Fishes! An illustrated history, part 3

03/05/2009 
More fishes! We got 6 harlequin rasboras...

...and 3 pygmy gouramis.

03/19/2009
The plants grew a lot! The grass spread all around the left side of the tank, we trimmed and re-planted fuzzy plant a few times, and the Java fern and crypt both got a lot denser. The red plant didn't grow as quickly, and the one-leaf clover got a little overtaken by algae. We also found riccia growing in our one-leaf clover.

04/19/2009 
Much has happened. The plants have gotten denser still. We switched to a single fluorescent tube for illumination, and now we no longer have a green spot problem. Most of the riccia has come loose and floated to a clump on the top. The grass does not seem to be spreading as quickly now, and some of it is turning transparent (maybe lack of light?). Nana has some algae scars on its oldest leaves, but has put out many new leaves. Java fern continues to grow steadily and is becoming less cabbage-like. One-leaf clover is still hanging in there (we removed the algae-covered leaves, so there is not much left)...

...our fuzzy plants continue to grow prolifically (though we saw some of the denser groves in the back die off...don't know if they were planted too densely or if there wasn't enough light or what)...

...the red plants are putting out pretty new shoots, though many of the older leaves seem to be succumbing to algae...

...the rasboras are being playful and schooling...

...the gouramis have become a bit territorial, we think, as we see them chasing each other and getting into fights occasionally. Broken-fin gourami is now noticably fatter and darker than the other two, and shy gourami has become very skinny and pale. We don't know how to make them be nicer to each other :( ...

...and we found a new snail! I don't have a photo of it yet, but it is a "pond snail." It's very fast-moving and quite acrobatic. Sometimes he floats upside-down, moving along the surface of the water. I have also seen him lose his footing and get pushed about in the current until he can grab ahold of something. Anyways, it appears that he has laid eggs: as far as we can tell, he's the only species in our tank that would produce this sort of egg sac:

04/24/2009 
We got Excel in the mail! It is a source of organic carbon that is less volatile than carbon dioxide (i.e., it stays in solution longer). Hopefully this will help our plants grow better.
04/30/2009
Rest in peace, shyfish.
05/10/2009
We got a phosphate test kit and some nitrogen fertilizer (it is a mixture of nitrate and urea). We measured phosphate at 10 ppm, way above the recommended levels, so that might be a major factor in our algae growth. We started dripping nitrogen.
05/13/2009
After 3 days of dripping, our phosphates are still at 10 ppm and our nitrate at 0, but our ammonia has gone up to 0.5 ppm! Our pH is still at 7.6, where it has been for awhile. We will do some water changes in the next few days.