Starting new tank - codename Frankenstein - critique wanted

[Florin Ilia]

Hi,

I'm about to start a new tank and I could use some advice. Here's what I plan to do - please point out any mistakes/risks.

Why "Frankenstein"? I "constructed" the hardscape from several small pieces of wood glued with silicone. The result:

(it's quite different from what I had in mind when I started )


The tank: 75cm x 45cm x 45cm (30in x 18in x 18in) = 150l = 40gal
Hardscape: wood (see above)
Substrate: plain quartz sand, about 10cm average depth, as sloped as I can make it
Water: dechlorinated tap (GH=9, KH=5, pH=7.3 but in the tank pH will be around 6.5 due to CO2)
General aspect: West Africa biotope-ish (it will have more plants than a typical biotope, and the look will not be authentic I suspect)
Filtration: CPR CR900 Wet/Dry with Eheim compact+ 2000 pump (2000l/h = 530gph theoretical but this will be throttled by the narrow tubing of the Mame overflow)
Light: ADA Grand Solar II with 4 x 36W tubes; I plan to set the height so that PAR at substrate is between 75 and 90mol[sup]-6[/sup]/m[sup]2[/sup]; in time, the substrate will be shaded by floating leaves; schedule: 10h continuous (less in the beginning)
CO2: pressurized, around 50ppm, still not sure about diffusion method (reactor/NW pump/other); schedule: like the light
Fertilization: EI daily (maybe buy dosage pumps for micro/macro?); weekly 50% water change
Other hardware: Tunze Osmolator top-off pump (using RO water)
Critters:
- 4 Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi (1m + 3f - if I can't, at least he can )
- 8 Congo tetras, Phenacogrammus interruptus (any other good suggestions that would fit this tank?)
- I don't know what to use for cleaning crew
Plants:
- Anubias nana tied to small pieces of half-buried wood, scattered on the sand as "foreground" plants
- The hardscape will have lots of either Bolbitis heudelotii or Anubias (coffeefolia?) tied to it; some of these plants will grow emersed on top of the Frankenstein log; probably Bolbitis though
- One of the sides will have two Tiger lotuses (lotii?) very close together; one will be allowed to grow surface leaves; the other will be kept submersed; I hope they will look like one plant with both types of leaves (?!)
- The background will have some Crinum sp
- If I want to keep with my W African theme I could also use Eleocharis parvula (but I am not sure how it matches with the rest), or Ammania sp (but I don't want stems in this tank)

The goal of the tank is to be lower maintenance than a stem tank, but I accept some weekly maintenance at water change time. When it matures (and my enthusiasm decreases ) I would like to be able to dial back the fert regime and water changes, and make it "low maintenance".

For the cycling phase I am not sure if I need fast growing plants or if the final slow growers will be enough.

Any advice, hint or criticism is welcome.

Thanks,

Florin

 

[Gerryd]

Hi Florin,

That is a LOT of light for both the plant species desired and the goal of low maintenance...

I think 40-50 mmoles will do you fine....

 

[Florin Ilia]

Good point, thanks Gerry.

I can start with less light (40-50 mmoles), and increase it when floating leaves shade the tank too much.

 

[Florin Ilia]

Time for a new pic. More incoming.

 

[Ionut Godea]

Succes whit your new setup, Florin!

 

[jerrybforl]

Love the onions! One of my favorite plants. The plants look really nice. Good luck on the setup. Post finished pics.

 

[Florin Ilia]

Ionuț, Jerry, thanks.

Here's a quick setup timelapse.

[video=youtube;iuCJL1XGh-g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuCJL1XGh-g[/video]

In the meantime things happened - most leaves started to melt, others started to grow - more pics & info soon.

 

[Florin Ilia]

Some pictures from the setup (March 12th).

The right side wood turned belly up (wasn't soaked enough it seems).

IMG_0255 by florin i, on Flickr

Right hand side view of the incident:

IMG_0260 by florin i, on Flickr

A lotus right after planting:


IMG_0258 by florin i, on Flickr

End of the day (2 a.m., March 13th):


IMG_0256 by florin i, on Flickr

March 14th pic of the Frankenstein log:


IMG_2461.CR2 by florin i, on Flickr

Yesterday, March 18th.

