10/29/2020..

Title is when blog was actually written..

So it’s 2 days before all hallows eve and believe it or not but this blog is coming out of thin air. The last almost 2 months worth of blogs were prewritten quite some time ago. A little at a time and then all at once and then nothing.

Hindsight is still 20/20, check. Looking back now I can see how I manifest so many things in my blog without intentionally meaning to. No need to get into detail because as far as the regular scheduled programming you are most likely expecting some type of update or big announcement of some new project. Well returning readers have I got some news for you. And if you are a new subscriber hold on to you seats!

At this point my life feels as it was on pause. Addiction can and will really steal your time , waste and destroy your life. Looking back as I’d there was another person living my life and that couldn’t have been me. Oh but it was and it is NO LONGER. Grow and evolve. I told a lot of lives, broke a lot of promises, made a lot of regrets. So in a nutshell my blogs rolled out 3x a week on auto post while I quietly lost the battle with addiction.

I am proud to say that I did not lose the war. Tomorrow I will be an entire week clean. I changed me environment, my mindset and my goals & so far so good. Still taking it one day at a time. I have made more mistakes than I would ever wish to admit and hurt people I may never deserve complete forgiveness from. After all of that self destruction the Kris that rose from the ashes is a lot stronger and wiser, I am an author to my own story.

An update in one sentence: My bully and I now live in NYC with a support system and attend meetings regularly.

A statement I tell myself every day is “Never Give Up”.

I’ll try my best to keep the blows flowing on time maybe not the same times but still two times a week. Enjoy your weekend and follow my son on youtube

Renaming the Mystery Tank

Since the tank is a busy it’s time for a complete over haul again. More fundamental changes. First off it’s not a tank it’s more of a bowl and maybe because of it being an oversized wine glass the distortion from the curved glass is basically a magnifying glass. Still thinking about the same stocking options but with a wider variety of plants. And the name has got to go. It’s a bowl , not a “tank”. I guess the mystery has been spoiled instead of solved. I don’t know the name of the 2 plants from seeds but I often don’t know what type of plants I have. Unfortunately they died before I could really identify them.

I have decided to rename the mystery tank fish bowl to : The Nancy Drew bowl. One for the magnifying look and feel of looking into it and two because I’m counting on the stock to be elusive  especially once the plants grow in. As you can see I have got my aquarium sand in the mail and will be giving that a try. Personally I think the fluval stratum is good just not for beginners, plants that are slow to create roots, or in tanks that already have stock in them and are trying to add plants to. Over all do it does as advertised, great for shrimp and plants as far a nutrients go and does not harshly affect the pH of the water.

Still trying to solve that mystery Nancy Drew? Still no exact species names for the seed plants. One might be some type of hair grass and the other I believe is some type of clover. I have a spot for the Anacharis with some trimmings curious to see if they can be switched from submersed to immerse state relatively easy. Since any hard scape is going to look oversized because of the magnification I decided to just go with out. I’ve made small tweeks in the substrate that hopefully in a couple will help the view of the scape as imagined.

I’ve never worked with aquarium sand but it was the same process getting seeds to germinate and sprout using the dry start method. Same amount of growth and root system. However because the sand will become more compact when the bowl is filled with water and it’s heavier than the stratum I believe that the young seedlings will have more stability. Like most seedlings they will stretch towards the light if it’s not close enough or strong enough cause carpet plants to look like sickly stem plants. Luckily most seedlings don’t need an expert light to grow in the early stages.

Spoiler Alert : I have also added the flourite black sand to what was once known as the Zen Garden… Not really sure what I’m going to do with that tank of the poorly put together scape in it. I really put it in there because the last of the fluval that I had went into that tank and it wasn’t enough for a good layer or substrate.  There isn’t any plants or stock in that tank so for now its just basically a control tank. Still a spoiler because I am eventually going to be giving the nano 3.5 a nice over haul.

If everything goes according to plan, which is rare, I’ll be letting the Nancy Drew Bowl sit for a few weeks and allow the seedlings to really get establish. Which would make for a pretty boring blog post. So hopefully we won’t be back with an update here for about 3 weeks. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, I can’t possibly fail at the same project 3 times right?

Mystery Tank v2.0

Growing from seeds is either hard or I make it seem more difficult then it really is. Either way I’ve failed miserably, technically twice. I have decided to take a break from the dry start growing from seeds endeavours for a while. So what does that mean for this “mystery tank”?.

