Complete Set

I called around today looking for stores that sold female Dwarf Gouramis, but no one carries them because they're "not as colorful" and don't sell well. All the research that I found pointed to Dwarf Gouramis becoming aggressive if you have multiple males with no females to court, so I changed up my plan a bit. I opted for an Angelfish to go along with the Dwarf Gourami for the "centerpiece" fish. Kim asked me if I told them that they had to stay in the center of the aquarium as I put them in the tank.

I can tell the Dwarf Gourami has a bit of an attitude already. He will go up to the Angelfish and stick out his bottom feelers as if he's touching it and saying - "Hey you - you lookin' at me?" He seems to leave all the other occupants alone, but here I caught him eyeing up a Ghost Shrimp.

So here's the tank fully stocked (although Kim keeps bugging me to get more African Dwarf Frogs). Elizabeth loves naming all the fish, and the new ones are Amy (the Angelfish) and Pretty Bucket (the Dwarf Gourami).

Corys

I keep testing the parameters in the tank and waiting for a ton of ammonia or nitrites to show up, but apparently I did a good job of cycling the tank because I don't see a speck of green in the ammonia test, and not a smidgen of purple in the nitrite test. I decided to go out and get the Corydoras that I wanted to put in the tank.

The pet store had these listed as the julii species, but after doing some research I found out they're more than likely the trilineatus species (commonly referred to as Leopard Corys). I liked their unique patterning of spots and stripes the best. They are really fun to watch as they go all over the tank. They tend to stick together and do all sorts of neat little "tricks". They'll rub their sides on the sand, go up for air, and even nose-dive into a stream of bubbles.

Only one more set of fish to go, and the tank will be complete. I'll be looking to put some Dwarf Gourami in there to complete the look of the tank. A couple of males will become the "centerpiece" fish (I am hoping they won't fight - I hear that they can, but I plan on putting enough females in there to help spread the aggression).

The Active Tank

Things are really starting to heat up in the tank. Lots of activity going on at any one moment. The Bristlenose Catfish has been out a lot lately, and the frogs are seeming to be back to their old selves with their shenanigans.

The Leopard Corys are really fun to watch. The first night they were in the tank, and the bubbles turned on, they kept trying to swim down the stream of bubbles. It was really funny.

I always try to find the Ghost Shrimp when I look in the tank. One is usually easy to spot. The other one can be difficult to see - he likes to hide out behind the pirate ship or in the plants.

The Haunted Aquarium

When we went to go get some fish for the first time, the tank with the Red Mickey Mouse Platy was a little less active and had less fish in it than the others. Alarm bells were going off in my head, but I chose to ignore them. I decided to only go with one from that tank, and when the clerk moved the rock that was in there to try and grab one, a dead fish floated up from underneath it. At that point, I should have stopped him but instead I let him continue to grab a fish from that tank and I took it home. It was dead the next day. Go with your gut. I did return it and picked up a Red Wag Moon Platy. I think it fits in well with the others. They really like to chase each other around the tank. I'm not sure if it's play, or something more sinister but they don't seem to be doing any damage to one another.

While I was there, I picked up two Ghost Shrimp. They were both really shy at first and hid out under my rock hoping there weren't any predators around. One of them got bold and decided to venture out and is now all over the tank. It's very cool to watch as they sift through the sand with all their tiny little arms and bring junk up to their mouths to see if there are any tasty morsels to chew on.

We also had a scare with the Bristlenose Catfish. Apparently he's pretty shy, or nocturnal. He was hiding out in the rock the whole day. He must have been in there pretty deep because even shining the flashlight in there we couldn't even see the slightest of fin. After we got the kids to bed and it started to get dark out, Kim wandered over to the tank and noticed him sucking away on the glass.

Sucker

I called around today to find a place that carrried Bristlenose Catfish. I intended to get it the same day as the Platy, but the store I bought the Platy from didn't have them. The Pet World in Fairport had some, so I took a ride up there after work. They had Albino, regular and long-finned. I liked the look of the long-finned the best so I bought one of those. He went to work right away after I acclimated him to the tank. I think he's Evan's favorite.

More pics of the fish

We ended up getting 2 Gold Mickey Mouse Platy, 1 Red Mickey Mouse Platy and 2 Sunburst Wag Moon Platy.

A shot of one of the Sunburst.

