Fixing the fishtank

So, sometime ago, the light in my fishtank stopped working.   The kind of light that can provide enough light to grow plants in a tank that's two feet deep is pretty bright.  They're also pretty expensive and we were pretty broke.  So i wasn't able to replace it for several months.  Turns out several months without photosynthesis is precisely long enough to kill most plants.  In hindsight, I know there is ALOT I could have done to remedy that problem that would have been cheap and effective and temporary, but it was a very stressful time.  So I just ignored it.  

In the meantime, Leela dumped soap in her fishtank and all her little guppies died.  We got rid of that tank.  The tank in  my room developed a leak I couldn't remedy (design flaw) so I got rid of that tank. 

Fishtank reboot. 

When we went to Cama Beach, I picked up some Madrona driftwood and shoved it in the fishtank with whatever plants managed to survive the catastrophe plus a micro sword (grass looking thing in front) and some kind of ferny stem plant I need to identify. 

Then I removed half the branches and shoved the rest to the side.  Algae is starting to get a foothold!  

We got a new ornament for the tank.  A clay warrior as a Romeo for our Juliet.

 Plants are growing really fast with the CO2 reactor working again.  I'm using champagne yeast now, works a lot better than bread yeast!

ALGAE!

Time for the Amano shrimp.  Little guys love algae and they're so fun to watch scooting around the tank.  The tank looks pretty awful, but I'm optimistic with a little patience it will be beautiful again!

Creature count is 4 Mountain Minnows, 1 lonely Cardinal Tetra and 4 Amano Shrimp.  

So, now I have about 78 watts of light (1 pink bulb and a 6,000K bulb with 6 bright white LEDs) over a 35 gallon tall tank with about 300 gallons per hour of filtration, DIY yeast reactor CO2 diffused with a simple venturi fitting in a tiny pump.  I change 30% of the water every week.