Amanda's Redoing The 38 Gallon

[ace61502]

The old 38 gallon tank was abandoned when I found a 75 gallon tank on Craiglist. It didn't take long before I got the bug to get it back running. Craigslist scored for me again and I got a tank stand yesterday, so I set it back up last night. I have wished I had done a journal when planting my 75 gallon, so I'm going to attempt to do one for the 38.

Here's day 1:

Grabbed a 100# bag of Black Beauty ($11 ) to compliment the blue background of the tank and help the fish and plants stand out. Lighting is the same as what has been working well enough (for my needs) on the 75 gallon. Two $8 clip on desk lamps from Walmart with 20w, 6500k CFLs. Not ideal, but I'm on a budget here and it seems to be working just fine.

Moved some pennywort, American elodea, hornwort, java moss on driftwood, a few crypt wendtii (red and green) and the single sprig of ambulia that didn't literally disappear from the 75 gallon.

Side note: I had a nice clump of ambulia from aquariumplants.com and in 2 days all I had left was a single tiny stem, the rest was just GONE. I let it be, the "leaves" browned and as I was about to give up noticed a small sprout off the side of the stem. I snipped off the browned area and am excitedly watching. It was soooo pretty when I first got it, and I still don't know what happened to it all. I figured it had been eaten, but that was a lot of ambulia for the number/size of my fish, and they never ate the last bit, so that doesn't make sense. Neither does alien abduction, though.

Also moved in what was one of my first plant purchases, an Amazon Sword. All but one of those leaves HAD been eaten. It's brown on the edges, but there is still a lot of green, and even the gnawed off stems are green, so I haven't given up on it. I'm hoping moving it to the 38 which will provide more light (1w/gallon instead of .5) and hopefully less nibbling (seemed to be the loaches doing the nibbling) will give it a chance to recover. FX

I had been moving the platies over to the 10g platy nursery tank to cycle up the Penguin 200 in preparation for this move, so they're in their new (old for the original/parent fish) home. I plan to move the danios, otos and cories over as time goes on, (adding another 200 filter along the way or upgrading to a 350, or I may swap the 200 for one of the 350s on my 75, thoughts on this?) leaving the loaches and angelfish room to grow out in the 75.

Comments, suggestions welcome.

 

[ace61502]

Just doing some thinking here....

If I swapped the Penguin 200 for one of the 350s on the big tank, I'd be swapping the load capacity as well, right? Which means I'd need to go ahead and move more fish so that the 75 doesn't mini-cycle and the 350 doesn't "cycle down" and have a bacteria die off. Seriously thinking this may be the way I want to go. I like things done NOW. LOL

 

[JenCliBee]

Apart from more hardscape needed... this has potential, will be watching how it progresses so keep the updates coming

 

[ace61502]

Thanks. I do plan to go get some rocks or more driftwood in the next week or so, and probably cave on some new plants, too, since the lighting is doubled. LOL I am very open to suggestions.

Was at Petco earlier while waiting on my 16 year old to make a decision at the movie theater across the street. I REFUSE to buy anything at Petco anymore, have always lost 50% of any fish bought there, and saw lots of dead fish in tanks tonight, but figured I'd look and get ideas while I was there. While cycling up my 200 with the platies I've also had the media for my Aquatech 5-15 in it so it'll be ready to get the 10g back in business. I'm thinking I'm going to forego the nursery tank (although I do have another 10g and a Penguin Mini on stand by if I change my mind LOL) and do a neon tetra tank. It sits on my end table, so there is no true back and it will all be fore and mid-ground plants. Crypts will probably be the tallest thing I put in there. There's lots of buying in the near future. Petco had anubia on wood that I was really drawn to, but I WILL NOT buy it there, so hoping someone else will have some. Next weekend I'll be headed to Memfish, and probably drop in Petsmart this week to see what they've gotten in. Memfish leans towards reef setups, but do have a better selection than the other LFS's I've been to so far. That's where I got the big driftwood in my 75g tank that I absolutely LOVE. They always have a TON of driftwood and river stones in stock, so I'm sure to find another really interesting piece. Found 4 more in the area searching the yellow pages online yesterday.

