# Learning from Mistakes (125L dirted co2 tank)



## EnderUK (3 Feb 2014)

To skip to second scape

Introduction:
Okay so last christmas I got 28L gold fish death trap for my girl friend, the gold fish last 8 months before dying. I never knew fish where this interesting and got hooked upgrading to a roma 125. My girlfriend was upset that she still couldn't get all the fish she wanted in it.

I decided I wanted to do this right and get some plants in the tank this time. First thing I did when I got the tank was ripped the hood apart and put in a new t5 ballast so I could run 2x28w t5s. Along the way of researching plants I ran across dustin youtube page and I got hooked on the idea of dirt. So I got the pond soil and threw a silver sand cap on it and planted. Not having done my complete research I threw in some broken terracotta plant pots and some clay filter media thinking this would get the iron into the soil. For calcium I put in some cuttle bone.

I got 25 random stem plants from ebay the Vallisneria was about the only thing that lasted from that lot but I didn't give up and I slowly build the plants up doing more research and get the plants suitable for low light this is what the tank was like.






A bit of a mess but there was good growth. I want to take it to a little higher level so I tried diy co2 and the plants grew quicker but the the diy was to unreliable so I've ordered regulator, and FE, Some of the EI salts are still to come.

I wasn't happy with the tank I had made a few two many mistakes so while the girlfriend is away this week I stripped the tank down and started over. The girlfriend would never of let me do this she hates it when I even move stuff in the tank as it is.






Fish motel room with the canister filter hooked up. Took an hour to round up all the fish and shrimp. I though the dwarf rainbow would be the hardest to catch but they were incredibly dumb and flew into the net in there panic. Five banded barbs were the worst hiding in the corner with the same colour of the murky bottom I had to drain the tank to a inch of depth to catch the last couple of barbs.


Here's the plan of the new tank hopeful with some open swimming space and some sand for the pair of Rams and barbs to dig around in.














One dirty tank, another reason why I didn't want to do this while the girlfriend was here.





Opps there does the carpet. I sieved out the gravel from the dirt using mesh from the local garden centre.





I later went through this to save some trumpet snails. The original 5 I had are now 9 I'm sure there was some small ones I missed though.





Mud and sand soup. This was a lot like the silt on a river bank





Got this clay postage and packaging for this 1kg sample was ridiculous but trying to find natural (non fibred) clay was very difficult.





Time to get the hands dirty, left is the silt with the clay mixed in on the right is about the balls I put in. The depth of this bottom mix was about 10mm















I throw in some more dirt in one corner, This goes from about 1" to 1.5" towards the back.






I got the alpine grit from the garden centre at £3.99 for a 20L bag. The Unipac sand is the medium grit which I got for something like £15 for 12.5kg. As and engineering I sometimes forget when speaking to people that no one really works in millimetres. I went to the LFS and asked from a sand around 0.5-1mm with the guy saying that I wouldn't get anything that big about the closet he had was pea gravel, which confused me. I then asked about the black granite sand he had on the counter which looked to be about 0.5mm he said that it was sand an no he didn't have it in any colour other than black but that it was sand and not gravel he did have some silver sand but I told him that was to fine for a cap. This went backwards and forwards for a couple of minutes until I explain exactly what I wanted and him working out I wanted 0.5mm sand not 0.5cm sand/gravel. Anyway I was happy with this stuff.















In goes the gravel and the girt. The idea is that the rams won't dig into the gravel to kick up the dirt but they can dig in the sand and hopefully the silt won't be kicked up, this might not work out but we'll see. Most people like a boarding substrate on the glass, I like the look of dirt on it.

That's it for now I'll post some more later need to make lunch.


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## EnderUK (3 Feb 2014)

Okay so time for the planting...





Hard scape plants some java fern, Bateri (I think) the front two tied to two half plant pots are nana and nana bonsai don't ask me which is which. I've used rubber bands to tie it all down because I want to easily cut it and remove it in a months time. The moss is vesicularia ferrie tied on with fishing line.





The rest of the plants are all in with the swords and crypts on the right, the nomaphila stricta at the back center and the stayrogyne and dwarf hair grass in the center pretty much to plan. Pulling out the plants from the old tank the roots took and beating, hope they bounce back. I trimmed off any bad growth, it's a lot more spars now.

The lugwig Sp and frogbit did not come in time so they'll be planted later.

























That's some murky water and that was after filling it up 1/4 way and draining it 5 times. I didn't take any photos of it but when filling up for the first time the right hand root was dislodged and I had to anchor it down into the gravel using a 2"2" cut of acrylic with a st.st screw that solved the problem though as you can see there's not very much moss left on the root.

I left it over night with the bubbles running before draining it and filling it up once more which cleared everything up. I then returned the fish to their new home. Once more I was glad the lass wasn't here, some of the fish were very stressed losing all their colour. She's going to kill me if she ever finds out how white they got.

