Dear Diary...

eatyourpeas said:

It is like leaving the kids alone when going on a date!

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Utar said:

At my age I wished ... lol

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Hey! My parents leave us alone at home we they go on a date. Us kids aren’t that bad as you adults put on.

PheonixKingZ said:

Hey! My parents leave us alone at home we they go on a date. Us kids aren’t that bad as you adults put on.

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Exactly! You come back and everything is fine

An update. First, I came home to this and the sound of frogs!

Then the not so pretty part. My 5 gal. tank has a leak so I am now in the process of moving everything into a tote until I get the new tank. The good part is the new tank will be slightly bigger.


The other tanks are evolving nicely.

3 gal. and the Gatekeeper (Nicodemus):


6 gal. and HRM Miss Ethel:


6 gal. long home of Bugie (Pinocchio shrimp):


12.7 gal. home to the punk band, vocals courtesy of Ojitos (sparkling gourami):


5 gal. home to Morocco:


Everyone is well, I am well.

Wow, not sure I've seen all of your tanks until now, they are beautiful...sorry about the leaker, but it was time for an upgrade, anyway

Slaphppy7 said:

Wow, not sure I've seen all of your tanks until now, they are beautiful...sorry about the leaker, but it was time for an upgrade, anyway

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Thanks, they are lots of fun!

An upgrade, yes, that is how I look at it!

Miss Ethel just had two whole scuds and is happy!

Replacement tank arrived yesterday! I decided to go a little larger (still nano) and get a (UNS-45U) 9 gallon tank. I will start cycling today and make the lid for it. Also, I will not use Fluval Stratum on this one but going with sand instead. One mistake I made with the current tank (it was also my first) was having too thick a substrate (2"). I have found the thinner option to be easier to clean and it gives me more options in terms of livestock.

I went for the standard size instead of the shallow because I have become a fan of emersed plants, so this tank will not be filled to the top to allow for a forbidden land to exist. It has a nice footprint so perhaps a Vampire crab may be in the future. The lid I make will be taking this into consideration as I have read they are escape artists, and will use an internal filter that can provide the proper humidity by running the water through a waterfall (more like a water trickle, not Angel Falls).

Nasty rainy and windy day out, so perfect day for it!

New plants arrived today, so in quarantine they go as part of cycling the tank! Got some Bolbitis (Bolbitis heteroclita difformis), Süßwassertang (Lomariopsis sp.), Christmas moss (Vesicularia montagnei) and two free snails. I added a sacrificial snail to help with the cycling. He'll survive, I am sure

Congrats on the new plants...and free snails?
"Sacrificial snail"?

What kind of sorcery is this??

Slaphppy7 said:

What kind of sorcery is this??

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The Secret Society of Pest Control

Tank this morning looks fine even though some of the plants are recovering from sitting in their container for a couple of days since they arrived. However, the pH is currently 8.0! This is the first time using Quikrete sand and I am not sure if that is a factor. Given that it is going to be inhabited by shrimp and Kuhli loaches I better figure out how to lower it. Will be adding some Mopani wood soon and will panic if it is still that high after it is cycled.

The Quikrete shouldn't affect ph, the cycle will, though

Slaphppy7 said:

The Quikrete shouldn't affect ph, the cycle will, though

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I am suspecting that is the cause, which is why I am having a cup of birch bark tea and not panicking.

I do love the look of that sand, though!

I love the look of it too, and it's so inexpensive!.....clean as well, I don't even rinse, run filters on full on a new tank setup, replacing floss daily, clears up in no more than a few days

Birch bark tea sounds delicious...