148.6L (39.2 gallon) aquarium journal

[elephantnose3334]

You are better off doing a big water change and then adding the fertiliser. If you add fertiliser today and do a water change tomorrow, you get rid of a lot of the fertiliser you put in today. So add the fertiliser after you have done the water change.

I used to do water changes and when I had finished and packed up the hoses, I went around and fertilised each tank.

Good thinking. I might do that in the future, but I do have a schedule for fertilisation (Mon, Wed, Sat), but I might change Saturday into a Sunday.

 

[Colin_T]

You can put the fertiliser in straight after you do the water change. That way you won't have to change your fertilising routine. Just do the water change and add the fertiliser straight after that.

 

[elephantnose3334]

You can put the fertiliser in straight after you do the water change. That way you won't have to change your fertilising routine. Just do the water change and add the fertiliser straight after that.

Did that during the water change earlier today. Photo of the tank after the water change coming soon.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Here is the tank after yesterday's water change. The fish are behaving normally, but it was somewhat stressful dealing with a water change. I also had to clean the filter media before turning on the tank again:

 

[elephantnose3334]

Tried to trim a piece of Ambulia yesterday and cleared the back a bit, full of empty pots where some plants used to be.

 

[Colin_T]

Are you going to plant the piece of Ambulia you trimmed?
You could put it in one of the empty pots or just plant it in the sand. Or leave it floating on the surface.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Are you going to plant the piece of Ambulia you trimmed?
You could put it in one of the empty pots or just plant it in the sand. Or leave it floating on the surface.

I will put it in an empty pot when the roots come. And did I trim it properly?

 

[Colin_T]

You should plant the cutting straight away so it can develop roots in the sand. If you let it grow roots and then plant it, the roots can get damaged when you plant it.

There's no right or wrong way to trim the plant. Normally you use a pr of scissors and cut the top part off. If the plant is really long you might cut several pieces off with each piece being about 8-12 inches long. If it isn't that long you might only take a single cutting about 8 inches.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Today's the 150th day of the tank since the setup. The silvertip tetras continue to behave normally and the tank remains stable, and I might test the water from a local Petstock store, and I never tested water before. They test it for free, and I'll bring in a container of the tank water to test it for pH among other things. Here is today's photo:

 

[elephantnose3334]

An old image of my setup is now apparently the first picture of 'silvertip tetra' on Google. Interesting...

 

[elephantnose3334]

An old image of my setup is now apparently the first picture of 'silvertip tetra' on Google. Interesting...

View attachment 365605

@Colin_T @MattW

 

[MattW]

Google will use images from other platforms like Pinterest, Reddit, Forums, etc. You hit the jackpot and got the front page!

 

[Colin_T]

They are probably the most recent pictures of silvertip tetras on the internet and due to the fact you regularly update this thread, the search engine will be seeing it more frequently and using it. Your famous

 

[elephantnose3334]

Today's photo of the tank. Might have to do a water change on Easter Sunday since it's two weeks already since the last one... The java fern at the left is dying since a few days ago, I might need to get new plants. Experimenting with plants would be a good idea, would'nt it?

 

[Colin_T]

Do a big water change and see how the Java Fern goes.

It can be helpful to try different plants and see which ones do best in your particular tank. Ambulia, which you already have is normally a good plant for beginners. Hygrophila polysperma, Hydrilla and narrow Vallis are generally pretty easy to grow. Water Sprite is also good, I can't remember if you already have that.

If you want to try an Amazon sword plant you can put them in a 1 or 2 liter plastic container like an icecream bucket, put an inch of gravel on the bottom, then a thin layer of garden fertiliser (actual fertiliser for the garden outside). Cover that with a 6mm (1/4 inch) layer of red clay, then fill the pot with gravel. Plant the sword plant into that and let it go. The clay stops the fertiliser leaching into the water and when the plant roots hit the clay and fertiliser, the plant goes nuts. You can do the same with Cryptocorynes, although they are a bit more sensitive to being moved.