Thanks for the PM. Your tank looks real nice. Is that an air stone in the back right corner? How often do you run it?
New 55g Project (Finally!)
- Thread starter David
- Start date
thegasman;93294 said:
The airstone is on a timer to come on when the CO2 solenoid closes, about an hour and a half before the lights go out. The timer with the solenoid also turns off the Koralia in the lower left and the Mag 7 that fractionates my CO2. Since my tank is in my bedroom, I like to keep it as quiet as possible when I go to bed. The airstone turns off about an hour and a half before the lights come on in the morning, when the Mag 7, Koralia, and CO2 solenoid come back on.
I got the airstone as a way of dissipating a bit more of the residual CO2 before the lights are out and getting dissolved O2 up overnight; surface agitation really decreases in my tank at night since I'm using canisters, and the fish seemed a bit stressed when this was happening.
I've noticed the activity of my fish increased greatly when I started using the airstone; and the red coloration of my Rummynose Tetras has become more vibrant (these fish are a great indicator of water quality!) If you notice in the back left corner of the tank, theres a JBL TopClean II skimmer connected to my smaller Eheim 2215 with inline heater. I love this thing. It does a great job of keeping surface scum off of the water (also all trimmings during re-scape and maintenance, loose leaves, excess food, you get the idea haha), but the airstone also helps with this in the right side of the tank, furthering gas exchange overnight.
If you have a small tank, or a dual canister setup on a larger tank, the JBL TopClean II is a great little product for a high tech tank without an overflow. They're only about ₤15; I had to have mine shipped from Europe but all-in was only around $40CAD/USD. Just need to watch the minimum tank height requirement. PM me for a link if anyone's interested.
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update
Got some new c. parva, a. crispus, and r. nanjenshan.
Re-scape is underway; just pulled up my e. tenellus to separate the plants from the runners. My original 4 plantlets have turned into 52 muahahaha.
Pics to come tonight or tomorrow!
cheers
Got some new c. parva, a. crispus, and r. nanjenshan.
Re-scape is underway; just pulled up my e. tenellus to separate the plants from the runners. My original 4 plantlets have turned into 52 muahahaha.
Pics to come tonight or tomorrow!
cheers
I'm a slacker...
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the delay to all who are following my build for the new pictures.
I discovered a leak in my regulator that I had to troubleshoot and get sorted out.
I've added a school of 12 Purple Passion Danios (danio roseus) and 6 Blushing Tetras....I just love the way these guys look.
They are being drip acclimated as I write.
I will get pictures up once they're in and I've done a WC. The tank's in desperate need of some CO2!
Cheers
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the delay to all who are following my build for the new pictures.
I discovered a leak in my regulator that I had to troubleshoot and get sorted out.
I've added a school of 12 Purple Passion Danios (danio roseus) and 6 Blushing Tetras....I just love the way these guys look.
They are being drip acclimated as I write.
I will get pictures up once they're in and I've done a WC. The tank's in desperate need of some CO2!
Cheers
Sounds fine! Post some pics of your fish too. I will have to google/image for now..purple passion, eh?
Purple Passion Danios.....Teal/Purple bodies with stripes of orange/red and orange/red tail fin. Quite spectacular for a Danio....next best thing to the Celestial Pearl Danios... (and also $3/ea instead of $20+ 
)
Here's a picture:
http://www.tcct.zaq.ne.jp/bpalb108/DSCN3615s.jpg
Cheers
)Here's a picture:
http://www.tcct.zaq.ne.jp/bpalb108/DSCN3615s.jpg
Cheers
Fish video
Hey guys
Here's a quick video I made of my fish during WC. The tetras are hard to bring out unless its waterchange or blood worms day (and I already fed bloodworms :miserable
My apologies for the equipment all over the place; it's been -30C (-22F) here all week. I have to put a 2nd heater in during WC so my water temps don't go into the low 60s/high 50s. I've got a water softener so I can't use hot water lol.
