Today I noticed my two largest angels cleaning off a large clump of the radican marble queen sword leaves and their breeding tubes are dropped and ready to go.  It's a shame, because when I noticed it I had just finished cleaning out the cabinet under the tank so I could hook up the Fluval 404.  I also need to vacuum.  I am afraid if I try either I will disturb them.  I'm not putting a whole lot of faith in their success though.  With nearly two dozen tetra and four other angels I don't think these two have gotten intimidating enough to prevent the eggs from getting snacked on.  

This is the second time I have witnessed the angels spawn.  The first was four weeks ago when they spawned on the intake tube of the Emperor 400.  The tetras had an elaborate system of distracting the parents and picking off the eggs which in turn caused the parents to eat the remaining eggs.  Ahhh nature. 

Meanwhile in the same tank the male Montezuma Swords are still performing their courtship dance. I am amazed at their ease and speed when they swim backwards and their ability to contort their bodies at 90 degree angles.  Who knew fish were so flexible   And like a good girl, the female still appears to be ignoring them. Her gravid spot had darkened but it has pretty nearly disappeared since so apparently she was pregnant and dropped fry but they were eaten.  I doubt they could have survived since there is no moss or similarly fine plant matter for them to hide in.  So it looks like it will be another month or so before I get another chance at Monty fry.

And finally, this tank has significantly fewer pond snails since the introduction of assassin snails a couple months ago.  Those guys are amazing.  I had to quit harvesting snails from the big tank for fear that the assassins would run out of their food source! 

After a month and a half of ordering odds and ends equipment, planning, replanning, surfing the internet and replanning again I finally just decided to jump in.  My main plan for the tank was to set it up for my angels so I decided on an Amazon biotope.

Last week I set the tank up, cleaned all the components that came with the tank, gravel, aquarium decor.  I put together the new light fixture, tried to map out where everything was going to be plugged in - the basic stuff.

Wednesday  the boys and I went to House of Rocks and picked up some rocks then we swung by Home Depot to pick up terra cotta dishes to anchor driftwood and egg crate to elevate the rocks.  When we got home I couldn't find the masonry drill bit.  I also realized one of the rocks I bought was too wide for what I wanted so the project was stalled there.

Thursday we picked up some amazon sword from Jack and went to Home Depot again.  I  picked up a blade to cut the rock and a masonry drill bit.  It didn't take too long to put everything together, maybe an hour or two, but when I went to fill it up both of our outside hoses were frozen.  I ended up using 5 gallon Homer buckets!  Tony helped by using a pitcher while I used the buckets.  30 minutes in I told him he could stop but he said he didn't want to because it is about time we put some fish in there.  lol.  When I told him no fish for a week he brought me a bathtub fish toy to add.  I explained why that wouldn't be a good idea.

Of course at this time the filter didn't work.  I took it apart again and realized I didn't have the impeller engaged completely.  Thirteen  hours later the tank is running.  I went to sleep hoping the filter wouldn't quit or the aquarium wouldn't spring a leak.

Here are some pics.  It looks very vacant.  I am going in on the plant order next week so hopefully this time next week I will be able to post photos of the completely planted tank   I'm going to read up on fishless cycling too so I don't know if it will have swimmy residents next week or not.  I know I am not going to do huge, daily 50% water changes until I have a trash can on a dolly and a hose attachment for my bathroom sink.

Here is the overall tank:
[img]http://sites.google.com/site/auroraphoenix/home/75 gal.JPG[/img]

The left side.  The driftwood has java fern attached.  The plant on the far left and center are water sprite.  Behind the rock wall I plan to put A. Reinecki for a splash or reddish/green and add some stargrass to the right of the driftwood.
[img]http://sites.google.com/site/auroraphoenix/home/75 gal left.JPG[/img]

This is the right side of the tank.  My mom found the driftwood at the lake this past weekend.  Ignore the big rocks weighing it down, I didn't soak it long enough and once the water got 3/4 up the driftwood it started to float   Anyway, it also has java fern attached and the tall and shorter plants behind the driftwood are swords.  The short ones will eventually grow too huge for three to take up the space if Jack's are any indication of what size they will grow to, but for now I have three.  I am going to order a couple more of the taller swords and some smaller foreground plants.  [img]http://sites.google.com/site/auroraphoenix/home/75 gal rt.JPG[/img]

I know, too much info for my first journal entry.  If you are still reading, thanks for hanging in there