The frogs seemed to fit right in with the platy. Once I was able to catch them (I am notorious for letting them get away) they went in without a hitch. One of them even helped himself to one of the smaller snails in the tank (or possibly more).

We have fish!

Elizabeth and Evan had a lot of fun at the pet store looking at all the fish as they normally do. This time, we'd actually come home with some. They spent the whole time in the car discussing names for the fish. Elizabeth picked out Lovepeace and Finley, and Evan's are Optimus Prime and Gantor. That does leave one more unnamed fish that Mommy or Daddy get to name, but we never actually got to that point of picking one.

After I got home from work, I checked the levels one last time. I put in enough ammonia yesterday to bring the levels up to 4.0 PPM, and took note that the nitrites were down to 0.25 PPM. This morning the levels were still pretty high, but by the time I got home from work they were all down again to what they were the day before. I did a 95% water change and headed to the pet store to pick up the first set of fish - 5 Platy.

I transferred the plant that was in the Frog tank over to the 46 gallon tank, and dropped Speedy the snail in there too.

The platy seemed to fit right in to their new surroundings. I took some time to acclimate them into the new tank by floating them for a bit and gradually adding my tank water into the bag that they came home in. Once they were in there for about a half-hour or so and had most of my tank water in there, Kim had better luck than I did netting them and releasing them into the tank.

Getting close

This morning I tested the nitrites again, fully expecting deep, deep purple that I've been used to seeing for the past couple of weeks and surprise, surprise it was actually a light purple!  We're finally getting somewhere.  Hopefully it will drop to 0 soon and then as soon as the ammonia drops to 0 I'll be able to do a water change and get the frogs and some new fish in there.  Watching the snails has become somewhat fascinating, but I'd really like to see some fish in there.  It's really strange to see snails just let go and float in "mid-air" to try to attach themselves to something new.  It almost looks like they're riding on an invisible tightrope or something.

Still Waiting

Well it's been a bit since I last blogged, and really not much has changed. I keep testing daily, add ammonia when needed and hope to see nitrites falling. I am putting ammonia in daily, there's enough bacteria to process 4.0 PPM in a 24 hour period - which is really good. The only problem I'm having now is the nitrite levels have been off the scale now for a while and haven't budged. Once those come down, I think I'll be in a good position to put some fish in there. We did have the anubias nana flower, so I know the plants are really liking the conditions in there.

New Plants

The new plants came in on Friday, and I put them in. It took a whlie for everything to settle, the Hornwart (top left) is messy but will provide plenty of hiding for the Gouramis I plan on putting in there. The ammonia levels keep dropping, and I keep putting more in to keep the levels up to as close to 4.0 as possible. The Nitrites are off the charts and I'm seeing Nitrates too. Now, I'm just waiting for the Nitrites to drop down and I'll be ready to put the fish in there. Should be soon!

The drity dirty tank

Here's the latest picture of the state of the tank. Today, the nitrites are up to 0.5 PPM. No nitrates yet, and the ammonia is holding steady between 2.0 and 4.0 PPM. In this picture you can see one of the snails that hitched a ride on the plant I got last week. I counted 7 at one point, but I'm sure there's more. There are a few big ones now. They grow pretty fast. When I first put the plant in there, they were merely specks. They seem to do a good job at cleaning up the algae that's growing in there, so I think I'll keep them.

We have nitrites!!

Well the tank is looking dirtier and dirtier.  I suspected things may be happening, and last night I finally have some purple showing up on the nitrites test.  I'll post some pictures of some of the brownish looking sand later.  Still no nitrates, and the ammonia level is still the same.  It will probably take a bit before the ammonia will go down, and then a bit longer still for some nitrates to show up and the nitrite levels to drop.  Here's hoping it will be soon though.  I was planning on pulling the plug and doing a water change and putting the frogs in tomorrow, but I think I'll just stick with the original plan now.

And waiting...

Still no nitrites, and the ammonia level seems to be holding steady.  I am noticing the sand getting a bit darker in areas.  I'm hoping that's a sign of bacteria moving in.  I moved the rock that was in the frog tank into the new aquarium temporarily to try and spawn new life.

Still waiting

Well last night I tested the levels again - ammonia went down, no nitrites or nitrates.  When the ammonia level goes down to almost zero I'll put another dose in to bring it back up to 4.0.  I did clean out the frog bowl and dumped all the gook into the filter of the new aquarium.  I waited an hour and tested again - same as before some ammonia, no nitrites or nitrates.  Hopefully we'll get some bacteria in there soon.

