The mystery plant

Well, after that last post I figured out what kind of plant it is. It is a potamogeton gayi which apparently has a rough time changing tanks but once it gets going it will do really well. I am glad to know that it will do better, but am worried about what I am going to do when it gets acclimated. I might let it have a corner or part of a wall of the tank. I guess I will just have to wait and see what the puffers think of it. The shimps seem to like it ok, but I think the small leaves are a little bit hard for them to hold onto. They love sitting on the anacharis that is infront of the filter.

Update

The shrimp still seem happy. They are a lot of fun to watch, sometimes they run/swim around the tank and sometimes they crawl on the decorations or bottom looking for food. They don't seem to really like to hide, except when I feed them then they all grab a little piece of the algae pellet and try to get as far from the other shrimp as possible. I am going to be sad when the puffers come and the shrimp hide a lot, but I think it will be worth it.

I have been slowly watching as nematodes, cyclopses(copepods), and bugs grow in the tank. Its amazing how many of the cyclopses there are, they are all over the gravel. I was worried about them being in there although I read that they are harmless and are a good sign, apparently they can't take very much nitrate at all so them being in there means that the nitrate is good. I don't so much like the nematodes although it is kind of cool having all the different critters, but I doubt they will last long when the puffers come. I think as soon as they get picked up off the bottom by the water current(which seems to happen fairly often) they will get eaten. The bugs are little bugs that sit on top of the water, sometimes at night they fly around but they can't get very far. I like them but they are multiplying very quickly and I don't want to many of them. The filter seems to be a big threat to them as usually when they get close they get pushed under it and underwater, I don't think they usually survive the experience.

I started another snail tank, same size tank as the first one. I am going to put the pond snails in this one, they don't seem to be as tolerant of the water condition as the pond snails and there are less of them so they will hopefully do a little better alone.

My big grassy plant seems like it might not be happy, but I don't really know what it needs. It would be really helpful if I could figure out what kind of plant it was. It probably needs new lights, and I had denizens order 20 watt lights (twice the wattage of the ones I have and cheaper) but I don't know how long it will take them to get them in.

Still no pictures but I found out that its a short circuit in my camera and that I might be able to get it replaced.

Amanos

So the prime stuff will detoxify ammonia and nitrite! I used it and got some amano shirmp! They had a long ride here but made it fine. When I put them in the tank, after acclimating them, they were running and swimming all over the place. I was worried that it was because of either the nitrite or the prime being in the water, however I think it was just them being scared because they were in new water and a new tank. They settled down after about a half hour and seem pretty content now. One is still running around some, but its not so frenzied as before. As long as they live I should be able to get my puffers! Also bubble is doing well, he picked at a piece of hard food for a little today but never ate it.

Darn Nitrites

My nitrites haven't changed one ppm in an entire week, I got some new rocks as well as a little bottle of some stuff that "detoxifies" nitrite. I am hoping I can use this stuff to make the ammonia harmless so I could get my puffers but still be there so that the bacteria might keep growing. Also I returned the plants to Pet smart, got a fake plant for my snails and put the grass from my snails in my tank.

Aquatic plants

I got two new plants, these ones should be able to actually live underwater! My camera is acting up so I can't get pictures of them right now. One is a Dwarf Four Leaf Clover which I am hoping will do well, if it does it will carpet the bottom of the tank. The other one is a tall bushy plant, it has a lot of leaves that loot like grass, however I can't remember the name of it so I can't find a picture online. It kind of looks like the plant in this picture, but it isn't that plant. Rest assured Paul, I got them at Denizens.

Thank you Pet smart

I have learned why all pet smart plants come with the "snail free" guarantee, which I thought seemed like it would be incredibly hard for them to be able to do. It is because the aquarium plants they sell were grown above water. Why were these aquarium plants grown above water? Because they are regular house plants not underwater plants! So with the exception of my anarchis(the tall stuff in the back that I got from Petco) all of my plants will die in a week to a few months.

Pet smart is lucky they have dwarf puffers cause I would work hard to avoid them if they didn't. Apperantly they do sell one truely aquatic plant, however I have yet to see one of them healthy.

Lucky I still have the containers for the fern and grass so I should be able to return those. However, I don't know what I will do about the Umbrella(peace lily) plants.

