Dwarf Puffer Tank Journal

[Blondielovesfish]

Yeah, I don't blame him for being hungry and it was my fault....was just a pain to find a previously succesful plant left floating
 
PICS......
Last nights scape...

(Ignore the algae...due to a holiday I didn't get the chance to clean the tank for two weeks and the person looking after the fish left the light on for too long)
 
The remaining hygrophila, which is struggling...

 
The algae on the coconut hut...I have this partly for the snail to eat and partly as a substitute for moss...

 
And now the current scape...

 
I'll probably fiddle around with it once the plants arrive...I hope to order them sometime this week.
Along with the plants, I hope to order some filter media (filter wool and filter sponge....I currently have about 20 individual pieces ) as well as some flourish excel.
I have no idea how the excel will go, I will start off with a really small dose and gradually build it up so as not to upset the vallis. How this will go...I don't know, I just hope I can escape with minimum melting.
 
I spent close to two and a half hours cleaning the tank today, I fill it up, scape it and whilst waiting for it to reach the set temperature, I noticed a whole heap of muck I could have sworn I'd gotten it all out! I took a peek at the filter box and the media looks as if it had never been cleaned

 

[TallTree01]

Looking nice Blondie. Pity about the algae. Nothing good about coming home from holiday to find a mess of a tank.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Lovely! I like the arch the wood makes.
 
I personally like the algae on the coconut, and I like it on my own decorations too 

 Just makes it seem more natural to me

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

I pretty much had the exact same experience as you with the algae wafers and snails.  I believe algae wafers aren't particularly healthy for bettas too.  I eventually stopped feeding the snail at all, and after a long-ish holiday, my two nerites had died as well.  Now, the tank is sustaining a small but thriving MTS population!
 
As for plants and Excel, I used to run tanks exclusively on Excel so I can give you input.  I would plant the plants and leave 'em for 2-3 days and let them acclimate.  After a few days, I would do a water change, then add Excel according to the dosages on the bottle.  In my experience, over dosing Excel never led to an algal bloom
 
Get more crypts! I love crypts!   Can't wait to see pics!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Looking nice Blondie. Pity about the algae. Nothing good about coming home from holiday to find a mess of a tank.

 IKR! I was so annoyed when I found it But its not the worst thing....at least the fish were safe! I think I've got all of that pesky brown algae off now....just a shame none of the snails eat it.
 
 

Lovely! I like the arch the wood makes.
 
I personally like the algae on the coconut, and I like it on my own decorations too 

 Just makes it seem more natural to me

 Me too! Zeus seems to like it too, I often find him just hanging out underneath it The problem with it is there isn't much height to it so the tank therefore looks to be lacking a focal point....hopefully with the addition of plants more height will be added.
 
 

I pretty much had the exact same experience as you with the algae wafers and snails.  I believe algae wafers aren't particularly healthy for bettas too.  I eventually stopped feeding the snail at all, and after a long-ish holiday, my two nerites had died as well.  Now, the tank is sustaining a small but thriving MTS population!
 
As for plants and Excel, I used to run tanks exclusively on Excel so I can give you input.  I would plant the plants and leave 'em for 2-3 days and let them acclimate.  After a few days, I would do a water change, then add Excel according to the dosages on the bottle.  In my experience, over dosing Excel never led to an algal bloom
 
Get more crypts! I love crypts!

  Can't wait to see pics!

 
I'll definitely let them acclimate before I start dosing excel...thanks for that tip
I'm a bit hesitant to start off with a full dose as I've read that vallis doesn't really take well to Excel, so I think I'll start off with a really small dose (just a few drops) and then work my way up to the correct dose (about half a mL), hopefully this way I'll avoid loads of melting from the vallis. 
 
I'm hopefully ordering the plants either today or tomorrow. The final list is....
Crypts, Ambulia and Wisteria, it seems like not much at the moment but hopefully after some propagating the tank will be densely planted.
 
Will update again when plants arrive.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

No updates
 
I ordered the plants and about 10 minutes later I got a phone call informing me that the pet shop was not happy with the plants I ordered as they arrived at the store in poor health and they think that I'd be better to wait until the next shipment to come in before I order again.... not happy That same day I was cleaning out Zeus' tank and I broke the thermometer I bought a new one today and decided to get a digital one as I thought it would probably have a better chance at not breaking.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Aw, well at least they didn't give you bad looking plants :c

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

Aw, well at least they didn't give you bad looking plants :c

I second that.  I'd rather wait to get plants with nice, healthy roots and decent leaves than have them rush a bad batch out.  Hope you get some plants soon!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Thanks
 
Yeah, at least they didn't send me horrible plants Just a pain to have to wait.
 
Lately my light has been flickering....a lot. I'm guessing this means its on the way out? I've turned it off now because the flickering was annoying but I can already tell my plants aren't liking the lack of light.
Since I'm guessing that I will have to buy a new one, any suggestions? The light unit only fits Aqua One 11 Watt PL bulbs, what Kelvin range should I be looking at? 

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

There's a lot opinions out there, but I am having great success with 6500K.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Sorry for the lack of updates on this journal.
 
I am updating this to inform you that there will be no further updates and Zeus was discovered dead this morning  
I am saddened by his death, but since I had him for about a year, I guess it was to be suspected, especially since I bought him from the LFS so his age was unknown. 
Judging by how much he had decomposed, I assume that he had been dead for awhile and I am ashamed that I didn't notice his death sooner. I definitely remember seeing him last weekend when I fed him blood worms, and then again on monday, but as I was busy with homework, I didn't check on him as often as I normally do, and when I did check on him, I presumed that he was in his cave resting (something he was doing more and more of due to his long fins). I'll see if I can upload some pictures of his body soon, but it wasn't a pretty sight as his fins had rotted away completely. 
 
I am unsure what I will put in the tank now, I'm tossing up between a dwarf puffer (what was originally going to go into the tank), another betta (I'd be getting a plakat or female for sure!) or a school of mosquito rasboras. When I do finally come to restocking the tank, I will make a new journal which I'll add the link to on here.
 
That's all for now. I'm grateful for the time I had with Zeus and I'm saddened by his death, but hey, it's the circle of life I guess. 

 

[Ninjouzata]

I'm so sorry for your loss Blondie! Looking forward to seeing what you do with the tank though.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Thanks Ninj
 
How fast do bettas usually decompose? I'm wondering if there was something in the tank that caused him to decompose to quickly, I wouldn't think he'd decompose so fast in only a week  

 

[Ninjouzata]

No idea how fast they decompose or what would cause it other than heat which I think speeds it up a good bit?

 

[TallTree01]

Fish decompose fast in tropical waters. Sorry for your loss.
Are you finally gonna get dwarf puffers now?