The frogs

Here are Kim's/Elizabeth's african dwarf frogs that will eventually end up in the supersized home. Elizabeth affectionately refers to them as "Hops" and "Jumps". Only she can tell the difference. Kim would like a whole aquarium full of the dwarf frogs. They are very active and facinating to watch. There's also one more occupant in the little aquaruim that will end up in the new home - "Speedy" the snail.

D'oh

Well I'm a bonehead. After doing some more reading today, I discovered that I put way too much ammonia in the initial round of seeding. A tank my size actually only gets 2 teaspoons of ammonia - not 2 tablespoons. I took out about 75% of the water and replaced it with fresh dechlorinated water and ran the filter for an hour. It went down to 1.0 PPM. I just added 1 teaspoon full of ammonia to try and get it back up to 4.0 PPM. We'll see how it goes. I also tested the 1 gallon African Dwarf frog aquarium for nitrites and nitrates. It had 0 nitrites and 20 PPM nitrates. I think I'll be stealing some of water by vacuuming up all the good stuff at the bottom of that tank and putting it in the new one to try and jump start the cycling on the new aquarium.

The waiting game

So now it's just a waiting game. I filled the tank on Saturday. I put 2 tablespoons of pure ammonia in and I'm checking the readings every day to see if there's any bacteria. So far, same readings every day - 4+ ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. I've got the temperature up as high as it will go, and it's reading 82 degrees F. I'm hoping some bacteria will come with the plant I bought today. Everyone's anxiuos to get some fish in there!

Substrate decisions

As I read about all the various options one has on deciding what to put in the bottom of the tank, I really liked the idea of using sand. I knew I wanted to keep Corys (or Corydora Catfish who like to sift through the substrate looking for food), and I would have preferred to use a darker substrate but after buying all the initial supplies things started to add up quickly. I heard good things about pool sand filter, so I went with that. I think it turned out rather nice looking. I do intend to keep live plants, and sand doen't fair so well with most plants but I'll try to stick with ones that will do ok in sand. You can see here that I bought my first plant today, an Argentina Sword Plant.

Filled and waiting

Here's the aquarium all set up and rearing to go. Hold on a minute!! Aren't aquariums supposed to house fish you ask? Well yes, but after reading up on starting your aquarium, I came across this notion of "Aquarium Cycling". Its a process of building up the necessary bacteria in the water that will break-down all the nasty stuff the fish and plants leave inside the aquarium as they go about their day-to-day actvities. There are a few ways to go about growing this bacteria, but the one that appealed to me the most is something they refer to as "fishless cycling". Cycling the new aquarium without fish in it has its advantages and disadvantages, but I weighed the options and decided on this way.

One of the best places I found on the web that has all kinds of information about keeping fish as pets is the Aquatic Community .

Aquarium Details:
Marineland 46 gallon bowed-front glass aquarium
Marineland Bio-wheel power filter Emporer 280
Standard hood with pre-installed light
Topfin 300 Watt heater
Tetra Whisper Air Pump with 2 valves and airstones

Full view

Here's the full view of the aquarium so you can get a sense of the size of it. We initially wanted to put it right here in the eat-in kitchen area (which is where we spend a lot of time), but there was no outlet there and Kim had been hankering to move the computer into the play-room. I actually did make a trip to the local mega -harware store and purchased the supplies to drop a new outlet here, but the computer move ended up winning out after we did some manual moving to visualize.

This is it

Here's what I ended up with after my research. A 46 gallon, bowed-front aquarium complete with Pirate ship.

Welcome Post

Thought I'd give this blogging thing a shot they have on the Internets, and what better subject to write about than my new "obsession" (as the wife puts it): the new aquarium. I've always been drawn to the aquariums at visits to the pet store, and we've always talked about getting one. Well I finally broke down and took the plunge.

As with anything I get obsessed with, I can never just buy something at random. I've spent the past few weeks doing extensive research on all the various details with setting up a freshwater starter aquarium. Who knew there was so much to learn about this hobby? I assumed I'd walk into the pet store one day, plop down some cash and walk away with a fair-sized aquarium - fully stocked with fish, plants and other aquatic life forms.

Then I started to read about cycling, aggression, filters and all kinds of different things. Well I think I got a handle on it enough to start my own project, and I'll be writing about my new found hobby as I learn more and more.