Greenfinger2
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Aquatoon
- Thread starter X3NiTH
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X3NiTH
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- 13 Apr 2014
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The main tank has been through a few changes.
The images above were taken on the 10th of September. This one below from October 5th was after I moved the A.Reinekii at the front left to the back and trimmed and replanted a few heads from the ones already up the back. I trimmed the E.Tenellus right back that lived in the back left corner. The Glosso at the front was hacked right down to the substrate level and it has grown back in far more squat, although it is looking rather pale.
There was a bit of a hiccup with the main tank when I had been borrowing power outlets to put the shrimp tank light on the power brick to get 100% for filming (went badly as the light unit just flashed indicating a toasted power brick) hadn't noticed that I had accidentally tripped the micro dosing pump when I borrowed its outlet and ran about 300ml of micro into the tank, unaware of this at the I later performed the weekly tank water change of 50%, about half the micro had gone in up to this point (did note a drip at the ferts outlet but dismissed it as splashed water from the WC), I then gutted out the filter and removed the water along with half the media to get more flow (Eheim Mech and MechPro) and stuck a large filter sponge in place of the Mech and a slice of carbon filter matting, I then gave the 20" reactor a quick clean and replaced its water, so probably in all an 85%+ water change at this point (the filter really needed the clean). Later on I noticed the tank water was yellowing and scratched my head for a couple of seconds when suddenly I remembered dismissing the drip earlier on, looked at the outlet and it was dripping, looked at the pump and it was ever so silently spinning, looked at the bottle of Micro I filled the day before, 200ml left out of 500ml, aaaargh!!! I calculated I had already taken half it out at the water change but thought best to do another 70% change straight away. All fish and cherry shrimps totally fine with it.
The loss of half the mature filter media to get more flow kicked off quite a large bloom of diatoms on the front of the glass where the flow from the filter hits it and also in the shade just on the corner of the front side wall behind the fissidens that is growing on mesh, again a high flow area. Not long after this I noticed that the Frogbit new growth was very pale and so was the Glosso new growth that was coming in after being hacked to substrate level.
And some of it is dying off.
So I had to rescue it from the main tank and put it in the shrimp tank next to it but still under the same light, although less direct (not the planted shrimp tank), it has greened up a little being back in there and is starting to look much more healthy. I'm not sure overdosing Micro is quite safe for plants, doing it at the same time as cutting half the filter media probably didn't help.
Having moved on a little from that, I was out at McArthurGlenn in Livingston yesterday and while there popped into the local P@H to look and see if they had a dual output air pump (ended up with the 'love fish' 2x140lph), the tanks were spotless which was nice to see, even the Tropica plants display tank, I couldn't resist getting a couple of very nice pots of Pogostemon.Erectus and a pot of Lilaeopsis.Brasiliensis. I put all the Pogostemon in the main tank and split the Lilaeopsis between the main and shrimp tank.
As you can see I've stuck the Lilaeopsis up in the back corner under bright light (the 1500 tile outer ring is on at 35% and inner at 25%) to see how it fares there, I've also stuck some in the shade at the front behind the Crypts. In the second of the above recent pics you can see the Glosso at the front is still really pale. The Alternanthera up the back is growing rampant though, it's the fastest growing thing in the tank so far (the last haircut slowed the Glosso right down).
Heres the planted shrimp tank with some of the Lilaeopsis planted up the back.
All the moss on the walls has died off but the Anubias and Swords in there are growing, but very slowly. There is also a stem cutting of some Alternanthera in there to see how it reacts to low tech and it is also growing very slowly but it's staying squat and is very red. I was thinking of using the Cladophora that I have and teasing little tufts of it out and sticking it in the gaps in the mesh but I've put that on hold for the moment because this little one is nearly due and I don't want to disturb her (hates the camera lens and mostly always turn to face it and hide her brood behind her).
The close up stills in that video were taken today, here they are below, hopefully not long until hatching.
And a closer crop.
The images above were taken on the 10th of September. This one below from October 5th was after I moved the A.Reinekii at the front left to the back and trimmed and replanted a few heads from the ones already up the back. I trimmed the E.Tenellus right back that lived in the back left corner. The Glosso at the front was hacked right down to the substrate level and it has grown back in far more squat, although it is looking rather pale.
