Fishes! An illustrated history, part 6

It's been almost a year since fish history part 5. Lots has happened in the meantime.

2010 Feb 13

We have a sad-looking java fern on the far left, some riccia tied to rocks, a few stem plants of different varieties (there's fuzzy plant, leafy plant, clover plant, and Stem Plant), some crypts in the foreground, a sword plant in the far back, an anubias over towards the right, and a banana plant behind it. There's also an anubias nana in the back right (it's not doing very well), as well as some four-leaf clover and pygmy chain sword scattered around (the clover is doing pretty well, but the chain sword is being shaded by the crypts).

2010 Mar 15

The riccia has grown intensely and is coming loose. Java fern is making a comeback, the crypts continue to thicken, and Stem Plant is growing quite long. The other stem plants are not doing as well. The last of the broad-leafed purple not-actually-an-aquatic-plant in the left is disintegrating. Nana has put out some new leaves.

2010 Apr 13

One riccia bunch has separated for good; the other is making good progress in that direction. Banana plant has sent up a pad to the surface, joining Stem Plant in forming a canopy over the aquarium.

2010 Apr 29
The littlest cowfish died :(

2010 May 16

Banana plant has sent a second pad up to the surface. Both are on some heavy-duty stems, maybe 2 mm in diameter. The sword plant in the back has put out new leaves, but its older leaves are growing fuzzy with algae and starting to die off.

2010 May 31

Did a lot of pruning. I trimmed the stem plants to the aquarium height and took out the riccia. The extra plants are all in the second tank now, acting as a nitrogen sink. With the mess of Stem Plant out of the way, we can see the other stem plants aren't doing as well. Fuzzy plant hasn't grown at all in the last few months, the clover stem plant is down to a single stalk now, and the leafy stem plant is losing old leaves without putting out new ones.

2010 June 1
A shrimp died :(  Also, we try to discipline the belligerent two-stripe rasbora, but that fails.

2010 June 10
Two more fish deaths: loner rasbora and old oto.

2010 Aug 28

The pads that banana plant sent up to the surface have come detached and I removed them. Java fern is quite full now, and the crypts are doing very well. I've been keeping Stem Plant trimmed. The other stem plants are slowly dying...I don't know what to do about that.

2010 Sep. 19
The big move! Pride Rock (the rock you can see jutting out in the picture above) has fallen over and the terrain has generally become flatter.

2010 Nov 13

Not much has changed. Terrain continues to get flatter; I think the army of trumpet snails is at blame. The clover stem plant and the leafy stem plant are gone, leaving only Stem Plant and two stalks of fuzzy plant.

2011 Feb 21
Banana plant has floated away and the fuzzy plants were overcome with algae. But today we took the next step towards the fish tube, a contraption I first alluded to almost a year ago!

I used xyster.com's TimeLapse app (v4.1 for iPhone 4) to make these videos.

That first segment was 2 hours. This next one runs until the iPhone battery dies:

No captions above; I'm just adding more clean water and straightening the plants.

And that leaves us with this:

Ammonium is high (1 ppm), so I'm going to let it go for a few days before reintroducing the trumpet snails (they're hanging out in a bucket right now) and setting up the fish tube. It'll be interesting to see the progression of this tank!

2011 Feb 22
Ammonium down to 0.5 ppm now. I think that initial spike came from the soil; hopefully the 2" of sand will keep that from diffusing out too fast. The plants are also supposed to absorb ammonium preferentially over other forms of nitrogen.