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Finally decided to post a pic

W

Worshiper

Member
Joined
16 Aug 2013
Messages
260
Hi all,

Never posted a pic of my aquarium as it is a bit daunting to see the talent and knowledge of everyone on this site!.. not to mention the quality of scaping and photography!!!.. oh well I have attached a pic of my latest set up taken with my mobile.

Would appreciate some feedback on how I can improve it. Facing a lot of algae issues due to the light intensity and am currently performing water changes and will add some floating plants to reduce the light. Hope that will help. It's been set up for the past 2+ months now.

i started it with one pot of E tenellus and P. Helferi. and yes a strand of hydrocotyle tripartita which I managed to kill with my earlier set up. 🙄


Please post some constructive criticism; it is a basic set up-- my first actual attempt TBH so dont be harsh with your comments 😱

18833267066_8742982dbc_c.jpg
 
Good potential there well done. It's the old personal preference thing a few stems to hide equipment,maybe tall hair grass or some less aggressive growing tall plants
 
I think it's looking very well (never misjudge the impact of excellent photography on human perception ... if you look back in some old journals, you can occasionally see the same tank with "home" photo & then photographer skill & camera, or as different lighting & lens are used; also remove all equipment for optimum impact)

Anyway "constructive" criticism ... (at least in intent 😉)
I'd add in shrimp for algae help, I prefer cherry types for scale aspect but amano's can be more wide-ranging in the sorts of algae they'll consume - most shrimp will happily eat fish food though so for maximum algae consumption, feed sparingly (it's "easier" to establish a new tank setup with just shrimp & otos)
I'd choose 1 or 2 fish types & have a decent school - I think this is more appealing in iwagumi style tanks, also choose smaller fishes to suit scale of tank & plant leaf size (if you love your current group of fish, who cares about esthetics!)
Hide filter behind plant growth (but this will often impact flow) ... tall grasses or fine leafed stem plant such as a rotala green (or consider if you want to add in some color ... then use a "red" rotala etc), the H tripartita can also be trained to mound/curtain etc but it also seems easy to establish in some tanks & reluctant in others
(the rotala would also likely help with algae issues in the manner of "fast -growing stem plants")
 
Thanx Paraguay and Alto. I agree with the comments.
The plan is to buy a few more cardinal tetras. I have about 6 but the pic seemed to elude them.
Also want to get some hatchets.
Want some shrimp but in the past my cherry barbs have made a feast of them 🙂

Do you reckon i buy E. Arcicularis to cover the equipment?
All plants are actually low maintainance so far so its easy for me.

Also this is a real budget tank in my view.
New Tank and cabinet for 80.00(low specs but fits my pocket 🙂)
Sodstream Co2 hack with solenoid for 60.00
Lava rock for 20.00
Easy LED for 60.00 something.
One pot of E. Tel for 3.00
 
Yes barbs & shrimp are not usually suitable tankmates (unless you're wanting to reduce a shrimp overpopulation), as it's a small tank, I'd only get in the smallest hatchet species (check they are identified correctly before buying).
You could try this tall grass or a V nana, I don't know how "easy" the former actually is as I've seen it die off in various tanks (including the display tanks at various shops where "difficult" plants are thriving)

You might also play around with various backgrounds to see if you prefer the back of the tank blocked (& no visible cords etc).
Well done on the limited plant budget!
 
thanks Alto..
I have decided to go with a black background and e vivipara to cover the filter etc. for some reason I feel like putting another lava rock behind the smaller rock to cover up some blank space.

any thoughts anyone?
 
Be careful of rocks blocking/altering flow in the tank (especially in terms of CO2 distribution etc)
 
Your tank looks good W, tanks evolve over time, be it natural growth (some plants stronger than other) or through adding and taking away plants due to seeing what someone else has done (I'm always adjusting hard scape and plant locations). Alto is correct, if anything is moved, changed in the tank, you will need to monitor the flow in the tank. It's all about the flow....
Jim

Edit: what is your photo period out of interest
 
Thanks Banthaman, my photoperiod is 6.5 hours. Co2 and hour before the light and off an hour before the lights go out.

I have added another internal filter to help with the flow this weekend. I have moved the hardscape around a bit and added a black background.

Unable to add pics due to some error, will try again later.
 
Cheers Jim🙂
Had a few problems uploading pics from Flickr yesterday. Will put some up this weekend. The tank water has got really cloudy the past 2 days so hopeful that will clear up too. Been reading about how to clear the water out too in this forum. 😉
 
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