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Round indoor pond project queries.

I stripped away the damaged parts of the water hyacinths and "anchored" them in one spot somehow with my floating planters so they don't get moved by the flow. If they don't float around "annoying" the clown loaches they may not get attacked. The loaches do that for fun rather than eating plants...I also put two small plants in two of my other tanks to see how they do in there...They won't make it in the big tank. Pity as they look so nice in the pond...

I am wondering if I could make some "floating islands" with mesh and this type of foam below?

http://www.efoam.ie/closed-cell-polyethylene-foam.php?gclid=CIDJhcbg2tACFQmdGwod_3YMMw
 
A new video although looking all the same....just to show my floating plants battling nitrogen deficiency of some kind...I doubled what I was initially dosing, now I am going to treble it...At least it seems with the profito fe I overcame the iron problems...for now...

The fish have been acting extremely hungry these days....not that its a bad thing but they've turned into pigs inside this tank. I am still feeding twice a day and everyone has learned my work schedule and waits patiently around those times :) At weekends I drop bits of food every so often when the small ones start gathering near the "front" because I've got little time during the week to feed them well enough considering they are just fry...

There you can clearly see old leaves damage on the floaters.. The same has happened to my parlour palm over the week so not just one plant is affected. Funny though that whatever those fish produce nitrogen wise, the amounts of food I feed, etc.... plus ferts, is still below what the amount the plants are using...That and water changes I suppose because my tap water is pretty void of nitrates...I am pretty certain its the big emersed ones that mop majority of the minerals, especially now with even more light...I've also raised the water level so the tank water freely runs into the baskets as well.

I know nitrate tests are extremely inaccurate and I don't own one currently but I remember in my previous tank when my emersed plants were huge, the few times I tested the water for nitrates, I barely got any reading whatsoever...and all my floaters died too then....I need to learn to dose way more....

 
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Today I caught my kuhli loaches to move them into the round tank....I was nicely surprised....When the tank they initially lived in broke and poured all its contents on the floor, I saved only 5 kuhli loaches out of original stocking of 8....I could not find the rest at all and those that I found were either on the floor, under the stand! or burried in the waterless sand somehow ( months later I found a dried up kuhli...or rather my dog brought it from somewhere.)...So I thought that now I have only 5 kuhli loaches and when catching them today in the crypt overgrown small tank I counted until 5, dumped them in the round bucket and then went on to pull some plants out and mess with the little tank..And then here goes another kuhli loach swirling amongst plants :)

I don't know if at the time I counted wrongly or they have produced an offspring that went unnoticed...Either way, I am happy that my kuhli have been doing well.... I don't know how they'll get on with the clown loaches...They've never lived together before.....I am a bit worried about the kuhlis not being very competitive for food but they are sand sifters so some goodies will certainly come across..hopefully...I also moved their coconut cave...They've now disappeared.
I
 
The kuhlis have found their cave straight away :) They did a tiny bit of exploring too, mainly around the coconut cave but were being curious of their new surroundings. Fingers crossed they do ok in there...

Now I can use my small tank for quarantine if I decide to get another group of top dwellers of some kind :)...I also accidentally dropped some cherry shrimp in the round tank because I caught them in the net while catching the kuhlis....My small tank is absolutely buzzing with shrimp.....I think there's hundreds in there...
 
I killed a beautiful floater I can't remember the name off, but quite rare...
Aeschynomene fluitans. :) Me too never got it to grow and killed it in a few months time.. At one point i thought i had it comming back, but it did only for a short time and died again. I have no idea why it died on me, it wasn't a obvious insufficientcy because the rest did good.. I suspect it might be something as calcium or magnesium shortage but realy do not know. Didn't experiment with it.. Only know Roy grew it in his previous shallow and very good too and he has rather hard water and mine is medium towards the soft range.. It indeed is a rare plant to get and i can only get it temporary if i'm fast enough with ordering it. I'll try again if i can get my hands on it next year. :)
 
Yeah, Marcel, that plant gave up on me fairly fast :) My water has plenty of calcium and magnesium so I don't think itst that but in my tank it could have been iron, nitrogen... as I was dealing with severe forms at the time, especially iron, and the plant threw some rather pale growth before it died....Or it could have been too much water movement, lack of light, etc.. or a combo of all :) I didn't give it a good start but didn't expect it to be so fragile..
 
Hi all,Would be my guess. A lot of tropical floaters (<"Ludwigia sedoides">, Eichornia crassipes,Victoria amazonica) are really difficult to over-winter in the UK, probably <"because of low light levels">.

cheers Darrel

I've also read this specifically with water hyacinth and as its now a banned species in Europe I wonder how long we will keep seeing it.
 
