TLH's Tank

[a1Matt]

at the moment the two 'branchy ends' of the wood are pointing inwards.
How about putting the two bits close (or even overlapping) in the middle of the tank with the branch bits pointing outwards. That might turn it into a mound composition.

Hope that makes sense!

 

[JohnC]

it took me about 3 months to work out the best way of putting my branches...

Good luck.

I think its best thou to address these questions with more of a overall plan in your head. Are you say imagining this tank as a more jungle or open scape or a bit of a mix?

My first impression seeing just the way you have them in the wider tank shot at each end reminded me alot of those tanks you see with the more open area in the middle with branches coming from each end "reaching out" into the gap. An overall shallow U shape to the plant line from side to side. Obviously without the gap dead centre, using the golden ratio for balance of the sides. This would make me stick the wood in with the branches reaching across into the center.

As mention above you could go mound (which is what i've just done on my corner tank) and stick all the wood together.

Basically, what is in your head? 8)

Best Regards,

John

 

[TLH]

I'm not really that sure what I want currently, I'm still experimenting a tad here as I've never had a tank this big before. It will be more of a jungle for now I think.

While the wood is still floaty I'm just going to leave it where it is. It's a pain trying to reposition the stuff in the right place and weight it down while its so buoyant. I will be growing some mosses on it though. I have Java moss and some Taiwan moss that a1matt sent me. One for each branch I guess to save getting them mixed up too much.

Currently I'm just sticking all the plants in where I fancy without much of a plan. It was high time they got their roots in the gravel as they've been floating around for a week and a half. Most had formed into a big ball that was doing the tumbleweed thing around the tank. Took a while to detangle them. I've stuck most of the Crypt Wendtii Green and all the Wendtii Brown I have in now and am just sitting back having a cuppa trying to decide where to put the Swords. I'm thinking a third in from the left for the Marbled Queen and infront of the intake for the other.
The couple of stems of Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig' are going at the back somewhere. They have been floating since I got them and have shoots all over from every leaf intersection now. I'm tempted to bury it horizontally so all the little shoots are pointing upward. A couple of patches of HM at the front of the wood then and I'm about there for now. I'll worry about the Java Fern another day as I have alot of it.

The fish are all in the old 24" tank. I will leave them in there for a while till the plants settle in and get established. I don't have any fish that would uproot them really but while I'm playing with positioning etc they are better off there. I'll move them all over at once when ready but I'll possibly leave the loaches as one of them has a bit of a lump around it's bum. It's not inflamed or red but when its stuffed itself it looks rather odd. I'm not sure whether it's just constipated or what. Have a look and see what you think.

 

[TLH]

Got some Blyxa Japonica this morning from Nelson (cheers dude ) so a quick pic. Thank the lord I just got myself some tweezers and scissors recently as planting this with fingers would have been a real pain. The Ambulia in the background is just there till it gets going again, it got in a pretty grotty state while it was rolling around the tank.



Full tank shot...still a few things to go in yet. I'm just going to wait for the crypts to stand up a bit as they look a mess right now. I may get around to rigging up the COâ‚‚ tomorrow with any luck.

 

[TLH]

I'm starting to see some hair algae now, especially on the wood, which still hasn't gotten fully waterlogged yet . Diatoms have also been around. Everything is pearling away nicely but I think I could do with more fast growing plants right now.

I also have one little patch of BGA that has reared its ugly head. I was thinking about adding a koralia to up the flow a bit. Flow seems very good on the left side where the spraybar is and the patch of BGA is just behind the top of the inlet bar on the right. So how big of a pump is best or should I have a small one in each back corner maybe? Would a Koralia 1 be too much?

 

[StevenA]

A Koralia 2 might be better, or going on the size of you're tank maybe a Koralia 1 on each end. I've got a Koralia 2 on the right hand side of my 260L which seems to work fine for me, but you're tank is longer than mine.

