Fishbeasts Re-Scape

[FishBeast]

I have scrapped the old journal and started this fresh one because of the many changes I have made to the scape before even planting anything!

Size: Tank 134g 6x2x1.5

Lighting: 312w T5 (8x 39w 6500K) I class this as being over 3 watts of T5 per gallon as I have alot of tank space taken up by substrate.

Lighting in Lux at substrate level: 3366

Filtration: Aqua One Aquis 2400 Aprox 2400 Ltrs/Hr. Aswell as another 1500 Ltr/Hr internal filter I use to power my reactor. (9.75 cycles per hour)

CO2: Pressurised

Fertilisation: EI method

Heating: 2x 300w Aqua One

Substrate: Flourite Red topped with river sand.

This is the tank to date pretty much. I have chosen some of the local more weathered rocks. I think they compliment the sand well. I am looking forward to choosing plants which will go well with them also.

This is a pic of my reactor in action. I am not happy with it as it seems to not be able to supply enough CO2 but it is a work in progress.

My regulator died last night so I have not been able to experiment more with the reactor. I am not happy with it at all mainly because it was sold to me as being able to supply my tank size but doesnt. I have a few more ideas for when I get the regulator back. I had the water pumping from above where the co2 was entering the reactor and I think it was getting a co2 lock in it. Also I will try putting the reactor horizontally as this seems to work well but was when the regulator died.

Here is the highest level of CO2 I have been able to get so far.

Here is a pic of the HC I bought of a dude

And here is a pic of some of it planted.

The tank has had a hell of an entry in the the world. My whole schedule has been messed up and I am still waiting on my other plants I have ordered. The shrimp do hide a bit but all in all they don't look too stressed. They are moving about eating but cling to the rocks and have lossed some of their colour Hopefully will have the rest of my plants here soon so they have somewhere to hide. I feel bad.

 

[Jallen]

The tank has had a hell of an entry in the the world. My whole schedule has been messed up and I am still waiting on my other plants I have ordered. The shrimp do hide a bit but all in all they don't look too stressed. They are moving about eating but cling to the rocks and have lossed some of their colour Hopefully will have the rest of my plants here soon so they have somewhere to hide. I feel bad.

Rinse any plants you get well under the tap to remove any anti-pest treatments on them. Shrimps and snails are very sensitive to them.

 

[hensonc4098]

I love the rocks - hopefully your plants will arrive soon!

 

[FishBeast]

Hi guys, I have a few plants in the tank now. It has been ages since the last update. I had a few major dramas. The worst being a brown and green dust algae bloom. To combat this I dropped the light back to 6 hrs and blacked the whole tank out from ambient daylight for 1 week. Then at water change day cleaned everything and did a 50% water change. We will see how it goes in the next few days.

I am going for an Australian bio-type which I am really excited about as I don't see alot of Aussie stuff apart from the odd rainbow fish on international forums. I will be having a few non Aussie plants but the idea is to keep it as Australian as possible.

Here is the full tank so far:

The HC having a bit of a pearl

Here is some local aquatic moss that I found. So far it seems to be growing well. Even shot out some flowers.

The plants so far:

Hemianthus callitrichoides
Aponogeton tofus
Limnophila brownii
US Fissidens fontanus
Anubias nana
Peacock Swords
Asst. Bareroot Crypts (random crypts?)

The inhabitants:

Caradina sp. (camelion shrimp, and northern territory algae shrimp)

The plants on order:
Cryptocoryne parva
Echinodorus tenellus
Cryptocoryne wendtii

The fishies on order:

Threadfin Rainbowfish x 15

Denariusa bandata - Pennyfish x10

Chequered RF Gulbawangay River x8

Melanotaenia splendida tatei x20

 

[hensonc4098]

Some nice looking fish there - you've made me want to get threadfin rainbowfish now!
What size do they get?

 

[FishBeast]

Some nice looking fish there - you've made me want to get threadfin rainbowfish now!
What size do they get?

The threadfins get to 3.5 cm or just over and inche. The desert rainbows get up to 10cm and the remu averages 10cm aswell although they can sometimes get up to 15cm.

I paid for them late last week so hoepfully they will arrive wihin the week.

 

[FishBeast]

Hi guys, I have another update.

I have received my fish and more shrimp. The fish arrived in poor shape and there were a few mortalities. I have been constantly battling with the co2 and it is still a work in progress. I cannot supply enough co2 to keep my drop checker green. The plants are using more than I can supply and the reactor filled up a bit with co2 and kept supplying co2 during the night which cost me over 25 shrimp and 2 pennyfish.

Due the the irregular levels of co2 I have had more algae issues, now with the black brush algae I think its called on Jamesc's algae list. The shrimp arent touching it and neither are the snails (which must have come in on a plant I bought). The snails have been a godsend irronically enough. I actually think they look cool. Some are transparent and others are transarrent with dark dots on them and OMG do the clean up algae. They have made my life alot easier. My biggest concern was that they would overpopulate but as soon as I put my fish in there the tiny ones got eaten.

