My aquatic plant aquarium

I am developing interest on things that fly in the sky and those swim in the sea. Had my fair share of the RC planes for the past one year and now I decided to go for aquatic plant aquarium.

There are many things and much knowledge to be learnt in order to have those aquatic plants grown well in an aquarium. My usual way to find out those information are actually from internet, forums, friends and also asking my brother-in-law who had planted a few tanks inside his home.

My list of equipment set-up is as follows:

1. I have 2ft and 3 ft tanks reserved for that purpose. My intention is to have an initial hand-on on the 2ft to gain experience and then move on to grow those plants in the bigger 3 ft tank subsequently.

2. Bought a CO2 cylinder with regulator valve and also glass diffuser to inject the gas into the aquarium. An automatic solenoid regulator instead of a manual one would be better because one could use a timer to on and off the CO2 to be delivered. The glass diffuser is a transparent device that one could observe and count the drops of CO2 per minute or second to get the right amount for the proper growth of flora. There is a drop checker that changes its color to indicate the acidity or alkalinity of the water when there is too much CO2 dissolved or too little.

3. Eheim 2217 and Eheim 2215 canister filters. Eheim is a well-known brand though it is a bit expensive. These filters are important for the good biological bacteria to grow inside the media and to absorb and get rid of all those wastes, nitrates etc. The flow rate is preferably 8 - 10 times the volume of the water. For example, if the tank holds100 liters of water then the flow rate of the filters should be in the region of about 1000 liters per hour.

4. An Aquazonic T5 lighting set with 4 x 39 W 10,000K tubes plus 1x 20W 6,000K ADA lamp. The rough guide is 2 - 3 Watt per gallon of water depending on the type of plants that you want to grow. The spectrum of light must imitate closely the natural light source, the color rendering parameter is therefore important for the plants to grow well.

5. A fan that blusters at the surface of the water level to cool the temperature of another 2 C down from the ambient room temperature of 30C to about 27-28 C. The more suitable range for some plant to grow well is probably 25 - 27 C. Some of the more advanced planters choose to use a chiller instead to get the water at a consistently cold temperature.

6. To set up a proper substrate or soil for the plants to take root and absorb all the nutrients required for their growth. This could be an expensive portion of the set-up cost. Based on the more popular aquatic soil brand ADA, one has to put in a layer of power sand, then traces of special elements, the coarse substrate Amazonic sand then the finer powder Amazonic sand. This will set you back for a couple of hundred dollars.

7. There is also a need for periodic dosing of liquid fertilizer to enhance the growth and replenish the nutrients consumed by the plants. The common ones are: N, P, K, Fe (Nitrates, Phosphorus, Potassium, Iron) etc. The available commercial brands in the market include ADA, Seachem, JBL , Sera etc.

Weekly water change is also performed so as to adulterate the fertilizer to avoid growth of algae and also give a suitable water condition for the fauna and flora to live in. The more professional planters might even test the water hardness, PH value, chemical content etc. to get every parameter right for better and healthier growth.

8. One could choose different kinds of fauna or fishes for the aquarium. The most common ones are Tetras and they are beautiful fishes for planted aquariums. Algae eaters such as Siamese flying fox, Amano shrimps etc are also introduced into the tanks to clean up left over food, algae on leaves or glass, drift wood etc.

It is interesting to note some of the very scientific names of the various kinds of flora or aquatic plants. The names are simply bizarre. Just to give examples: Hygrophila Polysperma, Rotala Rotundifolia, Hygrophila Difformis, Rotalla Macranda. Bacopa Australis, Cabomba Furcata, Mayaca Fluviatlis etc. I kept a number of these plants in my aquarium. You probably could identify some of them in the photos below.

There are also some mosses that one could tie them on the rocks and drift woods that form a splendid view of the aqua-scaping foreground or background. The common ones are Java Moss and Christmas Moss. When the right amount of CO2 and light is shone on the plants, they will start to pearl with little bubbles of air releasing and rising up to the surface of the water. It is relaxing to look at them and enjoying the splendid view of a well-planted aquarium

Beware of such unscrupulous private education institutions!

How could a private institution that promise a degree course of a reputable UK university to be discontinued when they initially offered its diploma program that is supposed to pave way for the admission to its second year degree program after completion? A BIG question indeed!

A lot of these private institutions charge high fees by providing nice and cozy environment just to attract students. And most naive students are easily influenced by the deceptive front facade instead of the real stuff that an education institution could offer, that is, the quality of education itself. They are mainly commercialized institutions all out to maximize profit, cut corners at having enough qualified lecturers for possible subjects students could opt to take on from semester to semester etc. Despite all these, the worst thing one could ever experience would be,  to be told that the degree program is now discontinued after completion of  your diploma. And  you are then advised to carry on the degree program with other alternative universities of different ranking and standard!

