Readers Comment

Not a whole lot of comments about the fish. However, I am still going to post this. A step by step guide to the aquarium. Follow this guide and you should not kill anything.

First, what I have is an Eclipse System Six. You can get these things for around $50. Now normally I would not have selected this type of setup, but it was for a small office and compactness was a major deal. I had to do some manner of work after all. Taking up all the desk space with the aquarium would have been very possible, but it would also have killed the illusion of doing any "work".

The system six is a six gallon plastic aquarium. Out of the box it contains almost everything you need for a minimal setup. It has a pretty small foot print and so it is very easy to find a place to put it. The filter is built into the hood. The filter is minimal but it easy to maintain. Every so often you have to replace the filter pad with a new one. There is also a bio wheel, which you can probably do away with. I left mine in.

A filter needs to do three things. Mechanical filtration removes particles. The filter pad does this. Chemical filtration removes stuff dissolved in the water. The filter pad contains a small amount of active carbon which does the chemical filter thing.

The bio wheel accomplishes the biological filtration. The bio wheel simply spins around in the outflow much like a paddle wheel. Bacteria set up shop in the wheel, and they turn ammonia (toxic to fish) into nitrite and then nitrate. Nitrate is mostly harmless, but at high levels it is not good. This is why you have to do water changes.

For a simple fresh water setup, the filter is adequate. Barely. I would have designed it to have a more powerful water pump, but as it is out of the box it works.

There is also a built in light. The light is very weak. Only 8 watts. This is another weakness with the design. Now some people have modified the hood so it has more light. You can upgrade it to have one or two 14 watt power compact bulb(s). This would give the little tank a lot more light, but if all you want to keep are a few fish then you do not need light. It would also increase the cost of the system. To keep it simple, and bring set up in an office, I decided to not modify it. I stuck with the stock lighting.

I did buy a different bulb. The aquarium came with a warm white (yellowish) bulb. I replaced that with a 14,000 k light - which looks more purple. I think these lights are better for plants.

In addition to the aquarium kit, I also got a fully submersible 50 watt heater with a built in thermostat. VERY IMPORTANT! A heater is required. Tropical fish like warm water. The office would get very cold when it was empty, and warmer when people were there. The heater would hold the water at 78 - 80 degrees no matter what. So you need a heater. If the temperature in the room is fairly constant a 25 watt heater would work, get the 50 watt.

After that you need a simple thermometer. Set the heater for 75 - 80 degrees (I set it to 80) and verify that temperature with a thermometer.

Now you are pretty much done with the hardware. It seems like a lot, but it really is not.

I wanted to keep live plants. The reason is because they look better than fake plants, the fish are in a more natural environment, they can add oxygen to the water, and they can remove nitrogen compounds - reducing the need for so many water changes.

But plants are also another problem. You have to keep them alive. They need light - which the aquarium out of the box does not have a lot of. So I had to select plants that would do OK in low light. I went with the Java Fern (seems to do great in low light) and some other plant that had wide leaves. Wide leaves = gathers more light = should do better in low light conditions. In theory. It worked for me.

But light I said, plants require nutrients. Now in aquariums of the past I had mixed results with plants. For the most part I was replacing them from time to time. I know why. The first aquarium I had I got when I was in 4th grade. And of course, it came with cheap gravel. The 55 gallon tank arrived when I was in 7th or 8th grade and used sand I salvaged from a pool filter. The substrate had nothing in it for the plants.

So for the little aquarium, I decided to go premium. I got a bag of this stuff. Seachem Flourite Red. It comes in other colors too, but the local fish store had red so that is what I got. This gravel is formulated for planted aquariums. It is pretty much natural fracured clay, treated in such a way as to lock the minerals in the clay. Plant roots can get what they need, but the gravel does not allow stuff to leach into the water. So now the plants can get the iron and other things they need - but the water remains clear.