When the lights come on tonight I'll take some more photos. The fire extinguisher arrived today, I've hooked it up but turned it off once I got it set to a starting point of around 1 bubble a second. I'm still waiting of the KNO3 and trace elements to arrive but I won't start dosing until Sunday. Why? because I'm doing 30% water changes daily until Friday to make sure there's nothing bad leaching off the soil. I'm not that concerned as I added less new dirt than I thought I would but better safe than sorry and I'm running the air stone 24/7 until then.

The fish seem to like there new home though the female ram did have a bloody lip yesterday I think she was fighting with the male as the swelling has gone down today.

I'll take some water parameters and some more pictures later tonight. If anyone has any advice or warnings let me know.


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## EnderUK (3 Feb 2014)

Setup:
Roma 125
lighting 2x28w iquatics t5 Tropicals
filter: Tetratec ex1200
co2: FE setup currently off
Dosing: 1 x 1/8 tsp Equilibrium, 2 x 1/4 tsp KNO3 + 1/16 tsp KH2PO4, 2 x 2 tsp TNC trace a week.

Water:
NH3/NH4 0, NO2 0, NO3 10-20, dGH 4.48, dKH 2.8

Fish: (Heavy Stocked)
6 Pentazona Barb (3m3f)
6 Neon Dwarf Rainbow Fish (3m3f)
1 Pearl Gourami (female)
2 Blue Ram (male female on and off relationship)
5 Otocinclus
4 Ghost Shrimp (1 female 3 male)
9 MST (last count).

Plants:
Echinodorus Ozelot
Echinodorus Red Flame
Nomaphila Sticta
Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides
Cryptocoryne Beckettii (I think)
Lugwig Sp (on order)
Staurogyne repens
Elecocharis parvula
Marsilea Hirsuta
Salvinia Natans
Limnomium Laeeigatum (on order)
Anubias Nana
Anubias Nana bonsai
Anubias Bateri (I think)
Mircosorum Pteropus
Vesicularia ferriei






co2 is hooked up and I'm trying to set it so the bubble counter goes lime colour. Then I'll turn it ff till I start dosing.





This is the Ram and Barb Play area with the water column feeds the anubias and java fern, patch of dhg and the Marsilea Hirsuta which was very very slowly growing in the last setup.





The monster mother glass shrimp, she fears no one, leap frogging of the pearl and tussling for blood worms with the rams.





don't know if this is the normal nana or the bonsai.





You can still just see the slight wound on the female ram's lower lip as she eyes up the mts. This is the transition from gravel to sand I like the outcome. The male ram takes great delight in flipping the snails though he seems to be leaving them alone in this setup so far.





I need to get better at focusing the camera.





Nomaphila Sticta has been hacked to pieces but it was the fastest grower in the last tank so should grow back quickly. There is still one stem of Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides but in the last setup it was a slow grower but that was in the corner of the tank. Hoping it will grow more in the centre rear. The Gourami, barbs and rainbows were the lasses choice of fish.





it will be nice if the Marsilea Hirsuta grows a bit better in this setup, after the initial melt it slowly grew in the last tank. My choice of fauna for the ram are all here the rams, otos and glass shrimp.





Ram hiding under Cryptocoryne Beckettii.


Sorry about some of the fuzzy images I now have a tripod so at least the camera is steady. If anyone can point me in the direct of some photo tips / camera settings I'm sure I can take some better pictures.

I hope you like my tank. As the title says I'm still learning and I'll take advice rather than having to learn from mistakes so feel free to chip in if you think I should alter anything in any ways.

I'll keep the photos coming as the tank develops.


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## EnderUK (8 Feb 2014)

So a weeks gone by and the lass is back tomorrow so I might not be posting again if she hates what I've done.

I was so close to going to Jessops yesterday to get an entry level DSLR but I'm holding back as I need to do some repairs to my roof. So you'll have to put up with the point and shoot images for now.

After reading BigTom's Big Bucket of mud I'm in two minds as to weather to turn on the co2. I've got time to decide I might wait until there's some more growth or I might just leave it off if the growth is good. 






Ludwiga Sp. and the Frogbit arrived at last, almost missed it as it came to my work on a friday which is a half day.





There's still some Salvinia Natans in the tank just in case the frogbit melts or doesn't take.




I like the Ludwiga, I'm sure it well melt and not be as red as it current'y is but we'll see. There's a lot of murkiness which is either a bacteria bloom or I didn't wash the gravel as well as I could of. I'm pretty sure its a bacteria bloom though so I've switched the lighting down to 5 hours a day and I'll keep up with the daily water changes.




The DHG has pretty much melted, I'm hoping it will bounce back without the co2 I might of planted it far too densely should of split it up more. As long as some of it bounces back I'm good.



The female GBR has made a full recovery however she's now constantly chasing the make who has lost his colour. It's another reason why I've switched the lighting down to 5 hours to calm her down a little.