I think it is ethically wrong to advertise on educational courses offered from established  overseas universities to lure students in and subsequently default the intended path of the aspiring students! It is either they are not having enough students to form the class economically or having some fallout deals with the UK universities in question. We are not interested to know the actual reason why!

I had told my son to quickly seek out available courses of other more reliable private institutions at the slightest clue of such unscrupulous practices taking place. Imagine a college could accept your registration fees, promise the entrance to start course in September and subsequently want to persuade you to change university? He had wasted 3 months at home waiting for the second semester to start, he was told that ALL of the existing 1st semester common subjects could be exempted by virtue of the earlier diploma program undertaken by him. But in actual fact they are just using the excuse to buy time for recruiting more students. After that period of time, they probably failed to get adequate new student recruitment and they turned around and told you a such a shocking news. When you complain and threaten to take back the deposit, they have the cheek to mention that now the application is being sent to the overseas university and waiting for the letter of offer instead. No one could wait for such nonsense if the entrance criterion for admission is clearly set at a CGPA  score of  2.5 or above!

My son got the offer from another Australian university applied with his result scripts and I told him to go ahead and forget about that RM500 deposit and whatever fees paid!

Let us meet more often

Basing on my own thoughts and feeling, I came to the conclusion that some of my classmates might want to consider to meet more frequently after all these years. It had proven me wrong most of the time as only a few are actually enthusiastic while the majority of them remain lukewarm about the idea.

It is always wrong for me to perceive of others on even simple thing like this, presuming that they would perceive and think the same way as I am. Of course there are also many like-minded people who share the same cause of wanting something done, but there are many more that do not think alike. What I am trying to say is, do not be too sure of what you have in mind unless it is tested and rigorously verified!

I had also tried to create a facebook group on a secondary Chinese school which I used to attend. The one that I did for the University that I attended was not so successful as far as the response is concerned. It could be that some of our friends are not so IT or internet oriented as I am, or for whatever some other reasons. It ended up most of the time I am doing the postings, hoping that one fine day these classmates of mine would be fascinated by the photos and writing put up there.

People could not afford to meet physically everyday due to commitment and distance apart. However with the advent of internet and all these communication tools made available,  I could link up many of my colleagues and friends who worked together with me in Taiwan, Mexico, China and other previous companies.

I hope one day they could realize,  time is running short in life and it is a good time now to meet old friends and acquaintances as often as they could. From my experience, I had preoccupied too much of my time in working and neglected spending time with my loved ones, which I now regretted very much. I missed my grandparents, my in-laws, my mom whenever I think of them. And I  promise myself that I will schedule to meet my dad and uncle more often from now onward!  May God always bless them with health and longevity of life so that we could spend more precious moments together. Amen!

The story of my grand parents

I had a brief and casual conversation with my uncle on how life was like after my grandparents had come all the way from China. I want to record down here for future reference. My grandpa was from a more educated background whose ancestry ran a Taoist funeral rites business for many generations in China. One must be literate and possess a good language command skill to read and also write with good Chinese calligraphy for the many paperwork that needs to be professionally carried out in a funeral proper. That was the business passed down and earned a reasonably good living even in Malaysia at a later stage for my dad. When grandpa first arrived here in Malaysia, he stayed near an area, the present Eastern Garden of Kampar. He cut firewood from the nearby jungles for a living together with my grandma. My grandma was brought over to Malaya by her brother at a later stage to join my grandpa.  I was told my grandma's brother was well-to-do and he used to run a coal or iron ore mine somewhere in Kuala Lumpur. He left peninsula Malaya and returned to China, never settled down as a citizen in this country; we lost contact thereafter though I tried hard to trace back the root of my grandma in China but to no avail.

My uncle recollected bits and pieces of how he used to help in carrying and placing those firewood into the kitchens of customers. Firewood was cut and chopped into pieces and lined up for sales in the market place waiting for customers. Life was very tough then especially for my grandpa who had never done such manual hard labor work before.

During the period when Japanese occupied peninsula Malaya, they started  recruiting people to build the infamous railways of death in Thailand. My grandpa actually had taken up the offer and received the advanced salary from the Japanese and got ready for the journey to Thailand. My grandma was strongly against the idea and she insisted that through thick and thin of life, all family members must always stay closely together. My grandpa eventually was convinced and declined the offer; and the money was subsequently returned to the Japanese recruitment agency. They stayed on in the same township in its surrounding areas for many more years though life was never easy for them as migrants to a strange land. I was touched by this story told by my uncle many years later and I greatly respect and thank this wise decision made by my grandma. If not for her wisdom, I would not even have a chance to see the face of my grandpa after I was born. He was such a loving person that I still miss him very much since his death while I was in primary 3. I only managed to spend approximately 9 memorable good years with him. How I wish I could spend a much longer period of time with him more before he left us.

