45 Gallon Bow Tropical Freshwater Aquarium

[yoruyongbpei]

Hello everyone me and my fiancee have a currently 2 month old tank that is Tropical planted tank with Half Gravel and half Sand. In truth we actually have had this tank for 4 months, but the first month was a catastrophic failure. When we first got the tank we received with it "dirty gravel" to help cycle the tank as well as be pre-fertilized for the plants.This was series of events that was our rookie mistake, We filled it with conditioned ph balanced water and planted it, at this point it was all just gravel that looked very similar to the gravel used for planted tanks that we bought later on. We allowed the water to cycle for a day or two then added in snails and shrimp, slowly over the course of a week we introduced many fish. Everything seemed to be going good for the first 2 weeks till, a fish died, there was a fungal outbreak happening in the tank, we medicated the water and eventually changed the water  and the fungus seemed to disappear, then suddenly there was an outbreak of ich and more fish died. It was then we decided to change everything, we moved the seemingly uninfected fish and plants to a large naturally medicated quarantine tank, and the highly infected fish to another chemically medicated quarantine tank. The Main tank was then sanitized and refilled with a our current Half sand Half Gravel mixture with exposed sand beds, this time added in water that was conditioned with Stress coat+ replanted the tank, re-introduced the uninfected fish and added in quickstart biocultures to quickly cycle the tank and kept the tank at a 2 day light cycle with a half day of darkness to allow for algae growth. Today this tank now 2 months old since the catastrophe is going strong looking clear and everything so far is going great.
 
Currently it is a 45 gallon bow planted tropical tank, that is double sponge filtered with 3 different airstone decorations, It is kept at 74.4 F with a ph that ranges from 7.2-6.9( At this moment I am currently monitoring Ph level with daily spikes that are being controlled with water balancers). Inside the tank there is natural sand and gravel rated for planted tanks with 2 exposed sand beds to encourage spawning of certain species.
The plants include 2 Dwarf Grass patches, 1 narrow leaf Java Fern, 1 Sword leaf plant, 1 mondo grass bunch, 1 Anubius plant, 4 Ribbon plants, 3 Marimo Mossballs and several Anacharis plants that have split and rooted all around the tank.
 
It is also decorated with 1 fake soft anemone, 1 fake Barnacle cluster, 1 large Colosseum with bubbler, 1 Large fake Root drift wood with cave in trunk, 1 medium fake drift wood log hollow, 1 dragon with bubbler, 1 underwater waterfall with bubbler, 1 marine rock, 1 fake long soft plant, 1 small fake blue plant, and last but not least 1 Spiderman and Captain America Deco all of these decorations have small amounts of algae growing on them.
 
The inhabitants of the tank are 6 Neon tetras, 1 Male Borneo Sucker, 1 Female Borneo Sucker, 1 Male Dwarf Puffer, 1 Female Dwarf Puffer, 3 Male dwarf Gourami, 1 Raphael Catfish, 3 Kuhli Loaches, 3 Silver Hatchets, 2 Madagascar Rainbowfish, 3 Mystery Snails, 3 Otocinclus Catfish,  3 Dalmatian Mollys, 3 Panda Cory, 3 freshwater clams, several Ramshorn Snails, and Several Ghost Shrimp.
 
In getting our tank to this point we sadly have lost, 1 Borneo Sucker male, 1 Dalmatian Molly, 2 Neon Tetras, 2 Zebra Danio, 1 Raphael Catfish, 2 Black Mollys, 1 female Dwarf Puffer, 1 Kuhli Loach, 1 mystery snail, 2 Bosemai Rainbowfish, and 1 Silver Hatchet may they all rest in peace.
 
Thankfully everything at this moment looks great, we have shrimp that are spawning, the ramshorn snails are laying eggs at full force but they are mostly being eaten by the dwarf puffers thankfully, we even have spawn ready otocinclus and we have seen the Borneo suckers attempting to court each other, all in all I am very hopeful for this tank. We are feeding them a mixture of free dried and flake foods with a sprinkling of live blood worms  at each feeding. The water inside has not been changed for 2 weeks and has been treated with stress coat, stresszyme, and quickstart bio cultures, and the water is getting daily doses of liquid CO2 for the plants and so far everything is looking good some shedding on some of the plants looked like they were cause of worry in the beginning but they look better each day using the liquid CO2.
 
