# In the Edge



## kadoxu (14 Oct 2017)

Hello again!

I wasn't too sure where to post this Journal, as this will be a Low Tech adventure...

My setup will have the following:

Tank
Fluval Edge 46L

Filtration
Original HOB filter with upgraded impeller (basically an AquaClear 50)

Light
Original Lighting fixture (should be ok for low tech)

Heater
Juwel 200W Heater

Substrate
ADA Aquasoil Amazonia
Dennerle Deponit Nutriballs

Liquid CO2
Flourish Excel

Fertilisers
DIY EI ferts used on my other tanks

Plant list (so far):
Mini Java Fern
Anubias nana
Anubias barteri
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Helanthium tenellum
Postemon Erectus
Mini Lobelia

Critters
Neon Tetras
Red Cherry Shrimp
Red Ramshorn Snails
Malaysian Trumpet Snails (maybe)

For the hardscape, I'll only use two pieces of wood with plants attached. I also have some Seiryu Rock I may use if the wood only doesn't make me happy.

I moved some substrate from my older tank, so the cloudiness makes pictures worthless... pics tomorrow (hopefully).


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## Zeus. (15 Oct 2017)

Daughter has same tank which she is struggling with a bit, lack of effort I think mainly. So will definitely be watching yours. Impeller upgrade- will have to look into that for her 

Sent from Mountolympus via neural interface


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## rebel (15 Oct 2017)

Your hardscape and plants will define this tank. It's difficult to access it for maintenance etc. The stock light will struggle potentially mainly to reach the bottom levels. 

Looking forward to how you  scape this one.


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## kadoxu (15 Oct 2017)

Zeus. said:


> Impeller upgrade- will have to look into that for her


You just need to get an Aqua Clear 50 impeller to replace the original one. They are the same size, but the blades are a bit larger, almost doubling the amount of water flowing through the filter.



rebel said:


> Your hardscape and plants will define this tank. It's difficult to access it for maintenance etc. The stock light will struggle potentially mainly to reach the bottom levels.


My Fluval Chi is pretty much maintenance free, so I'm hopping to get the same out of the Edge. 
The tanks are in a conservatory, so they get some light throughout the day. The Chi has a Chihiros A-Series light in the second lowest setting, so I believe the Edge won't need a light upgrade... fingers crossed!


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## kadoxu (16 Oct 2017)

I had an issue with one of my quarantine tanks, so it means the Fluval Edge plans will be delayed for a few weeks. 

I also need way more plants than the ones I have at the moment. So I need to get some proper propagation going... probably need a couple more pieces of wood as well...


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## kadoxu (19 Oct 2017)

Quarantine tank sorted, so let's get some planting done! 
It's not quite there yet... I still need a load more plants to fill it with, but it's starting to look nice.
Most plants I have at the moment are also small, so I thing this will be a tank I'll be patient with (or try my best)




 

Sorry about the reflection... as you can see, the left side of the tank is a bit bare at the moment, but I'm waiting for more plants to arrive.


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## kadoxu (19 Oct 2017)

2 updates in a single day... who does this?!? 

Moved some shrimps and snails over from the Chi.

I got what I like to call a "mistery plant pack" today as well as some crypts. Another one is coming probably next week to finish this tank off.


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## rebel (20 Oct 2017)

Does the chi have co2?

Great to see your updates!


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## kadoxu (20 Oct 2017)

rebel said:


> Does the chi have co2?


It does, but just a tiny bit, about 1 bubble every 5 seconds. It probably doesn't need it as the drop checker stays blue all the time, but I'm kinda reluctant to change anything on the Chi, since it's basically maintenance free...


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## rebel (21 Oct 2017)

kadoxu said:


> It does, but just a tiny bit, about 1 bubble every 5 seconds. It probably doesn't need it as the drop checker stays blue all the time, but I'm kinda reluctant to change anything on the Chi, since it's basically maintenance free...