One of my grandpa's brother followed him to Malaya and I was told one version of the story that he drank unboiled water that resulted in him contracting a certain illness that caused his death. Another version was that during Japanese occupation, food was scarce and he developed some bad wounds perhaps due to malnutrition and also lack of medical supplies that had taken a toll on him. Till the day of his death he was single and it was a sad story of him to die in this manner. I heard he was a likable person that he used to bring my dad and uncle to barber shops for their hair cut. I had never got a chance to meet him personally other than visiting his tomb. I was told that one of my nephews looks like him, that is all the impression or imagination that I could have about him.

Life was very much improved after my dad and aunt had learnt the newly introduced skill of rubber tapping. At that time to acquire the skill of tapping rubber was really a big thing and few people actually had that skill. (Rubber tapping was at a later part became such a common skill that no longer could command that kind of income) Both of them earned a fairly lucrative combined income by the standard of that time. My dad bought a brand new bicycle with the hand switching gear version equivalent to that of today mountain bike. That was the bicycle he used to court my mom who worked in a sundry shop under the name "Chop Kong Beng Kee" , the owner's wife happened to be my mom's cousin sister.

My grandpa continued to work in a French owned tin mine company half way between Mambang Diawan and Kampar, an area called "SEK". On his way home after work, he rode his bicycle to Kampar town and bought me gold fishes and angel fishes. I developed the interest of aquarium fish keeping through him and his loving kindness until today.  And he always brought me and my siblings on his big bicycle for breakfast in the market place.

At the later stage of his working life in the mine, his health deteriorated as he aged over the years. He dozed off one day on duty while taking charge of the tin mine "palong"  (For those who do not know what a palong is, please refer to this:  http://www.ipohworld.org/blog/?p=874) and the tin ore overflew from its proper storage area. I suppose he was apprehended and then was transferred to another division as a form of demotion!

I used to see him dozing off at the corner of the house easily and that symptom lasted for some years. And during his last few years with us, he had a chronic stomach pain which could be quelled only through some dosage of opium. He was subsequently admitted to Tapah hospital. We visited him once with my 3rd brother coming along. This was the first time that my 3rd brother started to call him "Grandpa" after some years he thought he was born dumb (Actually he was just a slow learner, relatively speaking amongst my siblings as far as speaking is concerned). He was exhilarated to hear from my 3rd brother and he appeared to be very well at that time.  But suddenly the next day his health took a sharp turn and he was pronounced beyond any medical cure possible. They took off his oxygen and he died in a truck on the slope of the little path just about reaching home. The night of his funeral was filled with the howling of the owls that marked one of the saddest day of my life!

If I ever have a chance to speak to him again, I would like to say " Grandpa I love you very much!"

How to make staying alone to be pleasant and interesting

It comes into my mind on how to overcome a situation where you are staying all alone at a place or foreign land that you are not used to; without friends and even the food tastes different . Human beings are simply habitual animals and if they ever have a choice they prefer not to have change of their routine. But life would not allow you to have such freedom of choice all the time, your livelihood might have got you a job transfer or you have to go and stay in a new town,  because that is the place your children are working etc.

I had been staying overseas for 10 years and also working 4 hours drive from home and only get a chance to come home with my family once fortnightly for almost the past 2 years.  The experience had taught me these, just to share them with you :

1. If you have the option, choose a place of stay where the surrounding environment you should feel comfortable with. Perhaps near to a park with a lot of open space, close to the sites or areas where you could pursue your hobbies or sport conveniently would be your priority. You do not want to stay too far away that the sheer distance of driving itself will put you off, and kill your interests or initiatives of attempting something new.

2. You have to learn to love the people there. In a foreign country, you will have to learn to love their language, culture, songs and tradition. Interact with them through joining certain activities, such as picking up a sport, going to churches, trekking, cycling or even jogging. I know a lot of friends through some of these outdoor activities and also through joining the local remote controlled RC club etc. In Mexico, I went out with the locals to the pubs and listened to their folk songs etc and at the same time practised my Spanish with them. I enjoyed my life in Mexico even though many people and media mentioned negatively about the violence and crimes there projecting it is an extremely unsafe place to stay and work. My friend from Taiwan even sent me a newspaper cutting on kidnapping of foreigners to fore-warn me not to take up the Mexican offer. I am telling you, I have no regret whatesoever and this was one of the most enjoyable overseas working trip and stay that I ever experienced.

