Re-starting 15 gallon, 1st time with sand

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Also found five more teeny tiny shrimp in the old contaminated tank when I cleaned that this morning, they hid so well!

Sessiliflora is definitely growing, sending out side shoots and putting on height, pleased with how well that's doing already even without ferts. Hopefully I can add ferts now that the cycle has settled down again. What do you think @Ch4rlie ? Or @mbsqw1d ?

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Yep, shrimps do hide really well, sometimes I wonder just how on earth could there be some there despite being so careful! As long as they’re fine, it’s all good

Sessiliflora is not a plant am familiar with, good to google search that, nice actually. Might get that for my tank when I get around to doing it.

I’d give it another few days to a week or so before adding ferts as tank is not 100% settled and don’t want to risk undoing any of your hard work. Am certain the plant will be perfectly fine without ferts for a wee while as there’s still bound to be nutrients in the water column.

Maybe add ferts when you do the next weekly water change whenever you normally do that. That way it’s playing it a bit safer when adding ferts just after doing a water change.

Ch4rlie said:

Yep, shrimps do hide really well, sometimes I wonder just how on earth could there be some there despite being so careful! As long as they’re fine, it’s all good

Sessiliflora is not a plant am familiar with, good to google search that, nice actually. Might get that for my tank when I get around to doing it.

I’d give it another few days to a week or so before adding ferts as tank is not 100% settled and don’t want to risk undoing any of your hard work. Am certain the plant will be perfectly fine without ferts for a wee while as there’s still bound to be nutrients in the water column.

Maybe add ferts when you do the next weekly water change whenever you normally do that. That way it’s playing it a bit safer when adding ferts just after doing a water change.

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Thank you, that does make sense! Better not to push it the moment the cycle has settled.

I've seen some biofilm on the roots of the frogbit I added, haven't had that happen with a plant before, but it just looks like the cloudy biofilm that appears on wood. Will see if I can get a photo later. Sound normal or worrying?

Biofilm, whether on plants, decor or anywhere else is perfectly normal, not a thing to worry about.

If you really don’t like it on the bogwood then simply take out the bogwood and give that a quick scrub and clean (no bleach needed, under tap will be fine) and put back into the tank, I’ve done this before as the white cloudy look on wood is not particularly pleasant.

But leave everything else as is. The biofilm soon disappears or goes invisible!

Ch4rlie said:

Biofilm, whether on plants, decor or anywhere else is perfectly normal, not a thing to worry about.

If you really don’t like it on the bogwood then simply take out the bogwood and give that a quick scrub and clean (no bleach needed, under tap will be fine) and put back into the tank, I’ve done this before as the white cloudy look on wood is not particularly pleasant.

But leave everything else as is. The biofilm soon disappears or goes invisible!

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I did scrub the wood the first time it was producing biofilm, because there was just so much, the fish weren't getting through it. But left it when it produced some more in this tank especially since the shrimp were going into such a clean, not established tank, and they've cleaned it beautifully! Just need them to come to the surface and tidy up the frogbit roots

Which ferts is it that you use Adorabelle?

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

I did scrub the wood the first time it was producing biofilm, because there was just so much, the fish weren't getting through it. But left it when it produced some more in this tank especially since the shrimp were going into such a clean, not established tank, and they've cleaned it beautifully! Just need them to come to the surface and tidy up the frogbit roots

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Perfect!

You don’t need my advice! as you’ve done pretty darned good so far

mbsqw1d said:

Which ferts is it that you use Adorabelle?

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Hey, you!


Just tetra plantamin at the moment, and tetra root tabs. Will spring for the TNC lite when the plantamin runs out, but want to use that up first

Ch4rlie said:

Perfect!

You don’t need my advice! as you’ve done pretty darned good so far

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Aaww, thank you! That means a lot. I am still a newbie though, and have learnt so much just in the time since I've joined the forum. I threw myself into this completely and research a lot, but nothing beats practical experience, which I don't have much of yet! So you all help a lot.

Stocking update - moved a lot of fish around yesterday and today, a lot of young guppies plus a lot of mollies and platies from my dad's nightmare tank are going to the LFS tomorrow. Did a large water change on the grow out before adding them.