Just saying that you may have a harder time in this tank without co2. Seems that the chi has higher light and co2.


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## kadoxu (21 Oct 2017)

EDIT: This was my 1000th post!  



rebel said:


> Just saying that you may have a harder time in this tank without co2. Seems that the chi has higher light and co2.


I am aware... I do have the CO2 system that I removed from my other tank, and know where to get a stronger light that fits inside the lid, but would like to see how things evolve without it (if my patience allows it). Considering that there's only a small opening on the top of the tank, I hope it helps a bit.

*Good news* are the other batch of plants arrived yesterday.
*Bad news* are, most of the pennyworth melted in the propagator during the night, so don't have as much as I'd like. Again... patience will be key with this tank. (I'm starting to boil inside)

So, now I'm just waiting for a bit of Staurogyne repens from @Konsa next week to fill in a gap or two, and it's done!

I'm quite happy, considering the amount of planning I put into this (which was none)... I just picked up what I had available and tried to fill the gaps. Now I can't wait to see how it evolves.

So here goes nothing...


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## rebel (22 Oct 2017)

I've done a DIY light for my edge 23 which I will show at some stage. You can do the same if you want better coverage.


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## Aqua360 (23 Oct 2017)

Looks good, I'd get some zoomed magnetic clips, and tie anubias on so that you can have the entire back wall covered with plants; as opposed to empty upper levels, unless that is the intention


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## kadoxu (23 Oct 2017)

rebel said:


> I've done a DIY light for my edge 23 which I will show at some stage. You can do the same if you want better coverage.


Please do share!  The tank is in a conservatory and gets some sunlight as well, so I'm hoping I won't need to upgrade it. I've bought a DIY marine light on ebay for this tank and the guy also builds the same thing for freshwater, but at £99 I think I'd rather buy a Chihiros LED instead



Aqua360 said:


> Looks good, I'd get some zoomed magnetic clips, and tie anubias on so that you can have the entire back wall covered with plants; as opposed to empty upper levels, unless that is the intention


I'm hoping the plants on the back will grow a bit more to cover most of the background. But nice tip!


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## kadoxu (24 Oct 2017)

So... I have more plants on the way...  Hydrocotyle tripartita and Staurogyne repens are still going into this tank... I'm not expecting both plants to arrive in great condition, so I may have to leave them in a propagator for a while before I actually put them in the tank.

Also on the way... fish! Which I'll keep a secret until they arrive. I'm a bit worried about the filter not being fit for the job... I ordered online to save some money, and my quarantine tank is currently full (with a bunch of Goldfish), so I'll have to add them all to the tank in one go. Luckily, I have a Eheim Classic Filter laying around if problems arise.

I'm fighting against myself and the urge to turn this tank into a high tech... I don't know how much longer I can fight it!  
*
P.S. Rant*: My post count went down to 980 now... Damn you deleted "For Sale/Swap/Wanted" posts!


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## kadoxu (24 Oct 2017)

Forgot to say... there's a surprise already planted in this tank... let's hope it germinates!


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## Zeus. (24 Oct 2017)

kadoxu said:


> Forgot to say... there's a surprise already planted in this tank... let's hope it germinates!


Algea!!! Hope not m8

Although enevitable if we reach to the upper limits then dail back a bit.

Sent from Mountolympus via neural interface


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## kadoxu (24 Oct 2017)

Zeus. said:


> Algea!!! Hope not m8
> 
> Although enevitable if we reach to the upper limits then dail back a bit.


I don't plant algae Zeus (not the bad kind anyway)!  But as long as the snails & shrimp can eat it, it's welcome! 


So... someone asked me for a plant list on facebook... and I've done it. I hadn't realised how much variety I had! 
(The surprise plant was excluded from the list!)

