200L Tiger Barb Tank

[Ninjouzata]

Looking good, and I'm glad you'll be able to get this all sorted out!

 

[Rak9378]

That has to be the biggest Betta tank I have ever seen!! Lol. Glad it all worked out and hopefully your plants bounce back nicely.

 

[damanax]

Haha it is 

 
I went to the LFS and unfortunately their shipment of plants hasn't come in yet but I did buy some more CO2 as the stuff I had broke, and some snail killer for one of my other tanks. I'm hoping that I cleaned these new plants well enough, I don't want another snail outbreak 

 

[damanax]

Went to the LFS again today to pick up some plants, ended up getting alot of Baby Tears haha. Also picked up and air pump just to get it out of the way.
 

 
Also got donuts 

 
 


 
That's what it looks like now and Mr Grima Fish decided to show off his home 

 

[Ninjouzata]

Very pretty! I bet Grima loves it I want some donuts..

 

[AquaPit]

Yeay to the donuts!! lol

 

[damanax]

I'm quite happy with how it's coming along. Hopefully the plants establish well over the next month and a half (when I get back from my holiday) and I get a decent amount of growth. I'll be getting my brother to dose the CO2 and Ferts while I'm gone so fingers crossed

 
I also plan to remove the behemoth that is the filter and get an external one. I should be able to get one for much cheaper once I get to a city, everything in this town is expensive haha. Anyone have any brand recommendations?

 

[damanax]

The crypts are growing already! 
 

 
 


 
I removed all the melted leaves about a week ago. It's grown a lot faster than I was expecting! 
 
The amazon sword is just chugging along happily.
 
 


 
Just liked how that photo turned out 

 
I'm expecting to come back from my holiday to find a jungle with this growth rate 

 

[Ninjouzata]

I'm glad everything is growing! It looks lovely, can't wait to see it when the plants have filled in I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

 

[damanax]

Thanks 

 
I've got root tabs, liquid ferts as well as CO2. The tabs were basically just for while I'm away but I may pick up some more eventually, I really can't argue with the growth so far.
 
The CO2 I'm using is Dinosaur Spit (all the LFS had at the time) but the growth is already better than when I was dosing Excel 

 

[Ryan10]

The tank is looking great.

 

[damanax]

Ok, another update!
 
I treated one of my 65l tanks with copper sulphate to kill the evil little snails that made their way in there and were gobbling up all the vallis and crypt. I had to dose twice as some of the evil things survived the first dose and bred again. I'm thinking the vallis didn't much like the copper, it melted quite a bit. I removed all the deady bits and replanted some of the healthy looking ones after a large water change. I ended up with 4 extra plants (I started with just 1 in that tank a few months ago) and decided to put them into the 200l. Saved me $5 haha.
 
Photos will come once my internet resets, we've somehow managed to use 500gb of downloads in the last 3 weeks

 
I'm also considering changing my stocking idea, I've developed a sudden desire to have a bunch of platys after seeing some green ones after my last foray down to the LFS.  They also had an African Butterfly Fish, don't want one but I do admit that they look awesome. They also had some Bumble Bee Gobies and a few Oscars. I've never seen that variety there before, it's hard to get fish (that aren't Rainbowfish, have plenty of those) when you live in central Australia.

 
We'll see how I want to stock this tank when I get back, I head off in 8 days. Yay!

 

[This Old Spouse]

How about getting some assassin snails instead of using chemicals? I've had them for years. They keep the common snail population down, and they're quite attractive and fun to watch.

 

[hobby5]

May I ask what kind of snails did you get in your tank? I keep bladder snails, ramshorns and melania and none of these species is harming my plants. Of course they all feed on rotting plant material, hence it my seem as if they attacked the plants, but imho they never do with healthy plants.

 

[damanax]

Assassin snails are illegal here otherwise I would've gotten one or two ASAP. The tank was riddled with them, no matter how many I removed. It actually got to the point where I'd turn the light on and the glass would be crawling with them. I'm not intending to ever own snails or shrimp so the copper is only a temporary annoyance in comparison to all those evil little things.
 
Austropeplea lessoni are the snails I had. Not a lot of people have heard of them but they're native here and they eat everything!