55 Gallon Project

[mancin]

Angels will eat wisteria and waterspire Well mine do, you might be lucky and not get devils. watersprite or wisteria would make a nice background plant.
No idea on carpet plants, I am new to that myself lol.
Is the ludwigia you want, ludwigia repens broadleaf? I have repens and I noticed the lower leaves tend to die off or get pin holes if there is not enough light reaching the bottom.

Can you put a co2 tank under the tank? Mine is in my bedroom as well, I put it under. It lasts me 2-3 months before a refill depending on how many bps. I think it would be a good idea to add some sort of co2 if your light is that high.

do the emerald eye rasbora reach 6cm? thats all I could find about them. I have zebra danios with my angels and they leave them alone but the zebra danios like to nip fins (only have 3) but my danio kytathit don't nip.

Darn Angels. I may still try the Water Sprite and Wisteria as they are only a couple bucks a piece. Worst case if they eat it, I just won't buy it again.

Yep, I was looking at the Ludwigia Repens. It looks like a really pretty plant.

I may be able to fit a CO2 tank under it, depending on how tall they are. I'll have to do some poking around and see what I can find. I was reading up a bit and read that some had success with dosing Seachem Excel instead of CO2. Granted it won't do what CO2 will do, but it seems like it would be better than doing nothing.

Emerald Eye Rasboras get to 1.75 inches. I think that's almost 4.5 cm. I really like Rasboras. I have Harlequins in my other tank and they are so much fun to watch. Congo Tetras look nice, color up well, and get to about 3 inches, but they are spendy!

 

[mancin]

Ordered my plants. I *think* they will be here Wednesday, maybe Thursday. I did 2nd day air rather than overnight. I've ordered from this place before and their plants came in fantastic shape, so I'm pretty excited. This is what I ended up getting (copied straight from the email receipt):

2 X Java Fern, Lace (Microsorium pteropus v. ‘'Windelov')
1 X Sword, Broad Leaf Chain (Echinodorus quadricostatus) (sold 10 per order)
2 X Sword, Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri)
2 X Wendtii, Bronze (Cryptocoryne wendtii v. ‘Tropica’)
3 X Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)
2 X Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides)
1 X Ludwigia, Broad Leaf (Ludwigia repens)
1 X Pennywort, Brazilian (Hydrocotyle Leucocephala)(6-8 stems)(8"-10" tall)
4 X Dwarf Baby Tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides)(potted)
2 X Baby Tears (Dwarf) grown on Lava Rocks

Also had to order a replacement extension tube and strainer for one of the filters. It didn't come with one. I received a shipment notification for that today, so hopefully those will be here before the end of the week.

A pic of the tank with the lights on (I moved the wood around a little):

Moonlights (pic didn't come out too well):

I just realized I haven't gotten a timer yet for the lights. Oops!

Today was the first day of double 0's at 12 hours. By the time the plants and replacement parts get here, I think I should be pretty safe for fish! Then more pics will be posted.

 

[mancin]

I've been cleaning, trimming, and planting for the past 5 hours. I'm EXHAUSTED! On top of that, I already wrote this post once and then my computer decided to freeze. Let's try this again. Hope you guys enjoy!

Left Side:

Ludwigia Repens in the very left corner. A couple stems of Brazilian Pennywort. The two large chunks of HC are actually grown on rock. As far as the rest of the HC, I received them in pots and tried to break it up as best I could. What a pain in the rear to plant! Some clusters are smaller than others, but if I was worried about damaging the roots, I planted in a larger group rather than trying to separate. I *think* it's best to put small clusters an inch or so a part to encourage growth (actually individual stems are probably best, but I honestly would lose my mind), so hopefully I didn't screw it up too bad. You can also see a little peek of the Lace Java Fern that is attached to the wood.

Center:

Wisteria and Water Sprite mixed in the back. One of the Amazon Swords found a home here. Have many of the Broad Leaf Chain Swords (Echinodorus quadricostatus) here, as well as a couple bare Crypts (I cut the leaves to prevent melting). More HC.

Right Side:

The rest of the Brazilian Pennywort. A couple of the Broad Leaf Chain Swords as well as more HC (of course). This piece of bog wood will have Flame Moss attached as soon as I receive it in the mail.

And last but not least....

Full Tank Shot: (Please excuse the yellowish water from the wood. )

I can't wait for the Wendtii to grow in. It's a beautiful bronze color, but I've bought from this company before and the leaves did melt. As much as I wanted to keep them, I didn't want to chance the rotting. That should add some nice color to the tank when they grow back. Any comments welcome!

 

[mancin]

Anybody?

I'm getting the 5 Angels shipped on Monday, so they should be here Tuesday. I'm also going to pick up 7 Congo Tetras and 5 Hatchets from the LFS and leave the stocking that way for awhile. I decided to hold off on the Pleco for sure until the HC has a chance to root. I also want to get a couple Dwarf Flag Cichlids, but my LFS doesn't have them at the moment, so I can wait for those too.

 

[mancin]

I picked up the Congo Tetras and Hatchets last night. They seem to be doing well. I have a nice mix of males and females for the Congos. The males look much more attractive, but they may be a bit more mature as well. My Angels should be here tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about those!

 

[mancin]

So I've been poking around looking for a powerhead to increase the circulation in the tank. Right now, I should have about 6X turnover with my current filtration. I think that should be sufficient, but I wouldn't mind having a bit of circulation in the tank itself. Given the fish I'm going to be stocking, is it worth it to add a powerhead? If so, what GPH should I look at? I found a Koralia one that seemed to be highly recommended, but it only filters 400 GPH. The next ones up filters 600, then 850, then 1200, respectively.

