Journal of our five tanks

[Ravenswing]

Dear UKAPS friend,

...here we go.

We have five tanks at home, 600, 300, 250, 65 and 45-l. 600l has been running fot three months after selling our 450l away. In that I used to have metalhalides (and T5s for some time) and pressurized C02 with EI, 300l used to have T5s and pressurized as 65l well too. Then I got tired with all that messing with technic and fertz. We had some serious technical problems with (cheap...) T5-lights and (not so cheap) Co2-technic. After that we went down to T8s and daily Excel/Easy Carbo and Iv been sooooooo happy since that though it was a huge job to get 300l back on track after being a BBA farm because of unstable Co2.

Let me introduce every tank. At the beginning I must tell that earlier (till last spring) we used to have mainly southamerican species but after buing an EC-meter and finding we have extremely hard water (620uS from tap), I gave some species away and nowadays we prefer hardwater species. Those softwater species that seems to do OK in our hard water, we have kept. Prams from tap: GH 3-7, KH 3-5, pH 7,4-8, NO2/NO3 0, EC 620uS.

600l:
As said, three months old, moved at the end of August from 450l to this. Nowadays led-lighting for 6 weeks, daily 15ml EC, filtration Eheim 2048, Hamburger maten filter with 1000l/h AquaBee pump , Fluval U4. Fishes: orange unknown rainbow hybrid x 5, Chilatherina bleheri x 7, Pseudomomugil signifer x >20, Bedotia geayi x 9, Stiphodon elegans x 2 (trying to get more), Stiphodon atropurpureus x 4, L-333, flashpleco and 40+cories (C concolor, C similis and C aeneus). GH 5, KH 3, pH 7,5, PO4 1-2mg/l, NO3 5mg/l, Fe 0,2mg/l, EC 700uS.

This picture is taken last week. I sold some bows and had to take drifwoods up so I did some rescape at the same time since the tank was a bit overgrown. Substrate JBL Manado.

http://aijaa.com/Pf93Y5

Today:

http://aijaa.com/3RxvAv

Right now it looks a bit messy after hard trimming. Theres C balansae var crispatula growing on the left corner, oh it grows so slowly! I took it from 300l hoping it would start growing faster with stronger light now. I hate that empty corner! I used to grow there Heteranthera dubia but it was one dam weed so I took it away.

Iv been very happy with this set up, need to fertilize (KNO3, PO4, K, Plantex and DIY-Equilibrium) just twice a week, WC 50% weekly, no algae anywhere. Fishes have been soooo fine.

 

[Ravenswing]

My 14-year old sons 300l:

This has always been very easy to take care for some reason of but as I told, after unstable C02 and strong lights (T5) last spring it was full of BBA. Nowadays plants grow like crazy with T8s, and there is no algae anywhere so I must do something right, eh.

http://aijaa.com/uSi7Yd

Lightning T8 2x36w, filtation HMF+JBL CristalProfi i100. Fertilizing routines same as in 600l, 7ml EC daily. WC 30-40% weekly. Angelfish pair and bolivian rams (wild caught) wich spread regularly, neon bows, kongos, glas fish, 2xL-134, 20+cories (C sterbai and C schwartzi). A bit softer water than in 600l (not using DIY-Equilibrium).


250l:

Our two sons got this as a present last March. Everything went just fine till I got a Great Idea to change sand to a kitty litter. Well... Oh my...GH jumped up to over 22 (where I stopped counting...) and after couple of weeks I had a serious diatom/BGA problem with very, very poor plants. I went back to plain sand but it has taken months to find a new balance and Im sure I have made millions of mistakes with it. Poor light, then too much light, something wrong with fertz... But now it seems to recover. Im not happy at all with its scaping but I will let it settle and find its balanse for a while untill will rescape it with some nice new lowlight plants.

http://aijaa.com/2SbLut

Fishes:+20 young cherry barbs (I will give 10 away as they have grown a bit, I bought these as a fry), a mated pair of Keyhold cichlid, a mated pair of Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid, +10 Corydoras paleatus and a pair of honey gourami that spreads regularly.

