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Branch

The stressed serpea has made a recovery and is swimming again. He isnt all there yet but we'll see how it goes.
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The sick ember has been moved to a dedicated nano for the time being. Used some soil and water from his previous tank together with some plants and shrimp. Its not great but better then the now unheated and dirty old tank.
 
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0 deaths overnight so all going well. Mr serpea is swimming along with the rest and has seemingly made full recovery. Quasimodo, as ive started calling the sick ember, has his own little tank now and is... as well as can be expected of a lonely ember. Chucked in lots of plants to make him feel more comfortabele.

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Here you can see the discoloration of his tail. Its more prominent irl opposed to the pics but visible there too.
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And here you can see his odd shape.
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Been like this for months because I couldnt catch the bugger in the previous jungle tank and he seemed healthy enough to gamble he wouldn't just up and die suddenly infecting the rest. I feel sad for him though. If anyone thinks its something else then tetra disease id love to hear it!
 
The curvy spine makes me wary of fish TB. Not for certain but I wouldn't stick any arms with open wounds in with him to be sure
I looked at the symptoms of fish TB but I dont think it is, he has always been fine and active (be it a bit slower then the rest due to his deformation) and eats well enough. But thanks for thinking along :) Also none of the other fish show any symptoms and he has been with these tankmates for many months, I got them from someone else and he must have had it back then as well.
 
2.5 weeks in since planting. Most plants doing fine, except for 3. Fissidens nobilis is having a difficult time adapting, all 3 clumps are doing poorly atm. All other fissidens is doing fine. The elatine hydropiper is also having a hard time adjusting. And finally some of the hairgrass is forming new leaves but dropping the old. I upped ferts just in case. 0 fish deaths, 1 cherry shrimp dead because of molting issue it would seem. The rest seem fine. Only signs of algae this far are some old blyxa leaves that may have some bba, spot dosing those with easycarbo. Overview with montividensis and elodea growing well.
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Blyxa and lotus growing well, nobilis at the base of wood struggling.
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Fish love chilling between the twigs, but also explore the whole tank regularly.
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Elantine melts to nothing when planted but DON’T be tempted to pull out the plugs. In about 2-3 weeks you notice tiny tiny little cartoon seedling looking plants growing from the original bundle before becoming “proper” plants and spreading.
 
Elantine melts to nothing when planted but DON’T be tempted to pull out the plugs. In about 2-3 weeks you notice tiny tiny little cartoon seedling looking plants growing from the original bundle before becoming “proper” plants and spreading.
Thanks for the heads up, I've not had it before and I was already looking at replacements (glossostigma would be up next).
 
I suspect that’s what many people do as I was told it’s incredibly tricky but nahhhhh, once it’s through that initial “leave me alone and let me do my thing” period and you see them tiny cartoon seedlings, it’s a really great little plant, likes it cool <24c ideal world.
 
I suspect that’s what many people do as I was told it’s incredibly tricky but nahhhhh, once it’s through that initial “leave me alone and let me do my thing” period and you see them tiny cartoon seedlings, it’s a really great little plant, likes it cool <24c ideal world.
Tank is set to 23c so that should be fine then! :)

Just had an interesting moment, somehow a kuhli managed to get into the sump and ate half the ramshorn snails. I didnt know they did that, but given the amount of empty shells where there were lots of small snails before, I am pretty sure this is the case. What puzzles me is how he got into the sump. The overflow comb has been covered with relatively fine mesh, allowing small shrimp to go through (as the main tank will hold fish that eat shrimp) and enter the refugium where they can grow and multiply untill I can release a bunch of adults into the main tank again. But its not large enough for fish to pass, at least so I thought. Untill I found mister fat kuhli in there. I managed to catch him easy enough as I made everything in the refugium easy to remove (for cleaning and for catching whatever ended up in there) but they really are masters of escape it seems.
 
Nice pic of the male Leeri. Excellent colour for one that has just come from an LFS.
Thanks, he did colour up quite fast :) He wont stay still for a shot with his full sparkles on.

Trying out that camera some more, not there yet settings wise but still had a few that (with some cropping) were decent. It kept focusing on CO2 mist, I'll try again sometime after CO2 is off.
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Maintenance today. Spotted a few old blyxa leaves with some possible bba (darkened edges) that I removed just in case and spot dosed some easy carbo on the general vicinity. Adjusted CO2 slightly (comes on 10 minutes earlier now) to see if that fixes it.
Light has been increased marginally a week or so ago (50%, up from 45%). Frogbit is growing fast and large, so I think ferts are at the correct level atm (currently set to 17mm per day).

Contemplating swapping the elodea for ludwigia red, as that deals with liquid carbo better and I think it might look great too. But perhaps I'm just influenced by all the red and orange trees in the woods here giving me this autumnal vibe.
What do you guys think?

All fish seem to be doing well. Havent spotted the fan shrimp since his/her release last thursday though. I've heard they often molt after going into a new tank, then hide for a few days, so I'm hopeful. It cant have escaped (tank is closed off with a net) and I've not seen a dead shrimp either, so it should be around somewhere...
I'm loving the panda cory's, always about and checking everything with their mustaches. Wood, sand, rocks, everything is inspected for possible food.

