First Guests

After monitoring the Ammonium (NH4), Nitrite (NO2) and Nitrate (NO3) for the last few weeks and seen them fall to the appropriate levels, I decided it was time to get some fish. After some deliberation I decided to go for a fish species that was hardy, playful and fun to watch (my opinion of course). So yesterday I went to my local fish shop and bought 3 Zebra Danio (Brachydanio rerio) and 3 Leopard Danio (Brachydanio rerio var. frankei). Once I had introduced them to the tank, they spent the night getting to know their new surroundings. Part of that process was eating all the bloodworms (I was able to identify them with the help of the local fish shop assistant), so by this morning they were pretty much settled in. They appear to be enjoying the few plants in the tank, especially the Cabomba aquatica (Green Cabomba, Giant Cabomba) where they like to hide from each other. Besides darting around the tank, they also enjoyed the flakes I fed them tonight, though not as much as live bloodworms.

So welcome to our first 6 guests. We hope you enjoy your stay.

First Of The Hotel Furnishings

On Sunday L and I went to our local pet shop that specialises in Koi to get a water testing kit so that I could test the hardness and pH of our tap water to get an idea what we are facing. I bought a Tetratest Laborett test kit, which covers pH (acidity of a solution), KH (carbonate hardness), GH (general hardness), NO2 (Nitrate) and CO2 (carbon dioxide).

While we were there we had a look around at some of the aquarium backings you get, perused the fresh water fish and plants, and came across this piece of wood, which we both could not resist.

It is 55 cm x 41 cm x 41 cm (Length, Width, Height). We felt this could either become a centrepiece or be used to distract from the filter. We will decide on that later. In the meantime I have given it a good rise and have put it in the outdoor fishpond to soak to remove any tannins.