As long as subject is no more than 2" away I'm getting okay shots with the samsung PL120





Playing around with the settings increasing the shutter speed but the barbs and rainbowfish are still too fast.

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Measuring white powder, it's plant food honest judge.

Still waiting on my KNO3 but I thought I'd mix up the trace & equalibrium mixture.I haven't been anal and measured to the nearest 0.01 of a gram, I'm actually probably +/-1g out.

B 0.03
Ca 1.42
Cu 0.01
Fe 0.2
K 3.43
Mg 0.42
Mn 0.05
Mo 0.0036
Zn 0.03
dGH 0.3

This will be dosed once a week and the 500ml bottle should last 25 weeks. If I don't turn on the CO2 I have enough ferts for years.


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## EnderUK (12 Feb 2014)

There's been some slight issues, I turned the air stone off two nights ago and came back yesterday to find the fish gasping (still no co2 injection), so I turned on the airstone and the fish quickly recovered. I think that the high fish stock plus the currently lower plant mass isn't producing enough O2. I did have surface ripple and I have a 1200L filter for a 125L tank so flow should be enough. I'm going to leave the air stone on for now, I might see what turning it off during lighting hours does during the weekend when I can monitor it.

Male ram is still stressed I think I'm going to take him out and put him into the 28L tank tonight to see if his color picks up without the female bothering him.

KNO3 arrived so I dosed that last night. I've made a 5.0-0.5-3.5 NO2-P-K 10ml/125l solution so I dose 20ml a week for low light and I can easily up the dosage if I turn on the co2.

Lots of the plants are melting but I'm starting to see new growth so hopefully all plants will have full recovery.


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## EnderUK (14 Feb 2014)

Okay new plan, I've shifted the middle plant pot taking the anubis nana off it and rubber band tied it to the lava rock on the left had side.




This has cleared this area at the front, I plan on going into the woods and seeing if I can find any fresh fallen leaf litter for this area.





I've put the male ram but I've made a make shift wall to reduce aggression maybe this will give the male some time to pick up without him getting chased all the time.









general state of the tank is much melting, the frogbit, staurogyne, dhg is taking a beating. The ludwigia is doing surprisingly well, lost some of the red, more a wine stain colour now, but no major melting so I'm happy with it.


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## EnderUK (18 Feb 2014)

Well the frogbit didn't last I think the water was too high to the hood so the frogbit was either melting liturally or that it wasn't getting enough light.

So I went to ebay and bought 5 quids worth of red root floater (phyllanthus fluitans) and I got loads plus It came with duckweed. Being far to lazy to sort that mess out I just threw it all in my tank. Hell if I can't grow duckweed as a floating plant I think it's time to quit.




I lower the water about an inch and I've reduced the spray bar and pulled out the stopper and turned the flow down to 50%. This seems like it keeps most of the RRF in the corner above the anubias where I want it.  Any other method seems to drag the RRF under. This might cause some issues if I turn on the co2 on, but for now it's good and there's leaf movement in all the plants so I'm happy.





Not so red roots.


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## EnderUK (26 Feb 2014)

So been very busy so no photo shots this weekend. I decided to upgrade the girlfriend to fianceé.

Stuff that's going on with the tank.

Sadly the big mother shrimp died on me, however a smaller female now has green eggs in her saddle, shame i can't set up a pea soup to grow them. One of my otos has been battling a wound on his nose, the fungus quickly died with a meth blue bath and some whole tanking dosing of paraguard, the wound has almost completely healed up.

After putting in a new fluval spray bar to increase the current within the tank I've turned up the temperature to a toasty 82F to try and get the Rams happier. The other fish seem quite happy at this temperature but I'm monitoring it. With the increase flow I'm turning on the co2 today starting at around 1 bubble a second and see how the fish cope with that.

The RRF has melted to about 1/4 of the mass but there is new shoots so I'm hopeful as long and the pearl gourami stops pulling it below the surface. The tank is looking a bit of a mess with the leaf litter all over the place due to the current. Will have to give it a good trim and tid up this weekend I think.


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## Alastair (26 Feb 2014)

Looking well ender. The marsilea is slow growing even with co2 addition. Ive had it in both hi tech and low. 
The tank would look very natural with a nice layer of oak and beech leaves at the front like you say. 

If you've turned up the temp and now started co2 keep your eyes on it as oxygen levels are much lower in a warmer tank which could have an effect on the tank inhabitants. 

Personally I think this would be great just left as a low tech set up. Maybe remove one of the light tubes. There's plenty of nutrients in the substrate and you can add a pinch of ferts once a week or so. 

Hope to see how this looks in another few months time when everything has settled in


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## EnderUK (26 Feb 2014)

Cheers, yeah if the fish get stressed the co2 will be turned off again. I'd like to try co2 at least once and will probably turn it off when the plant mass gets high enough, depends on how long the FE lasts. Another option might be easycarb, the 1L bottle should last 200 days with my tank so if the FE doesn't last as long as that then the easycarb would be the more economic method.

