Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

[Tom Barr]

Anyone new or wanting to post in the gallery, feel free to do so.

I will ask permission and use some of the tank images for the report pages here and there if you wish also.

But tell folks what you have and keep.

I have 16 tanks right now, this always subject to change. Most are smaller cube all are open top, PC lighting and 2 tanks with MH's HQI 150w/ 10K bulbs.

The largest is 40 gal, the smallest is a mere 3/4 of a gallon.
Client tanks range from a 300 gallon marine to a 350 gal FW.
1 cold water.

I add CO2 to 6 of my home tanks, the rest are non CO2.

I keep mainly small fish these days.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[reiverix]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I have two tanks.

One is a 55 gallon that I'm learning on with medium-high light and compressed CO2. The other is a 10 gallon that I mainly use for storing excess plants. I don't have good local sources, so I depend on online orders and folks in forums for my exposure to various species.

I started out with a low light plant package, 2 x 15 watt lights, no ferts, a HOTB filter and of course tons of algae. I've thrown away or removed at least 75% of what I started with and chosen to take a greener, faster-growing approach. I'm amazed how things that were initially mysterious and confusing have become intuitive and instinctive.

I'm slowly coming to understand what kinds of plants I like and think that within the next few months I'll be ready to start hardscaping with a certain look in mind.

I really like my Rummynose. My ottos aren't very active and I don't see a need for them past the initial cycling period. I may be looking for a good home for them soon. I've learned that you just can't beat the cleaning power and versitility of freshwater shrimp.

For the last six months, I've mainly been learning how to control algae and properly equip my tank. Thanks to EI, I'm also getting some good growth. Some of my plants now look nothing like the cuttings I got when I started. I still need to ditch my shoplights and get the real deal.

It'll be interesting to see where I am in 6 more months when I have the technical problems solved and can free myself up a little more to focus on creative and artistic aspects. I'm still looking for good sources of stone and wood.

 

[brad]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I have 3 tanks. 1 15 gallon with local and floating plants used to grow out dwarf cichlid fry. Most of my clppings go in this tank. No substrate, no dosing, no co2.

1 29 gallon. switching from DIY co2 to no co2. 1/2 inch of peat covered by play sand. haven`t figured out a dosing schedule yet.

1 33 galon. This is my show tank. A work in progress that has a long way to go. pea gravel substrate, pressurized co2, EI for dosing (kinda) I`m still getting the hang of it.

That`s about it. I haven`t been keeping plants for long; a few months maybe. I`ve been keeping fish for 8-10 years but seem more interested in plants than I ever was with fish. I guess there`s so much more to learn.

 

[aquaverde]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Currently, there are 4 tanks set up. A couple of 10s are in storage. I’ve been at this for about 2 years now. I gave it a try a long time ago, but only managed to grow algae and Java moss. This time worked out better.

I have two non-CO2 tanks, a 15H and 20XH stacked on one stand in my living room. There is a 65 in the family room with pH-controlled pressurized system. My “home office” has a 30g with a raft of krib babies and overflow plants- no CO2. The 30 is probably coming down in not too long. Just have to find something to do with all the kribs. I was considering an Oscar, but then what would I do with the oscar… The 65 and the 20 are my aquascapes. The 20 would look nice open top. Maybe one of these days I’ll try to set something up that way. The 15 is a shrimp tank.

I’ve found my level. If I got into this any more, it would get out of hand pretty easily. I had 10 tanks a couple of decades ago when all I kept was fish. Plants are potentially worse. Too many other things in life, like my family and my other hobby…so I’ve found my level.

 

[fosteder]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I keep a 55 gal. It has around 2.5 w/gal of PC light and a Filstar cannister filter (XP-2). I recently added pressurized CO2, which is dispersed using a venturi design reactor (which works brilliantly...BTW), which I'm trying to get the right level of flow dialed in. Plant growth has been amazing, since switching to EI and pressurized co2.

I've got Harlequin's, cherry barbs, and Julii Cats in there right now. I'm looking to get a couple of nice centerpiece fish though...let me know if you have any suggestions.

 

[JadeButterfly]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I have a 50G tank and a 10G tank.