Ignore the foreground plants tied to rocks, they're not in the final positions.


IMG_0346 by florin i, on Flickr

The "data" room (too dark, I know):


IMG_0337 by florin i, on Flickr

The monitors didn't fit inside.


IMG_0281 by florin i, on Flickr

Bolbitis (old leaves start to melt but new growth is also visible):


IMG_0274 by florin i, on Flickr


IMG_0273 by florin i, on Flickr

IMG_0294 by florin i, on Flickr

The small log soaked and is in the normal position. I will try to use the anubias bound to pebbles to mask the ugly ties.


IMG_0292 by florin i, on Flickr

The dirt is from washing in this tank a sponge from an established filter. In this are I think I have insufficient water flow (or else the mulm particles would be washed away - right)?

IMG_0266 by florin i, on Flickr

Some anubias leaves start to deteriorate:

IMG_0268 by florin i, on Flickr


IMG_0295 by florin i, on Flickr

Others seem OK so far:


IMG_0298 by florin i, on Flickr

All the old lotus leaves melted away, new ones appeared:


IMG_0271 by florin i, on Flickr

Crinum leaves melt quickly from top to bottom (I understand that's normal?):

IMG_0275 by florin i, on Flickr

The biggest Crinum has one half leaf left, the others melted:


IMG_0272 by florin i, on Flickr

Onion farm:

IMG_0264 by florin i, on Flickr

Some color:

IMG_0345 by florin i, on Flickr


IMG_0287 by florin i, on Flickr

I lifted the lamp as high as I could and now the PAR at the substrate is around 60 micromol. Current light period is 6 hours. With CO2 I target 25-30 ppm (is that a good range for this tank?).

I will add a bunch of floating plants to help with establishing the tank.

The only fauna for now are some snails. I will also add some shrimp - and then the fish - I hope to find some Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi, 1m+3f, and some Congo tetra.

 

[Florin Ilia]

Most plants seem to have stopped melting. No big starters yet but signs of growth everywhere.

The melting did leave a lot of vegetable matter. I tried to remove as much as I could but I'm a little worried about algae.

CO2 is stable at 30 ppm. I am ferting around 1/4 tsp KNO3, 1/16 tsp KH2PO4, 1/16 tsp PLANT PROD Chelated Micronutrient Mix. I did some measurements yesterday before water change and:
- ammonia is zero
- nitrites are high (over 0.3)
- apparently I went overboard with phosphates (over 2.5 ppm which was my test's limit)

The glass shows a very very discreet brownish layer (diatoms, expected) and slightly greenish (GDA?). Both colors are only visible when looking almost parallel with the glass.

 

[Florin Ilia]

I added some floating plants to help mature the tank:

 

[Florin Ilia]

Today I uprooted a couple of "onions" by mistake. Great news - they grew roots! Also it's obvious they grew quite a lot.

I also noticed the right half of the tank (where the circulation is better) is healthier than the left. I will have to install a powerhead aimed at the left side, but at the moment I have no clue how to do that and not change the layout in a major way.

 

[Doc7]

Looks good so far!

I enjoyed watching the fiddling of the substrate/hardscape in the setup video.

 

[Florin Ilia]

Thanks Doc!

I replanted the crinums, the outer layer was rotten for some of them, apparently I was supposed to peel it off before the original planting. I changed water 90%, pre-treated with Prime and added water straight from the tap, which killed some shrimp (my first time ).

I made some Osmocote 15-9-12 gel caps but I didn't place them in the substrate yet. I wish I had those when I replanted the crinums.

Left side lotuses have leaves, but they stay small for the moment.

I added some Anubias coffeefolia.

I also deployed another lazy man's device, a dosing pump.

My first lazy man's device (the water level pump) broke 3 days after installation... I sent it back for replacement... factor into that that installation/uninstallation is quite complicated and that thing didn't save me any work at all, on the contrary... we have a saying around here - lazy people run more...

Anyway. The 3 solutions have 500ml volume and are designed to be dosed daily, 4 ml/day.

