A 'little' box of chocolates, licorice n allsorts - baby chocco fry

[Alastair]

Wow its practicly covered the ground! Its amazed me really I thought such growth couldnt happen without high co2 injection levels but this seems to be growing nearly as quick as a high tech

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Ha ha I know Ali, im not going to take any other tank shots for two weeks to see how much substrate might be or not be visable ha ha. Even the mosses are looking great. Crypts are slow at taking off though

The plants' health are next to none 🙂. Look at the speed at which they are covering the substrate area !!! Nice .🙂

Thanks faizal. The greens are really vivid and not a spot of algae anywhere. Im really happy with it 🙂

Hey al, interesting about the filter, i may have to give that a go as i still have cloudy water too. Fine looking from the front but end to end its very hazy even with 500ml purigen and 500g carbon. Did you zip lock the floss around the basket?
Weird about the tennelus, does look more like dwarf sag, still it looks great so maybe a happy mistake 🙂

Sorry to hear about the jumpers mate, while you wait to sort some acrylic to go round the top might be worth trying putting a book on each corner. I found it stopped all my jumpers in barb island when i added acrylic triangles to the corners, seems thats where they jump most of the time... worth a shot .

Hiya mate.
Its well worth popping some floss round the edges of the top tray. I ordered a huge roll of 30mm thick filter wool from finest filters so I didnt have to keep forking out for eheim white pads so I just used some of this. I didnt zip lock it around mate I just lowered the water level just below the top tray then packed around the filter tray with an inch depth of the floss. Much easier to just pull out and replace instead of having to take out the tray each time 😉

I cant use the purigen as it will suck up my almond leaf and alder cone benefits.

Cut out 4 pieces to stick over the corners at night which is where they hang out but ordered a large sheet which ill cut out holes where the wood come up and inlets etc and ill stick this on at nights



And had to show this photo. I love it. My daughter took it whilst I was fiddling about under the tank.

 

[Nutty]

that is a lovely back-light shot, has she thought about a career in photography?

Hope your corner trick stops any more jumpers! must suck to find em 🙁

 

[Michael W]

Excellent looking tank. Very well done and its evident that a lot of hard work and effort was put into this, carry on the good work! It really goes to show the potential and possibilities of a low tech tank.

 

[Alastair]

that is a lovely back-light shot, has she thought about a career in photography?

Hope your corner trick stops any more jumpers! must suck to find em 🙁

I thought so too. I couldnt get a shot like that on a spur of the moment shot AND it was taken with my s4 phone. I was very proud.

Id love this on a big canvas opposite the tank. What you think?? Easy to get done??? Might start a thread in photography....

Although, I did have to remind her that she could have dropped my phone in the tank water lol. Shes extremely artistic especially for her age. Loves photography. She wants a dslr for xmas 😕

Excellent looking tank. Very well done and its evident that a lot of hard work and effort was put into this, carry on the good work! It really goes to show the potential and possibilities of a low tech tank.

Cheers michael. Definitely a lot of effort has gone into it that's for sure.
I think low techs can look just as good as a high tech tank.

I just need to cure the tank if ich now but unfortunately one chocco didn't respond well to the medication and I found it dead last night. Ill have none left at this rate.
Ive also noticed a couple rocking back and forth recently with clamped fins and when ive searched on google I was gutted to find that it may possibly be gourami disease which is incurable.
Apparently it can wipe out all other dwarf gouramis in the same tank. Id be devastated if that happened. Its not down to water quality problems apparently one can have it and when introduced to a new tank the stress starts it off.
There have been cases where someone didnt lose all there small gouramis but the general consensus is once its started they all go.
I will just have to see. It will be some expensive and upsetting loss if so.


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[Nutty]

Id love this on a big canvas opposite the tank. What you think?? Easy to get done??? Might start a thread in photography....

yer its pretty easy, the big supermarkets offer picture to canvas, not sure on their quality but there are plenty of website that offer it too! overall quality does depend on the the original image and if it can take being blown up to larger sizes, but reading some of your previous posts, it may have to be a smallish one 🙁

Hope the remaining Gouramis pull through, the tank is made for them and it wouldn't be right without!!!

 

[Alastair]

yer its pretty easy, the big supermarkets offer picture to canvas, not sure on their quality but there are plenty of website that offer it too! overall quality does depend on the the original image and if it can take being blown up to larger sizes, but reading some of your previous posts, it may have to be a smallish one 🙁

Hope the remaining Gouramis pull through, the tank is made for them and it wouldn't be right without!!!

Are the pictures not great then on my journal lol. This one seems great when I zoom in on the pc.
Im not sure if she or I could replicate that shot exactly using yhe digital.
Surely with it being such a dark picture ot would be ok and taken at 13mp too??


Thanks mate. My friend at the lfs and someone else said it could just be the stress of the white spot and the treatment. The dead fish today may already have been weak and the meds just brought about the inevitable.
Ive turned flow down to half on the filter too which they all seem to like a bit more, even the shrimp are out and about alot.

