Newness

New lights, new gravel, new wood, new location and some new fish... and yes some new "plastic" plants (for now).

The crpts (foreground plants) have already melted and will take some time to regrow.
The driftwood is awesome. Tank is still cloudy from the new sand but will clear up over time.
I added 5 new peppered corys yesterday to help churn the sand.


During the breakdown and move, I setup an old 10 gallon tank in my daughter's room. She likes it and wants to keep it running. Yesterday she picked out two platys to add to it. I am also keeping my panda corys in this tank.

Under Construction

Here is the last shot of my tank before big changes:


I have already changed the lighting. Removed the very high output (VHO) T5 ballast and replaced it with a normal output (NO) T5 ballast. The change in heat produced by the bulbs is night and day.
I have a large piece of drift wood soaking in the tank now, getting water-logged. It is a interesting piece, I just hope it is not too big.

Grounded

My aquarium has been grounded from light for 3 days because of bad behavior. The blue-green algae is out of control despite my best efforts to stop it. I have done all the research and taken all the recommended steps and it just won't stop. MAKE IT STOP! So for now I am killing it off with a 3 black-out.
Soon, I plan to redo my aquarium. I will switch to sand for a substrate, remove the CO2 injection and remove the T5VHO lighting. I don't like the T5VHO lights, they just run too hot and the room they are in gets extra warm because of it (not a good thing in Phoenix). I plan to move to LED lighting, low power, low heat. I also ordered more driftwood.

Suckage

My tank sucks... no matter what it turns into a blue-green algae soup. I have it on a 3 day black-out to kill it then I plan to reduce the lighting to survive until I do a re-scape. I plan to replace the substrate, I think that may be the cause.

Trimming Day

Big clean out of Wisteria today.
Trash pile on the bottom, keepers on top.

Another update

Some progress has been made in the algae war. I have starved them from nutrients and there has been a big reduction in algae, but the plants are suffering as well. I have resumed nutrient supplements now... but I need to order a new kind of supplement to do it right.

Duckweed usually grows like a weed, but not in my tank. It all died off. Maybe the lights are too hot, or maybe my Endler's live bearers eat the roots.

Speaking of Endler's, there are way too many babies in my tank now. Here you can see a few:

My pandas:



My dog, giving me the evil eye:

Duckweed

A good i-friend gave me some good advice on algae control. I cut my lights back to 7 hours a day and got some duckweed from a local pet shop (3 bucks for a small portion!!!) to help control nutrient and light levels.
Cross your fingers.