# First attempt  -Ciano 58 litre



## jamila169 (12 Mar 2021)

Day one for my daughter's tank, I'm pretty much in charge of the plant side because she's all about the fish. There's a heavy nod to tropica layout #1 while fitting in the wood and stones my daughter chose. Using the light that came with the kit , no CO2, substrate is John Innes no3 +peat with micro gravel covering it, using TNC and the frogbit index  . Daughter wants a Betta fish, but we're starting off in a month or so with pygmy corys and ember tetras (which will clash horribly with the bright pink decorative gravel she wants to sprinkle in, but , whatever, it's hers). I'm looking for a 30cm cube for myself, so if she ends up with a tetra hating betta, I'll have somewhere to put them


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## Karmicnull (12 Mar 2021)

Yeah my daughter has negotiated me into a Betta for my new cube - I really didn't have a say  . Look forward to seeing this develop!


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## jamila169 (13 Mar 2021)

Hoping all goes well, spent a lot of time getting my head round the plant side, fingers crossed things grow without too much drama


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## jamila169 (16 Mar 2021)

tested the water today , 0 ammonia, 7 nitrites, 70 nitrates, so I have some good bugs in there at least , did a 50% water change b/c the manzanita (really? I soaked you for a week you woody pain in the blahblahblahblah) is still staining the water and to dilute things a bit , plants are happy as clams though, new leaves coming on everything, limnophila has doubled in size so you can actually see it now and the frogbit is forming new leaves and runners


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## timdjones10 (16 Mar 2021)

All the fish you've mentioned will enjoy the tannins the manzanita is leeching, but tannins and pink gravel might clash...


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## jamila169 (16 Mar 2021)

I'd honestly leave it, but daughter is offended at the yellow water 🤷‍♀️


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## jamila169 (4 Apr 2021)

Wheee!  4 weeks in and... we're attacking BGA - not loads , but enough to crack out the Blue Exit and obsessively pick bits off the tiny crypts that it's focussing on , when the treatment's done, I'll be introducing some cheap CO2 to give the plants a boost as I'm not happy with how slow they are at getting established, I need them to be a lot more enthusiastic with the whole growing thing so they get the upper hand on the diatoms and algae that are still in evidence


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## jamila169 (4 Apr 2021)

How it's looking overall








details of the issues: 















#

So, we have diatoms, some green algae, blue green and some random white slime, fingers crossed the nasty stuff bites the dust with treatment


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## PARAGUAY (4 Apr 2021)

Keep with up water changes and physically clean off as much algae as you can


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## PARAGUAY (4 Apr 2021)

Diatoms should reduce in time


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## Paul27 (4 Apr 2021)

You just need to be patient, Cryptocoryne, Java fern, Anubias are slow growers and take time. In my personal experience Amazon swords until they get a good root structure don't really do much. Agree with @PARAGUAY above about water changes and cleaning as much algae off as possible. Don't worry too much about the slime on the wood, it is unsightly but I think majority of us on here have experience it at some stage or another. From my experience it will go away in time, it can be scraped off but until it's gone through its phase can return.


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## jamila169 (4 Apr 2021)

I've been brushing the algae off daily and picking off bigger bits with tweezers, it's actually a lot better, but I don't want the BGA to get into the gravel. I learned my lesson  with the white slime, I took the wood out and scrubbed it and it came back worse -not doing that again. The brown crypts are doing well, I cut the leaves off before planting so everything's new growth, but the tiny ones seem to have shrunk a bit and make a break for freedom if they can, though they have new roots appearing. The instructions on the blue exit say not to change the water until treatment is finished , so I'm just manually removing and will be siphoning the little bits out with airline rather than the gravel vac until I can do a proper change


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## PARAGUAY (7 Apr 2021)

I have just added some wood recently purchased from our sponsers its got mouldly white growth. Its normal and will go away after a time🙂


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## jamila169 (10 Apr 2021)

It's got two chances , at least all the nonsense has been happening early and I know what to look for for my imminent cube


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## jamila169 (11 Apr 2021)

