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1300 litre chocolate lake

sanj said:
Heh looks like one of the trees that blew over in the storm last week. It is looking nicely balanced, but you know I only get the sense of scale when I look at the eheim intake, otherwise it could be as large as Amano's monster.
Click to expand...

A tree blown over ha ha. Not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not he he. Originally I wanted to use that one big piece and do just that. Have it look like a tree had sunk.
The sense of scale is way off Sanj as the s4 camera has squashed the photo in width ways so doesnt look as long as it is.

🙁
 
Sad news currently. Ive lost almost all the pygmy corys. They began acting intoxicated and swimming into things, upside down all sorts. I used a test kit (shhhhhh) and all parameters were spot on. Chocolate gouramis licorice gouramis ottos and a couple of cherries that had been put in are all perfectly normal and showing breeding behaviour.
I was baffled at this and slowly one by one they began dying or I had to put them to sleep. 2 are left but they're thr same.

On the branched ends of the big piece of oak I have a strange kind of white hair that grows back the day after I brush it off and theyd seemed very interested in this so not sure if this was the cause. Darrel mentioned to me that all fungus has some form of toxic substance but ill not know. .they could have even had a diseaese before they even arrived. Very sad to see this as fish arent just fish to me.

Ill wait until its fully planted before adding any other fauna. Ive got more plants arriving this week I hope and am wondering whether to switch out the trident on the top right side as not sure if this looks unbalanced when you see the windelov in the left. Any ideas would be great.
This next lot of plants will hopefully make it look much more grown in.

Going to run twin fx6 filters too which are sat boxed up in my living room waiting to go on. The adjustable outlets are great for getting flow right down to substrate level I keep having particles settling on the gravel. I guess you dont see this when you have a dark planting substrate as it all falls through.

Also going to be starting a hopefully lovely shrimp scape journal this week too.
 
Ah, really sorry to hear that Al. I get incredibly mopey about losing fish as well. I've only ever kept cories once a long time ago so don't have much useful to contribute, but if the licorice and chocoloate gouramis are OK then it seems unlikely to be a water quality issue.

What are new plant additions going to be?
 
Sounds very strange I cant think of anything to help, as tom said considering the gouramis etc are fine it cant be water issues,

A bit of a long shot but is your ph to low ? I know its written that ph for them is between 6.5 - 7.5 but from experience closer to 7.5 is best for them

The only other thing is like you said the fungus but even this would be a long a shot as I would have thought the shrimp would be the first on to this and be the first to suffer ?
 
Had some down time in work today so going through journals...I like the look of this giving me some good ideas for my tank.
 
Sorry for your losses Al. I love my Pygmy Corys.

On the positive side if/when you get some more they'll have one hell of a home 🙂
 
Have never had ANY species of corydoras do well for me for very long at temp's much above 76 degree's F
Also have had some waste away from causes unknown.
I now offer anti parasite food = small bottle of Jungle lab's anti parasite food (metro,prazi) crushed up with pestle ,and mixed with equal part's of flake or pellet food and garlic extract to form a paste which I then freeze.
I feed only this food for four to seven day's for new fishes, and have completely stopped offering blood worm's which have become linked to possible issues in recent year's by more and more fishkeeper's.
 
So sorry mate, I know how you feel. Afraid I have no advice for this one, just lots of sympathy. Remember though: you tried your best and that counts for everything.

Looking forward to your shrimp journal, and the lake is shaping up wonderfully; very impressed.
All the best from Bill.
 
Just catching up with this thread I note Roadmaster mentions an anti-parasite treatment . Save looking for it - it's a USA product ( now discontinued ), here on UK these types of products are Vet only products .


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Just a little update, ive added a lot more plants to the tank over the past week, and also re done the lwft side of wood where the windelov was as it didnt look right. They just looked placed and not natural.
Its looking great now and when everything takes off which its starting too ill be adding in the full fauna.
Its got a nice partial carpeting of parva added too.

Ive not had much luck with moss in this tank though which im stumped at as ive never ever had problems. What ever it i put in just doesn't stay green and starts to go a dull colour.

Im now dosing tropica specialised and premium on alternate days but at 1/4 the stated dosing as im not adding co2.

Ive also got 2 fx6 running alongside the other filter too with minimal bio media which is helping with flow as its a pain in a tank this size.

Ive been taking pics with my dslr but due to having a bright room and the tank being so big im getting reflections from everywhere so the camera is not focusing past the reflections so pics are grainy and not sharp. Had some great help from George Farmer (thanks mate) on dealing with this and getting a good full tank shot so going to get stuck in next week and post up lots of shots.
 
If you've got a tripod I would suggest setting the camera to full manual and switching Autofocus OFF . That way you can control exactly which point you want to focus on can go for a good Depth of field .


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Alastair said:
Sad news currently. Ive lost almost all the pygmy corys. They began acting intoxicated and swimming into things, upside down all sorts.
Click to expand...
Hi Alistair
Could be that you have different water parameters from the fish store you bought them from.
Do you use RO?
hoggie
 
RichardJW said:
If you've got a tripod I would suggest setting the camera to full manual and switching Autofocus OFF . That way you can control exactly which point you want to focus on can go for a good Depth of field .


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Click to expand...

Thanks richard. Yep I have an oldschool solid tripod and use manual focus all the time now on tank shots. Its just the reflections which are a pain but ive got some great tips which ill put into practice.
hogan53 said:
Hi Alistair
Could be that you have different water parameters from the fish store you bought them from.
Do you use RO?
hoggie
Click to expand...

Hi hoggie

No I dont use ro as my water is stupidly soft and acidic anyway. The shop is right near by. The corys had only been in the shop tank overnight and straight to me but spoke with darrel and he thinks they may have already been slightly unwell and underfed etc. Guess ill never know but the tanks inhabitants are thriving already.
Chocolate gouramis showing the male pecking order and chasing females and the licorice gourami males are showing some anazing territorial bouts. They really do seem to like this tank. Even the ottos shoal around all day together.

Hoping for another 10 ottos, 40 choccos, 20 more licorice gouramis and will try pygmy corys again if I can find them local
 
Try a circular polarized filter for getting rid of reflections

Can wait for your pic updates......
 
Here is a couple of photos off my phone prior to just finishing off the rest of the planting this evening. Not great quality but waiting until I get some good shots with my dslr and sorted the reflection.
Not sure why my phone makes everything look so small though 😕
0UECPqE.jpg

and the maiden hair which im having to trim every weekend now
hYVdj3F.jpg

Looking forward to seeing it grow in now and adding the rest of the occupants over the next few weeks
 
It's looking fab mate! I'd love a tank like that 🙂 if you ever have any trimmings of the maiden hair I'd be interested in buying a tiny bit off you please. I'm after something to grow on the exposed bits of the manzi - think this would be ideal?
 
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