So far, so good

No big problems after going out of town for the weekend - made me a little nervous but everything seems fine. I'm getting a little bit of algae on the plants in the 55, especially the Java moss - I need to do a bit of research and figure out what that stuff is and how to make it go away.

Right after I got back I was certain I'd lost four of the five neon tetras in my quarantine tank - as it turned out, they were only hiding! I was pleased to see them - I've been very happy with my choice of neon tetras so far. The conventional wisdom is that they are a very delicate fish and one should expect some severe losses when stocking them - I've bought more than 30 and lost only two, one of which I think was due to old age. I wonder if husbandry practices have improved, giving us better stock - at least from the stores I've gotten mine from lately. I've been very picky about where I'll buy from: in these big box stores where the aquarium wall is all plumbed together, I check to make sure ALL the livestock is looking good. I have to give props to the local PetSmart - there's two in my general vicinity - and the closest one has some good people taking care of their stuff. The one slightly farther away is a nightmare. They've got a good guy there, but he's only one person so if he's not in, the tanks are full of sick and dead fish and algae. NOT fun.

Despite having been away, I have managed to swing another modification, but not of my two main tanks - the quarantine has finally been moved up from the basement! I managed to entice Jonathan into cutting a piece of 2x4 for me, and with that and one of the spare pieces from redoing the stand for the 75, I've made a little frame for the 10 gallon quarantine underneath the 75, putting all three of my tanks on the same floor. This will simplify caring for them a great deal, and now I won't have to carry buckets up and down stairs! One more thing I need to do for the quarantine, now that it's under the 75, is find a little under-cabinet light for it - I wouldn't bother except I've got the extra Java moss in there, and I do want it to live.

As far as the 75 goes, I think my bigger socolofi has claimed a space on the far left side of the tank as his territory, which is a good thing - the smaller of the two is looking happier more often now that he can be the full length of the tank away from the big one's spot. I've definitely noticed that the socolofi are more aggressive than the acei and the yellow labs. On the mechanical side of things, I'm going to geek out a bit about flow. I think I've mentioned before that I have a Rena XP3, with an off-brand surface skimmer attachment, with the intake and output mounted in the same corner. I had been using the output attachment for high-velocity, turbulent flow that ruffles the surface of the water a great deal, until the center brace on the 55 broke last Sunday. Since I needed to drop the water levels to take stress off the tank walls, I swapped that filter piece out for a different one, meant for use with the spraybar, that comes down about four or five inches below the water line and has a wider aperture. This leaves the surface of the water not quite still - when the lights are on, you can see some ripple shadow effects, but the surface of the water is much, much calmer than before. At first I was concerned that this lower level of surface agitation wouldn't aerate the water enough for the fish - I rely exclusively on surface agitation for oxygen exchange rather than using an airstone, at least in my main tanks. (The quarantine uses an airpump-driven sponge filter, so I do have some bubbles in that tank.) But I've kept an eye on the fish, and it seems that with the "gyre" flow pattern for water turnover, I don't need a great deal of surface agitation to sufficiently oxygenate the water. (The surface skimmer adds a bit more surface agitation itself as water is pulled into the filter, and helps keep the water surface clear of the film of organics that would build up and restrict gas exchange between the tank and the atmosphere.)

I'm really more excited by this than it probably warrants, but my parents have always used airstones in their tanks, even on the one 55 gallon they have that has never had an under-gravel filter that would require them. Maybe it's some leftover teenage rebellion or something, but I find myself absolutely unwilling to use extraneous bubblestones in my own aquariums. And in planted aquariums, a still surface is to be desired so that added CO2 won't be driven out of the water as quickly - although some people will use airstones on planted tanks with fish at night to help oxygenate their water for the animals. My planted tank is in no danger of reaching low levels of oxygen - it's got three filters on it right now, not counting the little submersible filter that's tucked away in the bottom to distribute CO2 bubbles rather than actually filter. (I suspect most of that paltry amount of CO2 is escaping through the excessive surface agitation in that tank.) My experimenting with filter placement in the 55 shows that the gyre filter flow pattern, with minimal surface agitation, that is desirable in a planted aquarium for nutrient distribution is also enough to distribute oxygen in a fish-only aquarium!