50G:
Eheim 2213 Filter with 192W PC lights. Pressurized CO2. Dose EI.
I keep a lot of rummynose and 2 angelfish in this tank...and I have 90% of the tank carpet with dwarf hairgrass. Currently battling (out of nowhere) GSA and abit of fuzz algae.

10G:
Simple tank. Just HOB filter with no CO2. 24W PC lights. no fish at the moment. Keep some slow growing plants like anubias, java moss, java fern plus some stem plants like ludwiga repens...have abit of vals too. I have a bit of fuzz algae in this tank...but not noticeable.

 

[IndianaSam]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Hi. IndianaSam here. Used to live in Indiana (most of my life), but recently moved to Pittsburgh, PA. Maybe PASam would be a better username

Anyway, I have 3 tanks. A 29g, 20g, and a 10g.

My 29 gallon tank is my low maintenance planted tank. I have a 65W PC light over it. I'm currently only growing an Amazon Sword (with 3 plantlets already growing off of it), H. polysperma, and E. angustifolius in this tank. The inhabitants are 5 juvenile Gold Rams (letting them pair off and then returning 3 of them), 7 White Clouds, and 8 Otocinclus. This tank gets 70% water changes twice a week (to help quick growth of the Rams).

My 20 gallon long tank is my higher maintenance tank. I have a 65W PC light over it and I'm producing CO2 DIY style and injecting it using a power reactor from www.plantguild.com. In that tank I'm growing Elatine triandra, E. tenellus, Hottotania palustris, and Lagarosiphon madagascariensis. It's a fun tank that I dose using EI. The inhabitants are 10 Corydoras aeneas.

My 10 gallon tank is my shrimp only tank. I'm using 2 15W PC bulbs to light this tank. I'm growing Najas grass, H. difformis, and Java Moss in this tank. The inhabitans are ~30 cherry shrimp and 3 bumblebee shrimp.
http://www.plantgeek.net/plant-85.htm

 

[reiverix]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I've got 4 main tanks.

75g community with 260w CF and compressed CO2. Livestock is tetra, corys, otos and a powder blue gourami. It's been undergoing a lot of layout changes lately. I recently removed all the stems and it's cut maintenance time by over a half.

55g reef. Lightly stocked with easy corals and a few small fish. I just added a refugium with macroalgae. I'm really thinking about starting a small true planted marine tank. The macroalgae are fascinating.

20g low light easy skunk loach tank. Only 1.5wpg and a fair amount of java fern.

15g brackish with a figure 8 puffer and knight goby. I may have to upgrade tank size. The knight goby was a mistake. I told the LFS I didn't want it and they bagged it anyway. Didn't notice until I got home

I've also got two 10g tank that I put cuttings in.

 

[matpat]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Hi, I'm Matt and I currently have 4 high light, CO2 injected tanks, 2 low light non-co2 tanks and one very sad looking emmersed setup tank. I started with plants in December of '03 with my 75g. I have had fish since the mid eighties and was determined to keep plants alive when I started.

Tom helped me clear up a case of Green Water when I first started and gave me some dosing advice. I didn't know it was EI at the time but it worked well. So well that I had to get more tanks for my trimmings. I got tired of throwing all of those trimmings away.

As far as the tanks go...

75g Show Tank
Eco Complete/Tahitian Moon Sand substrate, 206w of light (96w T-8, 110w CF) pressurized CO2, Clear PVC DIY reactor (2) Magnum 350 filters, Milwaukee SMS 122 controller.
Fauna - 3 Cobalt Blue Discus, 2 trios of Apistogramma borelli 'Opal', Otos, Cherry Red Shrimp. Looking for a nice school of Rummy Nose to replace my R. heteromorphas I gave away this weekend at a plant club meeting.

