Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank - A brutal ending

[GreenNeedle]

21st November 2009

After neglecting this tank for a second time with the aquascape Triangle of Life I decided to rescape again. I have found that this small 10 litre tank is quite unlike the larger 125 litre in that if it does get neglected the scape can be beyond repair very quickly whereas with the larger tank it can be pulled back by reimplementing simple procedures of pruning, cleaning etc.

Specs:
TANK : 33cm x 15cm x 20cm homemade 10 litres.
FILTRATION : Boyu external 200lph.
HEATER : Newattino K 10W.
LIGHTING : 3 x 3W 5500K Luxeon LED - underpowered to circa 7.35W (3.5WPG.)
SUBSTRATE : Leonardite bottom layer, Natural sand.
DOSING : No CO2 No Nutrients

PLANTS : Cryptocoryne Wendtii 'green', Cryptocoryne Wendtii 'brown', Cryptocoryne Parva, Anubias Barteri v Nana, Anubias Barteri v Nana 'petite, Lileopsis Brasiliensis.

INHABITANTS : Corydoras Schultzei Black (Fry), Cherry Shrimp.

I named this aquascape 'Castaway' because I seem to ignore it after a while and also that I decided that soon I will put the remainder of my emersed Crypts in there along with other 'trims' from my main tank and also some emersed Lileopsis Brasiliensis.

The main hardscape is the same as in Triangle of Life because I like it but the plants have been changed.

Her you can see the tank in position in the new bookcase I made. I then turned the little luminaire into a hanging version and finally veneered it in ash to match the bookcase. I will take some closer pictures at a later date

And finally this little tank on the right of my 'entertainment' wall. 'Once upon a time on the riverbank' is to the left and as you can see I was in the process of building a matching cabinet to the bookcase at this time

AC

 

[bigmatt]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

Hate to be a pedant but could the heater be hidden behind the rockwork? Just a thought!
How are you finding the heater? HEard mixed reports but i really like the look of them?
And how did you find making your own nano? Good/bad/indifferent?
Cheers!
Matt

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

Hate to be a pedant but could the heater be hidden behind the rockwork? Just a thought!
How are you finding the heater? HEard mixed reports but i really like the look of them?
And how did you find making your own nano? Good/bad/indifferent?
Cheers!
Matt

There's no room behind the rockwork. lol It is virtually against the glass as this tank is only 6" in depth. I'm not to concerned with it where it is. Does its job and very easy to remove.

How am I finding the heater. Works really well once it is acclimitised. It overheats the water by a couple of degrees (It is supposed to heat the water 5degrees above ambient temperature but I found that for the first couple of days it was 7 before going down to 5. That means it is 28 for a couple of days before dropping to 26.

The heater is superb. small works well. The only downside is that the silly little suckers are no good after a couple of months hence why the heater just hangs in the tank by a bend in the cable

Making my own tank was quite a good feeling really. No leaks at the first attempt but then it is only a little one. Its not going to win any design prizes as the edges are particularly straight but I did round them off as best I could and there is one corner where there is more sealant than glass

AC

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

The aquascape is now 5 months old and has grown significantly. In January I had added some more Cryptocoryne Wendtii. Some of which became a little too big and had to be removed. This has brought up some darker parts from the lower substrate. I also added some Anubias Barteri v Nana, a clipping from 'Once upon a time at the riverbank' to the hardscape.

The Lileopsis Brasiliensis struggled a little and so I resorted to a different type of 'carpet'. I made some java moss 'rafts' comprising of a little piece of mesh with a pebble cable tied to it. This will stop the 'rafts' from floating. Then I tied java moss to the upper side and put them into position. Hopefully these will eventually hide the mesh and also join together.

At the end of March the black corys from my main tank spawned and from the eggs approx 12 of the fry hatched. They have been in this tank since then and are now approx 4 weeks old. They are various sizes but on average about 1cm from head to tail.

Hope you like it so far

AC

 

[mlgt]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

Looks great. I have been meaning to do this myself and set up a fry tank as my corys are forever laying eggs.
Sometimes after a water change I come back a few hours later and see over 100 eaten eggs courtesty of the community fish.

I have Sterbai, julli and pandas in my 180l tank. I have a 10l tank which I must set up like yours. But will try white sand instead

I do hate MTS though !

