90x30x30 low maintenance

[chickennublet]

There was a bit of a mishap with the chiller yesterday while I was out at work and it was only discovered when I got home past midnight. Basically, the external temperature probe that I installed malfunctioned which resulted in a temperature reading of over 38°C. I've set the chiller to 25°C so it's supposed to only run when the temperature reaches 26°C. This resulted in the chiller running overtime so by the time I discovered that something was wrong, the thermometer I have in the tank was reading 17°C.

The only silver lining, if there is one, is that the chiller isn't strong enough for the temperature to plummet so the drop would have happened over a long period of time. Also, the chiller itself is fine, as I tried running the chiller without the external probe and it was reading a temperature of 15.5°C or something like that. Hailea chillers are set up to read the temperature of the water in the chiller rather than in the tank, so it's generally not as accurate as having a thermometer in the tank which is why I installed the probe in the first place.

At least it's an easy fix, i'll just need to replace the probe or do without it. I'll probably stick to the probe and replacement it every 6 months or so. I am however rather worried about the fish and the plants. I wasn't able to get a good look at the fish as it was very late and there was a lot of condensation and Singapore is really hot so there was seriously a lot of condensation but they did seem to be ok for the most part. As for the plants... I guess time will tell but I hope they won't be too badly affected by this episode.

For now I've turned the chiller off and will be replacing the probe tonight.

 

[Someoldguy]

Hiya! Thank you for the kind words, I'm actually flattered. Not sure why I stopped updating my thread on TPT I should probably do so soon.

To answer your questions:
The Anubias nana petites and Bucephalandra are for the most part tied to small lava rocks. I bought all the Anubias nana petites from other hobbyists and from aquarium shops already attached to the rocks. Some of the Bucephalandra are tied to small lava rocks as well. But a good number of Bucephalandra and Anubias nana petites are sort of just wedged in wherever there is space. Since these plants are so small I usually wedge any loose rhizomes I might have into other Anubias clumps. There's so many of them that they sort of hold each other together in place.

That big Anubias coffeefolia is not tied or glued to anything. There is a small piece of wood in there and I originally sort of loosely wedged this plant in there but it never really attached itself very securely to the wood. I think it's currently being held there just by how big it is and also by all the java fern behind it.

The Java ferns are nearly all not attached to anything. Only the leftmost piece of Java fern is tied to a small piece of wood which again I bought years ago at an LFS and it came with the driftwood. The wood itself is not very interesting. The rest of the Java fern is just there but they are such thick clumps that they kind of hold themselves in place. They are kind of squeezed between the back glass and the Anubias in front of them.

So there's not much hardscape in there at all. There are some small lava rock in the front part of the scape, where the Anubias and Bucephalandra are growing, then a small piece of wood behind the big Anubias coffeefolia. The space under the Anubias coffeefolia and behind it is open so that the Corydoras can swim through, but it's dark there so not very obvious. The Corydoras tend to hand in that little space there. I'm not sure how to describe it so i'll take a picture soon. The rest of the plants are just there and held in place from how big they are lol.

The spaces between the rocks are open but there aren't many in the first place. They are wide enough for smaller Corydoras to swim between them but the chunky ones won't fit.

I have had some Otocinclus, Parotocinclus and one Corydoras CW155 disappear this year, but I'm not sure if any fish has ever gotten stuck between the hardscape. It's possible but I've never seen it myself. I did a bit of rearranging in September where I removed all the plants and ended up putting them back nearly exactly where they were before but I didn't see any bodies then.

Thanks for the reply ! I never would have thought all this vegetation was largely 'just sitting there '! That's ingenious ! I'd figured that there would be masses of rock/wood holding everything in place ; and your rescaping took place via moving the rocks with attached plants around .

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I never would have thought all this vegetation was largely 'just sitting there '!

I don't think it makes any difference to aquatic ferns if they aren't attached to anything.

None of my Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus) or <"Bolbitis heudelotii"> <"have been attached"> for ~10 years, and they carry on growing. Same with <"various mosses">, some are attached (but only where they've attached themselves), but most are free floating.

Aroids (Anubias, Bucephalandra, Schismatoglottis) might be a bit different, <"particularly Bucephalandra spp.?">, and do better attached.

This is what @Mick.Dk said, he worked for <"Make your aquarium a success - Tropica Aquarium Plants">, testing potential new plants for commercial production.

... Not much more to say, actually - most Buceph.s are tough, little Bast.... (oh, I probaply can't write that)😉
I have tested a lot, and the different types/varieties/species - or whatever they end up being clasdified - are not equally tough,
They have ALL grown healthier and faster, if tied to a small rock, allowed to grow their true roots into a rich bottom-layer as compared to growing high on a rock or high on a piece of wood....

cheers Darrel

 

[chickennublet]

Hi all,

I don't think it makes any difference to aquatic ferns if they aren't attached to anything.

None of my Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus) or <"Bolbitis heudelotii"> <"have been attached"> for ~10 years, and they carry on growing. Same with <"various mosses">, some are attached (but only where they've attached themselves), but most are free floating.

Aroids (Anubias, Bucephalandra, Schismatoglottis) might be a bit different, <"particularly Bucephalandra spp.?">, and do better attached.

This is what @Mick.Dk said, he worked for <"Make your aquarium a success - Tropica Aquarium Plants">, testing potential new plants for commercial production.


cheers Darrel

I have to agree. Anubias are easy growers no matter what you do, I feel like the main thing to look out for is rhizome rot. But I've never been able to grow Bucephalandra very well in this tank and feel that they will probably do better with their roots in nutrient rich substrate than attached to hardscape.