Thursday, April 30, 2009

Water Change




Done water change just now, about 10%, before going back to Bintulu this weekend. I sucked out dirts from tank bottom as well.

pH after water change around 6.63.

2nd Compartment

Close look at the new bio rings:




Overall view:




pH around 6.55 at noon.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Quick Update

Can't wait any longer so just finished put in and arranged the new bio rings into the 2nd compartment! (late at night!)


Arrangement at 2nd compartment now is as follows:

Bottom Layer:
- 1 layer of sponge.

Centre Layer:
- Ceramic Rings - Bio Rings - Ceramic Rings & Coral Chips.

Last but not least, water plant on top.

Thus in total I got around 10kg of ceramic/bio rings!


pH around 6.5 at 10 p.m.

Bio Ring

Just got another 3kg of larger and porous bio ring today!



Here the 3kg rings in the net, will put them into the 2nd compartment at the moment. Later will move it to 3rd compartment substituting the Japanese mats.

Rearrangement (Part 2)

Not satisfied with the arrangement yesterday so I bought another soft and more durable net to hold more ceramic rings.

Here's the new net with ceramic rings (around 2kg):




Here's the net that I bought yesterday (around 2kg):




Here's the coral chips I put in yesterday (around 1kg):




Here's the water plant I tied together with aluminum as weight/anchor.




Here's the first (Japanese mats), second (coral chips - 1kg, ceramic rings - 6kg, sponges) and third compartments (Japanese mats):




Here's the fourth compartment (just return pump, UV and some feeder fishes):




Overview (UV pumps water to Over Head Filter filled with 1kg infra-red ceramic rings and water return to first compartment):




pH reading today around 6.46 at 11:30 a.m.




Next "project" will be getting another 8 kg of ceramic rings for the 3rd compartment substituting the existing Japanese mats. Will be my next projects. Maybe I'll just get those red coloured one which I bought earlier that claims can release infra-red and create energy water.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Ceramic Rings Arrangement

Did some arrangement with the ceramic rings at the second compartment. Repack the smaller pack into a larger soft nylon bag I just bought and try spread them on the floor of second compartment so that water will flow through the ceramic rings evenly.

Here's the final result with some sponge at the bottom to stop dirts from first compartment.




pH around 6.3. Thus added in 1kg of coral chips.

Monday, April 27, 2009

My Plochilodus



Managed to take a nice shot of my Plochilodus aka Flagtail or 飞凤 !

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Major Cleaning

Today I did a major clean up for the sump filter.

First I cleaned all filter medias: japanese mats and ceramic rings by rinsing them.

Then I did some rearrangement on these medias. First compartment still japanese mats, 2nd compartments with ceramic rings, and some plants on top, and third compartment with japanese mats again. Might change the third compartment with ceramic rings in future.



Total water change should be around 30% - 40%. Added black water to calm Kelesa.

pH after 3 hours is around 6.37. Might add in 1kg of coral chips tomorrow if pH drops further.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Water Change

Done 20% water change today and cleaned and divided all ceramic rings into smaller 1kg bags for easier cleaning next time. All together I have ±7kg of ceramic rings at the filter compartments.

Also fed Kelesa with frozen prawn again after water change too.

pH reading at 6.73 after water change. Temperature 31-32°C.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Sun Bath!

'Summer' is approaching, so the direction of sunrise and sunset also changes (as per my own observation...)

Here is the photo which I just took, where Kelesa is having sun bath!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

New Food

Was just trying to let Kelesa try some market frozen prawn and to my surprise Kelesa takes it! That's very good news to me as they're too many arowana just so picky about food and refuse to take prawn. Will start to give Kelesa prawn than super worms from now on as it's full of 'goodies' for Kelesa and also it's much more cheaper and easier to get.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

pH Update

pH this morning was around 7.01, so I took out the coral chips that I put in earlier. Will continue monitoring it since the pH monitor is on 24/7 now.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Updates

Just got AC adapter to supply electricity to my pH monitor, so now I can monitor pH 24/7!





Also, custom made a small tank for my tortoises. I placed it beside my sump tank. Should be easy doing water change from now on.





Done setting up the 'energy water' for my tank, but not really sure whether it works as told. We'll see if Kelesa shows any 'sign' of satisfaction or enjoyment.



Here's the modified overflow:




Here's the inlet after UV light:



The overflow outlet:



Final Overview on Bottom Rack:

New 'Infra Red' Ceramic Rings




Bought these ceramic rings yesterday. They called it 'Infra Red' ceramic rings which creates energy water beside its normal function as bacteria house.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

pH Status Update

Yesterday found out the pH drops to 6.3. So I put in 1kg of coral chips. This morning the pH rises to 6.7. Will continue monitoring and hope to keep it at the range of 6.8-7.0.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Hikari Sticks

New sticks for my Kelesa's new food training.



Hope to start training soon as last training is not a successful one.

Water Change

Just done 20% water change today, and clear tank bottom too. Added pH down and black water to control pH at 6.5.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Training : Day 2

Well, end of training today actually when I see Kelesa is so thin and still don't want to take the sticks.

So, I gave Kelesa a real meals and it enjoys the super worms!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Training : Day 1

Today started training Kelesa to take sticks. Well morning till evening he don't want to swallow one stick, so pity of him so I feed him one super worm. During these hours of starving, he attacked all tank mates whoever come close to those sticks I fed him.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

pH Status

Well, the pH yesterday and today drop further without any "task" carried out. At the moment it's around 6.57, this morning it was around 6.8.

Hopefully it can maintains at 6.5-7 which is ideal for Kelesa. If it drops too much, I will need to put in 1 KG of coral chips to buffer it a bit.

Might change some japanese mats for ceramic rings these days, stay tune!

Here's another photo I just took:

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Update

Top up sump filter with some filtered water today, mix with water conditioner, black water and pH down too.

Here are the water conditioner I'm using so far for Kelesa's home during water change.





And here's Kelesa's only meal so far (will try to train Kelesa to take Azoo 9-in-1 Arowana Sticks again soon!)

Sunday, April 5, 2009

pH Status

Well, after using almost 75% of the two bottles of pH Down solution, the pH now is around 6.8, I will see how many days it can maintain below 7, and then will try to do something about it again later.

Friday, April 3, 2009

pH Down - Again

Well, not satisfied with the water pH so tried pH down solution again and hopefully can maintain the water pH around 7 from now on.

Here's the two pH down solutions I bought today for the task:




Also, I installed new lighting yesterday, blue light which gives bright colour at night which I think is pretty cool and nice!




Also, I planted some plants at sump filter compartments. That is to absorb nitrates in the water.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

New Tank Mate

I got Kelesa a new tank mate - Prochilodus or Phoenix - 飞凤 ,the only vegetarian in the tank (beside the Plecostomus or BDA my father used to call it).



Other tank mates of Kelesa beside those two mentioned above are: Tinfoil Barb x 3, Oscar x 1, Cat Fish x 1. (All gifts from my brother-in-law)