I'm off to move filters and catch some fish. Hopefully I don't rip the 75 to shreds trying to catch the otos I hardly ever even see. LOL Might just wait until I notice them busy sucking and catch them by surprise. They've got to eat sometime, right? The danios should be easy enough. The cories... could be messy. I'll have to pull the big driftwood out, so will be a good time for a thorough vacuuming of all the driftwood doodoo (as I call it). Looks like it's time for more hornwort trimming, too. I swear I just did that last night.

 

[ace61502]

Not much change today. Picked up a small Anubias and snipped it into two and plugged it in. Still plan to go to Memfish this weekend for stone and wood. OK, so I'll probably go Thursday as soon as I get the check in the bank, off work, and lil man picked up. LOL Switched filters around until I was happy and got all tank residents in. Also restocked the 10 gallon with x-ray tetras for the lil guy. I wanted neons, but the short people always win. Will have a new Penguin 350 in on Wednesday (I love Amazon).

So, here's today's picture...

Closeup of Anubias... You can see my tiny sprig of Ambulia in front of it. What little there is looks good and healthy to my amateur eye. Certainly looks tons better than it did. I think I'm going to move the Ambulia to the other end. Will look too much like the Hornwort.

I'm really liking the black beauty. I'm seriously thinking of changing the 75 over to it. My little otos all but blend right into it.

PS: The water hasn't been topped off yet because I need a new cap to cap off the plumbing in the rear. Not set up to run plumbing here.

 

[JenCliBee]

I see you have been busy .... any plans on more hardscape yet..wood, rocks?.

 

[ace61502]

Yes! I'm headed to another LFS tomorrow after work to get driftwood and riverstone. I want to attach the anubias to an intriguing bit of driftwood that will elevate it so it will be partially emersed. I'm hoping for something scaled down and similar to the piece in my 75 gallon, but know that's probably wishful thinking. Never hurts to hope, though. I absolutely ADORE this piece (though it is a very, very messy one LOL)

I also plan to take a look at their plants to see what they've gotten in. The driftwood and the java fern on the driftwood above came from there. Got a HUGE bunch of fern for $8. Did the piece above, put some on top of the piece you see back in the corner propped up, and a good sized stone and had some left over. They lean heavily toward reef tanks, but do keep freshwater, too. It's an awesome place. Someday I will probably have them help me do a reef. They are soooo pretty.

I'm afraid I'm going to get quite bored once I've finished these scapes and move into maintenance phase and start itching to do another one This is so much fun.

 

[JenCliBee]

All sounds good

I'm afraid I'm going to get quite bored once I've finished these scapes and move into maintenance phase and start itching to do another one This is so much fun.

Haha.... i think most of us get like this and if given the chance... we would all have tanks all over our houses .


Saying that, i quite like the maintenance and watching side of things, makes you feel like your helping everything along as it should be... and all the hard work, time and effort was worth it, especially once you have a nice finished, well scaped planted tank that looks good enough to be proud of

 

[ace61502]

Just took a peek at the Amazon sword I moved into the 38 and there is a new leaf growing! Looks like my suspicion was correct: The loaches were eating it. YAHOO! There's another one in the 75 that doesn't even have the one leaf but the stems stayed green. I guess I'll fish it out and move it, too. I'm so happy!

 

[JenCliBee]

Just took a peek at the Amazon sword I moved into the 38 and there is a new leaf growing! Looks like my suspicion was correct: The loaches were eating it. YAHOO! There's another one in the 75 that doesn't even have the one leaf but the stems stayed green. I guess I'll fish it out and move it, too. I'm so happy!

Fingers crossed it will continue to grow .... another plant for this setup then? .