For starters I have to cycle this tank a few times because the drowned aquatic plants raised the ammonia level to way past critical. I’m sure there is easier and faster ways to filter out the ammonia in this new tank. But since I have no clue what’s in it’s future I welcome the weekly water checks and changes. Not to mention the curiosity of the ammonia/nitrogen cycle at work.

What is set in stone-ish, is that I am going to attempt to make it a black water set up. Yes I know I’ve already failed once at that. This small tank wont have a hang on the back filter with medium that cycles out the tannins and clears the water faster than I would rather. Also I’ve order some natural tannins aka botanicals. Nothing fancy but something to go with the look of the set up.

Since I’m down to less than a handful of visible shrimp, I want to get shrimp for this tank definately. Of course to spice it up because this is a mystery I am getting a species that I have never owned before and something that will really stand out in the dark murky rainforest vibe water conditions. For now that will stay a mystery.

Since the carpeting plant didn’t tank it’s back to the drawing board for the aquatic plants. Have no fear I have ordered new mystery seeds. Spoiler Alert , these plants are not carpeting or stem plants. So I wonder what will come in the mail? In the meantime IF I have extra cuttings from trimming the community tank I’ll throw a few in there just to keep backups of any plants that I might already have. When the ammonia level return to livable conditions of course.

The tank is technically a bowl so there is a pretty obvious curve when looking at the tank. I plan to use the visual distortion to my advantage some way, most likely with my stock choices. Picking fish that have small characteristics that the magnifying effect of the rounded bowl will reveal. Species tank? Maybe I’ve only done that with fry, but there’s a first time for everything

While I wait for the nitrogen cycle to do its thing, I’ll focus more on my community tank which is still doing great and is due for an upgrade here soon. New plants, new stock and new addition to the lamest scape of the year. >.<

and then there was one….. All the others a

Black Water Complete Set Up

Hey all you fish keepers out there so today I have an exciting post. I will be setting up my new Black Water Rainforest Conservation Set Up tank that a purchased a few weeks back. Man was I super stoked about setting up this new tank. I might sneak a slight review in this post but make sure to come back in a month so I can give it a complete review.

So buying this set up was a complete impulse buy because I couldn’t get the stock I wanted for the tank I already have or a nano tank that I was searching for. Nevertheless I couldn’t be more happy to be starting a new tank and having a fun new project to work on. So specifically it is an aqueon brand 13gal framed tank with a cover and lights. It came with semi fine gravel, 2 pieces of driftwood, a heater, a hang on the back filter appropriate to tank size and the key element; a bottle of Kent black water tannins treatment.

Let’s get our hands wet! So 13 gallons is a lot more than the 3.7 gallon tank that I already have established but a lot smaller than 40 gallons that I have had in the past also this is a tall vs long tank which makes it great visually but some what of a pain trying to set it up. I was going to wait a little longer to set up this tank but between my mystery snails Aladdin & Misfit uprooting my plans, losing yet another ghost shrimp and Salt & Pepper constantly having one sided territory battles it was time for an upgrade.

As per usual the pair of mystery shrimp were the first ones to inhabit the new tank. I had re planted the rotalla indica sp for the last time. Aladdin got his name from his constant antics of floating throughout the tank nearly constantly but this time Misfit was the one that literally defied gravity. The tannins I put in the water to give it the black water effect I think were responsible for the build up of oxygen bubbles on the surface of the water. So I guess both of my mystery snail have these magic carpet like powers.

I thought having more space would give misfit a chance to escape Aladdin’s mating advances cause it sometimes looked like she wanted to get away from him and couldn’t. She was also a lot smaller back then, the scars from her first journey outside the tank are nearly invisible disappearing into the back of her shell. The 2 love birds can still be found courting at least once a week. Still no news on any egg sack. Soon algae should bloom on surfaces in the tank and they will have a whole new source of food.

Now about Salt & Pepper my 24k Gold white cloud minnow pair. Originally they seemed to get along great in the Zen Garden. Playing around the fluval moss ball floating on the surface. As if they we playing a game of follow the leaders. Unfortunately that was a short time of co existence because a few weeks later Pepper showed a lot of aggression towards Salt eventually leading to Pepper to own nearly the whole tank. Salt was left a tiny corner at the bottom of the tank to simply exist.