That's better - sat on my hands all week  apart from slurping out loose bits of algae , also started some bio CO2 in the vain hope it'll help the C. Parva get better rooted. Tested today before and after a big water change and I reckon it's cooked , apart from a ludicrously high GH (21? it's supposed to come out of the tap at 12 german)  I tested the tap water and that was the same according to the test kit (NTlabs) so I've ordered the API version to see if it's kosher, I'm thinking it's wrong or an anomaly B/C it's never been that high . There's new leaves popping out on just about everything, the frogbit is busy , every time I open the tank another tiny one has launched and my three midget Amazon Sword plantlets have got proper underwater leaves.  I'm probably going to pick up some nerites this week to graze the wood and tidy it up a bit


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## jamila169 (11 Apr 2021)

also, nearly forgot - when I was ordering plants for my shrimp cube from Aquarium Gardens a couple of things might have jumped in the basket to beef up the planting a bit


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## jamila169 (14 Apr 2021)

Ha! spoke too soon , Ella decided to clean her rocks last night and also scraped most of the crud off the wood (weeps) anyhow , She's now the proud owner of a small fleet of Nerites, all named Gary and after a small sulk when they first went in (yep, did acclimate them) they've been doing snail zoomies all over the glass, rocks, gravel and hanging out near the CO2 diffuser for a quick jacuzzi, they all seem to know which way is up and have topped up their scuba tanks


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## Karmicnull (14 Apr 2021)

jamila169 said:


> small fleet of Nerites, all named Gary


Whilst the lack of individual names may at first seem to be a disadvantage, it does mean you can have endless hours of fun yelling "Gary!" at the top of your voice from one side of the tank, and just when they're all about to get there 30 mins later, sprinting round to the other side and yelling "Gary!" all over again.


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## jamila169 (15 Apr 2021)

Rock climbing Garys






Gardening Gary (not pictured, Gary the window cleaner)





'ooh, bubbles' Gary






Not pictured , invisible Gary, who likes to play hide and seek


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## jamila169 (20 Apr 2021)

looks like the little blighters brought snacks, got a large bloom of daphnia that's hatched in the last couple of days while I was otherwise occupied moving eldest offspring into his new place just had a 'mm, where's that debris from? nope, it's actually moving, yep, definitely moving and there's lots of them _whips out phone_ zooms in , that's nice, daphnia, hope they like algae' moment


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## jamila169 (23 Apr 2021)

just finished acclimating 1..2..many shrimp and put them in the tank where they've promptly buggered off somewhere more private , did get a glimpse of one before they wombled off to the back of the tank . i ended up buying from this guy 10 + 2 FREE Mixed colours low grade Neocaridina shrimp + FREE FOOD SAMPLES  | eBay and they came well packed with polystyrene and a heat pack in a clear bag inside a black bag , topped with a large catappa leaf and some food samples, they're just what I wanted, inconspicuous and no lairy colours though they're identifiably coloured, just very see through. i also got a selection box of glasgarten foods that will last long enough for me to get hold of full tubs


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## jamila169 (23 Apr 2021)

well , we're down 3 shrimp. water parameters are fine, so It's probably travel related, lights are off and fingers crossed there's no more, do not like fishing upside down shrimps out of the tank


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## jamila169 (27 Apr 2021)

down 6 shrimp as of today, there's one little red one that keeps popping up in different places munching away, but no sign of the others, which I hope are just lurking until they get over themselves .I've been keeping things as stable as possible and I've put an airstone in today to see if more flow will discourage the algae on the wood that the Garys have carefully eaten round, it's starting to look a bit poorly already. the Garys are doing a sterling job apart from uprooting some recent plants by crashing into them. If the other shrimps re emerge the right way up, I'll be happier that I'm not wilfully murdering things and that the deaths up to now are down to travel and the new environment. If it all goes pear shaped I'll be taking out the wood for a boilwash


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## Karmicnull (28 Apr 2021)

Fingers crossed.  I only ever saw about half my shrimp at any one time back when I had first put them in.  But later on I did also manage to kill an entire tank-full due to a mix of stupidity and carelessness on my part.