55g low maintenance - mostly anubias and java fern tank
SAPS/Flourite/Florabase substrate, ~ 200w ODNO 48" 6500K T-8 flourescent light, pressurized CO2 with PVC DIY DIY reactor, Eheim ECCO 2233, Furniture Grade DIY hood and stand
Fauna - School of Cardinal Tetras and Otos. Looking for a pair of German Blue Rams with 'normal' fins

55g grow out/extra trimmings tank - mostly stem plants
SAPS/Flourite/Florabase substrate, ~ 200w ODNO 48" 6500K T-8 flourescent light, pressurized CO2 with PVC DIY CO2 reactor, Eheim ECCO 2233, Furniture Grade DIY hood and stand
Fauna - currently fish and shrimp free

30g former Tonina tank
Eco Complete/Tahitian Moon Sand substrate, ~90w ODNO 36" T-8 9325K flourescent light, pressurized CO2 with PVC DIY CO2 reactor, Eheim ECCO 2231, Furniture Grade DIY hood and stand
Fauna - School of Boraras brigittae, otos, Cherry Red shrimp

10g non CO2
Tahitian Moon Sand Substrate, 15w 9325K flourescent light, no CO2, Whisper 10 filter
Fauna - School of Boraras maculatus and erythromicron, Cherry Red Shrimp, Bumble Bee or Bee shrimp

5g corner tank - 2 yo son's tank- gotta start 'em young
Tahitian Moon Sand substrate, 10w 6500K spiral flourescent light, no CO2, included Eclipse bio wheel filter
Fauna - 1 Betta, 2+ fancy guppies, Cherry Red Shrimp, It's my son's tank

10g Emmersed setup - Peat moss and play sand substrate, sunlight
Trying to grow C. nurii, C. lutea, C. wendtii, and HC but failing miserably. Too hot on the deck, even in the shade. Will re-set up this tank in the future off of the deck, probably in the shade of some trees.

I keep a large variety of plants in my tanks. I think I had 60 or so different species at last count. I've gotten rid of a few and gained a few since the last count. I think I'm over the collectoritis stage now...maybe

Newest goal is to get rid of the 2 55g tanks and the 30g tank and go with a 180g lower maintenance tank. It will be CO2 injected and will probably have high light so I can keep trimmigs in it until someone takes them off of my hands. I have a PinPoint Controller and AquaMedic Reactor 1000 on hand for this tank and just need to make the stand and canopy and figure out filtration (maybe a sump) for the tank.

 

[srozell]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I keep 15 tanks. Most of them are 20's.

I grow enough fast growing plants to sell to support my addiction, and utilize the rest of the tanks to grow different types of algae.

I use CO2 in some of my tanks, soil in some, and just plain gravel in others.

I keep random guppies, just because I need their poop.

I have 1 show tank just so people can tell that I do know how to make a tank look nice.

 

[nursie]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I just have a couple of tanks:
10 gal "hospital" tank with a betta in residence. He can move to the community tank if need be for quarentine. Right now my starlight bristlenose is there for R&R. She had a small ulcer on her back...I have no clue what from, and was not eating. Tonight I noticed the algae wafers (her favorite) were gone and she swam a little, and the sore is clearing up. I have some driftwood and a few low light plants in to make it more homey and provide hiding places. Plants are anubias nana, dwarf sag, java fern, java moss fontainalis in this one.

55 gallon comminuty tank:
3 clown loaches, 3 kuhli loaches, 5 oto cats, 3 pearl gouramis, 7 harlequin rasboras and 2 bosemani rainbow fish. I have low light plants; corkscrew val ( or contortion val) regular val, several varieties of java fern, african fern, red wendti crypt, amazon sword, dwarf sag...I think that's it. I have 3 small pieces of driftwood also, and some rocks for a loach cave. And I added the hornwort back in...

All are low light plants..and I don't dose CO2..I use excel and other things Tom told me to put in

I plan to get a 120 gal for my loaches to be more comfortable in...just ahve to talk DH into it.

 

[Skyfish]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I started out with a 29G April of 2004 and got addicted to planted tanks. From my past experience, I thought I’d just set it up, stick in a few plants and fishes and I would be set. Well I did that and then started going to the forums also. I soon realized that I was doing practically everything wrong. Damn you need to cycle a tank? You have to feed the plants too? The more I read the more I got hooked, I was determined to make it a success no matter what it took. I made DIY CO2, made a power reactor and had to order the NPK from Singapore. I live in Dubai, UAE and you get just about nothing here for freshwater tanks. So I asked whoever that went to the Hong Kong, the US and the UK to get me stuff. Slowly I started getting the things in. I wrote to tons of people asking for help, including our own Mr. Barr. Posted in forums, subscribed to TFH etc. Only one local shop had plants, I had to beg them for 6 months to get me the plants I wanted, but most could not. Aquatic plants are banned from import. So they hide then in the fish boxes and import. Finally in December one shop found a new supplier in Bangkok and was able to get me the plants I wanted, unofficially still. I shut down my 29G as I was itching to get something bigger, so I went and bought a 4ft 80G tank. My wife almost killed me when she saw it . I had told her it would only be a fairly large tank

