Week 3: First Week of Cycled and Clean Tank (60% WC)

                                                      Hello everyone! I'm back with some updates finally. I had some family
things to deal with but was able to do the initial 60% water change for Vincent (betta fish) and Gary's(nerite snail) tank. The initial water change was larger than usual (20 percent every week, to treat the large amount of the harmful Nitrates in the water  ASAP to not cause any harm to our little friends. The water change was made on the 26 of February, last Friday to be exact. Up above we can see Vincent swimming close to the surface a lot more lively, a common betta fish so that made me extra happy since he was starting to just lay low and sleep a lot. I scrubbed a lot of the algae off the plant and trimmed their roots. Down below you can take a look at the rearrangement of the plants that were made did a lot of landscaping and added an extra inch of the substrate to allow extra room for root growth (this means more nitrate consumption).

The biofilter media was not touched, since we have the beneficial bacteria living here that takes care of the nitrate cycle! However, that is pretty gross to look at haha. I only left enough algae on the heater bar and a bit on Gary's favorite side of the tank so he could have something to eat.

The plan this week is to let the tank accommodate the big water change, and by Thursday I will check all the water parameters before deciding if I will be making a water change. I will also be getting Gary a companion since he alone cannot maintaining the tank. He had a buddy named Beetlejuice, but unfortunately, he passed a little after I bought him for unknown reasons. That was a little sad since it was charming to see both snails racing about in the tank, in terms of tank maintenance, the snails did take care of a lot of food waste and algae control.

Here is a close-up of Gary and his antennae. Nerites snails don't really have a gender and they don't reproduce in freshwater tanks so there is no need to worry about them becoming a pest issue!  I will be thinking of names for the next snail when I go get it this week. I'm totally open for some name suggestions!