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Transparent Tank - the end
Lindy
Member
Re: Transparent Tank - puffers
Good to see it healthy, beautiful looking fish. Might be tempted when my dwarfs Kark it! Well done on the trim too
Good to see it healthy, beautiful looking fish. Might be tempted when my dwarfs Kark it! Well done on the trim too
A
Antipofish
Guest
Re: Transparent Tank - puffers
Hey you will be signing up for Vet camp next
Bravo that man! And fish looks nice and happy post surgery 
To be honest 70L is perfectly adequate for those wee puffers... They will be plenty happy in there. ESPECIALLY with that new beast you bought. Eheim Rock 
Hey you will be signing up for Vet camp next
Bravo that man! And fish looks nice and happy post surgery To be honest 70L is perfectly adequate for those wee puffers... They will be plenty happy in there. ESPECIALLY with that new beast you bought. Eheim Rock 
sarahtermite
Member
Re: Transparent Tank - puffers
Much happier now - both me and the fish. I do admire your bravery in sorting out his beak - a job well done!
mikeappleby said:sarahtermite said:Can we have another picture of a happy, recovered puffer? I don't like to see the poor wee thing floating belly up like that.
Much happier now - both me and the fish. I do admire your bravery in sorting out his beak - a job well done!
Lindy
Member
Re: Transparent Tank - puffers
Hi just wanted to ask if your south american puffer left your shrimp alone? Thinking of moving my murderous dwarfs into the wee tank and looking for something for the bigger tank that won't trim the amanos antenna or eat CRS.
Hi just wanted to ask if your south american puffer left your shrimp alone? Thinking of moving my murderous dwarfs into the wee tank and looking for something for the bigger tank that won't trim the amanos antenna or eat CRS.
Re: Transparent Tank - puffers
Have just had a closer inspection and found a pregnant cherry and a baby cherry hiding in the thick mass of stems. So they've survived about a month.
Puff doesn't seem that hungry: he ignores any bloodworm or muscles, and I can't really tell if he goes for the snails I transfer over from other tank. Haven't seen him eat anything yet but he's still alive and there are the odd empty snail shell, so maybe he just does it at night.
My dwarf puffers left my shrimp alone.
mikeappleby said:
Have just had a closer inspection and found a pregnant cherry and a baby cherry hiding in the thick mass of stems. So they've survived about a month.
Puff doesn't seem that hungry: he ignores any bloodworm or muscles, and I can't really tell if he goes for the snails I transfer over from other tank. Haven't seen him eat anything yet but he's still alive and there are the odd empty snail shell, so maybe he just does it at night.
My dwarf puffers left my shrimp alone.
Blackout
Am fed up of algae in this tank. All got a bit out of control when I played around with the CO2 injection and was too much for the 8 ottos in there to keep on top. BBA on the rocks, hair in the HC and stauro, nasty. Seeing as my other tank is going so well, need to try and replicate that form in this one - but needs a bit of a fresh start.
So am going to try my first ever blackout. Here's the cardboard going on the back.
So have just done a big water change, thrown a load of snails in to keep puff fed (hopefully) for five days (can he sniff them out in the dark?), vacuumed the substrate, blacked out the tank and switched the lights off until next Tuesday.
Just hoping puff is alive when I decloak!
Have never done a blackout before. What do I do about lighting when it's all over? Assume not back to full strength right away...
Fingers crossed...
Am fed up of algae in this tank. All got a bit out of control when I played around with the CO2 injection and was too much for the 8 ottos in there to keep on top. BBA on the rocks, hair in the HC and stauro, nasty. Seeing as my other tank is going so well, need to try and replicate that form in this one - but needs a bit of a fresh start.
So am going to try my first ever blackout. Here's the cardboard going on the back.
So have just done a big water change, thrown a load of snails in to keep puff fed (hopefully) for five days (can he sniff them out in the dark?), vacuumed the substrate, blacked out the tank and switched the lights off until next Tuesday.
Just hoping puff is alive when I decloak!
Have never done a blackout before. What do I do about lighting when it's all over? Assume not back to full strength right away...
Fingers crossed...
Westyggx
Member
You turned the co2 off as well right Mike? Also, a blackout wont kill BBA.
Westyggx said:
Yup CO2 off. BBA - doh! That's pretty much all I have in there, the other algae is just tiny spots really.
Feel some serious easycarbo nuking coming on after the blackout then. Is there anything else I can do? Get an electric toothbrush...
