Any guidance welcome

Mikeyboy123 said:

marble is a form of limestone so it will raise the hardness of the water, although to what degree I do not know, but best not to have it in there imo. The unidentified plant looks like a type of vallisneria. It's a good plant to have in an aquarium but may struggle in the substrate you have and lighting might be an issue. See how it goes.

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going by the website stock this is what i think it is too.
my hardiness is way low so hopefully the marble won’t do much damage

thanks again

The first two pics are different varieties of small anubias. I forget the precise variety but I think one was called mini coin and the other barteri var nana. The biggest leaf you can see is about 2cm. The third pic is a vallisneria shoot that has come all the way from the back to the front, up against the front glass, a distance of 25cm.

I can see you've got the moss on the central ornament. A small anubias like one of these would work well there as well. You could try the hair grass and alternathera in a container with fine gravel/sand and root tabs. The vallis may work where it is but would be much better if it was also in a container with root tabs. This is all light dependant of course. the anubias you've got is just too big. Elodea looks quite effective grown in a row so it forms a sort of wall effect along one side of the tank. if it takes off it'll grow up and across the water surface and you'll be having to trim it to stop it overtaking the tank. All my anubias grow in the less brightly lit parts of the tank toward the back and front corners. They seem happier there than right under the bright light, but my light is probably quite a bit brighter than yours.

alio6 said:

Vallisneria Asiatica (Live Aquarium Plant)

Vallisneria sp. Natans (live aquarium plant) is available from Urmston aquatics. 0161 755 0030.

urmstonaquatics.com

going by the website stock this is what i think it is too.
my hardiness is way low so hopefully the marble won’t do much damage

thanks again

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I'd trim off the leaves with the bushy algae growing on them. and if it's still wrapped with a weight i'd take it off and see if you can push the bulb bit at the base into the gravel a bit. far better off in a little pot with the correct substrate though.

Mikeyboy123 said:

The first two pics are different varieties of small anubias. I forget the precise variety but I think one was called mini coin and the other barteri var nana. The biggest leaf you can see is about 2cm. The third pic is a vallisneria shoot that has come all the way from the back to the front, up against the front glass, a distance of 25cm.

I can see you've got the moss on the central ornament. A small anubias like one of these would work well there as well. You could try the hair grass and alternathera in a container with fine gravel/sand and root tabs. The vallis may work where it is but would be much better if it was also in a container with root tabs. This is all light dependant of course. the anubias you've got is just too big. Elodea looks quite effective grown in a row so it forms a sort of wall effect along one side of the tank. if it takes off it'll grow up and across the water surface and you'll be having to trim it to stop it overtaking the tank.

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ah thanks. i really like the first one. do you have red cherry’s? i really haven’t a clue what to get in my tank would like a couple of shrimp - not sure if they are suitable though i’m going to read read read read and see what the verdict is.
im going to get some aquarium scissors pronto as i really don’t want them taking over. i feel like if the plants didn’t grow at all from what they are now i would be happy. my eyes are too big for my tank. you’re completely right about the anubias it’s massive. can’t send it back though so hey ho

Does the biorb instructions say how many lumens the light gives out, and any info on angle of dispersion? 120 degrees? 180 degrees?

Oh, if your biorb uses an airstone then these need replacing every now and then as they do clog. Get some spares and replace when you notice the airflow has reduced. I believe biorbs do not use the commonly available standard airstones but slimline ones, so make sure you are getting the right ones. Air pumps can also fail after a while, as any bit of equipment can. Where's the heater in your tank, or did it not come with one?

Mikeyboy123 said:

Does the biorb instructions say how many lumens the light gives out, and any info on angle of dispersion? 120 degrees? 180 degrees?

Oh, if your biorb uses an airstone then these need replacing every now and then as they do clog. Get some spares and replace when you notice the airflow has reduced. I believe biorbs do not use the commonly available standard airstones but slimline ones, so make sure you are getting the right ones. Air pumps can also fail after a while, as any bit of equipment can. Where's the heater in your tank, or did it not come with one?

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sadly it doesn’t say. i’ve asked on the biorb site but not sure when/if they will respond. it does seem quite bright tbh though
yeh i actually am going to order a spare air pump and more stones etc i read that last night.
the heater is at the back it’s a biorb 50w one

Is yours the version with white lights or the multicoloured lights controlled with a remote?

Essjay said:

Is yours the version with white lights or the multicoloured lights controlled with a remote?

