Ch4Rlie's New 3 Foot Tank Journal

Have lost a few cpds due to this but hardly surprising if entirely honest.
 
Just wondering what actually caused this, as  do find empty pond snail shells every once in a while and the shrimps are fine.
 
Will do some water tests of course and I suspect they will be at good levels.
 
One thing i will do soon is to put on a glass cover on the tank as its open top tank at the moment. 
 
And getting thoroughly fed up waiting for the two specie of fish orders I had on my list in order to complete this tank as a biotope.
Therefore probably will no longer be a biotope and considering putting in all the endlers, microrasboras, red cherry shrimps and assassin snails as well as some of the plants from the 10 gal to this tank.
 
Then doing something else with the 10 gal

Did a water test with my API kit.
 
0 ppm Ammonia
0 ppm Nitrite
10 ppm Nitrate
 
Perfect water parameters according to these test.
 
I have found have lost 5 cpd's so far with one more on the way out.
 
Now have a feeling these were the batch of 7 CPD's I bought from a different LFS, along with an endler I got at the same time to make up the endler number to 6.....
 
Amano shrimps in that tank are perfectly fine, well could only see two but saw all three last week when did water change so he's hiding somewhere, amazing how good they are at hiding.
 
Does not explain the snail losses though, even though only pond snails am not too bothered about losing them but they were meant as treats for my assassin snails in my other tank.
 
Anyway, did 3 largish water changes (60 - 75%) during the last week to ensure water is as good as can be for now.
 
Guess put it down to that batch from LFS as best guess for now. Not gonna buy from there again.

Yup... sometimes you get fish from a bad source and they are just not as strong as you are used to.   I learned that the hard way.

Right, since thats the biotope plans out of the window!
 
Think have decided to add some Lambchop Rasboras, I have seen these in some LFS from time to time so I know they're around
 
Maybe a nice small group of 12 of these guys.
 
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/trigonostigma-espei/
 
And some cories  of course......
Salt & Pepper Cories, as I have always liked these guys
8 of these guys methinks.
 
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/corydoras-habrosus/
 
And i will bump up the CPD numbers back up to 20 if i can find them in a decent LFS this time round
 
Now, am a little unsure if thats too many for a 25 gal long tank, even though these species are small fish..... think right on the edge of bioload...may have to lower lambchops to 8 perhaps...

I'd go with the 12 and increase frequency/size of water changes...  these ARE all small species, and as such are more reclusive... having more of them will make them more comfortable.   

Incidentally... I always have a hard time deciding which I like better hengeli's or espei's... tough choice.  Neither one is a poor choice.  I suppose in this tank going with the smaller specie (even though its a slight difference) is the best choice.  

A little update.
 
Have bumped numbers of cpd's to 15, and harlequins to 12. And bought a few more amano shrimps.
 
Since am not getting cories for foreseeable future, think the tank can handle these numbers.
 
And did a major clean of the tank, pruning back a lot of the elodea and the water lettuce, which grows crazy.
 
The anubia heterophylla that was in the 10 gal with smmaler anubias on same wood has been transferred to this tank due to the height of this plant is growing.

 
 

The water lettuce growing crazy, thats after a week with less than half that amount of plants.
 
Keep chucking out handfuls every week. But still, love it, and the snails and shrimps like it too
 


A couple of pics of cpd's
 
   

Gorgeous CPD's, love them!

Thanks Daize
 
Have now added the endlers from the 10 gallon tank, as i may change the 10 gal completely, but still researching on a few things
 
Think the endlers love it in the 3 foot tank and they shoal with the harleys a lot actually its kinda difficult sometimes to tell the two species apart as they are lively little fish.
 
Am pleased with how this tank has turned out, even though its definitely no longer a Biotope

Spotted the berried amano is almost black! Well, black saddle anyway.
 

 

 
Is that normal in amano shrimps, am assuming they are like red cherry shrimps as in having saddles before and during carrying eggs......

Update with a FTS of the tank as curently is
 

Looking good Charlie, I like all the plants you have think they look great. Also your CPD's are stunning!

     
 
 
Have some new residents for this tank.
 
First I got 5 new Celestail Pearl Danios to bump up the danios numbers to 16, 4 died over the last few months, i suspected wsa possibly down the the 2 largest female Amano Shrimps. Not 100% sure and probably never will really know
 
Anyway, these 2 large amano shrimps have since been moved to my 2.5 feet tank with Honey Gouramis, seems the gouramis are leaving these shrimps alone mostly probably due to their sizes.
 
Here is a pic of one of the new CPD's, pale and skittish as expected but hopefully in a day or two, they will colour up nicely and perk up. Not the greatest picture as most of these are are right at back of tank amonst the plants which makes for taking decent pics annoying
 

 
The other new residences of this 3 foot tank are now home to 6 Pinocchio Shrimps, better yet, 2 of them are berried
 
  

 slight update, due to gettign another small tank which I've put on the end of this tank. Have had to make some modification to the light fitting.
 
Needed to raise this T8 light by a couple of inches so it goes over my HOB filter at one end of the tank and enables easier access to the small tank at the other end of the tank.
 
If you want to see my journal on this new tank   - Yet Another Tank Journal By Ch4rlie
 
A very simple light fixture, had a steel flat bar lying around anyway and bought some sign stand off brackets, cut the steel to size and drilled holes and simply screwed on the brackets. Looks good and for just £9.99 in total, its a good one.
 
Did spend online for ages looking for a suspension kit or leg supports etc for a 3 foot long T8 Lights unit weighing just under 3kg, hard to come by in UK and more often than not, pretty expensive.
 
Not too shabby methinks. But I am now considering exchanging that steel flat bar for glass cut to size instead, maybe 6 - 10mm think with holes drilled for the bracket supports. WIll ask for quotes for that, if not too bad may go foar that instead but no rush!
 
Anyway, here are the results
 
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:80312]               [sharedmedia=core:attachments:80311]
 
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                                                                   Full tank shot of both tanks.
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Thought I'd give a little update, nothing major has changed.
 
My whiptail catfish that did originally stay in the 2.5 feet tank has now been transerred to this tank due to the simple fact I got Asian Rummy noses in that tank now and they require cooler water temps which would be too cool for the catfish, hence the move.
 
Anyway here is a couple pics of him/her and looks pretty chunky to me though to be honest am not sure if too chunky or not.
 
Found himself a nice little cave area under one of the bogwood

 
Yes, before you ask, thats a ramshorn snail on his tail
 

 
Might make a thread asking on what gender and if fat or not
 
 
And here are a few of my RCS having a minor battle over aramanth leaves
    
 
 
And a general shot of the tank where you can see the copper rasboras and a couple CPD's
 

 
That will do for now i reckon.

Wow, they're all so gorgeous. Love the ramshorn on the whiptail