21 October 2016

for now just snails

It is strange having a tank with no fish in it. I keep glancing over there expecting any minute to see him glide up out from behind a plant, looking for an offering... Of course there are still snails to watch crawling around- two nerites and plenty of trumpet snails. I am not certain, but it seems the limpet numbers are slowing down.

I have changed a few small things.  I took off one layer of plastic that covered the LEDs on the left side. Rotalas are definitely bending the other way now, they must be seeking light. Hoping this will straighten them out, and not cause algae on the anubias or buces.
Noticed the filter flow on hospital tank was stronger than in the tenner. I switched air pumps. But this one is noisy. So I suspended it. Looks ridiculous, but much quieter now.
Definitely more flow- some of the plants move gently, and the floaters drift around in slow circles. Which is kind of nice to watch. This is the best short end of the tank right now. There's a small anubias nana petite I added in the back right corner there.
Other end of the tank is not really attractive, although the ludwigia is growing well.
Much more interesting the green flaming fingers of windelov fern.
I need to do another overhead tank shot soon- here's a quick one of windelov and anubias, blurred on the edges because I didn't turn off the flow.
By far my favorite plants in the tank are the buces. They're all doing well. Lovely colors, sparkling specks on the leaves. These look so great I am tempted to bring over the buces out of the thirty-eight, which struggle to fend off algae.
But I'm afraid to introduce BBA into this tank. Maybe I could pull the buces, do a dip or a three-day blackout in a container... Here's the 'Selena', still looking lovely and wow it has grown a lot.
Doing cleanup was sad. I sprayed everything down with diluted bleach, rinse in tapwater. Filter sponge, pebbles and small plastic items get boiled for five minutes. Tank lightly bleached and rinsed out with boiling-hot water. Dry it all in the sun. Afterwards I ask my older daughter or husband to do a sniff test- if they detect the faintest hint of bleach I rinse again and again. My youngest said "why are you smelling things? does it smell like a dead fish? because Oliver just died in there."

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