Here is the full tank shot to date. I have gone crazy with this local moss I have found and added heaps more today. I am not certain that they are all the same breed! LOL I didnt realise that there were more than one down at the river. As you can see the new stuff is very pale in comparrison and I am hoping that the nitrogen in the tank will green it up a bit. I found a few more varities of aquatic plant down there aswell. There is a variety of glosso and another which I think is named pennywort. There are another 3 varieties which I have seen in pictures but I don't know their names off the top of my head. All of which I am not interested in at this time.

Here is a closeup shot. Never mind that blue monstrosity there. I had a smaller green thing to stop shrimp getting sucked into my filter but it was too fine and blocked up. I lost 12 shrimp that night due to choking. God I have gone through some shimp. So yeah that was the solution. It will be hidden by plants in the future.

The HC is a slow grower at this time but I am hoping that it will speed up once I get this co2 sorted. So far my cycle goes like this:

8hrs of 156watt light with a 6hr burst of another 156watt in the middle of that. The co2 starts 1 hr before the first light starts and ends 1 hr before the finish of the light cycle.

 

[FishBeast]

Just a quick update. The tank is comming along resonably well.. I am slowly getting my co2 under control. I have ditched the reactor all together because it is basically useless and am now pumping the co2 into my filter which is working well although I have had to very slowly and painfully increase the co2 bit by bit day by day.

I have also bought another two fish. They are called Peacock Gudgeons. Another native fish which are beautiful. Mine havent got their bright colour yet but I am working on it.

I will provide an update in a few days because the tank needs alot of work before I am ready to take some more pictures.

 

[thefubar]

I really like the choice of fish you've gone for, and the use of the local moss.

Having to deal with technical probs/issue while keeping your stock alive must be the biggest headache going. Especially as most people don't have the £$ to keep spares of everything.

Hopefully your shrimp will re-populate themselves once it all settles down, are they safe with the fish you've got? I always worry about the lil guys when there's larger fish in the tank. (I must have been a fly in a previous life!)

I'm guessing as soon as you get the CO2 sorted the plants will settle in and start growing more. Do you dose ferts?

 

[FishBeast]

Hello people. I thought it was about time for another update. I am a perfectionist and don't like posting photos of my tank until I am happy with it. Since I will probably never be totally satisfied with it I thought that I had better post the update anyway.

This is the left hand side of my tank. I am very happy with the variety of mosses in my area which are well adapted to both emersed and submersed life. There are two varieties in this shot which are: Frontinalis antipyretica (willow moss) and Fissidens sp. which is supposed to be native to singapore but currently is my favourite type from the river near my place. There are another 2 types which I am not interested in at this time. One of which doesnt fair too well submersed.

A closer albeit blurrier shot of this moss.

I have lossed the name for this plant but I think it was called Peacock sword. I havent been able to find any reference to any plant by this name on the net. I have not been able to grow it well so far but since getting my co2 sorted the new leaves on another of these plants are staying healthy.

You can see just how bad the BBA outbreak has been. I bought some flourish two weeks ago and it was lossed in transit so the seller is sending me a larger size free of charge.

 

[FishBeast]

I really like the choice of fish you've gone for, and the use of the local moss.

Having to deal with technical probs/issue while keeping your stock alive must be the biggest headache going. Especially as most people don't have the £$ to keep spares of everything.

Hopefully your shrimp will re-populate themselves once it all settles down, are they safe with the fish you've got? I always worry about the lil guys when there's larger fish in the tank. (I must have been a fly in a previous life!)

I'm guessing as soon as you get the CO2 sorted the plants will settle in and start growing more. Do you dose ferts?

Yeah thanks. All but one of the shrimp that I bought have died in the process and from now on I won't buy anymore. I still get the odd shrimp dying every few days which I am putting down to heat. The days here are over 40 degrees celcius but my home has very good insulation and in the heat of the day I am seeing 29 degrees on the thermometer in the tank. The local fish are not used to water temps like that but I am hoping that they adapt in time.

Just for the record I am in the 3rd day of dosing flourish to the tank. Hopefully I can rid this BBA once and for all.

 

[snowflake311]

Very nice. Looks like you have put a lot of thought into this with lots of atention to detail. It's going to loot awesome when the HC fills in. But even now it's looking really good. Nice fish too. Can't wait to see it once all grown in.

 

[FishBeast]

Thanks mate. I thought the HC had started to grow but now it seems to have hit a stand-still again. My co2 tank ran out today too which wont help. I havea backup sodastream one which may tie me over until I get it re-filled.

The fish are great, thanks. The only thing I don't like is that is a shrimp is swimming around they will gang up on it and kill it.

 

[FishBeast]

I am still having difficulty getting the HC growing well... As far as I know I have got all the plants needs covered. The only thing I am thinking of is water quality. Everything that matters is on 0ppm. Although there are alot of dead shrimp and the odd fish that "dissapears". The only time I notice is when I see a school get smaller and I do a head count. The snails in the tank tend to clean up anything very fast I have noticed which I think explains it.

My problem is that I don't know why especially my shrimp keep dying and is this and the HC not growing may come down to something about the water.

 

[hensonc4098]

Any updates on this little beaut?