Fish Tank Catastrophy Averted

I got to the store the other morning and was picking up toys in the play area and I walked past my 30 gallon tank and noticed it was very warm. I checked the thermometer and it read 96 degrees! YIKES!!!

Our heater has a temperture setting down by the plug and apparently the boys had “adjusted” the temperture the day before. I quickly turned down the temp and started checking the fish out. Luckily I did not lose any fish. It does look like some of my Java Ferns are not going to make it. They are pretty brown and not looking too good.

I think the fact that this is an apisto tank and therefore is kept at a higher temp (aprox 85) helped the fish deal with the excess heat. I think if this had happened to the tank at home there would have been some casualties.

NOTE TO SELF: Add lock to cabinet below fish tank.

Upgrading the Light in my Aquarium

This is a little off topic, but I figure I would post pictures of a little project I did tonight. I have a couple fish tanks and my most recent build needed better light. I have some live plants in the tank that needed more light than the cheap hood light that came with the tank could provide.

I looked into buying a new light for the tank but the $80 price tag did not make me smile – so I decided to see what I could do with the old one.

Here is what I started with.

It is a 15 Watt bulb and ideally for my plants I want at least 2 watts per gallon of water, so in this case I needed at least 60 Watts.

I wanted to take out the existing fixture and mount 2 sockets in the existing hood and use some CFL bulbs.

I had the sockets and bulbs out in the garage so this cost me nothing to do and I should have all the light I need in the tank for my plants.

Here it is all done

And here is my tank

Birthday at the Zoo

The boys and I were able to make it out to the zoo today for Bohdi’s Birthday celebration today. There were a ton of people there but it was still fun. Luckily we have a zoo pass so we did not have to wait in line to buy tickets.

We went to the elephant area right away because the baby viewing was about to end. He is 3 weeks old now and weighs in at 350 pounds.  He stayed close to his mommy constantly walking under her legs.

Next we went over to check out Bohdi. He was kind enough to pose for some pictures.

Bodhi’s Ice Birthday Cake being carved.