The ones I'm sure about:
- Anubias nana
- Anubias Barteri
- Valisneria sp.
- Twisted Valisneria
- Mini Java Fern
- Mini Lobelia
- Pennywort
- Cryptocoryne wendtii (or willisii, not sure) Green
- Cryptocoryne wendtii Brown
- Helanthium tenellum
- Pogostemon erectus
- Cabomba caroliniana
- Bacopa monnieri
- Aponogeton natans
- frogbit (hidden at the top)

Mistery plants I'm not sure about:
- Nesaea crassicaules (or Ludwigia palustris/arcuata, not sure)
- Hygrophila difformis
- Hygrophila polysperma
- Cabomba piauhyensis

Still on the way are:
- Staurogyne repens (arrived today)
- Hydrocotyle tripartita


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## rebel (25 Oct 2017)

kadoxu said:


> Please do share!   !


I made these with leftover housing from LED strips (ebay) and some new waterproof high CRI led that I got from ebay. It's the world's worst DIY but I covered up the rough edges by using black spray paint.



2017-10-09_11-00-50 by Reb El, on Flickr



2017-10-12_06-21-18 by Reb El, on Flickr


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## kadoxu (25 Oct 2017)

The fishies arrived this morning!!! 

The fish arrived early this morning. They were very pale and I was late to work, because I didn't want to leave them in the bags any longer. Gladly the ones I got are very small in size at the moment, so I think the filter will be able to do it's job properly and mature along with the fish.
Didn't have time to take pics, but will do so today at some point. I want a record on how much they'll color up in a few days/weeks.

Hopefully the male Endler I couldn't catch when I sold all my fish and have now moved to this tank will get along and feel a bit more comfortable with the new additions.


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## kadoxu (26 Oct 2017)

Quick update...
The fishies still need to get used to me. They all hide behind the plants when I come around, so no point of taking a picture yesterday. This morning, most of them were out when I came to check on them, so I should be able to get a decent pic soon.
They already recovered some coloration, which is nice, no deaths so far, also nice, and the Endler does seem a bit more relaxed with them in the tank, so everything is going well so far.


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## kadoxu (27 Oct 2017)

Fishies are getting a bit more comfortable now. The wood is still leaching tannins, ence the water cloudiness, but these guys probably love it. Less than half of them captured in the pic though.


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## kadoxu (29 Oct 2017)

1 week!

Planted the Staurogyne repens and the Hydrocotyle tripartita today, but forgot to take a picture afterwards... 



 

The fishies are slowly coming out... lost 1 of them, which doesn't surprise me after getting them delivered very very pale.


 

The surprise is coming to life


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## kadoxu (31 Oct 2017)

I'm very proud to say that this tank is now featured at the cover photo of the Fluval Edge Enthusiasts facebook group, which counts more than 1500 members!


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## kadoxu (2 Nov 2017)

Today's pics


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## kadoxu (13 Nov 2017)

Week 4


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## kadoxu (20 Nov 2017)

Week 5

Not much has changed... I'm slowly increasing the amount of ferts, I'm currently at 30% EI dosing. 
Anubias barteri is loving this tank, it has grown almost a new leaf every week since I put it there. Also had to trim a bit of the Red cambomba and Hydrocotyle tripartita, as they are growing fast towards the light.

I have to be honest, I was expecting a lot of the plants to melt and die, but everything seems to be doing quite well. Even the Monte Carlo I put in the tank just to test my luck isn't melting! It has been a very cheap, very low maintenance, and very satisfying tank to keep. The only bad thing about it is that there are way too many hiding spots and the only critters I see regularly are snails! 

I do have to install an auto doser, as I keep forgetting to dose in the morning...

Just before lights out:


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## kadoxu (30 Nov 2017)

A decent quality vid


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## kadoxu (11 Dec 2017)

Week 7 - Trimming & water change day!


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## leetaylor (15 Dec 2017)

looks very lush!


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## kadoxu (15 Dec 2017)

leetaylor said:


> looks very lush!


Thanks.

