Kevin F.

Finally after two weeks I got to see the other oto.

Week 37. Tank is doing good. Had one of the pearl danios die. But other than that good. The Denison Barb that ripped his side open is healing nicely. He now has a Iine from top to bottom. The injury looked pretty bad at first scales lifted up and flesh sticking out. See link. Finally did a trim of the corkscrew val. Tops had a lot of algae growth. Tired to tuck some of the moss to cover the hole top of the fake cave. Put in the rest of the root tabs on the plants I didn't hit last week. I have only seen one of the Oto's since I put them in. Going to give it another week if I still only see one, I'll add another one from the quarantine tank. Water tested good. First number is before water change second one is after. Nitrate mabe 10/20 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.6/7.6 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Update. One of the other barbs just ripped the small tuff of flesh off. He zoomed around for a couple seconds and is now back schooling with the other dish. 2 of his scales are still sticking up. Now like @Dwayne Brown said I just have to keep an eye out for fungus.

One of my Denison barbs has got himself cut pretty bad. It wasn't this way yesterday when I did my weekly maintenance and update. I couldn't get a really clear picture of it. The white you can see in the image was bleeding when I saw it so it must of just happened. It's like he got caught in something and it pulled back a couple scales and pulled out some flesh. It dosent really show up but there a line that starts at the top a ND goes almost all the way down.

@BrettD I got it from a pet store, back when we lived in South Carolina. I've had it for a long time.

Week 36. Changed out the Emperor 400 for a Emperor 450 pro. The motor on the old one was about to give out. I've had the filter for for a long time it ran on the tank for about 8 years. Tank is doing good, scraped so.e algae today made it look a lot better. The Oto's seem to like there new home even got a pic of one. Put in a couple root tabs here and there. Water change. If there is only one number than both were the same. Nitrate 10/25 Nitrite 0 Hardness 300 pH 7.2/7.6 Chlorine 0 Ammonia 0

That would be a beautiful tank.

@Fish Folkit really is. Especially when we set down for a meal. The tank is right beside tge dinning room table.

Week 35. I didn't trim the val most of the overhang is in the middle and since all my carpet attempts failed I thank it will be ok. I moved two of the Oto's out of quarantine and into the tank today. I did finally loose the one zebra danio that had the bent spine. I feed some frozen blood worms and brine shrimp this week. Had a slight alge increase afterwards. Fish took care of most of it. I'm hoping that the otos will be able to get into the small places they can't. Rest of the fish are doing good. My old Emperor 400 is about to give out. It was one of my filters from when this tank was set up before. It's still running just not as good as it should. I thank I've decided to go with the pro 450 as a replacement. I like the motor in the tank and the pre-filter is in the filter were the impeller use to be. You can also use a polishing insert here. What do y'all think? Water change today. First number is before water change second one is after. Nitrate 10/10 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.6/7.2 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Week 34. No changes this week. Staying on the new lighting and feeding schedule. The algae is slowly receding. The corkscrew val that was trimmed last week still looks good. I'll give it one more week and if it still looks good I'll trim the rest. The moss has really taken off over the last week. I thank it's because the Denison Barbs won't leave it alone. They pick at it and spread it out allowing move light to get to more moss. The Cory's still love sleeping in it. The smallest one will swim full speed across the tank and just crash head long into it. Another water change today and the numbers were exactly the same as last week. I tested 3 times and it is just the same. First number is before water change second one is after. Nitrate 25/10 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.2 Chlorine and Ammonia both 0 before and after.

Week 33. This week I trimmed the emperor 400 tu e to give it a little more clearance under the pre-filter sponge. Did a test trim on so.e of the vail to see how it eould react. Took out some of the drift wood and scraped off the black beard algae, treated with peroxide. The emperor 400 is acting up again. I have a spare body with pump I may have to change it out, or just replace it with something else. Water tested good. First number is before water change second one is after. Nitrate 25/10 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.2 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Week 32. No changes this week. Did filter maintenance on the aquaclear. Tried some filter floss in it to try and polish the water some. I also gave the sponge pre-filter a hydrogen peroxide bath. It was awesome purple afterwards. You couldn't really see it but it was covered in black beard algae. I'll do the other filter next week. No water change today. Unfortunately after church today I've had several meetings. In my hurry to get the one filter clean I didn't write down the water test. I do remember it was almost the same as last week. The Oto's in the quarantine tank are doing ok. One of them didn't make it, but he wasn't swimming to well when I got them home last week.

