Ch4Rlie's New 3 Foot Tank Journal

[Ch4rlie]

YES
LOVE CELESTIAL PEARL DANIOS SO MUCH
 
they used to be super rare in thailand hey have SUCH a nice pattern
Great choice charlie 

 

 
 
Great response! Thank you Goggy

 

[Mamashack]

Have you been watching The Lord of the Rings with your elfishness cycle, Ch4rlie? lol
CPDs are very pretty - great choice!

 

[Goggy]

 

YES
LOVE CELESTIAL PEARL DANIOS SO MUCH
 
they used to be super rare in thailand hey have SUCH a nice pattern
Great choice charlie 

 

 
 
Great response! Thank you Goggy

 

These actually only have been discovered in the year 2003 thats a year after i was born! These are rare fish in and out of the aquarium trade as they have been discovered very recently and it is very popular
and these do well in shoals of 6 

Here take a look at this:
 

 
its an Otocinclus Cocama a efficient algae eater that has a beautiful pattern

also you could try this fish:
 

 
its a cute small version of a clown loach called the Botia Udomritthiruji ( kinda ) my Uncle discovered this fish in 1993 as he is also a fish enthusiast!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Have you been watching The Lord of the Rings with your elfishness cycle, Ch4rlie? lol
CPDs are very pretty - great choice!

 

clever play on words there

 
 

These actually only have been discovered in the year 2003 thats a year after i was born! These are rare fish in and out of the aquarium trade as they have been discovered very recently and it is very popular
 
and these do well in shoals of 6 

 
 
Planning on getting about 20 of these CPD's, they are rather skittish fish and do much better in larger numbers to feel safer to come out more often.
 
Wonder how many of these microrasboras and loaches I can safely stock altogether with the CPD's?
 
Although thanks for the suggestions of the oto Cocama, only thing is, they do not really belong in a cpd biotope as I believe they usually come from Peru and parts of Brazil. They are nice though and i do like otos
 
And as for the botia loaches (Emperor Loach), they will grow a bit too big for my tank, according to SF they grow about 120 - 150 mm so a larger tank would be needed for a small shoal of those,.
BUT they do come from Myanmar though, so a decent suggestion but alas not suitable for my tank size.
 
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/botia-udomritthiruji/

 

[Ch4rlie]

A small update, finally found some substrate that I like the look of

 
Unipac brand, Senegal Sand, 1mm. 
 
The pics show the smaller bags, 2.5kg, LFS did not have any 25kg bags in stock so gave me 9 bags of 2.5kg, meaning £30 for for 22.5kg, which was a bit more than i wanted to pay but i liked it, so had to go for it

 
   
 
 

Now the fun starts

cleaning the sand.....
 
A good reason why sand should be washed before adding to the tank......
 

 
After rinsing many, many times, the way it should be, clear water

 

 
 
 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Great job.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Adding the sand to tank, got a nice 2 inch of sand in tank, used 7 x 2.5KG bags so thats 17.5kg, not bad at all I think.
 

 
Means I still have 2 x 2.5kg bags of sand as spare

 

[Ninjouzata]

That's a lovely color! Looks great..can't wait to see more Sorry if you've mentioned this and I missed it..what sort of background are you going to use, if any?

 

[TallTree01]

Good job charlie, but don't be fooled, no matter how much you rinse, all tanks get dirty once filled. I've never had a clean tank fill.

 

[Zikofski]

Aah nicely done Ch4 that sand looks farmiar it is a lovely colour esp under LED lights its brighter but looks more orange under fluorescent tubes (T5) keep up the good work

 

[Ch4rlie]

That's a lovely color! Looks great..can't wait to see more Sorry if you've mentioned this and I missed it..what sort of background are you going to use, if any?

This is something have been debating about myself. Whether to go for a plain black background or go for a more natural colour, like a light colour of sorts to keep tank a little brighter. Hmm.....

Good job charlie, but don't be fooled, no matter how much you rinse, all tanks get dirty once filled. I've never had a clean tank fill.

You saying you've never had a clean tank.......

Aah nicely done Ch4 that sand looks farmiar it is a lovely colour esp under LED lights its brighter but looks more orange under fluorescent tubes (T5) keep up the good work

Thanks Z.

I do like the colour of this substrate too, hence why went straight for it instead of going away and ponder over that and looking for a cheaper deal Almost like an implulse buy for me :x

And I am planning to fit 2x39w T5 light unit so that will show substrate a bit more brighter as you say, but I do plan to densely plant this with lots of grass plants of sorts. Also will add co2 and ferts in due course. Hope it works out!

Great job.

Thanks EA

 

[Ch4rlie]

Plants

 
Well, just elodea (egeria densa) for the time being, got 5 bunches of these for £10 which is not bad at all.
 
A single bunch of elodea...

 
 
Taking off leaves at the bottom of stems, otherwise the leaves will rot in substrate and may rot the stem as well. Slow work, especially when have 5 bunches of these to do

 
One before and after sort of pic...
 

 
 

The start of planting.....
 
Btw the light is only temporary for now, until i get the T5 light unit and support I want.
 

 

[Ch4rlie]

5 bunches not enough but these elodea will grow like anything so will trim and plant as they grow out

 
 

 
 
There will be more plants on way
 

 

[AquaPit]

Slow and steady!

Well done Ch4rlie!

 

[Mamashack]

Looking good so far!