Delapool

Random thoughts - along with not trusting hoses to stay in tank when filling, watching the angelfish squabble when tank is filling near top can be crossed off bucket list...

Hmmm, the GSA is still hanging around and also getting green algae on glass from the vertical blinds letting in light onto one corner of tank. Bulbs are over 8 months old now but can’t see the point of replacing even if spectrum shift does happen as I know the new bulbs will be stronger and trigger algae. Thinking of adding some floating plants which would help the betta out as well. Maybe in a cutout lid plastic circle so they don’t get banged around by water flow.

The new betta flared at the angelfish last night and chased off his guppy rival. The first fish was like ‘dude, I’m sleeping’ and the second fish had to slow down to draw it out. All this morning, the betta (tank sorted!!), has been proudly fast asleep (half his luck!!), near the filter pipes. Will check this arvo but all looking settled. Feels weird to have bought fish and not any plants though at auction.

Don’t think I’d like it long term but for something different.. Also it’s birthday month - a nice card from my Aunty.

Alrighty - was in Bunnings and got some builders black film (plastic sheet) to try as will be renting over xmass still. I’ll spread it out and see if I can cut it to size to put on as backing. There was some nice looking black floor matting which was quite thin but wasn’t sure how it would look under lights.

New timers are setup and working. Electric ones instead of manual so fingers crossed no issues as made by same company. Lowered the bubble count on one CO2 reactor which was getting too much for it to handle. Looks better this morning. GSA still hanging around. Cleaned glass again.

Handy info! [emoji106]

Very nice!

Finally got some readings - 1ppm phos and 40ppm nitrate. Not too far off. Yet another timer seems to be playing up so off to hardware shop to buy a different brand this time. Yet to get around to trying a different backing.

200 neons!

Does anyone know of a black / dark blue plastic film that is pretty cheap to go on back of tank? Looking at 4ft x 2.5ft area and can’t slide tank out. I figure I could be renting past xmass and might as well replace old background but don’t want to get a good one that will just get ripped shifting. Pot plants are doing well. Aunties are not quite convinced that’s what they meant when they said to add indoor plants but technically...

If he would leave floating plants alone could be worth a try. Threads I’ve seen on filters to remove nitrates have generally been specifically setup as slower flow I think.

Parcel arrived! Always exciting in case they packed a fish tank by accident. I think the number of the tunze refers to how many times it will get pulled apart [emoji4]

I’ve seen overseas threads do this with homemade ‘canister’ filters and from memory success. Cant remember how much nitrates drop. This would be more US or UK farms but just in case, I assume no nitrates in tap water used for tank water changes??

Sorry for long delay! Just leaving substrate as is for moment as hoping to shift to a better place before xmass.