The Newb's Progress (cont.)

isaly · November 14, 2021

So, here it is.

Today David was over for a guitar lesson. We took a short chunk of time afterward to empty ten gallons and install the ‘defile of doom.’ The large stone looks a little out of place…soon there will be algae and it’ll look like a vintage strat that’s actually seen some road miles.

I’m generally satisfied with the visual composition of the tank. I’ll be puttering for the next couple of months getting things in order

Two serpae died from columaris this week. I turned the temp to 75, hopefully no one else gets it.

So, this is what it looks like, 55 gal. Fluval 406. Five weeks old. Temp 75. pH 7.1ish. Ammonia 0. Nitrite 0. Nitrate 10ish. Eight fish in as of this writing.

Right now the gravel and decorations seem to comprise about 10 - 15 gallons worth of water volume so it’s really 43 - 45 gallons of water.

I’m not going to add any more fish until, at least, after Christmas. I will be adding plants, whatever looks interesting, and see what happens. I seem to be having less good luck with the red ones. I’ll putz around and eventually figure it out, just gotta give it time and patience. I have one of those Finnex planted lights and it’s plenty bright.

The plan now is to put 36 - 54 black neon tetras in this tank, hopefully three groups of 18, one a month beginning in Jan or Feb. The tank will be four-and a half months old in mid February and ready to have its limits tested a little.

I also want to increase the population of the other groups to eight each and add a half dozen corys. The goal amount of tetras is flexible to accommodate this.