This is now almost 2 months old and I have to say all the plants are doing way better than I expected... I was expecting to loose quite a few, since it's a low tech tank and some plants I didn't even knew what they were, but the main thing that's happening is the red plants are losing the red color due to the lack of light intensity. Other than that I'm quite happy with it.

And with snails and shrimp in the tank it's pretty much low maintenance as well. I added an auto doser last week, because I kept forgetting to add fertilizers, so now all I have to do is feed the fish and do a water change once a week... I don't even need to clean the glass,as the snails take care of it for me.


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## kadoxu (18 Dec 2017)

Something flowering in the Edge!


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## Alexander Belchenko (18 Dec 2017)

I guess you have aponogeton. Have no idea which species though.


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## dw1305 (18 Dec 2017)

Hi all, 





Alexander Belchenko said:


> I guess you have aponogeton. Have no idea which species though


It is definitely an _Aponogeton_, the African (including Madagascar) species have more than one flower spike on each scape (the Asian species just have one flower head per scape), but if the floating leaf belong to the flowering plant? I don't know of any African species with floating leaves. 

A hybrid between _A. natans_ and _A.crispus_? _Aponogeton crispus_ is a frequent flowerer and white, and _A. natans_ has floating leaves

@Mick.Dk is your best bet for a <"definitive ID">.

cheers Darrel


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## zozo (18 Dec 2017)

If that's a Aponogeton robinsonii (vietnam, loas, thailand etc.) than i'm realy jealous.. The leafshape is simmular.. There are 2 var. of it, the floating and the non floating. Both are rather rare in the trade, usualy the floating version goes around. I got it and i'm trying to get it to go in my tank for a year now.. Can't get it realy to work, it doesn't die it doesn't grow it stays tiny.. So i also never got it to flower.. But i know it has a split flower..








I can't get my head around it why this plant wont grow in my tank.. (yet)


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## kadoxu (18 Dec 2017)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> I guess you have aponogeton. Have no idea which species though.


I didn't even know that! 



dw1305 said:


> Hi all, It is definitely an _Aponogeton_, the African (including Madagascar) species have more than one flower spike on each scape (the Asian species just have one flower head per scape), but if the floating leaf belong to the flowering plant? I don't know of any African species with floating leaves.
> 
> A hybrid between _A. natans_ and _A.crispus_? _Aponogeton crispus_ is a frequent flowerer and white, and _A. natans_ has floating leaves
> 
> @Mick.Dk is your best bet for a <"definitive ID">.





zozo said:


> If that's a Aponogeton robinsonii (vietnam, loas, thailand etc.) than i'm realy jealous.. The leafshape is simmular.. There are 2 var. of it, the floating and the non floating. Both are rather rare in the trade, usualy the floating version goes around. I got it and i'm trying to get it to go in my tank for a year now.. Can't get it realy to work, it doesn't die it doesn't grow it stays tiny.. So i also never got it to flower.. But i know it has a split flower..
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes, I believe the floating leaf to be the same plant, but can't really confirm, since it's in the middle of a lot of other plants. After going to my Ebay's Purchase History, I believe this was sold to me in a bulb pack of 5 Aponogeton Natans, and 2 Nymphs.


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## zozo (18 Dec 2017)

As far as i know the true A. Natans has different submersed leaf form than floating.





It als can go dormant, reportedly more often than not. It is not realy known why if it doesn"t, why it doesn't. Commonly it is advised to take the A.natans out of the tank and keep it in the dormacy periode in moist soil till it sprouts again. But keep it submersed and patiently wait can work too.  This inconsitant behaivor seems to be the reason why most in the trade are cultivar crossbreeds with among others A. Crispus and A. undulatus. If you got them from Asia via ebay you probably have the true natans. If it is from a European lfs it likely is a crossbreed. Ive looked a long time for the A.Natans only could find it in asia, ordered it 2 x but both times it didn't survive the trip..

What caught my eye was the submersed leaf in front of the heater..  That looks very simmular to a A. Robinsonii leaf. But i'm absolutely not familiar with the looks of the cultivars.


