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*Newbie* 60L My First Planted "help journal"

Thanks pariahrob and creg.

Well I'm going to make DIY co2 (using yeast) for now while I save up a few coins here and there for a proper co2 kit. Also as I haven't got my new filter yet hopefully getting a power head will help out a little? also will keep when I have a new filter just to create a better flow overall if not enough. Being on a budget sucks!

Anyway been out and got some fish :D
As I said I always go to the shop knowing what I want then come out with something else. tetras looked nice also the harlequins but next to them was rasbora hengli's which I honestly think look the better of them all. So here they are...

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(All my pictures are taken from my phone. I know most pics on here look PRO! But I work with what I got... well I try hehe)

and on the way to pay passed a few crystal and cherry shrimp which I really wanted but the guy would only sell to me as he believes they will only survive in RO water, and I'm using tap. told him my pH was at 7.2 and straight away said lets just get these for you.. end of.. wanted to ask what I could do to get my water right and he didn't even reply? I guess that's the 1 thing I hate this hobby. I know it's good to do a bit of research about the fish you buy before you go to get them but as there is so much different information on the internet about them I now just go to the shop and ask there. But the majority of the time when I first started, I looked up shops to go to with a good rep, obviously the more experience would mostly be the type they get there when a person like me comes in and asks a question about something most people in the hobby should know I get the look and the reply of "oh here we go again". Don't get me wrong I could go back there and a different person will help me and is actually willing to help but shouldn't that always be the case? anyway there was my first little rant haha.

Well anyway I saw amano shrimp on the way out which he agreed will be better so got a few of them. hopefully when I do a little more research on how to get my water right for the crystal and cherry shrimp maybe I could get a few in the future.

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These little buggers are already having a go at my HC! haha.

Well there it is. will just keep up on the maintenance, see how it goes for a week or so and will update as I go.

Any more pointers or things I could do to help my tank out would be very appreciated.

Thanks!
 
I really LOVE those fish. Nicest variant of them I have seen I think :)
 
Re: *Newbie* 60L My First Planted

mikeappleby said:
Amanos will be cleaning algae / biofilm off your HC, not eating the HC!

Cherry shrimp are fine in tap water. They're seriously hard to kill. Use dechlorinator.
Click to expand...

Yup i know there not :thumbup:

and yes I use dechlorinator, I hope everyone that keeps fish does?

Anyone know what water parameters are ok for shrimp? Seen a few sites now where 1 says pH has to be 6.2 - 6.8 another says 6.8 - 7.2 another says 7 nothing more or less? Then last is 6 - 8. so I take it from this anything between those numbers would be fine? I am at 7.2 at the moment, and obviously ammonia and nitrite 0. If you read my earlier post about a guy from a shop refuses to sell me shrimp because he believes the shrimp will only survive in RO water? is this true as I have seen nothing about that on the internet?
 
It depends on the type of shrimp but RO isn't needed for any I know of. Cherry will be fine in a wide range of parameters, including the sakuras and other neocaradina. The CRS are a bit more sensitive and a tricky to get breeding well. 7.2 is slightly on the high side of ok from what I can tell. They should be fine. More important is stability. Keep the water consistent. That means temperature as well. 23-24 is good for them and the cherries will breed an invasion force after about a month.
 
Hi Paul,
really liking the use of a larger Hygrophila plant in the foreground. This gives a good sense of scale and depth and is a technique which Amano uses, but we dont see too much on here so :thumbup: to that.
As for the CRS, ive been researching these a bit as im wanting to set up a tank for these. The Guy in the lfs you spoke to was incorrect about them 'needing' RO. However many people cut their tap water with RO to reduce ph and kh levels and TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) as these shrimp do best in water which is on the acidic side, has little to no kh and a general hardness of between 4-6gh. TDS is very important in keeping these shrimp and needs to be low at around 150-180ppm tds, no more than 200 for best results.
Hope this helps,
cheerio,
Ady.
 
As long as the crystals are acclimatised properly, they can adjust to quite a wide level of water parameters. I've never had a problem keeping and breeding these shrimp in my past tanks. Unfortunately I don't have GH, KH or TDS readings from my old set-up but I know that my tap water is pretty hard/alkaline (south test valley area) and didn't use RO at all.

I know that isn't much without hardness and TDS readings but they seemed to flourish when I thought I'd struggle with my water.

Hope this helps.
Dan
 
I typed this up last week, just had it saved in drafts as I didn't finish but I thought I'd post it anyway and just carry on after. As I have said before I am just very busy so sometimes I start on here and just dont finish then just get distracted. But anyway here we go....

Hi everyone, back for an update.