Thanks for the inspiration to get it going

 

[TBRO]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

Good idea with the mesh, any other form of carpet can't survive cories, reminds me of matt c's tank in nano and reversed. T

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

13th August 2010

I'd let this tank go again. I have been putting offcuts and all sorts into this tank and as you can see in the first picture below there was some Cryptpcoryne Spiralis which was getting burnt on the lights. This stuff grows 60cm tall in my larger tank. lol

So I put a little effort in and took out all the monsters. I also removed some of the larger Anubias and then decided to add some HC instead of the scruffy Riccia and moss stones. No fully finished pictures because the water was really cloudy.

AC

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

Some more changes. This current plant arrangement is now 5 weeks or so old. I did however remove another of the larger anubias. I'm going just with the 'petite' variety here with 1 large one that seems to give off smaller leaves.

The background has been ditched. I'm very much in favour of the clear background again at the moment. Just so much more full of life.

One little development is you may see the tiny 'sponge filter' in there. My Boyu external is out of action now. The O ring was stretched and then snapped. I let it struggle on with PTFE tape sealing it and it did work but was very noisy. I have a Resun filter similar to the Boyu on its way.

AC

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

With the Boyu filter's O ring stretching I decided to ditch it rather than search the world for a new O ring. I bought a Resun CY-20 for £17 including shipping and so far it is better in both appearance, setup and function than the Boyu EF-05.

The inlet 'crook' was long enough for my 80cm tall so I had to cut that down and then put the strainer on it as it would have reached up a foot above the rim. It is positioned into the right rear corner.

I have seen some complaints about the small spraybar and it is small at about 4 " long but it is absolutely spot on for this tank. It is positioned on the right hand pane. If I wanted it along the back then the Boyu spraybar will fit as they are the same diameter pipe.

It was also much easier to prime than the Boyu and was up and running without the splutters of the Boyu which used to take a good hour or so to remove the air.

My favourite improvement is that the hoses actually fit inside the tighteners when screwed tight. The boyu's hose tighteners would not fit over the tube and therefore you either didn't tighten (just pushed the hoses on and hoped for the best) or you used them to remove the hose.

Its actually quite a pretty filter and the output seems to be pretty consistent.

Beware if you want to use glassware on this filter that the intake hose is larger than the outflow.

AC

 

[Gill]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

Looks Very Good, Added that filter to my Watch List. Did yo get it from HKtrading ???
Thanks

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0664840238

aquamarket - Hong Kong

AC

 

[Gill]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260664840238

aquamarket - Hong Kong

AC

Cool Thanks.

 

[GreenNeedle]

Re: Castaway - 10Ltr Fry tank

As per the other journal this is a backdated 'update'. lol

28th December 2010

This tank met a violent end yesterday. I have been suffering with depression for while. Slipping further and further through the year and this caused a lack of interest/motivation with everything. All projects ignored and left, fish tanks being ignored and doing the bare minimum and the forums/website ignored too.

This finally came to a head to a head where I considered taking both tanks down and selling it all off.I did decide in the end to continue with the 125ltr albeit with minimal efort (back to non CO2/non water change) however this little tank incurred my full wrath!

The plants were riped out and put in the emersed cupboard The substrate was chucked on the compost heap, the shrimp moved into the 125ltr and then I took a hammer to this handmade tank.

I do however have some picture from earlier in the month showing the growth of the HC after 2 months. It did have a DIY yeast setup in it for its last 3 weeks.

The funny thing is that a week later when another Rasbora died (I assume they are getting old) that I started to research some new fish. Then I spotted a photo of a woodland stream and suddenly I was planning a rescape on the 125ltr.

I'm not at all disaapointed with my actions though because I found over the 3 years that this little tank was running that I find Nanos extremely boring!!! They are awkward to work with. and there isn't much freedom to do what I want. I often wish the 125ltr was bigger so I guess it was inevitable I got fed up with this tank. I had already let it go to ruin twice over it's life.

The only real positive is that it reared 10 black cory fryof which 7 survived to adulthood and are still alive and kicking today in the 125ltr.

Regards
AC

 

[nayr88]

That's a shame mate. Good to have you back. Hope your feeling better.

Some nice pictures pearling hc with diy co2 I wasn't sure it that was possible. Looks good though.

Cheers.