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Things just got a lot roomier!

DanM621

DanM621

Member
Joined
22 Feb 2016
Messages
25
Location
Southampton
So, after playing around with my little 55ltr cube over the last 6 months, I've managed to get my hands on a second hand Rio 180. I did the move last week with a fair amount of ease and just thought I'd start a little thread going to document the tanks progression over the next few months as it matures and grows.

It's a fairly simple set up, although I keep revisiting the idea of getting a proper CO2 system up and running... Currently the tank is running:
- Fluval G6 filter
- Origianl T8 light unit (upgrading to T5s end of this week)
- Tropica liquid ferts, dosing weekly.
- EasyLife easycarbo liquid CO2, dosing daily.

The tank is softwater, hooked up to a 25ltr RO barrel with an ATO. Makes waterchanges so easy and quick, would seriously recommend getting an ATO to anyone with the room, even if you're on plain tap water.

I will try and upload a quick FTS of my 55ltr cube I've just taken down to upgrade to the Rio, I had a lot of fun with this tank changing the scape a few times but, overall, I had great success with it and hope for similar results in this new tank!

First post so be gentle with me, especially if I struggle getting the pics up!


This is one of the last FTS I took before taking the tank down:
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I can't seem to embed an FTS of the Rio 180, file too big for the server... perhaps because I've already embedded the pic above which is c. 3mb, so I will try uploading in a separate post on the thread! [*edit* after a quick perusal of the tech help threads I think I've got it ;)]

There's still a lot of work to be done. Haven't quite got as much sediment in yet as I want so will add that soon. Currently, I haven't added anymore plants/hardscape but, again, will do over the coming weeks!
 
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Been busy over the weekend! Got lots of plants and a nice pair of discus. Plants are a mix of:
- Echinodorus (bleheri, harbii, harbii Rosa, rubra),
- Anubias hastifolia
- lots of crypts (wendtii etc.)
- Micranthemum micranthemoides

Dead pleased with results thus far. Admittedly, a fairly uninspiring scape but think its looks pretty good. New inmates are getting along well!

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Also you might notice the change in colour temp; got a new t5 fixture over weekend aswell. Had an old t8 unit in there before with some cheapo unbranded warm whites. We're now running on 2 day white t5s supplied with the unit (Juwel). Will see how the plants do under them, may need to swap one out for a 'natural' bulb with more pinks in there over the coming weeks.

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Been to my lfs this morning to get some RO. Couldn't resist getting a 3rd discus, oopsie. Must say the other 2 do seem alot more confident now as a trio! Few snaps below;

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Lovely looking fish but you will find as they grow 3 cichlids = war
 
Yeah I'm hoping they will be okay, I've had 3 in a display tank at work fully grown for over a year who were absolutely fine together, i guess time will tell!

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Just a quick update, tanks doing great, noticed today how much the dwarf lettuce has grown since adding it only a couple of weeks ago. Started with 10 individual plants, now theres too many to count!

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Hi all, over a month since last update. Ive been away most of the last month flitting back and forth over Easter between various places including a week on holiday. Used an autofeeder for best part of a month to feed and waterchanges have only resulted from top ups via the ATO from evaporation. Housemates had been checking in every now and then to make sure there was no clear disasters.

Overall, the tank has boomed in terms of plant growth. Echinodorus harbii rosa shot up 3 stems to surface after my floating dwarf lettuce went rampant and begun blocking out a lot of light. Despite it blocking light, everything has seemed to shoot upwards in an attempt to reach light, rather than dying off, which cant be too much of a bad thing!

I added a few more echinodorus and crypts along the front of the tank, as well as some bogwood, and moved the java moss to the centre front also. These new plants are showing good signs of growth and rooting and are kicking off nicely.

Also added a few more fish (naughty i know) which including:
- pair of sparkling gouramis
- few more Celestial pearls to even up gender ratios; I found myself with 4 males: 1 female in my original group
- 4 more amanos
- 6 sterbai corys

Corys were added as my original habrosus corys, which were fantastic in my previous nano cube, had slowly begun to start dropping off in the new, bigger tank. My thought is they were being outcompeted for food.

Sadly, I lost my smallest Discus due to an internal parasite/infection causing an acute kidney infection and sadly died overnight. I was astounded how quickly this occured. My 2 other discus however are happy and healthy, packing on the lbs.

3 of my amanos are currently berried which is nice to see. Doubt any fry will survive once hatched but its still a good sign of the shrimps' wellbeing.

Last thing of note, one of my cardinals got a bit of popeye whilst I was away. Since being back (~4 days now) this has reduced dramatically. Cant help thinking the water changes helped with this!

Overall, stil enjoying the tank very much, which is probably in need of a trim. I haven't been dosing liquid carbon or ferts for a month now and although everything seems to be flourishing, I will start dosing these again soon.

Some pictures below taken today.

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