Adam's FLog

The FLog has moved!

2010-05-20T12:16:00.000-04:00

Here's the new FLog: http://www.adamhorton.com/flog . This will probably be the last update of this blog, so make sure to subscribe there if you want to continue to receive E-mail updates.

I said I'd update again when something happened...

2010-05-09T20:19:00.000-04:00

...well something did happen. I was passing by when I wanted to check out a new fish store. I was very impressed with everything they had and the way they treated their fish, but most importantly they had something I've been looking for for a very long time...

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/yellowclowngoby01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/yellowclowngoby02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/yellowclowngoby03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/yellowclowngoby04.jpg

He doesn't have a name yet, but I've been looking for a yellow clown goby for quite some time, and not only did I finally find one, but he's in very good shape also. I also went to the other fish store where I was going originally and put in a request for the next two tangs, so hopefully they'll have something soon.

An update...

2010-05-08T18:50:00.000-04:00

I haven't updated in a while, because not much has happened in a while. Things are going well for both tanks.

I'm getting close to the point where I'm ready to get two tangs for the saltwater tank, either this weekend or next weekend I'll work on getting the fish store to get them for me, but I don't know how long that will take. I'm not holding my breath, but hopefully it will be soon. Also, during that time, I'll be looking into getting more of a clean-up crew since all that's left of the old one are the hermit crabs that killed all of the snails.

The freshwater tank is starting to settle in, and I'm getting better at feeding the plants right and keeping the algae under control. The Ludwigia is doing very well, there are now three of them and I just started with one. Also, one of the anubias was growing so much I had to cut it in half today, so there will be more of that now. Here are some pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank09.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank10.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank11.jpg

More updates when things happen...

....and some more pictures!

2010-04-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

Not all that much new this weekend, but I do have some more pictures. They're all of the freshwater tank, so here's my saltwater update: everybody is doing fine.

First, I've been playing around with the macro option on my camera, and I've gotten a couple of new pictures, including one of a red cherry shrimp, which I wasn't able to get earlier, and also a cute picture of a big snail and a little snail together.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank07.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank08.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/herbert06.jpg

Also, the Ludwigia was growing so much that I had to clip it, so there are now two Ludwigia plants (I may have said that last weekend). I took two pictures a day apart, and you can really see the growth on each one of the plants. Here's the first one:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/plants04.jpg

Here's the picture a day later

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/plants05.jpg

Pictures!!

2010-04-11T18:48:00.001-04:00

I have some more pictures of the saltwater fish, eating their vegetables:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish17.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish18.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish19.jpg

Now, I have some updated pictures of the freshwater tank. The Ludwigia was doing so well I had to clip it, so now there are two Ludwigias. I moved a couple of things around also.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank05.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank06.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/torpedo03.jpg

One other thing. I did some work on the plumbing underneath the tank. It's no huge deal, but I'm really excited about it. The benefits of it is that now the sump can be almost completely full of water, and that water level will stay constant. It also doesn't look ugly anymore. Here's a link to a video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzXLy3FLnYs

That's all for now. I'll probably update again next weekend with pictures.

Initial stocking is done!

2010-04-02T19:55:00.003-04:00

UPDATE - April 3: I forgot Manny! I'm a horrible dad! Anyways, here's a link to a picture of him.

Mandarin Goby (Dragonfish): Manny
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/mandarin01.jpg

167 days after this whole thing started, initial stocking is finally complete! Everybody is finally in the tank, and the tank is almost completely stocked. I still want to get one or two more tangs, and maybe some more clean-up crew, but other than that, it's done! Here are some pictures (these four are kind of large):

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/salttank01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/salttank02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/salttank03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/salttank04.jpg

Also, here are some more pictures of the saltwater fish:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/butch02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish16.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/midgee01.jpg

It's also time to reveal the names of each of the fish:

Cave Goby: Dusty
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/dusty01.jpg

Two-Spot Goby: Jetson
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/twospotgoby03.jpg

Firefish Goby: Flash
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/firefishgoby01.jpg

Green Clown Goby: Midgee
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/clowngoby02.jpg

Bi-Color Blenny: Dantrell
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/blenny02.jpg

Bangai Cardinals: Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Sue
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals01.jpg

Yellow Tang: Filet
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/yellowtang01.jpg

Black Neon Damsel: Ruckus
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/ruckus02.jpg

Lemon Damsel: Lemmy
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/lemmy02.jpg

Blue Streak Damsel: Magnum
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/magnum03.jpg

Yellow Damsel: Butch
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/butch02.jpg

Sergeant Major Damsel: Sarge
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/sarge02.jpg

...and if that wasn't enough, the new plants in the freshwater tank are doing very well. Here's a full-tank shot and some close-ups of the plants. Everything except the micro swords are doing very well and have new growth, and I adjusted the way the swords were planted so hopefully they'll do better now. These four pictures are also kind of large.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/plants01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/plants02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/plants03.jpg

That's all for now. Enjoy the pictures!