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## jamila169 (28 Apr 2021)

Well the Garys approve of the new jacuzzi , they were all gathered round it this morning, egging on the intrepid Gary who was climbing the wall in the bubble stream, still no sign of the shrimpies , but the stubborn algae does. not. like. the stronger flow - I'm thinking of getting one of the Oase thermo corner filters to try to get better filtration , the Ciano one isn't really cutting it even though it's technically ok and the media is in cartridges that aren't really economical, plus I can use the present heater for the cube, can't go external because of the lid and frame


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## jamila169 (30 Apr 2021)

still no sign of the shrimp, but no more dead bodies visible -this month's budget has been spent on a better filter because it's getting absolutely minging and I've still got dead spots even when it's newly cleaned -put the manufacturers bio cartridge in , which is a pitiful tablespoonful of biomedia by the feel and look of it . I'm replacing it with an Eheim biopower 160 so i can either have a spray bar or aerated flow, whichever does the best job with the advantage of much more biomedia room . Kicking myself for getting a rimmed tank now b/c I'd go external if I didn't have the lid to contend with


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## jamila169 (2 May 2021)

Hmm, I have a visitor, only possible sources are my LFS ( not likely b/c the plants I got are mostly in the nano) or the shrimp bloke, but I netted them out individually so no idea how it hitched in , I'm guessing it needs to come out so I don't end up with snail soup?






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## jamila169 (2 May 2021)

E has decreed that the snail is to pretty to die (I agree , it is pretty), so I guess we have at least one bladder snail in the Gary team , also the tiny shrimp that lives under the biggest rock is still with us and munching away happily, I'd be happier if some of his mates showed themselves though


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## jamila169 (3 May 2021)

Did a bit of a hoover and small water change today and ! Hallelujah! I think that the only C.Parva that hasn't relocated to plant island (see third picture) has actually made it down to the soil by the look of it's new growth , there's signs that the others have also got their toes in the soil as well. Algae blanket on the wood is pretty much deceased and the Garys have been making short work of it. Plant island has a Val, some lilaeopsis, some hemianthus and two types of crypt drifting around. I've left them because I've been seriously considering changing the substrate to something more conventional,but with things actually behaving as though they're getting established that's gone on the back burner. Due to not being able to get hold of the matching plant light that clips to the lid, I've gone with one of the nicrew submersible plant ones and suckered it to the lid, the light levels are looking a lot better for it and we'll see if it helps the smaller plants. I've also ordered some easycarbo for both tanks we'll see how that goes









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## jamila169 (4 May 2021)

another visitor spotted today - a teeny little emoji sized ramshorn with a clear shell, so they might turn into a handsome member of the cleaning crew, they've got to have come in the LFS plants, so I might end up with some in the cube as well


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## jamila169 (14 May 2021)

I'm unreasonably excited that tiny boi the little shrimp that could has been out front tonight doing his thing, i hadn't seen him for a week and was convinced he'd turned his toes up - still 5 of his mates unaccounted for though, I'm trying to stay positive that they're in the back having shrimp parties among the limnophila (either that or tiny boi's eaten them and he's the survivor of some sort of shrimp deathmatch) . In other news, there's actually 2 teeny ramshorns who were getting far too friendly for my liking on the sucker for the CO2 diffuser this morning, so I'll probably be a snail granny soon


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## jamila169 (17 May 2021)

went to Wharf yesterday and we have some new inhabitants! 3 panda cories who will be augmented by 3 more next week if all goes well , if they're all the same age, it looks like there's 2 girls and a boy -they've been exploring and hoovering up whatever they can find since yesterday, and got a singular sinking pellet this morning, which took them ages to find, took it out when they lost interest and the Garys have cleaned up after them, I've ordered some bug bites so I can control the food situation a bit better with it only being the 3 of them cos the fish science pellets are huge. glamour shot below with the two of them that didn't wander off






WTS for posterity ( Guy at Wharf asked if I'd got one, and turns out it's a month since I did the last one ) Ignore curtain reflection on the right , also huge sponge filter assisting the stock filter because the air pump might as well be doing something useful, Eheim still hasn't got here thanks to an out of stock situation on the carbon pads I ordered as an afterthought )






ETA , Not sure if another of the shrimp has reemerged or if tiny boi has moulted  after seeing a shrimp that was slightly bigger and paler red than him - I guess the only way to be sure is if we get 2 out at the same time


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## Karmicnull (17 May 2021)

Panda Corys are fabulous - love 'em!


