WooHoo!!! I've Got Gmail.

Yippee! (No sarcasm intended.) Shortly after Christy and I got here in Birmingham, I decided to login and check my blog settings and activity at Blogger.com. I immediately noticed an invitation on the Blogger home page to join in the Gmail beta. I wasted NO time in accepting the invitation. In fact, I need to go back and read the "terms of acceptance" because I sort of skipped through them to get my gmail account active.



I've wanted to get a Gmail account since I first read about the offering of the Gmail beta in InfoWorld. Little did I know that opening and maintaining an active blog was a *shortcut* to an invitation. (See, I told you to start a blog Al!)



Anyway, if you want to email me, you can now Gmail me!



Now, back to Gmail.com to read that terms of acceptance that I accepted.

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Heading to Birmingham

Oops. I almost forgot that we were headed to Birmingham for part of the weekend.



So when I got home today, I went ahead and jumped a day ahead of schedule on my aquarium stuff: I injected 175 ml of CO2 and added 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel and 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Iron. I've noticed that the japonica amano shrimp sort of freaks out when adding the Flourish Iron, I wonder if it does something to the shrimp. I also fed the killifish some frozen brine shrimp. As soon as I finish this post, it's time to get in the car (my wife's car... a 2003 model) and head to B'ham!



Later!

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Continued...

As I blogged a few days ago, I am keeping to a new schedule for nutrient/fertilization for the aquarium. This morning I injected 175 ml of CO2 into the aquarium, added 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel and 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Iron. Since Sunday is my new water change day, I will check pH tonight to make sure it's ok. On Sunday, I will have a pre-water change sample to fully test.



As far as I can see, everything looks ok (I'm not saying good - the last time I blogged that, a few animals died within days.)



Off to work!

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"Historical" Posts Are Finished

Ugh. I have finally finished blogging the history of my aquarium. It should be fairly complete - as it contains all of my computer based notes that were made before I started this blog. I do have a few housekeeping items that I want to create and keep up to date here (as links off of the main page): a graph of the water test results over time, a list of maintenance tasks (how often performed and corresponding results), and a current *recipe* list for the replacement water (I always have to come and find my latest recipe before the weekly water change.)

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Civic Duty Performed!

I got a juror summons a few weeks ago.







This was the second juror summons that I have received since moving back from Portland, Oregon. The last time I was summoned, I was dismissed because I had not been living in Etowah County for the previous twelve months - as is required for a prospective juror.



So this morning I showed up at the county courthouse to perform my civic duty. One major difference between last time and this time is that I remember that only a few of those who had been summoned did not show up, but this time, it seemed like at least half of those summoned were not there. Which meant that I was pretty sure that I would be chosen for jury duty. But Alabama has changed... Ever since the budget crisis in Alabama happened, the state has been looking for ways to save money. One way they decided to save money was by having the judges schedule jury trials for the same time - so that the juror pool spends the least amount of time waiting. However today only a few judges had jury trials on their docket. Of those, one juror pool was assembled of thirty prospective jurors. Once that group was seated and organized for going to the court, the rest of us were asked to wait for a possible second juror pool for the next possible jury trial. Shortly before 11:00, another group was assembled for the second juror pool. I was the last one chosen. After we were seated, we were given some instructions and were told that we would know shortly if we were going to be called into court. We then received news that both possible jury trials that we were gathered for had been settled and that we might be needed later - but for the time being, we were free for lunch.



When we came back from lunch, the two prospective juries were again seated. The first prospective jury was taken to their trial for questioning by the attorneys. The second prospective jury - of which I was still a member - was told that only one judge left had a possible jury trial. Later, we were assembled again to be told that no judge would need another and we were going to be dismissed.



To complete our civic duty we were asked if we need a certificate of juror service for our employers and how many miles were travelled from our homes to the judicial building. Of course, I didn't need a certificate but I reported my round trip was about 22 miles. For my "civic duty," I was paid a total of $11.10 - $10.00 for the day, and $0.05 per mile for the travel.







Yippee!



Oh well, back to work tomorrow...

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Aquarium Post

Today, I started a new schedule of maintenance on the aquarium: I injected 175 ml of CO2, and added 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel and 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Iron. I plan to add these items every other day. I'm hoping that with this new regimen I can lower the pH in the tank, and sufficiently nourish the plants. I will test the water tomorrow to find out if the new regimen is having any effect.



I am also going to build a snail trap using a 35mm film canister. Since my homemade projects for the aquarium haven't panned out, I'm hoping this one works out a little better than the others... Pictures of this and more, later!

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Aquarium Update

I'm still fighting the pH battle, so I injected approximately 175 ml of CO2 this morning using the modified nursery enclosure and the CO2 reaction chamber from the CO2 Fizz Factory. By the time I got home from church, the 175 ml of CO2 had already been absorbed into the water. I'm planning to inject this same amount into the tank every other day - as well as adding appropriate amounts of SeaChem Flourish Excel and SeaChem Flourish Iron.



I didn't get around to my normal Friday water change, so I did it today - Sunday. Before changing the water, I spent about thirty minutes killing snails. It looks like they are going to be a bigger pain than I thought that they would be: I found another egg sack - even though the largest of the snails is very small - less than a quarter of an inch in length. Anyway, I killed snail after snail after snail before finally removing water for a water change. I removed approximately 3.5 gallons of water and added back in approximately 3.80 gallons of replacement water. I used the same mix as I did last time (with the reduced amount of SeaChem Equilibrium and reduced amount of SeaChem Acid Buffer). After the water change, I cleaned up around the tank and then replaced the hood. After replacing the hood, I was able to see more snails and so I ended killing at least eight more of the suckers.



I then tested both the existing aquarium water and the replacement water with the following results:

Pre-Water Change 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)	8 drops = 8*20 = 160 ppm = 8.96 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	8 drops = 8*10 = 80 ppm = 4.48 dCH
pH (high test)	8.0 pH

I can only hope that that pH doesn't represent a mid-low due to the addition of CO2 this morning (meaning that the pH was running much higher.

Replacement 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)	0.1-0.25 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	8 drops = 8*20 = 1600 ppm = 8.96 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	8 drops = 8*10 = 80 ppm = 4.48 dCH
pH (high test)	7.6 pH

That pH is still high on the replacement water. I think that I will go back to adding more SeaChem Acid Buffer to the next replacement water

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