Silvering

Everyone here is so dedicated to planted tanks, it's amazing. I didn't even mean for this tank to be planted for real at all, and now look at me! Doing research, buying more plants to add to my tank... where will it all end??

I had a survey coupon to use, so I got a new plant from a big box store in town, helpfully labeled "Crypt"



My sunset gourami was quick to investigate - it's love at first sight!



Full tank shot:


Previous info about this tank in my intro post

I've been eagerly reading as many deeply technical thread discussions as I can, this is probably not so good for a beginner! I think I need more test kits before something goes horribly wrong. The big amazon sword is showing signs of potassium deficiency, and there's a bit of GSA starting to grow. I managed to find a phosphate test kit, and both the tap water and the tank water are measuring 0.5 ppm. I was hoping feeding the fish would produce enough phosphates, but I guess not! :S I'm just glad this forum has those plant deficiency diagrams, that's actually how I stumbled across you guys in the first place!

mudboots

Howdy Silvering, and welcome to the forums in APC!

I love the background on the tank by the way; they really add depth. Any chance for some specs on the tank, like dimensions, water flow/filtration rate, CO2 or not, et cetera?

That gourami is nice. Two of my daughters are helping me stock my 34 bow front, and I have a feeling they are going to end up either with guorami's in mind or a bunch of bettas (which obviously won't work). I was able to win the "no decorations" debate, so I guess we'll go with what they want.

What a beautiful Cryptocoryne also; they are a favorite of MANY on this forum. Have fun in the water, and stay out of the mud (tank mud; stirring it causes green water outbreaks - I learned this the hard way once in the old 125).

Silvering

Thanks mudboots!

Ooooh yeah, specs... knew I forgot something...

55-gallon 48"x12"x21"
Filters: TopFin 60 (supposedly 300 GPH, I don't believe it) and BioSystem 25 (125 GPH, surface skimmer)
DIY yeast CO2, but it's bubbling so slowly (8 per minute) that I doubt it's adding anything; I have to collect more 2L bottles!
Light hasn't been upgraded yet, it's just one 32W T8.

I have to say that when I was in high school, I tried to keep a group of gouramis in a 36" 30-gallon, and it didn't work out for me - whether it was too much aggression or iridovirus, I don't know. Even with just two in 48", they still fight, but there's enough room for them to run away from each other!

For bettas, you could get females! Many of them are just as pretty as the males, only with smaller fins. And you can keep a bunch of them together. Just don't put livebearers in the same tank with them, because when I did that once, the bettas ate all the guppy fry and died. :P

... as you can see, I'm not too new at fishkeeping, and I have stories. LOL

I got some more test kits today at the nearest LFS, and got a huge bunch of java moss! But it was in the same tank as a fish with ich, so I'm thinking I'll dump the moss in a bucket of water and treat the bucket with some ich meds I have on hand, I don't want another plague in my tank. I had to fight one off while I was setting it up, because I was "quarantining" in place - my older, rarer fish were all safe a 20-gallon waiting for their upgrade.

mudboots

Thanks for the info, and by the way I had no idea you could keep female bettas together. I may have to let the girls know this, and they will probably drag me to the store as soon as they can to tell me which ones they want...I imagine they will be PINK!!!! Hah!

Silvering

Got any pink bettas yet, Mudboots?

I decided to put the java moss I got on my driftwood, and I had so much left over that I went around scrounging rocks to attach it to as well - I used fishing line in this tank, but sacrificed one of those floofy shower scrubs for netting to attach the extra to rocks in my other tanks! (I am not about to try tying fishing line to a round object, it was hard enough on the ones with protrusions to catch the line and keep it from slipping off!) I also experimented a bit with the camera modes, I think I found a better one to use.