Some good updates

2010-03-27T21:15:00.001-04:00

I've spent many hours between yesterday and today working with the fish tanks, and there's quite a bit to show for it. First, the saltwater tanks:

The yellow tang is finally in the display tank! It's been seven weeks in quarantine getting over the ich, but he's finally in there, and after almost a day, he's finally relaxed a bit. It won't be long before the tank is completely stocked! Sarge and Butch are rooming together in the 20G quarantine, which was completely cleaned. Both of them are happy with the extra space, especially Sarge. Here are some pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/yellowtang01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/mandarin02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/mandarin03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/twospotgoby04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/blenny03.jpg

They all have names, and the names will be revealed when the tank is fully stocked. If everything goes well, that will be next weekend.

Now for an update on the freshwater tank. I've had to do a lot of adjusting with quite a few of the plants, but I think it's finally going to settle down now, and it looks good enough that I'm not embarrassed to take pictures of it. Here are a few:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/fresh03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/fresh04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/fresh05.jpg

The plants are as follows:

Back left and front right - Dwarf Onion
Back right and front left - Anubias Barteri
Attached to the driftwood - Java Fern (this one is the only one that isn't new)

Middle, on the right (with the red leaves) - Ludwigia peruensis
Middle, on the left - Tall Sags
Front, growing like grass - Micro Swords

I also got nine Red Cherry Shrimp, but those guys are really tiny and they like to hide a lot. I haven't gotten a good picture of one and I don't know if I ever will. Hopefully the plants will do well wince I have good lighting and I'm dosing the tank with fertilizers.

One more thing, I'm starting to reduce the size of a lot of the pictures I post by cropping them, which means that except for full-tank shots and stuff like that, my pictures won't take so long to load. That's all I got now, next update will be next weekend at the latest.

New plants!

2010-03-25T07:36:00.000-04:00

First, I have several more pictures of the saltwater tank, just because.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals07.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals08.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/crab01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/dantrell01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/dusty03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/flash01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/flash02.jpg

Next, I got a shipment of a whole bunch of plants and some Red Cherry Shrimp. There were 9 shrimp in total, and I haven't gotten a decent picture of one yet. The tank is still kind of cloudy from planting everything and I don't have everything identified yet, but here's a full tank shot, and by this weekend I should have more pictures of everything.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/fresh02.jpg

Almost there!

2010-03-24T07:29:00.000-04:00

Last weekend marked the end of the yellow tang's hyposalinity treatment. I'll keep him in the quarantine at least until this weekend to make sure he is doing OK, but everything is set up at the moment so that all that's left is to acclimate him to the display tank and put him in. We'll see how well he adjusts there and once he's comfortable there, Butch and Sarge will join him. There will have to be a little break but after a couple of weeks I'll start looking into other tangs.

Yesterday I turned on the lights for the first time in a really long time to get some hair algae growing. I'm not so worried about an infestation this time because all of the hermit crabs and the tang will graze on it. What it does mean, though, is that I'm able to get better pictures of the display tank fish, so enjoy a few pictures of Magnum and the cardinals.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/magnum03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/magnum04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals05.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals06.jpg

In other news, either today or tomorrow the freshwater plants I ordered should finally be getting here, so later this week, or this weekend at the very latest, there will be another update with lots more pictures.

I can't think of a good subject for this post

2010-03-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've updated, so here's what's happened since then.

The yellow tang has been doing very well. I learned that if I feed him less brine shrimp, that he will eat his vegetables. He's halfway through the hyposalinity treatment, so in two weeks I'll bring the salinity back up to normal, then after that it will be a couple of weeks before he goes in the main tank.

