South American 720L high tech

[Gfish]

Hi,
I've gathered so much information from many folk here and from trawling through and reading everyone elses tank threads, well I thought it's about time I showed how my own is doing.
It's been running now since April last year and after alot of stress with algae etc I've now been running it high tech for about 6 months. I think :-/ ?

I will add some info about tank hardware and plants soon , but would love to know what you all think? Different to alot of scales on here, but i started with fish as a priority and designing the planted tank around the kind of fish I like. It's been a trial at times but im fairly happy with the results and ive learnt so much throughout.
Cheers

Gavin

 

[vauxhallmark]

720l - wooh-hoo!!!

Looking good.

What are the tank dimensions (LxDxH)?

Mark

 

[flygja]

I like that a lot as a fish-focused scape. Can't see any trace of your algae battles so hats off to you!

 

[Gfish]

Hi
It's 5x2x2.5high. And the algae creeps in occasionally near the surface and on the old leaves but I try to keep on top of it. It's a delicate thing though controlling algae. It doesn't take much, like a day without CO2, or a filter in need of a clean to start it off.

Cheers will write more soon

Gavin

 

[LondonDragon]

Great tank, nice wood too!! Must be great to watch this one make sure you dosing enough trace and PO4 since you have loads of anubias in the tank looking forward to a video

 

[Gfish]

Hi
Thanks, my dosing I put in 2.1tsp potassium nitrate 3/week
O.7 tsp potassium phosphate 3/week

And the other days I add Trace 0.7tsp 3/week.
I add nothing on a Saturday and 50% waterchange on a Sunday morning.

That's my usual routine and dosage. Any recommendations?

Cheers

Gavin

 

[foxfish]

Looks great - really great actually! Some much room in there!

 

[Tom]

Your Tetras look huge if that's 5 foot! Geophagus look great too

 

[BigTom]

Really nice, clean looking tank. Good sense of depth too.

 

[Gfish]

Thanks guys,
The tetras are enormous, yes. I never really cared for bleeding hearts but when I saw some adult ones I bought them immediately and mixed them with the lemon tetras I already had. I've not seen or heard of them larger, and they are eating machines, so being in with cichlids they get alot of food at feeding time! Not the timid creatures I expected them to be, and the colours are amazing.
The Geos are Geophagus Pindare. A group of 6 and I have some more young ones in a 3ft that I'm growing on a little and down the line I'll add 2 or 3 more to this tank.
May thin the lemon tetras down around then. Maybe

I'm always looking to see where I can improve the plant layout. Any suggestions here? Especially to introduce a bit of contrast or colour to the tank?
Although I'm skint at the moment so I'll not be buying plants for some time I think.

Do the dosages I mentioned above sound ok? Anything missing?

Cheers

Gavin

 

[BigTom]

Only thing that springs to mind would be perhaps continuing the main anubias clump to the left so that it creates a bit more of transition with the hastifolia and other plants on the left hand side. And some sort of greenery down in the front right corner might increase the sense of depth even more.

 

[Gfish]

Thanks BigTom, the two tall leaved anubias to the left are lanceolatta and afzelii from Left to Right. The Lanceolatta is on a limb behind the forward limb of wood and I recently removed a few large old leaves that had too much algae on them. Since then I've not been happy with this area and I think it needs another plant, possibly the same, adding immediately to it's left and standing higher. Or maybe a Congensis.

The area at the front right is an area I debate on with myself over and over but I may one day give it a try now someone else has mentioned it I quite like the idea of an echindorus down there. Not too tall and perhaps with large overlapping round leaves. I can't remember the names but I'm sure a few would fit the bill. And it would be easy for me to leave it in the basket pot and hide it amongst the cobbles.
Hmmm food for thought so cheers

Gavin

 

[Gfish]

Here's my plant list:-

ANUBIAS:-
Caladefolia
Barteri
Barteri Nana
Barteri nana petite stardust
Lanceolatta
Afzelii
Hastefolia
Heterophyla

Java fern
Java fern narrow
java fern needle

Hygrophila corymbosa

Aponogeton crispus

Cryptocoryne balansae
Cryptocoryne green gecko

Tried some Xmas moss here and there but it didn't work too well and I got sick of bits floating around the tank. Thread or glue used to attach it.