I want to set up a 60x30x45cm planted tank but the wife acceptance factor is pretty bad right now. Wait till her birthday

Anyway my 80G is doing great, some hair algae, but I am working on it. I now have DIY pressurized CO2, found all the parts locally. Photos are in the gallery. I keep mainly Tetras in there along with SAEs and other cleaning crew.

I also have a small 7.5G planted nano tank non-CO2, with small fishes for my son.

And I am about to set up a 30x30x30cm Cube planted shrimp tank. Learning all about them now. No CO2 and no ferts, probably. All waiting to be setup this weekend.

Sorry I took so much space.

 

[turbomkt]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

OK...did the fish thing when I was a kid. Took a break until my Mom's friend was getting rid of her 36g hex. Her boys had outgrown it. Brought the tank from Vegas to San Diego in the back of the pick up...and it developed leaks. Well, rather than fix a tank that didn't look great (Neither did the stand), I went and bought a 50g corner tank/stand. Eventually most of the fish passed on (Probably from age) and I replaced things with my own choices. Then I started learning about the way things are "supposed to be."

Tried a few plants that let me kill them. Then I realized my problem. 40W of light over a 24" deep 50g tank. Upped the lights to 2x55w PC. Plants improved but still weren't doing great. Changed from blue and green gravel to flourite and sand. Added 2x36w of PC's. Plants were doing well. So was algae. Then I found EI and a few of the other web sites. Algae was beaten back quite nicely with the addition of CO2 and ferts (Started out with CO2 and stump remover).

I then went for quite a while with no problems...until a recent underway period for the Reserves. My wife forgot to add ferts for the over two weeks I was gone. In my efforts to kill the algae (Imagine Elmer Fudd singing "Kill the Wabbitt"), I killed all of my fish except my 4 bristlenose pleco's as well as some of my plants. Java fern, Java moss (I think - might actually have been moss I collected near Mt McKinley), dwarf sag., ozelot sword, H. difformis, ranunculus, blyxa japonica (It's really trying to recover), some anubias, crypts and m. umbrosum. The fauna has become Harlequin, Espei and Neon Rasboras.

I've also got a 10g cherry shrimp plus dwarf and exclamation point rasboras. This has java moss, anubias nana, and crypt. wendtii. It's got 2x13w cf, and that's about it.

Then there's the 2.5g betta tank

 

[CrownMan]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Hi, My name is Mike and my wife and I have had aquariums off and on for about 24 years. I started with a 10 gallon aquarium back in the 60's and got fish and plants as wages for helping a LFS owner cleaning tanks and such. I currently have 4 aquariums setup, the largest being a 30 Gallon Long and the smallest a 10 gallon. I have a 20H that is completely covered with Crypt Lutens and I don't do anything but weekly water changes and a little flourish and excel. Thanks to Tom's advice in other forums, I now have CO2 feeding the 30 gallon tank and am trying to learn about growing plants and fertilization techniques to keep algae at bay. I have bred Bettas, Killies, Pearls, Rams, Kribs, etc over the years with good success but I have always had problems trying to setup the "Natural Aquarium". I am still learning, in fact, the more I get into growing plants, the more I find I don't know. I will probably ask some rather stupid questions but, hey, I can't learn without asking!!

