As I Xi It v2.3

Taking aquarium photography to a new dimension.

Like snorkling, but not

Think my heater might be on the blink. I need the water to be at a constant 26^oC  while I’m treating the tank for ich. Noticed that the heating element was still on this morning even though the thermometer read 30^oC, the built in thermostat’s suppose to switch it off once the water reaches the defined temperature. To check, I popped in a spare analogue thermometer and put new batteries into the digital one after turning the heater down to 22^oC just to be on the safe side. A few hours later, I see the values are different between the analogue and digital one and the heater still on. Now, one analogue read 26^oC, the other 29^oC and the digital one 31^oC, but according to the heater, it still wasn’t 22^oC so it just kept heating. I’ve turned the heater to its lowest at 20^oC hoping to compensate for it’s lack of sensitivity. Just to be sure of the temp in the tank, I’ve dunked in my watch which has a built-in thermometer so shall see how that goes.

Haven't seen you before

It’s the weekend and that could only mean one thing…water testing day!!

The Giantquarium and Miniquarium are undergoing cycling so I’ve got to keep an eye on the water parameters to see when I can introduce some fish. As expected, NH₃ and NO₂^- are still present so no fishies yet. I’m dosing with Seachem Stability and I’m not sure if it’s working, I’ve had this bottle for a year and kept it in cool, dark conditions and it’s within it’s best before date. For those who don’t know, it’s basically dormant bacteria in a bottle. It’s worked pretty well for me in the past, so I know it’s not just another solution to separate money from fishkeepers.

The Nanoquarium’s pretty healthy water parameters wise eventhough I’m treating for finrot and whitespot.

Ooh, colourful.

By request, some photos of the inhabitants in my midsized tank.

Been on a bit of an aquatic splurge these days and have tidied up my smaller tanks.

The Nanoquarium has had a number of new inhabitants move in – Blue tetras (Boehlkea fredcochui), Pygmy cories (Corydoras pygmaeus) and Red Wagtailed Platies (Xiphophorus maculatus). Some Amano shrimps (Cardina japonica) were introduced, but perished less than 24 hours later, the water parameters were all fine so I’m puzzled about their rapid demise. I don’t seem to do very well with crustaceans, unless its Daphnia.

Nanoquarium

Miniquarium

My big 200+ litres tank was devoid of fish and choc full of algae. It’d been neglected for so long that the water level dropped by some 10cm. I spent last week tearing it down, taking everything out including the gravel, cleaned out the filter and basically gave everything a much needed scrub.

A trip down to the fish shop and a few rocks later, it’s been transformed into this -

Awaiting some Lake Malawi cichlids

Granite boulders, cobbles and driftwood

Left side view

Cici's watering hole

Went to my favourite central London LFS the other day and picked up a few red cherry shrimps. When I tipped them into a bucket to drip acclimatize them, I noticed something white and crawling about in the bit of Java moss that they threw in. Turns out its a micro crab (Limnopilos naiyanetri).

Super red cherry shrimp

Micro crab

Did a bit of a tidy up and refurb over the weekend. Trimmed down the water wisteria and added some Limnophila, Didiplis, Alternanthera and Rotala.

The shrimp tank is still devoid of shrimp since there weren’t any red cherry shrimps at my LFS.

60L nano aquarium

20L shrimp tank

Updated photos of some of my tanks.

Freshwater planted nano aquarium.

Shrimp tank.

Otto close-up.