Oh No!

I wish I had a pictorial update, but that will have to wait until I get new batteries for my camera. The potassium deficiency has finally been taken care of, my plants' leaves no longer die! Everything hasn't gone as expected though. This morning when I was about to feed my fish I noticed a white milky film on the surface of the 10 gallon, I at first thought the filter stopped working. I looked at the flow and no it wasn't that. As I was looking at the flow I noticed a couple of dead tetras floating belly-up right next to the heater. I looked around for the rest. None of them were swimming about so I was expecting the worst and sure enough I found the rest of the tetras between the plants. I knew for a fact that it wasn't the water because I always keep it in top shape and it couldn't go bad over night. The only other culprit could be the temperature. I checked the thermometer and it was at 92ºF! In total 11 fish died: 4 glowlights; 5 black neons; 1 otocinclus; and 1 baby swordtail. That's pretty much the whole population. The only survivors were the two adult swordtails, one of their babies, an otocinclus and the lot of red cherry shrimp. I still don't know if I will go buy more tetras especially when I have no money. I certainly don't want to add guppies which is the only fish I have an excess of. Maybe this will be the perfect time to give neon tetras a fourth chance. Or maybe not, they are always prone to die within the week even if I drip acclimate them. How about trading in some guppies for store credit and get some tetras with that? Plausible.

I seriously don't know what went wrong. The heater isn't faulty, the temperature went back down to its normal range of 78ºF after adjusting it. I'm thinking that I unexpectedly turned the knob last night when I was fiddling with the lights resulting in inadvertently making fish soup. I will miss my fish.

An Update: At Last

The last couple of weeks I sort of neglected my tanks out of frustration for not getting some things in order. It all started when the strip light's ballast on my 10 gallon decided to die unexpectedly, from then on the plants suffered miserably. And it wasn't until last week that I took some action and rectify some of the problems. I got a replacement strip light from Aqueon, but even after this I wasn't satisfied with the amount of light I was getting. Since I enjoy DIY projects I decided to convert the non-working strip light from a fluorescent pin-base to a CFL screw-in. I'm not an electrician but it was easier than I thought. Now I have two 20 watt spiral CFLs plus a 14 watt fluorescent, giving me a total of 5.4WPG! I also was dealing with a potassium deficiency, I got some KCl from the supermarket which I'm certain will patch up this problem. I also did some small rearrangements, like putting the Hygrophila difformis behind the driftwood, inspired by one of Oliver Knott's creations.

My 2 gallon hexagon was also going downhill, I started getting some hair algae and the Hygrophila difformis was becoming a nuisance. Hydrogen peroxide took care of the algae and I fed all of the Hygrophila difformis to my baby turtle. As you can probably already tell I like to take the easy route. Anyway, I leave you with the results.

10 Gallon, frontal view

10 Gallon, corner view

10 Gallon, side view

Neocaridina heteropoda, male

Hemigrammus erythrozonus

Xiphophorus hellerii, male red wag

Otocinclus vittatus

2 Gallon Hex at night

2 Gallon Hex during the day

2 Gallon Hex in the afternoon,

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.

10 Gallon Rescape

I had been thinking about changing a few things in my ten gallon for quite some time. Yesterday I decided to once and for all do something about it. The number one thing I had to take care of was to net out all the guppy juveniles I had in there, I realized that I didn't appreciate them as much as I used to. So they'll be going into their own tank and maybe in doing so my admiration for them won't diminish. I also trimmed all the dying leaves on the java fern which increased open space dramatically. I took out all the plants and the driftwood, sloped the gravel, and added some Vallisneria. It was very hard trying to get everything how I wanted it, the two main pieces of wood and the branches had to be tied together to make sure that they wouldn't move. Planting was probably the most difficult, considering that you can barely get both of your hands in the tank while making sure not to move anything already in place. I struggled trying to get the dwarf lily between the driftwood, the opening there is like 2" at most. After removing most of the plants, this is what was revealed:

I quite liked this, maybe if it was refined somehow it would make a great layout. Not for now though. Anyway, these are the pictures so far.

Before:

After:

Fauna: 7 Hemigrammus erythrozonus, 5 Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi, 2 Otocinclus vittatus, and hundreds of Malaysian Trumpet snails

Flora: Ludwigia repens, Microsorum pteropus (2 varieties?), Vallisneria sp.?, Nymphaea sp. 'rubra', Taxiphyllum barbieri

I'm feeling a bit uneasy about the Ludwigia to the left, I might have to trim it shorter to give that area a more filled, bushy finish. And perhaps even add a few Rotala rotundifolia.
It looks much bigger in my opinion, less fish and more open space and the Vallisneria in the back gives the illusion that it is taller. I'm happy.
Shortly after finishing I noticed some courtship behavior amongst the Glowlight tetras. I've seen them do their dances before, but I'm yet to see any eggs. I'm thinking that what triggered it this time was the shade provided by the vals.

Hemigrammus erythrozonus

Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi


Ludwigia repens

This is a work in progress, it might/will change as it grows. I'm open to suggestions so if you have something to say go ahead. Currently, I'm not sure whether to trim down the ludwigia to make it into a nice bushy foreground. I'm also still undecided whether I should add a bolivian ram as a centerpiece fish. I've had these fish in this tank before and they did quite well. I should give them a try. Thanks for reading and thank you Karen for the vals.