Fertlilizing routines as in other tanks, no added DIY-Equilibrium, 7ml EC daily. Lightning T8s 2x30w + 2x11w ESB 4000K, filtration 2x Aquael inner filter 750+1000l/h. A bit softer water when not using DIY-Equilibrium.

65l kitchen tank with a pair of Apistoframma borelii, +10 Trigonostigma espei, +10 Corydoras hastatus and 3x Dwarf Croaking Gourami

http://aijaa.com/OFm7hC

The water is tealike because of the new quite big driftwood. Lightning is 2x11w ESB 4000K so normally the colour of the water is more bluelike. Ludwigia is not doing pretty well here, its missing its downleaves because of lack of light but I havent desided what to plant instead of it. And since I did a bit rescape a week ago when I got the new DW, I will let the tank settle a bit before making changes again. At first this was supposed to be just for Apistos and cories but then we got problems with rasboras when angelfish started to eat them as they were little ones so we had to move rasboras here from 300l. Apistos are moving somewhere as soon as I get the idea where...Fertilization as in other tanks (no DIY-Equilibrium added) and EC 4ml daily. Substrate JBL Manado.

And finally the last one: sons 45l with Poecilla wingei and dwarf cories. One big mess right now! Need some trimming but Im not very interested in trimming it beacause it has a bit strong light and as soon as I trim, there will grow some BBA so I have to be very carefully when trimming it.

http://aijaa.com/Gz36L6

Lightning 1x14w ESB 4000K, filtration Eheim PickUp. Fertilization HS FloraCarbo weekly as recommended. Substrate JBL Manado.

 

[Deano3]

wow some great looking tanks there mate i am new to this and still learning but wecome to the forum

dean

 

[jojouk]

Great looking tank

 

[Ravenswing]

Thank you for your kind words!

Heres a quick update after tuesdays re-scaping. I have always dreamed a tank full of driftwood, java ferns like "Windelov", "Mini" and "Narrow" and crypts but less stem plants. Now I finally had them growing enough in our other tanks to prune them here. The African fern I got a friend of mine in very poor condition but after two months emergency it seems just fantastic and is growing... well not like mad, but fast anyway. I just love it and have been missing it since I lost one because of high temperature last spring. So this is our 600l-bow tank with young Blehers, some unknown hybrid (C bleheri Red Princess???), Madagascars and blue-eyes, wich are my absolute favorites, some plecos and cories. There is a black hole behind the big DW, still, where C crispatula var balansae grows, grrrrrr. It makes me crazy with such a slow growth!

Yesterday I happily finally got 10 Psudomugil gertrudae wich Iv been dreaming about a year. They are living in 250-litre tank with cherry barbs and The Plan is to get 10 more as soon as possible. Pics coming... I also re-scaped with lots of DW 65-litre tank but Im mising pictures right now. So later them too.

Sons 300-l... Who wants to come and trim it as it seems Im nor capable to do that?? No heart to steel his jungle! Do you see bows? Yes you do!

Its in terrible condition but please forgive me, we had so much troubles with lights and unstable (pressurized) Co2 last spring, after that tank was a totally BBA-farm with poorpoor plants, now finally this healthy jungle and no algea just with daily EasyCarbo and EI. Easy? No, super easy!!

 

[Ravenswing]

Some updates as I promised in my last post:

250l:

Current stocking: 20 young Spotted Blue-eyes (yahoo, I finally got them!), ca 12 Cherry barbs (sold +10 away) , a mated pair of Keyhole Cichlids, a mated pair of Cocatoo Cichlids, 6 Leopard cories (have to get more), 10+Peppered cories, 2 Honey gouramis "Golden"-type (moved from 65l to this two weeks ago). I just prune stems to my aquarist friend. It seems tank has passed its worst times since I havent seen any algae for weeks in this tank. Still work to do! I dont like those driftwoods as they are, looking for new ones or at least some inspiration to do something for them...

