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Learning from Mistakes (125L dirted co2 tank)

Hi all,
They are from a local breeder using Bradford Water,
You can see in that last photo he's on the skinny side.
Bad luck then, it might have been Camallanus infection, it makes the fish very aggressive, and although they eat normally they become emaciated and may die before the worms protrude from the fishes anus.

cheers Darrel
 
I'll read up on it and check the rest of my fish, they all seem fine but I'll keep an eye on them for the next week or so. Cheers for the advice.

Just thought I'd share this shot of a very red Ludwigia sp.

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After a major pruning session, I've noticed some deficiencies, mainly potassium with pinholes, yellow patches. I'm also getting some GSA on the glass so I'm upping dosage to full on EI, (should of listen to Clive). I've upped the KNP to full dosage will keep the traces as they are for now.

Ordered an inline atomizer from co2 art see how that goes as well as I'm really struggling to get a lime green colour on the drop counter and I don't think flow is a problem as the misted bubbles are swirling around the tank just not being absorbed by the water.
 
So end of month two, had some ups and down, dead fish, getting the co2 right, learning about green stuff you put under water.

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Green spot algea on the anubias, mold on the wood, slow growth on the java moss, tank isn't looking great but I'm sure it will.

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Jungle is okay, the ludwiga isn't doing to great but I'm hoping now I've sorted the co2 it will be better growth.

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new plant additions because my carpet was going bad, very little growth, again I think this was mainly a co2 issue. Having been impressed with the tissue culture java I went with Tropica Marsilea crenata and the Easy Grow Sagittaria subulata. TBH I think the sagittaria is just going to over run the bottom of the tank but I'm okay with that.

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And with a nice donation from Vaz I got some more frogbit, lets see if I can keep this alive.
 
Okay went away for a week, turned off the lights and co2 and came back to a sorry state of a tank....

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That's just some of the cuttings the plants are still melting a week later due to the fact that my co2 stopped working and went I went to take the inline diffuser out I still had pressure and managed to snap the nipple off. Lesson learnt always cut the co2 tubing off. At least I have spares for the new diffuser sent quickly by PLUG!!!!! co2art.

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there only seems to be one loss of life and that was the berried female ghost shrimp no sign of her and I'm guessing she looked tempting for the hungry tank mates.. Not really surprised as I've had two other berried shrimp died on me. Two left and this one is becoming another monster.

So some shots of the tank

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oh I forgot, couldn't help myself and got 3 more barbs, they're currently about half the size of the other 6 but they are terrors with the two new females quite happy to duke it out with the bigger slower barbs. All the barbs have become much more active.

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This rainbow stayed still long enough to get this nice photo, the colour has really started to show.


(random music should be up in a bit).

The oto at the end is the one who had a wound and fungus on his nose. He's my favourite because of colouration, I call him Casper.

So that's the update for now, hopeful now everything seems to be a bit more stable everything will be growing nicely.
 
kicking myself this morning, after playing with the tank last night I woke up to it being at 34.9C. Running an air stone now, had one oto death. The barbs, pearl and rainbows should be okay I think as they can live at 30C. Hoping the other otos can hang in there now I have the air stone running.
 
Hey, EnderUk, looking good.
You can lower the temperature with a slow cold water change maybe. I had one otto die on me in the heatwave last summer. They don't seem tolerant of high temps. Sorry to hear about the rest of the fish. It's hard to pin point what's causing it sometimes.

I am just judging by the pictures but the tank looks quite shady to me. I kept my "low tech" tank, which got no CO2 or ferts ever, with quite higher light at least visually and never got algae problems. In fact I never had algae. Sadly I got technical problems such as the seam leaking and the LED drivers getting bust which ended up in almost destroying the plants, my glosso disappeared with lower light. The LED lights I use are the equivalent of 190W T5 suspended above over a 5f(150x50x50) tank.
I think you can do with some fast growers which like better light and shade the anubias and crypts while growing but enough light reaches the substrate for the glosso, providing you have your CO2, flow/distribution and ferts right. I think the ludwiga out the back is struggling in the shade. Mine loves light though it survives in lower light but doesn't grow.

 
Think it's under control now with temperature down to 28C. I did a bucket full through a air hose so it didn't drop the temperature to quickly. Counted 4 otos and they still have their colour so I'm hopeful the airstone worked. Guess I need to leave it a week and see what the stress did to the little fellow.

Hey, EnderUk, looking good.
You can lower the temperature with a slow cold water change maybe. I had one otto die on me in the heatwave last summer. They don't seem tolerant of high temps. Sorry to hear about the rest of the fish. It's hard to pin point what's causing it sometimes.

I am just judging by the pictures but the tank looks quite shady to me. I kept my "low tech" tank, which got no CO2 or ferts ever, with quite higher light at least visually and never got algae problems. In fact I never had algae. Sadly I got technical problems such as the seam leaking and the LED drivers getting bust which ended up in almost destroying the plants, my glosso disappeared with lower light. The LED lights I use are the equivalent of 190W T5 suspended above over a 5f(150x50x50) tank.
I think you can do with some fast growers which like better light and shade the anubias and crypts while growing but enough light reaches the substrate for the glosso, providing you have your CO2, flow/distribution and ferts right. I think the ludwiga out the back is struggling in the shade. Mine loves light though it survives in lower light but doesn't grow.