I don't think I would need to take out a light, it's quite a deep tank and it was algea free for 6 months without co2 in the last setup.

I have since, the last photo, taken down the makeshift fence, the female ram still chases the male every so often but not as much as before. The marsilea I've actually split up and put it different areas of the tank, I figure most lawns are a mixutre of grasses and weeds so that's what Im going for as well.

The lass has promised me an DSLR for my birthday so phots should get better in april, probably in time for the next project a 28L nano tank.


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## EnderUK (28 Feb 2014)

Okay so apparently I don't have a low light setup like I first thought, according to charts I'm in the 120 micromoles at the substrate. I still feel something is wrong as I went 6 months without algea problems in a no fert no co2 setup.

If it becomes an issue I might hack the hood apart again and use 2x14w t5 8000k light, we'll wait and see.

CO2 has been up and running, the drop checker refuses to turn green never mind lime green at 1 bubble a second. I'm guessing the temperature is driving the co2 out, I'm reluctant to put the co2 much higher than this but I will and monitor the fish.

Tank is pretty dirty, major clean up on sunday and 50% wc. I've uploaded a video of the flow.


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## EnderUK (2 Mar 2014)

Sad news. The female ram was missing during the feeding frenzy, found her in the corner dead. I had done a major 70% water change taking over an hour to refill, don't know if that had something to do with it, or if she got into a serious fight with the male and lost or if she just died. Not happy but looks like this has solved the problem of the two rams fighting. I won't be getting a replacement female going to keep the stock levels how they are, dropping temperature back down to 80F since I'm not trying to get rams to get along any more.

Did a bit of trimming and cleaning while doing the water change.



 

total melting of the mass of floating plants, I'm really not doing well with them, however there is new shoots so I'm hopeful. I also rescued some frogbit and threw it in my nano tank to see if it does better. Might put it back in this tank if it bounces back.



 

Happy little male ram playing in the leaf litter.



 

Otos like it as well.



 

Jungle is coming along.


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## EnderUK (7 Mar 2014)

Okay been a busy week with my nano tank but still looking after the main tank. Not really anything new to report plant wise other than I threw in a bit of wood with some moss super glued to it after I finished on the nano tank.

This post is more a DIY post as I hacked my hood once more to change the lights.



 

These are the t5HO iquatic 24" 28w tropical bulbs. Doing the maths I'm about 120 par at substrate, the only saving grace I think is the reflectors as you can see kinda point about 30 degrees outwards. I couldn't simply put in smaller bulbs as these refectors are designed for 24" not 22" tubes.



 

So I got the knock off dremel out and was hoping that I could tap the acrylic with m4 taps. However the taps just ripped the thread out so I ended up super gluing the m4 bolts through the t5 tube clips, the reflector and then into the acrylic.

I sanded down the plastic and then super glued that to the flaps on the hood. I don't actually have any pictures of this for some reason, think it was getting late.



 

this is a before shot with the tropical 2x28w bulbs.



 

This is 2x14w osram lumax 840 and 880, coolers are much more vibrant.



 

Very red and the fish seem to like it.



 

The lass brought home an early birthday present, battery on charge


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## EnderUK (9 Mar 2014)

Okay so I'm playing around with the new camera, the following shots are with the standard 18-55 kit lens and a bit photo editing.



 



 



 



 



 

Think the tank is coming along nicely, got used to the lower light which is given off more yellow, red and greens, not everything looks washed out now. Most of the plants seemed to be settling in now. The carpet plants are slowly growing, it's getting there but it's still only been a month. I'll probably post less updates now maybe every other week or so. Practice with the camera a bit more.


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## Bufo Bill (11 Mar 2014)

Glad to see your tank progressing. The lighting looks great now, it really shows off the new plant growth. 
Oh, and congrats on the "fiancéfication", have you thought about a UKAPS guard of honour when you sort out the wedding plans? They would either shower you both with cappata leaves or cross pruning scissors as you leave the church.


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## EnderUK (13 Mar 2014)

Bit down, had to put down the male ram today. I think my KH3 water is too hard with them or the tank water was being buffed too much by the soil. I might look into get a pair of bolivian rams in a month or so. Though I might be tempted to get either a few more barbs or a couple more Gourami.


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## Edvet (14 Mar 2014)

I don't think hard water kills a healthy fish, KH3 isn't shocking. Only for breeding soft water is a must in some species, hardness shouldn't be such a problem.


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## dw1305 (14 Mar 2014)

Hi all,





EnderUK said:


> Bit down, had to put down the male ram today.


I don't think that it is anything that you have done. The problem lies with the quality of the Rams that are imported from SE Asia, they are riddled with parasites, often hormone treated and genetically compromised.