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the multicoloured with the remote

alio6 said:

ah thanks. i really like the first one. do you have red cherry’s? i really haven’t a clue what to get in my tank would like a couple of shrimp - not sure if they are suitable though i’m going to read read read read and see what the verdict is.
im going to get some aquarium scissors pronto as i really don’t want them taking over. i feel like if the plants didn’t grow at all from what they are now i would be happy. my eyes are too big for my tank. you’re completely right about the anubias it’s massive. can’t send it back though so hey ho

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Plants tend to either grow or just fade away and melt. Other than an initial settling in period, they seldom just stay as they are for long. if they aren't growing then it most likely means that the light is insufficient, although some plants are slow growers, so you can't rush to judgement. Yes, I have cherry shrimp. They breed like crazy once they get going. I have blue ones in another tank. You can see one on the stick is berried. They come in all sorts of colours but require basically the same care. Actually, your water may be on the soft side for them, as they do like a bit of mineral content in the water, as do snails if you wanted to keep them. So, that goes contrary to what i said about removing the marble stone! LOL. Apologies, I live in a hard water area so I'm always wary of adding anything to the tank that may increase that. If you wanted to keep shrimp you may need to explore getting some sort of mineral additive that you can add in a consistent way at each water change to bump up the hardness a bit, although I know very little about this because I have the opposite problem and dilute my tap water with rain water. I think your tank is 38cm across? 8 boraras and some cherry shrimp and one nerite snail would be my suggestion if you feel like bumping up the water hardness a bit for the shrimp and snails. If you want to leave the water as is then you could maybe try the shrimp and/or snails but I'm not sure how that would go. I'd never really kept shrimp or snails before until about two years ago and now I wouldn't have a tank without them. Your soft water is ideal for boraras as it is, and even if you bumped it up a bit to say 6 dGh for the cherry shrimp then it would still be fine for the boraras. Blue or yellow shrimp would make a good colour contrast to the boraras.

Mikeyboy123 said:

Does the biorb instructions say how many lumens the light gives out, and any info on angle of dispersion? 120 degrees? 180 degrees?

Oh, if your biorb uses an airstone then these need replacing every now and then as they do clog. Get some spares and replace when you notice the airflow has reduced. I believe biorbs do not use the commonly available standard airstones but slimline ones, so make sure you are getting the right ones. Air pumps can also fail after a while, as any bit of equipment can. Where's the heater in your tank, or did it not come with one?

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they responded!!

alio6 said:

they responded!!

biOrb-uk Hi Ali, thanks for your question. The LEDs have a range of luminous flux of between 130 – 180lm at 350mA. I hope that helps.

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okay, that's pretty low lighting. My LED unit puts out something like 800-900 lumens and the leds are spread out across a length of about 25cm on a 40cm long tank. See attached pic. My water depth is also only about 20cm from water surface to substrate. I think you'll be limited to small anubias and java fern attached to something drectly below the light. Even then, they may struggle, and if you are using the existing central ornament you may find that the top of it nearest the light gets covered in algae. Anubias and java fern are slow growing so don't compete well with algae.

Although, the dim lighting may mean that algae doesn't grow, so may not be a problem. You won't know until you try it.

Mikeyboy123 said:

okay, that's pretty low lighting. My LED unit puts out something like 800-900 lumens and the leds are spread out across a length of about 25cm on a 40cm long tank. See attached pic. My water depth is also only about 20cm from water surface to substrate. I think you'll be limited to small anubias and java fern attached to something drectly below the light. Even then, they may struggle, and if you are using the existing central ornament you may find that the top of it nearest the light gets covered in algae. Anubias and java fern are slow growing so don't compete well with algae.

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fancy lights!
can’t i just get snails, shrimp and maybe a nano catfish to eat algae?

Mikeyboy123 said:

Although, the dim lighting may mean that algae doesn't grow, so may not be a problem. You won't know until you try it.

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ok well will see how this goes then. i’m looking at my ph now its looking like it’s about 7.4 hard to tell though. what do you think?

alio6 said:

fancy lights!
can’t i just get snails, shrimp and maybe a nano catfish to eat algae?

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They are quite cheap and cheerful lights actually, but work well. Loads like that on amazon for about £25-30 for a 30cm wide unit. Cherry shrimp don't really do much in terms of keeping algae at bay. They nibble at it a bit but they aren't algae controllers in the way that say amano shrimp are. I wouldn't put any snails or nano catfish (otocinclus) in unless and until algae rears it's head or they could starve, and otos need to be in a group as well. I also wouldn't recommend putting an amano in your tank as I think they are like the aquarium version of cocaine bears. They'd be fine in a bigger tank, but I don't think they are suitable for nano tanks, despite what some say. See how you go, if you do get algae then come back here and seek advice on how to combat it.