Solution 1:
97,8g KNO[SUB]3[/SUB] (dose result: 3.2 ppm NO[SUB]3[/SUB])

Solution 2:
53,6g micro (dose result: 0,2 ppm Fe)
15g Fe 13% (dose result: 0,1 ppm Fe)

Solution 3:
16,1g KH[SUB]2[/SUB]PO[SUB]4[/SUB] (dose result: 0,6 ppm PO[SUB]4[/SUB])
45g K[SUB]2[/SUB]SO[SUB]4[/SUB] (dose result: 1,08 ppm K)

 

[client]

I am curious, what kind of quartz did you use? A branded one with some bacteria already in it? Plain simple generic one? Would it make the osmocote available to the plants in a comparable manner to any 1-4mm inert substrate but without the sorption capabilities? I mean, if CEC was on the list, wasn't the vermiculite, from hidroponica dot ro, a better investment, even though it is also quite light in color? The wood used doesn't seem to be West African either.

APC plantfinder credits every Nesaea as being from West Africa, though, in some books I have seen some even on Mafia Island (Zanzibar) - 5.7pH 5GH 0.5kH (not hard water).

Isn't the Congo basin a bit different than the streams of Senegal to Cameroon? There is at least one fancy shoaling tetra that could fit into a (more) stem- friendly environment.

The pictures aren't showing something bad at all! It's quite lovely.
But it is quite difficult to get it glued to W. Africa thing.

 

[Florin Ilia]

Hi client, thanks for the meaningful input!

what kind of quartz did you use? A branded one with some bacteria already in it? Plain simple generic one?

Plain simple generic (since you seem familiar with Romanian market - bought from a Hornbach store).

Would it make the osmocote available to the plants in a comparable manner to any 1-4mm inert substrate but without the sorption capabilities?

Well, I assume it will, but I admit I didn't research the topic. I know there are people who do grow plants in plain sand, I chose a white one, and that's the extent of my scientific work in this area

I mean, if CEC was on the list, wasn't the vermiculite, from hidroponica dot ro, a better investment, even though it is also quite light in color?

You mean this: http://www.hidroponica.ro/substraturi-diverse/128-vermiculita-agro-plagron.html ? Link noted

The wood used doesn't seem to be West African either.

Busted It's North American manzanita.

APC plantfinder credits every Nesaea as being from West Africa, though, in some books I have seen some even on Mafia Island (Zanzibar) - 5.7pH 5GH 0.5kH (not hard water).

Yes, and there are also Ammania gracilis and Ammania senegalensis, but I didn't want stems in this aquarium. It's supposed to be low[er] maintenance and those African stems in particular seem quite demanding from what I've read.

Isn't the Congo basin a bit different than the streams of Senegal to Cameroon?

It most likely is, but please read my disclaimer in the first post ("the look will not be authentic I suspect"). I didn't have enough drive to research properly a biotope so the result is just biotope-ish. My main resource was http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope_african_rivers.htm, and even this I didn't follow to the letter. If you have pointers to online resources I'll be happy to continue learning.

There is at least one fancy shoaling tetra that could fit into a (more) stem- friendly environment.

Please name it!

The pictures aren't showing something bad at all! It's quite lovely.
But it is quite difficult to get it glued to W. Africa thing.

Thanks for the comment, and see above for the authenticity.

 

[client]

I wouldn't name it (the tetra) for a non- stem project. It's nice that you tried to study the thing a bit, though, fish dot mongabay is a nice starting point -especially if you like to consult those fish lists, sorting them by country or by river. There are many resources on the web, however, aquariumphoto dot dk and seriouslyfish dot com are useful enough. On the former one I have seen some activity in early 2012, I guess it's great news. Just look for the african barbs or tetras. Don't get barbs with the fauna you already have, though. I am assuming that you already have your project and that you may want to get something from it -first, but I am warning you that almost any new interesting info would simply change the scape radically. On the latter one, it's easy to search for places like congo, west africa and so on. You will figure. It has a short description of the habitats, though, it is plainly copied from one related article to another once the species gets rare.

