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.

Some pictures of my inverts

I haven't updated this thing in a while. The other day I was taking some macro shots of some of my inverts and this is what came out. I'm surprised my "cheap" Kodak EasyShare is capable of taking some nice quality shots. As an amateur photographer, any camera is a good camera, if you know how to use it.

Melanoides tuberculatus

Neocaridina heteropoda

Neocaridina heteropoda

2 Gallon Hexagon

I cleaned up my hexagon tank just a bit. The bulb was changed from an incandescent to a compact fluorescent spiral. It's warm white 2700K, the plants love it, I see them pearling after a few hours into the photoperiod.

I got rid of the floating anacharis and put it in my fancy guppy breeding tank. I also trimmed the hygrophila difformis since it's starting to put out leaves in the submersed form, I originally got it with emersed foliage. The guppies get to have more space to swim in. The inhabitants are MTS snails and wildtype "feeder" guppies. I like these little guys, I hate how people overlook them and use them as feeders instead. They are really neat fish and inexpensive too. The colony in that tank seems to have its own population control, it never gets too crowded. They only have a couple of fry at a time, never over 5, and they occasionally eat their young. Also, by the time the surviving fry grow to adulthood, the older worn females fade away. The males seem to live a little longer than the females, but the same thing happens to them.

Over the one year that his tank has been set up, I have seen many color variations. Different colors and patterns pop up every few weeks. At the moment there seems to be a lot of males with a peacock eye on the upper part at the base of the tail. If you have an empty tank, give these guys a chance. I'm sure you'll fall for them just like I did a few years back. It's fun to watch a colony change over time and best of all you can also learn a little about genetics. You can sometimes even predict to precision what traits will show up next. Here's the tank:

Hygrophila difformis

Hygrophila difformia and duckweed. Also shown is my DIY CO2 diffuser.

Poecilia reticulata, male

Poecilia reticulata, male

Poecilia reticulata, male

Poecilia reticulata, males. Notice the males with the "peacock eye" on the upper left.

Thanks for reading.

Slight Improvement

I've been struggling with keeping my tanks as natural as possible. It has been a while since I deliberately used cheesy decorations or colored gravel in any of my tanks. This one though was meant to be temporary so I didn't really care what color gravel it would have. It has been a year since I set it up and I just fell in love with it so I decided to change the blue gravel for good. It is a 2 gallon hexagon tank that I use as a "cultivator" tank, meaning I use it to grow out and cultivate plants that I want to propagate rapidly. It is near a west-facing window and it gets some direct sunlight during autumn and winter which allows for a faster growth rate.

Before:

Blue gravel + black stones = one ugly combination

After:

Black sand makes a better medium in my opinion.

Malaysian Trumpet snails investigating the new baby java fern

This tank is oddly shaped so aquascaping is definitely a challenge. The flora includes: Taxiphyllum barbieri, Microsorum pteropus, Rotala rotundifolia v.'marsh', Hygrophila polysperma v. 'sunset',Ludwigia repens, Egeria densa, Echinodorus tenellus, & Hygrophila difformis. Fauna includes: Poecilia reticulata v. 'wiltype' (feeders), & Melanoides tuberculatus.

What triggered the change:

These are my friend's tanks, she recommended that I try black sand which is said to improve plant growth due to its high iron content. She doesn't fertilize her tanks which is sort of amazing considering that her plants look extremely healthy.

I noticed a big picture quality difference even though all these pictures were taken with the same camera. Anyway, I hope you liked it.