3. One has to cultivate multiple interests and anticipate the time you could participate and also provide yourself with alternatives or contingency options. For example, if you are experiencing pain in your ankle after some long distance jogging, you could have a bicycle for cycling, the effort of which normally does not exert the kind of stress on your ankle,  compared to when you have to land your feet on hard ground with your jogging shoes on.

If you have to stay in house because of the rainy season, aquariums are available at home for you to look at those fishes. And I kept a few tanks of wild fighting fishes for my in-house entertainment. By the way, TV is not my favorite!

I even make alternatives for flying my RC toys, for example if the wind is too strong for flying helicopter or other planes, I have a glider that rides on wind. Recently I am thinking of even owning a RC buggy or truggy, which provides me another option to play these RC vehicles on land instead of up in the unpredictable sky.

4.  Photography might not be my main interest even though I had purchased DSLR, which is being used by my son most of the time. But I always keep an old digital 8 MP digital camera handy with me. Wherever I go and see something interesting, I will snap some shots. I will then upload those photos into my computer and also pick on some to upload them onto Facebook. This has occupied quite a fair bit of my time for being active on Facebook. When I feel bored after all these, I started to write a piece or two in my blog!

5. Always have something to look forward to. Looking forward to seeing your family during the weekends, waiting for public holidays, such as Hari Raya, Christmas and New Year days, school holidays etc and planning your activities. Even wait for your month-end salary so that you could spend a bit more on the favorite items on your wish list. All of these would always drive you on day by day and make your passing time more interesting.

5. Reading some books on popular themes and then exchange ideas and thoughts with friends. For example, "My side of the story" by Chin Peng and then find out physically where were those places he referred to,  as of present day,  where he built his jungle headquarter or had hidden himself and escaped from the police etc.

Folks, that is how I spend my time most of the days. As I spend my time each day eventfully, ironically I do sometimes feel time is passing too fast, I ask myself whether am I just wasting the remaining "youthful" time of my life pretending to be very busy?

Taking inventory of year 2010!

So fast another year has passed us by and this marks the dawning of another brand new decade to come. Think of the moment in time long ago when we tried to picture how old our son and daughter shall be once we reached a certain threshold age of your life. Your son will probably be graduating and your daughter is finishing her high school etc. We are gradually and almost caught unpreparedly in approaching that age, used to be just far ahead imagination but it is for real now! Life is as though you are spending time each day just for that day to come true! I still remember during my secondary school days, a teacher by the name of Madam Tang told us in the class that all you do for the most part of your life, you are doing it for the sake of your children! We were a bit puzzled over what she meaned then but now we begin to realize how true is her statement!

Writing on a blog like this has its ups and downs. Some months you could be productive, inspired to write a bit more by so many events or happenings around you; while other months you just feel like lying dormant and doing nothing. Taking a hindsight, I had written 92 articles for year 2010, which was not so bad afterall! English is never a language that I had intended to use for writing a blog like this. The language itself was a big handicap for me because I came from a Chinese primary and secondary school background. Chinese would be my preferred language because I have a better command and proficiency acquired through my years of education and novels reading. However over the many later working years, the job nature and the environment requirement had left me little choice but compelled to express myself more in English.

Life is always beyond your expectation and full of surprises! I remember during my 4 years stay in Taiwan I used to wake up and confused on what dialect I should use for the day, whether Cantonese or Mandarin. Today I am in the state of Trengganu, being the only Chinese in the Production Administration office, I speak and use the Malay language for daily conversation and meetings most of my time! I am still wondering, what region or country I shall be in for the next phase of my career? Vietnam, Brazil or China again?

Taking inventory on what I had done for year 2010, I would say I had acquired the knowledge of the steel industry by spending almost 2 years here in this hot-rolling steel mills. The place by the seaside that I had chosen to reside, give me ample opportunity and space to take on cycling and jogging. Such training had contributed to good physical fitness that enables me to take on a half marathon run without much of a problem. Over that period I had gathered a collection of my favorite wild fighting fishes and also kept a few aquariums of other tropical fishes. I did this to make up the good old days that I missed so much to compensate for the years I spent abroad when such activities were not so viable. The recent learning on new hobby and joining the group on remote controlled aircraft flying is another fun and pleasurable time for me too.

All in all, 2010 was a fruitful year to me,  with a lot of time to ponder upon life, good exercise routine and early bed time plus fairly active on facebook. Hope to go on with this life-style for another year or two and then start thinking of,  perhaps doing something else, hopefully less mundane and more meaningful.

To all my friends, a happy and blessed new year of 2011!