"endor" Llj's 36G Low-Light

[lljdma06]

Looks fantastic!! Woot! go go crypt keeper!

Thanks. I can't believe how well the crypts are doing. I'm very pleased. More spiralis stems are reaching the top and I am seeing some growth. The growth is slow, but very present and if you look at the sand that is against the glass, you can start to see little white roots poking about. The whole "crypts can't be grown in sand" theory is bust. Well, at least in my tank for now.

I can't get too excited yet, though. Plants use stores for the first few months. If I continue to see growth and progress after that time has elapsed, then I'll consider this a success. I have to wait for the crypt roots to find the mulmy gravel/laterite bottom layer. Then things should take off.

Awesome tank! Lovin' the crypts and even the wood. The fish really stick out in the darker setup.

Thank you. The wood is just good old-fashioned Mopani. It is what is readily available in my area and it has a very long submerged life. I've got pieces that are over 6 years old. It also sinks very quickly. I also actally like tannins.

I think the fish stick out more too. Sometimes, with the new, lighter backgrounds, the fish look washed-out to me.

All in all, thank you. I appreciate the positive feedback.

I'll post some pictures in August when the scape is a month old or so.

llj

 

[Jallen]

It's been about a month

I'm interested to see how this is doing since in terms of tech my tank is very similar.
What's doing well or badly? Pictures would also be nice

 

[Duck and Dive]

That wood makes a stunning centrepeice! The fish really suit the tank well, as the wood and the fish seem to coplement the plants. I don't know why but every time I look at the tank I immediately look at the wood and the bright red fish, then I look closely and notice the plannts more! Great tank!

 

[Sofia]

me too!!! udate update!!

 

[lljdma06]

me too!!! udate update!!

I know, it's been almost 2 months since an update. I have some good news and some bad news. Bad news first. After all, journals are "warts and all".

I lost all of my livestock. Things were going so well that a couple of weeks ago, after some research I purchased a rubber-lipped pleco, put it in quaranteen and waited. This past Saturday, it looked good, it was eating well, so I let in the 36g tank after I did a water change. Everybody was fine and eating on Monday night. All of my stock was dead by early Friday morning in my. It was a massive case of ich. I haven't seen ich in one of my tanks in a very long time. I had some extra medication and started dosing right away, but I have never seen disease spread so quickly and kill so fast. I was shocked to say the least. I keep my tanks very clean. Otos in the quaranteen with the Pleco went into the 20g and they are fine, though now I am paranoid and watching the 20g very closely. These are the 34 cherry barb fry I raised so the loss stinks. I spent the better part of this week just trying to find all the bodies. I'm not even going to try to figure this one out, as I did practice quaranteen. A bad pleco, I guess. It might have harbored something, and ich sometimes doesn't show. Rotten luck.

I have cleaned the tank and performed several water changes now that the tank is empty of livestock. I have removed and cleaned the filters and destroyed the filter media. The ich medication killed the bacteria anyways, so I thought it better to just remove the sponges and start from scratch, especially if there are only plants in the tank now. The substrate is still old and seeded. I expect a possible diatom outbreak, but that's not especially serious.

Now for the good news, the plants look fantastic. They were robust enough that they survived the frantic medicating very well. When I first setup the tank, there was some melting, but not as much as I thought and the C. spiralis has reached the top, though you can't tell because of the powerhead. This whole extreme low light is really great. I love it and would do future tanks this way, especially larger ones.

I'll restock this tank eventually, but I'm waiting and will be performing some more water changes to be sure and let the tank settle a bit. I still don't know what to think. It stinks. It is what it is, I can't beat myself up for it. Sometimes you just don't know. I'm thinking keeping with the whole SE Asia theme with just a school of rasboras.

Not the update I was hoping to give, as I was planning one this week for some time, but I do have some pictures to show you.

Thanks for looking and remember, sometimes even quaranteen isn't enough.

 

[Jallen]

Looks a lot more green and less yellow. Did you change to a higher temperature light or is that just tannins clearing? Either way it looks better.


