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First effort - a rod for my back!

mort said:
2 months is still a young tank really. My brother has the same tank and I had to tint the water with alder cones to reduce the light a little because he doesn't have co2 and the light caused the usual problems with algae in the beginning. His tank has been up and running for a couple of years now and it only gets 6 hours a day. I also only run a 6 hour photoperiod on my tanks because I want to balance plant growth vs my dislike of having to prune plants to often. If you have a simple low energy tank without co2 then I don't think you need a long photoperiod but I guess like everything else that's open to debate.
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Thanks Mort, yeah for sure 2 months is not long, I’m just after healthy plants and Growth seems the best indicator of that, and by growing the plants are outcompeting algae? As it stands some of them are struggling, even easy plants like Java fern. This is partly because I work away from home 40% of my life and the tank gets neglected and partly because I’ve made mistakes, damaged plants, shaded them hardscape etc.
 
I think if you are working away then it's probably easier to keep it as simple as possible tbh. Low tech tanks can take a while to mature simply because they don't have the input that a high tech tank does, where you can reach a high plant mass faster, so unless we really pack the plants in a low tech you just have to wait longer. In the long run you should reach a point where it all begins to settle down but we have to go through a initially, highly frustrating, phase first. It sometimes doesn't help when we see other setups and see how successful they have been in a short time, our journeys are different lengths but we get there eventually.

If the frogbit is suffering then it points to an in balance somewhere, which is where the duck weed index can probably help you out.
 
Thanks, great comments Mort, yes the algae was so thick on the very long frogbit roots I had to cut them off so one or both might have affected their health? Fert dosing is now TNC 5 ml daily rather than 20ml once a week. Water is very soft, zero-1GH, pH around 6.0. Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite zero. I’ll check out the duckweed index, sounds like it might be useful, thanks
 
mort said:
I think if you are working away then it's probably easier to keep it as simple as possible tbh. Low tech tanks can take a while to mature simply because they don't have the input that a high tech tank does, where you can reach a high plant mass faster, so unless we really pack the plants in a low tech you just have to wait longer. In the long run you should reach a point where it all begins to settle down but we have to go through a initially, highly frustrating, phase first. It sometimes doesn't help when we see other setups and see how successful they have been in a short time, our journeys are different lengths but we get there eventually.

If the frogbit is suffering then it points to an in balance somewhere, which is where the duck weed index can probably help you out.
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also need to remember not all are so honest to show warts and all, some only show the happy days and commit to mention the hair pulling events
 
If yesterday was glass half empty day, today it's half full. Thanks for the encouragement Guys 🙂 Last night I was just immersed in looking at the tank, enjoying the antics of the neons that look as happy as I've ever seen fish in my care... now looking forward to 3pm and lights on!
Speaking of warts and all (not called Bob) today was water change, I'm using an old kettle to decant water from an old homebrew bucket (real ale dosing?😀 ) that I fill up in the utility room. The kettle we've had for decades, since we had a solid fuel Rayburn, all the hefting of water is a half decent work out - at least for my right arm and it holds a decent amount, the spout means you can control the pouring.
Mixing the water still has room for improvement, the taps are an awkward design to get adaptors for and the Hozelock fittings I've bodged together, have a habit of spraying water everywhere. Waddling through the house with 25 litres of water in a bucket is not great for the lower back either and I'm sure the handle will go one of these days. Thinking a tank on wheels would be a good thing...
What works really well is my siphon tube that now runs from the tank straight out of the opened window; not great for any unlucky fish that will end up out in the snowy waste but so far they're all accounted for and no buckets!
Cheers
Dave

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Karmicnull said:
I don't have the courage to empty the water straight out. My syphon diligence is too poor. It goes into a bucket first and a shrimp search happens before the water is thrown out. So far three shrimp have been spotted and rescued at that point!
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Yeah it’s always a risk although I’ve no shrimp. My siphon has a gravel cleaning tube so there is some residence time for me to react before they'd disappear up the tube!
 
On the one hand 14 inches of snow outside, and a forecast -10, on the other an artificial cube of tropical South American plants and fish survives on the knife edge of 21st century tech. It’s bonkers isn’t it?
 

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A wee update, all going fairly well really. Some whispy algae but manageable and I like it on the Java ferns. I think the weathered wood might be releasing a lot of organic stuff into the water; when I brush algae off with a toothbrush plumes of fine 'sawdust' billow off. Might be an algae risk.

Can't get frogbit to thrive, it disintegrates within a day or two and if I confine it, it starts to pile up in the flow and rot. I got some fab frogbit from Raws69 in return for a donation but it has not thrived. I am left with a few larger plants that seem able to survive so that's fine for now.

Got some Anubias nana by post, one plant was great and I'm trying it as semi-submerged, the other two were frozen in the post and although I tried to resuscitate them I fear they are past saving.

The alleged Java moss, front centre continues to brown, maybe it'll do something or maybe it really is sphagnum and I've been diddled!

Fish are thriving, the very young neons are growing well and they are all coloured up beautifully and get very excited at the prospect of food. I am thinking I'll now have only neons, having owned loads of species I’ve come full circle and really appreciate their behaviours and colour, seeing their confidence in a shoal of 15, I reckon a bigger group would be even better and I fancy trying to breed them down the line too.

Cheers
Dave

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Sad Anubias nana

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Bit chuffed today, as an experiment and to add to the surface interest I’d glued Anubias to this heather stem. The water level usually covers the roots. The shape of the plant meant tge leaves were pointing down and I was hoping for new growth upward and today I got it! 3 or 4 new leaves emerging. Two do have holes, some sort of nutrient deficit?
 

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Simmo said:
Bit chuffed today, as an experiment and to add to the surface interest I’d glued Anubias to this heather stem. The water level usually covers the roots. The shape of the plant meant tge leaves were pointing down and I was hoping for new growth upward and today I got it! 3 or 4 new leaves emerging. Two do have holes, some sort of nutrient deficit?
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Gutted it was just frogbit 😂
 
The plan is to get a pair of Apistos once things have settled down and I've read of their love of caves. There 's one already made of stones but I wanted to try and use an offcut from the oak that I've been marinating in a bucket outside to make a wooden one. I drilled lots of holes in the wood to about 2/3 of it's length and then removed the sharp bits inside with a chisel. The other end is sawn and I sort of hacked at that a bit to disguise the clean cut end but want to attach some moss in time to obscure it. Not ideal for the tank composition but fish first and better with a couple of java fern obscuring the entrance! Of course the apistos will almost certainly ignore it....

Threw in some more beech leaves from the hedge yesterday, these are really interesting, the ones that have been in for a month or so are as fresh looking as the day they went in. No algae seems to form on them and they are really slow to rot. I quite like the look although the neons seem unimpressed 🙂

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A decently large clean-up of some algae of which there was a lot (wispy beardy stuff I have been spoiling the fish with too much food) and some fresh water gave me the opportunity to re-site the Apisto's log/cave, a bit less conspicuously out of place now although it looks like something artificial you'd buy in a pet shop! 😉 The current also herds all my beech leaves into a corner, defeating my best attempts at a 'natural' arrangement!

Plants seem generally OK, the Amazon frogbit is finally thriving or at least surviving, perhaps due to a change in TNC complete dosing from weekly to daily? Interesting that the Frogbit does not survive as small plants of 3 or 4 leaves but does OK as larger plants. Discuss....maybe the small ones just get battered in the current? My efforts to restrain it were successful but it seemed to attract stagnation and algae so the big ones swirl around the merry-go-round which I really enjoy watching! They look like weird space entities with their dangling roots.

The Anubias nana that I received in a frozen state died and the rhizome rotted so I asked the vendor for replacements which they sent - points to them. This is looking OK on the oak upright on the right.

The' Java Moss' that wasn't Java moss I was mis-sold on Ebay has all died or was on the way out so I've removed the remains. The only moss I now have is the Java on gauze growing on the oak top right so would really like some more but none available from reputable suppliers.

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More plants for the foreground yesterday courtesy of a generous forum member and a lovely load of moss too. Thank you. I'm really pleased with the way the foreground is now fleshed out.
My mind is turning to fish. A top up of neon to bring them up to 20, a pair of Apistogramma borelli opal and something up top. Still not sure about marbled hatchetfish....would complete the picture but erring towards honey gourami

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Week 9ish I think and time seemed right to add some more animal life. I fancied trying shrimp and settled on Amanos for their algae eating credentials and their size. The 5 amigos come from a hard water area so I acclimatised them for about 3 hours with a drip siphon and then lobbed them in with a net. They are big, I expected 1 inch but these guys must be nearly full size, about 2” and I was a little tempted to make them into an omelette. Lights out today in the hope they’ll chill out and survive the coming days and weeks. I’ve calcium blocks and cuttle bone ordered to add to the tank that’ll hopefully help meet exoskeletal calcium requirements.
Exciting times...FEBB12DC-9A75-4C5B-9314-261067149DDA.jpeg
 

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The Amanos have wasted no time, 24 hours in and one has moulted, maybe two, two are feeding and being generally nonchalant and one is missing in action.
I am a bit concerned theres not much substrate as they clearly love the sand but then again the algae is on my wood and plants
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You keep making progress and keeps getting better and better. Really like what you have done with it. How tall is the tank?
 
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