Barneys 160l Planted Tank Using Ada Substrate/ferts - Journal

[fish-aholic]

I justed started to follow this journal and took about an hour to read it and theres no updates! Did u ever end up getting the clown loaches? Sorry if u said it somewhere but i couldnt find it anywhere. O beautiful tank btw.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I justed started to follow this journal and took about an hour to read it and theres no updates! Did u ever end up getting the clown loaches? Sorry if u said it somewhere but i couldnt find it anywhere. O beautiful tank btw.

Wow I cant believe you read through all that!!

Thanks a lot for the comments. I never ended up getting clown loaches in the end as the tank really is too small for them and my plans for a large FW tank changed (to a large Reef tank ) so I would have nowhere to rehome them when they got bigger.

I will try and get an update on this weekend as I'm rescaping it a bit to try and stop it looking so "jungle" like and give a bit more free swimming space for the fish.

I haven't updated much recently because the tank is very overgrown and I every time I start trimming everything up I find that there are more baby fish swimming around so I dont want to disturb them too much

The algae problems are now well under control though and I have to start trimming things back soon or else there will be no place for the fish to swim at all

I did sadly lose a cory over the weekend as he managed to get himself caught in one of the hair nets I used to hold the riccia down. I think it was a very unlock 1 in a million chance of this happening but just to make sure I have now remove the nets and left the riccia floating on the surface (which both the baby shrimp and flame tetra fry seem to really enjoy living in).

 

[lljdma06]

Well, your success with breeding definitely puts to rest any arguements that adding CO2 and ferts can jeopardize the life of your livestock. I actually find that when the tanks were meticulously maintained, I had much greater success rates in spawning.

Great job, and a lovely aquarium. That baby flame tetra is precious.

 

[Themuleous]

Cheers for the shrimp adivce, I thought/hoped they were easy to breed, only had them a month or so guess they need more time before they start breeding. Gonna leave them to get on with it. I got 12 to be sure I got both sexes.

Sam

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Cheers for the shrimp adivce, I thought/hoped they were easy to breed, only had them a month or so guess they need more time before they start breeding. Gonna leave them to get on with it. I got 12 to be sure I got both sexes.

Sam

Yeah give it 3 months and you will have more then you know what to do with

Anyway I got around to trimming everything back and rescaping. it looks a little bare at the moment as it was quite a drastic trimming back and I have put plants into the right hand side that are going to take awhile to grow in. i have done this to try and give the fish a bit more swim room as befoer the right hand side of the tank was pretty much swamped under by plants.

The Rams looks like they are getting ready to lay eggs again and most of my female flame tetras and a couple of my silvertips look like they are holding eggs as well so yeah, CO2 and daily dosing of ferts does no harm to the fish at all.

Will skip any more text and just post a bunch of photos

Full tank shot

Right side and my marine nano (still in the early stages)

Left side of the tank

Middle/left of tank

Middle/Right of tank

Right of Tank

Loads of shrimp now

Shrimp with eggs

More shrimp..

Lots of "pest" snails too (they dont bother me though)

One of the Flame tetra Fry

Peppered Cory

Whiptail

Flame tetras

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Thats a pretty wonderful looking tank.

I dont suppose any of the shrimp are for sale

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Thats a pretty wonderful looking tank.

I dont suppose any of the shrimp are for sale

Not yet but I will start selling them in the New year (most likely just to the LFS though as its less hassle then posting them everywhere).

 

[Liam]

It looks excellent, really good rescape.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Thanks

My Rams did lay eggs yesterday evening and they have lasted until at least this morning. Hopefully the female wont get bored this time and eat them all again

One thing I would say to anyone that is planning on setting up a planted to tank is to get one that is deeper (front to back). My tank is quite narrow and it is very difficult to get any gradual increase in the height of the plants (it goes from foreground plant straight to background plant with no space to grow anything inbetween).

At some point I will find somewhere to put another planted tank and that one will be properly 'scaped

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Thats a pretty wonderful looking tank.

I dont suppose any of the shrimp are for sale

Not yet but I will start selling them in the New year (most likely just to the LFS though as its less hassle then posting them everywhere).

Thats a pity, i am in Kent and if possible would have picked them up. I just cant find them for sale anywhere around here.

Edit: Btw, good luck with the rams, they seem to get bored them all of a sudden they get the hang of it

 

[xxBarneyxx]

If your in Kent then that wouldn't be a problem. I probably wont be selling any until after Christmas though.

I ended up having to get mine from Maidenhead aquatics in Polhill as it was the closest place to me (about 2-3 hours driver from where I live!)

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

i actually live about 10 minutes from there and i have never seen them in there, oh well. Thanks anyway

Lovely tank btw, i have always been interested in Ei and may be taking it up after reading your journal.

 

[fish-aholic]

Damn I wish you lived in the U.S. Its not like I could keep them though.I bought 8 cherries a while ago. They lasted for a few days before my danios felt like they needed a snack.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Quick update just because I felt like taking some pictures. All just fish photos really still waiting for some parts to grow in.

I have only just realised that the tank has only been running for 4 months. At the moment everything is breeding, so far I have only had 3 flame tetra fry make it (eggs get eaten pretty quickly). This isn't counting the shrimp. Plants are doing well and have adapted ok to my lower lighting and dosing routine (much less pruning now).

Anyway on to the photo's.

Male ram posing for the Camera

Male again with the female in the background. They normally stay pretty close together.

One of the bigger fry next to an adult flame tetra. This guy has grown quickly and has just started getting his stripes showing up.

Same one, also the tons of scratches on the front of my tank (damn cheap algae scraper ).

One of the more recent, smaller fry.

Cardinal, Ram (again...) and flame tetra.

As you can see from these photos the rams (the male especially) also swim directly in front of you when you go up close to the tank Its quite cute but is a pain when you have your hands in the tank trimming things up and they keep swimming up to you.......

 

[xxBarneyxx]

When I was feeding them this morning I noticed I have at least 1 peppered Cory baby He looked pretty big (about 1/4") so he might have actually been in there awhile. I got some photos but couldn't upload them as I didnt have time.