That's really interesting, thank you. Will keep an eye on this once the upper roots...root. 15 years is an impressive spell! My tank and plants are coming up on a year in March, and have just one of my Siamensis growing very partly emersed.
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70L planted - first tank
- Thread starter LFNfan
- Start date
Hi all,
These are from one of the <"lab. tanks">, it is even more horribly neglected than normal (it doesn't have any livestock in it).
I started to muck about with fertiliser and water hardness to try and find at what level of hardness Duckweed (Lemna minor) <"goes yellow">, (when it is still growing fairly quickly), but I've not got back to it and I now have a lot of yellowing duckweed and we are back to <"soft water, low nutrients">.
cheers Darrel
Fortunately <"difficult to kill">. It is at least fifteen years and may actually be a bit longer.
These are from one of the <"lab. tanks">, it is even more horribly neglected than normal (it doesn't have any livestock in it).
I started to muck about with fertiliser and water hardness to try and find at what level of hardness Duckweed (Lemna minor) <"goes yellow">, (when it is still growing fairly quickly), but I've not got back to it and I now have a lot of yellowing duckweed and we are back to <"soft water, low nutrients">.
cheers Darrel
😲
🤯
Bought some live bloodworms for my fish today. The corys were somewhat unsure at first but then started slurping those suckers up like spaghetti.
Characteristically, the ottos showed no interest whatsoever. They are cucumber and algae all the way.
Characteristically, the ottos showed no interest whatsoever. They are cucumber and algae all the way.
A case of mistaken identity, instant annihilation, and a first anniversary stocking option.
Was at the LFS today. I was excited to find heteranthera zosterifolia which I've been looking for on and off for ages since @The Miniaturist brought it to my attention. But because it's been such a while all I remembered was 'star grass', so when I saw eusteralis stellata I thought - aha, that's the one, and snapped it up. Now I see it was a case of mistaken identity. Ah well. The one I've bought is starry, and it's staying. Bought some elodea too. Deep green leaves.
Browsing the tanks and chatting to a couple of members of staff, they were showing me some amazing fish. One was a tank of 3-4 inch long, chubby pencil-like, brown-coloured fish with lined markings (naturally I forget the name). One member of staff comes over with a net of white shrimp. In the tank they go - quite a lot of shrimp. And - bang - in a flash of movement they are devoured, just gone. I was shocked at the speed and completeness of it. I must have let slip an expletive because they both laughed. Wow.
There were a lot of nice fish at the shop today. I have been thinking of getting a group of something for the mid-level of my tank on its first anniversary. A group of ten or so Trigonostigma hengeli or espei have been at the top of my list. They had the espei, and they looked really nice. But today my eye was drawn to the Bentosi Tetra (white fin). I am thinking I could go for six in my 70L (60cm x 30). They looked a lot like the attached, but with a much whiter leading edge to the dorsal fin. Nice and active, and a nice size.
Was at the LFS today. I was excited to find heteranthera zosterifolia which I've been looking for on and off for ages since @The Miniaturist brought it to my attention. But because it's been such a while all I remembered was 'star grass', so when I saw eusteralis stellata I thought - aha, that's the one, and snapped it up. Now I see it was a case of mistaken identity. Ah well. The one I've bought is starry, and it's staying. Bought some elodea too. Deep green leaves.
Browsing the tanks and chatting to a couple of members of staff, they were showing me some amazing fish. One was a tank of 3-4 inch long, chubby pencil-like, brown-coloured fish with lined markings (naturally I forget the name). One member of staff comes over with a net of white shrimp. In the tank they go - quite a lot of shrimp. And - bang - in a flash of movement they are devoured, just gone. I was shocked at the speed and completeness of it. I must have let slip an expletive because they both laughed. Wow.
There were a lot of nice fish at the shop today. I have been thinking of getting a group of something for the mid-level of my tank on its first anniversary. A group of ten or so Trigonostigma hengeli or espei have been at the top of my list. They had the espei, and they looked really nice. But today my eye was drawn to the Bentosi Tetra (white fin). I am thinking I could go for six in my 70L (60cm x 30). They looked a lot like the attached, but with a much whiter leading edge to the dorsal fin. Nice and active, and a nice size.
