Interesting day today!
Including yesterday, that makes it interesting, LOL.
So yesterday I set out to solve the problem that killed my dear Goldie koi and three others plus two goldfish.
I mean, really, it's been horrible. We've been struggling for awhile. I finally got enough learning to recognize via water tests that the problem is too many nitrites in the water. IOW, the filter is being overwhelmed in spite of being fully cycled and working correctly. So I went shopping at the hardware store and garden store. Picked up some square basket things intended to cover vent outlets, some soilless media, some extra plants, cocoa fiber, a couple metal rods and zip ties. I made the baskets to hang from the rods suspended across the aquarium, using zip ties in the basket holes and adjust the level there.
The cocoa fiber lines the basket and separates the bottom inch of soilless media from the soil and the plant roots. I hope the roots will grow down into the water and do that thing they do with nitrates. Meantime I'm having to change out 25% water every day and test to see where the water is at. This is keeping the fish much healthier although they're afraid of the new plant pots dangling in the water.
I put grow lights above the tank at installation specifically to do something like this, but couldn't envision the structure of the concept. I kept picturing a complicated business involving a pump, two tiered waterproof trough and very all that plus plants in only 10"! By putting the plants in the water, instead of running the water past the plants, I made things much simpler but the plants might be too wet if the suspension depth is too deep. I'm monitoring the soil as well as the water. I expect the plants to take anywhere from two to ten weeks to grow up to a useful size and control the water pollution rate but we'll see. I'm just guessing.
Today I adjusted things and changed out the water. For lunch I cooked up some potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, smoked meat from our stash, and some flavour. Just fried it all up in olive oil and stuffed my belly till it groaned and stuck out! I've been eating less than I need for days now just because I've been busy and don't care, so a feast was really satisfying and due.
So then it was downtown and I got a new toy, a qchord! I turned in my omnichord to be sold and then went to Lush for some more bath goodies. That meant a groovy bath tonight, and now Dan's here so I'm typing fast to get it over with.
http://www.suzukimusic.com/education/qchord/ is the thing I got, check it out, it's a blast!
So yesterday I set out to solve the problem that killed my dear Goldie koi and three others plus two goldfish.
I mean, really, it's been horrible. We've been struggling for awhile. I finally got enough learning to recognize via water tests that the problem is too many nitrites in the water. IOW, the filter is being overwhelmed in spite of being fully cycled and working correctly. So I went shopping at the hardware store and garden store. Picked up some square basket things intended to cover vent outlets, some soilless media, some extra plants, cocoa fiber, a couple metal rods and zip ties. I made the baskets to hang from the rods suspended across the aquarium, using zip ties in the basket holes and adjust the level there.
The cocoa fiber lines the basket and separates the bottom inch of soilless media from the soil and the plant roots. I hope the roots will grow down into the water and do that thing they do with nitrates. Meantime I'm having to change out 25% water every day and test to see where the water is at. This is keeping the fish much healthier although they're afraid of the new plant pots dangling in the water.
I put grow lights above the tank at installation specifically to do something like this, but couldn't envision the structure of the concept. I kept picturing a complicated business involving a pump, two tiered waterproof trough and very all that plus plants in only 10"! By putting the plants in the water, instead of running the water past the plants, I made things much simpler but the plants might be too wet if the suspension depth is too deep. I'm monitoring the soil as well as the water. I expect the plants to take anywhere from two to ten weeks to grow up to a useful size and control the water pollution rate but we'll see. I'm just guessing.
Today I adjusted things and changed out the water. For lunch I cooked up some potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, smoked meat from our stash, and some flavour. Just fried it all up in olive oil and stuffed my belly till it groaned and stuck out! I've been eating less than I need for days now just because I've been busy and don't care, so a feast was really satisfying and due.
So then it was downtown and I got a new toy, a qchord! I turned in my omnichord to be sold and then went to Lush for some more bath goodies. That meant a groovy bath tonight, and now Dan's here so I'm typing fast to get it over with.
http://www.suzukimusic.com/education/qchord/ is the thing I got, check it out, it's a blast!