Think I named them all

 

[Maloney]

Beautiful aquarium mate , very jealous. what sand is that ?
Tony

 

[Gfish]

Thanks Tony

The sand is swimming pool filter sand. Excellent stuff. Not too fine, so doesn't compact like other sands. It's inert, so has no affect on PH. And it's heavy, so it doesn't get washed around and end up in the filter.
Chose it for the Eartheater Geophagus cichlids more than anything else, as they sift and spit sand all the time.

Cheers

Gavin

 

[Gfish]

Here's a few shots of the fish

My lovely L123 plecs. I have 4 of them and I still haven't spoke with anyone who has kept these.

small algae cleaners. Ancistrus Claro. 4 also

sub adult Geophagus Pindare (x6)

huge bleeding heart tetras (x16)

Peru gold laser (or orange stripe) corydoras (x6)

And there's a few otocinclus cocama and a couple dozen lemon tetras

I think that's all

 

[Gfish]

Here's the initial planning pic of the main parts in the wood arrangement

 

[ceg4048]

my dosing I put in 2.1tsp potassium nitrate 3/week
O.7 tsp potassium phosphate 3/week

And the other days I add Trace 0.7tsp 3/week.
I add nothing on a Saturday and 50% waterchange on a Sunday morning.

That's my usual routine and dosage. Any recommendations?

Hi Gavin,
Yeah that's really looking smart mate. It looks like the anubias are elevated, which brings them closer to the light and increases the PAR at the leaf surface. As a result they are susceptible to GSA. Normally you want to shade anubias to lower the PAR reaching them.

As long as you're getting good growth then you can control their appearance by simply removing the mature leaves, but as Paulo mentioned, GSA can be mitigated by increasing PO4. Try doubling it and see if that helps. You can add as much trace as you want but it's the PO4, especially in a big tank that does the lion's share of the anti-GSA work.

Have you been excommunicated from your chiclid forums for actually dosing NO3?

Cheers,

 

[sanj]

I think you need to fix your fence.

 

[Gfish]

Clive
I think I'll try doing exactly that starting from Sunday for a week and see if there's a noticeable difference.
It's amazing the growth the anubias in the centre has achieved. I had loads of java behind them and ive removed much of that now and brought one lovely bunch forward that was really small when it was planted back there. It's been out of sight for so long and I reached down and pulled this lovely thing out and placed it in the foreground right.

The highest point where the wood breaks the surface toward the right is the only place the anubias has regularly flowered. One plant there just below the surface has sent out 2 flowers on a number of occasions now.

The flowers just touch the surface at times.
It seems if we manage to grow anubias close the the surface without killing it, it actually does better here than anywhere else. But it's a risky thing to try and as soon as the leaves are too old they need removing. It's an ever changing shape, but I like how it's going.

Yes, I think many cichlid guys strongly disagree with what I'm doing. But they voiced opinion more at the start than they do now. They seem to accept that I'm going to do it differently and they're going to stick to what they know and has worked for them all for years.

The hard thing as I mentioned before is oxygenating the water enough. I'd love more oxygen as the cichlids do thrive on it. I think I've proved to myself with help and guidance that it's possible to have a nicely planted tank and big cichlids. But I'm not convinced it's the absolute best for the cichlids. The difficult thing is I'm keeping soft water fish in hard water so it's hard to tell what's the limiting factor. The day I try central American or African cichlids I will be able to speak better about the effects of CO2 and fertiliser rich environment and the affects on fish. But I'm happy enough to be sticking with it so things are going well enough

Sanj, ive lived here for 5 years and the fence has been buggered for most of that time and is probably as old as I am! Landlord sucks, big time!
Weve hassled him recently and remain hopeful. But thanks for your concern lol
Anything constructive????

Cheers

Gavin