65l:

After small re-scape on christmas holidays. I got tired of Ludwigia and stole some Java ferns from other tanks. So now I can reduce lightning (you can see some slight green algae on because of too strong lightning) and no need to prune every week. Current stockin: 4 Sparkling Gouramis from a friend (lets see how they will do, so fas so good after two weeks), 6 Golden pencilfish (moved from 250l after changing Glowlight rasboras to Sparkling Gouramis with my friend), 10+Dwarf cories. Few Ottos and... still......A mated pair of Umbrella Ciclids wich are living here temporarily until I get an idea where to move them. I just love them! They have spawned many times but Rasboras has eaten the fry every time. Water is still a bit tealike. Microsorum p. "Narrow" has started to spread slowly, great! In this tank EC is just a little higher than tap water even just before WC so things are going really nice here.

There you can see one of my favorite plants: Cryptocoryne costata

As you already must have noticed, Im a driftwood fan! Its has always been my passion. Besides it makes good for our water parameters wich aren`t so beautiful because of poor tapwater quality.

Bad news are that I lost four Checkerboard Ciclids. At first died two males within one day, two weeks later two females at the same way. Both happend right after WC and I just cant figure out what happend beside there was something wrong with WC. All of them were day before eating well and in normal (=fantastic) colours, next day...found dead in the morning. Not a single sign of illnes or injury. I`m sad, I really love those little fishes, but maybe it not worth to buy then more since our tap water is a bit tricky. I have had them since last February. All other fishes were/are doing just great.

 

[Ravenswing]

I got some nice byt not totally healthy anubias from a friend of mine. I still dont like how the DW looks like, I`ll buy a new nice one when I find one. Til that...

Anubias was given me by name A barteri var barteri but is weirdly tall (10-12cm), maybe because of light? I took some from sons tank too, but its much shorter. We`ll see how the situation will progress....

Then...Unexpected project took a place.... I found a sweet 40-l from second hand.

Frogbit is there just ocasionally helping the tank settle. This is also supposed to be low-light (Ikea 7w led spot, will increase light if needed) with Java fern "Mini" and Java moss growing on the brach, some Anubias `Nana`. No stems. Im monitoring the temp since the idea is to stay away from the heater but Ill buy it if necessary. The temp seem s to be settled at +24c wich is just fine. Stocking will be 6 Galaxy rasbora and 6 Pygmy cories, arriving hopefully tomorrow. Gravel is just plain sand +-1mm, MTS to take care of it.

I did some water tests on Friday, the day before WC. Found out that there isn`t consumption of PO4 nearly at all so maybe I`ll leave it away from dosing regime. I was without it for some months then took it with without any visible differences in anything. PO4 was high in every tank after adding it 1ppm for some weeks. Blaah, just waste of money. Or maybe I`ll split the dose down to 1/4, these are low-light tanks anyway. KH was 3, pH 7,6 (or more) what are results of adding baking soda last week (KH 2, pH 7,2) They have been pretty stable for months but then I became conserned about propably swinging/lowering pH. Now Im wondering what to do, just let the KH be 2 (and keep eye on that) as it has been or add little soda every week trying to find the amount wich keeps it stable 3-4. Fishes, mainly bows, can handle a bit higher pH, no problem, but my target is to do (/add) things as little as possible. Maybe its just OK to let it be since Im not messing with CO2? GH keeps lowering because of plants (or inert JBL Manado??), I add DIY-Equilibrium in every WC. Baking soda is cheap for sure, but every other fert costs me quite a lot so this is something to think about. Some dry ferts I used to order from USA (from this on UK because of new VAT rules) and some, like KNO3, is really expensive (500g ca 18 pounds) here unless I can get it from some farmer (donnou any...). Importing KNO3 is illegal. Sigh. Happily I got a lot KNO3 and K2SO4 from a friend who stoped keeping tanks, but they wont last forever.