I got more light but it was probably too late....There's now the 90W Kessil and overhanging 30W flood light.....The water hyacinth is not doing well either but it got chomped up by the clown loaches by the time I realized....the clowns were clicking at it but for some reason I didn't bother checking out the plants to see the big holes in the "meaty" bottom part of the plants.... I am not sure they'll will recover. They're looking pretty miserable and the two plants I moved to two of the other tanks aren't doing any better there either. I even placed one in a bowl the other day in which I have salvinia and tons of ferts to see what will "fix" the lot because the salvinia is also constantly nitrogen deficient in the tank and although growing, the leaves are rather small....

If I can't grow floaters than I might as well give up on the lot of plants, lol :) The parlour palm and the peace lily got yellowing on old leaves in the space of a week....it looks like nitrogen deficiency but unless it's phosporous.....which I do not dose cause I don't have any right now...There were a few yellow leaves on the crypts too...My dry KNO3 is not working much so far but I am testing a triple dose this week and will keep upping it up till I fix it or I am sure its not nitrogen...I think the extra light gave the above water plants another push in ferts need because they've been throwing lots of new growth.....These plants have established "water" roots so they don't need much care to start growing fast...and I think they're consuming a lot...The water lilies and the palm grow root system as big as the hanging buckets they are in....So I think they are quite capable out-competing the rest of the plants I have. I certainly could not grow salvinia in my previous soil tank either....lol o_O only rooted plants in the substrate did well...and the large emersed plants....

The emersed plants did really well when I had the "no water change" experiment for about 5-6 months, non-stop flowers and the lot....not the fish though...Some of my platies got sick so the expriment ended and is never to be repeated...It's hard to make plants and fish happy at the same time sometimes...
 
This thread was a great read! Sorry to hear about your past fish disasters though. I've been planning a small goldfish pond in my garden...now I'm tempted to just stick it in the living room lol.

Love your happy clowns! I always wanted clown loaches but avoided them due to their eventual size, awesome to see yours have a perfect home. I still have 4 Yo-Yo loaches and anywhere between 2 and 6 khulis in my 5x2x2 that I'm shutting down, no idea how I'm going to catch them :lol:. Their behavior seems very similar to your loaches, I'll be re-homing them to a tank I visit often but will miss them!
 
Just read through the whole log and a great read it is too.

I also tried the fluitans and had similar results. Good success initially with good growth. However, when it goes it goes fast. I would love to try again at some point.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
've been planning a small goldfish pond in my garden...now I'm tempted to just stick it in the living room lol.
Ha, ha. You won't regret it. You just need to put the sofa away :D

Just read through the whole log and a great read it is too.

Thanks rob.
I'd like to try it too one more time but I'll wait until I sort the plant deficiencies I have now.
 
So here's a photo with a view of some of the damaged plants. They yellow leaf on the peace lily that appeared last week and is now almost bright yellow, and at the bottom below is what remains from the water hyacinth...

20161215_185244_zpsvlkfcnkn.jpg



This picture below is salvinia from the tank with obvious nitrogen deficiency.
20161215_185340_zps0lbjfed5.jpg



And this one below is from a bowl of water loaded with ferts to the point of discolouring the water. No deficiencies in there :)
There's plastic on top because I have some anubias in there that has its leaves above water and it doesn't like air..
20161215_185359_zpsfjq3xrxz.jpg
 
I barely made it home on time to catch the light hours....crazy busy these days.....

But had enough time to put my chin on the edge of the tank and watch the fish for 20 min or so :) pure pleasure....It helps my brain relax after a hard week :)

What I've noticed since my loaches are in this tank, is how friendly they've become...(repeating myself...I know....:)They also seem to be stalking me...They tend to swim right under my face when I am there. I got up to check out the emergent plants on the opposite side of the tank and the fish followed me there with their noses right up looking at me...I think that despite the nature of the tank, I am able to see the fish a lot more, from a lot closer distance than I have ever had....Clown loaches are by nature spooky and skittish fish and its amazing how relaxed they are now...I wish more people tried keeping fish like that just to see the difference in behavour...I am sure fish like platies or guppies or other highly friendly fish won't care one bit but skittish fish really come out of their shell when given their privacy in my experience so far...And I think the only downside is that I can't capture what I see on video(probably because of my skills)...but the view of the fish is better and clearer than ever...I can pretty much see the colour of their eyes and details of their body shape...They look great to me, and extremely happy :) Fingers crossed...

The clown loaches also seem to have released a bit of a darker pigment on their bodies. I know clowns can alter their colours depending on substrate but they are doing that now because of the dark sides of the tank.....just noting...

Another thing....the plastic tank seems to keep the water temperature really warm and steady...Perhaps because it is designed for outside use...and the medium density polyethylene plastic is a better insulator than glass.

We had a few warm days outside here(its still winter) and the temperature in the tank rose although the heaters settings weren't touched....I have the heaters on 25C...The temperature in the tank is 26C. I initially had the heaters on 26C when I first set it up, then I decreased it to 25C to accommodate the denison barbs and SAEs but the temperature never dropped....hmmmm. I've got two 300W jager eheim heaters in there...I was dreading the electric bill but it was pleasantly the same as always despite the amount of water and an extra 300W heater....

