Aquarium

For my birthday this year Carina got me an aquarium. This was something that I wanted for a long time. I spent a bit of time, before it arrived, thinking about how to set it up and which organisms to add. It is now 13 weeks after I set it up and I am very happy with how it looks.

Below is a video of the current state, the creatures in it, and the progress since the beginning.

One of the things that is not shown in the video is the way the large granite rocks are kept in place. I found these next to a bridge close to our house. After some scrubbing to get them clean, I left them in the sun for a few days. I built a "model" of the base of the tank to test some arrangements for the plants and rocks.

Planning the layout

After I found a suitable arrangement, I thought that it might be a bit risky to have the rocks stand upright without any support to keep them in this position. They weight approximately 5 kg and although they can stand on the gravel unassisted, it was not extremely stable if the tank needed to be moved.

I planned to have the base substrate and gravel approximately 10 cm deep. I made two perspex bases for the rocks that would be buried, to give additional support. These were epoxied to the rocks and left to cure for a few days.

Gluing the base to the rocks

The bases were designed in such a way that the rocks would be able to stand in the position I wanted, even without the support of the gravel. With everything in place they are very secure and I am not worried that they will fall over.

Rocks standing on their own - looks almost as if floating in the air

The setup of the tank was a lot of fun and in only a short while the plants seem to thrive. I had to trim them a few times already.

Setting up the tank, substrate for the plants, covered by gravel

Slowly adding water

Plants after only a few weeks 

A few more weeks

   

There was one week where the sun shone directly on the tank in the afternoon. I was not aware that this was happening and a small algae problem arose (during this time I was on holiday). After I noticed that this was happening I closed the curtains and the problem resolved itself (I did spend a bit of time cleaning the glass and also got 2 Netrite snails to help with the problem). Currently the sun does not shine through this window and the problem will only occur for 3 weeks, twice a year where I should remember to close the curtains in the afternoon.

The small algae problem

Recently I got a few Rams-horn snails from a friend, who also provided me with a lot of information on keeping fish and lending me several books to help me get going  - Thanks Per.

I am quite pleased with how this whole project turned out and slightly worried more aquariums may show up in our house in the future.

R&C

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Specifications:
The tank is a Fluval Edge 46 liter. I use rainwater and tap water in a ratio of 2:1. This keeps the pH at approximately the right level but also ensure that there is few minerals in circulation. I do not add other chemicals and do a 15 % water change once a week.

Sock:
- Chilly Rasbora - 7 (added first and the only inhabitants for approximately 4 weeks)
- Celestial Perl Danio's - 5
- Pygmy Corydoras - 5 (they are quite shy and tend to stay under the plants - they also find the hole to gulp air without any problem, I was worried about this at first but after a few days I think they learned where the hole is)
- Endler's Livebearers - 14 (I only got 5 BUT they spawned 3 times and now I have too many. Luckily this is easily remedied and I will sell/give away some of them soon)
- Cherry shrimp - 5
- Red onion snails - 2
- Rams-horn snails - many.

New Induku website

In an attempt to separate the Induku shop from taking over this blog, I have created a website exclusively for blogging about the shop. This blog will continue as before but with fewer posts on what I am making and selling. You are of course more than welcome (and even encouraged) to head over to the new site and see the new and exciting projects I am working on - just click here.  Feel free to also follow the new blog ;)

R&C

Vår trädgård (Our Garden)

Last year, December, we moved into our new house. This is our first proper house (our other homes being apartments). With the house came our first garden. We had very little experience with gardening (except from the odd weeding job in our parents' gardens when we were kids). 

During Swedish winter, everything is covered in snow and there is not much to do in the form of gardening. Thus for the first few months after moving in, we did not do much outside. With the start of spring, however, our garden exploded with a vigor that caught us off guard. Most plant life here have to finish their life cycle in a couple of months, thus when spring starts, everything grows like crazy (weeds included). Most of our spring and summer weekends and some of the evenings after work (in midsummer the sun sets around 11 in the evening), were spent in trying to tame our garden. 

We had some success, see photos below, but we also gave up on some unruly parts, to be attempted again next year. Something we noticed that is very different between Sweden and SA gardening is; in SA the gardens are meticulously maintained all through the year, while in Sweden it is much of a one season attempt. Since everything dies during the winter, each spring is a completely new start. So for things that didn't work out well this year, you have a new chance with next year. Below are some of our successes and projects that we will re-try next year.

