Saltwater

So, had a few trials and tribulations but everything is doing pretty good. The yellow goby has fattened up and cured himself of ick last week, he is a strong little fellow, I of course almost had a heart attack when I saw those four little dots.

All the original hermit crabs and snails and emerald crabs died, I suspect it was a combination of starving to death along with an immature tank although there is no way to know for certain because my water was testing fine.

I started to add essential elements by kent and have upped the calcium significantly. I estimate I'm putting in about 1/4 of a teaspoon 4 times a week. I had to add more saltwater plants because the others melted, I suspect it was a lack of iodide, which the essential elements should be helping with.

I have since added another emerald crab, a feather duster (who fell into the rocks and disappeared, I have no way to know if he is still kicking), two scarlet reef crabs, a blue legged crab, and 2 snails, margarita and the little one with the snorkle.

All my red brown algea that was lightly covering everything has disappeared and the rocks are turning some amazing colors.

All in all, I don't know exactly what I'm doing, but I'm apparently doing something right.

Stepping Stone

I've been carrying around this stepping stone kit for ten years.....and finally, here it is.

Everything is pretty banged up from our travels, but still functional. I had some concrete stain I used to make it darker.
The glass pieces weren't originally this small.

After sitting for an hour. I had never done this before and had no idea how it would turnout.
And the finished product, I waited to long to scrub the stone, so there is to much concrete covering the glass, but it still looks pretty. I'll know next time to not use such small pieces and to pay more attention to how fast it sets.

Garden Additions for May

I wish I had taken pictures before I tore out the collard greens and trimmed the rosemary and lavender, they were absolutely huge.


Last year I failed miserably at cucumbers and in this bed, I've added more mulch and its holding water much better. The chives, huge onion and grapevine are left over from last year,everything else has been planted in the last month.

A friend gave me this grapevine last year, and I barely kept it alive by sticking it in here, Not optimum conditions I know, but we'll see how it does.

You can't tell, but this onion blossum is almost 4 inches across.

This is the rosemary and lavender after the trim, I got 12 huge bundles from them that are drying in the trailer. I planted two Clementius , one in dark purple and one in light purple and the trellis a couple of days ago, of course between the shock of moving and a heavy rainstorm,I didnt get a picture of the huge gorgeous blooms before the fell or were beaten off.

Backside of the same bed,looks like the lavender needs a trim again already.

I planted these onions in January and they have bulbed up nicely. Someone told me the trick this year of pulling the dirt away in order to get them to....wish I had known that last year, I would have had more then just green onions.

Last year this bed was full of elephant ears out in the open, I figured why not just go full sun and plant hostas, Needs some more, but it will have to wait till next month.

Still alive!

I added my first saltwater fish three days ago. The water is testing great and the little guys color is coming back nicely.

I can't say the same for the two bullseye mushrooms I added. They are melting because of the highlight....and there is nothing I can do.

Tank updates, April

The 29 is still going strong and beautiful! If started adding ferts with iron (hate to do that, but it needed it) I have added two platys and a whiptail catfish and so far no deaths. The ghost shrimp have been holding massive amounts of eggs and the sword tail female dropped fry before I moved her to the 20 gal.


The 20 gal has been broken down and the sand replaced with eco-complete and replanted. Looks great, and everything is filling in nicely. Must have had some severe ammonia though because all of the guppies and the female sword tail died from fungus. So its residents are now a green sword tail male with a crooked tail that I grew from a fry, the pineapple female from the other tank, one Otto catfish and one yoyo loach. When the plants fill in more I'll add some more fish, maybe we'll try tetras again. I've also moved one of the Chilien swords(they are getting huge!), the Anibus, and some pennywort trimmings from the other tank.


The saltwater is doing well, I've resisted the urge to add a fish, I'll post about what my options will be later. The two coral frags are actually kenya trees and are finally trying to attach and growing. I was also gifted with some saltwater plants that I have no clue about, one looks like feathers and the other looks like suction cups on the ends of little stalks. One of the emerald crabs died and I havn't seen the starfish for a while, but I think I've gotten that straightened out and the water tested really well this week. I've been adding calcium and the live rock is looking amazing.

Fail

Completely dropped the ball on pictures on this one, and it still isn't completed as far as a professional looking terrarium is concerned, but I accomplished what I was trying to do. So I suppose this is a test on does and don't s for terrarium construction.

Its been several months since I did anything with the Australian White's Tree Frog enclosure and it was about time I changed out the substrate. Most of the plants didn't survive my care and the ATF's abuse.

I figured I could take a few minutes and bust out a false bottom in no time....

Well, about six hours later this is what I've got.

I cable tied the stucture together and covered the entire thing with screen. Mistake one, no access panel for the pump. Mistake two, I didnt add enough stable supports and it bows in a couple of places. And I'm pretty sure the terrarium itself is leaking....but its a slow one.

I had to improvise a few times, I had no sicors, no time to let anything cure and and three different sizes of tubing, none of which fit the eco-terra mini terrarium pump I used. So why exactly does a company that builds things for reptiles to use in aquariums not use an outlet size that is compatable with the two main sizes of hosing avalable in the aqarium industry? How much sense does that make exactly?

So, we have an illfitted hose that was heated to expand around the pump outlet and a piece of airline tubing inserted into it....yeah, it leaks a bit.

I used the shell, well because I had it, and didnt have anything else that would creat a waterfall. So I used the channel in the shell to hold the airline tube. The pics don't include his vine, so of course that is shoved in there.

All and all, its shoddy, sloppy,and uggly but it works for now.

blog love

Absolutely loving this guy...

a geek after my own heart

SALUTE!

Plants are the strangest people

Giant Goldfish

Someone dropped off a koi, 2 fancy goldfish and a comet, I gave away the largest koi and the smallest fantail and took these home to put in the RV camp pond.

I wish I had taken some pics of there release but I was afraid of dropping the camera in the pond. That comet is almost 12 inches long and the fantail has to be 8 or 10. I look forward to seeing them in the pond this summer.

Photo Shoot

It was such a nice day.

Drop the Bucket

I finally couldn't stay away any longer, I had to set up a saltwater tank. The only room I had left was the little ledge next to the 29, which of course has reef lighting over it, so it was perfect. I had a 5.5 that I had been keeping crickets in, an extra 10g filter, a tetra or whisper or whatever,some crushed coral and a 50 watt heater.

Since I've bought the live rock as pieces I don't know how much they weight but I guess I have about 3 pounds of base rock and 4 pounds of live-rock. The two smaller pieces are well cured and well populated with tube worms and sponges and a few nice colors of Coraline algae. The larger piece on top came in uncured but was apparently well taken care of on its trip, because it has three pieces of life leather coral still growing on it and hopefully some other live corals, but since they are stony corals it will take longer to see any growth.


Its been set up about a month and has 2 emerald crabs, 1 blue dwarf hermit crab, a margarita snail, half a starfish and two Christmas tree coral frags. At least they are supposed to be christmas tree corals, they don't look like any pictures I've found online though.

The starfish and frags were donated by a coworker.

The coraline algea is spreading nicely and the entire tank has been taken over by red algea but the crabs and snail are taking care of that nicely.




The 29 has filled in amazingly well also since the addition of the light, and this is after a trim.