There was also a list of plants on the web, and I guess there is a quite dusty one on the aquaria central -forums. Look for the african biotopic plants topic. Or try to search directly on the web, for west african biotopic/biotope information, though I guess you already tried that. One would be Ranalisma humile (Echinodorus humilis). Search it. I won't send you to rare or demanding ones (although I have seen you do have some resources), due to the theme you have picked and I wouldn't want to try to change it as much as I was willing to, in my previous post. So, no rayon vert aqua -this time. And yeah, that's the vermiculite. Use it for potting emersed ones, -only. If you will turn the project into a high maintenance one, I guess you will use ada (soil, sand, whatever you think might fit - it would not be as light in color as it is now, though, or that's what I think -at least) and mahogany or some other red or darker wood that would mimic it.

White sugar sand is quite good in the very front of the scape or in the middle as a pathway to the back side, if you have a heating cable under it to support the substrate bacteria -only, and if you are thinking to use it into some other project, with a pair/matriarchate/patriarchate of tilapia/other bottom dweller. The smallest tilapia I know if is Tilapia joka and it comes from the same stream as the tetra I was referring to as being a nice shoaling for a lawn of stem plants setting. I was interested in this tilapia also because of its somewhat different behavior comparing to its genus. The wild caught ones are available from time to time, though -I guess it is on the red list and therefore very rare, but hobbyists from Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, United Kingdom were known for decades as T. joka keepers and lovers. They should have forums and market places. I won't add more than this and I guess it is pretty off the track already, thinking that you already have your setup on wheels and running.

 

[client]

Wood. The last one would fit the (current) project, I guess, but the sand won't. Talking the color.

 

[Florin Ilia]

Thanks client! very nice advice. Where were you three months ago?

I did not have aquariumphoto.dk in my bookmarks, good tip. I do use seriouslyfish.com extensively. For this setup I searched "West Africa" there and I read all the profiles (there's a lot of them). Some fish were too large for this tank, and most barbs/characins need very soft black water which I don't want. That's how I came up with a short list of Phenacogrammus interruptus (Congo tetra) and Alestopetersius caudalis (yellowtail Congo tetra) to accompany my mouthbrooders. The yellowtails are harder to get and I like more how the Congo tetras look.

All your other tips are great and I don't mind at all going off track. You are right - for this setup it's kind of late, I want to see how it takes off in its current form, but once that's off the list I will start planning the next one. Your info will come quite handy!

 

[Florin Ilia]

Algae and worms(?)

After one week of traveling abroad I was expecting everything to go wrong in my absence, but it didn't (much).

Practically no algae on the glass. The CO2 diffuser did fail but I was planning to replace it anyway with a Tunze diffuser - which I did.

But I did find a long, wavy strand of green/brown algae (see below). Looking at the algae through a handheld microscope at 50x I also saw some worm-like thingies.

The algae is not widespread at all, there were only 2 spots with it in the entire tank. So it's not a crisis, but I'm curious.

[video=youtube;9ZNw0Bq5uRU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZNw0Bq5uRU[/video]
(go hi res)

Please help me identify the algae and the worms.

Thanks!

 

[Biollante]

Spring Time!

Hi Florin,

What do the algae feel like? Descriptive terms such as soft, rough, slimy, gritty so forth.

How well anchored.

I am fairly sure it is a red algae a form of Black Beard Algae, though it could be Rhizoclonium. Probably it will be a CO[SUB]2[/SUB] issue.

First thought on the worm is that it definitely is not a worm, initial thought, a nonparasitic flatworm Turbellaria something from the phylum Platyhelminthes, a Planaria. If you can grab one and if it has “crossed eyes” then that is it, they are harmless, but indicate an excess of food, high dissolved and particulate organic material. May be relate to the CO[SUB]2[/SUB] problem.

If there are no “crossed eyes,” it is some sort of Dipteran Larvae, which doesn’t narrow it down much. If you do not find “crossed eyes,” I can probably narrow it down a bit beyond the fact it is obviously aquatic. A picture or two would help, as in out of the water.

Once again, I must compliment you on your video skills.

Biollante