I despise bully’s in our world and the rest of the animal kingdom. Survival of the fittest is true but you don’t have to be a dick about it. Karma is a bitch an now Pepper is the lowest one on the totem pole now. Once I put them into the black water set up they seemed to get along great. Eating together exploring the tank as a pair. But the pair did look a little lonely and I didn’t want one to feel they had to be dominated over the other, especially with all this new space. So to make my top dwelling schooling fish happier and use the extra space I have for stocking now I bought 3 more 24k Gold white cloud minnows to have a tight school of 5.

Speaking of stocking I also added a school of green Cory cats maybe a few months old. To help out the shrimp keep the bottom of the tank some what clean because I definately am an over feeder no matter how many gallons or how much it’s stocked. They all seem to be happy and healthy, darting back and forth the back of the tank and up and down the sides & into the current made by the filter.

With the last of what’s left of the half dozen original ghost shrimp, which I thought was 4 but haven’t seen more than 3 at any given time; I decided why not, and just buy some more shrimp. Here’s where the story gets exciting: I intended to buy 3 shrimp to bring the population back up to a half of dozen; but I may have got more than I bargained for. I thought I was getting 2 amano shrimp and one golden bee shrimp. To my surprise when I arrived home I noticed a lonely female that wasn’t the species I that I was after and also had a clutch of eggs in her swimmers.

My main reason for buy this set up was for the black water look of the tank which probably was the only fail. I have to add much more than directed to get the effect and within less than 2 weeks time the filter clears the water. Moving forward I’m just going to leave out the tannins and maybe try again with a setup that has a sponge filter instead. Over all I still give this complete set up 4 out of 5 stars because it came with everything and it was fairly easy to set up.

Happy fish keeping everyone! Let’s make this week GREAT!

29 years later.

Corny title I know but here we are. I didn’t think I’d live to see 21 let alone make it this close to 30 years of life. We all can admit that 2020 has been a shittt year no matter which way you turn the Rubik’s cube. Unfortunately we are still in the year 2020 and things are still , things… So for me I am going to revamp going into another year of life even if it is only approaching the end of the worse year America has seen in quite some time. So yayyyyy happy 29th birthday to me.(soon)

So here we go with the new year (of life)resolutions and I do believe I have good ones and you’ll get to seem some of the cooler ones this week.

Instead of going in order I’m going to go by what excites me the most. And currently, because Sunday morning came alot faster than predicted; a new venture coming into my life is furry fatherhood. Yup, I’m going to be a pet dad. Yes, I am still into my fish husbandry but there’s nothing like having one of man’s best friends around. I am getting a dog. I know the ups and downs, ins and outs, pros and cons of it all as well as some really juicy spoilers. But first let me as you, “What breed do you think would be a good fit for me?”.

Next one, not excited for the journey but super excited for the results. This goal is fitness, planet fitness to be exact. Yes, yes I know the world is coming to a bitter end but that’s still not much of an excuse to take care of your physical form. With the Covid running rampant I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to get into a gym let alone feel comfortable in one. Should the opportunity arise that’s my go to gym. Until that time I have taking my exercise serious again and with the help of Yang gang fitness on Twitter I find myself running on the beach at least twice a week sometimes more.

As mentioned briefly in the first paragraph I still have updates coming from my Zen garden aquarium as well as a new aqueon tank that got set up soon than expected and stocked heavier than my budget. I don’t want to give away too much on this subject because it is a category all by itself as well as a key point branching off to other platforms. So sit tight bud, I’ll be right back with that.

Smaller things include refinding my love in alot of different hobbies I’ve enjoyed over the last decade; video games, drawing, poetry, diy’s, comedy, etc. I know I promised something that would knock your socks off Sunday morning but cut me a break here, it’s Sunday morning.🤣 In all seriousness though, I am excited for what’s coming soon and I am passed excited to get my life back on track and focused towards doing things that I wholeheartedly enjoy & of course sharing all that stuff with all of my readers.

Let’s be productive this week! Nothing beats a failure but a try.

Follow/Add me on the few platforms I still use. To stay up to date with my movement through out the week. AMOSC: Selfmadekris Twitter: MrImanKing

Blogs vs. Vlogs

Welcome back my returning readers and hello to any new comers. Wether you know it or not I’ve had this blogs for quite some time, years actually. It’s been here through all of my ups and downs and many of my escapades and failed attempts at things. Not to mention the many, many random hiatuses. Through it all I always knew I could come back here and get my thoughts out, express myself and maybe help someone or at least keep them entertained for a bit. Also I just recently got back on track with the schedule blogs it’s barely been a month yet.

