Jimbooo's Vision 450 Journal

[jimbooo]

soon as i can get some mate. there's a member offering me some at the moment so hopefuly soon.

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Hey Jimbo
Just wondering how many bags of substrate you went through to fill this thing? and how much CO2 you expect to use over a years timescale.

Chris

 

[Squid]

Rhinox arrived today for me jimbooo.. Just how fragile are these things? The sounds it makes as you rotate the tubing on the intake is a bit cringeworthy. Makes me feel like it's going to break like a supermodel in a breeze.

Squid

 

[jimbooo]

Hey Jimbo
Just wondering how many bags of substrate you went through to fill this thing? and how much CO2 you expect to use over a years timescale.

Chris

6 bags of ecocomplete plus some playsand. the ecocomplete covers 2/3 of the tank but is piled really high in parts so that amount should give you about 1.5 -2 inch depth if spread through out the tank. no idea on co2 i've done 3 2kg fe's so far as i had a leak lol. only fixed it and put a fresh bottle on about a week ago. i'm expecting 3 months at 5bps. most pressurised kits come with 500G bottles so the 2kg FE should last 4 times as long.

Rhinox arrived today for me jimbooo.. Just how fragile are these things? The sounds it makes as you rotate the tubing on the intake is a bit cringeworthy. Makes me feel like it's going to break like a supermodel in a breeze.

Squid

ha ha, yes be carefull another member almost lost a finger pulling the tube off one. the trick is to warm the co2 tube with hot water or a hairdryer then wet the diffuser to ease it on. dont rush it or it will hurt...lots. try to 9hold the diffuser by the tube not the buld when doing this or it will crack at the bend.

good luck old chap and good choice.

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Thanks, my 100 gallon is turning up on tuesday and i wanted a good idea of how much sub i am going to need to pile into it. Also its going to be planted so your article really is making my life easier. I can sit back and watch you iron out most of the kinks, lol.

Great Journal btw

Chris

 

[lljdma06]

It's great seeing pictures of the tank, Jimbooo. But I will argue on the side of the torpedo barbs rather than the angelfish. Breeding angelfish are agressive and your C. sterbai (at least that is what I think they are) have no regard for territory. They might be fine, but the angelfish may get upset and target the catfish. I've got Brochis and C. pulcher in a tank with angels, but I only have one breeding pair, and they are no longer breeding due to a pH climb in my tank when I removed the CO2.

Just keep in mind that you will have to up the O2 for the cyprinids. Danios too. Even corydoras appreciate the greater circulation.

On the flip side, tetras, otos, and angelfish all prefer the same temperature requirements, while some danios, loaches, and barbs really prefer slightly cooler temps. The cories you have, IMO can go either way, as C. sterbai is listed as a warmer water corydora, and is often used in discus tanks, but it will also do well in a standard tropical tank. Other corydoras, however, really prefer the cooler temperatures favored by some cyprinids.

Good call on not going with Discus. Besides the softer water, they also need much warmer temperatures, the low 80s (Farenheit) being quite common, and many of the common aquarium plants will not like that high a temperature for so long.

Beautiful tank. I love the arrangement of the harscape, it looks especially good with the myriophylum.

llj

 

[jimbooo]

Hi Lissette, Firstly i have to admit the angels are in already. i couldn't wait any longer and picked them up from the quarantine tank at the LFS this afternoon. they are settling in fine and have already started to peck away at the furry soft gray algae (like the id ) that has appeared on the hardscape. As to the other points i'm glad you mentioned those temp preferences, i'm not really that knowledgeable when it comes to fish, so i need all the help i can get lol.

The danio's are not staying. a colleague of mine just set up his first tank after i moved my 40G and 12G into the office. it's spreading lol. i spent quite a while teaching him the basics and have told him to use my mobile number as a 999 service 24/7 if he has any problems. When we bought his first fish...danio's, last Saturday he bought 5 and also bought 5 for me for my trouble. as i had nothing but 2 cory's in there i wanted some fish to keep the filter bacteria going so i said i'd put them in mine for a while then transfer to his tank once it's more mature.

The angels are babies at present so wont bother anything for a while. i bought 10 so i could almost guarantee to get a pair out of them. once they get bigger i may have to take some out as 10 adults may be a bit much for the tank size. i dont want a war zone in my living room!

Interesting what you say about the cory's and territory. i was going to get a group of 10 as i only have 2 now and they are definitely missing their buddies. they are far less active than before the disaster. wont the fact it will be heavily planted help. the angels shouldn't be able to get in amongst the plants the way i have set them out. they are very densely planted with little space anywhere for fish to squeeze in any where above the bottom 1/4 of the stems. the cory's can sit under the canopy so to speak in the shade. and escape any boisterous angels. I had these cory's in my 180 with the one male angel with no problems but obviously there was no spawning activity coming into play.

I'll get some pics up tomorrow night i dont want to turn all the lights on for pics tonight as the angels are rather shy still. best to let them settle in peace i think.

As to O2. wont the plants provide sufficient. i never have any surface agitation in my tanks. a lily pond springs to mind! because of my very hard water i have to pump much more co2 in than you would to get it up to the right level. any agitation and the problem gets worse. surely if my plants are pearling there will be enough O2 in the water for the fish

 

[lljdma06]

Couldn't wait, huh? What type did you opt for? I have two P. scalare of the wild-type. On my side of the pond, they are called silver angels. A stunning fish. Want pictures!

