Mark's Blog

So, uh. I think I've got this MovableType thing installed. Let's see if this works.

Today has been all about Fish. Cindy and I discussed and agreed upon a design for a fountain we're going to put in our garden. It's a half barrel with a watering can suspended above it by a pipe. In the barrel is a pump that will circulate water through a hose hidden in the pipe that goes into the spout of the watering can and showers back down into the pond.

We picked up the parts for it today, and I got most of it assembled. However, the pump we got has a smaller fitting than the bulk-head adaptor we got for passing the water through the barrel liner, so I can't finisht he plumbing. Back to the fish store.

The other fishy thing I did today was to effectively take a weed whacker to the tank: I pruned about 2/3 of the Java Fern, about 1/3 of the Lilly, and a huge bunch of Lutea that was being squished into the front glass by the Ferns.

For those who haven't seen it, I have a 55gal tank. It's sizeable, about 48" wide, 12" deep, 15" high. The Java Ferns (two of them) were taking up over half the volume of the tank. They almost completely choaked off the center of the tank such that even a little bit of algae build-up would separate the two halves of the tank. It was getting _WAY_ out of hand.

So I went in and just startting ripping out large chunks of Java Fern. If you get it down in the root system, you can propigate them pretty easily. So I pulled out chunks and put them in a 5 gal bucket to take to the fish store. They gave me $20 store credit, which is more than I was expecting, so that was cool. It helped pay for the pond materials.

I also came home with two new fish: A Dwarf Gourami and a Opaline Gourami. In theory, gouramis don't get along with each other, but if you introduce them to the tank at the same time, they should each establish their own territory and do fine. These two, plus my Black Mollys, Platys, Purple Tetras, Head and Taillight Tetras, Gold Algae Eaters, and a Harlequin Rasbora thrown in for good measure, the tank has a pretty good population.