I will post pictures on a later Journal entry this is just my first entry to introduce my tank 

 

[yoruyongbpei]

Last night we added in 4 Glowlight tetras and they immediately began to school with the Neon Tetras now the Tetra school being a size of 10 they seem to have calm down alot more and glide the radius of the tank at a gentle rate, with the introduction of the Glowlight Tetras Quickstart bio-culture was added to balance the biological load of adding in new fish and a small amount of stress coat water to help the fish cope with the addition of new inhabitants. Another addition to the tank was the removal of Spiderman and Captain America deco to make room of a non tannin releasing piece of real driftwood, hopefully this will encourage green algae growth as i cannot add iron to the tank due to the fact that there are freshwater clams in the tank. We also attempted to introduce duckweed to have floating plants for the hatchets, the experiment was unsuccessful for the water currents uptop were to heavy due to the double filter system and 3 bubblers the duckweed was simply getting damaged and tossed about actually scaring the fish so we have decided to change to purchasing a flowing floating aquarium deco plant instead that we can suction cup to a part of the tank to allow for the hatchets and Rainbowfishs a place to rest. Sadly we have lost one snail due to unknown causes the other 2 mystery snails are still moving around strong so we are baffled.
Current Water Conditions:
Temperature: 74.3
Ph. 7.1
Clarity: Crystal
 
Current Aquarium Inhabitants:
1 Raphael Catfish
2 Dwarf Puffers
2 Mystery Snails 
2 Borneo Suckers
2 Madagascar Rainbowfishs
3 Dwarf Gouramis
3 Dalmatian Mollys
3 Kuhli Loaches
3 Panda Corys
3 Hatchets
3 Otocinclus Catfish
3 Freshwater Clams
Several Ramshorn snails
Several Ghost Shrimp
 
Current Losses:
1 Mystery Snail
 
I have been contemplating on adding in a Japanese Amano Shrimp to my tank but I am still iffy on the choice, I also was considering adding in an assassin snail to help control the Ramshorn population but I am fearful that my puffers will kill it. 

 

[yoruyongbpei]

Today I added in one Bamboo shrimp and one Assassin snail, the assassin snail is a test since it was given to me by accident when the worker at the pet store gave me my Bamboo shrimp scooping up the shell of an Assassin snail in the process. I also have started a food tank, 2 gallons double filtered with duckweed and a moss ball to help with water clarity, Inside are a couple of Ramshorn snails a couple of Malaysian live bearing cone snails and a couple of Cherry and ghost shrimp, So far the ghost shrimp already have eggs and there are so many Malaysian babies its hard to tell where the small amount of sand begins and the flood of tiny snails starts, though i've yet to see ramshorn eggs and the two cherry shrimp i introduced i have no idea if one is female so i am gonna get 2 more to be sure. along with sponges for the filters. The Main Tank seems to be doing great so far, the Bamboo shrimp took really quickly to his new home, when i got the little guy his color was very pale, but in the tank his color came right back. There was a light film along my glass on the inside of the Aquarium today though, I wiped it away but I wonder if that film of biological material is something to worry about........ Other than that the only other concern I'm having with my tank is the fact that there is what seems to be orangeish algae growing on my marine rock.  At the moment my Ph seems to be stabilizing, the plants are growing well except for one of the ribbon plants in the back closest to the large filter unit intake but I also see a cone forming in the center that is vibrant in color suggesting new growth so I am hopeful for that. I have also added in one Floating vine plant and a Suction cupped Anubius Plant to add shelter for my top swimmers such as my Hatchets and my Madagascar Rainbow Fish.
Current Water Conditions:
Temperature: 74.3
Ph: 7-7.1
Clarity: Crystal(aside from the film that was on the glass that was wiped away)
 
Current Aquarium Inhabitants
1 Raphael Catfish
1 Assassin Snail
1 Bamboo Shrimp
2 Dwarf Puffer Fish
2 Mystery Snails
2 Borneo Suckers
2 Madagascar Rainbowfish
3 Silver Hatchets
3 Panda Corys
3 Dwarf Gourami
3 Dalmatian Mollys
3 Kuhli Loachs
3 Otocinclus Catfish
3 Freshwater Clams
Several Ramshorn Shrimp
Several Ghost Shrimp
 
Current Losses:
0
 
And Here are my photos as promised the floating plant in this picture is not current that plant was taken out, I will post pictures of what the tank looks like now with the new additions along with the new inhabitants, though I make no promises for the Assassin snail he's an elusive little bastard

