Tim woke me up by making me breakfast this morning. It was 8:30 and I was rolling around but I couldn't get myself out of bed. He made me an egg burrito and put it in front of my nose to wake me up! That got me out of bed and I went and watched some cartoons with him. Yay!
On a less fun note, our fish tank has been really green. In fact, it's so green that if you put your hand into the back of the tank, you can't see your hand. It's not that there is algae on the wall or anything since I clean the glass regularly, it's that the water is so full of algae that it's green. It reminds me of all the documentaries I've watched about the Amazon river. Whenever they try to film underwater there, it is so murky that you can't see anything. That's what our fish tank looks like. I don't think it's harmful to the fish because they still seem really happy, but it's gross. Actually, it is absolutely disgusting. I cannot stand it! We have no idea what is going on, so we decided to go to the fish store today and start working towards a solution. When we got to the fish store, we wandered around looking at fish and plants and other cute aquarium critters until the lady was available. Navi sniffed every nook and cranny while we were wandering around. When the lady was free, she asked us if we needed any assistance, and we told her we had green water. She told us the reason for that was low nitrates and high phosphate, but it seemed kind of unclear how we could get rid of it. We also discovered that our tank pH was really, really low (around 6.2!) and that we need it to be around 7. We later figured out that the vacation feeder we put in our tank when we went backpacking was what lowered the pH. She told us to try putting a few more plants in the tank, to do a 1/3rd water change to raise the pH (by adding tap water in), and to use a water treatment to get rid of chlorine and a few other chemicals. We also have been having trouble getting the plants to stay rooted since we have such large gravel, so we bought some smaller, black sediment type gravel. I've always had natural colors in the past, but I think the black will really make the green plants and the colors of the fish POP! If we get more cherry shrimp, they will probably glow a lot more, too, with the black gravel. So we wandered back home with these goodies, and set to the first stage of fixing our tank. We pulled out all of our plants and the log so we could try to replace the gravel, and then we removed 1/3rd of the water. It was so gross because we couldn't even see what we were doing. If the fish were hiding in the back, we couldn't see them. I couldn't even tell if I was somehow in the process of accidentally murdering a poor critter. I was kind of nervous so I did everything reaaaally carefully. We washed out the black sediment gravel in the bathtub and slowly added it in so that it wasn't possible that we buried anything. The black gravel looks really nice...what we can see of it, at least. We then filled the tank with more water, put the driftwood back in, replanted all the old plants, and added in the new ones. After terrifying the fish for probably a continuous hour or so, we left them alone. They seemed happy...but I don't think I've ever seen them unhappy. We can see a little more in the tank, but that is probably just because of all the clear water we added. We'll have to see what happens over the next few days. Here's to hoping!
On a less fun note, our fish tank has been really green. In fact, it's so green that if you put your hand into the back of the tank, you can't see your hand. It's not that there is algae on the wall or anything since I clean the glass regularly, it's that the water is so full of algae that it's green. It reminds me of all the documentaries I've watched about the Amazon river. Whenever they try to film underwater there, it is so murky that you can't see anything. That's what our fish tank looks like. I don't think it's harmful to the fish because they still seem really happy, but it's gross. Actually, it is absolutely disgusting. I cannot stand it! We have no idea what is going on, so we decided to go to the fish store today and start working towards a solution. When we got to the fish store, we wandered around looking at fish and plants and other cute aquarium critters until the lady was available. Navi sniffed every nook and cranny while we were wandering around. When the lady was free, she asked us if we needed any assistance, and we told her we had green water. She told us the reason for that was low nitrates and high phosphate, but it seemed kind of unclear how we could get rid of it. We also discovered that our tank pH was really, really low (around 6.2!) and that we need it to be around 7. We later figured out that the vacation feeder we put in our tank when we went backpacking was what lowered the pH. She told us to try putting a few more plants in the tank, to do a 1/3rd water change to raise the pH (by adding tap water in), and to use a water treatment to get rid of chlorine and a few other chemicals. We also have been having trouble getting the plants to stay rooted since we have such large gravel, so we bought some smaller, black sediment type gravel. I've always had natural colors in the past, but I think the black will really make the green plants and the colors of the fish POP! If we get more cherry shrimp, they will probably glow a lot more, too, with the black gravel. So we wandered back home with these goodies, and set to the first stage of fixing our tank. We pulled out all of our plants and the log so we could try to replace the gravel, and then we removed 1/3rd of the water. It was so gross because we couldn't even see what we were doing. If the fish were hiding in the back, we couldn't see them. I couldn't even tell if I was somehow in the process of accidentally murdering a poor critter. I was kind of nervous so I did everything reaaaally carefully. We washed out the black sediment gravel in the bathtub and slowly added it in so that it wasn't possible that we buried anything. The black gravel looks really nice...what we can see of it, at least. We then filled the tank with more water, put the driftwood back in, replanted all the old plants, and added in the new ones. After terrifying the fish for probably a continuous hour or so, we left them alone. They seemed happy...but I don't think I've ever seen them unhappy. We can see a little more in the tank, but that is probably just because of all the clear water we added. We'll have to see what happens over the next few days. Here's to hoping!
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