Thanks for listening,

Mike, aka CrownMan

 

[bobby269]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I had 3, co2 planted tanks until I moved a few years ago. I am getting back into planted tank(s) again with a 65 gallon tank, half gravel and the rest
Seachem flourite. Lights are 1 96W plant light and 1 36" light with a 20 watt
plant bulb. This time I hope to do less water changes, no co-2.Will be using low light plants to medium and will up the wattage in the 36" light if it needs it.
The tank is a community tank with an algae crew (6) ottocinclus affinis,many Corey cats, 2 clown plecs, some tetra's. :gw

 

[fuddmain]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Right now I have only a modest 20H planted with Crypt Wendti "Bronze", Crypt Lutea, Java Fern, Anubias Alfrezzi, Wisteria, Hornwort, and Moneywort. A single neon, a host of platies, and small snails call it home. I'm transitioning this tank to a non-CO2 Walstad (with Tom's tweaks) approach since I don't like constant futzing.

While I'd like to setup a large tank (75+), with 2 kids and a third on the way, I don't have enough safe, out-of-the-way space. Recently, planted nano tanks have caught my interest and I plan on setting up a few. I'm just searching for small glass tanks with a clean look (rimless). Apparently, I just missed out on a few like this that Tom sold recently (http://www.barrreport.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=136&c=9 ) that would have been perfect. Tom, any chance you'll get more or can point me in the right direction?

Anyway, thanks to Tom and Greg for putting together this site. It's a great resource. I'm usually not willing to pay for website access where the only pictures are of aquariums

Oh yeah, since the college football season is in full swing: Go Gators!

----------
~Brian

 

[Milan]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Hello everybody!

I have come across a Tom's report newsletter which I really enjoyed reading, so I could not resist subscribing, although I have always been little skeptical toward pay sites of any kind.

So here I am ...

I have a 29g planted tank with 65W CF light and DIY CO2/w power reactor. Fertilization partially as per PPS, and so far so good ... No major issues, and hope it stays such ...

 

[gmoney]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Hello everyone,
I really like this website and ever since reading Tom's articles on plantedtank.net/forums regarding estimative index, I have become a believer. I set up a 75g tank in April 2005 when I found out that I would have geographic job stability. The tank became increasingly technical as I tried to get my tank to look like amano's. Nothing worked despite large sums of money spent on different fertilizers, equipment, and routines. After a lot of reading I tried EI and I love it. It is easy and my plants love it. The only bad thing (probably a coincidence), my beloved full-flower discus died shortly after I switched to EI.
I am focused on plant health now and no more fish loss since to the switch to EI.
Currently my wife an I keep three tanks:
1. 75g with heavy plant load, heavy fish load, pressurized/controlled CO2 (pH 6.7), rena xp3 filter, aquaclear PH with quickfilter, fluorite/profile mix, 220w CF (with mid day lights out)
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/1120/dscn06664dj.jpg
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/3250/dscn06678ou.jpg

2. 24g nano reef, soft/LPS corals, 30lbs aquacultured LR, additional PH, various macroalgae in tank trimmed weekly.

3. 10g "save the pond guppies tank" I had some guppies last summer that I didn't want, but couldn't bear to kill. I put them in our fountain with some plants to eat mosquitoes. They did very well and reproduced like...uh...guppies. With the cooling weather I couldn't bear to watch the guppies turn into popsicles, so I bought a 10g tank and went low tech. I bought course quartz sand and placed this over a thin layer of peat. I hung some old growlights that we used to raise garden plants from seed over the tank. I replanted the elocharis from the fountain and a few other aponegeton bulbs in there. Things are going great. I add a little flourish excel once in a while, but no other added CO2. This has been a fun experiment, and it's in the basement, so no one can see it if it turns out to be an ugly mess.

-Gary

 

[mstolpner]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

Hi,

I am a newbie. I started my first tank this summer - 33G, fw, planted. I overloaded it with plants and fish and now I am starting 135G. I initially started fertilizing 33G with PMDD, then I tried PPS because of my laziness with water changes and now with 135G I did a permanent plumbing and I am trying EI as I am tired of calibrating some test kits that I think cannot be calibrated.

I'd like to thank Tom for sharing his knowledge and helping me with my challlenges.

Mikhail

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Introduce yourself and tell us what do you keep?

I hope that other folks here return the effort by helping others.
PPS, EI, non CO2, Marine etc...........how ever you want to do it. Just know the trade offs folks get and look at the person's habits.

We all slack on CO2..........so that is why the non CO2 method works so well

Regards,
Tom Barr