148.6L (39.2 gallon) aquarium journal

[elephantnose3334]

As long as she is eating well she should recover.

She's eating well lately and on her way to recovery. The wound is a bit paler now as it's healing.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Today's tank photo.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Did a water change on the aquarium by myself earlier today.

 

[elephantnose3334]

The tetras are doing all right today. The female tetra's wound is slowly getting there on its healing, but it is still a bit pale red. I did a water change on Monday, and checked on her today. She is eating well and behaving normally like the other silvertips. There have been no fish casualties in the aquarium as of now.

I also have a question regarding water testing kits. They're a bit expensive over here in Perth, but I might need to double-check the prices because I never tested water at home before. Which testing kit is the most budget- and beginner-friendly that I can use to accurately test the gH, pH, ammonia, nitrate/nitrite, etc. in my aquarium?

Today's photo dump:

 

[MattW]

I just had a Quick Look on Amazon.au and only found test strips and single liquid tests that where rather expensive.. I did find one company based in Brisbane who sold the API liquid master test kit but at 80AUD . I payed £32 for my api kit around 66AUD. You have it really expensive over there. I bet Colin will have a much better idea of where to buy a kit could even go second hand if there are any.

If you want to know the water that comes out of your tap, the local water company will have a website with that info on. Again Colin will probably know what site that is.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Dad added the black card background in the back of the tank while I was gone at work earlier today.

 

[Colin_T]

If you want to know the water that comes out of your tap, the local water company will have a website with that info on. Again Colin will probably know what site that is.

The WA Water Corporation provides drinking water to everyone in WA. They recently increased the chlorine levels to 5mg/litre (ppm), which is more than double what it used to be so you will need to use more dechlorinater. Apparently they increased the chlorine levels because the World Health Organisation said it is safe for most people to have 5mg/l chlorine in drinking water, prior to this it was 2mg/l. I am one of the people who can't tolerate that level, so I wrote to the Water Corp to find out what was going on with the water. That's when they told me about the new higher levels of chlorine in drinking water in Western Australia. That was about 2 weeks ago when they emailed me.

Just because most people can tolerate 5mg/l of chlorine, doesn't mean we need that much in our drinking water. We used to have 2mg/l and it worked fine for around 80 years so there is no reason to increase it to 5mg/l.

 

[MattW]

The WA Water Corporation provides drinking water to everyone in WA. They recently increased the chlorine levels to 5mg/litre (ppm), which is more than double what it used to be so you will need to use more dechlorinater. Apparently they increased the chlorine levels because the World Health Organisation said it is safe for most people to have 5mg/l chlorine in drinking water, prior to this it was 2mg/l. I am one of the people who can't tolerate that level, so I wrote to the Water Corp to find out what was going on with the water. That's when they told me about the new higher levels of chlorine in drinking water in Western Australia. That was about 2 weeks ago when they emailed me.

Just because most people can tolerate 5mg/l of chlorine, doesn't mean we need that much in our drinking water. We used to have 2mg/l and it worked fine for around 80 years so there is no reason to increase it to 5mg/l.

More than double is concerning. Perhaps bottled water for drinking maybe a better option. I mainly drink bottled water now. Using more dechlorinator will add to the costs too.. I also imagine utility costs are rising quickly over there as well as they are here.

My water company is stating 0.98 mg/l from its last test 3 weeks ago. (1.24 is the highest tested in the last 3 months)

 

[elephantnose3334]

The WA Water Corporation provides drinking water to everyone in WA. They recently increased the chlorine levels to 5mg/litre (ppm), which is more than double what it used to be so you will need to use more dechlorinater. Apparently they increased the chlorine levels because the World Health Organisation said it is safe for most people to have 5mg/l chlorine in drinking water, prior to this it was 2mg/l. I am one of the people who can't tolerate that level, so I wrote to the Water Corp to find out what was going on with the water. That's when they told me about the new higher levels of chlorine in drinking water in Western Australia. That was about 2 weeks ago when they emailed me.

Just because most people can tolerate 5mg/l of chlorine, doesn't mean we need that much in our drinking water. We used to have 2mg/l and it worked fine for around 80 years so there is no reason to increase it to 5mg/l.

I did not know that, but it's a bit off-topic. Let's stay on-topic. I will look into and test the gH on our water as soon as I can.

 

[elephantnose3334]

A few days ago, I removed most of the hitchhiker snails from the tank as their population was expanding rapidly, and humanely disposed of them. I am continuing to monitor the snail population in the next few days. Snails have their own benefits, but they can breed like guppies most of the time.

Today, the silvertip tetras are continuing to behave normally (for example, the males sparring for the females and eating normally). Usually, the males are a copper-yellow colouration, like those google images of the species when you open a care guide, but in my case, the dominant males have that beautiful orange colouration that most people don't appreciate often. Maybe that orange colouration is probably adult colouration as the juvenile males are a bit more yellower. I have two images to contrast the two. Left image is a typical image of a silvertip tetra. Right image is my own silvertip tetra male. Bit of a difference, isn't it?


Juvenile? male colouration Adult/breeding male colouration

The glass needs a clean, but I took some decent pictures of the fish.

 

[elephantnose3334]

I also added a small dose of Flourish Trace earlier today as part of my aquarium plant fertilisation schedule.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Today's tank photo.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Yesterday's tank photo.

 

[Colin_T]

The Vallis looks like it needs repotting and you could pot up or plant some of the Ambulia that's floating. But don't do it all because the tetras are loving it.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Potted some floating ambulia and did a water change and filter media clean (with old tank water) today. I spent an hour doing the activities, and it's hard work, but it paid off well.