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80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White (Update: Fish Pics )

Spang

Member
Joined
4 Aug 2010
Messages
56
Location
Oxfordshire
Hello all!

This is my first ever journal to go with my first attempt at a proper planted tank! So I am a little nervous about offering this up!

The tank is an Aquariums LTD tank and looks stunning! I took delivery quite a few months ago now but it has taken me a while to get round to sorting the tank out! I will be doing this as a low tech tank as much as I can.

So the specs
Substrate:
Aquatic pond soil on the base, capped with Argos play sand, For much cheepness. Hope it doesn't bite me in the bum!

Plants:
Amazon Swords
Hygrophila polysperma
Water Sprite - Ceratopteris Thalictroides
Water Wisteria - Hygrophila difformis
Some type of crypt that i don't know the name of
Pogostemon Helferi
Sagittaria Teres ( these turned out to be in terrible condition when i got them home ).
Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis

Current Lighting 2 x T8 18W
Current filtration Fluval 205 ( will be upgrading soonish ).
Currently dosing 5ml of TPN (not plus) a week

Stocking plans
A small group of lemon tetras to begin with once the filter has cycled and then adding more a couple of weeks later.
I would like some sort of centre piece fish, and was thinking about 2 female and 1 male dwarf cockatoo cichlids.

The tank has been up for 2 weeks now so on with the pics!

Very happy with the aquarium it is gorgeous!
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The LFS only had a certain amount of plants that i was after, I hastly bought some tired looking Sagittaria. never again.
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I like the way it looks, I don't think the it is very imaginitive layout, but this was me just getting fed up of seeing an empty aquarium and desperate to get it going! :)

The filter is still cycling, some of the amazons I bought have brown bits at the end of some leaves, so I will be pruning brown parts of plants this weekend.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

Looking great! When those swords grow hopefully you'll have quite an impressive looking wall. In general when everything grows it will look even better! Good job mate, the hardscape is fine, and will probably look better when the fern grows ;)
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

really nice growth mate :) wicked tank for a first one! with the swords, if the larger leaves are getting brown etc, then just cut Them from the base of the plant, or snap them off if they are easily removable, if you leave the brown stuff in there it will decompose and release ammonia and urea which could cause algae.

your tanks been running the same ammount of time as mine and i have to say even though its low tech yours looks so much more lush! lol jealous as you like over here :oops:

Regards, Gus.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

Its a pretty good looking start,watch out for the diatoms as your filter matures,try to do two water changes a week at least,and don,t have too long a photoperiod at first,usual starting place for me is 6hrs,

good luck John.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

Thanks for the positive feed back everyone! :)

I had a bit of a prune yesterday getting rid of mainly amazon sword leaves that had brown bits on them. The crypts are growing and don't appear to be meltin away. The hygrophila is clearly the fastest growing plant in the at the moment it has been in for less than a week and one of the stems had nearly reached the surface already! New leaves are growing on the java fern also. :)

The filter is still cycling ammonia is being processed quickly but nitrites are still high. Hoping it ready for next weekend, because I would really like some life in the tank.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

The Amazon swords don't seem to be doing well. SOme of the leaves on multiple plants have started to show veins as brown.

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Any idea what is wrong? All the other plants in the tank are doing well and growing.

I thought Amazon swords were undemanding plants.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

I am currently dosing TPN, I thought that had Iron in it. Prahaps I should up the amount I am dosing as I am only doing 5ml a week atm.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

What is the substrate? Also, I would consider dosing TPN+ rather than just TPN. It might help as well to split the weekly dose into daily amounts. Maybe also increase the dose. I'm dosing 1ml TPN+ daily in an 8 liter which works out at 7ml per week, but then I am doing daily 50% water changes. That's 2ml more per week in a tank 1/20th the size!
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

looks really good!

I would always expect some die back from the sword until they get settled in (unless you're dosing ridiculous amounts of C02), as most of them are grown out of water. A sword struggles to repair its leaves, so i would just remove the effected leaves. This needs to be done by cutting the leaf right down at the crown.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

Tom said:
What is the substrate? Also, I would consider dosing TPN+ rather than just TPN. It might help as well to split the weekly dose into daily amounts. Maybe also increase the dose. I'm dosing 1ml TPN+ daily in an 8 liter which works out at 7ml per week, but then I am doing daily 50% water changes. That's 2ml more per week in a tank 1/20th the size!

The substrate Aquatic potting soil capped with sand. I was using just TPN under advisment from you Tom! :p

http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=133695#p133695

Obviously I don't have a heavy fish stocking yet so prahaps I should change to TPN+ until I do.

Well the filter cycle is complete and in went some smallish Odessa barbs yesterday. I was going to get lemons but the wife really didn't like them ( to plain :rolleyes: ). They are very active and livley! I have upped the TPN to 10Ml a week now, but this is only the first week of doing that so will have to wait and see how the sword do.

Will take some shots of the fish tomorrow if I can get them to stay still long enough! :)
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

Spang said:
The substrate Aquatic potting soil capped with sand. I was using just TPN under advisment from you Tom! :p

http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=133695#p133695

Obviously I don't have a heavy fish stocking yet so prahaps I should change to TPN+ until I do.

When I say I had heavy stocking, I mean very heavy stocking!! Parents just threw fish at that tank and didn't hold back on feeding either, so it didn't seem to need the extra N and P :rolleyes: :lol: Looking back I would have liked to see what CO2 and more TPN+ would have done for the tank, however I did have good, thick jungle-like growth - just at a manageable rate due to the low lighting.
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

So the Odessa Barbs have been in for a few days and they seem to be settling in good. So I am thinking of what other livestock I can get in the tank. I thought the Odessa Barbs would be mid water swimmers which they are sometimes, but seem to spend most of their time down the bottom quater of the tank.

Any suggestions on something to complement them?
 
Re: 80cmx45cmx45cm Low-Tech Opti White

Odessa Barb Pics. ( Thanks to my lovely wife for the pics )

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Chasing my Wifes Finger
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The Odessa Barbs like to chase each other a lot!

The first couple of days saw the two largest males assert themselves for dominance!

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They seem to have settled now. The first day they were super active. The second they were really, really shy and hid all of the time, since then they are very active again. They go quiet when the light is off, when the light comes on they are out constantly chasing each other and waiting for food. They are very inquisitive, have a very healthy appetite and really stunning looking fish!
 
Fantastic photos of beautiful fish!

Please pass thanks on to your lovely wife.

Mark
 
Tank has been running quite a few weeks now, Looking at a picture then and looking at the tank now things are growing nicely, the Hygrophila polysperma grows so fast! I cut it and in 3 days it is almost touching the top of the water again!

A couple of weeks ago I upped the photo-period to eight hours from six hours, since then I have started to get some brown algae on some of the leaves, so last night after a water change I have dropped it back down to 6 hours.

I have also removed my powerhead (1500 l/h ) and replaced it with a Koralia Nano 900 (900l/h) and the fish like that much better.

I have also receive a bottle of TPN+ yesterday so I am starting dosing that instead of normal TPN until my fish load get's higher. All in all it looks really nice at the moment.

When it get's dark and the lights come on I will tank a few more pics :)
 
Lovely fish,i had 3 footer many years ago,it had all barbs of some sort in but always loved watching the male odessa barbs displaying to each other,

looks great Mark,

john.
 
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