Spring Cleaning For The Fish Tank

As all my friends know, I constantly remind them to clean their fish tanks on the 1st and the 15th of every month.  Which is strange because I don't think any of my friends have fish tanks?  But as sure as the sun come up in the morning, and goes down in the evening, I make sure my fish tank is clean.

I had noticed a problem the last time I was cleaning my fish tank.  It seems there was a lot of debris from my fake plants.  My pleco, Joe the 7th, had been chewing on them so long they were coming apart.  So it was time to buy some new fake plants.

Here's a tip a friend of mine shared.  Since aquarium plants sold in pet stores have a ridiculous markup, buy your plants at Michael's Arts and Crafts.  They have a wider selection, and are much cheaper.  Now, they aren't copies of underwater plants like you would find in pet shops, but some of them can pass very closely.

So not only did I throw out all the old plants, I gave my aquarium a heck of a cleaning.  I mean, I changed 40% of the water vs. the 20% I usually do.  I also gave the tank a good shaving.  As in, I took a straight razor blade, and shaved the algae off most of the tank's sides.

I've learned that since I have a bubble sprayer I have to shave my glass lid when I clean the tank.  Otherwise, there is too much algae buildup, and it cuts back on the amount of light that can come through.

So onto the photos.  Here are photos of the aquarium during the daytime.

These are the photos of the tank at the "Dusk" setting.  My light has about 20 settings, and this one is pretty trippy.  I put it on this setting at the end of the day/night, from 9PM to 10PM.

And this is the "Ocean Blue" Nighttime setting.

I have to say an aquarium can be an awesome thing.  But it depends how much time and money a person puts into it.  I want a clean environment for my fish so I put a fair amount of time into my aquarium.  And as you see it pays off.  Like Professor Moody said, "Constant vigilance!"

Let Sleeping Loaching Lie

I've recently redecorated my fish tank.  It still looks a lot like I previously had it.  I bought new fake plants from Michael's Arts and Crafts as well as Wal-Mart.  Some of those I managed to snag on clearance.  Here's what it looks like after I redecorated.

But I had a funny thing happen, and of course it involved my yoyo loach.  Loaches are silly fish, and ever so entertaining.  So I have this loach, I'll call her, "Shirley."  Shirley likes to hang out in a certain parts of the tank.  If you are looking at the photo above, it is all the way to the right in the back of the tank (where you can't exactly see.)  But look at the giant green plant all the way to the right.  She likes to sit at the bottom of it.

This lead to a problem.  Namely I just stuck a plant where Shirley likes to sit.  So what does she do?  She digs out the stem of the fake plant, then wiggles the gravel out of the way, and makes a little scooped out place for her to stretch out and rest her fins.

I managed to snag a picture of Shirley doing this.  My camera does this irritating thing where it will shine a red light right before it snaps a picture.  This of course warns my fish that I am taking a photo so of course, they run away from the camera.

But here's the funny thing about Shirley that no one believes.  She likes to sleep on her back and side.  That's right.  There were many times I thought she was dead or dying only to discover she was napping.  And I can't blame her for sleeping on her side.  I mean, I do too.

So I knew I would have to take a photo of her doing this.  The problem with this, as I stated before, is my stupid camera likes to flash the red light before I take a photo.  This of course wakes her up, and she rolls over.  However, I did manage to take a somewhat blurry photo of her sleeping on her back.  Take a peek at this.

It's like that photo of Bigfoot.  Some folks will believe that my loach absolutely slept on her back.  Other's will say it's a complete fake.  Still yet, some will never be able to be sure, one way or another.

I was almost mad about Shirley digging out the stem of the plant, but I thought, "She spent a lot of time and effort digging that out.  I should let it stay like that instead of digging it back into the gravel.  I'll let her sleep in the hole she dug out."  So in the end I decided to let sleeping loaches lie.

Overhauling the Fish Tank: New Light, New Fish, New Look

In an earlier post I showed the pictures of the new fake plants I had bought.  It gave the fish tank a great look.  Here's the link:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2017/02/time-to-spruce-fish-tank-up-new-fake.html

In the past week I have really spruced up the tank.  First up was a new light.  It's amazing what technology can do these days.  Check out the Current's website for what this light can do:

http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/satellite-led-fixtures/satellite-freshwater-led-plus/

I won't go into everything it can do since I would just be repeating what the website link would say.  But here is the view of my fish tank with the full spectrum setting on the light-strip. 

Here is the moonlight setting.  I use it at nighttime when the fish "go to bed."

There are a lot of other settings, but my camera is not nuanced enough to display the difference in colors. 

I was able to make a few additions to the tank.  Two new angel fish followed me home.  When I saw them in the pet store they caught my eye.  They were no bigger than black tetras. 

What's neat is that, when I had them in the bag from the pet store, when I would hold them up to the light they were incandescent.  I could actually see through parts of them.  I could also see the heart and insides of the gills.  As they get older I'm sure some of their color will come in.

It's hard to get a good picture with my camera.  It doesn't have a fast shutter speed, and the fish don't like to hold still.  Anyway, you can get a glimpse of how small the little angelfish is next to my oldest one. 

I have to say the lighting from the new light really makes the fish look awesome.  It really highlights the plants and rocks as well.

In addition to the two new angelfish I brought home some giant danios.  They move really fast so it was hard to get a decent picture of them, but I think I did okay with these shots.