There are some fish that I wouldn't buy from anybody other than a breeder, and Rams are one of them. It is a real shame because they are great little fish and deserve better.

cheers Darrel


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## EnderUK (14 Mar 2014)

LFS guy says they are from a local guy who Breeds them in Bradfords tap water which is apparently the 3rd or 4th softest in the UK. He did say that I shouldn't be doing 50% water changes but unless I cut out the EI and CO2 that's not going to stop. I might start spreading the refill of the tank to 2 hours rather than the 1 hour I'm doing now.

I don't think the male ever was happy after the rescape, the female (who I'm surprised died as she seemed completely fine) was constantly chasing him away so don't think he recovered from that. You can see in that last photo he's on the skinny side.

I'm going to let the tank mature at least for another month, when I get back from holiday I'll think about it some more, I'm open to suggestions.


On another note, went to the local fire safety services and pick up 3 2kg FE for free


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## EnderUK (14 Mar 2014)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> I don't think that it is anything that you have done. The problem lies with the quality of the Rams that are imported from SE Asia, they are riddled with parasites, often hormone treated and genetically compromised.
> 
> There are some fish that I wouldn't buy from anybody other than a breeder, and Rams are one of them. It is a real shame because they are great little fish and deserve better.
> ...


They are from a local breeder using Bradford Water, got them from QSS Koi and I had the choice of the local breed or the wild caught. Still I might just of been unlucky.


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## dw1305 (14 Mar 2014)

Hi all,_


EnderUK said:



			They are from a local breeder using Bradford Water,
		
Click to expand...

_


EnderUK said:


> You can see in that last photo he's on the skinny side.


Bad luck then, it might have been _Camallanus _infection, it makes the fish very aggressive, and although they eat normally they become emaciated and may die before the worms protrude from the fishes anus.

cheers Darrel


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## EnderUK (14 Mar 2014)

I'll read up on it and check the rest of my fish, they all seem fine but I'll keep an eye on them for the next week or so. Cheers for the advice.

Just thought I'd share this shot of a very red Ludwigia sp.


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## EnderUK (16 Mar 2014)

After a major pruning session, I've noticed some deficiencies, mainly potassium with pinholes, yellow patches. I'm also getting some GSA on the glass so I'm upping dosage to full on EI, (should of listen to Clive). I've upped the KNP to full dosage will keep the traces as they are for now.

Ordered an inline atomizer from co2 art see how that goes as well as I'm really struggling to get a lime green colour on the drop counter and I don't think flow is a problem as the misted bubbles are swirling around the tank just not being absorbed by the water.


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## EnderUK (30 Mar 2014)

So end of month two, had some ups and down, dead fish, getting the co2 right, learning about green stuff you put under water.



 

Green spot algea on the anubias, mold on the wood, slow growth on the java moss, tank isn't looking great but I'm sure it will.



 

Jungle is okay, the ludwiga isn't doing to great but I'm hoping now I've sorted the co2 it will be better growth. 



 


 

new plant additions because my carpet was going bad, very little growth, again I think this was mainly a co2 issue. Having been impressed with the tissue culture java I went with Tropica Marsilea crenata and the Easy Grow Sagittaria subulata. TBH I think the sagittaria is just going to over run the bottom of the tank but I'm okay with that.



 

And with a nice donation from Vaz I got some more frogbit, lets see if I can keep this alive.


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## EnderUK (18 Apr 2014)

Okay went away for a week, turned off the lights and co2 and came back to a sorry state of a tank....



 



 

That's just some of the cuttings the plants are still melting a week later due to the fact that my co2 stopped working and went I went to take the inline diffuser out I still had pressure and managed to snap the nipple off. Lesson learnt always cut the co2 tubing off. At least I have spares for the new diffuser sent quickly by PLUG!!!!! co2art.



 


there only seems to be one loss of life and that was the berried female ghost shrimp no sign of her and I'm guessing she looked tempting for the hungry tank mates.. Not really surprised as I've had two other berried shrimp died on me. Two left and this one is becoming another monster.

So some shots of the tank



 



 



 

oh I forgot, couldn't help myself and got 3 more barbs, they're currently about half the size of the other 6 but they are terrors with the two new females quite happy to duke it out with the bigger slower barbs. All the barbs have become much more active.



 

This rainbow stayed still long enough to get this nice photo, the colour has really started to show.


(random music should be up in a bit).

The oto at the end is the one who had a wound and fungus on his nose. He's my favourite because of colouration, I call him Casper.

So that's the update for now, hopeful now everything seems to be a bit more stable everything will be growing nicely.


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## EnderUK (26 Apr 2014)

kicking myself this morning, after playing with the tank last night I woke up to it being at 34.9C. Running an air stone now, had one oto death. The barbs, pearl and rainbows should be okay I think as they can live at 30C. Hoping the other otos can hang in there now I have the air stone running.


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## sciencefiction (26 Apr 2014)

Hey, EnderUk, looking good.
You can lower the temperature with a slow cold water change maybe. I had one otto die on me in the heatwave last summer. They don't seem tolerant of high temps. Sorry to hear about the rest of the fish. It's hard to pin point what's causing it sometimes.