Butch was getting a little mean in his quarantine tank, and the other guys (Lemmy, Magnum, and Ruckus) are a lot smaller than the tang, so it made sense to add those guys to the display tank. They are very happy in there, and Ruckus has even started to turn purple instead of his usual black color. We used to think he got that way when he was stressed, but he's clearly not stressed. Here's a picture:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/ruckus02.jpg

Dusty got really agitated, and he sort of buried the hole where Flash liked to hang out. I saw him once after that but I haven't seen him in a couple of days, so I hope he's OK.

I got a new light for the freshwater tank. It will hopefully allow me to keep some more plants and will help with the java fern that's still in there. I'm going to order some more plants this weekend, and hopefully the combination of more plants to compete with the algae and actually getting the right nutrients in there for the plants will make for less algae, and that tank should end up being really awesome. I also managed to get a couple of pictures of the freshwater guys while experimenting with the new camera.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/ctanley02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/herbert04.jpg

So, there should be another update soon about the plants in the freshwater tank. That update will probably be next weekend at the latest.

Tang update, and freshwater tank update

2010-02-21T20:22:00.000-05:00

After spending the week looking for another suitable tang to go along with the yellow tang, nothing turned up. I didn't want to wait any longer starting preventative hyposalinity treatment on the yellow tang, so I think at this point, I'm finally ready to bring the initial stocking to a close. The yellow tang will finish his hypo treatment, and at that point, everybody except Sarge will go into the main. Within a week, Sarge will go in, and I'll deal with any stocking issues then.

Of course there will be more fish I want to get, but I don't want to prolong this process any more than I already have for a convenience issue. The benefits of adding the damsels last aren't worth the risk to all of the fish in quarantine right now. I'm pretty sure I want another tang, though I'm not sure what kind. Maybe certain types of butterfly fish or cardinals would also work. Once the tank is stocked and a new quarantine filter is ready to go, I can start looking locally for additional fish.

Anyways, things are going pretty well, and I want to focus on keeping them that way. The yellow tang has become sort of a picky eater, he eats the brine shrimp but he doesn't eat much algae anymore, so I'm going to try and get him to eat a more balanced diet with lots of vegetables. If Sarge can eat them, he can too.

Speaking of Sarge and his vegetables, sometimes he gets a little excited, and he's kind of a messy eater...

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/messyeater.jpg

The freshwater tank finally looks good enough that I'm not embarrassed to take a picture of it! I recently did some cleaning, and everybody (plant and animal) in the tank seems happy, especially Herbert. I'm probably going to order some more shrimp and some more plants and hopefully they'll do well with the proper food.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/freshtank.jpg

A quick update...

2010-02-12T07:35:00.001-05:00

Some good news and some bad news. The good news, is that I've finally figured out how to make Blogger send E-mail notifications to people when I update the blog, so hopefully that will work this time. The bad news is that the powder blue tang got sick and died Monday night, it happened so quickly that I didn't even have time to really get hyposalinity treatment started. This weekend we'll probably get another tang and start with a whole bunch of preventative measures, so if that happens, there will be pictures this weekend.

It was bound to happen...

2010-02-08T10:31:00.001-05:00

Well, I was warned to be cautious with the tangs, and last night I'm glad I was. The powder blue tang appears to be sick. I've separated the two tangs in their quarantine by putting an eggcrate barrier in between them, hopefully this will keep the yellow tang from picking on the powder blue too much, and it will make it easier for the powder blue to eat. They're both still eating, but it's pretty clear by now that the powder blue isn't doing too well. Here are some recent pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue03.jpg

...and some more from last night, when it was a little worse.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/powderblue05.jpg

I've asked around online and I'm going to start hyposalinity treatment tonight, along with some de-worming medication (even if that's just preventative). Once the powder blue is better, it will probably be at least a month before they get to go into the main tank at this point. I'm contemplating putting some of the smaller damsels into the main tank before this happens, but Sarge is finally starting to settle in to his new home and I would hate to take him from there if he didn't want to leave... I'll post updates as they happen.

On a lighter note, I saw something kind of cool in the display tank -- I thought one of the hermit crabs was going to change shells, but he eventually decided against it. Here's a picture of that:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish11.jpg

Also, the freshwater tank is starting to recover from the algae attack. Dosing the tank with nitrates seems to be helping, and I trimmed down the parts of the java fern that were covered in algae. It's not picture-worthy yet, but I put a piece of cucumber in the tank for Herbert, and even though Herbert didn't appear interested, guess who did?

