The Planted Aquarium, Pt. 01

This is my 90 gallon aquarium. Set up about a month - month and a half ago. Running two power filters each running about 150-200 gallons per hour circulation through polyfiber. One of the filters also has a home made peat moss filter pad in addition to it's plain polyfiber filter pad. Two T-5 Powerglo bulbs to encourage my little plants.

Parameters before the peat moss addition were:

Ammonia - 0.75 mg/l. A little high, but also exactly what the tap comes out. Hopefully my bacterial filter will soon catch up. In the mean time, I have added a dose of prime to detoxify the ammonia.

pH - 7.5 (tap is 8.0). Hopefully the peat will help with this

General hardness- 8

Carbonate hardness- 4

Nitrite- 0



View of the left hand side. There are three plantings of water wisteria (as well as some smaller offshoots) at the right and back. Back left is hornwort which is loosely anchored to the rock. Front left is some rotala which has some little shoots starting, and in the front right/center, two bits of mondo grass. Hopefully this will all fill in together to have a fluffy full back, and flattish grassy area concealing a little rock cave. Orange fish in the background is a gold gourami, and an otocinclus catfish can be seen eating algae off the mondo grass.



View of the right hand side. I can't recall the name of the broad leafed grass on the very right hand side. There are 3 plantings of rotala, a java fern in the back near the center of the front clearing, and two spots of micro sword. Most of the plants will grow tall, and the micro sword should fill in like a lawn. You can barely see the two rummy nose tetras in the back, and a dark grey otocinclus cat on the small rock near the front right-hand side.

View through the right hand side. A clump of hair algae in the front left hand side of the picture, which seems to have caught a bit of the frozen food I tossed in earlier. A small bushy nose pleco is next to the clump, and an otocinclus cat is right behind it. There is also hornwort and the back of the small cave, and the lone neon tetra on the left hand side.

A closeup of the bushy nose pleco. Micro sword to the right, Java fern to the left.

The gold gourami.


On the underside of one of the leaves, I found several new leaves and roots growing.



Another java fern shoot. An uncurling leaf on top and dangling roots beneath.


Coming off the left-hand back side of the micro sword, some new runners.


Mondo grass


An otocinclus catfish resting on a rock. These are really good algae eaters, and will even eat algae off plant leaves without harming them.




Some parrot's feather floating on the surface of the water, as well as some water wisteria.




Rotala with new growth at the base of the plant.


An example of the snails that are trying to over run the tank. No worries though, this gives me an excuse to get some dwarf ring loaches to eat them :)


For algae control, there are 5 otocinclus catfish, one bushy nose pleco, and one albino bushy nose pleco. Two rummy nose tetras and one neon tetra also inhabit the tank. The tetras are schooling fish, so more will be added soon. Luckily so far none seem adversely effected by the lack of others.

...Living in a VAN, down by the RIVER!

Well, not really living there, nor in a van, but it's still funny, and in some way, shape, or form related to my post.

Some photos, some of which are from the Tuolumne river.

It's Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!!!

Ever create a "frankendinner"? Just tossing ingredients together, somewhat at random, to create an edible something. Tonight it was a stir fry mushroom gravy dish. I came across a good deal of mushrooms, so naturally thought of mushroom gravy, a rich, dark expression of a beef and mushroom union. But I had planned and prepared for stir fry....

Letting my nose guide me, I just dove in. I had an idea that trying to combine stir fry and mushroom gravy. Sautee'd diced mushrooms and garlic in butter, and added flour to brown as usual. Mixed up some beef broth with about a quarter bottle of dark beer, dehydrated onion, and a good deal of pepper. After a moment pause, a hit of Worcestershire went in too.

In went the broth mixture. Simmering away, I tasted it and thought it needed..... something. Not quite sure what. That is when I added a bit of fish sauce, 8oz of tomato sauce, ginger, dry mustard, and chinese 5 spice powder in search of my flavour.

I'm sitting here eating it over some veggies and steak strips with rice, Elliot has given it two thumbs up, and for once I am recording approximately what the heck I accidentally did :) This seems like it would be equally good over rice, egg noodles, or potatoes. Gotta love playing with your ingredients, you never know when you will come up with something great!

I'm a Cat Tree

.... apparently. At least I am according to the eight kittens in the spare bedroom. What am I doing with eight kittens? Apparently word got out that we are welcoming to single mother kitties. Awhile back, we were feeding a mother cat that had made a nest next to the storage shed, and watched the kittens grow up and wander off on their own. One of those kittens returned, and had a litter. At one point, we noticed that the kittens seemed quite distressed, crying in hunger. Perhaps mom was just off hunting, but by the end of the evening they were just out crying in the open, so we thought that something had happened to the mother (we were later told by the neighbor that they saw the body of the cat that had been hanging around out in the orchard... another animal had gotten her).

And so, we took in eight kittens.

Freddy - a solid tabby that reminds me of another cat we used to have, who was very lovey, big, and active

White Foot - a tabby with white feet, and very playful

Broken Tabby - a white chested tabby with a white stripe connecting across his shoulders, he's one of the two smallest kittens. He takes more breaks than the other kittens during play, but he kicks their butts when he does play. He was also the first to try climbing my leg.

Blue Eyes - A very fluffy cat with full brownish-blue points, lovey and randomly starts licking while attacking/chewing another kitten or person

Colonel Sanders - A siamese-ish looking kitten with a couple of white stripes on his face looking like a mustache, very active and startles easily.

Grey Ear - predominantly white with some markings, most notably a grey right ear. Very talkative, very lovey, loves being pet.

Disco Stu - Similar markings to my SIL's cat Stewart, solid black with white toe-socks and white spot on his chest, he's our little "badass". He's the biggest and strongest of the kittens, plays quite rough, and likes to wander, sometimes twittering to himself as he goes.

Cali Girl - A mostly-white calico, she is the other small one of the bunch. Not shy, but not outgoing either, just kind of reserved. She seems very neutral to things, very cute, and she has the softest hair of the bunch.

And they think I'm a big chew toy/cat tree :D