Captain's Log...

Here's the log that I promise to keep up, I should have been doing this all along. I'll have to start with what I remember about the last few weeks of April, but I will now updated this as I make changes.

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2015

• 04/01/15 - Filter and Purigen change. There is now more than 5" of filter media in the canister, probably more than needed. I will pull one of the pieces during the next change. 
• 04/15/15 - Removed one of the two 50 micron filter pads that I just added, it was just too much restriction to the flow. Still may not have enough flow and might have to take out another piece of media. 
• 04/18/15 - Purchased (3) Otocinclus catfish to help get rid of the algae. These guys are the best, as they have polished every leaf in the tank. Highly recommended for a planted tank.
• 04/20/15 - Turned lights up to 70% from 60%
• 04/22/15 - Finally got a GH/KH test kit. From that test, I can calculate how much CO2 is in the water. Once I tested, I discovered that my CO2 levels were too low and I wasn't pumping enough into the water. 
• 04/25/15 - I've increased the light to 80% from 70%. Now that almost all the algae and the blue-green bacteria is gone, the plants are doing much better, and the increased CO2 warranted the increase in lighting. I am also dosing with some Seachem Alkaline buffer, to get the PH in the tank up higher, by the end of the day I'm down to 6.7-6.8. I'd really like to see it go no lower than about 6.8-6.9 after a full day of CO2 dosing. 
• 04/28/15 - Lights are up to 90% intensity now. I intermittently get pearling on the leaves, so I'm just about where I need to be.
• 05/15/15 - The lights are now cranked up all the way to 100%. The plants have just exploded in growth. I've actualy had to turn up the CO2 output since the plants are now consuming more. 
  
  I am also doing a dose of Excel daily and Flourish twice weekly.
  
  One of our Angel Fish died... it looked like the intestines ruptured and eventually killed the fish. He had what looked like a hernia on his side, that eventually ruptured and intestines came out. He never really seemed to be in any pain of stress until the very end. So we're down to one right now and we're debating getting another one. I know how Angel Fish can be with new fish, so I'm not quite sure what to do yet.