I am just judging by the pictures but the tank looks quite shady to me. I kept my "low tech" tank, which got no CO2 or ferts ever, with quite higher light at least visually and never got algae problems. In fact I never had algae.  Sadly I got technical problems such as the seam leaking and the LED drivers getting bust which ended up in almost destroying the plants, my glosso disappeared with lower light. The LED lights I use are the equivalent of 190W T5 suspended above over a 5f(150x50x50) tank.
I think you can do with some fast growers which like better light and shade the anubias and crypts while growing but enough light reaches the substrate for the glosso, providing you have your CO2, flow/distribution and ferts right. I think the ludwiga out the back is struggling in the shade. Mine loves light though it survives in lower light but doesn't grow.


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## EnderUK (26 Apr 2014)

Think it's under control now with temperature down to 28C. I did a bucket full through a air hose so it didn't drop the temperature to quickly. Counted 4 otos and they still have their colour so I'm hopeful the airstone worked. Guess I need to leave it a week and see what the stress did to the little fellow.



sciencefiction said:


> Hey, EnderUk, looking good.
> You can lower the temperature with a slow cold water change maybe. I had one otto die on me in the heatwave last summer. They don't seem tolerant of high temps. Sorry to hear about the rest of the fish. It's hard to pin point what's causing it sometimes.
> 
> I am just judging by the pictures but the tank looks quite shady to me. I kept my "low tech" tank, which got no CO2 or ferts ever, with quite higher light at least visually and never got algae problems. In fact I never had algae.  Sadly I got technical problems such as the seam leaking and the LED drivers getting bust which ended up in almost destroying the plants, my glosso disappeared with lower light. The LED lights I use are the equivalent of 190W T5 suspended above over a 5f(150x50x50) tank.
> I think you can do with some fast growers which like better light and shade the anubias and crypts while growing but enough light reaches the substrate for the glosso, providing you have your CO2, flow/distribution and ferts right. I think the ludwiga out the back is struggling in the shade. Mine loves light though it survives in lower light but doesn't grow.




Pretty sure the GSA will be cured when I have corner shaded with floating plants. The Lugwiga was doing fine once I upped the co2, the problem was the week blackout I did when I went on holiday, it's bouncing back now. Thanks for the feed back, you're tank looks great.


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## sciencefiction (26 Apr 2014)

Yes, if the GSA is on the anubias, it needs shade.
And the plants have typical signs of lack of light I guess it's the blackout you did. Sorry, I think I misread


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## EnderUK (3 May 2014)

So there's been a few changes. I couldn't get the inline aomizer to work, broke the nipple off two of them before giving up. Also gave up on the bazooka , I couldn't get more than 1 bubble a second and I've put it down the either the FE or the single stage reg not providing enough pressure. So I've gone and order myself a ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor from Taiwan, while I'm waiting for that I'm back to my glass diffuser which is working well.

I also bought myself two 25L brewing bins, cut a hole on one of the lids and I'm not gassing off my water so no more tap safe, cheers Kirk for suggesting this. I'm also going to do my W/C three times a week basically 20L each time before dosing macros. I'm doing this to prevent the huge swings of TDS I'm getting changing 75% on a sunday. Another plus side of this is that it's much quicker, I don't have to syphon the water through a air hose over a couple of hours on sunday. Cheers Big Clown for suggesting this to me.

Generally plants are doing fine, I seem to have a lack of Calcium so dosing CaS04 along with traces, as Darrel points out it doesn't dissolve very well but once it's in the tank it's gone within the hour. This is being dosed at 10ppm twice a week.

Oh I got some new life in the tank.



 

barbs are up to 9 and they're having a last, also put nine Amano shrimp in there for good measure. Two are pretty big and the rest a about 1-1.5" long.



 

So with the demise of the Blue Rams I decided that I want another male and female Pearl. Haven't managed to get a decent shot of them yet. The older female is being a bit of a bully but usually only after feeding time.


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## EnderUK (19 May 2014)

So the pearls have settled in, a bit of fighting but only around feeding time. The girls are doing a lot more showing off flaring their pelivic fins.



 

I went away on business and left the tank to the lass, came back and was quite impressed by the growth.



 

I've let loose the frogbit for the coral and it seems to be happy in that corner which is perfect. The other plants are growing nice and steady, bit of algae on some leaves but nothing I'm that worried about.



 

The Crypts are getting massive, I'm hoping that the three swords at the back will start to take off which they appear to be doing. The dwarf sag is starting to grow so I'm hoping for some runners soon.



 

Last, got a new bit of kit just before I left, having a day off I thought I would set it up. ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor Diffuser (Medium). I couldn't find some 2" pipe brackets so I wingged it and clamped it in with some 1.5" drainage pipe brackets.

So I'm quite impressed as it seemed pretty well built, nothing snapped off  Everything went together smoothly and I can get as much co2 in as I need. There is a little downside in that it does have a noticeable trickle sound so if you want a silent tank maybe not for you. My plants started pearling and no noticeable bubbles coming from the spray bar.


