Raising Tadpoles (Day 77) - Regaining Balance
Day 77
The nitrite level of the froglet tank has plunged to 0 ppm after yesterday's 30% water change and increase in flow rate. The ammonia level has decreased to between 0.25 and 0.5 ppm (closer to 0.25 ppm) from it's peak of 0.5 ppm yesterday. If things stay consistent in tomorrow's test (I only did a ~15% change today) then I'll add in some of the 11 froglets that have been waiting to move out of the tadpole tank.
I noticed two days ago that the water in the tadpole and particularly the froglet tank was much warmer than ideal (68 - 72 F). The main tank doesn't have this issue due to the portable air conditioner I have pointed directly at it. Unfortunately, the air conditioner in my room isn't able to hit the froglet and tadpole tanks directly. A method to mitigate this is pretty simple, I simply refrigerate some of the water bottles. Some people also like to make some ice cubes out of their fresh water. Since I lack both an available ice cube tray as well as water that can be easily and consistently hardened at such a small volume, I prefer the refrigerator.
The feeding schedule for the tadpoles has gone from 2 daily 7 ml feedings of tadpole suspension to 1. Since the number of tadpoles in the 20 gallon tank is down to about 44 (11 of the occupants of the 20 gallon tank are froglets and Stranglove is still in a separate tank) and many of them are at or past the initial leg growing stage, it makes sense that the current schedule is nearly a fourth of the peak a month ago.
Despite arriving in an non-reinforced envelope , the new moss balls I ordered arrived today safe and sound. As is standard procedure, I've gone ahead an quarantined them. With moss balls, there are two primary concerns, snails that may potentially be hiding within and allowing them to expel as much sand as possible before putting them into the actual tank. Since I've ordered from this supplier before without issue, I've gone ahead and quarantined them in Strangelove's tank, along with a small castle decor piece I fixed after someone broke off part of the bottom. Even if there are issues, I'm near the point of moving Strangelove back into the main tadpole tank anyway now that the ammonia level is between 0.25 and 0.5 ppm.
Current Totals:
1 - 3 gallon
13 - 10 gallon (Froglet Tank)
55 - 20 gallon (Tadpole Tank)
11 - 30 gallon (Main tank)
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