But at $16 a bag, in a large aquarium it would get costly fast. However all I needed for the little tank was one bag. So that is not too bad. In fact, I did not even use all the bag. I have about 1/4 of a bag left.

I did not know if it would work, but I gave it a shot. The investment was not that much. In the old days, before things like this were available, to keep plants you had to go through a lot more. You had to have layers of subsreate. You needed medium size gravel, top soil, peat moss, and all kinds of crap. Pretty much you had to recreate a lake or river bottom. Not anymore!

WASH THIS STUFF OUT WELL. It is very dusty. Wash it until the rince water runs clear.

I also use another prodict for the plants. Seachem Excel. Plants need CO2. Now you can add CO2 to the water - but you need a CO2 tank and a pressure regulator and all sorts of stuff. Seachem Excel is a liquid that contains carbon compounds that plants can use instead of CO2. One large bottle of that stuff lasts forever as you only need a capfull per week. If that. I have gone for months without adding any and the plants did not die.

I do not add anything else for the plants.

Well that is pretty much it! One Marineland Ecliple System 6 aquarium, a 50 watt heater, a thermometer, and if you want plants the Seachem gravel and another 8 watt plant light bulb.

From there on, just go slow. I filled the aquarium with distilled water. Then I added buffer to stabilize PH where I wanted it. Again, the cost was minumal for this. The supermarket has gallon jugs of distilled water for about a buck each. Small aqaurium mens lower cost to fill.

This is not the time to add fish!!! You do not have a biological filter yet. This takes time to establish.

What you want to do now is put in the gravel (washed) and bio wheel. Carefully fill it with water. Set your heater to the desired temperature and plug everything in. Do not put in the filter pad. Not yet. Just use the bio wheel.

You will need some test kits now. At the least you need to get an ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test kit. Then you need to cycle the aquarium.

To do this you need to introduce ammonia to the water. Ammonia is very toxic to fish. But fish produce ammonia as a waste product. You need bacteria to remove this stuff and turn it into less harmful nitrite, and then more bacteria to turn nitrite into nitrate. Your plants then use the nitrate. Balance everything and water changes do not have to be frequent.

So here is how I do it without using any fish. At first the water will have 0 ammonia. To produce ammonia all you need to do is add a pinch of fish food. It will break down to produce ammonia. You can also add a few drops of non sudsy ammonia directly to the water. You do not need a lot, just enough to start to turn your ammonia test kit green.

Then wait. The bacteria will find its way into the tank. Test ammonia every day, or every other day. Whatever you like. You will notice that ammonia levels will remain stable, then suddenly drop. Once ammonia drops to 0 then you know that the bacteria have arrived.

Next test for nitrite. If there is any, you are not done yet. Wait some more. After some more time you will notice nitrite drop, and nitrate rise.

DO NOT CHANGE WATER DURING THIS TIME. It will only take longer to cycle the tank.

Once ammonia and nitrite tests 0, do a partial water change to get the nitrate down to 20 ppm or less. Less is better.

Now you can add the plants. You can also put the filter pad in now. You do not put the filter pad in during the cycle because the filter pad will have a lot of bacteria in it. So once you remove that filter pad and throw it out - a chunk of your bio filter is gone. But if you cycle without any filter pad in place then you do not have to worry about throwing out pads later. The bacteria will be in the gravel and bio wheeel.

If you have a friend with an aquarium you can get one of their old filter pads. Put the pad in some aquarium water and swish it around. Scrub it lightly with a brush. Once a good portion of the gook on the filter pad is in the aquarium water, throw the pad out. This will speed up the cycle by adding established bacteria.

From here on go slow. You have a bio filter, but it is not strong. So add fish slowly. Figure out what fish you want to add - fish approiate for a 6 gallon tank. Do not go out and buy all the fish at once. Doing so could overload the bio filter. Start with one or two fish, wait a week, get one or two more, and so on. This gives the bio filter time to catch up to the bio load.

