20 gallon high planted?

The boxes looked like they were packed really well and if they decided to play hockey with the boxes or something, I'd think the bulbs would break before it caused a short. This is about the worst experience I've had with fishkeeping.

I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to order equipment from Ebay.

 

My mother was kind enough to lend me the money to get a new fixture now. After trying one or two stores we didn't quite find anything we were looking for. We decided to try a local place, I'd been there once or twice before, it's kinda out of the way and didn't have what I was looking for the time I'd been there. The owner of the store was there and we talked for awhile. He didn't have any lights smaller than 3 or 4 feet in, but he said he might get some in Thursday. He had a lot of fish that either weren't in the last time I was there or I somehow just missed. I have both more and less of an idea of what I want to put in the aquarium now. Then when we left it turns out they weren't even open on Mondays! I can't see myself going back to a chain store.

Irritating as my experience was with the fixture, I think it all turned out for the best.

 

The joke was I was going to house them all together. Probably not a good one since there probably have been people who have tried to do that.

Anyway, driftwood's in...I think it may have been earlier, and the fixture is in. Got it used at the local LFS with lamps for $30. Lamps probably should be replaced soon, but I'm pretty happy. I've got 3 Harlequin Rasboras in there for now, will add at least three more plus whatever else I feel like doing. I never realized how pretty they are until now.

 

Ugh. More setbacks.

One of the rasboras and a pleco died. One had been a little aggressive, but I didn't think it was bad enough to kill it. Water quality tested fine, but I was doing frequent water changes anyway to make sure that it wasn't the tank. A second rasbora got dramatically duller in color, the aggressive one was giving him a bit of a hard time, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I removed it. The poorly colored one seriously took 10 minutes to regain a healthy color.

On top of that, the adaptors on the used fixture I got from the fish store was running really hot. I need to replace the whole thing, but don't quite have the money yet. I don't know what I'm going to buy, but it's going to be new and not from the internet. In the meantime, I'm going to put one of the lamps in my old fixture. Not an optimal solution, but it works I guess.

While I'm waiting on that, I've got a nice big clump of java moss that I've been wanting to make into a moss wall. The mesh that I saw at the hardware store was all either metal or fiberglass- would the latter be okay to put in an aquarium?

Oh- I set up a 10 gallon for the aggressive rasbora with some low light plants in it. I'm really not sure what to do with him, I can't house him with any other fish and I want to put different stuff in that tank.

 

Oops, haven't updated in awhile. Got some otos, they're awesome and are doing well. I got some more harlquin rasboras and put them in quarantine. It looks like I've got another one that's bullying one of the others. Seriously, I thought these guys were supposed to be peaceful, do they need to be in larger groups? I've got four in quarantine right now. I'll take a picture of the big tank once I've done a water change and fixed up the new plants a bit.

Oh, tried the moss wall, didn't turn out that well. I might get more moss and try again later. I need have a background of some sort anyway.

 

Okay, I thought the problem was the other fish, but the one rasbora's dorsal fin is still a bit clamped. Maybe it's actually sick? I can't see anything wrong with it, the water paramaters are fine, and it's eating. It's not as brightly colored as some of the others, but it doesn't have the faded look I've seen when harlequins are really stressed. I've had the fish for a couple days and moved the fish that may or may not be problem fish out yesterday to another tank.

I'm not quite sure what to do or if I'm overreacting.

 

Test strips. Are liquid test kits much better?

Levels are:

Nitrate- under 20 ppm
Nitirite- 0
Total Hardness- 150 (GH)ppm
Chlorine- 0
Total alkalinity- 140-180 (reads as ideal)
pH- 7.8

Ammonia isn't on the strip, but wouldn't I have nitrite/nitrate readings if I had ammonia? I'm using Seachem Prime to treat the water, but that's it.

 

Picked up a liquid test kit, followed the directions, and ammonia and nitrites are still at zero. I haven't tested the other levels yet, I figure those are the big two. Next question- what's the best way to dispose of the water in the test tubes and what's the best way to clean out the test tubes? The ammonia testing stuff's pretty corrosive and I'm not sure I should just dump it down the drain.

(Man, up until yesterday I halfway felt like I knew what I was doing.)

 

So no having to find a chemistry set and playing mad scientist? Thanks for the advice.

Next question/problem-one of the rasboras in the main tank has a dorsal fin that seems to have ripped down the middle. I can't add medications to the water because of the plants, the quarantine tank has the sick(?) fish in it, and the other other tank has the nasty fish that killed the other fish, but hasn't bothered the fish that I thought were bothering the sick(?) fish. What should I do?

Another question- what would cause the fin to split like that?

 

Ah, I thought I'd have to isolate to add anything. Thanks, that makes life much easier!

 

Well, clamped fish's fins aren't clamped, his dorsal fin is damaged and isn't really showing much sign of healing. Also, I've got thread algae in the 20 gallon. I'm keeping the otos because they're awesome, but I'm starting to think about selling back the rasboras back to the LFS, they've been nothing but trouble for me. I think I'll keep the one with the scrunched dorsal fin though.