 

[MARKCOUSINS]

You have a lot of work on your hands with all those tanks!!Some very nice pictures its sad to hear you have trouble obtaining certain ferts i hope someone can help you.Keep the intresting updates going good luck.cheers mark

 

[sanj]

Very nice tanks. Love the 600. I keep and breed a lot of rainbowfish species. I am not keen on hybrids although a few are pretty. I keep P.gertrudae "Aru II", really lovely fish.

 

[Ravenswing]

Hi sanj and markcousins and thank your for yor nice words!

sanj, are you the one from Adrians Rainbowfishforum? If so, I really apreciate your knowledge and experience of bows. Your bowtank is absolutely one of the most gorgeous bowtanks Iv never seen! Just amazing! I really must read your journal(s) with plenty of time! So glad to find another bow hobbyist here!

Im not interested in hybrids too, but these orange ones were sold as fry by name M splendida. Very soon its was Very clear they are not splendidas and I was a bit disapointed since I always prefer true pure species. I have sold away some of these but my kids like them...So...maybe later...get rid of them.... I had six males, three males and everything went fine but after selling 2+1 one male has been pretty agressive towards other fishes, not just bows. I found out C bleheri less agressive and I love them, so that is one alternative to hybrids. Now Im having 3+3 blehers. Its very hard to find quality bows from Finland. Some random species like boesemani, herbertaxelrodi, G incisus etc are commonly sold but Id like to find some real juwels, not that rich in colours but some diamond glitter here and there, as blehers have. Got the idea? Sometimes we have opportunity to order fish direct from Aquarium Glaser wholesaler from Europe but so far there hasnt been nothing really intetresting for me. We`ll see.

Oh, you have "Aru II"? So jealous! I had an opportunity to order them (and still have) but the prize knocked me out (ca 10 pound head), so I bought instead "common" gertrudaes. I prefer big shoals so twenty "Aru II"s would have driven me bankruptcy... May I ask how much "Aru II" costs in GB?

 

[Ravenswing]

Hi all!

Instead of Pygmy Cories I end up Neocaridinas and so the branch coming out of tank was taken away and I put lidglas. So far so good but too few plants, try to find some more java fern.

Sorry a bit cloudy glas, I just add more bacter ampoules (BioDigest) and did not want to bother them by cleaning the glas right after. CPDs seems to do fine, they`r cute!

Big one is doing great, new plants are growing nicely. I bought a new Eheim 2252 for it, old 2048 moved to 300l. I got Seachem Purigel as christmas present, as promised it has raised EC a bit. Grrrrrr........Definetly no need for that! But I`ll keep it working anyway.

300-l, not so great today... Oh man. I did some pruning: Frogbit (right corner): bye-bye, Sunset Hygrophila (left corner): bye-bye. I got Bacopa caroliniana instead of Frogbit and Hygrophila salicifolia will replace Sunset. JBL CristalProfi 100i were replaced by Eheim 2048

If someone happens to be interested in Hamburger Maten Filters, here is couple of pics of mine. In 600l the size is about 50cm (height) 20cm (diameter), pump is aquaBee 1000l/h

300l about 40hx10wx20d cm, pump Eheim Compact 600l/h

Poor fish became very timid after pruning. They were used to live in a jungle! Now they just hang under lily and Ludwigia bushes.

 

[jack-rythm]

This tank is beautiful mate looks so natural, well done

 

[Ravenswing]

Hello!

It time to do some updates. We changed tanks with oldest son so I got his 45-l for Celestial pearl danios and shrimps and he got new 40-l to his shrimps and Poecilla wingeis. We did this because of dimensions of tanks. 45-l is propably more suitable for CPDs since they seemed to need more hiding places males teasing females all the time. 45-l is taller so it was easier to furnish with high driftwood.

So this is sons lowbutlong low-tech today, slight led- lightning . EC is now 450uS with 25% (of total water volume) RO-water wich I buy in canisters for shrimps. Some rearrangements will be done for some plants. Anubias is A nana `Golden`. Fertilization HS FloraCarbo weekly.

Yes, you can see right, theres a board game tressle as background. At first is was fallen there, then it became a joke and since that it has been there.

