Darren's Disaster Journal " Homeland "

[shrimply]

Thanks, yeah I inject CO2, I have ( I think ) quite a lot of light. Two 55w t5s the length of the tank fitted with reflectors, and a 36w T8 without a reflector. So probably wouldn't get away without CO2 injection.

 

[shrimply]

OK so an update, of sorts.

Basically I got lazy, tank got neglected, uni took up too much time, I got a weekend job, so when I was home I was working.

Tanks still cost me plenty of money though, the internal filter went so got replaced with a new flual U4, which in my opinion is a very nice filter and seems much less obtrusive than the last one. And the heater went so got replaced with a Hagen External heater, which again I can't fault, great peace of kit, so much better than an internal heater, 300W has never failed to keep the tank up to temp all winter

It seems my sole black widow tetra discovered a taste for cherry shrimp, so we went from an invasion, to none.

CO2 ran out, so I've cut the light down to just the 1 36W T8 tube and reduced the fertilizer right down.

However, since this tank is in the middle of my parents living room, I'm kinda under pressure to give them the desired planted tank, and actually get some fish into it. Plus I have a kilo of potassium nitrate to use.

So if I can I'll get some pictures of the tank soon, it honestly doesn't look too bad, I spruced it up the other day and it has some reasonably healthy plant life.

However, I guess the exciting news is that although I haven't fully decided on stock for the tank I did buy some fish today
So the tank now has
5 harlequin rasbora
5 Congo Tetras
and 2 (tiny) Bristlenose Plecs

I'm hoping to get some more CO2 in the next couple of days and actually get the tank planted properly, with some proper plants.

So a mini update, hopefully the next one won't take me 8 months and I'll have some pictures do so I can get some help with planting and stocking suggestions.

 

[lljdma06]

Hey, Shrimply! Long time no see. Glad to see the tanks are still running. I look forward to the updates. I'm in the processing of downsizing to just the one tank, so lots of moving around and shifting things.

llj

 

[shrimply]

Well here's a picture of the kinda shabby looking tank now, I tried to get some pictures of the livestock but the quality was awful and I wasn't really in the mood to take picture after picure to get a good one.

My favourites are the wee plecs but they are almost impossible to spot

 

[lljdma06]

It looks pretty good to me. You should see the mess that is my 36g. Now, that's bad, especially since I've moved most of the stuff to my new scape. Yours will be very easy to get back to where it was before.

 

[shrimply]

Thanks, I'm kinda undecided about whether to rip all the plants out and start totally from the beginning, or just try to get it gradually how I want it.

I really need to work out what I want and get something ordered, but still trying to get the CO2 sorted.

 

[shrimply]

So guess what, I'm still alive....



I thought I'd give a quick update, and maybe get some pictures at the weekend - Basically the tank has fallen into equilibrium with its neglect. Its not got a lot of plants, and they're not growing, but not dying either. My little plecs seem to have worked wonder with the algae, cause apart from large quantities of bristle brown stuff on my rocks(And who can blame them, kinda like us eating brambles) there isn't any.

So I have lighting, fertiliser and CO2 ready to go, but am undecided on whether I risk disrupting the equilibrium or not.

But I'm also trying to get my other tank ( which did not look good) into an improved state and actually get some fish into it, so I'm trying to work out what I can do with this one, I want to get t back to a high tech tank, just not sure I have the time or energy

 

[minnnt]

Look forward to the pics!

 

[shrimply]

As promised, I need to do a bit of pruning of dead leaves, but you get the idea