow monster threatening them all the time. (Hopefully, he'll get over that too.)

And that pet store lady told me he'd just stay docile as long as he was introduced last. The geniuses. I know what I'm talking about.

Oh, and RF is a full HM. He's extravagant <3


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

RF has no ich spots on him today, and he appears to have stopped maniacally flaring. I think the latter is partly because the filter dispersed his bubble nest and he hasn't figured out that the driftwood blocks the filter flow from the water's surface on the other side. haha

RF does feel threatened by the presence of a peacock feather up against the side of his tank, though. He doesn't go crazy at it, but it's bigger than he is and he's really wary of it. He's willing to face it down, but not flare at it. Simon doesn't react too much to feathers (although he's still willing to defend his three gallons of territory against my nail polish). He just comes over to look and maybe kinda flare at it, then swims away.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Yesterday, I bought some new fish: three more neon tetras and two more guppies. I also decided that I didn't trust the Kritter Keeper. It has sat right next to the window for months, and because it had a reliable heater there was only one problem with its location: algae. It always grew a ton of algae on the wall most exposed to sunlight, and even though it had an entire horde of bladder snails dutifully chomping at it, the algae nevertheless grew into the plastic and I fear it has begun to weaken.

For this reason, I NPT-ified the 1g and crammed all the plants from the 3g in (which was a trick...). Then I moved the heater over, gave Si a nice smooth acclimation, and then let him loose.

Simon is NOT thrilled with me, but he's not a terribly active fish with his long, heavy fins, and anyway, he is now free of the snails he hated so much. Overnight, he built a generous bubble nest because that's just what he does.

The 1g has thicker walls and I think I'm going to cover the back with sheer fabric. I'd like to get him a glass 2.5g and a bunch more plants, because I think it looks nicer and then I wouldn't have to change half the water every three days, but I think this will work for now anyway.

A little bad news... one of my new guppies came home with columnaris. He's got a fuzzy spot in front of his dorsal and fungus around his mouth. It's hard to tell on such a small fish, but I'm sure of it. I noticed it today. Shouldn't have spread to the other fish I bought overnight, I think--so he's been isolated in the now-empty Kritter Keeper tank and the other fish I bought (which all look and act healthy) are in the 10g.

I think there is a hierarchy in tetra schools, and the "leader" of the 10g's five tetras and the "leader" of the three new ones I bought are kind of tussling, chasing and nipping at each other. I don't think any serious damage will be done--they are peaceful fish after all--but they need to settle out who's pack leader first.

The "bottom dog" of the tetra school (one of my older tetras) is having some ich issues. He always eats the least, I think, as he's among the smallest of the tetras. I knew he was having issues before I got the new guys, and considered separating him, but figured that would cause more stress than letting him be. It's a stress thing; none of the other fish have ich. The betta seems to not get any ich any more, too--he kicked it on his own.

Both the guppies in the 10g (the new tricolor guy, and the older turquoise guy) are appreciating the company of their own kind. They really like hanging around each other. The betta showed some aggression at first, but I cupped him and let him sit out for a while and then reintroduced him, and now he seems to be leaving the guppies alone.

I got the two extra guppies because RF liked chasing the one guppy--not doing any damage, but probably stressing him out--so I figured letting him distribute his aggression over multiple targets might help a bit. That seems to be happening, so it's all cool.

I also did about a 75% WC on the 10g. I gave the KK QT a gallon of the old 10g tank water, which was a nice 80F, and mixed it with the cool filtered tap water. The KK doesn't have its own heater, since Simon kept his, but there is a thermometer and it's about 74F in there--which is just fine for a guppy really. I'm going to add some AQ salt to the KK and see if the guppy kicks the columnaris, which is in its early stages, on his own. I'm not going to buy medication for a $2 fish I'm not attached to; I care enough about the critter to give him a chance with conservative treatment, but if he dies, whatever.

I've been busy.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

The 10g tank looks so blue after a water change, before the peat-based soil and the driftwood leach in their tannins. The blue looks unusual to me. It kind of looks cleaner but I like a little tannin in the water. Maybe later I'll put a shot of rooibos tea in.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

It's 2 AM. RF scared the crap out of me because I couldn't find him in the tank. There is one spot where he could've jumped without being able to jump back in, so I feared he'd gotten out and flopped into the dust behind my desk. I climbed on top of the desk to peek behind it and couldn't see anything but dust.

_Well he wouldn't be colorful if he were there for a while,_ I thought, and searched for a flashlight--found none--used my phone--couldn't see anything. So I shifted the giant oak desk forward, pointed one of my gooseneck lights at the back, couldn't see a fish, just a bunch of dust and some old, dry plant leaves. (I should really clean back there.) I shifted it more, put on my glasses. No fish body.

_So one of the cats ate him?_ I thought then. I'd had my brother's cat in my room all day, and he likes to poke at the plastic on top, so I was suspicious. Nevertheless, I kept searching for RF--the plastic was still taped down. It wasn't something that would really shut out a cat who wanted to play with the fishies, but they wouldn't have been able to stick the tape back on intentionally, would they?

I found RF cuddled up napping behind the heater. After letting out a deep breath, I wiggled the heater cord to make him move a bit, just make sure he wasn't stuck. He was not. Apparently he's just chosen a sleeping spot.

These fish make me crazy X0

Oh, and the sick guppy died. I'm glad he was isolated. I'll deal with him in the morning.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Here, guys: have a picture of some happy neon tetras derping around.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

That's a great picture! Neons move so quick, they're hard to catch with a camera. I think they are such cute fish!


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Thanks! I found the "macro" setting on my phone camera, it makes it so much easier to photograph fish because I don't have to wait so long for it to focus.

Always seems like it's those seven messing around in the main swimming area of the tank, swimming around and chasing each other. The eighth has its own personal hiding spot behind the driftwood--it doesn't seem to be as social. I hope it's still happy.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Orion (aka Rainbow Fish) got one too many tail nips from whatever fish is ripping up his and the longer-finned guppy's tail. Deciding I'd seen too much of his tail being torn up and then healing funny, I reluctantly decided to go through the nerve-wracking process of trimming his tail. Now he's in a 1g with a little salt; it's well-planted with hardy plants and there's not another living creature in it. There's even a nice big java fern that more than reaches the water line. It's the perfect tank for a little R&R.

I feel bad for putting him through the trim and then putting him in a tank with a tenth of the space. But I've been thinking about sticking him in his own tank for a while and maybe putting a faster betta with shorter or less lush fins in the big tank. I don't know if I'll keep him in the 1g, but he's at least staying there until his fins grow back properly. I don't like the 1g for long-term fish habitation, but...

Let's just say he'll be the last HM of mine to see a community tank. Their lush fins are just too much of a temptation for nippy fish. Maybe VTs will be okay?

If he's biting his own fins, I'll find out soon. In that case, I can't stop him, so he'll go back into the 10 and have free range in his tiny jungle-pond. If it's one of the other fish... ugh, I don't know if I'd be willing to stick him back in the 10 and risk his getting bitten up again. He might have to stay in the 1g.

More news later.


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