Otos are now in a 15 gallon to themselves, and I've begun softening the water for them. Eventually I'd like to add a school of ember tetra to that softer water tank, but that's a way away.

New shrimp tank is growing in, still playing with hardscaping and planning to add some more plants, especially some vallis to hide the sponge filter and heater. Frogbit is definitely growing and reproducing which is awesome (and saw six shrimp cleaning the biofilm from the frogbit roots today, thanks little dudes), and the Limnophila sessiliflora is flourishing too. Can't wait to see how things start to take off once I add ferts.

The hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' seems to be struggling a little more. Doesn't seem to be dying, but doesn't seem to have perked up much or grown since planting. But maybe I'm expecting too much when it's only been in there a week, without ferts. Anyone know whether the hydrocotyle prefers root tabs or liquid ferts? I have both, just wondering whether to put root tabs under it when I do add ferts. Not that it's really rooted yet even, it's a strange one to figure out how to plant when it arrives in a round tub grown in-vitro and not like a little potted plant - it's like tangles of trailing stems, so what to stick in the substrate is tricky to tell.

Current stocking- colony of red cherry shrimp. seven adult guppies. Two guppy fry, five blue platy fry. More than I'd planned or wanted to keep long term. But there was a male guppy I really like, but kept thinking I'd send to the store, because I'm trying to wind down keeping guppies, and have too many. But I can't bring myself to do it. I feel like no one else will appreciate his subtle colours. So decided to keep him, and then had to add another female so the male/female ratio doesn't get out of whack. The fry won't stay permanently, the grow out tank is just full until tomorrow. Seven adult guppies and maybe a platy or two seems okay to me for what will be a heavily planted, jungle like 15 gallon, hopefully? I can always remove some if it winds up feeling overstocked.

Photos to come, camera battery needs to charge for a while first

Can’t wait for photos!

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Seven adult guppies and maybe a platy or two seems okay to me for what will be a heavily planted, jungle like 15 gallon, hopefully?

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That seems perfectly fine to me.

Couple of photos from the day before yesterday, plants were beginning to grow in a bit, although not easy to see in my rubbish photos. Just want to log my progress


Today replaced black background, added another wood piece, moved the sword and a couple of pieces of sessiliflora which is developing some nice roots.


Left side


Middle and 'new' wood piece (one I already had that needed nerite eggs and algae removed)

Right side


Frogbit is growing roots and multiplying, and happened to catch three shrimp posing at the tops of three points of a wood piece


Going to be a few months before I'm happy with it, but you can't rush plant growth. Aquariums certainly teach patience.

Lovely deep red shrimps

Yep, plants like to take their time!

But surely worth it in the end though when you see end results and happy shrimps

Ch4rlie said:

Lovely deep red shrimps

Yep, plants like to take their time!

But surely worth it in the end though when you see end results and happy shrimps

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Thank you! My shrimp aren't a high grade or anything, just what was available in my LFS. The females get that beautiful deep red, I know you know that the males are less colourful, but I also have some that are almost wild type, they're quite transparent with just some red. love them all anyway!

And I have one blue diamond left in here, looks like a female though. Fingers crossed she has pretty babies.

Totally worth the wait for a tank to mature, but it's so hard to be patient sometimes! I've been looking at more plants today that I want to add, but at the same time, my purse and my head are telling me to calm down and let it grow in a bit, and plan any additions. Not to just buy what I can and shove it in anywhere (my usual 'scaping style)...

My first tank, October 2019, established end of June, so four months in;

And In July/August 2020;


You can't rush a tank maturing, can you? Even though I'm impatient and want it to look jungle-like already!

Just going to drop some photos of the original tank, before I tore it to bits to re-build. Otos needed a soft water tank, so needs must, and contaminated plants have ruined that tank as well. I may well strip down and bin the plants and substrate from that one eventually, make sure all my tanks are shrimp safe. I can't bring myself to do it yet though (nor can I afford to completely re-scape another tank yet) and otos are settled in that established tank, so I'll try to pretty it up for them, but leave their plants and things for now.

Oh my gosh! Will you look at that!!

Really like the contrast of your red shrimps and the lovely blue guppies against the lush green plants!

I love these sort of before and after pictures!

Beautiful job