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Vigilante · 11-10-2008, 10:05 AM

Just to get you up to speed:
- Actinics have been off since my 3-day blackout. Hair algae is down, but staghorn is back up.
- I'm working on stocking the tank still. What I have will fill it up over time, but I'll continue to grab more ground cover as well. I'm looking for this one type of grass, maybe I can get some this week.
- I had 3 SAEs but they died. I got them from an excellent local shop, but the turnover is so fast there that I couldn't get known healthy and tolerant fish. Ironically the 5 otos I got from petco are doing great (all alive after 2 weeks) and the ones I got from the other shop, 2 out of 10 died within 24 hours. The rest seem to be doing fine. If your SAEs are grouchy maybe they are flying foxes? I had a couple of true SAEs in my last tank and never saw any aggression at all, even when they did mock breeding behavior. From what I've read, if your SAEs have any color in the fins except a mild yellow, they are probably FFs.
- CO2? No need for excel yet, unless I want to double dose.

Constant feed. Was feeding into canister intake but when the tank had higher levels the gas would build up some in the filter, so I went to just open tank release. It is positioned so that the bubbles hit the filter output and get dispersed in the water column. With this working as well as it is, I don't feel the need for a diffuser. I get so much pearling that some plants seem to be more air than matter. Trust me the water column is literally full of O2 bubbles from the plants. I use the central airstone to simply keep the balance, otherwise it would be too much for the fish at night. It also helps to break up the inevitable surface film that occurs when you fert the tank. pH is normally 7.8, but drops to ~7.2 with CO2. No signs of distress to the fish so I'm holding it there. I have some H. difformis on the right side in the second pic. Don't worry I'm there already and I know the plants I need, but budget is tight so it's just a few at a time

. I'm depending on them to grow so I can do cuttings, rather than buy a tankful at once.

11-10-2008, 10:05 AM	#86 (permalink)
Vigilante Broken Arrow Location: US	Just to get you up to speed: - Actinics have been off since my 3-day blackout. Hair algae is down, but staghorn is back up. - I'm working on stocking the tank still. What I have will fill it up over time, but I'll continue to grab more ground cover as well. I'm looking for this one type of grass, maybe I can get some this week. - I had 3 SAEs but they died. I got them from an excellent local shop, but the turnover is so fast there that I couldn't get known healthy and tolerant fish. Ironically the 5 otos I got from petco are doing great (all alive after 2 weeks) and the ones I got from the other shop, 2 out of 10 died within 24 hours. The rest seem to be doing fine. If your SAEs are grouchy maybe they are flying foxes? I had a couple of true SAEs in my last tank and never saw any aggression at all, even when they did mock breeding behavior. From what I've read, if your SAEs have any color in the fins except a mild yellow, they are probably FFs. - CO2? No need for excel yet, unless I want to double dose. Constant feed. Was feeding into canister intake but when the tank had higher levels the gas would build up some in the filter, so I went to just open tank release. It is positioned so that the bubbles hit the filter output and get dispersed in the water column. With this working as well as it is, I don't feel the need for a diffuser. I get so much pearling that some plants seem to be more air than matter. Trust me the water column is literally full of O2 bubbles from the plants. I use the central airstone to simply keep the balance, otherwise it would be too much for the fish at night. It also helps to break up the inevitable surface film that occurs when you fert the tank. pH is normally 7.8, but drops to ~7.2 with CO2. No signs of distress to the fish so I'm holding it there. I have some H. difformis on the right side in the second pic. Don't worry I'm there already and I know the plants I need, but budget is tight so it's just a few at a time . I'm depending on them to grow so I can do cuttings, rather than buy a tankful at once. __________________ We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill Last edited by Vigilante; 11-10-2008 at 10:10 AM..