Slow 60 (ADA 60p low tech)

[Hufsa]

View attachment 208593
He’s a ramshorn snail, right? He was moving, so I’m guessing came in as a tiny thing and has been quietly cruising about. Surprise crustacean 🙂

Im not sure if you mean the snail in the center of the picture or on the right?
The center one looks like a Melanoides snail, Malaysian Trumpet Snail.
Impressive shell length, your water must be good for snails 😃 In my tanks the shells never got that long, too soft water I think even in low tech.
The shell color of it is cool too, usually the common ones (at least in my country) are beigeish brown with dark stripes.
But I have seen on some german websites that there are a few different color variations available, varying degrees of brown, I think one is called Mocha /Mokka.
There are even black ones, which I think are the Melanoides maculata species.

The snail on the right in the picture looks like a Mini Ramshorn, Im not sure the hobby agrees entirely on the latin name but sometimes described as Planorbis sp. or Gyraulus sp.
They carry their shells flat on their back, and dont get very large compared to a lot of the other common snails 🙂

 

[aec34]

The center one looks like a Melanoides snail, Malaysian Trumpet Snail.

Ah yes, of course! Thanks @Hufsa 🙂 I did mean the pointy one. I reckon he’s about an inch long? My tap water is hard-ish. He’s actually quite splendid once you zoom in.
I’ve had bad experiences with nerites so at least this is one fancy snail doing ok.

 

[aec34]

Happy 1st Birthday tank!

Had a massive prune last weekend (still don’t look at the glass), including removing the houseplants for the moment and really aggressively thinning the floaters and trying to get rid of the algae on heater and sponge filter. Some observations:

• my god duckweed grows quickly, and you have to be really patient to get rid of it
• surprisingly, the houseplants in the back hadn’t rooted in the substrate
• some crypts grow like the clappers…

I’ve moved the flamingo down to the front corner which I’m not convinced is bright enough, but we’ll see.
At some point I need to work out how to perk up the spiralis; it regularly puts out leaves which are a good pink colour, but don’t develop the beautiful markings. Anyone got any suggestions? Will post pic in a bit.

 

[aec34]

Terrible photo, but gives a sense of the growth.

Now I look at it closely in real life, there is a bit of the pattern towards the base of the leaf. (And there’s the edge of my Rosen maiden which is getting really big and which I really love.)

 

[aec34]

Tank has been looking a bit rubbish since the big prune - think I overdid thinning the floaters.

I’ve had a lot of green algae developing on the glass (a new one for me), part of which I think is because it’s August and it’s getting more light from the window, and I’m battling stringy algae (clado, I think).
I keep cleaning, and have spread out the floaters a bit more and now re-added the houseplants at the back (held in by gravity and optimism). It’s looking better now, and the fish seem immediately happier.

In better news, the increased light is helping some of the buce on the left and the flamingo on the right put out new leaves.

Saw the trumpet snail trundling about yesterday - a fine beast 🙂

I’m also down to my last CPD - all of them have gradually looked poorly in the same way and succumbed, and whatever it is doesn’t seem to affect my embers or cories.

I’m still not sure how much longer I’ll have this tank set up for. The cabinet under it is going in a different room, so I need to make a decision soon about whether I should set up a new tank to move the fish to in a couple of weeks, or persevere with this tank and move it rather than strip down. If I do keep it going, I’m wondering about getting a couple of amanos, but I heard they wander and I have no lid…

 

[aec34]

I have no idea why, but the nymphaea has suddenly started to grow like the clappers. I only noticed this about a week ago, and I swear the longest stem grew about an inch yesterday, and is now almost at the surface - exciting times!

Maybe it overheard me musing about shutting the tank down…
Apart from keeping on top of the clado and upping the iron a bit, I’ve not changed anything. Weekly ferts regime is a teaspoon and a half of Epsom salts, a pinch of iron (what it is is somewhere above), and about 6ml TNC complete.

Yes, it’s quite green round the edges. I’m slowly winning this battle, but am still hesitant to add more critters if I will need to move the tank soon. Did notice some baby trumpet snails the other day though 🙂

 

[aec34]

Here we go! Everyone cross their fingers it doesn’t just disintegrate.

 

[aec34]

Can’t believe how quickly this thing is growing.

Hopefully it will survive a water change tomorrow.

 

[aec34]

Nymphaea rampage continues:

I’ve also bitten the bullet and taken out the large piece of wood to the left. Added a few drops of prime and also did a water change the next day and everyone seems ok so far. Not that you can see in the picture, but two crypts (flamingo, metallic red?) from my little 10 litre have gone in where the wood came from. These had grown amazingly well in some very old Dennerle deponitmix substrate with limited light.