Being a transplant, I never thought about it.

Ya I hadn't thought about it untill my father-in-law stopped by one day while I was cleaning the tank. He saw me put in fertilizer, and asked why I was doing that. Don't you know that Oklahoma has almost to much fertilizer in out tap water that it is barley legal. I had just never thought about it.

Week 31. No big changes thus week. I thought the algae was getting better until I went to do the water change, and found a quarter size patch of black beard algae. Next week on water change I'll take out that piece of wood and give it a scrub. Fish are doing good I took the one zebra danio that was living in the quarantine tank and moved him back in. Got a API water test kit. Did a lot of different water test today before and after water change. Most of the the numbers between the test strips and master kit were the same except Nitrate and pH. This is before water change. The first test tube is my tap water the second is the tank. The strip is also tap water. The next ones are after water change today. what do y'all thank about the difference? It.was just something I found interesting. I bet if i went and got a different brand of kit it would have totally different numbers. Fish are happy plants are happy thats all that matters to me. The last picture is of some new little buddies in the quarantine tank.

Sending prayers and well wishes.

Got a picture of the Cory's sleeping in the moss.

Week 30. Thank you all for the well wishes. Thank the Lord it was just a 48 hour stomach bug. Tank is doing well. The fish are finally use to the new feeding schedule. Fish are doing good had a little breading behavior from the Harlingen rasboras the other day when a big snow storm came in. It was awesome watching them run around the tank with their fins straight up. One of the Cory's has decided that the moss is a good place to sleep. Every time I try and get a pic it takes off. The bristlenose is going like a weed. The Nitrate wad really low after water change so I went ahead and added some fertilizer today. Water parameters, Nitrate 25/10 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/80 pH 7.2/7.2 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

Week 29. Tank is doing good, I'm not. Short post this week been under the weather. No changes this week. The algae is starting to subsid.. the red lines did attach the moss as you can see.from the photos. I'll touch it up tomorrow when I'm filling better. Water test e s good I forgot to right it down, sorry about that.

Corkscrew val has always been my favorite plant. I only moved the lighting about an inch, and you right it made a huge difference.

Week 28. Cut back on feeding this week. I've noticed a slight decrease in the algae. Trimmed the Pogostemon Octopus and replanted the tops. There is a baby Cryptocoryne of some type coming up beside my pink flamingo. Can't wait to see what that is. The fish are doing good well. I thought they would go crazy the first time I feed them on this new schedule, but they didn't. Just ate like normal. The emperor filter stopped acting up. No idea, it just started working normally. I moved the lighting forward a little and really like how it makes the tank look. Water change. First number is before water change second one is after. Nitrate 25/25 Nitrite 0/0 Hardness 300/300 Buffer 80/120 Chlorine 0/0 Ammonia 0/0

I'd love for them to live in my tank. But it does give me an excuse to go to the fish store more. lol as I turn to see the wife glare at me. I've never kept the horn variety before may have to look into them.

There are 2 army helmet ones in there. One unfortunately is a female and lays eggs everywhere lol. I'm will be getting tqo more butterfly loaches. Just waiting on my local store to finish there rack upgrade then they'll be ordering again. If I can find a decent oto or two I would be good. Unfortunately all the ones I've seen here are half dead at the store.

Week 27. No changes this week except algae. It has really hit almost every plant. I know it has a lot to do with my over feeding. So this week fish are going back on there scheduled feeding. They get fed 4 times a week in the morning, flakes and some vibra bites. The other 3 days nothing. Once a week I do drop in a couple algae wafers at night after the lights have been out for a while. I really don't want to lower the light back down, yhe stem plants that are left have started responding to the higher longer light and are growing. One of the flowers opened up. Went ahead and did a 25% water change today. I thank I'll keep doing the weekly water changes instead of the biweekly. Water parameters. Sorry I forgot to do the prewater change test. Nitrate 25 Nitrite 0 Hardness 300 Buffer 80 pH 7.2 Chlorine 0 Ammonia 0