Weekly feedings & 1 month water changes working well

Out of pure necessity (love) I have had to be a full time caregiver to my wife who requires special daily treatments and care. Although I have the neighbors and family helping with my pets, my 6 aquariums are off limits to anyone except for notifications that there is a flood (not yet Praise God).

I am so greatful My pothos plant nitrate filters have become huge and nitrates between water changes are now surprisingly maintaining 5-10 PPM between 4 week spans when I have time to do water changes. I have been forced to only feed my fish on weekends feeding 3 times a day Sat & Sun before turning the rains back over to family and friends.

Surprisingly all 60 fish in 6 tanks are doing much better then expected with only 1 death due to bloating as one Med A. Cichlid overate partly my fault for giving a rare treat of meat lovers pellets (not again).

Dont know when I will be on the mainstream of fish keeping again but I do know that without my large FX5 filters, UV sterilizers and importantly Pothos Plant nitrate filters that are now growing out of control under lights 24/7, My tanks would be in bad shape. Unfortunately my fish are only exposed to the moonlight that falls off the walls.

I would rather blame myself if something goes wrong then have a friend or neighbors give me that call that while feeding my fish they accidentally Bla-bla-bla and most my fish are now dead.

Amazing how well they are doing with minimal maintenance and care. I think this has shown me that some where between over maintenance and neglect there is perhaps a sweet-spot of just enough and no more .

God Bless

Navyscuba said:

I hope your wife gets better soon Gunner. Our prayers are with you and your family. Hope you get back to the hobby soon. Again Hope wife gets better soon.

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Thank you shipmate. Not to worry as its only her body that is sick, the body only a tiny part of who and what she really is. Of course my prayers are for the best of possible outcomes (God willing). But whether she live only one more day or 30 more years, in reality my mortal condition is more/less the same and right behind her. The most important thing is that our spiritual condition is secure. We are at peace and we are happy and gratefully welcome all prayers.:grinyes:

Oh, I wonder if the weekly feedings are contributing to the low nitrate levels even-though I feed heavily on weekends?

As far as everyone having a spouse like me for caring, believe me the Lord has shown me that the pleasure is mostly all mine, what would be considered grief is more like sweet rain and what would be considered work is more like a labor of love, very rewarding.

Back on topic I completely forgot about my veggie holders and utilizing that tough seaweed food that holds together so well so long. I bet the it would make a great 5 day food for the ceilidhs. I just don't have the hart to use those big white feeder stones they use in feeder fish tanks, but perhaps I should consider them as well.

As far as posting I have long periods in which there is absolutely nothing to do but have to be extremely quiet so I'm useing my laptop as the keyboard is silent at bedside. When I go home on weekends to do chores and pay bills I will compile my finding with photo's of dirty filters and and new off spring exc, exc.

So far all four FX5's and two Magnum 350's on cheap $6 timers have been working great 60 minutes on and 30 minutes off for about a month now with absolutely now down side. This weekend I plane to place my most recently restored CL $70 acrylic tank & stand with highly modified Fluval 404 (AKA Super-cart) and Sun-sun filters on 60/30 min timers as well.

For now I am in a holding pattern but very content and will at quiet times under LED lit screen, post updates and make comments on other threads.

:dance2: