My Shallow Tank v2

[mattb180]

So a while ago I started a journal detailing the first incarnation of this tank. This is the second installment. Basic specs and info:

Tank is 3ft x 3ft x1ft.
Filtration: Single HOB filter and a surface skimmer.
Substrate: Silica sand and plain black gravel
Hardscape: Ivy branches, bog wood, redmoor root.
Fish: 12 x Emperor Tetra, 14 x neon tetra, 12 x Beckfords Pencilfish, 5 pygmy corydoras (These are a what are left of an old group of 15 or so fish, must be 3 years old nearly now)
Plants: Mish mash of fine leaved stems, crypts, lotus lily, hygro polysperma and a few others!

Here are a few pics taken recently:

I will try and keep this journal slightly more updated than the last although by and large this tank tends to just tick over with minimal fuss.

 

[BigTom]

My kind of dimensions! How's the parlour palm doing? I had no luck keeping mine as a riparian.

 

[mattb180]

My kind of dimensions! How's the parlour palm doing? I had no luck keeping mine as a riparian.

Reasonably well, I get regular new growth. I recently had to cut back and rearrange all of the riparium plants. The peace lily got huge to the point that the pot it was in which was sitting on a small rock pile fell over under the weight! What is in there now is about a 3rd of it.

 

[twg]

That last shot is a cracker

 

[RynoParsons]

Loving it

 

[parotet]

Wow, awesome! Tell me that this beautiful tank don't need frequent water changes and I will hate you

Jordi

 

[Greenfinger2]

Mattb, Wonderful shallow tank

 

[Aeropars]

Blue Army!

 

[mattb180]

Blue Army!

 

[mattb180]

Wow, awesome! Tell me that this beautiful tank don't need frequent water changes and I will hate you

Jordi

I tend to change anywhere between 25-50l a week with pure RO. I don't measure PH very often but the TDS varies from about 100-120ppm after a water change to 150-170ppm when I actually come to change it. Must be something in the tank buffering slightly, possibly the substrate?

I have started to filter over peat moss to see if that makes a difference.

Ideally I would have it between 80-100ppm.

 

[mattb180]

Loving it

That last shot is a cracker

Thanks guys.

 

[mattb180]

Here is a semi-decent picture I managed to get of one of the dominant male Emperors.

 

[mattb180]

Interesting observation tonight - I regularly feed the fish in this tank with live daphia from the garden and tonight I fed as the surface skimmer was on which pulled a few daphnia in. A few hours later I see all the fish hovering around the surface skimmer and wonder what they are doing. Turns out that every few minutes a live daphnia would escape from the skimmer only to be eaten! These fish learn very quickly.....

(Excuse the algae in the picture!)