CPD/shrimp low-tech tank today, lightning 14w ESB 4000K. EC 450uS with 10% RO-water. EasyCarbo 0,5ml daily (will increase with time), N+K+Equilibrium+Plantex. I got tired of the noice of airstone and changed it to small Fluval. No heater, temp +24c.

Young CPDs seems to do fine, couple of males are in fantastic colours and shows interest towards females and java moss...hmmm... ???!! Oh, these are unexpectable active fish, going around the tank and woods like maniacs! There is also three brown Bee-caridinias among "plain" Neocaridinas and Sakuras but so far Im not sure about their species. Sakuras will move to sons tank. Target is to let the moss grow all over.

Spotted blue-eyes moved from 250l to 600l and joined Pacific blue-eyes shoal without any problems. For some reason we have just few female Spotteds, oh man when Spotted males found Pacific females, they became mad!! WooooOOOmen!! Now 250l is a bit empty, just a small school of Cherrybarbs hanging around mid-waters. Im planning to find some Glass tetras there next week.

 

[Nat N]

Really impressive! Maria, I am absolutely amased how you manage to keep these tanks to look good!

 

[Ravenswing]

Thank you, Nat N for your kind words. Eh, I have nothing else to do... LOL, that was a joke. I have full time job and four kids but they help a lot, actually we take care of these together and as you already must have noticed, oldest son (14-years) has two tanks but as teenages used to do, things will be done "soon" or "tomorrow". My target is to keep tanks in such a condition I just need to add fertz and change waters. That means slow growing lushy and healthy plants and trying to keep algaes at bay. Honestly, glutradehyde is my best friend.

The Beckford pencilfishs six-pack moved to 250-litre and we found Apistogramma borelii papa with young fry in 65-l. The male is very agressive towards the female and protects the fry all by himself. Last time boreliis had a fry, the female just disappeard with the fry! I never found her body or nothing, it was really weird! This time femele was also lost and I had a bad feelings but she was found in good condition under woods when catching the Beckfords.

The Project:

Id like to grow something here...

....on the wood. But what?

 

[sdlra]

Looking forward to more updates

 

[dagzz]

beautiful tanks mate

 

[sanj]

Hi Ravenswing,

I am sorry I missed your reply. I am the same person on the European site.

For a long time we have had pretty poor stock in the UK as well, but there has been significant improvement in the last couple of years. Melanotania Aru II are not very rare anymore, but the Psuedomugil. gertrudae Aru II is still difficult, but not impossible to find. I travel into Europe for most of my stock.

Good fish in the UK range from £10+, common species are cheaper. Some rare ones are in the order of £60 a pair which few people will buy.

Aquarium Glaser do seem to have a positive reputation for occasionally being able to source good rainbowfish species.

Sanj

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

.on the wood. But what?

Hemianthus callictroides?

cheers Darrel

 

[Ravenswing]

Hey, thank you ALL very much for your responces!

I travel into Europe for most of my stock. Good fish in the UK range from £10+, common species are cheaper. Some rare ones are in the order of £60 a pair which few people will buy. Aquarium Glaser do seem to have a positive reputation for occasionally being able to source good rainbowfish species. Sanj

Hi Sanj!

It seems price level is pretty same here. Random species costs here 5-8 euros, more rare ones (inc C bleheri here) ca 15e. I got 10 P gertrudae for 35e, but Arus will cost much, much more. Hey mate, do you travel to Europe just for fish??? To Germany or...? I have acces straight to Glaser stockinglists via Finnish coryclub Im a member of, from time to time, you can recommend it as a reliable whole saler when it comes to bows? They sold some shrimps with wrong names but you know, this happens all the time. You can never be 100% sure what you get when you order young fish.

Darrel: Thanks for your idea of growing HC on the wood. Actually Iv been thinkg of that! I had it in my riparium and it grows really nicely emersed too. What do you think, would it be good idea to let the java moss grow up (->emersed) first (dam it so slow!) and then plant the HC on it or get some other moss, some local for example, and plant the HC just on it and then let the java grow over the moss/HC-mess do what ever it likes to do?