Do not overstock. The general rule for freshwater is one inch of fish per gallon of water. So in a 6 gallon tank that means you can keep one 6 inch fish, two three inch fish, 6 one inch fish, and so on. Overstocking is a killer, and a common mistake.

Test weekly for nitrate. When the test kit turns red, you probably need to change two gallons. Orange means one gallon. Yellow or orange-yellow means you are OK. You can keep nitrate at 0 with more bacteria. But these bacteria only live in oxygen free water. This is hard to do in a small aquarium. You need a deep gravel bed, or a lot of porus rocks, or something like that. These bacteria turn nitrate into nitrogen gas which then bubbles out.

In a small tank, nitrate is best controlled with plants and/or frequent partial water changes. How frequent? That depends on many factors. But the higher the bio load the more frequent the water changes have to be. This is why you need to test nitrate at least weekly. The good news here is that in a 6 gallon tank, one gallon is usually all you need to change. One gallon represents 20% of the volume. Or close to it. Changing one gallon is easy, takes only a little time, and you can keep using that distilled water and PH buffer for a low cost.

Balance the aquarium well, with fish and plants, and you can probably get by wuth 1/2 gallon changes. But I just do gallon changes.

And that is pretty much it. This all seems like a lot, but like I said it is really not. You just need some basic equipment, and a little time.

If you do not want the Eclipse you can get a standard squarium. But then you need to get the hood with a light, an external box filter, and all the other stuff. Cost will be about the same as the Exclipse 6, but you can probably get a slightly larger tank. Like 10 gallons at least.

The one thing I do not like about the Eclipse, other than the other limitations (weak light, could use a more powerful filter motor) is the cost of the filter pads. $10 for a three pack. I may try to see what happens if I rip a pad apart, dump the used carbon out, add fresh new carbon, and then lay in more floss. Should work fine and would prevent from having to buy more pads. It would be cheaper. But for now it makes it easy to change the mechanical and chemical media.

NEVER attempt to clean the bio wheel. Leave that thing alone. The gunkier it looks the better it works.

There are other all in one systems. When I got the Eclipse I did not really look at them too much. but had I looked, then I would have probably got the Bio-Cube 8 gallon tank. More light, more powerful water pump, and more options for the filter area. Also more money - about twice as much for the tank. And then you still need a heater and all the other stuff. But oh well. I did not. And for the way I have it set up, the Eclipse 6 is working fine. I am in no great hurry to change out the Eclipse.

Weekend Update

You may want to skip directly to the photos. Or maybe not.

As you probably know, the hurricane totally missed Miami. Honestly, I am surprised at this as I fully expected something. I was smack dab in the middle of the cone, and at one point the track had the eye passing right over me.

Sure it was 4 - 5 days out, but still. When you are in the middle of the cone 4 days out you should assume that you will see something.

But apparently Ike got a better travel deal to Cuba. So it went there.

Friday I was somewhat concerned. So I went to the store to get distilled water for the fish. The fish live in a carefully controlled environment. Distilled water has no PH and nothing dissolved in it. It is pure water. So pure it does not really exist in nature. I use distilled water for two reasons.

1. I can. The aquarium is only 6 gallons, so I only have to buy couple of gallons at a time.

2. Using distilled water makes it very easy to hold the PH at 7.0. I can actually hold the PH at any value I want.

But there was no distilled water. It was gone. There was stuff labeled "drinking water" but not a drop of distilled water.

People are retarded. If you are not used to it, distilled water tastes funny.

But there was beer. So it was not a total loss to go to the store.

*****************************************************************************

ANYHOW - a few days before all this hurricane stuff I had to do some serious aquarium maintenance. I had allowed the java fern to take the little tank over. And it did take it over. Looking in, all you could see was plants. The plants were so thick that there was not really any room for fish to swim. The plants were also preventing proper water circulation.

So I had to take care of this. Java fern can be broken apart. So I did this. And so now I have this.


It was a pretty big undertaking. A large glob of fern was removed. Most of it was thrown out. Those little plants to see are what is left. It will, in time, take the tank over again. But this should take a while to happen.

