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Sunshine's 60lt Tank

SunnyP

Member
Joined
19 Jul 2008
Messages
130
Hey Everyone,

Had a tank for ages but never got round to putting it up as a journal. This is my first tank, just been changing it around and finally built to a semi- finished verison.


Oke doke, here are some of the specs:

Fauna:

5...4...3 Dwarf Neon Blue Rainbowfish
1 Bristlenose Plec
5 Amano Shrimps
3 Bengal Loaches

Flora:

Hygrophila difformis - around the back and found on the left hand side of the tank
Microsorum pteropus - slightly to the lef to of the centre
Microsorum Windelov - To the right and the back left
Java Moss - Around the bogwood

I am on a budget so I using the basic Tetra Complete Substrate as the base layer and then mixed the middle layer with fine gravel/sand and a nice layer of gravel/sand for the top.
I have 4 pieces of bogwood, three around the centre of the tank and one to the back left.

Plant Nutrition is done by EI dosing weekly and performing a water change every two weeks of 50%.

Aqua Essentials Liquid Carbon of 1ml daily is used to provide a carbon intermediate to system. I have Co2 checker but always forget to do it and never can be bothered when I remember.

I have a Hagen Internal Heater 50W and the filter is a Tetra Tec 400 internal filter.

The lighting is of German replica of an Arcardia i believe (brought it off Ebay). There are 3x24W tubes but only one used throughout the day. When plants are pruned I may have 2 tubes run for 4 hours during peak time to get plants rooted quickly.


Pics are not great. Just finished doing a water change when pics were taken.

My Bristlenose is the king of the tank as you may see him in the centre of the pic. Any food he see's he gets it. He chases shrimps and loaches around till they drop it. Never seems to gain weight though.
The centre piece of bogwood is adored by the loaches and shrimps as they seem to sunbathe and sleep in little caves on the side. Will try and get some shots later if I see them.

The lid of the tank is just a basic corregated plastic cover cut to shape and a small slot in the centre for feeding.

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Just attached the java moss to the bogwood when I did the water change, suggested by Mr Starkey. Definitely a positive improvement to the appearence of the tank as before it was just laid out on the gravel and it did collect a lot of organic matter.

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The bogwood at the back of the tank was put there to give a the bristlenose a nice area for him to sleep and have been also thinking about getting a female bristlenose to start breeding. Also I've found the loaches use that area during the day so it'll be interesting if the bristlenose breeds as the males tends to guard the eggs.

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My lucky bamboo plant, not so much as 2 of my neon blue rainbowfish died last week.

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Hi,

I like it. The word "playful" keeps popping into my head. I wanna chuck Blyxa all over the bottom thou but i'm damaged like that. :D

I'll wait till you post the full info before writing more.

Best Regards,
John
 
I am always going to like a tank with Hygrophila Difformis in it. My all time favourite plant :)
 
Cheers for the comments everyone.

hijac said:
The word "playful" keeps popping into my head.

I was trying to get that kind of tank, relaxing yet entertaining. The fauna is kinda there as the loaches are always chasing each other everywhere over the tank. It's like a playground, the shrimps tustle over the algae wafers and the loaches aswell, until the school bully comes along, bristlenose, to take his share.

a1Matt said:
I am always going to like a tank with Hygrophila Difformis in it. My all time favourite plant :)

I like the Wisteria but it grows to tall for my tank and the stems starts to bend when it reaches the water level. But I'm keeping it. I've had a look at Blyxa but again the same problem arises.
I don't know if there are actually any plants that will stop growing after it reaches a foot.

Cheers again for all the comments everyone, any critism is welcomed.
 
Had a move around as I got the new external filter for the tank and so have taken more pics.

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Got some more neon dwarfs today, so I'm gonna wait for them to clear up before I take more pics. Gonna try and get one of the males flashing pigment they have along their forehead. That'll be a challenge.
 
Nice.

I like the fresh greens in combination with the open sand. They work well together.

Do I see some brown/dying moss? Trim it off hard and hopefully it'll come back even better. But bear in mind I can't grow moss myself, so you could quite rightly ignore me! :D
 
Thanks Mr. George. I feel it has a fresh feel to it.

George Farmer said:
Do I see some brown/dying moss?

I think the moss is dying aswell, as I've had nearly over a month now and little growth in some areas. Other plants seem to be ok. The brown/dying moss brings down the look of the moss on the bogwood aswell. I'll try and sort something out when I get a chance.

The loaches seem to going destructive mad since the new filter has been fitted. They're digging where they see fit and I beleive they are the ones that broke the fishing wire for the moss so some it coming off.
 
I feed them Tetra Pro Colour Crisps. It makes such a difference to their colour and is fun to watch the males perform their mating singles by a flashing yellow 'light' on their forehead in the mornings. Thing is though, they only now like the crisps and brine shrimps. Bloodworms is mouldy bread to them..

Got some more today, I'm trying to get a group shot and a male showing off. Challenge accepted.
 
SunnyP said:
I feed them Tetra Pro Colour Crisps. It makes such a difference to their colour and is fun to watch the males perform their mating singles by a flashing yellow 'light' on their forehead in the mornings. Thing is though, they only now like the crisps and brine shrimps. Bloodworms is mouldy bread to them..

Got some more today, I'm trying to get a group shot and a male showing off. Challenge accepted.

Tried Daphna? My mollies and guppies go mad for brine shrimp and daphna.
 
I have seen sunnys tank in the flesh (he lives round the corner from me)and it looks better than in the pics,
its coming along nicely mate,now you have the new filter and improved flow things should really get going for you,
regards john.
 
I've made a few rearrangements as I have found the moss is starting to ground itself into the bogwood and gave the loaches and plecs more dark areas to hide in. Still not fully happy. But it'll do until after I've done my resits.

Here's some photos:

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Hi everyone,

Got annoyed with the look of my tank so I moved things around but shoud be changing the substrate and fauna soon hopefully.

Here are some pics anyway:

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Themuleous said:
Great use of plants that attach to wood :) love the shrimp photo! Its as if to say 'what you looking it?' :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sam

That's what I was thinking when I took that pic (sorry for late reply).

Recently had been given a bunch of plants from LFS and Mr John Starkey which I have introduced and thought I'd give everyone an update.

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