Nathaniel Whiteside
Member
Whoopa! Has much changed? Can we see some pics of it?
Algae wipeout
So this turned into a full on disaster.
The blackout didn't really work that well. Didn't make much difference to the algae - got rid of the diatoms but that was never really the issue.
And it basically killed all the HC, most of the myriophyllum, and all the stauro.
Then I think I may have overfed puff, and skipped a water change or two. Utter disaster.
Have never had it that bad. So yesterday bit the bullet, did a big cleanup (hoiking out disgusting algae, two 80% water changes, planting in some new stems from the big tank, and removing some hardscape).
So here it is after all that:
Overall, think had too much hardscape in here too, so have removed two stones and will probably make the long flat piece smaller, going for an overall more planted look. Have learned a lot from my big tank.
Am not really here for the next month, so plan is to leave this under minimal attention, then when I've got some more time, plant it up really thickly from the big tank, with just limnophila near the intakes, rotala through the central section and then stauro towards the other end, and sculpt it with pruning.
Lesson 1: keep things stable if you possibly can
Lesson 2: plant heavily from the outset
Lesson 3: if you blackout, be very cautious about turning the lights back on and feeding
Lesson 4: less hardscape (for me) is more, particularly in such a thin, long tank
Funny how much easier the big tank is than this one. But feel I'm ready now to sort this one out with the wisdom of my failure.
Hope that's useful for people! Yuk.
So this turned into a full on disaster.
The blackout didn't really work that well. Didn't make much difference to the algae - got rid of the diatoms but that was never really the issue.
And it basically killed all the HC, most of the myriophyllum, and all the stauro.
Then I think I may have overfed puff, and skipped a water change or two. Utter disaster.
Have never had it that bad. So yesterday bit the bullet, did a big cleanup (hoiking out disgusting algae, two 80% water changes, planting in some new stems from the big tank, and removing some hardscape).
So here it is after all that:
Overall, think had too much hardscape in here too, so have removed two stones and will probably make the long flat piece smaller, going for an overall more planted look. Have learned a lot from my big tank.
Am not really here for the next month, so plan is to leave this under minimal attention, then when I've got some more time, plant it up really thickly from the big tank, with just limnophila near the intakes, rotala through the central section and then stauro towards the other end, and sculpt it with pruning.
Lesson 1: keep things stable if you possibly can
Lesson 2: plant heavily from the outset
Lesson 3: if you blackout, be very cautious about turning the lights back on and feeding
Lesson 4: less hardscape (for me) is more, particularly in such a thin, long tank
Funny how much easier the big tank is than this one. But feel I'm ready now to sort this one out with the wisdom of my failure.
Hope that's useful for people! Yuk.
Westyggx
Member
Happened to me as well mate did a 3 day blackout And it killed my hc and stryo
So this tank has suffered a bit from neglect. Am starting to understand why people don't keep puffers in a planted tank: they're very messy eaters which makes keeping stable water parameters a nightmare, so I keep getting algae. Also you can't have any shrimp as they eat them, so the substrate is pretty untouched and stuff settles on it.
Still, onwards and upwards. Just re-read the post in my signature about 'everything I've learned' and frankly, that's still about all I know!
Still, onwards and upwards. Just re-read the post in my signature about 'everything I've learned' and frankly, that's still about all I know!
A
Antipofish
Guest
Would Corys be ok with puffers ? Just thinking they could be useful for the substrate issue. Also, how about using playsand as mess tends to settle on it and is easily syphoned out. You can always add fert tabs if you feel thats necessary. Just an idea
Hi all,
That would also allow you to turn off the CO2, and low-tech gives you one less parameter to juggle.
cheers Darrel
Same here. I'm not a great fan of black-outs, it is back to treating the symptom. Having said that I have BBS in all the tanks that don't have Red Ramshorns, which aren't an option for this one.
A much higher plant mass is the answer to stability, and stability is the key to long term tank maintenance. That is why I like floaters, they are easy to thin and show a pretty quick response to nutrients, because they aren't CO2 limited.
That would also allow you to turn off the CO2, and low-tech gives you one less parameter to juggle.
That's what I do. Will the puffer eat even MTS? if they are too crunchy for him they help with substrate cleaning.
cheers Darrel
I have used 3-day black-outs with great success to get rid of a persistent problem with BGA. No other plants suffered. Actually, they all grew while covered.
IME, a black-out has little to no effect for algae other than BGA and maybe diatoms.
GM
IME, a black-out has little to no effect for algae other than BGA and maybe diatoms.
GM