To be honest my plants have really gone downhill. :(
But it was expected as I just don't have the right equipment to keep my plants healthy. My HC is deteriorating fast. My Hygrophila is slowly going too. No growth what so ever?! Roseafolia is going as fast as the HC. I must have 2 stems left which are in very bad condition? Just seems like when I added the fish all the plants just took a dive, ammonia raised a little but other than that things pretty much went back to how it was before I added fish. Or just thinking it was just about time this happened to the plants seeing as I have no co2? plants have nothing but the substrate for help. Maybe I need to rethink the plants I keep? obviously I need the obvious but maybe having plants that are ok for a low tech tank.
 
I wouldn't give up hope just yet. This could be part of the natural way of things. I found that my plants took a little dive a while after I added them and then they came right back. From what I have read HC does this for a lot of people.

Have you got your CO2 sorted yet? Did you go down the diy route? I imagine it's harder to keep a diy system running consistently, so maybe try excell or easycarbo while you get sorted? You don't need much.

Fingers crossed for you.
 
OK I have some good news. I decided to give my tank a bit of attention before the weekend started. As I mentioned before I am doing my makeshift co2 hoping it might save at least my stems. I'm sure most have seen them before or knows how to do them yourselves so I'll just post a picture of it.

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I did have to make quite a few yeast mixes but right now its at 1 bubble every 2secs. When it was at 1 bubble a sec my fish seemed to be gasping for air so I changed the mix and they seem OK at 1 bubble every 2 secs? does it matter? I'm just hoping this will help the plants for now. I've connected it to my filter on the intake well I drilled a hole right under the intake so it would be chopped up as it goes through my media and then filter propeller.

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So yesterday was the only only time I was able to have a good look at the tank and WOW! I cant believe the difference. So much new growth! My HC are not brown anymore :p obviously there not the best looking yet but they are getting there colour back, plus added growth which is the first I have seen since I've had them. Too bad I didn't do this sooner as it looks like I've lost half of my HC. If all goes well I will be getting more HC but I have decided to go with the HC around the stones then fill the rest with Elocharis acicularis.

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(Sorry picture quality getting worse haha)

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Yes half of this has already gone as you can probably tell.

Well looks better than before when 90% of my HC looked brown.

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Will this get better? or should I just cut and hope for new growth?

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You can see new growth at the top which when I saw I got excited haha well there was nothing there fews days before!?

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It's even growing at the bottom? or just bad planting :rolleyes:

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My roseafolia. Looking better than what it was but obviously in a bad state.

(bad photos but at least you can see what I'm talking about as you can probably tell by now I'm terrible at explaining :lol:)

Seeing what all this can do, hopefully this week I want to start the EI method so will hopefully be ordering it today. If my DIY co2 is doing fine I wont be rushing to get a new kit but defiantly will be in the future just not yet.


Well thanks for having a little read/look.

Comments always welcome esp. crits! :thumbup:


:wave:
 
pariahrob

Yeh so far there has been improvements hope it keeps up. Also have been looking into products like easycarbo, will be giving a go. Would you recommend easycarbo? or anything else?

thanks
 
I have a bottle of easycarbo as a precaution in case my CO2 develops a leek but I have just started combining both.

The bottle says maximum of 1ml a day per 50ls but I have it on good authority (UKAPS members) that you can dose 5ml. I actually dose 3ml plus my normal injection of CO2.

My drop checker is now lime green, so it's obviously having an effect. FOr a planted tank lime is a good colour. Not quite yellow but good for growth, without gassing the fish.

I'd say give it a go. For a small to medium sized tank it's pretty inexpensive too.
 
pariahrob said:
I have a bottle of easycarbo as a precaution in case my CO2 develops a leek but I have just started combining both.

The bottle says maximum of 1ml a day per 50ls but I have it on good authority (UKAPS members) that you can dose 5ml. I actually dose 3ml plus my normal injection of CO2.

My drop checker is now lime green, so it's obviously having an effect. FOr a planted tank lime is a good colour. Not quite yellow but good for growth, without gassing the fish.

I'd say give it a go. For a small to medium sized tank it's pretty inexpensive too.
Click to expand...

Just as an FYI Rob... The Easycarbo will not contribute to the indication that your dropchecker gives ;)
 
pariahrob said:
I did not know that. Well that's useful info in itself.

My DC is definitely a little more lime than it was. I have just replaced my cylinder a few days ago. That must be something to do with.

Worth noting, thanks.
Click to expand...