Attachments
Bentosi, stellata and elodea now in situ.
Tank growing nicely, over all, with the Solufeed 2.1.4 and TEC and some Fe once a week. Post-facto research indicates that the stellata likes light and CO2. I've put it in the brightest spot in my low-tech tank, and we'll see how it fares.
The new fish seem pretty content so far. Fun to be feeding these gritty little micro granules - totally different way of feeding compared to the Corys.
As a bit of an experiment I have added a spider plant growing out the top of the tank, which accounts for some of the mass of roots over on the right hand side of the tank.
Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures.
Tank growing nicely, over all, with the Solufeed 2.1.4 and TEC and some Fe once a week. Post-facto research indicates that the stellata likes light and CO2. I've put it in the brightest spot in my low-tech tank, and we'll see how it fares.
The new fish seem pretty content so far. Fun to be feeding these gritty little micro granules - totally different way of feeding compared to the Corys.
As a bit of an experiment I have added a spider plant growing out the top of the tank, which accounts for some of the mass of roots over on the right hand side of the tank.
Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures.
Attachments
Eugh. Just back from a few weeks away and welcomed home by the sound of my HoB screeching away in 'run dry' mode. Has probably been off for ten days or so (courtesy of a power cut ten days ago and its inability to re-prime itself after power cuts (possibly user related, to be fair)). The airstone I run (on 'low') was still running so assume that came back on as soon as the power returned.
Should I re-prime the HoB and get it going now, or be worried that might pump out a bunch of toxic stuff into the aquarium and take a different approach? I recon there's about two litres of water in the filter 'canister' - sponges have not been changed for about six months maybe so probably had a fair amount of the 'good stuff' in it - and the aquarium itself is a moderately planted 70 Litre.
I see a bit of a biofilm on the surface of the water. One snail on its side; I've not poked it yet. The fish all seem OK. Judging by the cleanliness of my 53B and anubias leaves even the ottos stooped so low as to eat algae in the absence of cucumber. The (battery powered) feeder has worked nicely.
Many thanks for any advice!
Should I re-prime the HoB and get it going now, or be worried that might pump out a bunch of toxic stuff into the aquarium and take a different approach? I recon there's about two litres of water in the filter 'canister' - sponges have not been changed for about six months maybe so probably had a fair amount of the 'good stuff' in it - and the aquarium itself is a moderately planted 70 Litre.
I see a bit of a biofilm on the surface of the water. One snail on its side; I've not poked it yet. The fish all seem OK. Judging by the cleanliness of my 53B and anubias leaves even the ottos stooped so low as to eat algae in the absence of cucumber. The (battery powered) feeder has worked nicely.
Many thanks for any advice!
Hi,
If it's highly likely that it has been off for ten days I personally would wash it well and start again, if your fish are all good there will probably be enough beneficial bacteria in and around your tank to deal with the various nitrification processes while the filter re-establishes itself.
Cheers!
If I'm starting my filter again, I'm now wondering about moving from sponges to K1 type media. I know from threads here that @dw1305 is a fan.
My HoB has about two litres of water capacity, and is basically a rectangular hang-on-back canister filter. If I removed the media trays, and the filter still works as designed*, there would be approx 4cm deep x 18 wide x 27 high of empty useable space.
Would this be an advisable / desirable setup for my tank?
* I wonder about dead spots at the bottom of the filter.
My HoB has about two litres of water capacity, and is basically a rectangular hang-on-back canister filter. If I removed the media trays, and the filter still works as designed*, there would be approx 4cm deep x 18 wide x 27 high of empty useable space.
Would this be an advisable / desirable setup for my tank?
* I wonder about dead spots at the bottom of the filter.
LightingBamboozled
Member
Static K1, in my experience, is about as good as foam. It shines where you fluidise it but as static media i haven't found it to be worth the premium. If the hob will shuffle it around then go for it but if it will just sit and have water flowing through it then stick with foams.