Pretty sure the GSA will be cured when I have corner shaded with floating plants. The Lugwiga was doing fine once I upped the co2, the problem was the week blackout I did when I went on holiday, it's bouncing back now. Thanks for the feed back, you're tank looks great.
 
So there's been a few changes. I couldn't get the inline aomizer to work, broke the nipple off two of them before giving up. Also gave up on the bazooka , I couldn't get more than 1 bubble a second and I've put it down the either the FE or the single stage reg not providing enough pressure. So I've gone and order myself a ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor from Taiwan, while I'm waiting for that I'm back to my glass diffuser which is working well.

I also bought myself two 25L brewing bins, cut a hole on one of the lids and I'm not gassing off my water so no more tap safe, cheers Kirk for suggesting this. I'm also going to do my W/C three times a week basically 20L each time before dosing macros. I'm doing this to prevent the huge swings of TDS I'm getting changing 75% on a sunday. Another plus side of this is that it's much quicker, I don't have to syphon the water through a air hose over a couple of hours on sunday. Cheers Big Clown for suggesting this to me.

Generally plants are doing fine, I seem to have a lack of Calcium so dosing CaS04 along with traces, as Darrel points out it doesn't dissolve very well but once it's in the tank it's gone within the hour. This is being dosed at 10ppm twice a week.

Oh I got some new life in the tank.

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barbs are up to 9 and they're having a last, also put nine Amano shrimp in there for good measure. Two are pretty big and the rest a about 1-1.5" long.

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So with the demise of the Blue Rams I decided that I want another male and female Pearl. Haven't managed to get a decent shot of them yet. The older female is being a bit of a bully but usually only after feeding time.
 
So the pearls have settled in, a bit of fighting but only around feeding time. The girls are doing a lot more showing off flaring their pelivic fins.

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I went away on business and left the tank to the lass, came back and was quite impressed by the growth.

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I've let loose the frogbit for the coral and it seems to be happy in that corner which is perfect. The other plants are growing nice and steady, bit of algae on some leaves but nothing I'm that worried about.

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The Crypts are getting massive, I'm hoping that the three swords at the back will start to take off which they appear to be doing. The dwarf sag is starting to grow so I'm hoping for some runners soon.

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Last, got a new bit of kit just before I left, having a day off I thought I would set it up. ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor Diffuser (Medium). I couldn't find some 2" pipe brackets so I wingged it and clamped it in with some 1.5" drainage pipe brackets.

So I'm quite impressed as it seemed pretty well built, nothing snapped off :confused: Everything went together smoothly and I can get as much co2 in as I need. There is a little downside in that it does have a noticeable trickle sound so if you want a silent tank maybe not for you. My plants started pearling and no noticeable bubbles coming from the spray bar.
 
The crypts are lovely and the dwarf sag will spread and give a nice contrast. I'd say sticking to low light plants suits this tank a lot, at least they look very healthy kept this way.

Yeah it's pretty slow going but I'm happy I'm not having to do a tonne of maintenance on the tank every week despite pumping the co2 and ferts into it. I'm going to have to strip the tank down in the summer some time when we paint the room. Already drawing up plans, which will be similar in theme but a bit more structured and planned.
 
About a month back I went and bought the bit of redmoor root I didn't buy for my nano tank, it's been in the shed soaking up water until now. I pulled all the anubias in the left hand corner and used a nice stanly blade to cut it into sections. These were then super glued on to the root pretty much hiding all features of the root which is a shame because it's an amazing piece and unfortunately I didn't take any photos of it before it was in the tank so you'll just have to take my word for it. The out come wasn't exactly what I wanted, maybe if I have left the barteri off it and just gone with the nana but the fish love hiding under the huge barteri leaves so I was overruled. I also added the christmas moss I got from Kirk that's been sitting in a coffee jar and the bits of java fern.

I also got a koralia 900 and after a bit of trial and error decided to having it attached to the left had side blowing slightly upwards to ripple the surface. This also has the benefit of pushing the frogbit to cover the anubias and java fern perfectly.

Finishing off I cut up some of the Marsilea and other carpet plants and replanted. To be honest I don't know which of the carpet plants have survived and which haven't there's still some of the grass types that I've added but there's been so many of them. The dwarf sag will take over anyways.

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So itching for a shuffle around, and the lass is away yet again next weekend so time for a re-scape. I'm still wanting a jungle and I won't be getting any new hardscape or even that many new plants (a couple of anubias nana). I'll be getting rid of the crypts (they were growing huge) and the ozlots. However I'm in two minds to keep the flame red or not as I could for see it taking over the tank but I guess I can always put it if it gets far to big.

So here's the plan, I'm going to center all the root and plant the stems around that while hopefully leaving the dwarf sag to carpet. Inspiration comes bit from Tom Barr's Dutch something or the other obviously a much smaller tank, less plants and much less skill. Any feed back is welcome.