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish12.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish13.jpg

Ctanley just wouldn't leave that thing alone... Also, one of the black neon tetras has taken to sticking his tail into the bubbles coming out of the pink coral. He's starting to get one of the other black neons to do it as well. I got a couple of pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish14.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish15.jpg

Tang update

2010-01-30T16:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a little over a week and the tangs are doing very well. Here are some more pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish07.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish08.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish09.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish10.jpg

They're both eating very well, and there hasn't been too much aggression, but it is there. We haven't seen one of them emerge as the dominant one, though my guess on the situation is that the powder blue tang is in charge and that the yellow doesn't like it. We have names for them, but they depend on which one ends up being boss. Once that happens, I'll reveal the names of all of the fish.

An update...

2010-01-23T14:42:00.000-05:00

First, the freshwater tank: things aren't going so well here. The fish are OK but the plants aren't doing so hot and algae is starting to take over. I've started dosing the tank with some extra nutrients, seeing as how the nitrate level was at zero, which is bad for plants. I'll update on how that's going as things happen, hopefully it won't get any worse.

The puffer we got last week didn't last too long. He never looked all that great and I wasn't surprised about it. Maybe some day we'll keep a puffer alive for a while, but it's kind of difficult to find good ones.

Now for the good stuff: last night we got two tangs. They need to be quarantined before they go into the main tank, so they're occupying the 20G quarantine that the damsels had and the damsels got split up into two 10G tanks. Sarge has his own tank and everybody else is in the tank that had the puffer in it, I just switched out the filter and the water. I have pictures of them in their new setups: Sarge looks thrilled.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish02.jpg

Now for the new guys: we ended up with a yellow tang and a powder blue tang. Both looked really good and have been doing very well so far. They're both eating and they seem to be getting along. Here are some pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish05.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/somefish06.jpg

Once they've made friends and are completely healthy, they'll go into the display tank, and around that time, the damsels will go in as well. That should happen in roughly 3 weeks if everything goes OK.

Update and a couple more pictures

2010-01-16T18:45:00.000-05:00

First, an update on the saltwater tank: the hermit crabs have successfully killed pretty much all of the snails, which is wonderful. All of the fish are doing very well, though. Dusty is sort of aggressive, so I can't wait until he meets Sarge. The firefish goby has a name: Flash. Next weekend, I plan to get a couple of tangs to add to the tank, which will be really exciting. I know I want a yellow tang, and from looking around, I think I'm between a powder blue tang and a really nice looking powder brown tang I saw today at the fish store. Unless something else comes along, it will probably be the yellow and one of the powders.

Next, we're trying to branch out with the veggies we give Herbert. Here's a picture of him with some lettuce, and we'll see how much he goes for the cauliflower leaves I just put in there.

Finally, after several months of searching, we managed to find a Figure-8 Puffer. It was at a place that wasn't so good, but that's the only place we could find it. Hopefully he pulls through, but he was eating there before we got him, so things are looking OK. here's a picture.

A couple of new pictures

2009-12-29T19:23:00.000-05:00

Just a couple more pictures. If a few more come up I might just add them to this post.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/peppermintshrimp01.jpg

The two-spot goby has decided that under this rock is his home now.
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/twospotgoby03.jpg

Cardinals

2009-12-28T21:54:00.000-05:00

Today we went to the fish store and came back with a few much anticipated fish. We got four Bangai Cardinals and another green clown goby. The goby is still hiding in the crevices between the rocks; hopefully he will come out at some point again. The cardinals are schooling and they look like they're playing nice, of course there's nobody in the tank to really bother them. Here are some pictures.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/cardinals02.jpg

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/clowngoby01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/good/clowngoby02.jpg

Now it's time to start looking at tangs. There are several types of tangs out there but we need to find two or three that are compatible, that we like, and that we can actually find. That process should take until the cardinals are happy with their new home, then once the tangs are here, Sarge will finally be able to get rid of the cramped quarters he's been staying in for so long. I'll post pictures of tangs we're considering as they come up.

New camera!!

2009-12-26T21:32:00.000-05:00

Update

2009-12-15T07:41:00.001-05:00

So I haven't updated in a while, here's what's happened and what the plans are:

I haven't seen the green clown goby since we put him in the tank, I'm not keeping any hope that he's still alive, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was.

