# My shallow tank.



## mattb180 (15 Aug 2014)

Hi all,

I have posted every now and again for a little while but have never really shown off any of my own tanks. I did promise when asking questions a while back that I would attempt a journal so here goes....

Specs:




 

3ft x 3ft shallow cube. 30cm high. Custom build from ND Aquatics.
Aquamanta EFX 200 filter
2 x 1000hd tiles and an 8 way aquaray controller

This has been up for exactly a week today. 

The inhabitants at the moment are fish from my old tank - probably not what I would have chosen if starting from scratch but they probably deserve a decent home and seem to be loving the space. There are 15 CPD's, 8 dwarf corydoras and 8 khuli loaches. The loaches are about 3 years old so no way was I getting rid of them. I am hoping to breed the CPD's in due course, they may spawn in this tank but if I see no fry within a month or so I shall be setting up a specialist breeding tank and have a go that way. 

Plants are mainly low tech staples - Bacopa, Ludwigia, Echinodorus, Crypts, Java Fern, Java Moss. I also have some hairgrass. No doubt I will add more as I go.

The emmersed section is literally a pond plant pot that I had been growing out in the pond all summer. I dumped it in and there are hollow areas underneath where the loaches vanish to in the day. It is surrounded by pieces of bogwood and is growing in quickly.

I have seen growth on all of the plants although some of the java fern is emmersed and going through a transition phase now. The hairgrass is throwing out runners already and the ludwigia is poking above the water line already. The echinodorus has thrown up two new leaves to the surface in a week. 

A few early pics....lots of growing in to do yet!



 



 



 

Apologies for the picture quality - Iphone5! Excuse the sofa and the animal ornaments!


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## Dominic (15 Aug 2014)

This is awesome man! What fish do you plan on putting in there in the end? And what plants are in there mate? I'm interested in that pink flowered emergent plant!


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## BigTom (15 Aug 2014)

My kind of dimensions 

Looking forward to watching this one.


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## mattb180 (15 Aug 2014)

Dominic said:


> This is awesome man! What fish do you plan on putting in there in the end? And what plants are in there mate? I'm interested in that pink flowered emergent plant!



I am hoping to have a large group of CPD's in there in the end. If anyone has any ideas throw them at me! I only got that plant the other day - It is a bit of an experiment but seems to be doing ok. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it at the moment. It is one where the bases of the leaves need to be filled with water if that helps anyone? I have kept the plastic tags from the tropica plants and they are:

Ludwigia palusris green
Eleocharis Acicularis
Limnophilia heterophylia
Ludwigia palustris red
Bacopa compacta
Echinodorus chrileni
Cardamine lyrata
Various crypts - these are from my old tank so mixed



BigTom said:


> My kind of dimensions
> 
> Looking forward to watching this one.



Not ashamed to say yours was the inspiration! Long long way to go yet!


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## Dominic (15 Aug 2014)

CPD's sound sweet man! What about some sort of centerpiece fish? Tom had a peacock goby, but that's assuming you dont have any shrimp apart from large amanos? What about some sort of apistogramma? I have a group of honey gourami in mine, but they just dont feel 'prominent' enough, to me. Have been thinking about German blue rams. 

That does strike me as some sort of large bromeliad, does the name ring a bell? Or neoregelia? Where did you get it from mate? I do remember seeing that sort of plant in supermarkets and garden centres etc.


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## mattb180 (15 Aug 2014)

Dominic said:


> CPD's sound sweet man! What about some sort of centerpiece fish? Tom had a peacock goby, but that's assuming you dont have any shrimp apart from large amanos? What about some sort of apistogramma? I have a group of honey gourami in mine, but they just dont feel 'prominent' enough, to me. Have been thinking about German blue rams.
> 
> That does strike me as some sort of large bromeliad, does the name ring a bell? Or neoregelia? Where did you get it from mate? I do remember seeing that sort of plant in supermarkets and garden centres etc.



Bromeliad is the one! It was a fiver from Homebase. 

As for the fish I am not sure about gourami's. I can't say I have seen anything that really draws me in. One day I will find the time to sit down and hit the books and find a few idea's. There are cherry shrimp in there - the dregs of a group where the population went from 25 to a few hundred and has gradually dropped off. Need some new blood lines. That was over about 3 years so to be expected I think.


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## Dominic (15 Aug 2014)

haha ace man! Theres loads of types of bromeliads mate, some dont even like to touch water, so i have no idea what exact species it is! Haha! 

Yeah man same, all the fish that do draw me need some sort of specific care requirement or exact water parameters, which is too difficult for me, lol! And it may well be worth introducing new blood lines mate, my cherries have only just started and had their first spawn, and i swear theres already hundreds in there, once the population grows a little more ill send some over to you if you like?


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## Tim Harrison (16 Aug 2014)

BigTom said:


> My kind of dimensions
> 
> Looking forward to watching this one.


See what you've gone and started...

Looking good so far Matt...


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## mattb180 (16 Aug 2014)

Troi said:


> See what you've gone and started...
> 
> Looking good so far Matt...



A real life trailblazer is BigTom!


