Ed's Oddball Tank.

[JoeGuzzo]

i have a 55 gallon with a 40watt light bulb and hood. also i currently have amazon swords in my tank those are the plants that get overtaken on their leaves by algae however the algae started to clear up recently and its looking a lot better. also i went to my LPS and the guy gave me plant buds for free have them floating in my tank currently have no idea what types of plants they are though.

Right, from what you have said it works out you have 0.7watts per gallon. This is far too low for the majority of aquarium plants and may be the reason you havnt had much success. You are going to have to stick to low light plants like anubias, java fern, crypts and mosses if you want any success. My tank has less light that urs, under 0.4wpg but then i only keep java fern and anubias, im suprised the vallis grass does so well tho. Good news is once the brown algae has cleared up you should not have a problem with algae as ur light levels are nice n low. Unfortuantly ur very limited on plants for low light but hey so am i and ive managed to pull something together. There are many varieties of java fern, needle leaf, lace leaf etc and should all do well. same with anubias and crypts lotsa varieties to choose from! With javafern and anubias do not bury the roots, attach to rocks, wood and other decor with a rubber band, cotton or cable ties! Everything in my tank except the grass is all attached to things so its nice and easy to move about and re-scape not having to uproot plants and make a huge mess.

To rid brown algae, bigger or more frequent water changes and a good clean of ur filter can work wonders!

Ps. your only other option would be to add an extra 40w light, will bring you up to 1.4wpg and will greatly increase ur plant options!

Hope this points you in the right direction!

Ed

also not sure if this makes a differene but i also have bay windows in my room. i have room darkening shades in my room so when they are down none of the light from outside comes in but if i have them up it get quite bright in my room and the sun shines right on my tank. and what kind of grass do you have in your tank because i really want to have a some sort of grass in my tank

 

[aether.ed]

Yup direct sunlight would certainly cause algae. The brown algae isnt necessarily caused by the light tho, as i said it maybe the phosphates to silicates ratio. When i had it it was a new tank so was high in silicates, brown algae are actually diatoms with a shell of sorts, they use silicates to form their shell and grow, once the silicates were used up the brown algae dissapeered.

The grass is just plain old vallisneria, there are different varieties again like giant and twisted vallisneria. In low light it grows slow until it reaches the surface, once its grown to the surface it will speed up as it will be closer to the light. Should be able to buy it everywhere, very common plant.

Ed

 

[catfishblues]

Wow! Great tank! I really like biotype tanks! As for your monster tank I like the idea of a hundred congo tetra. I think that would be so cool! But arowanas are also really awesome fish.

 

[cal_mul]

hi edd, brilliant tank, i am currently undergoing research (syphoning through all the S**t on the net) on the beautiful Mbu puffers and will be the centerpiece of my living room, growing him on from my current tank. to answer your question that tank you have been offered is approximately 678 U.k gallons, which i personally think would house your mbu full size aswell as a few others, not sure on the bioload of all you other tetra's etc though, maybe some uber sump would help you though but you obvioulsy know what you are doing as those fish all look very healthy, shocked to see the mbu get on with so many different chars, you will have to keep us updated on how they get on when he/she is an adult as it's temperment may well change
good look though and well done, you current tank is awesome.

 

[aether.ed]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/404245-my-african-oddballs/

Updated video!

Still no monster tank but abit of a layout change to open some space up. Little puffer has grown abit as have the leaf fish, everything else is the same.

Enjoy!