The nitrite

So the ammonia is pretty much good but I guess I don't have enough of the bacteria removing the nitrite so now I have to wait for that. I am concerned that the nitrite bacteria on the rocks of the established tank might be dead if there wasn't enough nitrite for them when I put them in my tank. So it could be awhile. And I was so excited for my little puffs...

Ammoina

Took another ammonia reading today ~.1ppm so maybe tomorrow depending on the nitrite.

Yay!

All the bacteria are alive! I did a water test today and we got some good results. There aren't enough bacteria yet, but all the types of bacteria are in my tank. I put some rocks from an established tank in over the weekend, so that probably helped.

Ammonia: 1.5ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
pH: 7.4

Aren't they exciting?

New Bowl

My girlfriend had an extra betta bowl, its a little boring at the moment I will have to get some plants for it. Bubble seems to enjoy the extra space but most of the time that I am around he sits in the front watching to see if anything exciting is happening(like if the medicine droper he gets fed with is moving).



I put the little green stones from the small bowl in after I took the picture.

More plants

I got more plants, I should have almost enough now. The only problem is that they are small and need to grow, the top half of my tank seems kind of boring right now.

New sword and grass


New fern plant


New tank arrangment


I put two little snails in with bubble to see how he would react to them. He attacks the larger one's shell every now and then, but for the most part he ignores them. He did eat some blood worms last night, so apperantly he is just a picky eater.

Bad news

The plants weren't doing anything, ammonia just hadn't been created yet. So it looks like it will be awhile until I will be getting them still :(

Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
pH: 7.4>

Bubble

The betta's name is officialy Bubble.

I am still worried because he is not eating though.

The plants?

So I read that plants use ammonia and nitrite or nitrate(can't remember which). This would explain why there wasn't any thing in the reading from Tuesday. If nothing is detected in the next reading then I will have to start thinking about getting my puffs. I still need some more plants though, and seeing how small my plants are another small decoration might be a good idea too.

I have started transferring snails back to the snail farm, its a slow process but I just net them out when I seem them climbing on the front glass. I tried to take some more photos of the snail eggs to show how they were developing, but they didn't turn out. They are getting a little bit bigger and are going from clear to slightly brown. They still can't be recognized as snails though. Also, I have noticed some small snails, around the size of the letter "O". I don't know where they have come from. They are only in the large tank, they seem to be too old to have hatched already, but too young to have been pulled out of the tank at Pet Smart.

The betta

The reason I say the betta is because I still haven't named him. I am working on it, I am thinking about bubble because some times he opens his mouth to breath and a bubble comes out. Any suggestions? Nothing new in the big tank, just a lot of snails.

Rearranging

I got a new little decoration and some swords. It still needs some more plants to help break the line of sight, I might get some of the ribbon plants from pet smart. I also got some fertilizer for the plants.

The big coral piece that was in the corner of the tank is out now, it is just too worn and doesn't look good. I bought another 5 lbs. of gravel and am slowly adding it, but I don't want to bury the snails.



My new piece




I took the snail farm out, there are a few snails still in it and lots of eggs. I figure it will save some time when the tank is ready because I won't be chaising a buch of tiny snails around.



Eggs

Betta!

So they were handing out bettas, figured I might as well get one. He is on and off with flirting around nervously and just hanging out. I think he has had a rough day, hope fully he will settle down soon.

First reading

I did the first water test today and here were the results :
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 7.5

:( Not what I was looking for, unless my tank cycled in four days, my ammonia sources aren't doing too much good. Solution? Filter from my girlfriends tank and literally putting the snail farm I have going in the tank.

My uncycled tank


They're escaping!


One of the herd


I am a little worried that there will be too many snails in the tank when the puffs come and they will eat too many and get sick, however I will worry about that when it gets closer to putting them in.

I need to get new lights for the tank the first ones I got won't work and I don't want to use the incandescent lights that came with it.

The beginning

I got my tank last Saturday, got a great deal on craigslist. It came with a lot of the stuff I needed like filter, few decorations, heater, net. I was worried that the big sharp gravel that came with the tank would cut the puffers so I picked up some small black gravel on the way home at Pet co. As soon as I got back my girlfriend and I went to setting it up, rinsing everything and putting it together. After it was all set up I put some food in there to help the anarchis and 3 snails get the cycle started.