Thanks again for suggestions.
I've already cut back on feeding. I decided when I feed frozen, I'm only feeding once that day too.
I will get a turkey baster soon and try that for food distro and spot cleaning (good idea!!!). I don't like shopping much, unless it's to a pet store or online, but I'll try to make it to Walmart or Target this week (unfortuneately, I'll wait until the house shopping list gets bigger).
RE: Food Distro via Turkey Baster
Does this actually work? I normally dump in the defrosted food in little dumps and let it fall to the bottom (in a bunch of different places), while it's falling of course the tetras, swords, and betta get some, but a lot does make it to the bottom. Today I noticed the SAE's are pretty good now at getting some when it falls to the bottom 1/3 of the tank. The loaches and corys however, even when it's on the bottom don't seem to find it easily (even when it's right NEXT to them or IN FRONT of them) before the super-speedy-greedy swordtails!!!
I'll still try to turkey baster, but it seems it's more a matter of speed than area. The swordtails are FAST when it comes to food!!! Luckily the tetras don't eat off the bottom, and at first the betta didn't, but now he's stooped down to looking for defrosted yummies in near the bottom (caught in plants, or on the substrate). The greedy betta is pretty slow and graceful though still, so he's not stealing that much from the corys and loaches.
... ah if only the swordtails weren't so pretty
TLH said:
You can just syphon into a bucket,leave it for an hour or two,to settle,then jug the water back into the tank being careful to leave the crud on the bottom.
You know, I never thought of this. That's a pretty good idea. I think I may be too impatient though to wait
. Perhaps instead I could get a piece of cloth and use that to filter the gunk out when I dump it back in.... or hey, maybe I can just take some floss and swirl it around in the bucket... or swirl it directly around the hornwort!!! Sorry... thinking out-loud.
etres said:
Would that really qualify as clean water?
Not fresh water, but I think it would count as your own "mechanically filtered" water
.