Still working on it...

Nothing frustrates me more than having my 10 gallon tank in a suspended state and at the same time feeling a little helpless. It seems like I'm always working on improving something but then I don't like it and put it off altogether. About a week ago I increased the CO2 for this tank and the plants started growing exponentially, I got more growth in a week than the last four weeks combined. I did some trimming and added a few more plants. I was excited and couldn't wait for the little bushes in the foreground to grow a little more. Well the next day I woke up to discover that the strip light at the front didn't work anymore. I was very disappointed because I didn't have it for more than four months. I have contacted Aqueon and am still waiting for them to take action. Now I have moved the back strip light to the front where the more demanding plants are at. I'm now crossing my fingers hoping that my plants will make it. The Hygrophila difformis to the left has grown into a nice little bush, I also added a few more to make it look a little more compact. I might have to move it to the back. I also added a bit more Hygrophila polysperma to the lower right and I got a new Hygrophila sp. which I believe is willow leaf hygro but not sure about the species. Once I get everything a little more filled in and get new plants, I'll start transforming it into something resembling a Dutch aquascape or at least be inspired by one. Here are some tank shots:

10 Gallon: Suspended state before CO2 increase

10 Gallon: After CO2 increase and before trimming

10 Gallon: After trim and after front strip light goes out

6 Gallon: Suspended state

6 Gallon: After a little growth

And here are some random pictures, everybody loves pictures:

Hygrophila sp. "unknown" (willow leaf?)

Hygrophila difformis

Hygrophila polysperma

Planorbis corneus, "rubrum"

Melanoides tuberculatus,

Neocaridina heteropoda, female & Planorbis corneus, "rubrum"

Neocaridina heteropoda, male

Neocaridina heteropoda, female

Neocaridina heteropoda, female

Trachemy scripta elegans, baby turtle I got from my mom for Christmas.

New stock at Petco

Last night I went to my local Petco after not going there for several months. I was expecting the same old fish but to my surprise that wasn't the case. They had some rarities that you usually don't see in specialty shops, seasonal shipment perhaps? They had rams, three varieties! Gold rams, German Blues, and Bolivians! I wanted to take some home, but I didn't want to take the risk of them dying on me. They also had some pretty cool tetras, I forgot most of their names the coolest was probably the lemon tetra. They had halbeaks too, they were about an 1" long and only $1.99. These were tempting too but I figured that they would be difficult to keep considering that they probably need live food and might be a bit aggressive. I probably won't dive into them unless I find out what species they are. They are a very silvery color, like the type of silver seen on Hemigrammus rodwayi. There were many other fish which I don't seem to remember, I might go back next week to get myself some skunk cories and lemon tetras. Yesterday though I settled for a pair of red wag swordtails. I had been wanting some for a long time. I'm not an impulse buyer but if I were, I probably would've bought every new fish that I saw.

Another thing I noticed about this particular Petco is that they seem to be getting involved with planted tanks. They have always sold plants, even though lacking variety, they do have rarities from time to time. I got my Rotala rotundifolia, Ludwigia repens, Hygrophila difformis, and Microsorum pteropus from them. The first two I couldn't find anywhere else which tells you something about big box chain stores, they aren't always bad. Best of all bunch plants are just $2.99 no matter how rare they might be.

They now sell about 6 different types of substrates especially made for planted tanks along with some fertilizers and simple CO2 systems. It wasn't really impressive although I do hope it gets better with time.

As for my tanks, nothing too exciting happening. I did find some wild Hydrocotyle though, finally! I put some in my ten gallon and waiting for it to take off. I'm sure it will thrive.