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## mattb180 (17 Aug 2014)

Spotted the CPD's being a bit frisky this morning. Hopefully will result in some fry but if not I will have to get a breeding setup started I think!


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## liam11712 (17 Aug 2014)

mattb180 said:


> Spotted the CPD's being a bit frisky this morning. Hopefully will result in some fry but if not I will have to get a breeding setup started I think!


Excuse for another tank lol


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## BigTom (17 Aug 2014)

mattb180 said:


> Spotted the CPD's being a bit frisky this morning. Hopefully will result in some fry but if not I will have to get a breeding setup started I think!



Nice. If you're running an external filter then it's worth keeping the water that you empty out of it when cleaning and letting it settle in a bucket for a bit. I always found one or two tiny _D. erythromicron_ fry in there when I kept them, I expect CPDs will be similar.

You do have to really look for them though, they were generally about 3mm long and extremely hard to spot. A torch helps, as does a brightly coloured or clear bucket.


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## mattb180 (17 Aug 2014)

BigTom said:


> Nice. If you're running an external filter then it's worth keeping the water that you empty out of it when cleaning and letting it settle in a bucket for a bit. I always found one or two tiny _D. erythromicron_ fry in there when I kept them, I expect CPDs will be similar.
> 
> You do have to really look for them though, they were generally about 3mm long and extremely hard to spot. A torch helps, as does a brightly coloured or clear bucket.



I will remember this. I am tempted to add D. erythromicron but have heard they can hybridise with the CPD's. Given that they are from the same body of water I guess this is a possibility in the wild, although it is a big lake and depends on the localities of the species i guess. Hybrids would no doubt be quite interesting to look at!


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## mattb180 (28 Aug 2014)

Okay, time for a brief update.....

Firstly I have been suffering with some very bad surface scum, I guess the tank is going to take a month or two to settle down completely. I have purchased a small eheim skimmer to deal with that for the moment and tried it for the first time tonight - very impressed!

There have been a few minor bacterial blooms so far, again to be expected i guess.

Unfortunately the bromeliad did not seem to take very well to having its feet permanently wet and so that has come out and been put in a pot on the windowsill instead! Too nice a plant to waste. It has been replaced by various bog plants that I got from the local garden centre, they seem to be taking quite well already. Under the water a few different stem plants have been added to the rear which needed filling out a bit. Some more bacopa and rotala. An amazon sword has been added middle left and I am hoping it will grow to be big and have it's leaves above the water line. That has taken very well and thrown up two new leaves in a week. More hairgrass has gone in at the front - little money saving tip here, I got a huge pot from Maidenhead Aquatics that was being sold as a pond plant - it cost me £3.50 and I got more than my original 4 pots at £3 a pot from it alone! You could easily plant a nano with one pot. I am looking at adding more crypts to the foreground in the near future. 

As for fish I have added 5 D. Erythromicron, I did want more but they were the last 5. Shall add more when I see them. I would love to add a couple of 'feature fish' to bring it to life a bit more and hopefully encourage the CPD's and D.Erythromicron out. Struggling to make a decision on that though. Any ideas anybody?

Photo's will follow when this latest bacterial bloom has cleared!


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## Dominic (29 Aug 2014)

All sounds normal to me, nothing to worry about! It will clear up as you go on 

As for the plants, I found with my tank it was a lot of trial and error. Some didn't work, some worked better than others! 

Good job with the eleocharis btw, i've noticed that at my MA but they always seem to be very sparse pots.... haha!


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## Wendal_spanswick (29 Aug 2014)

Sorry, CPD?


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## BigTom (29 Aug 2014)

Wendal_spanswick said:


> Sorry, CPD?



Celestial Pearl Danio.

Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk


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## Anthony89 (29 Aug 2014)

celestal pearl danios. 
nice tank. when I have a big enough lounge I would like tank of similar dimensions!


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## Wendal_spanswick (30 Aug 2014)

Yeah of course. Mind blank! I'll blame it on age!


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## mattb180 (3 Sep 2014)

I have added 12 threadfin rainbows to this tank over the weekend and it has really come to life now. Great little fish.

Everything is really growing in well, hopefully will add a few more crypts soon.

I also saw my first fry this evening, I am assuming it is a CPD. Considering the tank is a month old and it is free swimming it must have been part of a very early spawn! Hopefully there are more and they stay out of the way of hungry mouths.

*Now I know where to look I have seen three fry!


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## mattb180 (3 Sep 2014)

Here is a picture as the lights dim down at night, a view from my bed.....


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## mattb180 (6 Sep 2014)

I reckon there are around 4-5 fry in the main tank. To try and get a few more I have moved 2 females and a male (nightmare to catch) to a tank by themselves with lots of moss and watercress to try and get a better fry return.

Lets see what happens!


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## Bhu (6 Sep 2014)

It would be a great tank for a beta. As long as the CPD's left it's fins alone. Would add a great splash of colour and would be fun to watch roaming it's territory


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## mattb180 (6 Sep 2014)

Don't they like it pretty warm? Around 80 degrees or so? I've got this a tad cooler for the CPD's.


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## Bhu (6 Sep 2014)

We have one in 26'C very happy  what temp you running?


