120L Juwel Lido - 'eternal Cycle'

[RCA]

Enjoyed reading this, awesome job Daize, and what a great find, I have recently been considering one of these tanks, possibly the white version to go in the bedroom. Mind you it is like sleeping in "The Deep" (public aquarium in Hull), as there are three tanks in the bedroom - heaven

I have one female threadfin, but they are very hard to get hold off, as you say the LFS tanks are usually full of males, even when I have bought what we thought was a female it grew into a male!

In respect to the Rasboras check out the Espei's, you may have to order them in via your LFS, but they are stunning, a lot brighter than Harlequin's. Get as many as you can as they school well and are a great show together.

Would also recommend Pygmy Cory's in there as they will keep the minimalist look to the "silver" effect with the aquarium, and will move around the bottom quarter. Other Cory's may look too large against the overall effect (?).

@Ch4rlie - I have a Hydor 200W on my Juwel 180 and love it, so easy to adjust the temperature if needed. I am looking for a 300W for my 215L.

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks RCA!
I did consider Espeis but I just had a thing about harlequins

My harlequins have coloured up really nicely and have much deeper colours now than I was expecting.

I'm really lousy at taking fish pictures...

The threadfins have much blacker trailing fins but it doesn't come out in the photo:

For comparison here's what the fish looked like the first day I got them:

I was actually tempted by cories but I haven't got any for two reasons, firstly my water is a little harder than they'd like and secondly my sand has very coarse grain size - it's not fine sand so I'm not sure they would like it.

My next goal is to get some Amano shrimp in there! I've always wanted to try some.

First I want to deal with a diatom problem in the tank. The white sand is brown and I'm fed up with it! I've been dosing a bit of EasyCarbo to supplement the CO2 and it has helped to hold the diatoms in check but I want to stop EasyCarbo completely before I add shrimp. The diatoms are having a field day any time I reduce EasyCarbo so I've been looking for ways to get rid of them.

I've also been advised to cut my photoperiod back from 8 hours a day to 5-6 hours and to do more water changes each week until it clears up. I've also improved my CO2 so that the drop checker is much greener but I'm still waiting on my new diffuser before I can be sure I've got it running properly. Finally, I'm considering a blackout to hit them hard. Hopefully at the end of all this I will have no diatoms and no need for EasyCarbo and I can give the shrimp a try!

By the way - if you're looking for Hydor inline heaters in the UK I heard a rumour they will back in stock aroundthe end of this month when they release the new updated model. I hope so because I want to buy another one too

 

[RCA]

I have found the Amano Shrimps, great workers, just keep them well fed

Thanks re Hydor heaters, I have been looking for sometime now and knew they were out of stock everywhere. Just hope the new model does not out price itself.

 

[daizeUK]

That's my fear too. I picked up a Hydor 200W for £30 just before they all disappeared, I wouldn't be surprised if the new batch is priced considerably higher.

 

[KirkyArcher]

Have you tried Paddock Farm, http/www.paddockfarm.co.uk/product/Hydor-ETH-300W-External-Heater.asp

 

[daizeUK]

I hadn't seen that Kirky, definitely more expensive than the last one I bought - more than twice the price!  I will wait to see what happens when the new models come in stock - maybe they will be more reliable too!
 
The best time to photograph threadfins seems to be right after a water change, for some reason it seems to put them into spawning and flaring mood!  I managed to get some pics that show the colours better.

Please excuse the air tubing in the background, it's a mess while I'm trying out the new diffuser - not looking promising so far.

 

[Rak9378]

Great pics daize!!

 

[Ch4rlie]

WOW!
 
How did you get such great pictures of your beautiful Threadfins?
 
Yeah,i find my guys are more active after water changes as well, however when lights first come on for the day I find thats when their best colours come through, a darker tea colour and tail fins show more red at least with my thread fins anyway.
 
Lovely, has cheered me up no end seeing your beautiful Threadfins 

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks Rak - I tried using Aperture priority mode like you suggested and it seemed to work pretty well!

Charlie - cheers, glad you like them! I've been trying to get decent pics of them flaring ever since I had them

I tried to put some of the tips into practice that I read about taking fish pictures e.g. holding the camera against the glass and using flash. I've also finally realised that I can adjust the white balance to help compensate for my compact camera washing out every underwater shot with a horrible yellow-green cast! It's still a bit greener than it should be but not as bad as it was before.

 

[daizeUK]

The tank is ticking over - quick photo update

I'm keeping the diatoms in check with twice-weekly water changes and reduced photoperiod and it's shown a lot of improvement this week.
I've heard about good and bad results from blackouts and didn't want to try one unless I was sure it would work so I tried a little test. I put some of the browned sand from the tank into a darkened container to simulate a mini-blackout. I was hoping to get white sand after a few days but it's a week later and no effect - so scratch that idea!
I seem to be getting better results with water changes and reduced lighting so I'll stick with that for now.

Meanwhile the CO2 has been up and down. I had spot-on perfect CO2 two weeks ago and the plants went mad, I thought I'd cracked it for good! Then I tried a new diffuser for a few days and got zippo. No pressure at all - sigh. I suspected a leak so I resealed the connections and stuck the airstone back on it but I still haven't got that perfect CO2 that I had before. Lol I'll keep tweaking, maybe I'll figure it out eventually!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Lovely tank, just sublime!
 
Blackouts can be hit or miss as far as i've heard, more of often than not, algae of most type will come back again, best to find the root of the cause and tweaking until find that right balance.
 
Keep up the good work 

 

[RCA]

Wow Daize this is looking awesome, you must be very proud

In respect to the diatoms, I have used Hydrogen Peroxide in the past to get rid of an unwanted algae. This worked alongside increasing flow within the aquarium. Good luck ...

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks Charlie! I accidentally left the lights on for about 11 hours yesterday following a water change - not a great start!

Thanks RCA, we posted at the same time! Cheers for the advice. I'm hoping I can get away without increasing flow any more but if not that's something I'll have to consider.

 

[KirkyArcher]

More nitrogen or less Phosphate will deal with diatoms pretty quick, less phosphate though may induce green spot algae!

 

[daizeUK]

More nitrogen you reckon? That's interesting because I'm not adding any nitrate. The nitrate in this tank seems to be pretty stable around 20-30ppm. In fact I just took a reading to make sure and it looks around 25ppm. I thought this was a good value. I am concerned though because the nitrate levels in my tap supply have fallen down to about 10ppm (they used to be 40ppm) and I may have to start buying the stuff!