Wednesday 4 April 2012

System Update - 4th April 2012

 Did a system check 9:30 in the morning. Ammonia is at 0.5mg/l, Nitrate reading is close to yellow which should be okay (I've lost its color chart), wide range pH test tells us its around 7.0. I've also tested the pH using a narrow pH test, but it gave an alkaline blue color. I don't trust my narrow pH tester because it's already several years old.

Here are some pictures of my system:

Surface bubbles take a longer time to burst... Smells a little fishy... A sign of ammonia... No tilapia death so far...
Mint is recovering fast, pegaga with some leaves yellowing is taking its time, kangkong cuttings which I planted 3 days ago are also doing fine...
Guppies seems fine...
I removed 6 pails of water, and replaced it with 3 pails of dechlorinated water. I'll add another 3 pails tomorrow. I gave the guppies 1/3 of their usual food, and 1 teaspoon of pellets for the tilapias... I'm worried for my pleco as I haven't fed it for 3 days and now that the tilapias are inside, they'll steal his food... If the pleco gets too hungry, will it attack the tilapias at night?

Later , while I was removing the kangkong stems from the guppy tank, I found a weird piece - It looks like something dark is inside the stem... I then tear the stem open and found this:

a guppy? Oh no... Is he alive??
Not moving... Must have suffocated inside it... I can't imagine how it must have felt during its last seconds... Staring at a green wall while gasping for air within a tight space... :(
Lesson learnt: The hollows of the kangkong plant can trap guppies...

Thanks for reading...

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