Last night we moved the blenny into the main tank. He was eating well and everything in the quarantine, and I think the white spots we would see sometimes were due to stress. He found a hole to crawl into pretty quickly, and we got a couple of (not so great) pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/bicolorblenny02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/bicolorblenny03.jpg

We also got a video, which should be on youtube soon. The cave goby has dug quite a hole in the front corner of the tank that he's grown attached to, and the blenny was a little too close to it, so the goby has been shooting sand at the blenny all night, and this morning there was a huge pile where the blenny was. We'll see how long it takes for that to work itself out...

With these exceptions, everybody else has been doing very well in the display tank. We got a firefish goby who is very shy, but will come out to eat and when there is nobody else around. Here's a picture:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/firefishgoby.jpg

The quarantine tank is empty right now, so this weekend I want to get some more fish. The cardinals are next, but I think they will go straight into the display tank. I'm still looking for one more blenny if one comes up, but I think that will wait until the sand war is over, and even then, things may not look so good for another blenny. 150 gallons is a lot of space but they seem like they would rather fight right now.

In other news, we managed to find some figure-8 puffers at a store about an hour away, so I'd kind of like to get something set up for them soon while I can still find them.

We lost the last paraguay tetra about a week ago in the freshwater tank. He was pretty old and he was the last one left, so I'm not concerned about the rest of the guys, but it was still pretty sad.

More Gobies!

2009-12-06T15:45:00.000-05:00

We went to the fish store last night to pick up some more gobies, and we came back with three new gobies and a blenny. Here are some pictures:

Cave Goby:
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cavegoby01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cavegoby02.jpg

Two-Spot Goby:
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/twospotgoby01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/twospotgoby02.jpg

We realized after we got home that these guys camouflage so well with the rock in the tank, making it really hard to take good pictures of them. I think a new camera for Christmas might be a little ambitious, but hopefully I'll have one shortly after...

Green Clown Goby:
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/greenclowngoby01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/greenclowngoby02.jpg

This guy is good at hiding; we haven't seen him since shortly after we put him in the tank.

Another picture of the Mandarin Goby, who is becoming a little less shy:
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin08.jpg

Bi-Color Blenny:
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/bicolorblenny01.jpg

I've never had this kind of trouble taking pictures of stuff in the quarantine. He seems to be doing OK though, he ate last night and seems pretty active.

The next fish for quarantine will be one or two blennies. We're looking at some type of forktail blenny or maybe a midas blenny. Also, next chance we get, we'll probably get a firefish goby. After all of those guys are in the tank, next up will be the Bangai cardinals. I'll keep posting as things happen or as I can get some more pictures of the fish.

Update on Mandarin Goby

2009-11-29T19:03:00.000-05:00

Well, after a day or so in the quarantine, the Mandarin was acting a lot better, probably because the temperature finally got up to 79 degrees. I was told he would eat frozen brine shrimp, but he didn't seem interested in anything that we gave him, so I did a little bit of reading and I read that he mostly eats microscopic stuff that's in the live sand and live rock in the tank. With starvation outweighing the benefits of keeping him in the quarantine, we decided to put him in the display tank. He seems like he's doing a lot better now, and he spends pretty much all day grazing over the rock in the huge tank he has all to himself. We'll hopefully be getting some more gobies on Tuesday, and I think we'll get the two-spot goby then as well, since it doesn't look like we'll be able to quarantine any of them effectively. Here are some pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin05.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin06.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin07.jpg

Hopefully he'll be happy in there. Since the gobies can't be quarantined, that means I'll be looking to find some blennies this week also. I'm not sure what kind we'll be getting, it depends on what's available, but I'll post pictures like before when the time comes.

Also, the clean-up crew has sort of spread out. The two largest turbo snails have made their home at the very top of the rocks -- I doubt they'll stay there when some of the more aggressive fish enter the tank, but it's kind of interesting to watch them as some of the other snails crawl up there and then crawl back down. Here's a picture:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc12.jpg

Hopefully I'll update again on Tuesday night...

First non-microscopic life in the display tank!

