Arnie's 100L Planted Tank

[ArnieStinger]

Hello to everyone reading this

I have a 95 Litre Fresh Water Aquarium Setup, Previously used and mature gravel media being used, 300w Thermocontroled Heater, Eheim 2215 External Filter with 0.5 Litre Activated Carbon, 1 sponge pag, 2 course filter pads, Eheim Automatic Gravel Cleaner which is really easy to use. Intrepet medicines and treaments, Artemia Shrimp, Nutrafin cycle Products, Plant Minerals, Aquaone, and lots of Dechlorinate (Enough for 7000 Litres)

Day One,
I have had a fast-moving and unfortunate situation of recieving fish with the tank, which I had no prior knowledge to. With the help of good people from FF, I was able to understand that I have 5 Dwarf Puffer Fish and 1 Male Betta Splenden.

When I recieved the fish, they had been kept in a bucket, I later found out that the Male Betta Splenden was in a serious injured conditon, with the puffer fish nipping it's fins away. They are still in the same tank but seperated and the Betta is happily resting out of harm.

I am also logging my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH and KH readings throughout the life of this tank and its inhabitants.


The original plan was to get a decent sized tank and to aquacape with Fishless cycling, but I had to find a tank from ebay as I have no means of collection, so it needed to be delivered, alas I have some fine white gravel and an unknown plant, so things are already going away from the plan.


Here is a picture of the Male Betta Splenden

As you can see, the damage caused by the Puffers is extensive, I have no choice but to nurse all of the fish back to health and keep them going, then after they are happy, thriving and healthier then assess what will happen. Original Injury Thread >Click Here<

Here is one of the Five dwarf Puffers, they are so small and similar I can't tell which is who apart from two of them, one being bigger and another being more pale. I'm not sure which of them did the nipping, I've only ever seen one of them nip, but several of them 'hunt' in packs of 3's

Here is a picture of my Tank, pretty bare at the moment, I know. But im focusing on the levels of the tank Which Ill talk about down below.

One of the biggest problems I know I'll face (Or should face) will be the fish-in cycling, please don't nag but I want to keep these fish alive (no matter what the cost £), It will benefit me in the long run, I'll have to be fast on my feet and on top of my game with this aquarium which I'm pretty sure I can do with a little help, I have experience in Horticulture and Nutrients/Micro/Macro Elements, It's not much different to this, apart from plants being much more forgiving then fish are.

The tank came with semi-dirty mucky ammonia water, when diluted came to a reading of 2.00 Ammonia and 0.0 for everything else. My Tap water is and has always been Hard, since living in London, around 350ppm-400ppm (In hydroponic terms) We consider To be hard water, and around 100pm is soft or lower.
The GH/KH of the water was 18/14 when tested.

Im hoping that the mature gravel will colonise my filter very quickly....


Day Two,

I've added the heater in, As i've finally figured out the species of the fish, and someone has bought to my attention the nipped betta, which has now been seperated, I will be doing a water change after I've taken a reading at 9:30Pm, then another reading afterwards.

I have no fish food whatsoever, But have found that the Betta like deshelled Peas , thanks to a thread and another member of FF.
Important
Here are the Readings:

The ammonia has gone down from 2.0 to 0.25 which is shocking but im hoping very very good for my situation if I have something eating the ammonia.
Last night I had 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate but tonight I have 20ppm Nitrate! I'm hopeing this is a sucessful start and that the dirty gravel was good for something!

I have a pH meter which I will start using, I've matched up both results from the test kit and the meter and they are identical, I also have a PPM/EC meter from hydroponics which can be used for General Hardiness/GH, this will keep the cost down and allow spending on other things such as snacks/treats for betta and the puffers.


Funny Note:
Im hatching some Artemia Brine Shrimp which are decapsulated, when I was a kid, I bought these from a shop, They described them as "Triop Dinosaures" which were dormant and hatched in water, I begged for them And I got them, they hatched and the water was very stinky, after recieving a joblot of products I saw these online doing some research and now I know they were actually brine shrimp, 2 brineship for 20 quid, although they were about 2-3 inches long, what a robbery


Im opening up my diary/journal to everyone, if you have some useful advice or would like to leave a comment please feel free to do so (Bare in mind I am a student and have a semi-decent at times but low budget), since FF has helped me quite alot already, the least I can do is share my tank with you all.