There was a bit of a hiccup with the main tank when I had been borrowing power outlets to put the shrimp tank light on the power brick to get 100% for filming (went badly as the light unit just flashed indicating a toasted power brick) hadn't noticed that I had accidentally tripped the micro dosing pump when I borrowed its outlet and ran about 300ml of micro into the tank, unaware of this at the I later performed the weekly tank water change of 50%, about half the micro had gone in up to this point (did note a drip at the ferts outlet but dismissed it as splashed water from the WC), I then gutted out the filter and removed the water along with half the media to get more flow (Eheim Mech and MechPro) and stuck a large filter sponge in place of the Mech and a slice of carbon filter matting, I then gave the 20" reactor a quick clean and replaced its water, so probably in all an 85%+ water change at this point (the filter really needed the clean). Later on I noticed the tank water was yellowing and scratched my head for a couple of seconds when suddenly I remembered dismissing the drip earlier on, looked at the outlet and it was dripping, looked at the pump and it was ever so silently spinning, looked at the bottle of Micro I filled the day before, 200ml left out of 500ml, aaaargh!!! I calculated I had already taken half it out at the water change but thought best to do another 70% change straight away. All fish and cherry shrimps totally fine with it.
The loss of half the mature filter media to get more flow kicked off quite a large bloom of diatoms on the front of the glass where the flow from the filter hits it and also in the shade just on the corner of the front side wall behind the fissidens that is growing on mesh, again a high flow area. Not long after this I noticed that the Frogbit new growth was very pale and so was the Glosso new growth that was coming in after being hacked to substrate level.
And some of it is dying off.
So I had to rescue it from the main tank and put it in the shrimp tank next to it but still under the same light, although less direct (not the planted shrimp tank), it has greened up a little being back in there and is starting to look much more healthy. I'm not sure overdosing Micro is quite safe for plants, doing it at the same time as cutting half the filter media probably didn't help.
Having moved on a little from that, I was out at McArthurGlenn in Livingston yesterday and while there popped into the local P@H to look and see if they had a dual output air pump (ended up with the 'love fish' 2x140lph), the tanks were spotless which was nice to see, even the Tropica plants display tank, I couldn't resist getting a couple of very nice pots of Pogostemon.Erectus and a pot of Lilaeopsis.Brasiliensis. I put all the Pogostemon in the main tank and split the Lilaeopsis between the main and shrimp tank.
As you can see I've stuck the Lilaeopsis up in the back corner under bright light (the 1500 tile outer ring is on at 35% and inner at 25%) to see how it fares there, I've also stuck some in the shade at the front behind the Crypts. In the second of the above recent pics you can see the Glosso at the front is still really pale. The Alternanthera up the back is growing rampant though, it's the fastest growing thing in the tank so far (the last haircut slowed the Glosso right down).
Heres the planted shrimp tank with some of the Lilaeopsis planted up the back.
All the moss on the walls has died off but the Anubias and Swords in there are growing, but very slowly. There is also a stem cutting of some Alternanthera in there to see how it reacts to low tech and it is also growing very slowly but it's staying squat and is very red. I was thinking of using the Cladophora that I have and teasing little tufts of it out and sticking it in the gaps in the mesh but I've put that on hold for the moment because this little one is nearly due and I don't want to disturb her (hates the camera lens and mostly always turn to face it and hide her brood behind her).
The close up stills in that video were taken today, here they are below, hopefully not long until hatching.
And a closer crop.
Lindy
Member
Wow, amazing shots! It never occurred to me that the hydra would sit on the shrimp. Are there any on your glass?
Edvet
Member
Nice fresh looking tank, just not sure about the fish choice. I would go for one species and maybe a smaller one. Try to find one which doesnt want tanine rich water like the emperor, just my 2 €cents
Lindy
Member
I just noticed all the hydra on the shrimps legs! Eek! Burn it with fire!
Edvet
Member
She needs a shave
Lindy
Member
lol...She needs a shave
X3NiTH
Member
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2014
- Messages
- 1,647
Thanks! No I can't see any on the glass which is completely clear, not even diatoms. I remember taking a pic a while back after first getting the CRS and seeing the polyp structure near the face but didn't scrutinise it further being unfamiliar with the way CRS lay down colour in their shell and thought it was normal. So I took a few more pics.
Geronimo is surprisingly free of any (maybe he was the one that moulted and is now free of them for the moment). I'm thinking that Geronimo Is the father for the CBS shrimplets as I'm sure I can see some red in amongst the eggs, some whites and a nice deep black one. Here's a pic of a RCS female that appears free of infestation.
Heres one of its progeny, again clear of hydra.
Moving over to the old shrimp tank where the RCS and CRS came from.