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## sciencefiction (19 May 2014)

The crypts are lovely and the dwarf sag will spread and give a nice contrast. I'd say sticking to low light plants suits this tank a lot, at least they look very healthy kept this way.


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## EnderUK (19 May 2014)

sciencefiction said:


> The crypts are lovely and the dwarf sag will spread and give a nice contrast. I'd say sticking to low light plants suits this tank a lot, at least they look very healthy kept this way.



Yeah it's pretty slow going but I'm happy I'm not having to do a tonne of maintenance on the tank every week despite pumping the co2 and ferts into it. I'm going to have to strip the tank down in the summer some time when we paint the room. Already drawing up plans, which will be similar in theme but a bit more structured and planned.


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## EnderUK (31 May 2014)

About a month back I went and bought the bit of redmoor root I didn't buy for my nano tank, it's been in the shed soaking up water until now. I pulled all the anubias in the left hand corner and used a nice stanly blade to cut it into sections. These were then super glued on to the root pretty much hiding all features of the root which is a shame because it's an amazing piece and unfortunately I didn't take any photos of it before it was in the tank so you'll just have to take my word for it. The out come wasn't exactly what I wanted, maybe if I have left the barteri off it and just gone with the nana but the fish love hiding under the huge barteri leaves so I was overruled. I also added the christmas moss I got from Kirk that's been sitting in a coffee jar and the bits of java fern. 

I also got a koralia 900 and after a bit of trial and error decided to having it attached to the left had side blowing slightly upwards to ripple the surface. This also has the benefit of pushing the frogbit to cover the anubias and java fern perfectly.

Finishing off I cut up some of the Marsilea and other carpet plants and replanted. To be honest I don't know which of the carpet plants have survived and which haven't there's still some of the grass types that I've added but there's been so many of them. The dwarf sag will take over anyways.


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## EnderUK (25 Jun 2014)

So itching for a shuffle around, and the lass is away yet again next weekend so time for a re-scape. I'm still wanting a jungle and I won't be getting any new hardscape or even that many new plants (a couple of anubias nana). I'll be getting rid of the crypts (they were growing huge) and the ozlots. However I'm in two minds to keep the flame red or not as I could for see it taking over the tank but I guess I can always put it if it gets far to big.

So here's the plan, I'm going to center all the root and plant the stems around that while hopefully leaving the dwarf sag to carpet. Inspiration comes bit from Tom Barr's Dutch something or the other obviously a much smaller tank, less plants and much less skill. Any feed back is welcome.


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## EnderUK (5 Jul 2014)

So the rescape is almost complete and it's not that far off the plan in the above post. I'd like to say it all went to plan but when I plugged in my filter it started leaking out water so off to the LFS to spend a lot of money tomorrow. Hopefully the powerhead and the plants will do their job.

I would take some photos but since there's no filter and I replaced the substrate the water is very very cloudy. Once I have the photos I'll do a full write up.


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## EnderUK (6 Jul 2014)

Equipment
Tank: Roma 125L
Lights: 1x14w osram lumax 840 and 1x14w osram lumax 880, no reflectors. 14:00-21:50 (electrical timer)(mechanical timer)
CO2: As much as possible without gassing fish. Apprx. 12:00-20:00  (mechanical timer) ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor  Original UP New Inline CO2 Atomizer 
Filter: Aqua Vital Avex1000:  10ppi pre-filter->bioballs->10ppi sponge->ceramic rings->spray bar (half tank length causing small waves) Lilly Pipe
Powerhead: Hydor Koralia Nano Evolution 900(on off side of root from the lilly pipe, mid tank aimed forward at a slight downward angle.)
Background: 80% blackout limo window tint. (badly applied)


Dosage (Based on 125L, estimated water volume 100L)
KNO3: 2 x 1/2tsp
KH2PO4: 2 x 1/8tps
Traces: 4 x 1/16tps
CaSO4: 1x1tps
MgSO4: 1x1tps
Estimated: K: 21 NO3: 25 PO4: 6 Fe: 1 Ca: 12 Mg: 4 (weekly)

Water Change: 1 x 69L 55% (69% on estimated volume)
Tap water 85 TDS
Tank Water 165 (after first dosage)


Scape Discription:
½” of Minerised top soil with no added lime capped with ½” sharp sand. Medium sized redmoor stump, one small redmoor root and one small piece of mopani.


Plants:
Floating:
Limnobium laevigatum (amazon frogbit)

Mosses:
Vesicularia ferriei (Weeping)
Taxiphyllum barbieri (java)
Vesicularia dubyana (Christmas)

Stems:
Gymnocoronis spilanthoides
Nomaphila stricta (Giant Hygrophila)
Lindernia rotundifolia (Baby Tears)
Ludwigia sp.

