The UV sterilizer cleared the green water. But when we could finally see the tank clearly, we noticed we were two fish short.

After 58 days of cycling, waiting, and watching green water bloom, we finally added fish to the tank. Just not the ones we planned.

Two weeks away, one dead snail, 60+ hitchhikers, and a blackout that actually worked. The tank survived—and so did we.

We’re 700 miles from home, watching our tank turn into pea soup through a webcam. Here’s what happened—and what we’re doing about it remotely.

A look at the full infrastructure behind this blog: Mac Mini server, Docker, AI image moderation, cloud storage, and AI-assisted writing.

The hitchhiker snail population continues to grow—and we finally have a concrete stocking plan with real prices from the local fish store.

After 35 days, both ammonia and nitrite hit zero. The cycle is complete—and we’re celebrating with a new lighting schedule.

Nitrite is crashing—in the best possible way. We’re days away from a fully cycled tank.

Every aquarium journey comes with lessons—some from research, some from experience, and some from mistakes we wish we hadn’t made.

After the chaos of the past week—plant losses, hitchhiker discoveries, ammonia spikes—today brings calm. The tank is recovering.