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The little one

clonitza

clonitza

Member
Joined
13 Jul 2011
Messages
723
Location
Brasov / Romania
I wouldn't have started this journal but I see many people struggling with dosing I think this one is a good example how to keep things simple and less frustrating especially if you are a beginner.

This was not intended to be an aquascape nor a hardware showcase, I don't have the proper finances to maintain a second tank to a high level so this one over the years was my tank for experimenting my low tech ideas as I wanted to have a low maintenance tank.

The photo taken on September 24:
6177463748_31b1b8d1b4_b.jpg


I'll post another one tomorrow to see its evolution, without hardware this time.

So the specs:

The tank
Eheim - 60cm long x 30cm wide x 35cm tall

Soil
- ADA Forest Sand Orinocco
- Some regular white sand
- JBL Manado

Fertilizers
- TPN+ 1ml/day

Filtration
- JBL e700

Light
- 3 x T8 15w Osram 865

CO2
- EasyLife Easy Carbo 1ml/day

Inhabitants
- Apistogramma cacatuoides (1 mature female + 2 juvenile females + 1 juvenile maile)
- Hemigrammus rhodostomus + bleheri (8)
- Gasteropelecus sternicla (2)
- Pseudomugil getrudae (2 males + 1 female)
- Caridina multidentata (2)
- Ramhorn snails

Plants
- Staurogyne repens
- Micranthemum Micranthemoides
- Echinodorus Regine Hildebrandt
- Hygrophila Polysperma
- Cryptocoryne (various species)
- Alternanthera lilacina
- Echinodorus quadricostatus
- Anubias nana petite
- Anchor moss

A couple of final thoughts:

- As you can see I dose only 1ml TPN+ and 1ml Easy Carbo in the morning, no need to add more.
- I change 30% of the water twice a month using remineralized RO water with Seachem Equilibrium (I prepare the water like this also for the other tank)
- I've started an experiment regarding the lighting a couple of months ago when it was warmer to keep the water from getting too hot using 3 periods of light for two hours and 3 hours break in between. That means the schedule is 2h (light) - 3h (break) - 2h (light) - 3h (break) - 2h (light) and because it worked OK I decided to keep it like this. Fish seem to enjoy it also.

To be continued ...

Mike
 
Sorry for the delay, only today I had a little time to take a proper shot of the tank.
Not much happened, just the regular water changes and a little bit of trimming and cleaning the glass.

6291354422_5ac8e18128_b.jpg


Mike
 
Very nice, Mike.

What I like about your 'scapes is your definitive style. It's non-conformist to Nature Aquarium style, yet looks very natural. But it's not too chaotic to be jungle style. You clearly maintain your aquariums to a very high standard and this is reflected accurately in the excellent photography.

Keep up the good work!
 
Thanks mate, I do my best with what I have.
This tank is by far an algae free tank but I enjoy it and my fish seem to do this also. The arrangement was done for them with lots of shading places. I need to trim the moss cause it caught some bba on it, but not right now since I need to spend a bit of time with the other tank. Anyway as time passes by I tend to stop giving such a big deal about algae, they come, they go ... and I trust my skills to take a picture without showing them if I want. :)

A couple of pictures with my pseudomugil gertrudae female and the not so clean anchor moss. I'll try sometime catching the males in a photo :)

6291272705_50bb734430_b.jpg


6291792980_cf819087ec_b.jpg


Cheers,
Mike
 
Well as far as I know there are blue and yellow .. mine are yellow both males and the female :)
The tank is covered, I used to keep them in a 25l nano open top without any jumping until I moved them but it was well covered by floating plants. They aren't jumpy or easily scared and if you keep some surface plants things should be OK.

LE: Now after a quick search I see there are so many types :) ..
 
George hit the nail on the head with his post...I love your tanks Mike, they always look so crisp and clean. The also look very 'delicate' in the way they are planted. Love em!
 
clonitza said:
Well as far as I know there are blue and yellow .. mine are yellow both males and the female :)
The tank is covered, I used to keep them in a 25l nano open top without any jumping until I moved them but it was well covered by floating plants. They aren't jumpy or easily scared and if you keep some surface plants things should be OK.

LE: Now after a quick search I see there are so many types :) ..
Click to expand...


Yes there are many straines although all are species P. gertrudae. I keep a purplish-blue variety that has yellow or orange marks on the fin edges, these are P.gertrudae sp. Aru II. They are from the Aru Islands in Indonesia. I used to have a white Australian variety called "Eubanangee Swamp", but they kept jumping out of my 60l dennerle tank.

That is why I asked about how yours are kept. :)
 
@Ian: Thank you, not sure that my tanks are that great but they are not that ugly too, let's say a little bit pretty. :)
I wish I could find soon a recipe for keeping them clean for a longer time and spend my time moving plants not brushing pipes and hoses. :)

@sanj: So there are some jumpy ones. :) The males look like in this picture:
Pseudomugil%20gertrudae%20FSWFT1146.jpg


Cheers,
 
Very nice tank you have there. It's nice to find someone who doesn't care if they have algae, but to just enjoy what they have.
 
Thanks mate. Of course there's little algae but it really doesn't matter as far as the plants are growing nice. I left it on it's own and I like how the plants are growing one on top of the other. :)

I'm happy that the hardscape arrangement worked in therms of being able to let the water move all over the tank.
This way, although there's more or less total darkness at the bottom of the tank, no plants lost their leaves. So if you ever think about "oh, my plants look like sticks, I need to increase the light!" just make sure nothing blocks the water from circulating in that area and of course maintain a good level of carbon (this tank requires as little as 1.5ml of easy carbo/day).

Hope I can take a full tank shot this weekend.

Cheers,
Mike
 
Really nice looking tank and plants seem to like the conditions. I'll be experimenting with my old tank in a similar way, low tech all the way ! :) Will see how this one goes.
 
Thanks, the plants are growing fine. Don't forget I add also liquid carbon to the tank, I add ~1ml/day, if I increase the dose mosses don't really like it and get brownish.

6404606559_b895813d39_z.jpg

The glass cleaning isn't planned for this weekend, next week at water change :)

Cheers,
Mike
 
Did a large trimming 10 days ago and some new mosses arrived (Taiwan, Spiky) a little bit out of shape but they are slowly recovering. Hydrocotyle tripartita (?) planted also here and there.

6486157921_4957e03de0_z.jpg


Mike
 
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