New Rio 180 set up

[martinmjr62]

Hi all. Hope you all had a good Christmas. Got a nice shoal of neons the weekend before Xmas. Blue and Red against green looks sooo nice. Pics to follow


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[martinmjr62]

Hi to everyone and a happy new year. As promised a few photos of the neons. Tanks had a bit of a trim and thinned out a lot of the largest sword leaves that we're growing over the top and coming back down the front

Whilst off over Xmas I've set up a little fluval edge 23l that I got for £15 on a Facebook selling site. Filthy when I got it, they had 2 goldfish in it in the kids bedroom. Thoroughly cleaned it and changed the light unit to a 48 led one from the 46l edge ( straight swap,thanks son for the Xmas present)
Substrate is JBL Manado (had some left over from the Jewel 180 set up)
Changed all the media in the filter .
Got some rock from MA in Wembley and some Anubis nana Bonzai and Echinodorus Radicans which I now think will be to big.
I want to keep it low tech so I will be adding ferts and easy carbo and see how it goes.
If any one has any ideas on really small easy growers it would be appreciated.
Not going to over stock with fauna but I really fancy a blue Siamese fighter.
I wanted to put a fighter in the big tank but someone told me that its not advisable with shrimp !!!
If anyone can enlighten me on this it would be appreciated
Anyway some very early photos of the tank so far, will probably start a journal on this one as well

Cheers
Martin
Hope you all have a great New Year
Happy Scaping 2013



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[tim]

Looking good mate you definately have the aquascaping bug now edge looks nice too IME of Siamese fighters they don't mix with shrimp I do like edge tanks

 

[martinmjr62]

Cheers Tim. Definitely got the bug. Constantly tinkering, watching and admiring how far it's come in only 8 weeks.
The edge has its limits bit I find it challenging being so small. Not sure what to put in it yet but I went to ADC after work and got a large portion of java moss for £3.50 for it and saw the most gorgeous fish I've seen (IMO)
Celestial danios
Will more than likely end up getting a small shoal of them, and maybe putting the siamese fighter in with them too

Cheers
Martin


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[martinmjr62]

Evening all , just a quick update on the tank. Had a clean today and a water change and noticed that the flow was down on the Fluval 405. Gave it a clean and it is better now but still not brilliant Combing it with the Eheim should give me a reasonable flow but probably not 10x , so I went out and got a Hydor koralia 900..my god what a difference in flow. I've even got the plants pearling with the CO2 on first time ever. Should have done this sooner. I placed the koralia directly over the diffuser and the difference it's made to the co2 distribution was amazing. Whilst at the shop I also got 6 panda Cory's and 2 red gourami's they all seem very happily settled in Some pictures of the newcomers

Cheers for now
Martin


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[scapegoat]

Nice set up has the mesh been covered yet? if so how long did it take?

 

[martinmjr62]

No mate not yet. Seems to be taking forever. Might help now with the better flow!!!!


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[martinmjr62]

Evening all, since fitting the koralia at the weekend and adding the dwarf gourami's I've not seen much of the shrimp. Any ideas???


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[LondonDragon]

since fitting the koralia at the weekend and adding the dwarf gourami's I've not seen much of the shrimp. Any ideas???

Higher flow and a large predator in the tank, shrimp just looking for cover

 

[martinmjr62]

Didn't realise that the gourami was a predator when I got them. Just liked the look of them. My son said that he thought that the shrimp would disappear once the gourami's were put in.
Have I done the wrong thing, will they attack the shrimp/ eat them. Got amano and red rilli. if so I might have to rethink what to do with the fish.my fault for not doing homework and buying on impulse


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[LondonDragon]

They might leave adults alone, but if the rilli breed the young will most likely become meals, unless you have plenty of hiding places for them.

 

[martinmjr62]

Cheers for the advice ill seriously have to reconsider the gourami's

Martin


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[martinmjr62]

Evening all, not updated this for a few weeks. Not a lot happening. Cleaned both filters today including all the pipework. Amazing how dirty they were. Usual weekly 50% WC. The only thing is the small amount of BBA that's starting on the edges of the sword and Anubis leaves. Got some on the repens as well and a tiny bit on the fern. Pushed the CO2 up a bit more and put the lighting down to 1 bulb. Gonna have to start dosing with EC tomorrow
The Alternanthera Reineckii pink at the back also is losing a lot of leaves and the others are getting very holey not sure why
Some pics of the plants and a general tank shot with the single light. 11 weeks old.