I switched around filters! I wasn't happy with how cloudy the water was staying or with the flow pattern from the HOBs, so I snagged the extra XP3 from my cichlid tank, gave it a bit of a cleaning, and hooked it up to this tank. After reading threads about lily pipes and flow, I decided to see if I couldn't get the output to be a little better - I got this XP3 secondhand and it was missing the original output U, so I had to get a replacement, and all I could easily get was this black fan thing. A little boiling water and some pliers and the fan isn't producing quite as much turbulence anymore. I need to try again with more patience, see if I can't get the plastic more pliable by putting it in the hot water for longer. (I was impatient! ) I took one of the spraybars and put it on the input side, and it seemed to be working, but just now my oto got his head stuck in one of the holes! I pulled the plug and he wiggled himself free, but now I'm wondering what to do. I have two spraybars and this one's holes were drilled larger by the previous owner - maybe I should switch them out for the one with smaller holes, but then the flow through the smaller holes would be faster, so I don't know what to do yet. Any suggestions?

mudboots

No suggestions, but your tank is looking very nice, and yes, we just got back from the store a bit ago and the girls picked out 3 pink females (one veil tail and two crown tails), one that is a powder blue crown tail female, and then a delta tail male that is pink/irridescent blue. I'll post pics on the 34 bow thread in a while.

I think swapping the filtration around was good. Circulation is pretty critical it seems. I've only had one tank with just about nill filtration (except small tanks) that did well, but it had so many plants that they took care of the system themselves.

Silvering

I'll look forward to seeing them! I haven't kept any bettas since the Guppy Fiasco a couple years ago now (how did it get to be that far back?? LOL) - with a bunch of females and a male, you might have them breed! If the male can build his bubble nest somewhere. That would be really cool.

The oto seems to have learned his lesson... I hope. He's been sticking to the leaves of the swords (his favorite) and they're on the opposite side of the tank. I'll have to see if I can find some black mesh and superglue it over the holes or something - I've got two more in quarantine right now and I don't want them poking their noses in and getting stuck! I'm definitely sold on the flow from the XP3 though. Not going back to just the HOBs, and I'll probably take off the TopFin 60 at some point and leave just the Bio System skimmer/filter to take care of surface film.

I added another 2L bottle to my DIY CO2 setup, but I'm still not getting the same output that I've seen other people post about getting from theirs. I used the detergent/water trick to check the caps of my bottles and they pass muster, but I might have a leak somewhere else in the tubing. The other thing that occurred to me is that I've been using my baking yeast, and I'm down to the last little bit in the bottom of my 1lb jar in the freezer, so maybe it's not active enough anymore. (I haven't had any problems with my pizza crust, though!) So I'm stalking old CO2 threads and changing the recipe for the yeast for every new bottle I add. Sooner or later I'll figure it out!

Bonus pics: the amazing tree-climbing nerite!


And on the way down:

Silvering

So, I've figured out an inelegant solution to the fish-sucked-and-stuck problem - got a bit of netting and superglued it down, then used a hobby knife to cut off the extra. If it lasts over the next couple of days I'll swap things out temporarily and spraypaint it black so it won't be as obvious!


I got an anubias and attached it to my driftwood - it's barely visible in the photo above, because there was a perfect groove on the back of the driftwood for the rhizome, and I hope it will eventually grow "forward" and be more visible.


And then I was reading the "regretted fish purchase" thread and saw this...
So I'm wondering if that might be the cause of some damage on my Amazon sword, rather than nutrient deficiency. I gotta get out my test kits again, this weekend was too busy to do more than quick water changes on my tanks!

wicca27

looks good i love the water sprite one of my faves the real lacy leaves. as for a light i just went to walmart and got a 4 foot shop light and sit it right on top of the tank works great with GE daylight bulbs in it plants do wonderfull


just pulled all out today to redo it

Silvering

If I start having a lot of problems to do with lighting, I'll have to go the shop light route myself! As it is, the plants seem to be fairly happy with their "new" brighter light from switching from T12 to a T8 bulb. I haven't quite read every thread on the site about lighting a 55 gallon tank (yet!) but I think I'll want to go with 2 T5's eventually, to land somewhere between 1-2 wpg. I don't want to have to go to pressurized CO2! (This was supposed to be a fish tank to begin with anyway...) So I'm not actually planning on growing anything that's really difficult. I'm actually hoping I can trim the water sprite so that it looks bushier and fills in quite a bit - if that happens and the midground plants I have make it, I'll be happy with the planting level. No aquascaped lawns for me, I have enough trouble with the grass outside! :P

I already put a fixture on my Amazon wish list, but perusing the AH Supply site is making me glad that I don't feel the need to decide on something anytime soon...