2009-11-27T21:38:00.000-05:00

Today was a pretty exciting day: today I got the clean-up crew for the display tank, and they were just put in. The clean-up crew right now consists of:

20 Turbo Snails
10 Red Algae Hermit Crabs
about 7-10 Nassarius Snails
about 10 of some other type of snail (I'll work on getting an ID, and probably edit this post)
3 Peppermint Shrimp

Here are some pictures. I'll also add these to the facebook album in case you would rather look at them there instead of clicking on all these links:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc05.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc06.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc07.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc08.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc09.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/cuc10.jpg

Also, we got a Mandarin Goby. We have our eyes on a couple of other gobies, but here are some pictures of the new addition:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/mandarin04.jpg

He seemed pretty stressed out, because he had a long time in the bag before he got into the quarantine, so we'll see if he makes it. Here are some pictures of a couple of other types of gobies we should be getting over the next couple of days:

Two-Spot Goby (it's available to buy but these guys are sensitive so I want to wait a little bit before we get this one)
Yellow Clown Goby (probably two or three of these, they're on order, and I may have to buy them online if worse comes to worse)
Diamond Watchman Goby (we'd probably only get one of these if the Two-Spot didn't work out. Flip was a Diamond Watchman Goby)

Hopefully things will go well for these new additions: I'll try to update as things happen and maybe get some more pictures.

An update...

2009-11-22T20:07:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated in a while, which is because not much went on this week, except for more overtime at work. I've updated the Excel sheet for measurements, so here's the link again:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/fishtank.xlsx

The nitrites spiked on one day, which makes me glad I'm waiting to add anything live until the tank has been stable for a while. By this weekend, it will be ready for the clean-up crew, and I'll be looking into quarantining any gobies or blennies I can get my hands on.

Also, we went to the fish store yesterday and picked up a couple of things for the freshwater tank. I added some sword plant to the corner of the tank, and Herbert seems to really like it. I also got two leopard danios and another gold zebra danios, for a total of 7 danios in the tank. Everything seems like it's doing pretty well in that tank. Here are some before and after pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/planted01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/planted02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/planted03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/planted04.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/planted05.jpg

Cycle update and spreadsheet

2009-11-12T21:21:00.000-05:00

Here are the measurements for tonight:

Thursday November 12
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

We can now start the clock for an ammonia and nitrite-free tank. In two weeks I'll add the clean-up crew, that will be on Thanksgiving. I made an Excel sheet for the cycle, and I'll continue to keep it updated just in case something goes crazy, but you can see a low-resolution version of part of the cycle...

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/fishtank.xlsx

I probably will only take measurements every other day after this weekend, maybe just three times a week, and if it's just a measurement update I'll just update the spreadsheet and not this FLog, but in the meantime I have two weeks to brainstorm exactly what types of fish will end up in the tank and which order that will go in. I've already started, and I'll probably post pictures of the types of fish I'm looking at.

Lots and lots of good bacteria

2009-11-11T21:42:00.000-05:00

Measurements from tonight's test:

Wednesday November 11
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

This is awesome! The nitrites are already coming down! It seems too good to be true, though. I'm taking it to mean that I should at least wait a couple of weeks and see if the parameters stay stable for a while before adding any livestock, and hopefully I won't find out that there's really a big problem here...

More cycle happiness

2009-11-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

I took some measurements last night, and I was actually kind of surprised:

Tuesday November 10
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.5 ppm

I add enough ammonia to put the concentration well above 2 ppm, and in less than 24 hours, there's already enough of the right bacteria to take that concentration down to zero -- a clean zero, like more zero than I ever got from the last tank. I know this part of the cycle is supposed to go by quickly using this method, but I didn't think it would be this quick. Now we only have to wait until the nitrites come down and we'll be ready to fly.

I started seeding a couple of small filters: one off of the display tank (in the refugium) and one off of the quarantine. When I need them, they'll be ready to quarantine the first fish, which will be gobies and blennies. The clean-up crew (snails, shrimps, copepods, etc.) will go directly into the tank.

Kicking the cycle in the butt

2009-11-10T07:26:00.000-05:00

Another update: I started dosing the tank with ammonia on Saturday, so last night was the third time I added ammonia. I add about 20 mL each time, but I'm not sure the concentration of the ammonia solution I use. Originally I put enough in to put the tank up to 4 ppm, which is a lot. Before adding ammonia last night the concentration was all the way down to 0.25 ppm. Nitrites are up to 0.5 ppm, so it looks like I've made some significant progress on the cycle. I've started brainstorming ideas for stocking the tank and exactly how I'll go about doing it, and hopefully I'll have a concrete plan by the end of the week. There are a lot of options...