 

[Timmy_Bee]

Whats your automatic gravel cleaner like? i have thought about getting one of those... How much did it cost?

 

[waterdrop]

Whats your automatic gravel cleaner like? i have thought about getting one of those... How much did it cost?

Any type of automatic gravel cleaner (from members posts, the eheim one seems to be one of the best) can be a useful tool for people who want to be very fastidious with the look of their substrate -between- weekly water changes.

It is absolutely not a substitution for a gravel-cleaning *siphon* in my opinion because of the multiple ways in which water being siphoned off from the gravel level is valuable.

Gravel level advantages I can think of at the moment:
1) Debris collects there and any removed will not be there to break down into excess ammonia.
2) Nitrite and Nitrate ions may tend to collect there due to both weight and charge attractions, thus giving you a greater removal advantage from the gravel level. (Same holds true for dumping the water from your filter box during cleaning, in my opinion, but of course you must make sure your media doesn't have a chance to dry out.)

Water change advantages in general:
3) Removal of excess heavy metals, minierals and organics that build up over time.
4) Removal of algae spores and cells, mold and fungi spores and inorganic particulates.
5) Addition of Calcium, Magnesium and the many other minerals needed in small amounts.
6) Maintenance of the tank hardness level close to the house tap hardness level.

In my opinion gravel-clean-water-changing is right up there in the top 3 things for beginners to find out about along with cycling and not cleaning filters with tap water! And so just need to make those comments in relation to any mention of automatic gravel cleaners.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[daiandgems]

You need to get more hiding places in that tank or the puffers will start fighting if you dont break up their eye line.They like their own space and should be kept in species only tanks with the exeption of ottos their great little fish and fun to watch good luck.
Puffers tend to only eat bloodworm not flake or dried foods also be carefull not to over feed as their messy eaters leaving lots of waste and food to rot.

 

[ArnieStinger]

Whats your automatic gravel cleaner like? i have thought about getting one of those... How much did it cost?

Pretty good I think, you can clean gravel as much as 5-8cm depth and probably more, none of the gravel gets sucked up, you can see the dirty come off the gravel.

Definately not a substitute for water changes, but it gets rid of a lot of dead brineshrimp bodies and other things

You need to get more hiding places in that tank or the puffers will start fighting if you dont break up their eye line.They like their own space and should be kept in species only tanks with the exeption of ottos their great little fish and fun to watch good luck.
Puffers tend to only eat bloodworm not flake or dried foods also be carefull not to over feed as their messy eaters leaving lots of waste and food to rot.

Im working on the plants right now, at the moment none of them are fighting, they seem to play friendly and follow each other in lines.

The thing im worried abott is that they swim up and down the side of the tank which is reflective or like a mirror, im not sure if its just because im viewing it from outside but they love to chase themselves.



I have fed them some fresh live brineshrimp from my LFS, put about 100-150 brineship maybe more and all of the fish went MAD Even the betta in the hatching tank went crazy so I let him out for a bit of brine, they were feeding for about 10 minutes, and they didnt finish it all either, their bellies are nice and big but im not sure if they puffed up at the same moment when i put the brineshrimp in or because they are full, even the betta's belly is big.

I got another portion of brineshrimp and 2 packs of daphnia, also some frozen bloodworm and frozen brineship blocks, how much blocks should I feed them?

I've worked out I have 2 females and 3 male puffers, one of them has a really clear brown line on the underside. I definately need to get some plants and caves for them, they love to hide in the plant I have in there.

Just a note, plants online are insanely expensive, is there a way to get around paying £10-£20 per cutting/portion of plant?

 

[daiandgems]

About a quarter of a block will be fine for them but defrost it first make sure you only feed as much as they can eat.

 

[ArnieStinger]

About a quarter of a block will be fine for them but defrost it first make sure you only feed as much as they can eat.

How much/many live brineshrimp should they be fed?

 

[Carlovel1]

I've never seen a male Betta in that condition!

 

[elisew]

I've never seen a male Betta in that condition!

I know, poor little fella huh? But at least he`s now been seperated from the puffers and fingers crossed lots of water changes will see him back to looking how a healthy, happy Betta should


As for the plants Arnie, have you looked on eBay for plants? There are some really good deals on there and you could pretty much get all the plants you`d need to block the line of sight.