The terrestrial plants at the back are now just held in by some rubber suckers with loops.
This tank has now almost no hardscape, and is primarily crypts.

 

[aec34]

Looks a bit different to what it started out as (photo is 1 week after set up);

Note the total disappearance of the sand. I’ve not removed it, it’s just been covered with soil by the processes in the tank.

 

[aec34]

Still going:

I’m kind of missing the hardscape. I don’t have a great inclination to do any pruning, so when I’ve worked out where the new shallow tank is going and where on earth the fish are going to live for a bit, it might be time to shut this one down.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Still going:

and still looking amazing. Beautiful tank 👍

 

[aec34]

and still looking amazing. Beautiful tank 👍

Thanks, that’s really kind. I could never have imagined it would look like this a year ago, though it was always going to be jungly full.

 

[aec34]

Nymphaea has decided to stop. No idea why.
In the mean time I have been continuing to pull out little bundles of algae, and upped the TNC dose to 10 ml/week + generous pinch of iron + teaspoon and a half of Epsom salts. Floaters were/are looking dreadful.
Fish and shrimp continue to do ok 👍
Interestingly I observe that the soil, which was quite deep at the back at set up, is now pretty evenly spread across the tank. Granted I have removed wood over the last year. I also don’t vacuum my substrate, and any cleaning is confined to wiping/scrubbing the glass.
Here are some warts and all pics:

I’m tempted to put the old Twinstar light back on to see if I can pink up the flamingo and spiralis a bit. Still hoping in the not-too-distant future to transfer most of the plants and inhabitants to a 60f and do emergent growth properly.

 

[aec34]

I did put the twinstar back on, kind of just to see. The physical shape of the light has made the tank look a very different shape, quite apart from any difference in power, spectrum etc.
FTS:

This is after a big thin of my floaters (and adding some new ones ). I think some of the ropey look of the old ones was probably decay from trapped fish food.
Apart from this, in general the plant growth is pretty good. I had added a couple of bits of new moss a while back, and while most have struggled the Christmas moss is growing a treat. Still using ‘double’ Mg, Fe and TNC complete.
During water changes I always realise how much I miss looking down into the tank, as with my old 35 litre Dennerle scaper (which I smashed ). This is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to eventually setting up the shallow tank, and there are lots of lovely crypts here to move over.
Current views from the top:

 

[aec34]

Sooooo…. somehow I’ve killed all my frogbit. No, really. The other floating plants look ok - not brilliant (and I can’t keep red root floaters red) but at least they are growing. Submerged plants all doing fine.
I’m wondering whether part of the problem is nutrients: the aquasoil is now 18+ months old, and I suspect I’ve actually got a huge plant mass now. Already dosing 10ml TNC/week. Maybe that’s not enough. Maybe emerged plants are sucking it all up (though last time I removed these the tank went to hell briefly).
Or maybe I’m underfeeding the shrimp and they’ve eaten it?!
Strangely enough all the floaters in my other little tank, inc frogbit, have also perished: that tank is rain water and sand, so I can well imagine it’s a nutrient thing, but again plant growth otherwise is good.
Disease…?
Anyway, apart from fighting string algae everything is ticking along.

 

[G mac]

I've enjoyed reading through your thread and seeing the development of the aquarium. Hopefully not a dim question but what is the benefit of adding Epsom salt?

 

[aec34]

Thanks @G mac . Epsom salts is to add Magnesium, which I don’t have a lot of in my tap water. My approach to water additives is very much of the pinch of/spoon of variety, inspired by @dw1305. I enjoy watching my plants grow, but don’t have the urge to get into chasing very precise numbers, or trying to grow plants which will probably struggle in my set up.
There have been casualties. I would love to grow staurogyne repens, but have never managed to do it. Maybe next tank…

 

[ElleDee]

Fwiw, I've had issues keeping floating plants around long term. They provide excellent utility for the first year or so, requiring me to toss out handfuls weekly, and then they just stop growing quickly and get ratty and/or eaten by the shrimp. I suspect my water column gets too lean for them over time, but I don't know. The amount of surface agitation I have doesn't help either.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Strangely enough all the floaters in my other little tank, inc frogbit, have also perished: that tank is rain water and sand, so I can well imagine it’s a nutrient thing,

I think it probably is. You can definitely reduce the nutrients to a levels where Bolbitis heudelotii will survive, but Lemna minor, Salvinia auriculata group, Pistia stratiotes and eventually Limnobium laevigatum will slowly dwindle away and die (usually in that order in my tanks).

cheers Darrel