DAY NINE

SEPTEMBER 02, 2003

Well, its day 9 of the project, after filling the tank with saltwater and circulating it for two days I drained the tank and filled it with fresh water yesterday..I checked the water parameters last night and found that my tap water was very soft with a high PH.. The PH was 8.8 and the General hardness was 3 and Carbonate hardness was 4, this means the water is really soft and with the low KH and GH the PH is likely to take wild swings up and down, this is not the best water conditions for African Cichlids in my opinion..I am not really concerned just yet though because I didn't bother to use any declorinator or any conditioners in this water because it will be drained tomorrow, this is just another part of the curing process, I do think however that after I drain this batch of water that the next filling will be the last!

I checked the PH this morning and it has dropped to 7.8, I kinda figure this is where it will bottom out and stabalize when I am finished with water changes..

I went ahead and drained the water again this morning and I just washed my pool filter sand and added it as a substrate, I also added three artificial plants for a little contrast, If I like the plant look, I will add real Anubias and Java Fern to the tank in a few days..I am doing a deep water look and plants may not belong here, we will see!

Here is the tank being filled after the addition of the sand and plants, by the way, I epoxied suction cups to the bottom of the plants to help hold them better, seemed to work right nice!

Filling!

Here is the finished product, without fish of course.. I will check the water for a day or two before testing with fish, maybe feeder fish...

Finished!!!!!

I will keep updating this site as the project progresses with fish..

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