55Gl Fw Planter Tank

[stanleo]

I took a time lapse of the tank. I think its kind of fun. This is one hour but the vid is only 10 seconds long. I will see if I can do it for a whole day. 
 
http/vid1293.photobucket.com/albums/b581/stanleo/IMG_0488_zps2327b940.mp4

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Hi, love you tank. It says 55G is that 200L or thereabouts. I am thinking of upgrading to a bigger tank in the new year, how do you find its maintenance?

 

[stanleo]

Hi, love you tank. It says 55G is that 200L or thereabouts. I am thinking of upgrading to a bigger tank in the new year, how do you find its maintenance?

Thank you so much! 
 
55 gallons is roughly 208 liters. 
 
The maintenance is a breeze and I do 50% WC every 5 days and I have 2 canister filters and clean one every 4 WC's. So with scrubbing the sides and front glass and WC it takes about 2 hours. And I prune what I need to when I need to. For me its so much fun to take care of a tank I don't consider it work at all.  

 

[LilyRose Tank]

When you say you clean your filters, are you removing media? If you are, that may be the culprit for the ammonia spikes you are getting. Or are you fish in cycling?

 

[stanleo]

No I just rinse in tank water. You should never remove media, at least not all of it at once. My last tank I had running for 3 years and never replaced anything. I did a fishless cycle. That one test of ammonia was just the one time so I have attributed it to API testing error. 

 

[stanleo]

 

[stanleo]

I found two shrimp sheds today! So 2 of my 3 bamboo shrimp have shed. I can only see two of them right now so one must be hiding in a place I can't see. One is hiding in the big driftwood and another is in the corner filtering in the down current.
 
I found a mystery snail on the floor about 3 feet away from the tank all dried up. I took a chance and put it back in the tank and he is alive. ITs taking him a while to rehydrate but he seems to be doing ok.

 

[Ninjouzata]

It's exciting when they shed ^.^ Sorry about the mystery snail, hopefully he perks back up. One that I used to have escaped and my fiance found her covered in dog hair on the floor, plopped her back in and she was fine later on.
Unfortunately she did escape a second time and was never seen again. So I would try and find how/where it got out and cover it up with craft mesh or saran wrap.

 

[stanleo]

I am fixing the lid, I can't stand the idea of losing anymore to suicide! The snail is absolutely fine now. Took about 2 hours to fully recover.
 
On a sad note the shrimp I couldn't find was found behind the tank stand on the floor. When I picked her up she did move a little and I put her in the tank and she was breathing and flexed herr arms a couple times but she didn't make it.

 

[stanleo]

Sad day. I woke to find a mystery snail dead. I am going to feed more bottom feeder food and lower the water level by an inch just in case it was a problem with the care I am providing. 
 
I also lost a peppered cory that was sick. for a couple weeks. He just looked depressed and was getting skinny but he was swimming normally and I saw him eating. He was swimming to the surface a lot more than the other corys. Yesterday I noticed a white fuzz growing on him. Today I found him floating. 
 
I also lost a harlequin yesterday. He was getting pale far a couple weeks and started developing a dark cap to his head and swimming at the surface a lot. I found him dead on the bottom yesterday. None of the other fish are showing any symptoms of sickness and the cory that lost most of his tail to fin rot has almost grown all of it back. He's just missing the points now. So hopefully there is nothing going on anymore. 
 
I started cycling a QT tank the other day. I don't want to add anything that could be potentially dangerous. I am getting 6 more harlequins and 3 jullii's and 3 sterbas. 
 
I am changing the WC to every week on Wednesday instead of every 5 days. 

 

[stanleo]

I did my 50% WC change today. I decided to switch this to once a week instead of every 5 days. My nitrates were still 10ppm before and undetectable after so I think once a week will be sufficient. 
 
I also have had the photoperiod at 12 hours with no algae issues for a week. 

 

[stanleo]

Haven't updated this journal in a while.

I stopped doing the co2 injection a month ago. It got too expensive and some things were growing out of control. Things are still growing really well with just doing the Flourish and the Flourish Trace so I am just as happy not doing co2. The dwarf hairgrass is not doing well but that might have more to do with the level of light that is getting to the bottom. The baby tears that grow at the surface get so thick between water changes that it blocks almost of the light. I just did a WC today and took about 4 handfuls of plants from the surface so hopefully that will let a lot more light in for them.

The fish are doing great! My angel is almost five inches tall now. I just got some more corys in the mail last week. 3 sterbia and 3 false juliis so now I have 5 peppered, 5 sterbia, and 5 false juliis and they all seem much happier. I am still trying to get 6 harlequin rasporas to up that school to 12 but I can't seem to find any from a store that I trust.

I have about 40 baby mystery snails that are getting bigger by the day. Some are a quarter of an inch now. Soon I will have to take some to the fish store. Most are blue with orange spots on the flesh. The bamboo shrimp have been doing so well I took a chance and got a viper shrimp. They filter water too but get much larger, up to six inches but four inches is the norm. He is still very shy only an inch long but if he does well he will be an impressive addition so I am very excited about him. I also got 3 freshwater clams that immediately dug themselves in and I haven't seen them since.

I am still doing 50% WC once a week. At that time I take out about 75% of the baby tears from the surface and they still grow like weeds. I like how they look but they block so much light.

Anyway, here is a pic after water change.

 

[stanleo]

 

[stanleo]

My harlequin rasporas came in the mail yesterday. I got 6 to up my school to 12 but one of them died tonight. So I have 11. I think it must have been the shipping stress, the others seem fine and they were eating well today. He didn't look sick but he .couldnt keep upright. I just hope he didn't intro any deceases.

 

[PlumbersMerchant]

Great journal. Never had any shrimps as Ive got some African dwarfe frogs when I fisrt set up and they are vastly outlasting all predictions on their lifespan. I don't wanna mix both as they have very poor eyesight and become prey to shrimps. It's probably no use now but I did read somewhere that a lot of people doing high tec with co2 tend to do periods of use rather then one long on period I.e lights and co2 on at 12 dinner time off at 4, back on at 8 till 12. This, I believe tends to make sure all the nutrients and co2 get used up and prevents build up which can promote algea blooms.

Keep on with the journal mate, I enjoy reading them and seeing the progression. Also helps for inspiration for others