 

[TLH]

Mine only holds around 180L of water. The 2128 turns over 1050L. I may swap the spraybar to the back at some point and combine that with something in each corner. 2 nano's @ 900L each would give me 2850L turnover total. Shouldn't that be enough? I'm just a little afraid that with anything bigger than nano's I'd be turning my tank into a whirlpool.

I presume koralias output at full flow if you just plug them in and they're not adjustable unless you have the wavemaker yes?

 

[StevenA]

Nano's should be cool, and yes you just plug in the Koralia's and away they go

 

[TLH]

Turns out the algae I have is Rhizoclonium, albeit mixed with a little BGA. I've upped my CO2 and I added the top of an old Fluval 2 to move a little more water around till I get the Koralia heads in there. I've been looking for the best price around and found them for £18.95 each, new, on ebay so I'll probably order a couple this week sometime. Cheapest online shop was £21.

My LFS has some Oto's in at the minute and they are saving me some if I want them. I've read that they can be difficult to acclimatise. Some stuff says not to add them to new tanks but reading between the lines it seems to be more about keeping them well fed than anything else. Is there anything to really stop me having them as my first fish in here? Do you think they'd make a meal of the rhizo?

 

[vauxhallmark]

I'm just going to wait for the crypts to stand up a bit as they look a mess right now.

For a comparatively slow growing plant, it's amazing how quickly crypts can turn themselves into a twisted upside down mess!

Have patience, they'll sort themselves out in the end - even if they look a state while they're doing it!

Mark

 

[aaronnorth]

Turns out the algae I have is Rhizoclonium, albeit mixed with a little BGA. I've upped my CO2 and I added the top of an old Fluval 2 to move a little more water around till I get the Koralia heads in there. I've been looking for the best price around and found them for £18.95 each, new, on ebay so I'll probably order a couple this week sometime. Cheapest online shop was £21.

My LFS has some Oto's in at the minute and they are saving me some if I want them. I've read that they can be difficult to acclimatise. Some stuff says not to add them to new tanks but reading between the lines it seems to be more about keeping them well fed than anything else. Is there anything to really stop me having them as my first fish in here? Do you think they'd make a meal of the rhizo?

what koralia model are you getting? Wouldnt it be better to get 1 large one?

 

[TLH]

I'm just going to wait for the crypts to stand up a bit as they look a mess right now.

For a comparatively slow growing plant, it's amazing how quickly crypts can turn themselves into a twisted upside down mess!

Have patience, they'll sort themselves out in the end - even if they look a state while they're doing it!

Mark

Actually they are looking alot better under this lighting than the old tank they were in. The new leaves are that mottled red/green colour and the stems are alot shorter now they have a bit f room to spread out. They were never thinned out in the old tank whatsoever.

Turns out the algae I have is Rhizoclonium, albeit mixed with a little BGA. I've upped my CO2 and I added the top of an old Fluval 2 to move a little more water around till I get the Koralia heads in there. I've been looking for the best price around and found them for £18.95 each, new, on ebay so I'll probably order a couple this week sometime. Cheapest online shop was £21.

My LFS has some Oto's in at the minute and they are saving me some if I want them. I've read that they can be difficult to acclimatise. Some stuff says not to add them to new tanks but reading between the lines it seems to be more about keeping them well fed than anything else. Is there anything to really stop me having them as my first fish in here? Do you think they'd make a meal of the rhizo?

what koralia model are you getting? Wouldnt it be better to get 1 large one?

My thinking is that it's a fairly long narrow tank so it'd be better to have a bit of movement at each end rather than alot at one end. If it was more square shaped then I'd just get one bigger one for a corner and be happy. That's my thinking anyway, I'd rather have a more gentle waft all over than a hurricane one end and nothing at the other.

 

[TDI-line]

Nice scape TLH.

 

[a1Matt]

Can not help on the Koralia choice, but I have heard that it is worth taking your time to get the placement right so that you do not end up cancelling the flow out between them and your filter. Something to bear in mind even more if you end up with more than one.

