Ed - The Rowland Family Blog

Attack of the Barbs!

A lot has happened in the aquarium since my last update. My Italian Vallisneria, val, is doing very well. They’re spreading and filling in nicely. The new plants are easy to clip off and replant where I choose. The other plants, however are just sitting there and doing nothing. I guess that’s good Zen.
The Amazon Sword was supposed to be tall and out of control if you didn’t watch it. It’s just kind of stagnated. It’s roughly the same size as it was when I planted it 3 months ago. I don’t have a Co2 setup. I thought that it didn’t matter for Amazon Swords. I’m not sure what to do with it, I’d kind of like to replace it with some regular, thicker Vallisneria.

Seattle Vacation 2021

We rolled the dice a few months ago and booked a flight and hotel in Seattle for June. I was just playing around with flight prices and saw some great deals. Not knowing if things were going to be open or not we booked the flight anyway. It paid off.

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriot Seattle Downtown. It was nice. I asked for a view when we checked in and the front desk clerk said she couldn’t change our room because we booked the room with Expedia. I do recommend booking hotel rooms directly through the hotel itself. Best way is to pick up the phone and call them. I should have done that.

Oh well, our room was on the 12th floor and we did have a nice view of the Columbia Center building. There was a building that provided services for the homeless next to our building and I saw some interesting things in the alley below. Interesting things!

California, What More Can I Say?

Since I was a boy, I always dreamed of living in California. The usual cliches– the beach, the sun, and the laid back lifestyle, swirled in my mind as what the perfect life was like. I knew it wasn’t true. Just nice thoughts. So, I never really wanted to go to California. …

I loaded up the Kia in November 2012 and took the leap of faith and moved to California. I was lean, happy, and very optimistic. All the things you need in California.

A Poem by Feiya Marie Rowland

The endless thoughts of fighting, shouting still remain in my head

Mind filled with despair

Bits and pieces of ash crumble apart to the floor unknowingly, without care

Hands clenched into one, waiting for a remedy

Hot air closing in this tight capacity

When will this be over, will we ever see the Light?

Or shall we fall deep, spiraling into darkness within.

-Feiya

Fresh Water Aquarium High’s and Low’s

First some good news– week 8 and my aquarium is fully cycled! The brown algae problem has seemed to have corrected itself. I have a healthy bacteria colony doing it’s part in my aquarium and taking care of the ammonia and nitrites. This has cleared up the brown algae. I’ll admit that I wasn’t entirely convinced I’d get past the algae issue. I’m past it and what a relief!

Now for some bad news– I lost 2 guppies! One was killed in a fight. The other sadly disappeared after an unfortunate fish-out-of-water incident. I recovered him from the back of the aquarium stand and placed him back in the aquarium. All seemed fine. The following morning he was gone! No body. Nothing.

I Have My Theories

I did some upgrades to the aquarium over the past week. It’s a work in progress in figuring out how best circumvent the kit aquarium hood and breed the guppies. But, change is good, right?