Jared Andrews

Added one pump of easy green after testing.

Notice I am now tracking GH and KH, using both the API test and the Advatec 9 in 1 Test Strip. I am going to be trying to bring the GH down, while not messing up other parameters. I did a lot of small water changes this week while trying to improve my water change set up using electric and hand pumps. No dice so far and I am not happy with my current setup. Will provide an update on that when I have a better setup. These smaller water changes probably added up to 2 gallons over 3 days, but I did not track it closely. I will be tracking water changes more closely in future updates, so we can see the GH drop down. I'm trying to get it into the 50-100 range.

I had a fish death this week, one of my favorite fish nicknamed "Grumpy". It's hard for me to know how old Grumpy was, he appeared to be a full sized adult, and could theoretically be as old as 4 years. Grumpy fish had a very unique coloration compared to other fish in the tank, he was a deep blue with an almost silver white dot pattern. Unfortunately, this pattern and color looked very similar to "ick" which I have seen occasionally on other fish in the tank. I have never treated it and it has always gone away on it's own. I don't think that Grumpy had ick but it was hard to tell. Given his unique coloration, I suspect he was born with my Grandpa as opposed to purchased, he looked like a morph of the blue and spotted fish in the tank. It's likely he was the parent of many of the fish in the tank. Since his death I haven't detected any other fish in distress or with issues, so hopefully this was a one off thing and he was just old.

I have decided I will also keep track of the food in the tank, which I am going to start boosting to bring the nitrate up a bit, obviously I don't want to take it too far. I will be tracking this in 7 day totals, so expect to see that value for the first time in my next weekend update.

Aside from the death of Grumpy, things are looking good. I trimmed back the right lily bulb and it has grown back rapidly. There are many lily pads floating around the top of the tank from both bulbs. I have also spotted another berried shrimp, the yellow shrimp in here seem to be doing really well.

I have commented on my spreading monte carlo, here is a close up. You can see very small leaves popping up between the denser sections. Excited to see how this progresses.