More Money, More Upgrades

This morning I went to Petco for *just one more* plant. I was looking for ludwigia.

Hah! "Just one more" is a phrase I'm finding out regularly nails aquarists to the wall. Especially with their significant others. Thankfully, Shawn neither cares nor pays attention.

First of all, they didn't pay any attention to me as I stood with Ben right next to the damn plant tank. I mean, it's Petco. I don't expect much, and I get even less. I finally a-hemed my way into some young girl's field of vision, and she put down her poor Bettas (in their tupperware) and came to help me.

Me: I'm looking for ludwigia.
Her: <Blank stare>
Me: Ludwigia.
Her: <Blank stare>
Me: I want a plant.

So she dug me out something that certainly wasn't ludwigia, and was probably three different plants mixed together. They were labeled Wisteria. I don't know enough about Wisteria varieties to know. We'll see.

Anyway, there it is. Whatever it is.































Of course, if you know me, you'll know I always have an ulterior motive. I wasn't going up there for "just one more" plant. I was going to get a canister filter. I could go on for a few paragraphs about how I've been thinking and researching and wanted to see what they had and compare and how I found a great deal and had to take it.

Not really. I went up there because I wanted a canister filter, and, being Me, I wanted it right now. My only option (this is so Me) was the Cascade 1000, for up to 100-gallon tanks. 225 gallons per hour, I believe.



















I've always had HOB (hang on back) filters for my tanks. The one I have is by Marineland. It's a Penguin, or something. It has done a fine job over the years. It's annoying, though, and it drips near the outlet when I mess with it. And it's covered in limescale. And it vibrates like a sonnofabitch. That's the biggest reason. Well, actually, the biggest reason is that I'm upgrading this here tank and I'm doing it right. I'm enjoying myself immensely. My credit card is most decidedly not.

The old HOB filter. Still plugging away, dirty and neglected, except for the filter media, which I do a good job of maintaining. Usually.

And here is the canister itself, ready for installation. Which, I might add, was confusing and took me 45 minutes, in between turning on The Little Engine That Could and trips to the fridge for "juice, Mommy" and thinking at least twice I was missing parts and packing it up to go back to the store and then realizing I did have the parts and unpacking it again feeling like an asshat.

And now, all set up, here's the outflow. It has two options; one is like a power head. It shoots water across the top of the tank quite forcefully, causing a real ruckus. (Or rutkus, as my husband calls it for some reason.) Option two is this pipe with holes in it that distributes the outflow along the length of the tank. I have left the fourth piece of pipe out since there isn't any room for it while the HOB filter stays.

I'm sorry to say the HOB filter will have to stay for at least two weeks while the bacteria build up in the new filter media. I hate waiting, but that seems par for the course with aquariums, and I've already lost so many fish. I'm not going to do something stupid and be a ninny with a cycling problem, which is Tanks 101 for Dummies.

Oh, and I have removed the airstone. The canister filter shoots out so much power and has such agitation capabilities that I hardly need it. I worry about the plants losing too much CO2 anyway.