Indoor gardening of a different sort

So, the eldest child has had a flu-like bug these last five days or so necessitating staying home from school which in turn has necessitated daddy or mama staying home with her. This gave me an opportunity to get some things done that I had not been finding time for such as not only cleaning the aquarium, but getting it set up again the way I wanted it.

Earlier this year the Kinder Major 'won' a free goldfish at the Spring Fest in town as some of you may recall. We still have them and they have grown now to about twice the size or thereabouts they were when we first got them. I am determined to use them as an ongoing life lesson for the kids so we went beyond the usual goldfish bowl and flush them quietly a few weeks later when they finally gave up the ghost.

I must say though that so far most of the lessons have been mine! I haven't kept an aquarium since I was about her age and I'm quite sure I didn't listen any better about the ins and outs of what it takes to keep one running smoothly than she does. This means I've been climbing the learning curve and relearning things such as nitrogen cycles that I hadn't thought about since that limnology course years and years ago.

One of the biggest lessons that I learned is this: Goldfish are pigs!

When we first brought the tank home I had several bunches of plants to go in the tank with them. I knew I'd need some way to cope with the nitrogen buildup and plants are the way to do it if you don't want to have to keep flushing the tank out. Got everything set up, the tank filled, gravel in, cycled the water for a few hours then arranged the plants artistically throughout. I was quite pleased with the overall presentation and used it to explain to the Kinder Major the whys and wherefores (pedantically - as she and Diana would assure you).

In two days they were all floating.

So, planted them all over again, but burying their bases a bit deeper in the gravel. This time it took nearly a week before they were all floating and it's been an on-again, off-again battle to keep the tank clean and the plants looking presentable ever since. Not enough light intensity and the internode length stretches out so the plants grow spindly. Higher intensity bulbs! The nitrogen cycle replete with necessary microbes finally hits its stride and the plants start growing so that I have to do the bonsai thing. Tank isn't staying clean enough so add a couple of snails. A surprise in every box.

The tank needed cleaning again (periodic maintenance makes the world go round) and I had another idea of how to keep my plants planted. I bought a piece of the plastic mesh that needlepointers use, cut it into one inch squares, tied each bundle of plants to a square then buried that in the gravel. Now they have to move considerably more gravel before they can float the plants again. Sort of like gardening with a herd of pigs running loose!

Anyway, I was happy with the way it came out so I took this photo. I think the camera is actually focusing on the glass of the tank which is why the plants and fish look a bit fuzzy. It'll take a few days to a week for the plants to completely adjust to their new settings which is why they don't look completely natural yet, but they will eventually. So far the fish haven't managed to uproot them.

At their present rate of growth we'll have to have a larger tank by Christmas of next year.

Always, but always look a free goldfish in the mouth!

.....Alan.