Oh and on the whole asia theme, some tiger barbs and kuhli loaches would be cool

 

[lljdma06]

It's been a while since I've updated this tank. Easy to forget to do when you are just growing crypts and some other slow-growers. Over the holidays I dismantled my 10g and my 20g tanks. It was just too hard to maintain four tanks. I added the livestock and some plants (you cannot just toss bolbitis) from both tanks to this tanks and the fish have responded well.

The tank goes about 2-4 weeks between waterchanges. Only top-offs when the water gets too low between changes.

Thanks for looking.

llj

 

[loraxchick]

WOW! looks great! i honestly like this scape best
thanks for sharing
cheers

 

[DAlmond123]

What fish and plants were added into this tank?

 

[lljdma06]

As of now, the plants include

Crypt. spiralis, C. lutea, C. wendtii "bronze", C. wendtii "red", E. tenellus, Aponogeton crispus, Bolbitis, some moss that is just stubborn, and some anubias nana way in the back.

Livestock: Platies that I raised, harlequin rasboras, bronze corydoras, pygmy corydoras (habrosus and pygmaeus), some otos, and some rasbora gracilis which were sold to me as pauciperforata. I don't mind, though, I wanted gracilis. When I lost my cherry barbs, I couldn't afford to restock the tank, so I restocked the tank with the livestock from my old 20g and 10g. It's not like I keep agressive fish.

I will dose once in a while about 10ml of TPN+, but I keep this tank really simple.

llj

 

[AdAndrews]

Looks beautiful llj, talk about low maintenance too!

Whats the secret to your super clean sand?, i could never keep mine clean!

 

[lljdma06]

Looks beautiful llj, talk about low maintenance too!

Whats the secret to your super clean sand?, i could never keep mine clean!

I don't know. Maybe the cories and the platies. They'll eat anything, and I do not feed the fish much, once every 2-4 days. I guess they are forced to scavange the bottom for food. I agree the sand is much cleaner than my 8g. I struggle keeping that one clean. I need more corydoras. Some have done well with the transition to a more deep tank, others have not. The toughest fish in that tank are the Rasbora gracilis. They are like machines and are very elegant to look at. Eventually, I'd just like a tank of them. It would be an interesting tank. The other fish are fish from old setups and I'm not keen on replacing them as they were from very poor large chain store stock. The gracilis are, I think, wild-caught. Or if not, then they haven't been bred as much.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

I took some shots of this tank after almost a month without a waterchange. I wanted everybody to see a "dirty" tank. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this setup. .77WPG is a great light level (I use T5s), especially if you know what to grow. The Bolbitis regularly sprouts new leaves, there is moss growth, the crypts are getting denser, the e. tennelus sends runners, and the aponogeton regularly flowers.

There is an accumulation of tannins because of the mopani wood. The tank is quite yellowish. Some pictures to share.

The "ball" of moss is from the 8g, so I can save it to re-attach to the wall.

Rasbora gracilis, sold to me as R. pauciperforata, still a lovely fish. Hard to photograph.

Another R. gracilis, and some hair algae. Told you the tank was dirty. Hey! It is natural, it is the real world. The real world has a little algae!

Another angle. The gracilis often school very well.

A shot with gracilis, platies, and some harlequin rasboras.

Full tank shot.

Tomorrow, I'll do a waterchange and make the tank actually presentable. Thank you for looking at my tank that has algae.

llj

 

[puppyjess123]

Wow again amazing. I can't beleive thats just crypts and some other plants. I wish my dad would let me start again with my taank Then i could try to get something like yours

I was reading the lighting and it said 2 14w right? Does a reflector help because i only have 25watts of light on my 45 gallon tank? Can i do a DIY one

-Lucy

 

[lljdma06]

Wow again amazing. I can't beleive thats just crypts and some other plants. I wish my dad would let me start again with my taank Then i could try to get something like yours

I was reading the lighting and it said 2 14w right? Does a reflector help because i only have 25watts of light on my 45 gallon tank? Can i do a DIY one

-Lucy

It is a Coralife twin T5 fixture. Each bulb has 14W so 28W total. It does have a reflector build in. It was about $35. How long is your tank in inches? I think they also sell a 30" and a 36" twin fixture with a reflector.