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.

 

[chickennublet]

Little update.

Have set up a new temperature probe so temperature readings are accurate now. It will probably fail on me again eventually, but measuring the temperature this way is a lot more accurate and also reduces the number of times the chiller kicks in. The previous probe only lasted 6 short months so I'll probably replace this one in 5 months. Thankfully they are cheap.

I am also happy to say that the fish appear to be fine for the most part. I counted all of them yesterday, although one hastatus and one big old sterbai didn't seem very interested in eating. The plants also appear to be fine but they are mostly Anubias and ferns so if they do deteriorate I suspect it will be over a longer period of time...

In other news I've obtained some medicine for the hastatus in the other tank. The active ingredients are Acriflavine, Malachite Green, Formaldehyde. Honestly this medicine scares me a little so I've underdosed and will be checking in on him and changing his water regularly.

For now, just two pictures. One of the Corydoras enjoying their food and the other taken from the back of the tank. I should have zoomed out on the back picture but you can see that there's just a few small rocks and a bit of wood. Nearly all the ferns are just hanging there not attached to anything. My girlfriend thinks I have too many fish in there. I still want more but I have to agree, the bottom is getting quite crowded so I won't be getting anymore bottom dwellers.

20241106_215052 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

20241106_215851 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[megwattscreative]

I hope your hastatus are ok ! Sending a speedy recovery from the UK 🙂 let us know how it goes.

Ps. Can I share your tank on the ukaps Instagram?

 

[chickennublet]

I hope your hastatus are ok ! Sending a speedy recovery from the UK 🙂 let us know how it goes.

Ps. Can I share your tank on the ukaps Instagram?

Thank you so very much for the kind words. Already lost two and I'd hate to lose another so I hope he stops deteriorating and his tail fin grows back.

Also yes go ahead! I'd be honoured if you did.

 

[chickennublet]

More fish photos today

I usually split a novotab and stick one a little higher up so that the little hastatus can get to it but it seems like the other fish are learning
20241109_172855 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

Hoplisoma caudimaculatum looking nice
20241109_173131 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

CW115. He is still very small and I don't see him very often.
20241109_172201 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[chickennublet]

Some bad news, got home from work to see the hastatus dead. There are some shrimp in the isolation tank because I poured the water from my Biomaster into this tank and they were eating away at the body. I removed the body immediately upon seeing it.

I acquired another big CW51 a few days ago. Bought him from the breeder who I got the Knaacki from. I think this CW51 is from the same shipment as the one I already have as we both bought them from the same shop at around the same time. The CW51 in that batch are all really big and with beautiful big markings. He is still a little shy and not eating, but then I think back to when I first got the Knaacki from him and to the first time I bought CW51s too and they didn't eat for quite a while after I acquired them. They eat like champs now so I'm sure he will come round to it.

The other two hastatus are mercifully doing well.

Now not quite sure what to do with the spare tank. It's not got any fish in it at the moment but it's got red Neocaridina in there (didn't count how many there are but probably 50 to 60 of them in all different sizes). I will probably get a small group of hastatus and quarantine them this time and make sure they get all fat and healthy before moving them into the big tank but we'll see.

In the meantime a local fish store reached out to me to ask if I'd like some free frozen bloodworms! They are from a brand called "Nu Aqua". Honestly have never heard of them but they are distributed by San Francisco Bay Brand fish food and my fish love their freeze dried tubifex so should be alright. Looking forward to picking a pack up this weekend.

 

[chickennublet]

Not much of an update, things are chugging along. I feel like there are less shrimp in there before, not sure if I'm just imagining things. There were a lot in my filter thought but I dumped them all into another tank.

