Pictures of My Boy Christian

I took a few pictures of the boy tonight before he had his before bed bottle. Here are two of the pictures:











There are a total of 9 pictures from tonight (found in the "Pictures of Christian" link to the right). Enjoy!

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Early Morning - Getting Ready for Church

The Todd household is getting ready for church this morning. For us, getting ready for church is usually a big production. Little Bits - Christian - has to be fed, washed, put down for a nap, and dressed just so Christy and I can start to get ready. It's usually a tag team effort with one of us doing one of those things while the other tries to get ready as fast as possible. Even so, I don't think we've been on time to church but two or three times...



Everything is still alive in the aquarium - including the snail that didn't look so good last night. It still hasn't moved that much, but at least it is still alive. The male killifish still chases after the female pretty hard. I'm hoping that that is not a bad indication, that it is normal behavior. I really just don't know though.



Oh well... Later today, I should test the water pH and KH, and then probably perform a small water change to try to continue to bring down the pH slowly.

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The Dial-Up Blues Coming to an End?

Hmmm. Something has changed. I went to Charter's website just to check on cable internet again, and now it shows that cable internet is available in my area. Yippee! Of course, I ordered it immediately. I even got to print out a confirmation page for the order. I'm supposed to be contacted by phone to setup the installation sometime soon. I'm hoping, but not holding my breath on this.

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More Aquarium Maintenance...

Nothing new to report on the aquarium front. Although my wife is upset with me for messing with the tank at all. She sort of blames me for the death of the elephant nose fish - because she warned me not to add anything else to the tank after the clown loaches died.



I tested the sample of tank water taken yesterday before the water change:

Pre-Water Change Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	10 mg/L
CA (calcium)	3 drops = 3*20 = 60 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	7 drops = 7*20 = 140 ppm = 7.84 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	11 drops = 11*10 = 110 ppm = 6.16 dCH
pH (high test)	7.8 pH

I'm bothered most by that pH reading. I've been trying to lower the pH (trying to get to somewhere around 7.4 pH) since it spiked a few weeks ago. To that end, I was performing partial water changes daily last week. I guess I stopped too soon. It also looks like the plants are taking ALL of the available nutrients but cannot utilize them well because of the high pH, high alkalinity causing a low CO2 availability.

I checked the 24-Hour water (water from 24 hours after the last water change):

"24-Hour" Water Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	0-5 mg/L
CA (calcium)	3 drops = 3*20 = 60 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	7 drops = 7*20 = 140 ppm = 7.84 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	10 drops = 10*10 = 100 ppm = 5.60 dCH
pH (high test)	7.8 pH

The above pH reading caused me to do another partial water change - I removed 3 gallons and added back 3 gallons. This time I used replacement water dosed only with SeaChem Prime and SeaChem Acid Buffer. While doing the water change, I ended up removing the last of the temple - narrow leaf in the back right corner of the tank. It was decomposing and none of it was really alive.

After the water change, I went ahead and fed the killifish some frozen brine shrimp. I also noticed that the last japanese trapdoor snail was not moving too well. I'm afraid that that snail may not make it... Oh well, I guess that I can take solace in a statement that a friend of mine made (and this friend is the head of an Aquatic Science Department at the local college): "You're not a real aquarist hobbyist until you've killed a bunch of fish." Not that that makes me or my wife feel any better.

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Bad News Again...

I came home from work and found the elephant nose fish in distress. I could tell that the fish was rapidly breathing and was listing to one side. I'm guessing that the pH spike seen in the last couple of weeks has finally taken a toll on the elephant nose. I tried giving the fish a salt bath to see if that would improve the breathing but it did not. I finally removed the fish when it completely stopped moving.



This pH problem is beginning to bother me big time. I know that the pH is high, and I don't want to stress the tank inhabitants by dropping it extremely fast. To that end (and in the interest of plant care) I purchased something called a CO2 Fizz Factory by Jungle Labs from Drs. Foster & Smith and I'm trying to lower pH using SeaChem Acid Buffer. The problem, I guess, is that the pH is really moving to that recommended environment for the aquarium inhabitants.



Anyway, I did go ahead and perform a water change - removing 3.75 gallons and adding in 4.0 gallons of recipe replacement water. I took a sample of tank water before the change for testing later. I will post those results here when I catch up.

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New Look Finished?

I think I'm through for the time being. The links to the right should be working now. I think they are self explanatory, but.... If you do have questions, just send me an email or call me.



Later!

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A New Look...

Well, as I continue to blog, I've realized that I'm kicking some *important* pictures down the page and making them somewhat harder to find. I guess that means that I need to figure out how to make some permanent links (in a frame???) and how to better organize this blog. Look for changes soon!

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