Recent content by HarpyFishLover

For whatever reason, the harlequins are swimming normally now. And the cory seems to be okay for now... I'm really not sure what's going on in that tank but I'll go back to daily water changes for a week or so. If the harlequins ever do that again, I'll be sure to get a video.

Tank size: 10 Gallon pH: ~ 7.4 ammonia: 0 nitrite: ~1 nitrate: ~5 kH: can't remember gH: ~300 tank temp: 78F Fish Symptoms: I noticed when I fed the fish tonight that my cory was acting weird. She was almost motionless - at first I thought she wasn't breathing. Her color was wrong... the top of...

Alright, good to know. It doesn't have a support strip. It's just about 20 inches long, 12 inches wide, 12 inches tall. I don't know how thick the glass is. I could measure it but I'm not currently at home. I'll do that later today. I've had the tank for over 3 years, and it's done this since a...

I cleaned the filter today. It took a few tries to start up, but it works now. I've noticed bowing since the second or third month of having this tank but recently I feel like it's been worse. Is there anything I can do about it, or should do to avoid it potentially bursting? (I'll try to...

Been a bit since I found time to update. I've changed the water almost every day the last week (2 weeks?) and it's really starting to look cleaner. The fish seem a lot happier. I got pretty sick on Monday, so I missed Monday and Tuesday, but I did change it on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday...

They're looking a lot more active and have much better colors than they did a week ago. I haven't checked their gills yet today to see if they're red or not, they probably still are but not as bad. Also, is it fine to skip a single day of vacuuming? Or should I push through and vacuum it? Does...

Sixth (I think) 10% water change complete. I think I'm going to do one more 10% tomorrow then start 20% changes.

Cleaned today! I went ahead and replaced the carbon filter, since I haven't been able to get the round sponge yet, and the filter wasn't letting anything through it. So it SHOULD be another month or two before I gotta replace it again.. hopefully. I'm getting to the point that I can't afford the...

I cleaned it again on Saturday (I missed Friday due to an unforseen personal issue, which did get resolved but made it impossible to vacuum on Friday), I'm about to go vacuum it again today. The fish look happier, certainly, and the gravel looks a lot cleaner. The water is gradually getting...

Ahh, I never thought about the filter (though in the back of my brain I did think about it... subconsciously), that's definitely a better option than what I was gonna do. I'll keep doing what I'm doing with the snails (picking them out by hand). I'll look into snail traps for when I get the...

Third water change is complete. The spots I vacuumed yesterday already have a ton of filth in them, though not as much as before. I tried vacuuming the roots of the plants, but the stuff I thought was just general poop and stuff wouldn't vacuum off. I suspect it would come off if I rinsed them...

Second water change completed! I was able to vacuum a bit deeper into the gravel this time. The cory is sitting right over where I just vacuumed, she doesn't usually sit there.. maybe it's a bit fresher right there?

I put the air stone in, and now they're acting a little more normal. Though they do seem intrigued by the air stone. I'm gonna try to get another water change in tomorrow, maybe I'll be able to vacuum quite a bit of the substrate.

Ooh, yikes, I'll see what I can do about aeration. I have a pump that's intended for 30+ gallon tanks that puts out WAY too much air (that I used when the filter died)... Will this be good or just stress the fish too much? And yes, I did dechlorinate the water before adding it.

First change complete! 10-15% (I may have gotten a little carried away...) water change (I did vacuum the gravel as well, that's why I got carried away.. it's satisfying to see the filth sucked away into a bucket), I cleaned the light as it had a ton of algae on it, and I rinsed the filter pad...