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[aqua-altar]

COVID is slowly becoming a “third world” disease. While first world countries are hoarding vaccines, having doses for populations many times their size, third world countries can’t get any because pharma companies want to sell to the first world countries first. Even then, first world countries will receive them first. While rich countries recover from COVID, they will forget about the pandemic while many other countries live the absolute worst moment of the pandemic without being able to vaccinate their population.

[aqua-altar]

It's late, and I'm feeling lazy about social media tonight.

[aqua-altar]

11gal (42 liter) tank refurbish

Dagon's last tank was a severely undersized 11gal tank choked by Green Spot Algae, shared with a Pleco that "mysteriously" disappeared from the tank.

We honestly have no idea what happened to the Pleco. It didn't jump out; its just gone...

With Dagon moved to a larger tank (it was supposed to be for temporary environmental quarantine, but ended up "permanent"), the smaller tank was free. I decided on a planted Betta/Nanofish tank. I scraped all the GSA off the glass, cleaned it out, and placed the hardscape on the substrate.

I got some plants from my local fish store. The store is great for Crypts, but I'm not liking how their other plants look, health wise. The tank needs a cleaning, but I was worried more about the tannins. My driftwood also started growing that fuzzy fungus stuff.

I made some big changes here. Gone are the pitiful sticks of dying Rotala and Pink Telanthera (Alternanthera reineckii), and the driftwood is no longer naked.

The Rotala and Telanthera were failing to thrive, so I removed them. I had to pull out the driftwood and treat it with Hydrogen peroxide when it developed Black Beard Algae (and I later had to remove the poor adorable banana plant for the same reason). I took the opportunity to find a new plant supplier, and added Anubias nana, Flame moss, Buce, and a couple "Major" Swords.

I have another order of plants showing up soon, to add a splash of red to all the green. Unfortunately, despite being careful, I have some pest snails. Most of them are Micro Ramshorns, which could actually be beneficial, but the pond snail I found isn't so useful. If I find more, I'll have to treat the whole tank. Meaning I have to try to evacuate the Nerite that's in there already...

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Current state of my 20gal (76 liter) Long tank.

This tank wasn't planned (or rather, the tank was planned, it's current occupant was not). Currently, I use this tank to try out new plants, which is made worse by the fact Dagon keeps blundering into them and uprooting them. The little Spiralis/Retrospiralis in the corner has been removed because of him.

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