Kevin F.

Changed fertilizer and feeding thos week. Fertilizer is now easy green and iron twice a week. Feeding is bow four times a week. I also also added some freeze-dried blood worms and frozen brine shrimp. I know you can't tell from the pictures bit the fish have really colored up. Plants seem to like the extra fertilizer, had to trim the val again. Water was really cloudy after water change. Water change today Nitrate 0/25 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

3 weeks till the one year mark. Tank is doing good. Only change thos last week was how I'm doing the water changes. Because it's been so hot, the cold water is now lukewarm out of the tap. Today the water was 78 out the tap. So instead of doing a once a week 40is percent I've started doing two smaller 15 20 percent changes. The fish don't seem to mind and the plants love it. Put in about 30 root tabs today and dosed both easy iron and green. Iron at full recommended and green at half. Water change Nitrate 10/20 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 60/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Getting closer to the one year mark. Happy fathers day. Tank is doing good, fish to. Got back yesterday from taking a bunch of great youth to camp. They also did a awesome job leading worship this morning. So there will be no water change today. We are having another meeting for them. Water tested good. Nitrate 10 Nitrite 0 Hardness 300 Buffer 80 ph 7.2 Chlorine 0 Ammonia 0

Ya he just loves it. After I got done cleaning the tank today he was back hanging upside down in the moss again.

One moor week in the books. Fish are doing good. Those silly Cory's have been up to there old tricks, playing dead. A couple times I had to go in and check. Those long CoOp tweezers really come in handy for that. Plants were looking a little down last couple days. Today's water test said that my Nitrate was at zero. After the water change and fertilizer they have really perked back up. If I don't respond this week it's because we're taking the church youth to camp, and the reception isn't very good there. When I get back I'll have to order some more root tabs and easy green. There's enough for the wife to dose Wednesday but that should be all for Those bottles. I do say that I really like the easy range of products. I've done a lot of reading on fertilizers and they arw dy far the easiest solution. Best of all there price is set very well. I fill you get a better bang for the buck with them. Water change 30% first number is before water change second one is after. Nitrate 0/20 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 40/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Week 47. Just got home and have to leave again in a min. No water change today due to time restrictions will have to do one tomorrow. I switched the fish food because they were out of the one I've been feeding. Got them regular tetra flakes, and they love them. Well except for the yellow flakes for some reason. They will let them go a devour the other ones. Witch is ok because the Cory's don't seem to care about the color. Nitrate 10 Nitrite 0 Hardness 300 Buffer 40 pH 7.2 Chlorine 0 Ammonia 0

Week 46. Another week of being blessed. Tank is doing good. My overfeeding has caused a little extra algae this week, but it's ok. The derp boys still trying to raise my blood pressure. They just love to hang in the moss and screw with me. Got to see both the snails at the same time yesterday. Water change about 35%. Nitrate 10/10 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 120/80 pH 7.2/7.2

I see it all day and I'm fill the same way. Like the little plant I didn't notice, or how the fish change territory over the week. Nature is truly amazing.

Week 45. No big changes this week and thankfully no problems eather. Fish are eating well and add6the iron twice a week is really heaping the plants. I just really can't wait for the crips to fill in more. I don't know how I didn't notice but there is a small green one growing in. It may only have 3 leaves but I just thank it awesome. We had a big storm front come thru last week and later that night the rasboras were showing off for each other and dancing around the tank. Water change this week, ended up being about 40%. Always pay attention and don't get sidetracked while cleaning your tank. Nitrate 10/20 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 40/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Week 44. Tank and fish are moving right along. I took yalls advice and trimmed the pogo on the left. I trimmed more when I saw all the new growth underneath. I just really enjoy the view from the table of the tank. The hillstream loaches are doing great, all five interact with each other chasing and running circles around each other. The Cory's hanging around and darting across the tank. Rasboras just chilling out, so.times showing off for each other. The barbs and danios picking at everything that will fit in there mouths. And the pleco and snails making a brief appearance every now and then. Water change 30% Nitrate 10/10 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/120 pH 7.2/7.2 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0 I am a little weary about the city water. Even though the strips say 10 on Nitrate. The master test has it off the charts. He had a notice on our water bill that we have extremely high nitrates right now, not to use the water for infants or the elderly. Evidently it's been this way for a while I just didn't know.

Yes it is the Pogostemon Stella's Octopus. Yes you are right it really needs a trim.

Week 43. Didn't loose anyone else this week. The hill stream loaches are looking good. All have colored up and are evan starting to be social with each other. Plants are looking good. I'm thinking of eater letting the Val go all the way down the right side in the back. What do yall think? Or should I put some of the Pogostemon Stella's on the right? Adding the iron to the tank has made a real difference. Plants are looking better and the pink flamingo finally has a couple new leafs. I dose twice a week Sunday after water change and Wendsday. 30% water change today and again the numbers were the same as last week. Nitrate 10/25 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

@Bev C just plant the val like any other plant. Push it down in the substrate, then pull it up so that the plant is above and the roots stay under. Wen I planted mine they came as a string of runners. I just planted them as they were with root tabs umder them. As they grow and start to spread ( and they will spread) I waited untill I had 2 or 3 new runners and would move them to were I wanted them to go. They are a very forgiving plant. Mine took a little while to get going but wen they finally did they took right off. As far as length. They do get long but you can trim them. There's a link on my title to my 125 journal.

Love val. Don't worry about it, just give it some light some root tabs and watch it go. I have a large patch of corkscrew val in the middle of my tank. You can trim it to keep it from shading out the other plants or let it grow long to shade the tank. Plant it in clumps and it will spread by runners.

Bad start to a morning. Found two hillstreams dead this morning. I have looked all over the tank and can only find three. My two originals and one of the new ones. Went ahead and retested the water, everything except the Nitrate was the same as yesterday (Nitrate went down to 10). Temperature is still holding at 74. I just don't know.

Unfortunately I don't have a reputable local store. All I have is 2 box stores. The one I get fish from does try there best, but there's only so much they can do with central filtration.

Week 42. This week I did something we all know we shouldn't. I saw some fish and just had to have them. The fish were six more hillstream loaches. Now o e of them unfortunately didn't make it eight hours but the rest are doing fine and coloring up nicely. What I did wrong was I put them straight into the main tank. Now before y'all scold me to much, I know how risky this is. I weighed my options and went with it. Everything else with the tank is doing good. Water change first number is before second is after. Nitrate 10/25 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

I've been using my phone to zoom in and see if there gills are moving.

These little guys are just so entertaining. He just set upside-down for about an hour.

Week 41. Another week down. I tell you setting her looking at the tank every day never gets old. I increased the light duration a little. I added a pic at the end with the settings. Fish seem good. Plants are doing ok. Finally saw one of the snails after not seeing any for a while. Sorry about the pictures I was in a rush today. Water parameters. First number is before water change second one is after. Nitrate 10/20 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Happy Easter everyone. Week 40. All plants and fish are looking good. I took a couple suction cups and used them to hold the moss to the glass. I like the way it looks gave it some hight. The fish are loving it too. They've been over there since I did it picking at stuff. I took pictures of the water parameters this time.

Week 39. I uped the light a little. Have seen a little more algae but the plants do look a little better. The glue holding one of the golden coins down has come loose. Only thing holding it in place is the roots dug into the plant next to it. Hope it can hold on. That piece of wood has a slate bottom to hold it in place, so taking it out is a no go with all the plants rooted around it. I did my water test and it is exactly the same as last week. I'm going to do a test with the master kit tomorrow so I'll update then with the water parameters. I left the camera on normal exposure for the pictures this time.

Week 38. Tank is looking good. Still a couple spots of black beard algae. The smallest of the derp boys died today. He just never grew. They were all bought at the same time the others grew quickly but he didn't. The other 4 were almost triple his size. I am really loving the new filter, with the pump in the tank it starts right up after water change. It also dosen't siphon back into the tank during a water change like my ac 500 does. I still haven't had any spreading of the dwarf sagittaria. There are two different sets in there, one that came in small and one larger. Neither have produced any offshoots or even gotten bigger. Took out some of the corkscrew that had grown all the way down beside the Pogostemon Stella's. Did about a 35% water change today. Nitrate 10/10 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0 I also dosed some iron after the water change.

@CorydorasEthan Good to hear I'm not the only one that has thwre Cory's do this.

They love giving me a heart attack.