Modifications in the aquarium
On 26/9 I noticed that one Cardinal tetra had mold. I wanted to apply the eSha 2000 treatment but it finished. For the time being, I prepared a small 25-liter aquarium for the quarantine purpose. On the following day, I stopped in the Sklorex store in Brno to buy eSha 2000. At the opportunity, I bought some Dragon stones because I was planning on modifications of the aquarium bottom. I moved the sick fish to the quarantine tank at home and applied the treatment. I observed, on the following day, that another Tetra cardinal had some object on its body. I moved it too. Unfortunately, the first tetra didn’t survive for long.
I wanted to make some modifications in the aquarium because plants were overgrown and the aquarium appearance was not the best. I needed to order additional plants. On the Rataj’s eShop I ordered three pieces of Eleocharis parvull and one piece of Vallisneria corkscrew. I saw that the Rataj offered a new product – Volcano Black sand. They also have a video on youtube. I told to myself, that it would be interesting to try it. So I ordered 8 liters of it. I added one package of the Nové dno sand, 2 liters of the Makron fertilizer and the Bivoj fertilizer balls to the order. I submitted the order on Tuesday in the evening.
On Friday, I received the ordered items in a big box. When Iopened up the box, I found out that the Volcano black sand’s plastic bag was leaky. The sand is delivered humid, so the box got humid a little. Fortunately, nothing was damaged.
I removed the plants from the bags and pots putting them into a sat water. I added a few drops of the eSha 2000 treatment into that water. The Vallisneria corkscrew plant had quite long roots in comparison to other stores. I always had problems to plant the Vallisnerias because of very short roots.
On the following day, 7/10, I rolled up the sleeves and started working on the modifications. It was necessary to change a part of the water. First, I pulled out the Vallisneria plants. Some of them were ugly and it I had to select the nice ones. I only kept the few prettiest ones. Moreover, I pulled out the Ludwigia rupens and Echinodorus urugayensis from the front part of the aquarium. I had to select a few from the Echinodorus plants because they were huge. I also removed the wood from the back side of the aquarium. Then I let the filter run for some time to let sludge settle down a bit.
Then I started to drain the water. Some parts where the removed plants were before, had to be vacuumed well. Then I started positioning the new stones in a manner to create edges of a terrace. I rinsed the stones well before its use and boiled them too. I also rinsed and boiled the new black volcanic sand. The sand contains a lot of black sludge which remained at the bottom. To avoid water clouds I put the sand into a small plastic box and closed it. I immersed it and opened up when it was close enough to the bottom. One way or another the water got partially cloudy and the visibility lowered. I repeated that several times. I added 4 litters of sand to the aquarium. Then it was necessary to add sand from the other side of the stones.
I rinsed and boiled approx. half a liter of the Nové dno sand and put it to the bottom. Then I let the water settle down a bit so it was more transparent and I could start planting the plants. The black volcanic sand is gross so it was not easy to put there plants with large roots. I planted the Ludwigia rupens plants and then the Echinodorus urugayensis. I had to get rid of some plants because there was not enough space. Then I located a few pieces of the Vallisneria spiralis and corkscrew plants. Finally, I put there the Eleocharis parvula ones.
I could start filling the tank. The water was cloudy so I didn’t do anything else with the aquarium on that day. It was crystal clear on the following day. I measured the level of iron in the water. The level got lowered. So I added four tablets of the Tetera Crypto-Dunge fertilizer. The phosphorus level was low as well, therefore I applied 75 ml of the Makron fertilizer.
It was also necessary to add a little bit of the black volcanicsand. So, I rinsed a bit of the sand and put it into the back side. This sand must be taken from a vessel with water. Some black mud will remain at the bottom at the end, which can smudge water what we want to avoid.
After one week of running, I measured the iron and phosphorus level. The phosphorus was still at a low level, therefore I applied 40 ml of the Makron fertilizer. The iron level got increased but it was not at the optimum level yet. So, I applied 10 ml of the Colour Fe+ and 10 ml of the Mangan+ fertilizer.
In the meantime, the state of the Cardinal tetra in the quarantine aquarium didn’t improve. It died on Wednesday.
