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(NO MORE) 2,000L High tech BEAST

Looks good. I actually think it's cool to see black widow tetra as they are such an overlooked species popular in the distant pass, so it's nice to see them in a nice tank.
It might look empty but your at the early stage of stocking, the slower you go the better the tank will become. I'd personally see which fish you enjoy most out of those you have bought and massively up the numbers of them. You might love the puffers and add a couple of dozen more or be impressed by one of the open water swimmers, so i would sort that out before you add any larger show fish species.
My brother has Columbian blues and they have matured into really striking fish, so much so that I'd love to try a huge group of them (or diamond tetra).
 
I think it's so much more natural when fish can swim in all directions instead of just back and forth. 🙂

For water clarity I suggest you convert a filter to just sponges or put thin layers of sponges on top each tray of existing media. I can't recall what your filtration type is though...but if applicable to what I am saying the sponges should be medium or/and coarse. It makes a huge difference. Also, pre-filter sponges is a really good way of keeping your filters clean and thus your biological filtration optimal.
 
One option is a Vortex diatom filter ( i used to use one before i killis it with rinsing it out in to hot water) but nowadays they can only be found in the USA as far as i know. It's a simple filter, you load it up with diatomic earth and run it for a few hours. This realy cleans the crap out of your water.
 
Edvet said:
One option is a Vortex diatom filter ( i used to use one before i killis it with rinsing it out in to hot water) but nowadays they can only be found in the USA as far as i know. It's a simple filter, you load it up with diatomic earth and run it for a few hours. This realy cleans the crap out of your water.
Click to expand...


Good shout. I forgot about those.
Ive seen a dude on youtube using one to scrub green water. It was impressive.

Thanks
Fil
 
So, the new fish have been settling for about 2 weeks.

- love the dwarf puffers, snail population seems unchanged for now, which is a good thing
- the 2 elephant noses are great fun to watch, really clumsy eaters. They had to be separated due to aggression (I guess the Beast isnt big enough!), I had to fish out the smaller enose out of the sump twice, after the second time it went straight into my newly built rimless 200L long, not sure if I will be keeping it long term
- the SAE seem happy muching away on my plentiful algea, only got 5, should get more
- the penguin and black neons have been a bit shy, keeping to top middle of the tank
- the black skirts and columbian tetras are fab, always active, drawn to me when Im standing by and greedily munching on anything i throw in, should get more
- the black phantom tetras are a bit meh, very shy always hiding under plants
- bamboo shrimp are great, hard to spot but a treat when you do
- endler guppy males are very nice looking, still tiny though
- bad times for the 20 cardinal tetras, 4 were DOA, most of the rest dropped after 24hrs, i think there is about 2 left in the tank
- got 35 neons at a LFS, big, bright and cheap, couldnt resist, they are doing very well
- the 3 whiptails, found 1 dead after a few days, and can only ever spot 1 at a time so not sure how many are left. Should be great once bigger and coloured up
- amano shrimp are doing great, only got 5, should get more
- the apisto pair, I can only ever spot one, always on a hunt, good fun to watch. I think the larger one (female?) is either dead or staking a territory somewhere hard to see
- galaxy rasboras came tiny, they keep low in the middle of the tank so not much fun so far

The tank has been without co2 for 4 weeks now (been having issues with supply), so it all looks a bit drab, no major issues. Been giving it only a couple of hrs light each day.

I am thinking of how to polish the water. Some options so far:
- convert my HMA filter to a diatome filter
- DIY a massive filter from a 5L plastic bottle and a powerful pump, only to be used when needed
- planning to modify my sump to get rid of filter socks, and replace with strips of polyester matting, to be replaced weekly

I might do all 3, we will see.

Thanks for reading
Fil

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Just wait a bit with the angels , mine dined on young freshly introduced cardinals, but left them alone when the cardinals were adult size. You could make some "woodpile"" in the quieter middle from some lighter twigs/branches where the angels can''t get too that easily.
 
You black phantoms, penguins and black neons are probably shy at the moment as it's still early days but more likely you don't have enough. In a smaller tank a group of ten wuld make them feel secure but in yours with the extra space you'd likely need to up that quite a bit. The other species like the Columbian are simply bolder. So you could up the numbers of the others if you like them or see if they settle in and become more adventurous as you add other fish.
I wouldn't be overly worried about the angels eating the cherry shrimp as you have an elephant nose that will likely reduce the numbers anyway. Sorry I didn't know you were planning a shrimp population before or I would have warned you. It doesn't mean you won't be able to maintain a nice shrimp population but I'd be very surprised if they weren't heavily predated.
 
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