Otos... they feed on the brown diatoms mainly. never touched green algae in my tank. but take some green veg eagerly. and yes they starve very easily when new to a tank. even if you put food they like in they sometimes just go on hunger strike when new. Check if they have sunken bellies in the LFS if they have I wouldn't buy them regardless of the age\condition of your tank.

The Wendtii I got from you finally straighted up last week. I think it was about a month ago we did the swap A fair bit of melt, but followed by new leaves, so it is all good. I love 'em, they have a vividness to the green I have not seen before.
How are the two swords doing?

 

[TLH]

They're still alive. I am having a little battle again with bga which I'm hoping the extra flow and keeping nitrate dosing up will sort out. The Marbled Queen has put on a few new leaves but they are quite small as yet. The other sword hasn't actually done much at all, I may move it later on I think, it's in the corner by the filter intake and I don't think it likes it there much but it does have one new leaf.

My Crypts stood up about a fortnight ago and have gone from strength to strength. I got a couple of yellowing leaves but the crowns that have developed in the bigger motherplants are ace. The new leaves have stayed alot lower with shorter stems and they have a nice browny red veiny middle now, they look very nice. The Wendtii Brown has started to grow better too, I think it likes the extra co2 and the nitrate I'm dosing.

I have to get more nitrate soon as I seem to be going through loads of it. I've only got just over half the bottle left. Its Kent Botanica liquid now but will go dry powders when this runs out. Can someone tell me how long 250g of that will last?

I ordered a couple of nano's today. I will play with their positioning for a while before I get it right no doubt but that's all part of the fun ain't it. I may well leave the spray bar at the end for now and have one koralia blowing along the front and the other along the back and see how that goes for now.

I'm off to see the Oto's this afternoon. I told the fella I'd be down on Tuesday or Wednesday but I was coughing a lung up yesterday so couldn't go get them. I feel better today though so I hope they are in good condition when I get there. The last ones I saw there looked ok, not fat but not skinny. I'll have a good chat with the bloke about them anyway. I wonder what species he got, not that I'm that bothered.

 

[a1Matt]

Glad they are still alive I found the same with the marbled queen mother plant, it was healthy but just small leaves. Then one day I guess it just decided it was well established (took a couple of months) and started sending out huge leaves and lots of them.

Good luck with the Otos's

 

[TLH]

Oto's sure are fun little characters. I got 3 in the end as I thought I'd see how I get on with them first. They are quite small at barely an inch in length but they seem happy in my tank so far. I have seen them cleaning leaves and the glass and they were eating in the tank in the shop although I haven't seen any bulging tummies yet.

They don't look skinny do they?

 

[a1Matt]

They don't look skinny do they?

I can't see, can you ask them to turn the other way so their bellies are exposed

If you have seen them eating already then I reckon they are going to do well

 

[Steve Smith]

Gorgeous

They look like Affinis' to me.

 

[TLH]

Well the Oto's are still alive and kicking. I'm surprised how fast they move around the tank for such little fish. They are happily munching on the glass though, which I have purposedly haven't scrapped much apart from to remove the BGA.

I'm really not liking the BGA. I'm thinking of nuking it with Erythromycin as I have some handy. So I have a couple of questions really, 1) what dose to use for how long and 2) do you think the Oto's would be ok with it?
I could do another blackout but I'm thinking this came over from the gravel I used which was in the old tank. I did a blackout in that tank so I thought I'd gotten rid of it but here it is again.

Another thing I don't understand is where all the nitrate I'm dosing is going. I'm not exactly stacked out with plants but I seem to be plowing through the stuff like theres no tomorrow. What sort of nitrate uptake do you guys have in your tanks? I'm assuming that it's partly because I still don't have a big fish load in there. I was thinking about getting a shoal soon so should I get some fish sooner rather than when I combat the BGA?

I have a bottle of Flourish which I want to use up before I order dry ferts ideally but should I order dry and use them to top up certain levels of other things while I use it? I always seem to be low on nitrate. Phospate is 1ppm with my test kit and I don't know what potassium is at although I've been adding just less than nitrate, say a ratio of 12 to 8.

Sorry for the amount of questions in one post but needs must and all that.