• 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

Survival [70L]

Thanks Cosmin, this tank looks a little bit barren now, things growing slowly as I keep it very low light ~2/3 of a 24w t5.

Same ol tank: 70L x 35w x 30H, pressurized CO2, 2ml EC + 1ml TPN (switching it to PPS next week)/daily and sometimes a bit of ADA ECA / Green Gain. Filtration Eheim Ecco 300 to be replaced with a larger one, Hydor 200W external heater.

Plants: mosses, vallis, glosso, HC here and there, hygrophila polysperma rosanervig, rotala rotundifolia and some crypts, I don't plan to add other species.

Fish: the happy apisto family 4 females & 3 males, 2 ottos, 5 x Hemigrammus rodwayi & 1 x Hemigrammus erythrozonus and soon to add a couple of neon tetras.

Hardscape: collected wood

Soil: Aquabasis, Dennerle sand & Aquamedic Volcanit

So, really not much changed since my previous setup, not planning something fancy with this one, contests or smth, just want to see how it evolves.

Cheers,
Mike
 
"really not much changed since my previous setup".....
Otto favouring front left as opposed to rear left for this shot though 😉
Ady.
 
You have a keen eye for detail mate. 🙂

Added a shoal of neon tetras, nice looking fellows, need to wait for them to grow a bit as they are so little. I'll try and photograph them but now they seem to like the back of the tank, at least they are swimming in the upper part of the tank not like the other fish who kinda love the bottom.

Removed also the twig on the large branch that was pointing up.

One thing that annoys me is that I have to remove the surface scum with paper towels twice a day, doesn't take me too long but well I'd prefer not doing that. Still have to wait 3-4 more weeks to put my hand on a bigger filter and hopefully I'll have enough bacteria in it to cope with the excess organic matter.
I do have a surface extractor I can put on but I found out that the scum enters the filter and coats everything in it, bio media, hoses and glass, decor when water returns to the tank. This means the filter/hoses get clogged rather fast and the scum on glass becomes a perfect media for algae to attach. After using only paper towels I didn't notice any new algae growth.

Cheers,
Mike
 
Two photos with my two of my 3 apisto males in this tank:

7182353186_52a7245b0f_b.jpg

7182353852_c9dd0d42a9_b.jpg

A long time ago I thought I can only keep in this aquarium size 1 pair, well I have in here 3 males and 4 females, one currently breeding.

7180586514_17aa2fde88_b.jpg

Still waiting for some spare $$$ to buy the second filter & lily pipes.
 
Well more or less sad day, fortunately I was waiting for someone in the morning so I haven't left early, otherwise ...

One faulty 200w Hydor external heater turned the little tank >35 degrees. 3 neon tetra and 1 pink (the last one) dead and the little ones that hatched from the eggs above. So, I decided to run the tank without a heater until winter ... guess I didn't choose the right title for this tank.

Mike
 
Lovely set up and photos (to be expected with you 🙂 )

The sand colour is immense. Is that a local supply or a brand I could find in the UK?

edit - reading fail. Dennerle sand. Will check what I can google now.

Best Regards,
John
 
Additional.

You say low light is that ~2/3 of a 24w t5 mean 2 or 3 x 24 w bulbs or two thirds of a 24w bulb? If so how far above the water line is it? I'm interested in how the glosso fairs and how long you have the lights on for.

Best Regards,
John
 
Thanks John, "Dennerle Borneo brown sand" is the name you are looking for, you should find it in UK for sure.

I used to cover 2/3 of the bulbs by bending the reflectors to give a dim light over the tank, glosso was doing OKish, it's more of a CO2 demanding plant than light but rotala rotundifolia was always green. After removing the external heater I had enough flow to take one of the covers out, so, now I have 1xt5 and half of a T5 over the tank, ~10cm above the water line and ~35cm above the soil.
 
clonitza said:
Thanks John, "Dennerle Borneo brown sand" is the name you are looking for, you should find it in UK for sure.

I used to cover 2/3 of the bulbs by bending the reflectors to give a dim light over the tank, glosso was doing OKish, it's more of a CO2 demanding plant than light but rotala rotundifolia was always green. After removing the external heater I had enough flow to take one of the covers out, so, now I have 1xt5 and half of a T5 over the tank, ~10cm above the water line and ~35cm above the soil.
Click to expand...

nice.

I've just taken the reflectors off my Cthulhu themed tank to try and slow things down a bit. Good to know that the glosso shouldnt be worse off with the slightly lower light.

My Rotundifolia switchs from light green, to reddish as it goes half way up the tank under 2x45w t5.
 
So ...

Otto changed its position again. 🙂

I removed the branches, some may have noticed them in the other tank; I did it mostly because I had a rhizo bloom.
Mounted the surface extractor on a hang on, dunno why I didn't do it before ... 🙄 that translated into more flow so I don't really need another filter.

I'm back using tap water, tired of mixing RO with stuff. After rising the PH/KH from 5-6/0 I had the algae bloom, more or less expected but I'm kinda happy the bacteria is back on track, no more dirt floating around, clogged hoses etc.

With the algae things were kinda fast, 2-3 water changes a week, large amounts of ferts after and some Algexit that could've worked, dunno, but it never appeared after removing the algae, doing a large water change and dosing the stuff.

I'm also kinda happy after using PPS instead of TPN+, dunno the difference of NPK ratios and quantities but plants seem to be happier (my wallet also), some already blushing. 🙂

Some new plants added but I'll tell you about them in a next episode.

Ohh and before I forget, I changed the ada diffuser with this atomizer that works a treat. :thumbup:



Sorry for the video, hard to shoot it behind the tank.

Cheers,
Mike
 
I have a little bit of cyanobacteria that usually appears on rotalas when I increase the light, even if I have high nitrates and especially when water temperature is rising above 27-28°C.

It's a good time to test Easy Life Blue Exit that should arrive today. I'll tell you next week if the treatment works.

Mike
 
Not so much of an update, just wanted to say that I replaced the eheim ecco 300 with 2075 and adapted it to 12/16 hose so I don't need to change the lilys, flow at 100% is perfect. Wished I bought it the first time. 🙂 I also removed the atomizer, it wasn't working anymore, even after rising the pressure to 3bars, I think it's clogged although it looks crystal clean. I'll give it a bleach bath.

Regarding Easy Life Blue Exit I'm not sure it's working, at least the first treatment failed miserably so I decided to go for rising the nitrates and lowering the light a bit. 🙂

Hope I had something to show but I don't ... maybe in a week or so.

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top