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## kadoxu (19 Dec 2017)

zozo said:


> As far as i know the true A. Natans has different submersed leaf form than floating.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not sure really... I got it from an Ebay store I sometimes buy plants from, they seem to be UK based, so not sure where they get their plants from. These are the pics that they have of the A. Natans


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## kadoxu (22 Dec 2017)

Quick small update.

It seems that the melting I was expecting about a month ago is starting to happen, mostly on the left side of the tank, where higher light demanding plants are. 

I was expecting this to have happened a long time ago due to the lack of flow, light and CO2 I knew this tank would have. The Anubias, Java ferns, and Crypts were pretty much the only plants I was expecting to do great in this tank, but a lot of the others are as well, so I'm still very happy with the results I'm having so far, specially when considering I spent less than £250 setting everything up (including a new doser)!

There are still a lot of plant types doing fine, so I'll let the melt happen and let the snails and shrimp have a feast!


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## Doubu (29 Dec 2017)

Really like how everything looks so far. I haven't really seen a planted edge that's really caught my eye but this is looking quite full. Looking forward to seeing what it looks like after a few more months of maturation.


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## kadoxu (30 Dec 2017)

I have to say I'm in love with this tank...



 

Like I said before, there was a lot of melting on the left side, due to the experimental higher demanding plants not getting enough light... but it still looks cool!


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## kadoxu (28 Jan 2018)

The left side needs more plants, but it's getting there!


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## kadoxu (19 Feb 2018)

Plant... wait... trim... repeat...


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## kadoxu (28 Feb 2018)

Seems a bit cold outside...


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## Edvet (28 Feb 2018)

The question is of course: what are you hiding in the garden, under that tarpaulin


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## kadoxu (1 Mar 2018)

Edvet said:


> The question is of course: what are you hiding in the garden, under that tarpaulin


 
Don't get too excited... unfortunately it's just a picnic table!


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## rebel (1 Mar 2018)

Looking really nice dude! Well done.


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## kadoxu (24 Mar 2018)

New flower! And I just realised I forgot to take a pic of the rest...


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## kadoxu (25 Mar 2018)

Here are pics of the whole thing...


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## kadoxu (3 Apr 2018)

I think I haven't shared this before about this tank... the Tetras I bought have the Neon Tetra disease, so they're all slowly being affected and dying one at a time, it's going really slowly, I only lost a couple of fish so far, but can already see a few more have got it and are slowly getting worse. I would remove them all to avoid having it spread to the Endlers, but it's really hard to catch anything on this tank. So unfortunately it's a waiting game for Nature to take it's course. Hopefully the Endlers won't pick on the diseased Tetras and keep healthy.

Anyway, a couple of months ago, I got a couple baby Endlers from Ebay (I ordered more, but they didn't resist the trip) to put in there to keep the single male Endler some company, and as my luck goes, both of them were females (last time, out of 12, I got a single male)... so now they're breeding, I already have about 10 in there growing happily, and I guess they will spawn every month from now on.

Oh! And there's one more flower...


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## Zeus. (3 Apr 2018)

Does your tank get any natural daylight on it ? Daughters tank is struggling on the std light.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk


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## kadoxu (3 Apr 2018)

Zeus. said:


> Does your tank get any natural daylight on it ? Daughters tank is struggling on the std light.


Yes it's in a conservatory, so it gets a lot of daylight, and as you can see in the last picture there are a lot of floaters blocking the light. But the plants I have now are mostly good with low light, the ones I knew were a bit more light demanding melted away, so I'm just trimming and replanting the ones that are doing well in there.

I had to replace the LED light when I got the tank, and the new LED casing was slightly different, it looks like they improved the way the light is sealed from water moisture, the LED circuit seems to be similar, so don't know if there's more to it or not.


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## kadoxu (27 Apr 2018)

So, what happens when you get a few hours of direct sunlight on a low tech tank? Here's the answer...