Monday, November 9
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0.5 ppm

I'll be taking measurements every day. I may not post them every day, but updates should be more frequent and probably more boring for the next couple of weeks.

One other thing, I may have mentioned this a while back, but when I got some ghost shrimp for the freshwater tank, a fry accidentally made its way into the bag, and into the tank. I didn't realistically think it would make it, but it has grown to at least three times its original size and is starting to get more bold in exploring the tank, even towards the top. I know it's a guppy, and had thought it was a female for a while but it's starting to grow a nice tail so it might be male. I was finally able to get a decent picture of it, even though the picture isn't all that good:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/latrina.jpg

It's swimming right above the plant. It has a name if it's female: Latrina. I've always given female guppies ugly names, but if it turns out to be male, then I guess I have to rethink the name.

Float Switch and Cycle update

2009-11-08T11:48:00.001-05:00

I've just finished installing a float switch that will automatically turn off the pump if the water level in the refugium gets too low:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/floatswitch01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/floatswitch02.jpg

This makes the system even safer, meaning that the pump should never run dry, and I'm super-sure that the plumbing won't cause any floods or bad things to happen. Setting it up was actually very easy. I could only use one zip-tie to tie it on to the mount because I wanted it lower than the mount would let me, so I hot-glued it in place as well.

After three weeks of no ammonia reading, I decided to start dosing the tank with ammonia myself. It will be a little more difficult to cycle this way, but it should be quicker, so hopefully in three weeks I'll be ready to start adding livestock. I added ammonia until there was about 4 ppm in the tank, and I squeezed the filter from the quarantine into the display tank to help start the process. I should be monitoring the levels closely from here on out, so even if I don't update every day, there will at least be measurements for every day when I do update. I know that isn't much consolation, but hopefully there will be some more life in the tank soon.

Oh, and by the way, Sarge says hi:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/sargesayshi.jpg

Measurements and update

2009-11-05T07:38:00.000-05:00

Here's an update on the freshwater tank: the plants are starting some new growth, and the java fern looks very good as a result of the lighting change. Even the fish seem a little more active and happy about it. On the sad side I've lost at least two of the ghost shrimp. I'm not sure why, I did an ammonia test and it was zero, and it appears that there's no other damage.

As far as the quarantine tank goes, I think it's about done cycling. I took some measurements last night:
Nitrite: 0.05 ppm
Nitrate: 7.5 ppm
The nitrite keeps getting closer to zero, and the nitrates are under control as well. It's nice to know that something in the saltwater world is going right...

The main tank, on the other hand, is starting to confuse me. I took measurements last night and I found zero on everything -- still. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and I haven't seen anything resembling a higher ammonia level. The raw shrimp I put in there don't appear to be decomposing at all, and it's gotten to the point where I'm wondering if there's something I'm doing wrong. I'll have to ask about this in the forums. Speaking of the forums, I think I'm going to stop posting these messages there because nobody seems interested. Oh well, I'm over it.

The float switch setup arrived in the mail. I'll be installing it this weekend for sure, since I now have everything I need.

More measurements

2009-10-30T14:56:00.000-04:00

Hey, I've been working more overtime this week, so that's my excuse. On the other hand, not much has happened in the fish tank world. I have two sets of measurements:

Saturday, October 24:
Display Tank Ammonia: 0 ppm
Quarantine Tank Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
Quarantine Tank Nitrate: 10 ppm

Friday, October 30:
Display Tank Ammonia: 0 ppm
Quarantine Tank Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
Quarantine Tank Nitrate: 15 ppm

I still haven't seen a reading on the Ammonia, and it's been almost two weeks, so I may need to put some more shrimp in there to kickstart things.

I've ordered a switch that will act as a safety for the pump, it will automatically shut off the pump if the water level gets too low. Hopefully I can get that installed by next weekend and get some pictures. I'll also be looking into stocking the tank once I see that ammonia spike -- that will include some invertibrates and maybe some macroalgae for the refugium.

The plants in the freshwater tank have made some improvement, not enough to be seen on the camera, but I can tell there's some new growth. The fish actually seem more active too, even though they get kind of stressed out when the lights change. Hopefully I'll see some good long-term results from the lighting schedule. Time will tell though...

