240ltr and 150ltr builds

[brendonjw]

Got sick of fighting with alae (also worked out since I had been cutting the tops off the stem plants and throwing them away instead of replanting them the lower leaves were effected more.)

Soooo did a massive pull out and trim, will post pics later and see how it goes. Have also added some tape onto the lights to reduce the intensity of the 9k "day" one.

 

[brendonjw]

The Ambulia and Water Sprite will grow back within a few weeks and I tried to pull as much algae off the hard scape as possible. Did a bigger 100ltr water change too (normally only 60ltr) also changed the filter floss on the filter as its been 4 months since that was done.

Oh yeah it also looks like my crypts are starting to spread, in the front right you can see 2 new shoots coming up from the sand.

 

[brendonjw]

Tried to block off half the light for the 9k bulb.

Also saw the baby Cory from a month or so back during yesterday's water clean so happy he's survived so far

 

[brendonjw]

Blanked off all of my 9k light as the hair algae was still growing. Gave it a trim.

Also spotted my baby Cory, its getting its colours like the other venezualian ones, makes me happy to think that they have breed at least once in the tank (with a survivor). It's too over grown to try and see more and I think my Gourami may also pick babies off (the guppies also go after the snails occasionally so they might also go after baby corys?).

I also think I need a cover for my filter to stop any future babies being sucked up.

 

[brendonjw]

Time for another trim, the Aponogeton undulatus looks to have sent out a runner. My Amazon Sword has also sent up a flower stalk.
Still monitoring how its going now the 9k bulb has been blanked out but i think there is less hair algae growing.

I'd like to get some more growth on my red plants so might trim and replant them this weekend to try and propigate some.

Also noticed a little lump on the bottom of this cory just behind the head, Any ideas what it is? (that picture also shows the hair algae in all its glory lol

 

[brendonjw]

Oh and I ordered a pre-filter sponge from ali-express, will hopefully help some baby corys to survive.

 

[Geoffrey]

Wow, beautiful!

 

[brendonjw]

My Cory's are breeding. Woo-hoo. They choose the leaf that has the highest water flow in the whole tank. I've taken a fee of the eggs and put into a breeder box I have and left the rest on the leaf to see how they go. The leaf is so high and in the current that most of the fish never go up there so I think they are safe. The babies will get swapt off when they are born though.
My prefilter foam just arrived as well so have put that on in the hope it improves survival rate. They still need to contend with all the guppies and a 3 spot gourami one they are born though. Hopefully i can raise a few to big enough size in the breeder box to get around that problem though. So far the eggs are at least 24 hours old.

 

[brendonjw]

Eggs are still there and it looks like at least some of them have been fertilized

 

[brendonjw]

Eggs are gone this morning. The ones in the breeder box are also gone too but i cant see any little wrigglers in there (there are holes in the bottom though so i think they have dropped down. Hopefully some survive.

 

[brendonjw]

Worked out my pre-filter has been blocking too much of the water flow, so got a piece of spare pipe and drilled a heap of holes in it. Put the pre-filter over and the flow is now back to normal as it can use all of the pre-filter to now suck water in instead of just the bottom.

The Amazon Sword has put out 4 little plants on the flower stem, i have taken 2 off so far and transferred one into my 150ltr tank and planted the other back into this tank as i'm thinking of moving a few plants around next week as they need a trim again.

Since blocking off the 9k light the algae issues have been greatly reduced. Theres still a little bit still growing on the main wood piece but nothing like the previous growth.

Also bought some frozen blood worms and am going to try fatten my corys up to get them to spawn again. I'll setup a 20ltr tank to try and hatch the fry in this time (also looking at getting some cherry barbs and would use this to try and breed some in there to then raise the fry in.)

 

[Lcc86]

Looks amazing!

 

[Wills]

Looks absolutely amazing! Really good route on the filter pipe too - I have a similar project coming up soon where I need to modify a filter, will be stealing this idea!

 

[brendonjw]

I found more Cory eggs last night, i accidently killed some as i was starting to push the suction cap back onto the glass and noticed some while stuff coming out before i stopped.

So to try and keep more alive i moved them into my 150ltr tank as it only has a few rasboras in it right now.

I went and checked on them 10 mins later and half the eggs were missing, i had a slight freak out thinking that Rasboras had got them even though i never see them at the lower half of the tank before i saw 2 eggs hatching, im guessing there might have been a 1 degree diff in water temp which encouraged them to hatch, either that or my timing was perfect for moving them.

There a bit more mulm in this tank so im hoping thats going to help feed them while they are still so young as i have no way of trying to direct feed them right now. Anyway I saw lots of little wrigglers by the time the lights went off so im pretty happy with that. I think moving to 2 feeds a day has encouraged the cories to spawn more.

I had started setting up a 60ltr tank as i wanted to get some cherry barbs and use it as a spawning/grow out tank but i didnt have the heater setup for it yet so will see how the cories go in here. Its got alot of plants but not as dense as the 240ltr tank.

Also for future reference does anyone know if Planariidae eat fish eggs? I saw a couple of them on the suction cup after most of the eggs had hatched.

Family Planariidae
Danger: Harmless.
How it gets into your tank: Plants, Water, Live food.
Size: Generally ≤ 4mm
Planaria are non-parasitic [acronym="The flatworms, known in scientific literature as Platyhelminthes are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrate animals."]flatworms[/acronym] often seen in new tanks. Large numbers of them are indicative of overfeeding or decaying animal matter being in the tank. Often seen crawling on glass.

 

[brendonjw]

Found some more cory eggs, the feeding twice a day has prompted them to start breeding i think.

I havent moved them across as i want to get rid of the planara in the other tank as it looks like they eat eggs and even fish, and the baby corys would be a easy target id say. So the plan is to dose the other tank and let it settle down for a month or 2 before trying to put more eggs in. In the meantime i put a heater into my new 60ltr and might try the eggs in there. There are ramshorn snails in there though.