I tend not to remove the algae, because I get to see the shrimp more often, and the Endlers are spawning like rabbits, and the fry eats this as well.












I am now dosing Excel, because the plants aren't being able to cope with so much light... here's a bonus video (sorry about the reflection):


In the beggining of this year I had 1 male Endler... ordered 2 Endler fry in February (ordered more, but only 2 resisted the trip)... 2 females... I have more than 20 now for sure.


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## Konsa (27 Apr 2018)

Hi
The live bearers will give birth every month.Dependant on diet and female size between 25-100 babies.And guppies are not really that predatory so strap yourself for a lot more.lol
Regards Konsa


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## kadoxu (27 Apr 2018)

Konsa said:


> Hi
> The live bearers will give birth every month.Dependant on diet and female size between 25-100 babies.And guppies are not really that predatory so strap yourself for a lot more.lol
> Regards Konsa


I'm aware, they were the first fish I bought. The first batch was 12 fry, 2 jumped off the tank and from the other 10 only 1 grew up to be a male... so in a few months I had hundreds of them. These are just doing it a bit faster...


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## kadoxu (23 May 2018)

The Endlers aren't multiplying as fast as I expected, there are still a lot in there, though.
Plants are having a bit of a hard time with the extra sunlight and temp, specially the Anubias... but still looking good.

I've left 2 of the panels grow algae and the shrimp and fish fry seem to love it. Got myself a Flipper algae scrapper and it was the best thing I bought in a long time!


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## kadoxu (11 Jun 2018)

Lids off... Doser tubing and the Auto Top Up in place.




And it was time for a big trim







The remains...




And suddenly I have dozens of shrimp in plain sight!


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## kadoxu (23 Jul 2018)

Remember the 3 Endlers I bought in February this year? I sold more than 140 Endlers last weekend... each bag in the pic had 12 of them, and there's a bag of RCS.


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## rebel (24 Jul 2018)

Haha they've been doing their business to contribute to your business!


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## kadoxu (24 Jul 2018)

rebel said:


> Haha they've been doing their business to contribute to your business!


As things are in Greater London I'm making them pay their cut of the rent!


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## kadoxu (30 Jul 2018)

Also managing the sun in this one. Trying Easy Life AlgExit and Blue Exit with some success as I'm fighting some BBA at the moment. I was actually able to eradicate BBA from my goldfish tank by adding a few Photos plants to it.


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## kadoxu (6 Oct 2018)

It's been a while...


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## DutchMuch (7 Oct 2018)

only 2 neons?


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## kadoxu (7 Oct 2018)

DutchMuch said:


> only 2 neons?


2 is probably how many I can see daily... but no, this was taken at night, because of all the reflections I get with daylight, so most of the fish were hiding. There are probably a mix of 15 neons/cardinals in there, but they usually live in the shadows... 
Also, probably hundreds of Red Cherry Shrimp, a few male Endlers, and a small Angelfish.


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## DutchMuch (7 Oct 2018)

kadoxu said:


> 2 is probably how many I can see daily... but no, this was taken at night, because of all the reflections I get with daylight, so most of the fish were hiding. There are probably a mix of 15 neons/cardinals in there, but they usually live in the shadows...
> Also, probably hundreds of Red Cherry Shrimp, a few male Endlers, and a small Angelfish.


oh hot!
i didnt read the whole journal so i didnt know XD 
Tank looks like a great low tech  keep up the good work ill be stalking!


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (7 Oct 2018)

Good looking tank you have there !!


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## kadoxu (20 Dec 2018)

Merry Fishmas!


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## kadoxu (1 Apr 2019)

I'm currently selling everything... please check the For Sale thread:
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/selling-everything.57163/


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## kadoxu (3 Apr 2019)

I've miscalculated some of the prices in the initial sales thread... and I've also taken some equipment out of some bundles to reduce the prices. 
So please take a look at it again if anything was of interest!


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