Hi all,
At the moment I've got a mixture of floating cell media, sponge and <"Eheim Coco pops">. The advantage of the Kaldnes type media is that it sheds deeper biofilm when it is in motion. I wouldn't buy the Eheim (coco pops) "Substrat Pro", but I'll use it if someone gives it to me.
cheers Darrel
Same for me, PPI 10 - 20 foam or generic floating cell media, either should do, I'm not sure it really matters. Biological filtration is, pretty much, all about <"dissolved oxygen">.
At the moment I've got a mixture of floating cell media, sponge and <"Eheim Coco pops">. The advantage of the Kaldnes type media is that it sheds deeper biofilm when it is in motion. I wouldn't buy the Eheim (coco pops) "Substrat Pro", but I'll use it if someone gives it to me.
cheers Darrel
My Nerites have shut up shop for the past four days, possibly even since shortly after the power cut.
I have put them somewhere I can keep an eye on them. Pretty dull watching.
They don't smell so I'm assuming its not The End (yet).
In the meantime the diatoms are making hay on the glass, figuratively speaking.
I have put them somewhere I can keep an eye on them. Pretty dull watching.
They don't smell so I'm assuming its not The End (yet).
In the meantime the diatoms are making hay on the glass, figuratively speaking.
I would not place them on their backs. These snails have a lot of trouble righting themselves and can die from being unable to. I would flip them so that the opening faces down on the substrate. If you absolutely must monitor the opening, then keep them faced towards the sand but tilt them a little bit up so that you can see if they move.
Well, sad to say the Nerites didn't make it. But algae waits for no invertebrate, so I have brought two new nerites into the tank. I don't know what happened with the last pair, but I am putting it down to something to do with the filter being off for that extended period a few weeks ago.
In other livestock news, one of my bentosi tetra is a vertical swimmer - I suspect perhaps something untoward swimbladder related occurred in the transfer from shop tank to bag but I could be wrong. It's a plucky little thing but does have to expend an awful lot of energy staying off the bottom. I have another bentosi that's started to look quite raggedy over the past week fins-wise (dorsal and anal), but still feeding and active and not especially pale. "the rest are doing fine".
On the plants front, I'm afraid my frogbit didn't make it, which I'm putting down to my 'old regimen' of TNC dosing. Sorry @hypnogogia - they were so healthy and robust when I got them! To replace, I've decided to try not to kill off some salvinia. I also took pity on some pistia at the LFS, which I was actively encouraged not to buy but decided to anyway, as a sort of test. Partly inspired by the success of a spider plant cutting I liberated from work and resettled in the tank, emersed. I need to find a decent support for it as the limitations of a bent hanger are becoming more apparent.
I also picked up a used dosing pump off ebay and am waiting for some tubing to arrive so I can do some testing. Was pretty reasonable, and a little 'technology' indulgence.
Couple of pics attached. Sorry for the awful reflections in the full-length tank shot.
In other livestock news, one of my bentosi tetra is a vertical swimmer - I suspect perhaps something untoward swimbladder related occurred in the transfer from shop tank to bag but I could be wrong. It's a plucky little thing but does have to expend an awful lot of energy staying off the bottom. I have another bentosi that's started to look quite raggedy over the past week fins-wise (dorsal and anal), but still feeding and active and not especially pale. "the rest are doing fine".
On the plants front, I'm afraid my frogbit didn't make it, which I'm putting down to my 'old regimen' of TNC dosing. Sorry @hypnogogia - they were so healthy and robust when I got them! To replace, I've decided to try not to kill off some salvinia. I also took pity on some pistia at the LFS, which I was actively encouraged not to buy but decided to anyway, as a sort of test. Partly inspired by the success of a spider plant cutting I liberated from work and resettled in the tank, emersed. I need to find a decent support for it as the limitations of a bent hanger are becoming more apparent.
I also picked up a used dosing pump off ebay and am waiting for some tubing to arrive so I can do some testing. Was pretty reasonable, and a little 'technology' indulgence.
Couple of pics attached. Sorry for the awful reflections in the full-length tank shot.
Attachments
Ah, the rascals. That will be the otos. Quite some transformation - once shy and retiring, now I need to break out the ASBOs. A brief pause in the cucumber supply and they are out doing GBH to the siamensis. Whatever next! Thank you for solving the mystery!
