Jen's 90 Gallon Tank

[George Farmer]

Jungle massive! Good work Jen.

 

[pseud]

Jungle massive!

LOL!

 

[Jen]

Thanks for all the kind words folks. It means a lot.

I got back from my wonderful 2 weeks in the Dominican Republic this morning at 4am Not to happy about that. And now its all cold and dark here.

Anyway. The tank is a jungle, but I cant take any pics yet as my camera is full, and the batteries are dead. I think I am going to do some pruning and re-arranging in there in the upcoming months. Maybe removing one of the bits of wood and shifting it to the left and get a slopeing aquascape in there. It's just looking too full right now, and watching my fish today, they seem to be squeezing through the plants. But that will have to wait. I have too much else to get to, and I'm working far to much to get everything done!

Hope you have all had a great 2 weeks!

 

[Jen]

Update!

I hacked and cut and ripped and yanked. The tank was a jungle when I got back, and really needed a good prune. I still think I want to change things around in there, but I want to paint my bedroom first, something I've been thinking about for like a year now.

Anywho. Here it is now.

 

[AndyTaylor]

Your tank looks great, Jen. Good work....

 

[Jen]

Update!

I want to re-aquascape, but I need to wait a bit now. I was planning to re-home my fish for the few days in my old 35g tank. I've been trying to sell the tank for a while now, and haven't had any luck. Of course, on friday I get a responce from a new ad i put up, so I cant put the tank in use. I have a 10g that i have used in the past, but its on the small side, so I want to make sure they are in there as short a time as possible.

Here is the tank as of today. I had to do some pruning in there, and I'm making an new hood for the tank for a few reasons. Basically, I pulled a bunch of the echindorus from the middle, and tidied up the hydrocotyle verticillata in an attempt to get it to carpet. I need to get some really good tweezers... I may have to 'borrow' some from work... hospitals get the best stuff. lol.

 

[Jen]

Hey all. I pulled out the camera today and took a bunch of pictures, but not too many turned out well. I just can't get my fish to sit still. You would think they would have learned by now that when I pull the camera out they need to hold still for a few minutes. I guess I need to get on with the training. Sheesh. lol

So here's a full tank shot. I trimmed all the plants on the right since they were all scraggly at the bottom, and desperatly needed some attention.

And from the right to try and show the depth. It's so hard to tell from the front view how deep the tank is. There are so many plants in there that it's deceiving. My tiger lotus are sending off lots of little baby plants, so I'm happy about that, and I hope to imcorperate them in the new layout.

The only fish pic I was able to get was of my gold ancistrus. I don't know if he really is gold or albino, but I love all 3 of them. They are just starting to get their bristles now. So cute!

 

[onemisterchristian]

Tank looks great. So full. But for a second I thought that the towel on top of the hood in the top pic was a cat. Not a good, combination...maybe that's why you can't get a decent pic of your fish!
BTW what are the foreground plants that the ancistrus is cruising through

 

[Jen]

Lol. A cat on the hood sure would scare the fish away. The plant is calleds Hydrocotyle verticillata. I'm trying to get it to carpet now, and it seems to be doing quite well in the tank.

 

[prankster705]

Nice tank. What fish do you have in it, besides the 3 bristlenoses??

 

[Jen]

I have quite an assortment.

1 Rosey Barb
6 or 7 platties (there are a bunch of new fry in there somewhere)
2 Julii corries
3 SAE's
2 zebra danios
3 Black Neon tetras
3 Otos
3 Gold bristle nose plecs
1 CAE

I think that's all of them.

 

[IovaykInD]

Did any of them ever get lost and never come back?

I would get lost in that massive jungle if I were a fish, no doubt.

 

[Jen]

Just thought I would post a picture of the new fish I have added to the tank. I got them yesterday from Fish Buddy. 7 beautiful rosey barbs to add to the one lonely guy I had in there(the pretty bright orange one!).

Once these guys are settled in a bit, I will be getting some Angels from my uncle. I was going to buy some from Fish Buddy as well, but my uncle has had this pair spawn every 2 weeks, so he has a ton to give to his favourite niece for free!

 

[love cichlids]

2 zebra danios. You need more at least 3 more, they school together. Love your tank. The angelfish will look beautiful in there.

 

[Jen]

I did some work in my tank last night. I haven't been happy with my Echinodorus angustifolius for a long time, but had no good reason to pull it. I would have been left with a giant bare spot, with nothing to put there. My Hydrocotyle verticillata has just been taking off in the front there, carpeting just like I hoped it would. So last night I pulled up 90% of the e. angustifolius. I then pulled up the nice carpet of h. verticillata, snipped the runners into individual plantlets and re-planted. It took me a good hour, but I know it will look great in a month or so when it gets thicker. I did the same a while back with a small patch to see what would happen and I couldnt believe how nice it looked.

My red Tiger lotus has also taken off in the tank. I has originally purchased 2 small plants, with about 6 leaves no taller than 4 inches. Now, each of those plants have sent off at least 1 runner, and I have like 5 monster plants getting to be about 12 inches with like 20 leaves. I cut one of the runners and re-planted it more in the middle to add a splash of red in front of the amazon sword.

I also followed Georges lead and moved my filter outlet on the verticle. I have been thinking of this for about a month now, and when I heard that he was thinking it, I figured I wasn't nuts for wanting to do it, so I followed suit. I must say I like the current change... it just goes round and round. I didn't have much chance to see how the fish reacted to it. They seemed to like swimming against the spray bars current. I'm really hoping that this will help to get some of the gunk off the sand that seems to accumulate around my sword and the val in the back left corner. And it's great because, 1. you dont see it as much, and 2. when my water drops towards the end of the week, I won't be hearing the noise of the water dropping. I keep the hood open, and no glass on it, so I getquite a bit of evaporation on the tank.

So anyway, here are some pictures. The tank in whole (I went a bit overboard on the val's haircut). Take a look at that tiger lotus on the right... the tank is 24 inches deep... the thing it a monster!

The tiger in the middle now.

A chunk of my Hydrocotyle verticillata carpeting (and a cute little bn plec enjoying the cover),

One bit of my H. verticillata pearling, she's a bit covered in spot algae, but im working on correcting that.

One of my handsome black neon tetras. I love these guys.

I really wish I could take pictures that looked anywhere as good as the tank does, but it's hard when I have to be so far away for a whole tank shot (I mean... the tank is 5 feet long...)