We altered our porch a bit, taking down some of the railing, oiling it and building steps (see below). The yellow flowers in the back are blooming now and looks very nice. I don't know what they are called but they are extremely hardy, they die during the winter and these grew from under a pile of dead plant material. There was another bush of these in front of the porch that we had to clear to make place for the stairs - we are still fighting to get rid of some of them though.

Some flowers and a hollyhock we got from our neighbor, Inga-Lil, that we planted in pots on the porch

In the window inside is a small tangerine tree, one of the few plants left from our apartment days. On the lawn, in the distance, a mouse murder is taking place -- the culprit, a serial mouse murderer called Donkie

Three tomato plants I planted on the porch after a batch of spring flowers finished

Dahlias I got from Inga-Lil

The porch steps that Ronnie built and scars where we fought the yellow flower plants and are now trying to regrow grass. There is still some of the yellow plant left but we decided to continue the battle next year. In the back are two vinbär (currant) shrubs. 

A röda vinbär (red currant) and small vita vinbär (white current - a variant of the red current that is a bit sweeter). Interestingly, vinbär translates directly to "wine berry". These berries tastes a bit like I'd imagine undomesticated grapes would taste like and the leaves also looks like grape leaves. I assume they are related in some way.

The vegetable garden from the kitchen door on the porch

A small greenhouse Ronnie and his sister, Cindy, built for me (see details of their visit here)

Some tomato and pepper plants and a bush of herbs (resulting from "seed bombs" that Cindy gave to us)

Lettuce and broccoli in seed boxes - this is working quite well

Cauliflower and nasturtiums - the cauliflower is struggling a bit (something is eating the leaves)

The rest of the garden: Strawberries, carrots, corn, tomatoes, peas, pumpkins and more seed bombs!

Rhubarb, this is the third crop for this season. I already harvested two crops resulting in many rhubarb pies, jams, compotes, smoothies and a whole freezer rack full of frozen rhubarb. 

Rhubarb pie

The herb garden that got a bit out of hand. Will start a better organised one from scratch next year....

Our garden shed - an old smithy dating from the 1700's. Next to the smithy is a flower bed with some nice flowers but, invaded by weeds. Another project for next year...

The inside of the smithy/garden shed

One of our two young prune trees. We tried our hand at pruning four young fruit trees (two prune and two apple trees) and one mature apple tree. Overall it seems to have worked nicely with the mature apple tree and 3 out of the 4 young trees blooming and bearing fruit. This small prune tree suffered a heavy aphid infestation - we will fight harder against these pests next year 

A few apples

Different variety of apple

The mature apple tree in front of the house

Some more nasturtiums and a pattypan in pots at the entrance

Ronnie cut open a path in the bushes with our new trimmer to access the raspberry patch (this was necessary since most of the bushes consists of nettles...)

The raspberry patch

Raspberries in incubation :)

This year was a crash course in gardening for us. Next year we will be ready when spring arrives, to apply the acquired knowledge of one season of Swedish gardening :)

C&R

Book binding

With all the projects that I have in mind and all the things that I need to remember to do I needed a notebook. I thought I will try my hand at binding a book and here is the result:

Denim bound book

Notes for next project

Clean pages

I am reasonably pleased with the outcome although I had to make some serious adjustments halfway through the process (see later). Below are the steps I followed to produce a denim bound book.

Main materials of a book

Folding each page

Clamping pages and adding glue - a thin cloth is also added

The casing of this book is made by cardboard. I used two pieces glued together at an angle (around 10 degree offset). This  is to provide a bit more strength as this cardboard bend much easier in one dimension - now not possible anymore.

Gluing cardboard pieces

Getting sizes for the casing

All the elements for the book

Casing done

Book without pages

Gluing the pages in

At this stage I found a mistake. After the pages was glued to the inside and the front and back pages were glued to the case the spine was a bit too wide. I thought this was how it was supposed to be but apparently it is not. I thus removed the text block (all the pages glued togehter) and added more pages - in effect doubling the amount of pages.

Case where text block was removed

After this things worked much better.

Second round of finishing everything

Final product - still slightly wet

I am impressed with the general feel and look of the book and will definitely do more book binding. For my next book I am going to use leather and wood and have an idea that, I think, will make it quite unique. I will post it once it is done ... or the attempt if it turns out to be a mere "experiment".

R&C