Measurements from Tuesday

2009-10-23T08:49:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't updated. I've been working a lot of overtime this week and haven't had much time for anything. Hopefully this weekend I'll catch up on life, and stop by the fish store for a few things. I'll probably update at that point too. Here's what I have:

First, I've decided to put a timer on the lights in the freshwater tank. I had been leaving them on all day and even though the advice I got from the fish store said that was OK, it turns out that it will be better for the plants, and also the nocturnal stuff in the tank to have 12 hours of darkness each day. It turns out I have a lot of nocturnal stuff in there too: the neon tetras, Herbert, and (sort of) the snails.

The quarantine has had a zero ammonia rating for a while, and on Tuesday, I measured:
Nitrite: 0.2 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
...which looks promising.

I measured the display tank also for ammonia:
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
...I don't expect to see a significant reading for a while but I'll keep measuring it anyways, and I'll be tracking it with the same spreadsheet I tried last time. After a couple of weeks I should be able to track the cycle pretty accurately, which is important since it's fishless.

First Post!

2009-10-18T12:04:00.003-04:00

This will be the first post in my new FLog format. I've decided to move the FLog to Blogger because editing it is easier here and I already have a Google account. I'll also be posting everything that goes here at aquariumadvice.com in order to get some questions answered quicker and because I'm sure they would like to see pictures and such. I'll update here whenever I feel like it, which should be at least every time I take measurements of any tank. Here's where all of my tanks stand so far:

20G Freshwater Planted Tank:
This tank is doing the best by far. I have an orange GloFish (Torpedo), 3 other zebra danios, a Paraguay tetra, 6 black neon tetras, 6 blue neon tetras, 8 ghost shrimp, an albino "bushy-nose" pleco (Herbert), at least two large (1") Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS) and possibly more that are still growing, and a fry that I accidentally got with the three latest ghost shrimp. I thought it would just be lunch for someone else in the tank, but it's starting to grow pretty large, large enough that I think it will survive. I think it's a female guppy, but it's kind of early to tell at this point. There is a piece of driftwood in the tank and I'm trying to get a java fern to root onto it. It's doing pretty well but it still needs some more time. There are also some anachris, ludwigia, and wisteria plants in the tank. The fact that all of these invertibrates and this fry are doing so well speaks of the stability of the tank -- it's been going almost two years now. Here's a picture of the setup:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/freshsetup01.jpg

Puffer Tank (10G):
The puffer tank is currently empty. I'm waiting on a figure-8 puffer to put in there, and I'm keeping the filter alive with some raw shrimp. I don't know how long it will be until I can get a hold of a figure-8 puffer, but hopefully it will be soon.

150G Saltwater Tank:
The last run of this tank didn't go so well. All of the fish suddenly started dying and I still don't know exactly why. I've spent the last month or so starting over, and last night I finally turned on the plumbing and put some raw shrimp into the tank to start a fishless cycle! The five damsels that made it from the last setup are in a 20G quarantine tank, which has almost finished cycling itself. They are doing very well. Here are some pictures:

Quarantine setup: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/quarantine.jpg
Magnum: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/05_bluestreak.jpg
Sarge: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/04_sarge.jpg
Butch: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/03_yellow_damsel.jpg
Ruckus: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/19_black_neon_damsel.jpg
Lemmy: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/15_Lemmy.jpg

The display tank now has 250 lbs of rock in it. The rock is completely dead, since I had to be sure to kill whatever it was that was causing the last problem, but once that rock becomes live, it will be the filtration for this new tank. The wet-dry system is still there, but I removed the bio-balls and replaced it with rock rubble and filled the sump/refugium with more rock (it wouldn't all fit in the display tank). The refugium is now a 20G high tank, which along with the old sump/filter system gives about 30G total volume, which is where I wanted it to begin with. Hopefully in 6 weeks I'll have a stable enough tank, and I can put the damsels back in there along with a bunch of new fish. I'm not exactly sure what kind of fish I want but I have a pretty good idea. More pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/newsetup01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/newsetup02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/newsetup03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/newrefugium.jpg

A picture of the first water put in the tank -- I'm using a Reverse Osmosis/De-Ionization (RO/DI) unit to purify the water, so it took a week to fill the tank up, but there is nothing but hydrogen and oxygen in this water, 0 ppm total dissolved solids, so I thought that was worth a picture.

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/flog/firstwater.jpg

That's all I got for now.