Finally up and planted! Algae here we come! - Page 2 - Journals

Travis.808 · 06-08-2009, 08:10 PM

Yup water is in!

Travis.808 · 06-09-2009, 02:59 AM

Yup waters in! Think I'm putting some algae eaters in tomorrow.

Travis.808 · 06-25-2009, 06:14 PM

Well, my tank has been up for 3 weeks now and thought I'd post again. I have been doing a 50% water change every Friday and all general maintenance at the same time. Since initial planting I've added 20 ghost shrimps and I'm down to about 15 now

. I have also added 5 oto's which are happy and crazy, very fun to watch. The Anacharis is out and the photography is still horrible I'm gonna have to enlist the help of someone else to do a shoot at some time because my pictures/camera don't do the tank justice. The Blyxa and unfortunately snail population is booming everything else is doing good, just not as. At the rate its been growing at it looks like the HG should be full at the end of August maybe. Not sure if I'll need to wait all the way till then to add my general population but, I'll continue to check water parameters. Thanks for looking!

My gallery has more pictures but, here is a left side tank shot with 2 of my oto's.

jimmyjam · 06-29-2009, 09:02 PM

haha ..i like the plant in the back ..is it blyxa jap? or another blyxa? And are you adding a background?

Travis.808 · 06-29-2009, 10:02 PM

There is some hygro in the back left of the tank and some rotala in the back right of the tank both are surrounded by blyxa which provided by nokturnalkid is growing something fierce! Just a reminder this is only a shot of the left side of the tank above. Already have a black back ground there is just a reflection on the glass in the back.

Travis.808 · 07-04-2009, 05:23 PM

Sorry jimmy I didn't read your question properly last time, the Blyxa is Japonica.

Yesterday there were some updates done to my tank. Since I checked and my tank was fully cycled so, I decided to introduce some fish. I added two pea puffers (Carinotetraodon Travancoricus) and nine Ember Tetras (Hyphessobrycon Amandae). I think one of the tetras is not going to make it. It doesn't school and kinda gets pushed around by the rest of them. Also the circulation wasn't the greatest on the side with no outflow from the filter so I added a koralia 400gph powerhead. Circulation is awesome now and the tank inhabitants seem happy. pictures to follow soon.

Travis.808 · 07-20-2009, 08:13 PM

My puffers both died within 2 days of each other. Anyone have any ideas as to what may have happened? 12 ember tetras, 12 chili rasboras, 5 otocinclus,<unknown ghost shrimp population, and 100,000 snails all fine. 2 dead pea puffers. I want to put another couple in but, not before I find out what killed them in the first place. I did read somewhere that they don't like strong currents, is this true? If so maybe I should take the koralia pump out other than that I have no idea what happened.

Travis.808 · 07-30-2009, 01:30 AM

As you will see I still haven't mastered the arts of photography. My tank is almost fully grown in now. I am planning a partial replant and may be adding some manzanita with moss to add interest to the upper portion of the tank. As for the inhabitants, there has been a few changes. First as stated before my 2 DP died

. I still don't know the definitive cause of death, many suggestions have been made, of which starvation was one. Which brings me to my inhabitants

I am STILL battling my one billion pond snails. Stupid lazy puffers died of starvation in a friggin' all-you-can-eat buffet!

Next change, I now have a species only tank of all Chili Rasboras (Boraras Brigittae). The Ember Tetras (Hyphessobrycon Amandae) were scaring the little Brigittae into hiding so I had to make a species choice and the significantly more boldly colored Chili's won. Sorry Embers next tank: all tetras all colors? Last but, certainly not least, I have to mention the O.G.'s my ghost shrimps and otto's still doing great! Anyway, thanks for looking any praise or suggestions towards my re-scape are welcomed. The tank is definitely a work in progress still.

This is 5 weeks after initial planting

This is 8 weeks after initial planting took the picture tonight.

Philosophos · 07-30-2009, 11:24 AM

Puffers failing, try botia. They may not be quite so nice to your plants (they may nibble at or disturb them a bit), and I'm not sure about shrimp compatibility, but some yoyo or dwarf chain loach would do a great job wiping out those pond snails. I've never had a snail problem in a botia tank.

The other option would be to switch to RO water and up your magnesium to compensate; next to no KH with a lower pH has worked for me in tanks where I didn't want to use loach.

Assasin snails are a common solution as well; they won't reproduce, don't eat the plants, and they eat other snails. I'm unfamiliar with these through personal experience though.

-Philosophos

S&KGray · 07-30-2009, 12:58 PM

Nice growth!

I agree with Philosophos about the botia. I had a pond and small ramshorn type snail infestation in my 55g low-tech planted until I added 4 clown loaches. They even cut down the MTS population (which I still want in there). I may have to pull them if MTS numbers drop too low.