• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Fishbeasts 400 LTR Journal (continuation)

FishBeast

Member
Joined
27 May 2009
Messages
264
Location
Australia
Hi guys, I have lossed my journal and after about 20 mins of trying to find it I have given up and created this continuation of it.

It is basically a rainbow fish tank with a few additions

Size: Tank 134g 6x2x1.5

Lighting: 312w T5 (6x 39w 6500K, 2x 39w 10,000K) I class this as being over 3 watts of T5 per gallon as I have alot of tank space taken up by substrate.

Lighting in Lux at substrate level: 3366

Filtration: Aqua One Aquis 2400 Aprox 2400 Ltrs/Hr. Aswell as another 800 Ltr/Hr internal filter I use for extra circulation 10x cycles per hour.

CO2: Pressurised

Fertilisation: EI method

Heating: 1x 300w Aqua One

This tank has been a massive journey and is my first serious attempt at a planted aquarium. The origional journal covered all of the problems I faced up to about 2 months ago but I will have to try to bring it up to speed.

I started with all Australian bio type stuff but ended up dialuting it with foreign stuff over time. I had a big attempt at growing HC which failed massively. I have gone through probably 1000 shrimp since the tank began due to dosing dry salts directly into the water.

Enough with the past, here is where I am at:

My rainbow fish are maturing nicely and are gaining some colour, I have a dwarf cichlid in there apisto something I call it the punk of the fishes. I have a few columbian tetras in there (still young) a pair of empire gudgeons which are amazing because they look sooo plain except when they get excited and then they are a sight to behold. Their heads and dorsal ann anal fins go a strong blue and red.

I had major black brush algae issues a while back. I have addressed the problems although there is some bits still here and there and it has not spread for a few months.

I am now up to my 2nd attempt at growing HC. I got alot of with for $4.50 a bunch from my supplier (amazing!) and have re structured my approach. I have bought alot of my suppliers equivilent to flourish or easy carb (The active ingredient is called gluteraldehyde for those who are interested in knowing :thumbup: ) and am dosing strongly. I have also planted my HC by planting 75% of it under the substrate so that it anchors down well. I am also only running my canister filter whilst the CO2 is running. When the CO2 is not running I run the 800 LTR/HR internal filter to stop thr HC from up rooting.

I am having massive brown dust algae problems at the moment and have decided to include the pictures of it since this area is a "warts and all" thingy. I am open to suggestions about why I am having a brown dust algae outbreak guys and bare in mind that this tank has been running about 8 months since I started my fishless cycle. I have been over dosing nutrients and running my CO2 at about 35-40 PPM since planting the HC. Poor circulation?

OK now to the pictures, tomorrow is my massive maintenance day so I will include some more "cleaner" pictures at a later date.

A full tank shot, I have let the algae go a bit so that I dont upset the HC while it is rooting.
100_5561.jpg


Some local Fissidens which is (like the rest of the tank) over-run with algae
100_5568.jpg


100_5563.jpg


100_5571.jpg


100_5574.jpg


100_5566.jpg


100_5565.jpg


The Rotala is going off

100_5564.jpg

This is a pic of the shrimp I am atempting to breed.

100_5573.jpg

As a backup I have alot of HC growing emmersed out in my sunroom and am also having my first attempt at breeding shrimp. I bought 60 red nose shrimp but the size they came at was way too small and the fish ate 1/2 of them so the rest went into my new breeding tank so all going well I have some sucess with that. My intention was to have up to 10 shrimp per square foot of substrate space so they could destroy my algae but that fell through so now I am relying on the gluyteraldehyde.
 
You need salt water to breed red nose shrimp... But the tank looks pretty good when all the plants will grow in.
 
Krish's Bettas said:
You need salt water to breed red nose shrimp... But the tank looks pretty good when all the plants will grow in.
And you get rid of the algae hehe :) keep us posted on the progress
 
FishBeast said:
The red nose shrimp I have are native here. They aren't Caridina gracilirostris but are linked to Caridina Sp.
http://www.aquagreen.com.au/plant_data/ ... Gulf1.html

The supplier I bought them off breeds them in total fresh water.

Nice, it would be awesome to live in a tropical/sub-tropical place and grab some local shrimp. In another journal I saw someone had some nice looking hawaiian shrimp from where he lived. slightly envious :lol:
 
I have fired up my canister filter now that the HC has rooted. It all melted back but is now showing new growth which has me very excited. My two gudgeons keep eating any shrimp that they can fit into their mouth so I have started 2 shrimp breeding tanks. One with the red nose shrimp and they other are local caridina sp I think.

I want to get alot of shrimp to a good size before introducing them into the tank.

Can anyone tell me if dosing liquid carbs at the standard rate will clear up the algae for me?
 
Hiya Fishbeast, Any new developments? If you are still have problems with algae I would recommend big amano shrimps (at 2in probably big enough to avoid predation) or an army of MTS or Ramshorns snails. Considering you have HC the Ramshorns may be a better choice since they don't dig.
 
Rainbowfish YAY!!!!

You are lucky you could go and catch your own fishies.

I keep about 12 species, but I had to travel to breeders in mainland Europe to get them, UK is utterly pants when it comes to Rainbows.

I have some Ozzies: M.mucullochi "Eubanangee Swamp" strain, M.trifasciata "Habgood River" these were from wild caught adults. Also a pair of m.splendida inornata/or maybe they are rubrostriata...thats the problem these ones were shop bought in the UK and the shops here sometimes mislabel.

Dont give up on a planted tank, even though you are having problems. you will get through. Algae crew dont solve algae issues, they can only lend a helping hand at best. You mention EI method, i take it then you are doing 50% weekly water changes or there abouts?

What are your rainbows by the way?? They look like some kind of inornata...
 
Hey Fishbeast I noticed you started posting again. Just curious, did you manage to breed the red-nose shrimps you got from aqua-green? I would be very curious to know how that turned out. Also some new tank pics would be great too. Best.
 
yeah man. I am having some trouble with them because I am using a small tank to breed them in. I am not used to the water turning to ammonia so quickly. 1 week isnt enough for a water change. I am lucky that the darwin red nose shrimp are very tolerant to ammonia.... (from experience) but I am not so sure about the baby shrirmp because the breeding has been slow....

Dave Wilson needs to send these bad boys to your country... no brackish water needed...
 
Wow that is so cool that you are breeding them. Have you definitely found some little ones in your tank? Need to find me some in Britain, some way, some how.

What do you mean that you think ammonia is a problem on your shrimp tank? If you are running a filter it should have cycled within the first month, regardless of size. If you are keeping them in a bucket without circulation, well, that is another matter...

By the way, the brackish-breeding red-nose shrimps we have here eat everything green, Cladophora, BBA, crypts, anubias, java fern. About the only thing they don't eat of mine are mosses and liverworts (fissidens, Peacock, Mini-Pellia, etc). Some say they don't last long in pure freshwater. I can't say for sure, but I know people who's colonies just up and died all of the sudden. I have kept mine for 4 months no problems. We will see how long he lasts (many shrimps only live 16 months (CRS), but amanos can live a few years).
 
I have been running the same internal filter since I bought them about 1 year ago and I have seen them grow from very small to medium size. At first I was lazy and didnt do water changes nearly enough... then I put them into another tank and lossed alot in the filter. I happened to do a water test at that time and noticed that not all tanks behave like large ones...

Apparently these red noses are like your ones in that in their natural habitat they breed in brackish water but in captivity these ones also produce in fresh. I will take pic for you.

These ones don't eat everything in their path. I love the sparkly bit that runs down their back and splits into their fin/tail.

IMG_4376.jpg
 
Back
Top