Thoughts?

Edit: I actually have a pretty weak powerhead in my other tank that filters 170 GPH, so I'm thinking the 400 GPH might be OK after all. I don't want to blow the fish around the tank, but I also don't want any stagnant areas.

 

[mancin]

The Angels are here! I'm going to let them settle for a little bit before I turn the lights on and start snapping pics of them. I think they are beautiful though!

 

[mancin]

Managed to get a couple shots.

The brave one:

The rest of them who aren't quite sure what to make of this new home yet:

I can't seem to snap a good pic of the Congos to save my life. They are way too quick for me. They have colored up quite nicely since I got them. I appear to have 3 males and 4 females based on their fins.

 

[bae1994]

very nice

 

[mancin]

Thanks for the reply!

I received my Flame Moss in the mail today. Let's just say I'm less than pleased. Scratch that, VERY displeased. Someone on here recommended a seller to me, but unfortunately he was in the UK and I'm in the US. I searched locally for someone that has Flame Moss and found a guy about 2 hours away. I went ahead and ordered some. The total came to $9.00. For $9.00, I guess I was expecting more than a 1" x 1" square. I don't even know if it's useable. It's almost like it's tied up with a piece of string that I can't get out. There was a weird white piece of what appeared to be string as well as a black piece of string. It won't even cover the TOP of my wood! I guess if I want to cover the wood I'm going to just have to use Java Moss from my LFS.

Also, one of my Angels is not doing well. I posted in the Emergency Section. I hope I don't lose him, but I'm trying to stay positive! My bf always accuses me of 'jinxing' the fish because I'm very sensitive to their behavior changes! The rest of the Angels seem fine... but still a bit skittish. If I sit and watch them for awhile, they'll come out and swim around the tank but as soon as I move they dart to hide under the largest piece of wood.

The Crypts are starting to sprout new leaves. The HC looks okay, but I'm hoping it will perk up some.

 

[bagu]

sorry to hear about the moss =[

can i ask for a FTS

 

[mancin]

sorry to hear about the moss =[

can i ask for a FTS

You can see the blur of Congos. The Angels are hiding of course. If you look really close, they are in the lower right. That seems to be their 'safe' zone if they feel threatened by me.

 

[mancin]

Here's an update!

The Angels are still very skittish. I know it will take time for them to warm up to me, especially after the stress of being shipped and all that, but I really wish they would come out more! When they do come out, they come out as a group. The sick one is in the Hospital tank and currently being treated with Metronidazole (thanks to Tolak's help). I'm hoping for the best! The Congos and Hatchets are doing really well and I enjoy watching them.
The Koralia pump came today. I really like it! It's not nearly as much of an eye sore as the powerhead I have in my other tank, and the magnet holds very well. The Congos are enjoying the extra current. It's not overpowering, but I think it should help with overall circulation in the tank.
I've been dosing Excel and Potassium daily and Flourish according to the bottle. I may need to make myself a schedule though so I don't overdose or forget to dose! I have 2 tanks that receive very different amounts of fert (as the other tank I have is a low light and pretty low maintenance), and I don't want to get them mixed up!
I'm going to get some legs for the lights. Unfortunately, the light fixture is extremely wide and with the HOB filters, makes it very difficult to open up the hood and get inside of the tank. I had my bf help me hold it up so I could get my arm in there to re-plant a couple stems of Wisteria (that the Angels pulled up ) and noticed that I only have 1 light running. D'oh! The fixture can run 4, but the WPG would be complete overkill so I was only going to run 2 of them. Well, turns out I've only been running 1 of them, so I was only getting about 1 WPG. That may explain a little why some of my plants don't look their best. I switched the 2nd bulb on and WOW much more light. There are 3 switches total, 1 for 2 lights, 1 for 2 more lights, and 1 for the moon lights. I had assumed that when my bf took the broken bulbs out that the 2 remaining lights were running off the same switch. Nope! Oops.
I went to my LFS yesterday and put some Curviceps on order. They have had them before, but don't currently have any in the store. They will call me when they come in. I thought about picking up some Java Moss to start covering the large piece of bogwood, but their Java Moss didn't look too hot. Probably a good thing I didn't buy any because I may be able to get some Flame Moss after all! The guy is in the UK, but hopefully postage won't kill the deal. I should know within the next couple days how much postage will cost.

 

[mancin]

Got some better pics of the Angels. Excuse the dirty glass. I had some friends over last night and was telling them about the new fish but explained that they probably wouldn't be able to see them since they were in hiding. The fish sure made a liar out of me! They are definitely more comfortable with me there now. If I make too sudden of a movement, they flee, but it's much better than what it was. I can actually see them and enjoy them now!

It's a bit hard to tell them apart. The smallest one is the easiest to spot. The one with speckles is the largest and seems to be the most dominant so far.

Still can't get a clear picture of the Tetras. Hard to get one of the Hatchets either since they pretty much stay at the water line. Every now and then they venture down, so I'll see if I can snap a picture then.

The 5th Angel is still in the Hospital tank. I won't be able to get more pics of him until he recovers. I don't have any lights on that tank other than the light of the room, so I don't want to stress him out. There does seem to be some improvement. He'll likely be in there for 2 weeks to complete his medication and I'm hoping to convince him to eat tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

 

[Phage]

Aww! cute angels. I like the 1st speckled one! He is like 'what chu want?'
Angels eat the moss yet?

Sorry to hear one is sick :\