In April I lost one of my lights which was totally my fault for taking the glass cover off of the tank. The light was a standard 2 tube florescent and only supplied 80 extra watts but it really helped me grow a wider range of plants. Since the light died I slacked off on up keep with the tank and totally let things get out of hand. I wish I had taken before pics to show everyone but just looking at my tank gave me dry heaves so pics were out of the question. Lets just say that things got ugly. But I finally got a retro fit kit and got the light put back together so a rescue mission was in order. I only lost a few species sadly 2 of them were in my top ten favorites (blyxa and lobelia) but other than that no major loses. So here are some pics don't get too grossed out by my scape hopefully it will get better.

that did not take long... both the oto's are dead.
they had a weird redding on their throats... when i asked the fish person about it, he said - yeah, they even have some blue on their body, they will be pretty...

huh?

i think a saw a similar reddening on the throat of one of my kuhli loaches this morning... did i get my tank sick?

le sigh...

I wish you all the very best and most of all a healthy and happy new year, this one and all the rest to come!!!

-iova

My black molly has been feeling lonely lately. i barely saw either her or the killifish... they've been hiding and barely eating.

so i got more fish :)

i had to make a trip to Petco for a small filter for the shrimp tank ( i am still afraid to put my cherry shrimp in the bog, cause i am not so sure if the other fish will attack them... once they get a bit bigger... maybe). while gazing at the fishes they had, i decided that a male molly and a couple of oto cats were in order :) woot. so a got them. i was also going to get a pair of guppies... but they did not have any females. oh, well...

Get your bios & tank pics up on the Member Tanks area!
Puh-leeeze! If you guys start filling it up, I promise to take the pictures of my cats off.:)

I KNOW Dennis has some great pictures.

I will put some more good pictures up if AFM rejects them. They are deciding whether to print my article (& buy my pictures). It's *only* been 6 months...the editor has been in contact and says it looks good but I've yet to get a contract. Waiting.

So, after the meeeting i got home with a badly algea-infested anubias nano (is that right?). I tossed it in my tank without much care... that was last night... this morning, between the molly and the snails - most of the leaves are sparkling clean :)
Go molly! but the good news is that it took the molly out of hiding... i guess i need to figure out how to grow some algea for her :)

Our setup at Ned's Fish Factory has been published in the Aquatic Gardener http://forum.aquatic-gardeners.org/viewtopic.php?t=413

weee!

I have enabled the "convert to link" module.. so i am testing it.. wee!!! www.iovadineva.com

iovadineva.com

soo.. Today i figured out how to put the links back in the header!!! weee! since they became so many and wrap funny, i separated them into two lines, one that is more of "general" links and one that is more of "member-related" links.

I also istalled the Contact Form module, and now each user can control whether they can be emailed from the site (without displaying their email addy) by other registered site users. Non-registered site users can contact info@ne-... by going to the Contact us page.

I amso removed the "register" link from the comments - both in the blogs and the forums, which was how apparently some members were able to apply for membership without getting Invites...

Cliff, my guitar buddy, I just found out wants to set up a planted tank! Hopefully he has come to our website as I directed...haha. Hi Cliff. Hope you can go to the meeting on the 21st.
Ask us any specific questions on the forum...Bailin & Dennis (the experts) will be glad to chime in I'm sure!
I'll be seeing you the 4th of Nov in any case & will bring you plants.
penny