I tried to get a better photo, but it was hard. I kept getting this.


Skipper. I think he wanted food or something.

So what is in the aquarium? Right now only 2 kinds of fish.


Fish type 1 is the harlequin rasbora. I have four of these fish. They are peaceful schooling fish. They do best in groups. They are native to Asia. They like soft, slightly acidic to neutral water. Another reason to use distilled water, as my tap water is the opposite of that. This is a somewhat crappy photo, as it is overexposed. But I am lazy and do not feel like finding a better photo. They are a coppery color.

This is the other fish. I have two of these guys. Chinese algae eaters. I have a fair amount of algae they can eat. And I have a lot of plant life for a small tank. They can get territorial, but so far they are behaving.

This fish is also from south east Asia. Same general area as the rasboras. So I suppose that is sort of a theme. The South East Asia theme. You know, all fish from that region of the world.

I still need to get a bottom scavenger. I am thinking of glass shrimp.

Depending on what the water tests reveal, I may get another type of fish. I like neon tetras. But they are South American - so they will not really fit in well with the theme. Of course, I do not think the glass shrimp do either.

One of the traps people with aquariums fall into is overstocking. With only 6 gallons of water, I have to be careful to avoid this. So I may not put in any more fish.

Fishing Master

Behold! I have mastered the art of fishing!


No fish were harmed in the taking of this picture. The fish was released and swam away.

How I Almost Killed Myself

But first........READER QUESTIONS!!!!

Bee asked a question regarding this fish I call "dolphin".

Is it really called "dolphin" or is it "mahi-mahi"??

The answer is.....BOTH! And it is also called "dorado". Hind of like how a hurricane is called a hurricane ONLY if it forms in the Atlantic or Caribbean. But in the Pacific it is a "typhoon" and in the Indian Ocean it is a "cyclone". But in the end it is all the same shit.

In Hawaii these fish are called "mahi-mahi". In Spanish speaking areas they are "dorado". But around here they were "dolphin".

But then some idiots started to cry in seafood restaurants when they would see "dolphin" on the menu. They would get all upset and scream about how everyone in there was a dolphin murderer and how horrible the whole thing was. WAAA WAAAAA you are killing innocent playful dolphins!!!!

So places started calling them "mahi-mahi" so idiots would not get all upset and cause a scene.

And now....HOW I ALMOST KILLED MYSELF!!!!

It started at lunch. I decided to hit up this pizza place for - what else - a slice of pizza! And I was feeling like something semi-healthy so I ordered a slice of some sort of all vegetable pizza. It was good. Olives, onions, tomato sauce, green peppers, and so on. Pretty good.

But it needed some of that dried red pepper stuff. You know, the hot peppers? Yea, those.

So I sprinkle the pizza with the dried red petters. I like that stuff. NOT TOO MUCH! Just enough.

But this time something went terribly wrong. Somehow I managed to inhale a piece of pepper. As in "lodged in my wind pipe".

Now is when things get fun. Of course I cough. But nothing happens! I can still feel the pepper in the trachea! It was this strange burning sensation. Not really terrible, just there.

So I cough some more. And then either the pepper or something managed to get into my sinuses. Well this is just great!

So I excuse myself to leave the area and REALLY cough! Time to get whatever is in here the hell OUT!!

And then.....THEN.....

The mucus in my trachea is now saturated in pepper oil or whatever the hell was in there. And it was extra watery. Whatever came out BURNED. Like really bad. And of course the bit that was forced into my sinuses was causing those things to produce watery mucus.

At this point is kind of hard to breathe. Talking was tough too. All I could do was stand there and leak snot out of my nose.

It was pretty awful. My throat was burning, the back of my mouth was burning, I was leaking snot out my nose (which also burned), and I could not really say anything.

But it went away. After some time.

Next time I eat pizza with red pepper sprinkles Ill be more careful not to inhale any of them.