In Birmingham for Memorial Day Events

The Todd family headed down to Birmingham to the Holliman residence (Christy's parents) for our Memorial Day events. We left after church and when loading our car / backing out of the garage, I heard a loud chirping noise. I checked the holly bush on the side of the house and discovered a nest of mocking bird chicks. I took a couple of pictures which turned out surprisingly well:



2004-05-30 Mocking Bird Chicks







The other picture can be found in the Other Pictures link on the right side of this page under "Links".

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Aquarium News

Well, I checked the aquarium and it looks as if the killifish have laid another batch of eggs. I decided not to take any chances this time that the female might eat them and purchased a Penn-Plax Aqua-Nursery from Fish Tails in Rainbow City.



I fully rinsed the "nursery" and placed it in the tank. I then took some of the hornwort and placed some of it in the "maternity" section of the nursery. I used some aquarium scissors to cut off the portion of the amazon sword leaf where the egg batch was visible. I then used a toothpick to scrape the batch off into the nursery. The batch was surprisingly "gellish." I thought that killifish eggs would be more like eggs... Well, I'll find out in 12-21 days (according to the American Killifish Association, that is how long killifish eggs incubate.)



I've also almost finished creating my *home-made* CO2 injector. Just a quick note: I did purchase some of the equipment and will note those parts in a separate post, when I show the injector (if it works!) later.

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Cute Pictures

Can the boy be any cuter? Mommy and Daddy certainly don't think so. This afternoon we took the little guy to the pool, but before we did, we played with him in his bedroom. Christian is getting closer to crawling: he can turn around using his arms and just in the last couple of days, he's started pushing himself backwards. That backwards movement resulted in a funny situation - one that he thought was funny too.



Here's just one of the pictures (and as usual, the rest can be found in the Pictures of Christian link to the right):

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Aquarium Changes during Water Change

During the water change, I removed the Jungle Lab's CO2 Fizz Factory in preparation for the placement for my *homemade* CO2 injector. The parts that I have purchased and used so far include:

• One CO2 Glass Diffuser purchased from Drs. Foster Smith
  
  
• Approx. six feet of Airline Tubing purchased from Drs. Foster Smith
  
  
• One Hagen 2-Way Ultra Gang Valve purchased from Fish Tails in Rainbow City
  
  
• One Hagen Plastic Check Valve purchased from Drs. Foster Smith
  
  
• One Plastic Needle Valve purchased from Gadsden Industrial Distributors
  
  
• Two Joiner Airline Fittings purchased from Drs. Foster Smith
  
  
• One Aquafina 1-liter bottle
  
  
• One small needle valve given to me by Fish Tails
  
  
• And finally, the Airline Connector and CO2 Reaction Chamber from the aforementioned CO2 Fizz Factory by Jungle Labs.
  
  

I'm waiting on silicon to cure on the joiner airline fittings that are now *installed* into the cap of the Aquafina bottle. The silicon should be cured sometime Monday afternoon, and when I get home from our family's Memorial Day celebration, I will be assembling and testing my homemade CO2 injector. I also plan to take some pictures and get some testing done as to the efficiency of the CO2 reservoir and the approximate pH changes.

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Friday Water Change

Performed the weekly water change. This time I was able to use the water that I had prepared a week ago - that had too low a pH. By using the Hagen Elite 801 airpump that I purchased from Drs. Foster Smith online with a Coralife Limewood Airstone, I was able to aerate the replacement water for about 20 minutes. I kept checking the pH periodically and only after the 20 minutes of aeration did the pH finally creep up to 7.0 (it initially tested at 6.2 pH).



Before performing the water change, I took a couple of pictures. Here's one picture of what the tank looked like beforehand:

Notice the almost complete lack of algae - I'm guessing that the combination of plant usage of nutrients and the snails in the tank have virtually wiped out the algae.

I removed 3.75 gallons of tank water and added back in almost 4.0 gallons. The following two tables show the test results of the water:

Replacement Water Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	0 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)	0.10 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	9 drops = 9*20 = 180 ppm = 10.08 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	4 drops = 4*10 = 40 ppm = 2.24 dCH
pH (low test)	7.0 pH

As you can see, the pH is lowered and the carbonate hardness is almost eliminated. I am a little concerned about that general hardness though and I might need to cut back on the amount of SeaChem Equilibrium being added.

Pre-Water Change Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	5-10 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)	8 drops = 8*10 = 80 ppm = 4.48 dCH
pH (high test)	7.6 pH

Wow! Finally, it looks as if the pH is starting to come under control. I'm thinking that with the addition of a CO2 injector, I won't have to use SeaChem Acid Buffer to lower my carbonate hardness, and my pH should stay much more stable

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Pictures before Water Change

I took three pictures before I started the water change. Here's one of the pictures:

As usual, the other pictures can be found in the Pictures of Aquarium link.

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A Wasted? Day

You ever feel that a day has just gone by and you got NOTHING done? I know that I got some things done yesterday, but it sure felt like the day disappeared on me... I guess it could be the result of a lot of time being taken to do very little. Almost like there's not much to show for the day... That was yesterday!



I'm hoping today is better...



By the way, I am still trying to catch up on the older posts...

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