Hardwood:
Microsorium pteropus (java fern)
Anubias nana bonsai
Anubias nana
Anubias barteri v nana Petite
Anubias barteri

Carpet:
Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag)
Lilaeopsis mauritania

Feature:
Echinodorus red flamed


Fish:
9 x five banded barb (Puntius' pentazona)
6 x Neon Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox)
3 x Pearl Gourami (Trichopodus leerii)
3 x Otocinclus(O. macrospilus  )

Invertebrates:
2x glass shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus)
8x Amano Shrimp (Caridina multidentata)
10x Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina Heteropoda) (possible fish food)
Y x Malaysian Trumpet Snail(Melanoides tuberculate)

It's getting dark outside so will be taking photos and probably do a bit more depth into the description of scape tomorrow if I have time.


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## EnderUK (7 Jul 2014)

This is the root stripped of most of the larger anubias except for one small barteri on the left hand side. The rest of the hardwood is covered in the the anubias nana var. the java fern, and the assortment of mosses.



 



 

kind of decided on something like this but ended up with the small piece of root back right on the left hand side as well.



 

This is a day after setup and about a 200% water change a couple of hours before, as you can see it's still very very cloudy don't know if it's the sand or if it's a bacteria bloom.



 

I think in the future I'm going to stake out the floating plants and stick in the 2x28w tubes for photo shoots which should be a lot easier to do now I've modified the hood a little bit. The tube holders are now firmly screwed into the hood were as before they were superglued.



 



 

Lilaeopsis mauritania hopefully it will take apparently it needs less light than Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis. I've used lawn dividers to split it up from the Sagittaria subulata behind it.



 

Some of the baby tears from my nano tank, the rest are in the propagator.



 

You can see the divider in parts, hopefully the Lilaeopsis will take and it will be covered. The dwarf sag will probably just try to climb over the top but I'm hoping it will help a little bit.



 

dirty super glued moss, looking pretty bad but it will grow out.



 

The Ludwigia sp is looking pretty sorry for itself, now that I've gotten rid of the huge crypts I'm hoping it will have more flow and co2 around it.



 



 

The Echinodorus had pretty damn poor roots, I think the crypts were again simply taking up all the space as the root structure on the crypts were pretty epic. The crypts, swords and anubias are going into my sisters new tank.



 



 



 

Some damage to the old anubias nana leaves I don't think I sprayed it enough when it was out of the water, didn't think it would dry out as quickly as it did. The larger anubias aren't blocking the structure of the redmoor root anymore.



 

I think the tanks is going to look much better and still have the wild jungle look when it all grows in.


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## Lindy (7 Jul 2014)

Looks great. I've grown lilaeopsis Mauritania in my low techs and it is a nice wee plant.


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## EnderUK (8 Jul 2014)

ldcgroomer said:


> Looks great. I've grown lilaeopsis Mauritania in my low techs and it is a nice wee plant.


I'm hoping it will take as my past attempts at carpet plants have been pretty terrible. I realy did't want a grass but I thought a stem plant would look silly against the dwarf sag. Let us see.

I've re-rearranged my photobucket, didn't think it would break the links when I sorted out the folders.


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## EnderUK (12 Oct 2014)

With the return of dark evenings I can once again take photos. A bit of a change this tank is now low tech since I was having a few problems, mainly my nano tank had a massive invert nuke with snails upturning and a massive shrimp die off. I rescued what I could. My nerites and rabbit snails are now in this tank so a low pH is out of the question, I've put chicken grit in the filter to bring the pH up to about 8. One shrimp has had pups which my fish are ignoring and there's a couple of newly berried female so looking good.

It's back to the 2x14w lighting still doing the 50% water changes and keeping the TDS at about 200-250 rather than the 350-400 I had with full EI. Floating plants are also doing a lot better without the spray bar.














Seems lilaeopsis mauritania is my fourth carpet failure.









Addition of cryptocoryne pigmea into the tank,hasn't done anything in a month but no melt either.

Think I'm starting to get the settings on the d3200 right, these had zero post editing


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## mikka23 (26 Feb 2015)

Really like the rescape. The addition of more height really makes a difference.  Also great quality photos.


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## EnderUK (27 Feb 2015)

Thanks, this tanks probably coming to an end due to a living room rescape in the next month. Though I think I'm going to setup in a pretty similar fashion this time simple with a sand base though can't decide if I want sharp or silver sand. Might keep it a little bit more simple.


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## Edvet (27 Feb 2015)

EnderUK said:


> sharp or silver sand


 Watch out, to fine sand compacts a bit to much.


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## EnderUK (27 Feb 2015)

I've used silver sand before and currently have it in my low tech. I find with MTS it keeps pretty loose as long as you don't make it to deep. The barbs use to love digging around in it when I had it in my main tank. If I do use dirt I'll be keeping it in the region of around 5mm deep or I might just do a sparse base layer of osmocote with the sand on top. I might even sieve some of the bigger stones out of the sharp sand.

Dosing is currently somewhere between PPS-PRO and EI so might just stick with sand.


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