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## mattb180 (6 Sep 2014)

24 or thereabouts.


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## Bhu (6 Sep 2014)

Would be fine once acclimatised...


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## Lindy (7 Sep 2014)

Betta splendens do like it warmer at 28 - 30 degrees.


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## mattb180 (7 Sep 2014)

2 females and one male in here at the moment:



 

 

 

The male is constantly displaying so I will pull them out tomorrow - give them 48 hours and then wait and see what happens. 

If anybody is interested there is moss in the back right corner and the other plants are stems of watercress. Feeding microworms and daphnia.


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## mattb180 (29 Sep 2014)

Few update photo's:


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## mattb180 (27 Feb 2015)

It has been a while since I updated this thread. It has grown in quite a lot and there have been a few minor alterations. I have had zero problems with algae - only a bit of dust and green spot on the glass which needs to be cleaned once a week.


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## BigTom (27 Feb 2015)

Lovely _tripartita_ there matt, looks great.


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## Andy D (27 Feb 2015)

Looks great!


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## mattb180 (28 Feb 2015)

BigTom said:


> Lovely _tripartita_ there matt, looks great.



If you look in the old photos above you can see the tiny sprig that it grew from in the first place!



Andy D said:


> Looks great!



Thanks Andy.


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## Bassljne (28 Feb 2015)

Looks great, love shallow tanks


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## Akwaskape (22 Mar 2015)

Hi
lovely! Could look at this for hours.
Looks very Asian,  Far East.
May i ask where do you get your influence from. Quite unusual style for the uk.
Thanks
nathan


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## luckyjim (22 Mar 2015)

Love this tank. Such a natural environment and looks great.


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## mattb180 (23 Mar 2015)

Akwaskape said:


> Hi
> lovely! Could look at this for hours.
> Looks very Asian,  Far East.
> May i ask where do you get your influence from. Quite unusual style for the uk.
> ...



Take a look at Big Toms thread in the 'featured journals' section. Not ashamed to admit that his tank was the inspiration behind my effort!


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## tim (23 Mar 2015)

It's grown really well matt, lovely low tech scape.


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## Rahms (23 Mar 2015)

this is great, very jealous!

I've got a peace lily that is getting too big for its pot.  Now all I need is a 3ft, square, shallow tank... and somewhere to put it


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## mattb180 (5 May 2015)

I thought tonight that it is probably about time that I updated this thread with some photos and info.




 

 

 

Apologies for the photos which are not incredibly clear.

I have added three caddies and put parlour palm in two and some sort of pond plant in the third. The pond plant is turning a bit yellow so not sure if it's feet are too wet in here! 

A nice twisty piece of redmoor has gone in the middle of the tank and I am considering attaching some air plants, for a bit more colour mainly, and possibly some of the maidenhair fern on my desk to that. Any advice on air plants is much appreciated! 

The sand substrate remains but some black gravel has been added to the front portion of the tank. I decided to get rid of my threadfin rainbows and have replaced them with 20 glowlight danios to go along with the CPD's. They are lively but were extremely cautious and skittish over the light sand. With a darker substrate they are much more active out and about the front of the tank. Great colours now I have fed them up on live food which finally is coming to life in the garden!

Plant wise I removed a few crypts and much of the _tripartita. _The _tripartita _has gone in the back right hand corner of the tank and turned into a thick pad where the CPD's like to try and spawn. No fry lately but they will do well to hide from the Glowlights now I fear. Thinking about possible tubbing a few CPD'S over the summer and see what happens. Lots of good reports online of good spawns doing that. Little chilly still at the moment unfortunately. 

In the near future further stem plants will go in to thicken the middle portion but this is very much an ever changing evolving project.


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## Phil Edwards (6 May 2015)

Gorgeous tank!  Shallows for the win!


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## Sarpijk (6 May 2015)

Hi Matt! Love the tank and I am sure it will look even better when mature. 

I got a question for you regarding glowlight danios behaviour. I got a group of ten 3 days ago. I put them in an 80 litre tank. I have read in their seriouslyfish profile that the develop a pecking order after some time. Do yours shoal together? If yes how long did it take for the to form a group?


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## mattb180 (6 May 2015)

Hi Sarpijk,

Mine tend to vary from a loose shoal to a very tight group. In a tight group they are very impressive. 

I must say I struggle to identify individual fish as they are so damn fast! I have seen some nipping and so suspect that a pecking order of sorts would develop over time. I have only had mine two weeks so will keep an eye on them. 

Have yours coloured up? They have lovely colours.


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## Sarpijk (6 May 2015)

Υes they have coloured alright so far. I feed grindal worms to all my fish which definitely makes a difference. Unfortunately mine don't shoal. Did yours started shoaling from the very beginning? I am starting to think that maybe I should not expect them to school/shoal in relatively small tank. Anyway I will give them some time to settle in.


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## mattb180 (7 May 2015)

If anything they have been shoaling less as they get more comfortable with the surroundings.


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## Andy D (7 May 2015)

I think it is quite common for fish not to shoal. In the wild it is used as a defence but in the confines/safety of our tanks there is no threat so no need for them to shoal.


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