Yes, corydoras are kind of like mindless sheep. They will waltz into any part of the tank with little regard for inhabitants that may be territorial, namely a cichlid pair with eggs, in the quest for food. Cichlids are most aggressive when careing for eggs and young. If the tank is densly planted, then the catfish stand a chances, especially if there are more than two.

If the plants are pearling, then there is sufficient oxygen during the day, but what about at night, when both plants and animals consume O2? Do you run the CO2 at night?

Try me, how hard is your water? I gave up testing for gH after squirting 25 drops of the reactant into my water sample and I still didn't get a color change. That I can keep any plants at all is a miracle, especially now that I've stopped CO2 injection.

llj

 

[jimbooo]

they are the same type as the adult in my avatar. sorry i dont know the latin name. they were helpfully labeled as "angels" in the store lol - pics later tonight after a water change and clean up.

i have a solenoid so 4-5 bps co2 during the day, off at night. i see your point but i was kind of going on my experience with the rio180 that was setup exactly the same with a lot of fish in there and they never gasped at the surface. i'm often awake pretty much until sunrise (damn forum lol) and quite like to peer into the tank during lights off to check out the fish while they sleep and i have not ever seen them at the surface. i guess i could buy an O2 test kit and monitor it at different times. are they worth the effort in terms of a rough guide or are they too innacurate to bother with?

WOW that is hard water i though all your water over there was soft ?!? i've never had plant trouble with the water but i have managed to kill a few rams in my time. they last about 5 days then die. 3 pairs on 3 different occasions have gone the same way so i gave up trying for the sake of the fish.

 

[lljdma06]

WOW that is hard water i though all your water over there was soft ?!? i've never had plant trouble with the water but i have managed to kill a few rams in my time. they last about 5 days then die. 3 pairs on 3 different occasions have gone the same way so i gave up trying for the sake of the fish.

Not when your water table is buried in Coral rock. That is essentially what Miami, FL is over, a giant bed of crushed coral. They even sell it for reef tanks. See...

http/www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~CS0110.html

Can't make that claim for Bedfordshire, UK, huh?

My days of myriophylum and other soft water plants are very much over, unless I get a RO unit, and that ain't happening any time soon. Much to Sam's chagrine (he's an ecologist), I'd rather consider filtering with peat or use peat extract if I so desire to have a high-tech setup again. I even have to be careful where I get my fish. I'm forced to get them from local distributors or from places with a similar water quality, so they're at least acclimated to the hardness. I've had some breeding success, but that only came when I injected CO2 regularly.

llj

 

[jimbooo]

Hi All,

Well it's been an eventful week my regulator has sprung a leak so i need to arrange for a replacement from malaysia (ebay..Doh!) so luckily i had a nutrafin canister around and plugged it into the co2 hose for a temporary fix. after about 24 hours it started bubbling away nicely. i've bought some excel as well to dose daily until i get a new reg just to make sure i'm not running low on carbon.

The angels have settled in nicely i forgot what great lawn mowers they were, my wood was covered in a 1cm thick beard of fluffy algae all over it and after two days in the tank it's all completely gone. the angels and Otto's have slowly pecked it all away.

Plants are coming along well. the unnamed feathery plant at the back centre has adapted to underwater life rather nicely. see in the pic below the emersed light green growth in front and the submersed finer, red growth behind. i'm sure someone can give a positive id now. anyone care to step in.

The Madagascar Lace Plant is doing well

carpeting plants coming soon...watch this space...well that space..

Fish stock so far:

- 10 Juvenile Angelfish
- 7 Zebra Danios (temporary)
- 10 Otto's
- 20 Amano Shrinp
- 1 Bamboo Shrimp
- 2 Sterbai Cory's

And just for fun a video. sorry about the quality it's from my camera's movie mode.

CLICK HERE

 

[garuf]

the unidentified plant is parrots feather (unsure on its name) It's a horrible plant, super fast growing though!

 

[jimbooo]

the unidentified plant is parrots feather (unsure on its name) It's a horrible plant, super fast growing though!

why is it horrible whats wrong with it. lol

 

[garuf]

the unidentified plant is parrots feather (unsure on its name) It's a horrible plant, super fast growing though!

why is it horrible whats wrong with it. lol

it gets lanky and dies at the bottom, it grows so fast that it out competes everything.

 

[jimbooo]

Hi All. Time for an update.
My Aponogeton ulvaceus has been throwing out flowers for the past fortnight all over the place. i've never had anything flower before so this has been quite exciting.

i have just left the plants unpruned for a fortnight with a water change after a week. Still no replacement regulator so i have been surviving on one nutrafin canister plugged into my rinox. funnily enough it works surprisingly well.

I went to Sams "Themuleous" UKAPS meet last weekend and bought some new plants on our store trip. i realised the anubias i had in there was non aquatic as were the red stem plants in the right for ground so i have replaced these with hairgrass and another anubias.

I also bought 10 sterbai cory's from the goldfish bowl, oxford taking the stocking to 12. Here's the pics.

before prune

after