As you can see there are Hydra present on the CRS, so at least I know where it came from. The infested one I put in the planted shrimp tank a couple of weeks ago to give Geronimo company came from here. It only appears to be the CRS that are affected and that tank is infested with RCS, the colony is growing again and doesn't look like stopping any time soon. I have seen young RCS back browsing on the CRS which they don't like and I'm wondering if the CRS are using the Hydra as a defence (or is it only on the parts it doesn't reach when cleaning itself?).
X3NiTH
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- 13 Apr 2014
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Spotted these in the tank yesterday!
And here's a couple of 'Where's Wally' full tank shots.
Here's Geronimo, the father of that lot above, strutting his stuff feeling quite chuffed with himself after getting in there again for the second time!
What drew me to looking for that lot above was that the egg carrying female appeared very pale in the belly and the male shrimps (CRS, CBS and RCS) in the tank were buzzing around like flies chasing after her, I presumed that she had cast her young and had moulted, she was looking very brown. I kept my eye on her as the others tried to catch up and spotted her get some peace for a moment and she suddenly moulted bursting free from her old skin, Geronimo was hanging back and got right on the case immediately, she hadn't been out the shell for more than a second before he pounced and mated. After this she was chased around the tank by everything, an RCS clamped onto her brain pan, which put a little bit of drama into the mix which had me reaching for the long tweezers to remove it (I've had three CRS females go this way, brain munched, and I'm not going to watch it happen), Zombie RCS episode averted!
And today here's Moya (She's the only Mothership in there after all) bearing the fruits of Geronimos persistence!
And here's a couple of 'Where's Wally' full tank shots.
Here's Geronimo, the father of that lot above, strutting his stuff feeling quite chuffed with himself after getting in there again for the second time!
What drew me to looking for that lot above was that the egg carrying female appeared very pale in the belly and the male shrimps (CRS, CBS and RCS) in the tank were buzzing around like flies chasing after her, I presumed that she had cast her young and had moulted, she was looking very brown. I kept my eye on her as the others tried to catch up and spotted her get some peace for a moment and she suddenly moulted bursting free from her old skin, Geronimo was hanging back and got right on the case immediately, she hadn't been out the shell for more than a second before he pounced and mated. After this she was chased around the tank by everything, an RCS clamped onto her brain pan, which put a little bit of drama into the mix which had me reaching for the long tweezers to remove it (I've had three CRS females go this way, brain munched, and I'm not going to watch it happen), Zombie RCS episode averted!
And today here's Moya (She's the only Mothership in there after all) bearing the fruits of Geronimos persistence!
Greenfinger2
Member
Hi X3niTH,
Congratulation to Mum and Geronimo
Great photos i love number 2
Congratulation to Mum and Geronimo
Great photos i love number 2
X3NiTH
Member
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2014
- Messages
- 1,647
Thanks!
In pic number two I thought it was about to be munched when I took the shot, a moment later the shrimplet used its lightning reflexes to appear to teleport itself backwards 1cm onto the strand of moss away from the giant claws of death that were bearing down on it! Obviously has Geronimos Genes on!
In pic number two I thought it was about to be munched when I took the shot, a moment later the shrimplet used its lightning reflexes to appear to teleport itself backwards 1cm onto the strand of moss away from the giant claws of death that were bearing down on it! Obviously has Geronimos Genes on!
GreenNeedle
Member
Absolutely love the idea of the anubias wall. Its almost like Ivy Might try that one day myself.
Might try that one day myself.
X3NiTH
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- 13 Apr 2014
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- 1,647
Main Tank as of this week.
I have removed all the Glosso (except one 15cm long stem I replanted at the back) even though it was growing back after the micro overdose and staying really squat (ghostly pale), the fish kept uprooting it while chasing cherry shrimp fry, so out it came and in its place I lopped some heads of the Stauro and replanted towards the front. I have also added some C.Balansae in various areas to see where it grows best and also some C.Nevelli, the Nevelli can't be seen because only the roots have been planted as one night and one day in a holding tub of RO in the bathtub sent it melting into oblivion, the Balansae sitting in the same tub next to it didn't even blink!
This is what Alternanthera.R.Mini.Pink looks like when it hits the surface.
My tank is in the kitchen and the house is quite dry so the lower leaves that were first to emerge weren't able to cope and shrivelled at the tips (now removed, post pic), the plant stem before emergence would flop slightly forward in the flow from the crook, but this last week (a week after emergence) it is remaining upright, so I assume the plant is laying down structural growth in the stem below the water line to strengthen the support for the above water growth.