I will get some pics up later tonight when the tank is full of water. You can see a bit of my rescape in the video, hasn't had much of a chance to grow in as the CO2 supply has been quite volatile the last week with my leak.
http://youtu.be/q1kN0jixuWc
cheers
Hey guys
Here's a quick video I made of my fish during WC. The tetras are hard to bring out unless its waterchange or blood worms day (and I already fed bloodworms :miserable
My apologies for the equipment all over the place; it's been -30C (-22F) here all week. I have to put a 2nd heater in during WC so my water temps don't go into the low 60s/high 50s. I've got a water softener so I can't use hot water lol.
I will get some pics up later tonight when the tank is full of water. You can see a bit of my rescape in the video, hasn't had much of a chance to grow in as the CO2 supply has been quite volatile the last week with my leak.
http://youtu.be/q1kN0jixuWc
cheers
Hi everyone,
Here's an updated picture of my latest scape. I've moved the red ludwigia and stems on the left side of the tank. The right side now has a new a. crispus in place of all of the stem plants I had previously. My hygrophila difformis isn't really visible because I cloned it into about 7 pieces in the midground 1/4 from the left side of the tank. In a couple weeks it should start looking great!
http://imageshack.us/a/img443/3497/img3554vx.jpg
Here's a shot I took yesterday during my WC. Pretty much all of the Rummynose posed for a photo
Full-size: http://imageshack.us/a/img210/3978/img3542d.jpg
Here's an updated picture of my latest scape. I've moved the red ludwigia and stems on the left side of the tank. The right side now has a new a. crispus in place of all of the stem plants I had previously. My hygrophila difformis isn't really visible because I cloned it into about 7 pieces in the midground 1/4 from the left side of the tank. In a couple weeks it should start looking great!
http://imageshack.us/a/img443/3497/img3554vx.jpg
Here's a shot I took yesterday during my WC. Pretty much all of the Rummynose posed for a photo
Full-size: http://imageshack.us/a/img210/3978/img3542d.jpg
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You can see one of the Purple Passion Danios in the first picture near the top right of the a. boivinianus. They have really started to get their colouration back, even after one day.
Love it!
Love it!
New Scape
Hi everyone,
Here's a shot of my newest scape for the tank. I traded my A. boivinianus for a nice Crinum calamistratum, japanese moss ball, and a massive Ozelot sword. I found my tank wasn't able to showcase the length of the plant's leaves without blocking out the middle of my tank.
And it's easier to see my dense garden of crypts this way
FULL-SIZE: http://imageshack.us/a/img40/1633/img3676q.jpg
There's a whole whack of Hygro difformis in the back center that should grow in nicely. I will take an updated pic when it's grown in.
A few small changes to my inhabitants. Currently sitting at:
27 Rummynose tetras
18 Pristella Gold tetras
6 Blushing Skirted tetras
12 Brilliant rasboras
5 Harlequin rasboras
12 Purple Passion danios
1 Siamese fighting fish
5 assassin snails
+ some amount of red cherry shrimp. They hide all day lol.
I've also made some changes to my photoperiod and CO2 timings.
I was running 7am-7pm lights with CO2 turning on/off at 6am/6pm respectively.
I have changed the lighting to 7am-5pm and set the CO2 to turn on/off at 5am/3pm respectively. I found the my drop checker was barely green when lights came on and was a little to close to yellow at lights out for my liking.
Due to my bio load I have dropped KNO3 dosing from 1/4tsp M,W,F to 1/8tsp. KH2PO4 still being dosed at 1/16tsp M,W,F. CSM+B dropped from 3/8tsp Tues/Thurs to 1/4tsp.
Seachem iron + flourish right after WC on Sundays.
Hi everyone,
Here's a shot of my newest scape for the tank. I traded my A. boivinianus for a nice Crinum calamistratum, japanese moss ball, and a massive Ozelot sword. I found my tank wasn't able to showcase the length of the plant's leaves without blocking out the middle of my tank.