Here's a list of all the fish in here at the moment
6 x Hoplisoma caudimaculatum
6x Trigonostigma somphongsi
5 x Hyphessobrycon amandae (ember tetras duh)
5 x Hoplisoma sterbai
5 x Hoplisoma CW51
3 x Hoplisoma CW27
3 x Hoplisoma knaacki
3 x Hoplisoma concolor
2 x Brochis CW155
2 x Gastrodermus hastatus
1 x Hoplisoma CW115

I did see something interesting yesterday and today. Noticed that the caudimaculatum were very active and I thought they might be breeding, but imagine my surprise when I saw that 5 of them were chasing 1 of the knaacki around! I also caught the knaacki t-positioning with one of the caudimaculatum a couple of times. I didn't see the knaacki dropping any eggs today but I definitely saw her carrying eggs and depositing them today. Unfortunately I won't be collecting them and trying to hatch them (not that I could find any of the eggs anyway since I wasn't watching the entire time so I'm not sure where she put them) but it was pretty cool to see. I recorded a little video, you can see the knaacki carrying eggs in it:



Just gonna share a few pictures too. I've adjusted the lighting (again!) so that it would look dimmer and warmer at night.

20241130_225830 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

Hoplisoma CW27
2024-11-30_11-42-27 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[chickennublet]

Hello everyone.

Decided to remove the two little Gastrodermus hastatus from the tank. They have been doing well but one I decided that they should have their own tank. I've moved them to another tank now and I hope they will do well there. One of them also has developed a little patch of whiteness on one side of the body, but they are so small and skittish that it's hard to tell what the problem is. Thankfully still active and eating. I personally suspect that he got rammed by one of the larger Corydoras and sustained an injury.

Other than that not much to update here. It is a little sad that the top part of the tank looks so empty. Will think about what I can do about that.

Picture taken today during feeding time:

20241209_210756 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[chickennublet]

I've just gone back to the first page of this journal and saw how it looked like when I first set up this tank. So surprised at how clean and open it used to look.

I actually kind of miss all that open space, when the tank used to feel bigger. It feels like the plants here grow so slowly that I don't even realise how much they've grown! The same thing happened in a previous scape in my 30cm nano tank, where I put a clump of trident fern in the middle of the tank and it took over before I even knew it.

I snip of some of the poorly looking Java fern fronds and Bucephalandra leaves every so often, but I've left the Anubias nana petite nearly untouched for the most part.

It might perhaps be time for me to serious thin out these plants so that they have more space to grow again.

 

[chickennublet]

I'd like to get more fish for this tank but I feel like it is started to get a little crowded in there. Some tetras would be really nice. Also the scape has been the same for so long now that a rescape might be nice. Something more hardscape heavy but more space on the bottom. It would be real pity to get rid of the plants though, since I probably won't want to keep all of them.

Some species I've really wanted for a long time have also started to appear in the shops here. Beauties such as Hoplisoma atropersonatus, H apiaka, H eversi and Gastrodermus guapore. I am so tempted to get a few specimens (except H eversi because those are expensive) but I honestly don't know if I should. I think i've mentioned this before but I feel like the bottom is getting a little too crowded. But the tank also looks so very empty sometimes, when it isn't feeding time. They Corydoras have space in the back, but the plants are very close to the front glass that it feels like they could use more space.

I wonder if maybe it only looks crowded because during feeding time all of them come out and squeeze themselves into a third of the tank and that makes the tank look too busy. It also did look roomier when the tank was more of an island scape.

I might perhaps rearrange things again back to their original configuration and thin out the plants but no major changes until much later as I want to tear down my nano tank and rescape that first.

Anyway, just wanted to share a few pictures:

Hoplisoma CW51!
20241212_221340 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr
20241212_221403 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

And a picture of the swarm coming out to eat yesterday

20241217_210914 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[chickennublet]

Good day friends.

Still thinking of rescaping but for now I've just made a very slight change. I miss the island look so I kind of just squished all the plants closer together and pushed the plants a toward the back as well. I like it a lot better now. Just want to share pictures of the mass of Java fern above the water from when I was doing maintenance and a full tank shot:

20241222_110134 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

20241223_203413 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

 

[hydrophyte]

Cool!

Those plants look happy.