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## jamila169 (17 May 2021)

they're funny little things, one accidentally headbutted tiny boi, he wasn't happy -they're alternating between behaving like decorous proper bottom dwellers delicately nibbling on things to doing mad zoomies after daphnia or suddenly deciding to get wiggly


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## Karmicnull (18 May 2021)

The mad zoomies and the wiggly don't ever get boring.  The character they bring to a tank is spectacular! I also love their ability to cat-nap.  They'll sleep for five minutes and then it's back to mad dashes up and down the side of the tank.


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## jamila169 (24 May 2021)

Tiny boi appears to be actually Tiny girl, there's a definite saddle there now she's bigger , so am torn about getting her some new friends . The overly affectionate snails are now parents , and the original interloper has cloned themselves - I'm torn between siphoning the nano snails out on sight or letting a couple of bladder snails grow on for the shrimp tank. New filter finally got here, so i swapped it in with the sponge filter yesterday, it's on minimum flow and has effectively doubled the circulation so was worth the hassle of edging a couple of rocks over to fit the rather portly body. I'm running the old and new together for a month and the new one got the biomedia from the sponge filter as well as the sponges being soaked in the mucky sponge water before it went in


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## jamila169 (3 Jun 2021)

The big filter is definitely doing a good job -the substrate has stayed a lot cleaner since it went in, I'm mid water change and when I squished the sponge out, it turned the previously clear water I'd taken out to gravy , the tomato plants are going to think it's their birthday, now all I've got to do is surreptitiously siphon out as many baby snails as I can without Ella noticing . Oh, and Tiny Girl must have been lonely, she spends a lot of time hanging out with the Panda gang now


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## jamila169 (22 Jun 2021)

E's tank is chugging along nicely now, surreptitious snail fighting ongoing , pretty sure the heater's caput which is not an issue as it's staying at 23 degrees pretty solidly, so that's a job for when I get round to it rather than an urgent issue, added another 5 shrimp last weekend (went for ember tetras, none in so we decided to give tiny girl some friends )  I think this gorgeous red rili is a boy




and we've got 2 big red girls (the bit on the second picture that looks like BBA had disappeared when i went looking, so 🤷‍♀️







post w/c and limnophila haircut shot, next thing will be to gradually move in some nicer stems as the weeds get stringier, the wood needs something, not sure what yet though, maybe some dwarf anubias or buces


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## jamila169 (10 Jul 2021)

Sad news today, The smallest cory, who hasn't grown at all since we've had ?him was found floating in the tank this morning -going on how much the others have grown since we've had them it seems clear that there was something wrong, he looked like he was eating , but just didn't grow. SIP Dave


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## jamila169 (29 Nov 2021)

Well, we're down to 3 cories, still haven't got any other fish because of fighting snails and the shrimp really taking off , tank needs a huge trim, and we've got hair algae that just won't go away, I'm thinking of pulling out the java ferns it's living on and putting in new ones,but the shrimps enjoy it's food catching capacity so I'm just pulling it out every few days at the moment. The 6 mixed shrimp have basically  turned into a herd of very nice reds and red rilis








I'm pulling out frogbit on a weekly basis now, everything needs trimming hard and the last of the scraggly limnophila needs to come out, I'm planning on using the trimmings from the cube to fill the gap where it was. Bladder snails everywhere, I'm using a dennerle snail roller to keep them down but it's a big job. The dark patch on the left is my brown leaved crypts that I had to keep replanting early on, i don't think they're going anywhere now


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