“Old and New” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Hi, how are you?
Today I noticed a small crack in the side of our 10-gallon aquarium. It’s funny because it just popped up out of nowhere! (I’m pretty sure nothing hit into the glass) Anyways, I was worried that the crack may grow and I’d have a huge mess on my hands, so I went out and bought a new 20-gallon aquarium kit.
I’ve wanted a larger aquarium for a while now and the 20-gallon kit was on sale. It includes the essentials such as cover, lighting, filter, thermometer, and heater. I also decided to go with a very light-colored substrate that I always found attractive. It will be a nice change from the river-gravel we’ve been using in our 10-gallon tank.
In the photo below, you can see some of the steps I went through to get the new tank up and running. The trickiest part was moving the new aquarium into the old one’s spot. Basically what I did was to transfer about 70% of the water out of the 10-gallon tank into the 20-gallon tank. Then I could safely move the smaller tank to the bench. Then, I transferred the water back into the old tank, using a 1-gallon jug. Finally, I could move the new tank to the table, added the new white substrate, then filled the tank up with clean, treated tap water and added some of the decorations from the old tank (after cleaning them). You can see the present condition in the photo at the top of this post.
“Transferring” Cedar Park, 2016
I checked the condition of the crack in the old tank, and it seems like it isn’t growing, which is good news. That means I have some time to let the water in the new tank get ready, and also plan out how I want to decorate the new tank. I’m doing some research now (which is fun!) but I’m pretty sure I’d like to use more live plants. They look so nice and it’s cool to watch them grow. And with double the space, we can get more fish! 🐠
And don’t forget about my precious Malaysian Trumpet Snails! In fact, I added one to the new tank already and he’s cruising around. 🐌 I hope he survives and helps prep the tank by conditioning the water. Speaking of water conditioning, I cut a small piece of the biological filter and added it to the new biological filter to kick-start it a bit.
One thing I have not done in the past is to test the water’s chemical levels but with this new tank I think I will begin doing that and taking more steps to keep it nice. Our current tank is looking a bit ragged! So, just more things to research and learn, which is fun. 😄
Well, I think I will call it a night. I’ve been up since 3am (for an airport drop-off) and it is already 12:30am. I’ll have to post-date this blog entry since it is so late. 😴
おやすみなさい！
– B 