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Amy comments appreciated
Cheers
Martin




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[tim]

Hey mate looks like a lot of plants are or will lose their lower leaves this is probably down to poor co2 distribution which should be sorted out by the korallia you added you could uproot plants and remove the affected leaves and replant the tops damaged leaves/stems don't normally recover anyway I have found an increase back to 3 water changes a week plus liquid carbon dosing is helping to fight off my algae issues reduced lighting is definately key to a successful tank IMO keep at it mate

 

[martinmjr62]

Cheers Tim,might try replanting the ones that have lost their lower leaves and up the water changes.must start with the easycarbo. Gonna keep the lights at 1 tube for the foreseeable future

Cheers
Martin


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[martinmjr62]

Evening all, just a quick update on the Rio. Well, 12 weeks now and going reasonably well. BBA is less noticeable, daily EC dosing helping as well as the lower lighting. Added a new Fluval diffuser this weekend, what a difference. Much smaller bubbles so hopefully a better uptake from the plants. Replanted the Repens after removing the damaged lower leaves. All of the lower ground cover plants seem to be very slow( repens, pogostomen,Lilaeopsos ) not really sure why this is as there seems enough flow down there from the filters and the koralia. The Riccia covered stone is starting to take off nicely though so I might start another one from the mesh holding bag I've got floating at the surface. The creeping moss on the mesh isn't doing that well but I think that the Red Gourami's are nibbling at it!!! The Anubis nana on the arch has got flowers on it. Crypts are looking good and the sword is just a monster. The Echinodorus Radicans that I took out of the Edge has grown quit a bit
Here's a few updated pics , sorry still only using the iPhone

Forgot to add, now using Purigen in the Fluval 405, what a difference. Anyway enjoy the photos, as ever,comments and criticism always welcomed!!!

Cheers
Martin


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[martinmjr62]

Evening all just a few updated photo's of the Rio. Just added some Christmas moss courtesy of Wally, some Hydrocotyle Tripartita courtesy of MattyC, some Pogostomen Stellata courtesy of Ben (B7fec), and some Fissidens on wood courtesy of Ghostsword. I'd like to thank everyone who sent the plants, all I can say is fantastic service from everyone and excellent quality and quantities. Photo's of the said plants. The tank is now 15 weeks old and settling in quite nicely
Cheers
Martin

Thanks for looking. Any comments welcome

Cheers
Martin

 

[Ady34]

Looking great Martin.
Seems you have the algae under control now, good job, and the tank is looking nice, I particularly like the first photo of the bolbitis, moss and fern oh, and gotta love the hatchetfish!
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[martinmjr62]

Cheers Ady,sorry for the quality of the photo's,still using the iphone.Gonna have to try and take some with my Panasonic compact and download them,its just quicker with the iphone.The tank looks even better in the flesh.Hopefully getting some more Hatchetts over the weekend. I will end up a shoal of 15.

Cheers
Martin

 

[martinmjr62]

Evening everyone. Well it's been a good month since the last update on the tank. No major changes apart from taking out the secondary Eheim 2213 and changing it for a brand new unused Fluval 405 I got on eBay for £70 , so now running two of these and I've taken off the spray bar and running 2 Fluval outlets. Both filters are running the same media and a bag of purigen in each. The flow in the tank is fantastic everything swaying nicely. I've moved the Fluval diffuser to under the intake of one of the filters and the tank is now a hell of a lot clearer of bubbles apart from the odd belch from the filter when the gas builds up. Recently changed the light tubes for new ones, a 54w daylight and a 54w nature. I also added a 25w Arcadia tropical to the underside of the back lid with a reflector. This light comes on an hour before the main lights and goes off an hour after the main lights so it dims down instead of just shutting straight off. Recently added some new flora namely Rotala Sp Ceylon and Myrophillum Mattogrossense courtesy of Ben ( B7fec) thanks mate. A lot off the flora is starting to grow nicely especially the moss on the wood areas , the Pogostomen Helferi is getting better, the Anubis is flowering and the others seem to be ok apart from a little BBA which is being kept in check with daily 5 ml doses of easy carbo. updated piccies including one of the tank with the 25w light on its own.
P. S.

Also added 10 white tipped tetras this weekend
Thanks for looking, as usual all comments welcomed.

Cheers
Martin





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