I'll be adding the 9 embers, 6 or 7 pigmys and one or 2 ottos from the other tank in a few days, and then I've got the following things still planned:
  • 3 apisto borelli (1m, 2 f)
  • 3 swords (preferably montezuma natural colours, if I cant find those then 3 regular natural colours)
  • 3-5 more serpeas
  • 8 marbled hatchets

I think that is already close to the limit of what the tank can hold, but after having a very stock-light tank for a very long time, I enjoy having so much to see. I've noticed both wife and kids have also shown a large increase in interest in this tank since the leeri's were added. Their size and 'feelers' make them a hit with the kids :)

The shrimp in the sump have found ways around the barricades, so they are now inside the bio filtration area and first chamber too. I moved the coarse spunge that was seperating the first room from the refugium up a bit so they can easily pass under it after one managed to kill himself getting stuck between spunge and glass. I spotted another one that killed himself in similar fashion between the finer spunges and the return chamber, but I'm not changing that lest they get shredded by the return pump. I spotted loads of berried females so I'm not worried about their numbers, and most prefer to stay inside the refugium room with the plants and light at night.
Plants in the refugium - mosses ferns and crypts are doing ok, the 53B has been reduced to 1 single stem with a few leaves, the limnophila has all but died off . They might still have been suffering from bleach treatment before going into this tank, so giving them some time still. Added a cutting of elodea to the refugium too to see if that takes down there. The light is relatively low, so might just end up with just ferns and crypts and moss there, which is fine too.
 
Nearly gassed my tank there. Yesterday after maintenance I moved my return pump a little, so its inlet was positioned above the bazooka a bit more. Just now came out of a (teams)meeting and the drop 30 mg/l dropchecker was bright yellow. Fish seem ok still, but I did turn off the CO2 right away. Its proving a bit difficult to get the CO2 right this far.
Disregarding the old settings, I'm now going with CO2 at 12:30, off at 15:30 - this means CO2 is lime by lights (they come on at 15:00) on and heading into yellow when it turns off. It then turns back on at 16:00, off again at 16:30, on again at 17:30 and off again at 18:30. Lights go off at 21:00. I'd much prefer to just have CO2 come on at time X and off at time Y and have that be all, but it takes a while to get the CO2 level up before lights on, but once it hits that it quickly goes into yellow. What do you guys think is better:
  1. Lower injection rate so it stays on constantly but I have to start earlier
  2. Have multiple shorter injection periods at higher injection rate (can be as many as I want, digital controller has no limit)

I'm using a sump, and I've been told off gassing with a sump is quite fast. I havent really noticed this far if that is the case here as well.
I am leaning towards option 1, but I keep seeing people only need to turn on CO2 an hour or so before lights on, and I'm already at 2.5 hours before... I'd have to go 3 or maybe 4 hours before lights on if I lower the injection rate.

On a side note, the fish I bought as serpea tetras (and have been calling them such ever since) have turned out to be red phantom tetras. Now that I was looking to get some more this has become apparent :p I feel stupid now.

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Never mind, while typing this I've already made up my mind, I'll lower injection rate, have it switch on at 11 or so with lights on limegreen on the 20mg/l dropchecker (I have a 20 and a 30mg in the tank) and try to have it on constantly till 19:15 or so without going above limegreen on the 30 mg/l. Turned down light intensity back to 45% again (down from 50%).
 
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9 embers, 1 otto, 7 pygmies, 80 shrimp or so have been moved. The embers have joined the existing group instantly, the pygmies sometimes join the pandas, sometimes the ottos, but they seem happy enough. Seen more of them in the past few hours then the last few months! Also added some ludwigia to see if it is a good replacement for the elodea.

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One of the buces that I got in vitro and tied to the wood is suddenly beset by a fungus and is turning into slime. The other 2 types of buce seem unaffected. Shame as it was growing well and fast. Hopefully some will survive and regrow... always puzzling how something can suddenly just appear in a tank.

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The troublesome phase has started at the worst possible time. My hernia prevents me from doing much while various algea have made their move after the co2 changes. Bba reared it's ugly head on hardscape and the montevidensis, some gsa appeared on glass and equipment. Managed to do a lot of spot dosing easycarbo today, probably more tomorrow. It's so tempting to try and tweak co2 or light more but I'm convinced this is still caused by the large change in co2 schema 10 days ago. Most plants doing well except the buce and nobilis. Lotus is starting to grow to size.
Fish all seem very happy.
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Bba seems to be slowing down, but elodea is not liking the heavy liquid carb dosing. I am really comtemplating replacing it all with ludwigia red. Spot algea havent shown signs of slowing though, so might have to up ferts a bit more.
Finally found the fan shrimps hiding spot, I feared it had died but the large branch contains a hole I didnt know about that is apparently shrimp sized :) fed the ottos some Courgette again today with lights still off, three of them instantly went to feast. Blurry pic but no lights :)

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