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So the rescape is almost complete and it's not that far off the plan in the above post. I'd like to say it all went to plan but when I plugged in my filter it started leaking out water so off to the LFS to spend a lot of money tomorrow. Hopefully the powerhead and the plants will do their job.

I would take some photos but since there's no filter and I replaced the substrate the water is very very cloudy. Once I have the photos I'll do a full write up.
 
Equipment
Tank: Roma 125L
Lights: 1x14w osram lumax 840 and 1x14w osram lumax 880, no reflectors. 14:00-21:50 (electrical timer)(mechanical timer)
CO2: As much as possible without gassing fish. Apprx. 12:00-20:00 (mechanical timer) ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor Original UP New Inline CO2 Atomizer
Filter: Aqua Vital Avex1000: 10ppi pre-filter->bioballs->10ppi sponge->ceramic rings->spray bar (half tank length causing small waves) Lilly Pipe
Powerhead: Hydor Koralia Nano Evolution 900(on off side of root from the lilly pipe, mid tank aimed forward at a slight downward angle.)
Background: 80% blackout limo window tint. (badly applied)


Dosage (Based on 125L, estimated water volume 100L)
KNO3: 2 x 1/2tsp
KH2PO4: 2 x 1/8tps
Traces: 4 x 1/16tps
CaSO4: 1x1tps
MgSO4: 1x1tps
Estimated: K: 21 NO3: 25 PO4: 6 Fe: 1 Ca: 12 Mg: 4 (weekly)

Water Change: 1 x 69L 55% (69% on estimated volume)
Tap water 85 TDS
Tank Water 165 (after first dosage)


Scape Discription:
½” of Minerised top soil with no added lime capped with ½” sharp sand. Medium sized redmoor stump, one small redmoor root and one small piece of mopani.


Plants:
Floating:
Limnobium laevigatum (amazon frogbit)

Mosses:
Vesicularia ferriei (Weeping)
Taxiphyllum barbieri (java)
Vesicularia dubyana (Christmas)

Stems:
Gymnocoronis spilanthoides
Nomaphila stricta (Giant Hygrophila)
Lindernia rotundifolia (Baby Tears)
Ludwigia sp.

Hardwood:
Microsorium pteropus (java fern)
Anubias nana bonsai
Anubias nana
Anubias barteri v nana Petite
Anubias barteri

Carpet:
Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag)
Lilaeopsis mauritania

Feature:
Echinodorus red flamed


Fish:
9 x five banded barb (Puntius' pentazona)
6 x Neon Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox)
3 x Pearl Gourami (Trichopodus leerii)
3 x Otocinclus(O. macrospilus )

Invertebrates:
2x glass shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus)
8x Amano Shrimp (Caridina multidentata)
10x Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina Heteropoda) (possible fish food)
Y x Malaysian Trumpet Snail(Melanoides tuberculate)

It's getting dark outside so will be taking photos and probably do a bit more depth into the description of scape tomorrow if I have time.
 
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This is the root stripped of most of the larger anubias except for one small barteri on the left hand side. The rest of the hardwood is covered in the the anubias nana var. the java fern, and the assortment of mosses.

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kind of decided on something like this but ended up with the small piece of root back right on the left hand side as well.

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This is a day after setup and about a 200% water change a couple of hours before, as you can see it's still very very cloudy don't know if it's the sand or if it's a bacteria bloom.

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I think in the future I'm going to stake out the floating plants and stick in the 2x28w tubes for photo shoots which should be a lot easier to do now I've modified the hood a little bit. The tube holders are now firmly screwed into the hood were as before they were superglued.

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Lilaeopsis mauritania hopefully it will take apparently it needs less light than Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis. I've used lawn dividers to split it up from the Sagittaria subulata behind it.

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Some of the baby tears from my nano tank, the rest are in the propagator.

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You can see the divider in parts, hopefully the Lilaeopsis will take and it will be covered. The dwarf sag will probably just try to climb over the top but I'm hoping it will help a little bit.

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dirty super glued moss, looking pretty bad but it will grow out.

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The Ludwigia sp is looking pretty sorry for itself, now that I've gotten rid of the huge crypts I'm hoping it will have more flow and co2 around it.

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The Echinodorus had pretty damn poor roots, I think the crypts were again simply taking up all the space as the root structure on the crypts were pretty epic. The crypts, swords and anubias are going into my sisters new tank.

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Some damage to the old anubias nana leaves I don't think I sprayed it enough when it was out of the water, didn't think it would dry out as quickly as it did. The larger anubias aren't blocking the structure of the redmoor root anymore.

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I think the tanks is going to look much better and still have the wild jungle look when it all grows in.
 
Looks great. I've grown lilaeopsis Mauritania in my low techs and it is a nice wee plant.
 
Looks great. I've grown lilaeopsis Mauritania in my low techs and it is a nice wee plant.
I'm hoping it will take as my past attempts at carpet plants have been pretty terrible. I realy did't want a grass but I thought a stem plant would look silly against the dwarf sag. Let us see.

I've re-rearranged my photobucket, didn't think it would break the links when I sorted out the folders.
 
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