Why am I saying all of this like it’s a eulogy to my blog… Well it’s definately not the end of my blogs but believe it or not it is somewhat of a struggle to post something worth posting 3 days a week. I have alot of other hobbies that I am picking back up on and I want to be able to focus on them enough to be able to have enough to blog about them. So vlogs are the answer? I’m not sure but that’s the route I am considering taking.

I’ve done vlogs before on other social platforms I’m no longer on like Facebook and Instagram and for a while I have been undecided on returning to YouTube for many reasons; equipment (or lack there of) is the main reason. Truly Vlog style isn’t with a professional camera fancy light or perfect script. Something humble and real is what in my opinion makes for the best vlog stories.

Normally I would take the easy way out but technically I think this one might end up being a little more complicated in the long run but I’ll never know until I try. I can recall at one point for maybe a 4 months span I was mentally sound and motivated enough to run this blog, a YouTube channel and a social media presence. I was younger and had less responsibility but it not like I’m in college or taking care of kids so if I could do it once even half assed I’m pretty sure I can do it again.

Starting next week blog post will be on Sunday mornings to get your week started and Thursday evenings to end the week and start your weekends. It seems like weird days I do admit but it fits perfectly with my normal weekly schedule and I feel as if I’ll be less likely to miss a post day. Only posting twice a week and so spread out like that missing one post will ultimately feel like I have been gone for an entire week. Better news to go with that announcement is I’m opening up more categories and hobbies I will blog about. So while you might only get a wave or hair post once a week you’ll run into topics that I haven’t or wouldn’t normally talk about and hobbies most of you probably didn’t even know I had.

So what about these vlogs I keep going on about right? Normally I’m all for spoilers but unfortunately this time giving up the deets would take away from the excitement of content to come. For those that don’t want to follow me over to YouTube you are more than welcomed to keep coming back here because I guarantee the blog will be more in depth, more thorough and with less typos, spelling and grammatical errors I assure you.

But wait there is spoilers !!!! No, not for the vlogs but for other platforms I will be slowly reaching out to. Most of you don’t remember for very brief moment I was running my own podcast. And the big shocker secret;(I doubt anyone connected to this platform) I was also doing some exotic photo shoots and short films in the industry. There’s a lot more to me than just what’s on this blog😜

Trust me this weekend will fly by faster than you think and I’ll meet you all right back here Sunday morning. Thanks for all your support.

Pet store failures

So going to the pet store once a week was above my means since I keep blowing my budget. Apparently, I am like my parents can’t go in a store for just one thing(if it’s a pet store). I’ve kind of been wanting a new tank for a few days now. I have become somewhat obsessed with nano tanks. Which is great since I am working with limited space and I also want to get into aquascaping. So multiple small tanks that I can plant and maybe lightly stock seems even more zen then the Zen Garden. Like a field of zen.

On a weekend adventure I set off thinking I would get a new plant or a small school of fish. I didn’t get any of that. Instead somehow I got an entirely new tank. Well not some how, I guess I am a sucker for an all in one set especially if everything is included. Also never under estimate the power of advertisement.

Still being an intermediate in the hobby of fish keeping and just now starting to really evolve out side of my comfort fresh water, fake dècor, low mantainence tanks there is so much I didn’t know, I didn’t know. Main thing is “black water” aquariums.

YouTube is the go to still unless gen Z has found something else for quick diys and “I wonder if anyone else has done this” searches. So that’s where I discovered and researched “blackwater tanks” as always Serpa Designs had some really good ideas. So after a vigorous study session of YouTube experts I decided to head first dive into it and see what happens.

Mostly because I saw the total set up and I got it as a knee jerk reaction. Trying to cope with the pet store failure of not being able to get any live plants or fish at this new pet store I heard about. I went from getting a small aka nano tank with nothing but hardscape to fill it to purchasing an aquarium 3 times bigger than the Zen garden. For a future project of course, since I’m still struggling on the first project.

So to close out my explanation as why I do not have any updates on additions to the Zen garden or really any thing new at all in my fish husbandry hobby. Made a different purchase than what I had intended to and what had become the norm and it has set any goals I thought I had back at least by a week. Not to mention that I had a complete set up with everything… Except, live stock.

Haven’t had any more casualties and the Zen seems to be settling in. Maybe by next week I’ll be able to figure out exactly what 2 type of plants are in the Garden and get started with Project Black Water.

Don’t forget to check your water parameters 😋🦐!