I removed the floating surface cover last week and turned down one of the channels to 15%, the other is on 22%. Up until the weekend I went 3 weeks without a waterchange (watched the TDS climb from 180 to 370 over this period) in an attempt to clear the micro overdose by making more macro available over a longer time frame (absolute no scientific reasoning for this, just wanted to experiment to see the effects, fert dosage rates are 15ml macro per EI dose and 9ml micro per EI dose, I continued to dose micro during this period even though I was clearing the vestiges of an overdose as I didn't want there to be a shortfall causing other problems), this has helped to reduce the diatom outbreak I was having due to the reduced filter media bacteria colony lagging behind after the overdose (filter media reduction and accidental 300ml micro overdose was on same day, overdose only spotted after media reduction, I think the filter colony has recovered sufficiently to deal with the by products that diatoms use to grow). Tank health has appeared to improve greatly over this lay period.
Tanks TDS is now back down at 220ish after WC. Other observations over this period were how EI influences tank pH over time (0.2ish pH rise above WC start point at above dosing rate over 3 weeks, top-ups with RO @ Zero TDS) and that the increase in TDS over this time narrowed the variance of the two pH controllers in the tank from 0.35 pH variance @ around 180 TDS to 0.15 pH variance @ 370 TDS. No apparent change to fish and shrimp behaviour during this time with elevated fert levels and increased TDS, the fish still know they're going to be fed and line up if I put my hand anywhere near the food tub within their eyeshot.
I have removed all the Glosso (except one 15cm long stem I replanted at the back) even though it was growing back after the micro overdose and staying really squat (ghostly pale), the fish kept uprooting it while chasing cherry shrimp fry, so out it came and in its place I lopped some heads of the Stauro and replanted towards the front. I have also added some C.Balansae in various areas to see where it grows best and also some C.Nevelli, the Nevelli can't be seen because only the roots have been planted as one night and one day in a holding tub of RO in the bathtub sent it melting into oblivion, the Balansae sitting in the same tub next to it didn't even blink!
This is what Alternanthera.R.Mini.Pink looks like when it hits the surface.
My tank is in the kitchen and the house is quite dry so the lower leaves that were first to emerge weren't able to cope and shrivelled at the tips (now removed, post pic), the plant stem before emergence would flop slightly forward in the flow from the crook, but this last week (a week after emergence) it is remaining upright, so I assume the plant is laying down structural growth in the stem below the water line to strengthen the support for the above water growth.
I removed the floating surface cover last week and turned down one of the channels to 15%, the other is on 22%. Up until the weekend I went 3 weeks without a waterchange (watched the TDS climb from 180 to 370 over this period) in an attempt to clear the micro overdose by making more macro available over a longer time frame (absolute no scientific reasoning for this, just wanted to experiment to see the effects, fert dosage rates are 15ml macro per EI dose and 9ml micro per EI dose, I continued to dose micro during this period even though I was clearing the vestiges of an overdose as I didn't want there to be a shortfall causing other problems), this has helped to reduce the diatom outbreak I was having due to the reduced filter media bacteria colony lagging behind after the overdose (filter media reduction and accidental 300ml micro overdose was on same day, overdose only spotted after media reduction, I think the filter colony has recovered sufficiently to deal with the by products that diatoms use to grow). Tank health has appeared to improve greatly over this lay period.
Tanks TDS is now back down at 220ish after WC. Other observations over this period were how EI influences tank pH over time (0.2ish pH rise above WC start point at above dosing rate over 3 weeks, top-ups with RO @ Zero TDS) and that the increase in TDS over this time narrowed the variance of the two pH controllers in the tank from 0.35 pH variance @ around 180 TDS to 0.15 pH variance @ 370 TDS. No apparent change to fish and shrimp behaviour during this time with elevated fert levels and increased TDS, the fish still know they're going to be fed and line up if I put my hand anywhere near the food tub within their eyeshot.
X3NiTH
Member
- Joined
- 13 Apr 2014
- Messages
- 1,647
Looking quite lonesome there with only an Ostracod for company, not to worry there plenty more where that one came from. Quite a rainbow clutch from a CBSxCRS, the majority are expressing black colours then reds next, a couple of mottled whites, a pure white and a white wearing a blue waistcoat with a black/grey back panel. I really like the blue! If I can get a clearer shot nearer to the front glass I'll post it up.
Andy Thurston
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- 16 Apr 2013
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- 2,804
Like everyone says Darren, tank looks superb. Loving the pics. I've got some serious camera envy going on here. One day i'll have a full frame nikon. Keep the pics coming