I have my tank pretty much as I wanted it but as I do have quite a few plants in there and IF you`re in the UK I can probably spare a couple that are growing well and bushing a bit now if that would help you out?

I wouldn`t mind helping you out as you`ve taken these fish on and you seem to be doing everything you can despite the low budget.

 

[ArnieStinger]

I've never seen a male Betta in that condition!

I know, poor little fella huh? But at least he`s now been seperated from the puffers and fingers crossed lots of water changes will see him back to looking how a healthy, happy Betta should


As for the plants Arnie, have you looked on eBay for plants? There are some really good deals on there and you could pretty much get all the plants you`d need to block the line of sight.

I have my tank pretty much as I wanted it but as I do have quite a few plants in there and IF you`re in the UK I can probably spare a couple that are growing well and bushing a bit now if that would help you out?

I wouldn`t mind helping you out as you`ve taken these fish on and you seem to be doing everything you can despite the low budget.

Hi elisew, Indeed I am in the UK, London, which means im going to have to do my reseach on which plants can live in 7+ pH water lol

I was looking for ebay for a bit, plenty of variety, im starting to make a list from tropica and other places with lists of suitable species.
If you really do have some spare stems i would be glad to pay postage for them, but let me look at all suitable plants for my water conditions then i'll let you know otherwise ill be wasting good plants


Puffer's eyes have got really coloureful and tuquiose around the edges, got alot yellow and their spots are lined with silver.

The betta is looking a lot better with more colour, when I got him he was black, now he is pink,purple and blue all over.

 

[ArnieStinger]

Today there has been a water change and a gravel clean, the temp has been put up from 23'c to 24'c.
Strangely enough I got triple Zero's from my tests? Not sure How I can explain 20ppm Nitrate disappearing along with the 0.25ppm ammonia and still no nitrite


Is this normal?

GH & KH stayed the same, thats good news.

 

[ArnieStinger]

Hello guys, heres an update on my aqaurium.

The puffers will be passed on to other owners, they are starting to fight with each other and I dont have 5 tanks for each of them.

The male betta is swiming around the tank very happily and its dorsal fin? is growing back quite well, their is a clear web film along the damaged tail and its started to gather strands of colour back.

I have ordered a bunch of plants (60) from ebay, I tried to plant as many as I can but I dont have enough substrate, some of the plants are also dieing, this is possibly due to no substrate.

I've also got some java moss that im growing on some plastic netting for a base, so the tank is quite messy at the moment

I also have 3 nice pieces of aquarium wood, i think 1 of them is mopani and 1 driftwood that will be a very nice centrepiece of the tank, ill get some moss growing on that asap.


Im also very confused and glad to see that I have double zero's, no ammonia and no nitrite even after 1 week+ of no water change, with 10ppm nitrate.

The aquarium must have had a bunch of bacteria that has colonized on the filter very quickly, and the plants must be taking up as much nitrate as possible, as the puffers have been pooping so much and ive been feeding them and the male betta frozen bloodworms all week.


At the moment im waiting for an air pump to arrive, I've bought a small glass tank about 12 x 8 x 7 inches to breed some brineshrimp, using yeast I can keep them alive for months.
I am also contemplating changing the substrate to something more professional or nicer, the white gravel is not that great looking, something black will do very nicely and im thinking maybe part seachem black onxy for the plants/part black 2mm grain gravel will look very nice.

I'll be getting some phillipine java ferns to grow on the wood after I can get the moss carpet to grow.

I've had the tank for 10 days now, double zero's and stable water, am I blessed with luck?

 

[ArnieStinger]

Heres some pics, the water my look orange or green, some of the pics are clear - its just the way the pics came out on camera, the water is clear with a green tinj due to the plants.

There are some particles gathering on leafs, im not sure what it is, could be carbon?
There is some type of hair growing on my plants, the moss i got from a member on the forum had small bits and its seemed to have grown, I had little bit of hair before I got the moss.

 

[ArnieStinger]

bump

 

[OldMan47]

The puffers are semi-brackish fish and your very hard water is probably helping them survive without the salt. The betta splendens is definitely not a brackish fish but mine have shown a huge ability to adapt to differing tap water conditions. As long as you have only one tank, fish that different in their needs will be asked to adapt quite a bit.