So im running a 2080 on HALF flow through a glass lily pipe on a tank thats best part of 600 litres lol. probably just over 1.5 times turnover ha ha

Which reminds me does anyone have a link to a finer foam block for my intakes similar to my current ones as somehow shrimp havw managed to get through this and make home under the blue pre filter sponge inside it.

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[Nutty]

Are the pictures not great then on my journal lol. This one seems great when I zoom in on the pc. Im not sure if she or I could replicate that shot exactly using yhe digital. Surely with it being such a dark picture ot would be ok and taken at 13mp too??

there is nothing wrong with the pictures posted as seen they are all great from a phone, but meant when you zoom, it becomes grainy, which if you went big on canvas you'd see 🙁, but if this one works then brill!! i'd love to see this as big if not bigger than A1 size but would probably be better suited to A3ish, the pic just really draws me in and i sorta get mesmerized by it eheh

 

[Alastair]

Thanks nutty. Ive just paid a company to have it printed on to a canvas and have it opposite the tank. Its a really good picture and my little girl is very proud.

On another positive note check this lot out for 20 pound delivered off ebay



100 grada a leaves 10 inch in size free indian almond bark and even a seed to try to grow.

oof!!!!

 

[DrRob]

Hope you've got a big garden, that's a 35m tree waiting to happen that is.

 

[BigTom]

And a packet of Hall's Soothers!

 

[Alastair]

Hope you've got a big garden, that's a 35m tree waiting to happen that is.

Im not sure it would grow in my garden the winters we get would kill it. Im going to try and grow it indoors for now next to my ficus lyrata tree which gets lots of light once ive drilled a little whole in the seed and placed in some water for a day or two or how ever long the instructions just said.
Then ill pot it up and see what happens.

Its worth a shot at least hey??? Smells nice though

And a packet of Hall's Soothers!

Ha ha I know mate. What are the chances. How did they know I had a sore throat 😉

 

[Alastair]

Just recieved my crystal black shrimp delivered from the gent who bred them, here they are whilst they are drip acclimatising.


Untitled by Mr-T-, on Flickr

Lovely colours considering they have faded during transportm cant wait to see how they look once settled in the tank.

A mix of s grades I think.

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[aliclarke86]

Awesome. How many are in there?? Looks to be a fair few!

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[Alastair]

Awesome. How many are in there?? Looks to be a fair few!

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Quite a few. 25 give or take plus a teeny baby snuck in somehow. Really small but fully coloured. Should be ready to go into the tank soon theyve been dripped for a while now and only had to bring their water up by 11 tds and ph wasnt much different

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[Alastair]

heres a few of the little ones immediately after being introduced, i think they are really well coloured considering theyve just gone in. Guesses on grades???




need to learn how to take good macro shots with the digital too lol. you can see how thick the tennelus is in that last shot. its mental.

and 2 of the tank. im going to play around with the camera this weekend and get the settings right.





im really please with the growth and think in a months time ill not see much of the substrate or the wood.

 

[Ady34]

Looking stunning Alastair.
Things really taking off now, the substrate is almost carpeted, but it definitely does not look like tenellus, which may actually be a good thing in a shallow tank as yours looks shorter.
The shrimp look really nice too.

The maidenhair fern, is it just a houseplant that doesn't mind it's roots in water? Quite fancying some emersed growth in my new set up and this may fit the bill nicely 🙂

Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[Gary Nelson]

The new additions look great mate and what a bargain from ebay too! im loving the immersed moss shot

 

[Alastair]

Looking stunning Alastair.
Things really taking off now, the substrate is almost carpeted, but it definitely does not look like tenellus, which may actually be a good thing in a shallow tank as yours looks shorter.
The shrimp look really nice too.

The maidenhair fern, is it just a houseplant that doesn't mind it's roots in water? Quite fancying some emersed growth in my new set up and this may fit the bill nicely 🙂

Cheerio,
Ady.

Hey ady thanks mate. Im liking how well its growing with such little input. Just water changes and a teeny amount if ferts.

Ive looked all over the net and it has to be a tennelus of some sort as if you look at the runners a saggitaria plant throws off one plantlet where as these have a trail of plantlets coming off each one. Growth is phenomenal!
The shrimp look much more settled today and are happily chilling out in all the various crevices in the wood and on the moss.

Yes mate the maidenhair is just a house plant. Its doing really well. Growing towards my door though which I wasnt hoping for ha ha.

The new additions look great mate and what a bargain from ebay too! im loving the immersed moss shot

Thanks gary, if I didn't have fish id fill this tank with shrimp only and have it as a huge shrimp breeding ground. I will be adding some more cbs though as they dont seem as sought after as the crs infact I prefer the cbs now.
I was chuffed with my ebay buy. Will last me ages 🙂

One thing ive noticed today again after I have just started dosing is the slight haze on the surface again and the bubbles from surface aggitation not bursting. It cleared when id stopped dosing or doing water changes for a week and now its back again. Strange


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[Henry]

Can't wait to see what this looks like when it's all filled in. You and BigTom have this natural tank business down to a 'T' 🙂

Were the Katapa leaves from Amy Lim, by any chance?

 

[zanguli-ya-zamba]

Nice work Al !!!
I love the dimension of you tank !
The carpet is almost done !

cheers