Waterbound Nowhere to Go

So many posts in the same month!

A little update on the blackwater tank and other aquarium happenings.

Firstly, yeesh. The plants have just taken off in Esme’s tank. The rotala? is now reaching the surface, the frogbit roots have extended, on average, about 1.5-2 inches. This is all since it was done on Thursday. I noticed the growth last night, but photographing this tank is anger-inducing. Speaking of… sorry about the glare. #@!

Nevermind that browning on the sword. It’s been going on since we purchased it – you can see bits of it in the last post. I’m not concerned, since it was one of the sickly looking plants we bought on our first trip to the aquarium shop. If it originated while we had it, I’d give more attention to the water quality, but since everything else is doing much better, it’s not on my list of worries.

Secondly, the built-in filter on this five gallon tank is anti-blackwater. It contains carbon, which clears the water. It doesn’t help that we also put the soil in that helps remove driftwood staining. The good news is anyone trying to keep their tank water perfectly clear would be extremely happy with these two things. There is still a bit of tint to the water, but I feel it’s mostly, though not entirely, a result of the light being filtered through the frogbit.

We were going to transform Esme’s tank into a plant tank when her new one arrived, but have since purchased and ‘scaped a three gallon tank instead. Which means we will have this five gallon sitting around waiting for a purpose. It’s difficult to use this particular tank because the built-in filter is behind a wall of plastic on one side, which is ugly, and also limits how you can view the tank. I would share a picture of the plant tank, but right now the light in it is worse than if I propped a flashlight against one side. We have an ONF Flat Nano light on the way. This light is also available in an app controlled version, though we opted to save the $30 for extra plants for Esmeralda’s new tank instead.

This whole aquascaping hobby has been a lot of fun. I can see how it could easily snowball from one little tank to entire rooms lined with 8-foot long pools. When we were out looking for aquascaping tools, we encountered a guy who said he went from a couple five gallon tanks to now having a 2,000 gallon tank. You can definitely get addicted. Luckily, I can’t live in peace with clutter, and our home is Tom Thumb tiny, so there’s no danger of tanks taking over.

Title From:
Waterbound
by The Fretless