Clean Fishtank!

So Shannon and I did a bit of chores this weekend including "rebooting" the fish tank. We moved the fish to a separate tub, removed all the old plants, drained the tank, scrubbed it, rinsed the gravel. Then we bought new rocks and plants, a new filter and a new air pump/bubble bar for the tank.

The new filter is twice as powerful as we actually need for our little tank, but hopefully it will overcome some of our laziness and keep it a bit cleaner then it was. We also learned some basic tricks (rinse the filter media once a week) that we weren't doing that should help things our over the long haul. Here's a shot of the entire tank layout as it was on Sunday.


IMG_2582, originally uploaded by arwild01.

I would also like to point out that photographing fish is actually a little challenging. Since the tank is glass you can't shoot with a flash (and of course there's still the risk of reflections as this shot will attest). Then, because it's indoors and your not using a flash you have to worry about exposure. I used a tripod and used the camera's two second timer so that my pushing of the button wouldn't shake the camera during the long exposure times. Of course in two seconds... who knows what fish will do in that span of time. Finally, at least with cats and dogs you can make a noise to get their attention... fish don't care or even comprehend. :)


IMG_2592, originally uploaded by arwild01.