Hello from Oklahoma

[stingrays4]

Hi and welcome to AAThe main thing with fishkeeping is to do research which you are doing and then the main thing is the setting up and cycling an aquarium properly,this takes time and patience but this is where most mistakes are made - be patient and you will be reward with an aquarium to be proud of! Plants can go straight in so you can aquascape and get the tank looking how you want it before the fish are introduced
i love smileys too

[NLeigh]

Hee, thanks Stingray, always nice to find a fellow smiley addict. Currently, plants-in-awaiting-fish is where I am. Everything looks so pretty. Hopefully will get the first 3 fish this weekend, if not I'll be ordering the first 3 online, lol. I'm actually looking forward to cycling the tank -- I've never been in charge of that before, and I'm taking more of an interest this time so I'll be the one in charge.

[NLeigh]

I got my fishies!! Bought 3 glofish danios, one red (pink, really, though I guess it's officially "red" lol), one orange, and one green. Their names are Gazelle, Clementine, and Oscar. They're having a great time exploring their new home. They are so much fun to watch!

[Retired_AF]

Welcome to AA. I dont live in Oklahoma, but sometimes it feels like it since I spend a lot of time out there. I love the comment about your husband being compelled to own the glofish . You will fit right in here.

I felt the same way about the glofish at first, but I too found out that they werent like the painted fish from back in the 80's or the tattooed fish I see today. Those I have a problem with and will not spend my $$ at the type of stores that seel them.

Anyway, off my soapbox now. Again, !

[NLeigh]

Thank you Jim! Appreciate your welcome.

I'm going to try my hand at adding a couple of photos to this post, so you all can see my tank & new fish. Let's see here...


Bottom half of my tank, where most of the exciting stuff is.


Fishies at play


Top to bottom: Clementine, Gazelle, and Oscar

[Sisserydoo]

They look great, and so does the tank!

[NLeigh]

Thanks Sisserydoo!

Well my husband thinks I'm nuts, but the tank is starting to look a little cloudy, so I'm doing my 2nd water testing of the day. (He thinks I'm nuts because he sees no need to test more than once a day. Oh well. He's right, I am nuts. )

I'm thinking I may do a pwc even if the tests don't show increased ammonia or nitrite levels. There's no such thing as doing a pwc too soon or too often, is there?

[Sisserydoo]

I don't think so. Sometimes you'll find people who say you can change too much water though. But the way I look at it, the good bacteria live in the filter and on surfaces in the tank, and all the bad stuff is in the water, so lots of water changes aren't really going to hurt anything, although sometimes they might be unnecessary.

[NLeigh]

That's kind of what I was thinking.

OTOH, the ammonia & nitrite levels are indeed exactly as they were this am, and the fish are actually more active now than they've been all day (spent a lot of time hiding in the plants this morning & early afternoon). I think I may wait on the pwc till after tomorrow's water tests. A pwc right now would probably just make my nutty glofish even nuttier. (and I say that affectionately, I love their nutty darting all over the tank! )

[Retired_AF]

I agree with Sissy... You cant do too many partial water changes, plus that will help remove some of whatever is clouding up the water.

I love the way you set the high structure in the tank. That allows the fish places to hide and swim all the way around. Nice!

[NLeigh]

Thanks, Jim! It's funny, I didn't even realize just how ideal this setup was until the fishies went in. They absolutely LOVE having all the places to hide and swim around and zip in and out and all around. It's really cool.

Definitely I'll be doing a pwc in the morning regardless of my readings. I will be totally shocked if my ammonia hasn't gone up though. It stayed at .25 mg/L all day, which surprised me. Waiting for the spike, lol.

[NLeigh]

Readings still the same (this is the darnedest thing, I swear, lol!) but I went ahead and did my pwc. Of course now my water is REALLY murky (expect it'll clear up after a little while) and my poor little glofish are completely freaked out. lol

I need to learn how not to be such an oaf during my water changes. I uprooted half my plants, including my Amazon sword which I never uproot. On the bright side, I did discover a few stems of anachris that needed to be tossed anyway (one was broken, another wasn't looking healthy), so there is that.

As I was typing this, the funniest thing happened. Gazelle (our pink glofish) swam up to the top of the tank really fast. Just as she reached the top, one of our tiny snails fell off the top of the glass and back down into the tank! If I didn't know better I'd say she knocked it off the side of the tank, and I'm not sure I *don't* know better!

[Hholly]

Are you using buckets to change water? Some people use a colander to diffuse the water as they dump it in. But a Python or Aqueon water changer makes things a lot easier.

[NLeigh]

Yes, I'm using buckets. A colander is something I never would have considered. I had heard of using a saucer when you're first filling the tank, but not a colander for pwcs. I'll have to try that next time.

I would LOVE to get a Python or something similar in the future. Saw one at the same Petco where I bought my glofish, and I drooled. Think we'll have to save up for one of those.

[NLeigh]

Water has cleared up pretty nicely. It's still the tiniest bit cloudy, but not as much as this morning.

How often do y'all reckon I should test the water? I know my hubby thinks once a day is enough, but I wonder if I should do so more often while it's still cycling. I know he also thinks I worry too much about this tank. Guilty as charged, lol. I've gotten attached to my little fishy buddies already.

[NLeigh]

So just did another pwc & was *far* less oaf-ish, lol. This time I uprooted only 2 stems of anachris as opposed to half my plants. Fish are far less freaked out this time (maybe they're figuring out that all the bumbling just means they're getting a bath ), and thanks to Holly's magnificent suggestion of a colander, the water didn't get as murky this time. It's already nearly completely clear, and I finished the pwc just 15 minutes ago.

My arms sure are sore, though. I really want a Python now.

I've started singing to the glofish when I (or anyone else) feeds them. My husband, I think, believes I have completely lost my mind I'm hoping that in time they come to realize that singing means food, and eventually they'll start going nuts for food when I start singing before I even start feeding. *fingers crossed*

[Sisserydoo]

I sing to mine too

[NLeigh]

Hee! Yay for singing. I sing this silly old song we used to sing in Girl Scouts when I was *cough* much younger.

I cannot BELIEVE this, but one of my hornworts and 3 stems of anachris got unrooted. I have NO idea how this happened, lol! It was a bunch of plants I had in the back. I had to get them retamped down ASAP because the glofish love it back there. You should've seen me after I was done. With both arms soaked and part of my tank top wet, I looked like I thought about swimming in my tank.