I pulled all the nitrogen deficient leaves from the salvinia to make sure the damaged leaves are not old stuff getting me confused...I dosed a lot of KNO3 during this last week, more like 4 times my initial dose and I think I have reached a dose that stops the nitrogen deficiency...at least salvinia wise...

The denison barbs and SAEs seem to be doing great and I am already seeing them being bold enough to swim right next to the clown loaches. It took my baby clown loach a couple of weeks to realize the bigger clown loaches aren't a threat to him and I think the denison barbs and the SAEs have figured the same too...When I approach the tank the barbs and the SAEs always swim on the left side and the clowns on the right side(have no clue whey this order) but right next to each other and mixing up together quite often...I can't wait for the little guys to grow a bit so they don't have to wait for scraps, ha, ha :)

I am still deliberating whether to get another school of fish inside the tank....I am not pushed because I got lucky enough not quarantining these new fish and I don't want to ever look at a crowded tank in my life again....I had a horrible time during last year cramming fish into the one tank only....I have mentioned on another thread many died....There were nights I couldn't sleep from guilty conscience.....

I just want a school of top dwellers because none of these fish are and I think one more species of suitable fish will just complete the view I have of the tank...And I want them small enough...platy size type but not platies anymore....sick of them...I have a separate thread on the topic but every fish I think of seems to be unsuitable according to majority...and no one can suggest anything I like.....I think people tend to think my clown loaches are savages :).... But I swear they won't touch even quite tiny fish...I've seen platy fry for years being ignored....The only problem would come from skittish small fish being stressed by the mere size of the loaches, rather than them ever being attacked....which is important on its own because I don't want fish that would feel stressed....

I have my small tank empty of fish now so I can risk and quarantine fish...It's just that I don't know what and I need it to be top dwelling fish because there's enough of bottom feeders.....though the denison barbs will not touch a thing at the bottom...They just don't swim at the top, they swim at the bottom or mid level but will not it anything that hits the substrate..how awkward :) The SAEs are definately bottom fish in my opinion, or perhaps they are naturally....They behave a lot like loaches, but algae eating loaches...

And last paragraph....I had issues before with ordering from ta-aquaculture in the past for those that know that website.....I ordered again recently, two full weeks ago...I got nothing. I send an e-mail....no reply....I am going to have to resort to paypal again to get my money back...very poor service....The previous time I only got a reply from them after I opened a claim with paypal, after numerous emails....I don't know why I bother with them.....

Have a nice weekend everyone..
 
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I just want a school of top dwellers because none of these fish are and I think one more species of suitable fish will just complete the view I have of the tank...And I want them small enough...platy size type but not platies anymore....sick of them...I have a separate thread on the topic but every fish I think of seems to be unsuitable according to majority...and no one can suggest anything I like.....I think people tend to think my clown loaches are savages :).... But I swear they won't touch even quite tiny fish...I've seen platy fry for years being ignored....The only problem would come from skittish small fish being stressed by the mere size of the loaches, rather than them ever being attacked....which is important on its own because I don't want fish that would feel stressed....
More Clowns;)
The denison were more of a problem than the clowns regarding other fish. I used to keep 20 glass catfish with my clowns, they even got involved in feeding with all the other fish, until i added 10 juvenile denison barbs to my tank, 6 months later all the glass cats were gone:(

I miss my big tank and the space i had. it seems easier to keep fish happy and healthy when you have enough room to set up different areas for different species.
 
More Clowns

Don't tempt me Andy :) ha, ha...

The denison were more of a problem than the clowns regarding other fish. I used to keep 20 glass catfish with my clowns, they even got involved in feeding with all the other fish, until i added 10 juvenile denison barbs to my tank, 6 months later all the glass cats were gone.

I miss my big tank and the space i had. it seems easier to keep fish happy and healthy when you have enough room to set up different areas for different species.

Sorry to hear about your glass cats. Yes, very true, large tanks keep fish way healthier, even the smallest of species....I do not enjoy small tanks one bit...its kind of torture looking at the fish in there to be honest. Only specific species do well in small tanks I think...What was the issue with the denison barbs?...too competitive for food I guess...judging by mine now...:)
 
not sure, the denisons would ram the glass cats to take food and they were too quick for them to get out of the way. my clowns used to feed at the surface and then move on to collect food on the substrate, this gave the cats chance to feed. the dennisons would feed mid water and take the food before them. the stress from feeding time probably finished them off, they were about 4 years old too.

ha ha:twisted: more clowns will push the dennisons into the higher waters, which would give the tank that nice full look with fish everywhere:rolleyes: I would send you my remaining 4 clowns if they were not so used to really soft water, the pond looks superb!

I suspect that your past bba probs were caused by the clowns picking at the plants the bba in my clown tank looked very similar. I think that it is possible to keep clowns with plants but only very robust species, expect some damage and algae around the damage.
 
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