amino's 20g tank story

[aminowrimo]

Been posting enough that I think it'll be good to have a place to eep track of all the things going on in this tank as of today; I might make another topic at some point for the tank prior to this, since it may be interesting and/or useful to people.

The current stocking of the tank is 11 neon tetras, 7 cardinal tetras, and one alien betta named Fonsi. There is also one carbon rili shrimp (i believe) that hopped along for the ride with the neons whom I've named Tagalong, and a bunch of ramshorn snails.

Added 20 catappa leaves to this tank about two days ago and it is already tea-colored. The pH dropped down to 6.6 (typical for this tank when adding catappa) and after looking into things over the past few days I decided better safe than sorry. It would also be nice to have a bit of control and peace of mind when we leave for trips. So went down to a new local fish store and got some aragonite (which is what the LFS had on hand), had one guy tell me it wouldn't work and another tell me it would do exactly what I wanted. I'll add it later today right after the water change, because I want to test GH and KH again for data. 

I know that some folks really love blackwater and I again think I'm not the biggest fan. It is harder to see the vibrant greens I love in this tank like this, but... hopefully this will help Fonsi the betta with a cyst or chondroma that may be a symptom of neon tetra disease. Because of the NTD I'm sure is in the tank, I won't be adding any new fish to this tank, but I will do my best with plants and inverts. Once all the fish die, I'll fish out the inverts as best I can. Hopefully by that point we will be in a place where we can have multiple tanks. I'll then be able to use hydrogen peroxide to sterilize this tank and leave it free of fish for 3 months. At that point I'll be able to add in new fish.

The new LFS is absolutely fantastic for plants, so I may go in and hunt for some nice plants to add to my tank in August.

Here's the tank one day apart; right when the leaves were added (I ended up putting them in a media bag because I don't want debris everywhere) and a day after. I'll add the aragonite to my media bag after the water change.
 

[aminowrimo]

I added the aquarium co-op sponge filter on top of the current sponge filter to seed it. Unfortunately at this height the easy flow kit does not work. However, I know I will want the kit at its regular height when the sponge is done being seeded; I am going to switch away from the fine sponge I was using but I will also want the small sponge to be seeded for any quarantining of fish that must be done. So I also added an additional air stone. 

The bubbles are so much smaller and quieter! Definitely better for the amazon frogbit I plan to add later this week if USPS does its job correctly. 

[aminowrimo]

Yesterday was my dissertation defense and while looking at Fonsi afterward I had a feeling his little bump was getting smaller. Today it looks like it has almost disappeared! Very happy. We had a neon tetra die; not sure for what reason, as all the neons looked very healthy. This morning I tried to test ammonia but I am out of bottle #2 unexpectedly. Because of family being in town I am actually going to run to the LFS tomorrow to update my kit. Plants I ordered in from aquaswap but that were lost in the mail came in on Monday; the amazon frogbit is deceased, but some of the hornwort looks like it is hanging in there? I plopped it in the tank and am watching it to see how it does.

Very excited to go to the LFS tomorrow; I forgot on Sunday when I was there to explore one whole corner of the store because I was so focused on the aragonite!

 

[aminowrimo]

I ended up buying the mayaca fluviatilis that caught my eye last time and I planted it in the front. Was super fun watching the tetras go through. Fonsi seems to be kind of ignoring the strands. I also got the fish some bloodworms and fed them that, which they loooved. I'm waiting on hornwort and amazon frogbit to arrive tomorrow; very hopeful it will actually make it.

Fonsi has learned that the pipette means food and will chase it around the tank. I need to find some plastic mesh for when we go on vacation so he doesn't think he wants to jump at the autofeeder and out of the tank. He just starts looking better and better the longer he's in the tank. I love him.

Attached is also a picture of the snail that I find very interesting; it seems like it got much better nutrition all of a sudden and the new shell is nice and dark whereas the older shell is pitted and pockmarked.

[nabokovfan87]

Cc @AllFishNoBrakes is another person who loves the blackwater side of things. I do too!

It looks great, keep at it. Well done!

[aminowrimo]

Yesterday I did some leaf trimming. The crypt red wendtii is melting heavily. It could be the amazon sword growing over it, so I removed some of those leaves. I also removed a bunch from the lefthand sword too since it was covering up the mayaca fluviatilis. The water is so dark it's hard to see anything.

I did test KH and GH again today and I'm up to 2° for both of them. (Yay!) What's more interesting to me is how many snails look much better than they did; clearly healthier shells on the outside ring.

Everybody got bloodworms this morning because i'm going on vacation so they'll only have pellets for a few weeks with the autofeeder.