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Triangle of Life 10Ltr

GreenNeedle

Member
Joined
19 Jul 2007
Messages
2,750
Location
Lincoln UK
After the premature end of Nursery Island I quickly rescaped with a simple design I thought about during the whole day ;) whilst doing other things of course. As soon as the kids were in bed work commenced on pulling all the plants, hardscape and substrate from Nursery Island and then cleaning the tank up.

Specs:

TANK : 33cm x 15cm x 20cm homemade 10 litres

FILTRATION : Boyu external 200lph
HEATER : Newattino K 10W
LIGHTING : 3 x 3W 5500K Luxeon LED - underpowered to circa 7.35W (3.5WPG)
SUBSTRATE : Leonardite bottom layer, Natural sand.
DOSING : Non CO2 with 1 dose of macros per week. No water changes

PLANTS : Microsorum Pteropus 'Needle', Java Moss, Cryptocoryne Parva, Riccia Fluitans
INHABITANTS : Corydoras Schultzei Black (Fry), Cherry Shrimp

The idea is for a moss wall in a triangular shape to grow with the collection of cobbles and pebbles in the corner to provide a feature whilst leaving the rest of the substrate bare. The Riccia is floating to take up nutrient and also block a little light. The plants chosen should be ideal for a fry tank.

Measuring the 'triangle'.
mesh.jpg


the Leonardite goes in.
wall%20and%20leonardite.jpg


The sand is added.
sand.jpg


The hardscape positioned.
Hardscape.jpg


A couple of shots of the tank back in Situ and running.
Angled.jpg

front.jpg


The scape is in it's third day now and the single remaining Cory fry is still swimming around so fingers crossed.

AC
 
That`s an interesting take on the triangular scape. It should work a treat.

Dave.
 
A pic of the one survivor. My camera isn't up to the task here. This little 'un is a mere 8mm or so in size and 2 weeks old. Already looking like it's parents ;)

Fry.jpg


AC
 
Looking good Andy and nice cory fry :) good luck with the last survivor.
Sandwiched moss is not a bad idea but it will take a very long time to cover the moss that way, I usually strich mine with cotton thread to the front of a single mesh to get an instant cover, also sometimes sandwiches moss just turns to mushy and brown.
Still a nice look fry tank, looking forward to how it turns out, congrats :)
 
I like this, it looks like a nice and simple attractive layout to sit and enjoy whilst growing on fry at the same time!
 
It works with Riccia as a wall but not on the substrate as it floats.

Trouble with Riccia Walls is that the higher sections grow so fast that they need trimming constantly ;)

I use to cut pieces of this to match the slate I was using for substrate Riccia and then use cotton wool to hold it on.

AC
 
The pictures here are from 19th June.

One month on and the scape is holding up well. The Riccia does get blown into the tank and caught in the fern leaves but is easily pushed aside.

The non-CO2 method seems to be working well. No water changes have ben performed over this month although the water does need topping up every day or two. The only algae issues seem to be the standard diatoms on the glass which I have cleaned off for these pictures. I will let it run its full course before the next update so hopefully it will not return.

As you can see in the pictures below the lone Cory fry is still alive and well and growing nicely. It is approximately 2cm now.

tank.jpg


fry2.jpg


fry1.jpg


AC
 
I would have to agree with Aaron on this one, it definately would look much better with pebbles across the tank and maybe some Parva poking out here and there. You could still keep a triangular composition.

That fry has grown quite a bit! When are you planning to put it in the main tank? Any news on further breeding from the group?
 
Whats the blue thing? Is it a heater
Yep. Newattino 10W. No control, just raises the ambient temperature by 5ºC which wrks out great at 25-26ºC

it would look good with pebbles across the whole tank and a few leaves sprouting out everywhere like you have now. A bit like a riverbank

Sounds like my other tank. lol :)

The reason for the scape being as it is with a lot of open space is to make it easier to get at fish etc. The left hand side has Ferns and Parva poking out through the pebbles.

That fry has grown quite a bit! When are you planning to put it in the main tank? Any news on further breeding from the group?

Not overly sure on putting it in the main tank. I want to keep bloodlines seperate so it may go to someone else. Not sure yet. Early days and the first 3 months or so are always a little dodgy with corys. The last one I got to this stage died for no apparent reason at about 3 months old.

The main tank as you may have read in the other journal had some problems with the Corys which I thought had been sorted but 2 of the affected males have since died leaving me with only 1 female and 1 male. I may get 6 more from somewhere else to restock the group after I get back from Portugal in September. Give some time to make sure there are no more problems within the tank and that the 2 remaining survive.

AC
 
SuperColey1 said:
Whats the blue thing? Is it a heater
Yep. Newattino 10W. No control, just raises the ambient temperature by 5ºC which wrks out great at 25-26ºC

it would look good with pebbles across the whole tank and a few leaves sprouting out everywhere like you have now. A bit like a riverbank

Sounds like my other tank. lol :)

The reason for the scape being as it is with a lot of open space is to make it easier to get at fish etc. The left hand side has Ferns and Parva poking out through the pebbles.

That fry has grown quite a bit! When are you planning to put it in the main tank? Any news on further breeding from the group?

Not overly sure on putting it in the main tank. I want to keep bloodlines seperate so it may go to someone else. Not sure yet. Early days and the first 3 months or so are always a little dodgy with corys. The last one I got to this stage died for no apparent reason at about 3 months old.

The main tank as you may have read in the other journal had some problems with the Corys which I thought had been sorted but 2 of the affected males have since died leaving me with only 1 female and 1 male. I may get 6 more from somewhere else to restock the group after I get back from Portugal in September. Give some time to make sure there are no more problems within the tank and that the 2 remaining survive.

AC

how strange, the fact your other tank is called at the riverbank never even crossed my mind when i wrote the above post! lol.
 
The scape is now 2½ months old and a quick update on proceedings:

There are now only shrimp in the tank. I put the single Cory fry in the main tank with the others as it was starting to get a little large for this tank being 3cm long now :)

The moss wall was beginning to be very sparse. I forgot about shrimp being lovers of moss. lol With it being sandwiched between the mesh sheets and not growing very fast I think they ate most of it. Therefore I pulled it out, removed one layer of the mesh and rather than it being sandwiched it is now spread over the tank side of 1 sheet of mesh. I have tucked it through the holes to keep it in place which seems to be working.

Another change is that I decided to trial HC in this tank. It is now 4 days since I planted it and it seems to be doing OK. Will be interesting to see how it works in a non CO2 lowish light tank:

HCtop.jpg


HClevel.jpg


HClow.jpg


AC
 
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