 

[ace61502]

Fingers crossed it will continue to grow .... another plant for this setup then? .

Yup! Two Amazon swords with small rocks they are tied to to keep them down in the sand. I got them MONTHS ago and all the leaves save the one were nipped away pretty quickly. There were always green stems at sand level, just never any new leaves. The fish were eating them before they could grow. Not sure how it stayed alive. LOL I'll get a new picture tonight after I've been to the LFS and get any new purchases added.

 

[ace61502]

Methinks I like this piece better than the one in the 75 gallon. Got it soaking now.

Going to have it sitting in the back right corner, like it's growing into the tank from there. It will break the surface a bit, I think. Thinking I'll tie the Anubias near the top and put some java moss in the bottom where there is a bit of a shelf and see what happens over time. Thoughts?

They didn't have any rock like I had envisioned, but got a great lead on where to get some. There's a rock landscaping store just a few miles from my house, and the owner at Memfish said Polly KNOWS what's safe in tanks and what's not.

 

[ace61502]

OK, so I've fiddled with the wood a bit to see exactly how I want it in there, and I think this is it. Maybe. I think I'll think on it a couple days before attaching anything. I may even flip it upside down and attach it to something so it can hang in from the top rather than sit on the bottom. I don't know yet. LOL Not sure I'd like seeing whatever the something may be to get it to do that.

I took a TON of pictures trying to get good ones. My lighting is not conducive to pictures. I changed the angle, turned this one off, that one off, room lights on/off... So, I'll go with several pics from different angles and hope you get an idea of what I see in person. More pictures here... http/s128.photobucket.com/albums/p189/ace61502/Fish/38%20scaping%20Oct%2027%202011/

So, I moved the small driftwood with the java moss to the other end, in front of the elodea. The hornwort was scooted more in front of the filter. The ambulia was moved to be directly in front of the new piece so it would show up better against the darker background of the wood. At least till it gets bigger. Was surprised at how much WORK it was to get that tiny sucker up to move it. It's grown some serious rootage in just the few days (ok, 5 days) it's been in this tank!

I'm thinking about culling the smaller driftwood and getting landscaping stones to build a cave on that end, and then put some new plants around it. That'll give me lots of java moss for the small shelf (wish the pictures showed that well). I'm thinking a cave in the middle between the two pieces would be crowding a bit. Then I could use the small driftwood in my 10 gallon tank that's up next. I may also go back in a couple weeks for another piece like the one I got today for the other end. Thoughts?

The wide view:

New location for the small driftwood/java moss

Closeups of the Amazon swords to show the new leaflets on the back one. Each rock has one tied to it. Glad I didn't scrub the algae off of the rocks when I moved them. Food for the otos.

The ambulia when I first got it, and what's left and recovering from whatever happened...

Now for pics of the new driftwood (actually roots from trees in Malaysia)... I'm wondering if the pennywort will latch onto it. Haven't read much on it, but it's got roots dangling off of it all over the place. I may try to get it to root across the whole front of the tank. Maybe I should start it in the middle instead of the corner? Hmmmm.... I love thinking "out loud". Do my best thinking then.

This is how much sits above the waterline...

Top view. The right end kept trying to float, so I shoved the filter against the left side and voila. It stays put. Hopefully it will waterlog more so I can move the filter back away from it, as it takes away from the view of that end IMO. Will probably flip the heater so the cord will be on the other side of the filter, too.

More views...

I'll probably attach the plants like this... (no laughing at the horrible drawing, I'm much better with pencil and paper LOL)

Any suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[This Old Spouse]

What a transformation! You're doing some really cool things here. I WANT that piece of driftwood! Just the thing I've been trying to find for my 29g which desperately needs something vertical (I keep picturing your driftwood turned 90º clockwise in my tank!).

I didn't know how I'd like the black beauty sand in the tank, but now that you've started filling in the scape I like it a lot. Great job!

 

[minnnt]

Is the Anubias in the sand?