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Thats great!

*Kristin*

My light and glass hood came in. But I haven't opened it, the box looks a bit long to me, I'll try it out when I get home.

They pack them in boxes bigger than the actual light...and the glass too. When I got the box my glass top was in I was sure it would be too long...but it fit perfectly! You will love the light fixture!

I can't remember, did you get the Coralife one? If so, you may want to get some legs for it. That will lift it off the top about 3 inches. The glass is there to keep the fish in.

The light fixture over my 29g grows some higher light plants that my 55g light (~2.4wpg) won't. Its strange! 29g tanks can be nicely aquascaped. Next you'll be buying more plants!

*Kristin*

It fit perfectly, I cut the plastic back piece into two pieces and trimmed them to fit around my filter. Easier than cutting a piece out of the strip. It looks great. The moon light is dim, but you can still see the silver mollies, it looks really cool in the dark. If I ever have kids, they're getting a fish tank for a night light... but not until they're old enough to understand that incense oil is NOT food. *twitches* I love kids... really. My ammonia is at .25ppms, so it's up a bit, but my nitrites are 0 and my nitrates are at 10ppms. So I figure I need a water change. I'll be doing a water change tonight, and another one sometime this week, to make sure the water isn't salty at all, then I'm donating my mollies and picking up the angelfish. My husband is EXTREMELY excited. He loves round fish for some reason. I'm looking up plants. I like everything that covers the bottom, but I'm not too interested in any tall plants. I might just buy a big bunch of different plants, see what goes and stick the rest into my already mix matched tank.

Oh, and I got this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=11418& It's not a big brand I don't think, I've never heard of satellite. It's nice.

Well, it's been a long time since I've been online. I've been extra busy with work and all that, but I'm part time now so I have much more time on my hands.

The tank is going very nicely. The angelfish and 6 platies are getting along very well. My husband bought the snail, it ate the plants, and that was the end of that. So he took it back, but the tank still hasn't been replanted. I'll be working on that hopefully before the end of them month. I just have to change a bit more water to keep the nitrates down now. I have a little algae growing on the glass and I can't find ottos anywhere. None of the fish stores or pet shops have them.

Ottos are pretty scarce in my area too.

How about some pictures when you get it replanted?

*Kristin*

I'll definately post some pictures once it gets planted. Right now it's just a bare tank and fish. At least my husband won't want another snail.

I did a normal water change, like every other time. The water looked a bit cloudy after a few hours. Today... it's completely green. I can barely see my fish.

All is better this morning. I ran to Walmart about 10:30pm last night and bought some algae killer in a bottle, 42 drops later and my water is crystal clear this morning. My fish don't seem bothered at all, so I think it was worth the $5 for a bottle I can use over and over again. Blackout for 4 days was just not cutting it with me.

This is my husband's fish, that he probably loves more than me. There are some algae spots on the glass that haven't been cleaned yet, I was trying to leave a little for when I got algae eaters, but it seems like it'll be ages before I find any ottos so I may as well scrape it off today.

Attached Image:

Hi,
Here is a link for "Green Water." Follow the advice
and you can resolve the problem. By the way if you
have fry, green water is great first food for them.

http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/greenwater.html

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I put in one dose of some algae killer, and the next morning my water went from green that i couldn't see through to clear, and it said dose up to three days if it comes back, but it didn't come back. I bought some plants today, finally, so I can replant the tank. I didn't get algae until my husband bought a snail and it ate all my plants, lol. Some of the plants I bought today have the little pest snails on them, so I'm going to the fish store I normally go to for help on how to kill them before I plant the plants they're on.

If you can find some potassium permagate (sp?) you can dip the new plants into that before putting them in the tank. I don't know where to find that though.

Another option is a 1 part bleach to 19 parts water dip. I wouldn't leave them in very long though...maybe 5-10 seconds. I'd look for the potassium stuff first.

*Kristin*

Well, I found out what I feared was true. I asked the guy at this petstore we went to in jacksonville (I've never been there before) what kind of plants they were and all he could give me was the common name. But I got home and as I suspected, both types of plants my husband picked out will die eventually submerged. So, I'm throwing them out and starting over. It's starting to be a big waste of money to let him pick anything out. I know it's his fish tank... but still.

I know you were looking at shrimp but do not add any shrimp to an angel fish tank. Snails also wouldn't be a good idea. Angels love to pick on inverts and will bite off bits of the snail and shrimps bodies until they eventually die. They also will nip at pest snails which aren't entirely bad. The little snails will help clean up the tank and stir the substrate but if you don't squish some occasionally or if you feed the tank too much the snails can take over. There are tons of colorful shrimp and helpful snails that will clean the tank without eating the plants but you have to be very careful of tankmates as many fish include such inverts in their natural diet.

If you don't have a bottom feeder yet and can't stand the small snails you could add some small loaches. I have 4 yoyos in my 29g and they've lived there for probably around 5years now quite happily. They don't look cramped at all and did share their tank with 1 angel, 4 platies, a betta and a bristlenose but for some reason the platies died after several months. I also moved the angel to a bigger tank after 2years and he's not stunted at all. Just started to look quite big in that tank. Yoyos were some of my first fish and went through alot while I was learning without losing a single one. They also definitely don't mind the really hard water with over 8.0 ph that came out of our well.

For plants try to find some crypts. Wendtii are usually fairly common and hardy. It's about the only thing I can find at most LFS around here. Crypts don't mind low light, are slower growing so they won't run out of nutrients like the swords did, and withstand nibbling fish pretty well. Only thing with crypts is that you have to rinse their roots very well if you move them around. Otherwise they may get crypt rot which causes all the leaves to die. Quite often they'll survive crypt rot and you should never throw away one that still has a healthy root system but rinsing usually avoids the problem completely. Anubias might also be a good one but should be planted on decorations like rocks or driftwood not in the substrate. I'm not sure how much light you have on now but crinums(water onions) might also be a good choice for a taller background plant. They withstand moderate amounts of light and grow long leaves sort of like thick grass blades. They've also never required much maintenance on my part. Personally I'd stay away from the larger sword plants unless you want to trim it frequently and dose fertilizers. My amazon swords are always the first ones to show nutrients deficiencies and have outgrown a 55g before. I had one taking up about 1/3rd of the tank before I sold it and replanted the babies in my 90g.

Wow. I'm still shopping for the plants. I'm so reluctant to buy any plant that has the small snails on them because I had an outbreak of pest snails when I was in high school and had to start completely over with the tank. I hate snails. I'm afraid even if I dip them, one might live and repopulate, lol. I'm paranoid about snails. I know a few places in Jacksonville I can get good plants, but I haven't gotten the chance to go there yet. Thanks for all the advice.

I finally found a pet store that sells ottos. It's in Jacksonville, but I bought them and got them in the tank, and they seem happy. They really stick together though. I also bought a sword plant (I know, I'll have to fertilize it) and some micro swords. It's the only plants they had that weren't suffering from a nutrient loss, and also, it's the only pet store that didn't have a snail problem. But the plants look like they're doing fine today. I know it'll take longer than a day to know if they're going to hang in there or not. But I'm hopeful.

Hi

I wouldn't worry too much about those baby pest snails that show up on the plants. The angel should eat them up with enthusiasim. When I set up my 55 gallon, I bought plants and quarantined them in a 5 gallon bucket with dechlorinated water for 2-3 days (changing the water wvery day). Most of the snails crawled off by that time. I did have a small outbreak of about 15-25 baby snails, but when I moved my angel from the 20 gallon to the 55, she ate all of them within half an hour.

Good Luck!

- Meow -