And it's easier to see my dense garden of crypts this way
FULL-SIZE: http://imageshack.us/a/img40/1633/img3676q.jpg
There's a whole whack of Hygro difformis in the back center that should grow in nicely. I will take an updated pic when it's grown in.
A few small changes to my inhabitants. Currently sitting at:
27 Rummynose tetras
18 Pristella Gold tetras
6 Blushing Skirted tetras
12 Brilliant rasboras
5 Harlequin rasboras
12 Purple Passion danios
1 Siamese fighting fish
5 assassin snails
+ some amount of red cherry shrimp. They hide all day lol.
I've also made some changes to my photoperiod and CO2 timings.
I was running 7am-7pm lights with CO2 turning on/off at 6am/6pm respectively.
I have changed the lighting to 7am-5pm and set the CO2 to turn on/off at 5am/3pm respectively. I found the my drop checker was barely green when lights came on and was a little to close to yellow at lights out for my liking.
Due to my bio load I have dropped KNO3 dosing from 1/4tsp M,W,F to 1/8tsp. KH2PO4 still being dosed at 1/16tsp M,W,F. CSM+B dropped from 3/8tsp Tues/Thurs to 1/4tsp.
Seachem iron + flourish right after WC on Sundays.
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Gerryd;94467 said:
I will get my camera into it's underwater enclosure and take some pictures of the crypts tomorrow for you Gerry.
They have completely filled out a nook in the righthand piece of driftwood, behind the section that extends vertically; little hard to see in a frontal FTS.
My c. wendtii brown is getting absolutely huge. I almost felt bad moving it from the center-mid ground towards the background on the right side. But it made sense in the end I think. I'll see if I can get a picture of that too for you.
cheers
Gerryd;93591 said:
I seem to have missed this......
The Purple Passion danios are probably the most effective dither fish I've ever owned....they are constantly moving and hard to take a good picture of. I will try my best with my point and shoot but I will probably need the help of someone with a DSLR to get a really good one.
They have fully coloured up now and look great. I will see what I can do for you!
cheers
A little video (this time in HD!)
Hi;
I left this to upload overnight.
Being a point and shoot, the compression on the video is simply terrible (9min=900MB), but it is HD!
Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/PfpKfdn1wUw
cheers
Hi;
I left this to upload overnight.
Being a point and shoot, the compression on the video is simply terrible (9min=900MB), but it is HD!
Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/PfpKfdn1wUw
cheers
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new full tank shot
Hi everyone;
Here's my latest full-tank shot.
FULL-SIZE: http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/649/90158110151389133231334.jpg
Since my slower-growing crypts and echinodorus parviflorus have multiplied several times over the past 5 months, I took out most of the more pesky, fast-growing stem plants from my scape (this includes all hygrophila, worts, ludwidgia, vallisneria, hairgrass, anacharis, stargrass, and bacopa).
I also took out the piece of driftwood in the right side in favour of more room for plants. It has also significantly increased circulation in my tank by doing so. I will save that piece for a tank with a width greater than 13".
I finally corrected my "collectoritis" as so many of us like to call it.
My flora now consists of:
anubias barteri
anubia coffeefolia (melted and died off, recovering)
anubias nana
cladophora
cryptocoryne wendtii red
cryptocoryne wendtii green
cryptocoryne wendtii bronze
cryptocoryne spiralis
cryptocoryne lutea
cryptocoryne balsanae
cryptocoryne parva
cryptocoryne undulatus
crinum calamistratum
echinodorus parviflorus
echinodorus tennellus
java fern
java moss
ozelot sword
I can also say that I eliminated my BBA problems, and all algae for that matter, by making some drastic changes to my fertilization and photoperiod. CO2 is already at the maximum level possible with my current setup, although I am thinking about switching to a DIY CO2 reactor (Rex-Grigg or Tom Barr style) and swapping my Danner Model 7 supreme for a quieter Eheim pump.
