The first week of any new venture is always said to be the most adventurous one. It is no different in a planted aquarium case. A lot of things happened over the last 7 days and as promised I would be sharing every bit of my experiences.
The CO2 mishap:
The first and biggest of all things that happened was that my CO2 regulator kept giving a lot of problems. Every time I regulate it to 2 bubbles per second , it ends up getting slow or fast. I was told that sometimes the new regulators might have this problem and it would settle down in the course of time. On the third day I realized that the regulator went totally nuts and leaked all the gas. So I had to get this regulator replaced with a new one. Things look much better now.
Floating plants:
One thing which I still need to learn well is the art of planting. Every day I get back from office to only see a few plants floating. To my surprise, I seem to have done a good job planting the carpet plants well. Its the bigger ones, especially the Cabombas which were finding it tough to find a grip. I almost decided to tie them to some stones until they get rooted, but they finally gave in. In fact I'm quite happy that the cobombas are the one who established themselves well compared to the other plants.
Burning leaves:
I guess this is quite expected in the new tanks. A lot of leaves started blacking out and withering. It worried me a bit initially but it didnt take too long for the new leaves to sprout out.
Algae:
Again, an expected thing to happen in a new tank setup. I saw quite a few spongy stuff around the driftwood and some leaves. Did regular water changes and also introduced 6 cherry red shrimps on day 4. Now the tank is crystal clear.
Finally some fishes:
After 7 days of watching the tank evolving well and the shrimps adapting to the environment, it was green signal for the fishes to come in. Got 5 pairs of neon tetras. They are quite attractive indeed but my long time dream is to grow discus fishes. I do not want to introduce them in a hurry. So a little more time before I bring those majestic creatures into the tank.
Above all, one big advancement in this week is that I got to learn some plant names. So I realize that these plants inhabit my tank:
1. Marsilea
2. Cabomba
3. Cryptocorynes
4. Echinodorus
5. Hottonia palustris
6. Rotala wallichii
More updates to follow...
The CO2 mishap:
The first and biggest of all things that happened was that my CO2 regulator kept giving a lot of problems. Every time I regulate it to 2 bubbles per second , it ends up getting slow or fast. I was told that sometimes the new regulators might have this problem and it would settle down in the course of time. On the third day I realized that the regulator went totally nuts and leaked all the gas. So I had to get this regulator replaced with a new one. Things look much better now.
Floating plants:
One thing which I still need to learn well is the art of planting. Every day I get back from office to only see a few plants floating. To my surprise, I seem to have done a good job planting the carpet plants well. Its the bigger ones, especially the Cabombas which were finding it tough to find a grip. I almost decided to tie them to some stones until they get rooted, but they finally gave in. In fact I'm quite happy that the cobombas are the one who established themselves well compared to the other plants.
Burning leaves:
I guess this is quite expected in the new tanks. A lot of leaves started blacking out and withering. It worried me a bit initially but it didnt take too long for the new leaves to sprout out.
Algae:
Again, an expected thing to happen in a new tank setup. I saw quite a few spongy stuff around the driftwood and some leaves. Did regular water changes and also introduced 6 cherry red shrimps on day 4. Now the tank is crystal clear.
Finally some fishes:
After 7 days of watching the tank evolving well and the shrimps adapting to the environment, it was green signal for the fishes to come in. Got 5 pairs of neon tetras. They are quite attractive indeed but my long time dream is to grow discus fishes. I do not want to introduce them in a hurry. So a little more time before I bring those majestic creatures into the tank.
Above all, one big advancement in this week is that I got to learn some plant names. So I realize that these plants inhabit my tank:
1. Marsilea
2. Cabomba
3. Cryptocorynes
4. Echinodorus
5. Hottonia palustris
6. Rotala wallichii
More updates to follow...