Got it from the Guru's (ceg) mouth, so its definitely the case :) Its (don't laugh) one of the reasons I decided to go down the injected CO2 route ! I had bought a Cal Aqua DC and realised it would not show anything if all I used was Easy Carb, :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Hello again, Will be ordering some easycarbo next week. Have just ordered some plants from plantsalive.co.uk, I have read some very mixed reviews but lets say 7/8 times out of ten I have seen good so I've decided to give them a go. Prices are cheaper to the rest. Mrs has already said your gonna get what you've paid for :lol: Well we shall see. Have also ordered some red cherry shrimp from FreshWaterShrimp.co.uk it said none in stock on website so just emailed to find out when I could get some. Got a reply straight away and they did have some so should hopefully have them by next week sometime, they are £1.50 so half the price of anywhere near me and shipping costs same as a travel card so win win i guess. They also had the 1-2 grow Invitro plants so ordered 1 just to see what the fuss is about :thumbup:

Took a trip to homebase to get some sand for another tank so decided to visit P@H next door to it. They had 14L cube and a 25L(£29) to my surprise the Mrs thought it was a good idea to have 1 on her computer desk, so I couldn't let her good idea go to waste :lol: will just put that tank to the side for now. Might even get the 14L just incase? :angelic:
It only comes with the filter which I guess is not too bad, will most probably be on the look for another though. As for lighting on the cube, not too many options plenty "clip-on" lights on sale especially LED. Not too sure yet, might do another journal when i do decided what to do with it. Or could I just add on to here? don't want to make another journal.. embarrassing compared to all tanks on here haha atleast i know im in the right place :thumbup:

Just a quick note, I'm thinking of removing the HC or just move it to a corner in the tank as from the amount I started with (2/3pots?) there is now about 1/3 left! Even though it is looking a little better it still hurts to see it in that state. I have ordered some eleocharis parvula which will most likely replace it and as I have heard/seen it is a little easier? have ordered a few other plants. I honestly don't remember which 1s more because the Mrs was over my shoulder pointing out what she wanted or needed :silent: I think I will set-up her nano cube soon and dump them there.. but I will see what arrives.

Well I will return with pictures when I get them.

Thanks for having a peak again!
 
Just had a leak in my tank!!!! Water everywhere! I've had to put my fishes in my cube?!! only half way scaping my cube and iv had to put my fishes and shrimp in there. Need abit of help! I have not cycled my cube, so i stuffed the media from my filter from my 60 litre into the filter for the cube? is that bad? or isit simply just like moving that filter into another tank? I've also filled half the tank with water from my 60litre into my cube and put new water in like a water change.. I've also put the plants in too temporary till I get a new tank. Im only worried about my fishes and shrimp so will this be ok for them? I think the shrimps will be ok but I have 13 rasboras hengli's in a 25 litre how long till they start to get stressed or anything else? so far the 12 are swimming about or just staying put where they can but 1 of them is swimming around looking like he wants out! and I hope the rest don't start doing it!
 
Thats bad luck,
it should be fine with water from the other tank and seeded media from the other filter, may need an extra water change than normal but the fish thats showing distress is most likely due to the stress of being quickly moved and he should settle soon.
Any idea why the tank leaked?
 
Hi Ady34 ummm don't know whether to laugh or cry about this lol. well as I was typing up here for a little help, the mrs was clearing up and taking water out the tank realised the water was coming out the airline I used for my 'DIY co2' it came off from the check valve, and basically syphoning the water out. Also could not find an otto :? I have 2 and have looked everywhere for 1 of them, checked rocks, plants, substrate just everywhere and still couldn't find it. So RIP wherever it is. Am abit happier that I still have my tank (wouldn't of minded getting a new 1 though :lol: ) but still abit annoyed that all of this happened because of that airline. defiantly scrapping the DIY! and I'm going liquid!

Will be back in a few just to update, have to finish clearing up :angelic:
 
So I've just been doing my 60L today. Fish and shrimp seem ok in my cube for now, here's a few pictures of it.

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will be removing all plants from here when I'm ready to move the rasboras back. I dont have a light for my cube so i have put a table lamp next to it 8) it does look messy now back will be on it again when I can.

How long do you reckon I should give till I move the fish back? because I'm sure all this has stressed them out and they have probably just kinda settled and I'm gonna move them back already?! Is it best to just move them now? or give them a week or so?

Also I received my plants from plantsalive and ummmm, not sure if this is how people send plants but it came in a flat pack! I honestly don't know if this is ok? as a few of the plants I did get was squashed and a few stems snapped here and there. I mean the majority was kinda ok but I wasn't too impressed, also the postman knocked on the door, I answered quick but by the time I got to the door he was stuffing it through the letterbox. He could of easily folded it in half and got it through! Well I'm sure it's not just me that gets it sent that way as they have been around a while so cant really complain unless the plants were in a state that I couldn't use them.

Well I'm just going to take a couple snaps of my 60L and i'll be back to post! I see im posting with not many replies (seems like im talking to myself :lol:) but hey I go through many journals just read and checking the pics!

:wave:
 
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