Tank returning to normal

Well, as you can see, things are returning to normal after all the aquarium and fish excitement I’ve had over the last few weeks. From the pic below you can see the the fish seem fairly normal after my nearly killing them with a CO2 overdose last week. Two of the high bodied leopard discus actually spawned a couple of days ago. And a couple of the cobalt discus are doing their serious tail shimmy - let’s get it on - dances right now. I take breeding as a sign of health and well being. So I’m happy for that.

The tank is going through some changes. My CO2 tank ran dry, just as I was messing with the pH probe, and I shut off the lights and fert injections for a few days until I could get a replacement CO2 cylinder. So I’m leaving the ferts off for a little while, just to see how the tank (and algae) reacts.

In order to fight the algae problem, I’ve raised my lights by three inches, reduced my temperature to 82 (though lights and pumps still raise it a few degrees during the day), have reduced my total photo period to seven hours, and spit it up with a 90 minute siesta. So that’s three and a half hours light, hour and a half dark, and another three and a half hours light.

Lots of people will tell you that a siesta is bunk. It may be. But I also know my most algae free tanks has siesta. Coincidence? I wouldn’t know. But I know it won’t hurt.

The plants are growning back after my bone-headded huge trim. But with the ferts and lights dialed back, they are taking their time about it. But that’s OK. The algae’s kind of chilling too. And that’s the goal.