So I feel really great about the fish tank at the moment.  I really needed to update it, and I think I did a great job.  I like having it right by my chair.  I can stare off into it, and feel a nice calming sense flow over me. 

I should really invite some hippies to sit by the fish tank.  That way, they could just stare into it for a few hours.  Of course, I risk a drum circle breaking out.  But that's okay.  Nothing can get me down.  I have a pretty awesome fish tank, and that makes me feel pretty good. 

Time To Spruce The Fish Tank Up: New Fake Plant Day!

It was time for me to spruce the fish tank up.  I was kind of tired of the bare rock look.  The fish tank really needed some pizazz.  To start, I needed some plants as the tank had none.  I was talking to a friend/ fellow aquarist, and I was complaining about the cost of (not so) cheap plastic plants at pet stores.  They can't cost over a few pennies to produce.  I'm betting that the packaging they come in costs more than the plants themselves. 

My friend mentioned that he goes to Michaels to buy fake plants for his aquarium.  I go to Michaels on a regular basis, and it never occurred to me to buy some of their fake plants. 

I was worried, and asked if he had ever had any problems with them being in the fish tank.  Namely, are they fish safe?  He said they were made of plastic, and he never had any problems. 

So this evening, I went to Michaels and bought four plants.  Two of them were huge (for my tank.)  The other two were medium size, but great for a fish tank.  I let them soak in a 5 gallon bucket outside for a few hours just to make sure the dust and dirt were knocked off. 

So here are the results.

It looks pretty awesome.  They have a lot of movement just like in real life.  And the best part is yet to come.  I have a new LED fish light on order.  And the things it can do are just over the top.  It has all sorts of settings.  But that will be my next blog.  So stay tuned.  

Bougainvillea of Death!!!

It's funny that in this family we have gardeners who want to plant stuff all the time, but never want to cut any of it.  That job gets left to people who could care less about gardening.  Namely, me.

Someone had the bright idea to plant a giant bougainvillea plant/tree/bush right in front of the house.  Normally I wouldn't hold a grudge against such a plant, but this one has giant thorns on it that makes me think this thing was bred from an angry cat and a rose bush.  In other words, you come near it, it's like an angry black woman.  It's gonna cut you.

Really, I knew a woman who lived in a bad neighborhood, and planted these things in front of her windows so burglars couldn't break in.  She actually had a burglar try to break in, and he fell into the bush, and started screaming in the middle of the night.  Yes, these things hurt that bad.  But to finish the story, no, he never made it in the house.

So it comes down to me to deal with it.  This is what I'm talking about:

Yeah, it's a little out of control.  First up.  Protection.  No, not that type.  This type.

And my trusty shears.  I think these things are older than me.  But that's good.  It means they were made with good metal.

I guess the one redeeming quality of this plant is that, it does have some nice flowers.

Anyway, onto the haircut!!!

So, I end up with this:

I even cut out some room for the butterfly rock.  What's a butterfly rock you ask?  Well, it's like a bird bath, but the rocks are piled up higher than the water.  That way, the rocks can be wet, but a butterfly could still stand on it.

Next, I filled it up with water. 

So, here is the finished project.

There were a few spots that I needed a ladder to get to.  There were also a few times I had to lean in close to cut a few branches.  I only managed to come away with one scratch.  That's what good gloves will do for you.  I know the lawn waste guys won't be happy with me in the morning.  But hey, at least I put it all in one can for them.

So now I leave you with this.  A song about the bougainvillea.  Or least it has bougainvillea in it's title. 

I'm Not Sure How I Feel About The Angel's Trumpet In My Yard

Before I get started, let me be clear.  I am not picking on God's Angels or their trumpets.  I'm not even picking on the California Angels or whatever they're called these days.

No, this is about a plant.  Not only is it kind of a dick plant, it's poisonous as hell.  I'm talking about the Angel's Trumpet in our yard.

It all started about three years ago.  This plant was about head high.  When I would mow the lawn, the leaves would smack me in the head.  But I was told to be patient.  You see, the freeze of the winter would kill it off.  Well, simply put, it didn't happen.  It grew, and then it grew some more.

And then I was told the same thing the next year.  The freeze would have to kill it.  But, thanks to climate change or the plant just being hardheaded, it didn't freeze or die.  It kept growing.  In fact, let me show you a better picture of what it looks like now.

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but that fence behind the Angel's Trumpet is about four foot high.  Where the Trumpet is almost touching the tree is at least ten foot high.  This really is the little plant that could.

So once it got so tall that it seemed that nothing was going to kill it, I was able to cut the growth underneath it.  Namely so I could run the lawnmower underneath it without getting my head smacked. 

Then a few things happened to me.  Spring rolled around, and these massive blooms started popping up.

I don't think I had ever seen a flower that was almost a foot long.  I mean, they really hang out there.  That's when Dad told me that's the Angel's Trumpet that all the cool, er, dead kids like to take to make hallucinogens.  The plant is insanely poisonous, and that's why the kids trip balls when they take it.  It also has a side effect of death.  Seriously, it wasn't too long before Dad told me what that plant was, a kid on the news died from taking one. 

So I have to respect a plant that just won't die.  But I hate having a giant plant that some people misuse to trip balls and die.  I just don't know how I feel about it.