 

[yoruyongbpei]

So we added in another borneo sucker, this one is a chinese variety while the others we have a butterfly variety, he's become very friendly with our other two resident suckers, together they helped rid my aquarium of this bacterial build up on my aquarium glass which i learned was called flocculent bacterial bloom, and i also scrubbed my marine rock clean of the brown diatom growth hopefully it will be replaced with green algae growth. plans are in motion to exchange the last 3 remaining face plants for real plants as well as adding in more plants for the tank. At the moment the environment is completely stable, Ph is officially stable and the small issue i was having with water clarity was fixed with a 50% water change.During the water change the Clams uncovered themselves and were feeding, its very rare to seem them. We are hoping to be able to get a sumo loach to add in and possible a freshwater pipefish we are still debating on that.
Current Water Conditions:
Temperature: 74.3
Ph: 7
Water Clarity: Crystal
 
Current Aquarium Inhabitants:
1 Raphael Catfish
1 Bamboo Shrimp
1 Chinese Hillstream Loach
2 Dwarf Puffers
2 Madagascar Rainbowfish
2 Mystery Snails
2 Butterfly HillStream Loach(otherwise known as the Borneo Suckers)
3 Silver Hatchets
3 Dwarf Gourami
3 Otocinclus Catfish
3 Panda Cory
3 Dalmatian Molly
3 Kuhli Loaches
3 Freshwater Clams
Several Ghost Shrimp
Several Ramshorn Snails
 
Current Losses:
0
 
Here are some current pictures of the tank, this is the main tank in its entirety atm

 
Here is a snail tower of Ramshorns

Our Chinese Hillstream Loach

And our Bamboo Shrimp

 
all of these photos are courtesy of my fiancee 

 

[majerah1]

Looks nice! Love the dragon. I have kinda wanted one but cannot force myself to put it in my aquarium. 

 

[yoruyongbpei]

We recently got lucky and were able to find a place that had sumo loaches, we now have 2 in our tank and they are so fascinating to watch as they hop around the entire aquarium. The marine rock has been removed and replaced with another rock for the brown diatom took over the old one, and 2 of the fake plants have been replaced with some live plants one peacock fern and the other is one i forgot the name, sadly this is going to be a pictureless post due to the fact that my fiancee is a sleep and she has not had time to take pictures. We also rehomed our hatchets, Mollys, and rainbowfish due to the loss of our Bamboo shrimp during his molt being attacked,  the mollys because they go pregnant and our tank is not ready to handle fry nor are we atm. Currently I am experimenting with a minature shrimp tank to grow live food, infusoria, and planktonic lifeforms to hopefully be able to supply constant food for the fish in the tank and the possible pipefish, There are little deposits of javamoss all around the tank now to make homes for planktonic lifeforms, to help this tank be ready for any fry that will be born and survive past the larva stage.
Current water Conditions:
Temperature: 74.3
Ph: 7
Water Clarity: Crystal
 
Current Aquarium Inhabitants:
1 Raphael Catfish
1 Chinese Hillstream Loach
2 Dwarf Puffers
2 Mystery Snails
2 Butterfly HillStream Loach(otherwise known as the Borneo Suckers)
3 Dwarf Gourami
3 Otocinclus Catfish
3 Panda Cory
3 Kuhli Loaches
3 Freshwater Clams
Several Ghost Shrimp
Several Ramshorn Snails
Current Losses
3 Silver Hatchets(rehomed)
3 Dalmatian Mollys(rehomed)
2 Madagascar rainbowfish(rehomed)
1 Bamboo Shrimp

 

[yoruyongbpei]

Looks nice! Love the dragon. I have kinda wanted one but cannot force myself to put it in my aquarium. 

Thanks , you know that dragon was just a personal touch for me cause i love dragons, which is one big reason why i want to add a freshwater pipefish to my tank they remind me so much of eastern dragons, I even added a ton more plants today just for that purpose along with giving my freshwater plankton a place to hide as well.

 

[yoruyongbpei]

This is going to be a mini post I will be adding more plus photos later, but we are upgrading to a 70 gallon corner tank with upgraded filtration, along with upgraded lights, and the Plankton tank is now beginning to cultivate

 

[yoruyongbpei]

Tank has been upgraded along with a new tank to culture live food and plans to culture blackworms are in the process as well, going to be closing down this journal and starting a new one with the upgraded tank, along with the live food tank as well thanks for your views.