My new dosing regimen is as follows:
Sunday: WC + Flourish, Flourish Iron , Excel, 1/8tsp Plantex CSM + B
Monday: Excel
Tuesday: 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Wednesday: Excel
Thursday: Flourish Potassium
Friday:Excel
Saturday: Excel
Because my bioload is so high, I simply don't need to dose nitrates. By Friday, by nitrates are around 20ppm. I also severely cut back on the amount of KH2PO4 I dose because my fish food provides an ample supply.
For the moment I am making up for the reduced dosing of K by using Flourish Potassium. I may make the switch to potassium sulphate the next time I order ferts, but a bottle of Flourish K lasts 6 months so it really isn't a big deal.
Growth is still excellent and not a speck of algae anywhere.
I couldn't be happier!
Cheers
Hi everyone;
Here's my latest full-tank shot.
FULL-SIZE: http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/649/90158110151389133231334.jpg
Since my slower-growing crypts and echinodorus parviflorus have multiplied several times over the past 5 months, I took out most of the more pesky, fast-growing stem plants from my scape (this includes all hygrophila, worts, ludwidgia, vallisneria, hairgrass, anacharis, stargrass, and bacopa).
I also took out the piece of driftwood in the right side in favour of more room for plants. It has also significantly increased circulation in my tank by doing so. I will save that piece for a tank with a width greater than 13".
I finally corrected my "collectoritis" as so many of us like to call it.
My flora now consists of:
anubias barteri
anubia coffeefolia (melted and died off, recovering)
anubias nana
cladophora
cryptocoryne wendtii red
cryptocoryne wendtii green
cryptocoryne wendtii bronze
cryptocoryne spiralis
cryptocoryne lutea
cryptocoryne balsanae
cryptocoryne parva
cryptocoryne undulatus
crinum calamistratum
echinodorus parviflorus
echinodorus tennellus
java fern
java moss
ozelot sword
I can also say that I eliminated my BBA problems, and all algae for that matter, by making some drastic changes to my fertilization and photoperiod. CO2 is already at the maximum level possible with my current setup, although I am thinking about switching to a DIY CO2 reactor (Rex-Grigg or Tom Barr style) and swapping my Danner Model 7 supreme for a quieter Eheim pump.
My new dosing regimen is as follows:
Sunday: WC + Flourish, Flourish Iron , Excel, 1/8tsp Plantex CSM + B
Monday: Excel
Tuesday: 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Wednesday: Excel
Thursday: Flourish Potassium
Friday:Excel
Saturday: Excel
Because my bioload is so high, I simply don't need to dose nitrates. By Friday, by nitrates are around 20ppm. I also severely cut back on the amount of KH2PO4 I dose because my fish food provides an ample supply.
For the moment I am making up for the reduced dosing of K by using Flourish Potassium. I may make the switch to potassium sulphate the next time I order ferts, but a bottle of Flourish K lasts 6 months so it really isn't a big deal.
Growth is still excellent and not a speck of algae anywhere.
I couldn't be happier!
Cheers
Two months ago or so, I cut away the runners from my chain swords and replanted all of the plantlets, front-to-back on the right side in and among groups of cryptocoryne.
Well, there are about 12 new runners (as far as I can see and count, anyways) with half a dozen or more plantlets on each, so it's time to thin things out again and redistribute my new plantlets into the middle and left of the tank as I had planned.
There will be a re-scape coming, perhaps this weekend, with pictures to follow.
Can't wait to have an entire tank full of e. tennellus, I just love the look!
Cheers!
d
Well, there are about 12 new runners (as far as I can see and count, anyways) with half a dozen or more plantlets on each, so it's time to thin things out again and redistribute my new plantlets into the middle and left of the tank as I had planned.
There will be a re-scape coming, perhaps this weekend, with pictures to follow.
Can't wait to have an entire tank full of e. tennellus, I just love the look!
Cheers!
d