Jungle Scape

[coldcazzie]

Thought I should probably do one of these, keep track of where I'm up to with the tank.

Tank Stats:
Juwel Rio 240
Dimensions: 47.5(w) x 16(d) x 21(h) inches (actual swimming space is 16 inches),
Substrate: 1 inch of JBL Aquabasis, 2 inches of Argos playsand,
Decor: 10 pieces of bogwood ranging in size from 3 inches long to about 14 inches long.
Filtration: APS 2000EF.
Lighting: 1x 40w T8 & 1x 38W T8 on timer, comes on at 2.30pm, goes off at 10pm.
Plants: Straight vallis, anubias nana, java moss, christmas moss, java fern, some kind of stem plant and some kind of rosette plant, possibly a sword? (any help with these two would be great - they are on the left of the tank in the last few pictures)
Stocking: 8 Rummy Nose Tetras, 1 Lace Gourami, 3 baby Starlight Bristlenose



History:
Back when I swore I would never have live plants:

Then I relented and got some,

and also began the battle with the cyanobacteria:

We moved house just before Christmas so I changed substrate while the tank was broken down:

Since then I have bought some more pieces of bogwood, more plants etc, so this is how it currently looks (as of yesterday):

Next thing to do
Make my spray bar longer. As you can see in the previous photos the spray bar currently takes up about half of the tank width. At first I put it along the left side, but in an effort to improve the circulation I moved it yesterday. Now I want to make it longer so that it is the length of the tank. My mum has given me some pipe from her garden irrigation system along with an end bit:

the plan is to attach this to the out pipe from the filter and drill holes along the length to make a much larger spray bar that is not prone to cracking or snapping like the sections that came with the APS filter. Wish me luck!

 

[coldcazzie]

Newest addition to the tank: a new spray bar, built by moi

1st I straightened the pipe by tying/taping it to a bamboo cane and pouring a kettle-full of boiling water down it, then allowing to cool:

Then I used the spray bar pieces from the APS filter to guide me as to how far apart to drill the holes, and drilled holes along the length of the pipe:

Finally, I attached the end piece (you just fold the end over and push the end stop bit over it to stop it unfolding), and installed it in the tank. As you can see, my spray bar now goes all the way across the back of the tank, and circulation is improved (in terms of how even it is, it's still not reaching all the plants though)

Next step: purchase a Resun 2000 or 2.

 

[ian]

nice spray bar Cazzie. The tank looks loads better!

There is only one thing i would change on that tank, and it would be the background. A nice plain black backing would finish that off perfectly.

 

[coldcazzie]

Yes, that is on my list of things to do. Nearly did it yesterday - the background half fell off and I debated pulling it off completely, until I realised we have no black bin liners, only white ones! So it'll have to wait until I have another roll of black bin liners!

Got my fingers crossed we (myself and hubby) receive an email in the next couple of weeks saying that the insurance company has settled and then I can really go to town on the tank! For the moment though, little bits and pieces will have to do.

 

[lljdma06]

Much better looking. Will look very nice with the black background.

 

[coldcazzie]

I am pleased to tentatively report that since replacing the short spray bar with the longer spray bar the BGA is in decline!
Since changing the spray bar I've done 1 water change, after changing it it took noticably longer to regrow compared to before, but had definitely grown back within a week. I did a water change last weekend and there is little to no growth by today!
Been hubby's birthday today so no fishie stuff - roast lunch, birthday cake and beers a plenty but no fishie stuff! Tomorrow will do a water change and see how things go. Seems to be that better circulation has done the job for me!

 

[Jamepsss]

Seems to be that better circulation has done the job for me!

And for me as well

Your tank looks great, nice idea with the spray bar.

 

[coldcazzie]

So today I did a 65% water change, very little BGA to speak of, although there is still some on the sand at the front. Odd, but it doesn't grow in places where there is worse circulation (behind wood etc), but instead in the big clear space at the front of the tank. Anyway, it's barely there now, so fingers crossed it's completely gone in the next couple of weeks.

I trimmed off some bad looking leaves from the anubias, and split the plant on the right side of the tank onto 2 pieces of wood on the left side:

Hoping the one in the middle will grow as it only has 1 bad leaf on it, the other got cut off. But it does have an excellent root structure so maybe that will compensate?

These are what the bad leaves look like on the anubias:

They were like that when I got them from another forum member, who said his BN has been eating them, is that an accurate assessment of the problem? I though BNs didn't eat anubias? Compare those leaves to new growth:

 

[JoshuaA]

I love what you've done with this tank. I can't really comment on the BN as I've never had one but I always assumed most of the smaller fish don't touch anubias due to their tough leaves, though I may be wrong. Once again, love what you've done with it though.

 

[coldcazzie]

Right, having done some reading up and debating with myself over the past few days, I think I want to change the layout to a triangle shaped layout - I really love the triangle scapes, so I'd definitely like to have a go at that. I just can't decide whether to have the triangle from the left or from the right

I also want to change the planting slightly. Reason being, my gourami has not been happy since changing the filter from a couple of internals (with current that was easy to avoid) to an external with a spray bar, especially since I changed it to the longer one (which means he cannot avoid the current at all!), and I have a tank currently sitting outside in the garden, which I want to turn into a SE Asian Blackwater Biotope, into which will be planted all my crypts along with nymphaea and some floating plants (and into which will move the gourami, possibly the smallest of my BNs until it gets a bit bigger, and then will add some khuli loaches and possible some smaller gouramis).

That tank would obviously have it's own journal, but removing the crypts will free up space for some other plants in here, and changing the scape to a triangle will mean a reassessment of planting anyway. I am considering the option of getting rid of the stems completely, but haven't made up my mind about that. Might keep them, but thin the numbers out a bit and add 2 other types of tall plants?

Once the scape has changed there will also be an increase in rummy noses and then another kind of fish added too, just can't decide what yet.

Many plans

 

[coldcazzie]

Well, since posting last a couple of things have changed.

Firstly, my pearly gourami died. I am not very surprised about this, he hasn't been right since he flipped himself out of the bucket when we moved 4 months ago, and spent a good few minutes on the floor, before being dragged across it so he could be returned to the water (he had flipped himself under the tank stand). Anyway, he vanished a few days ago and I found the body yesterday during w/c. Still planning on doing my Biotope but will just centre around different gouramis.

Secondly, I rehomed some cardinal tetras and harlequin rasboras from Monty-2010, not entirely sure on numbers yet as they were hard to count in the bucket and I haven't had the light on since they went in (6.30pm last night). Anyway, the cardinals will stay in this tank and the harlequins will move to the Biotope when it's set up.

I only did a small w/c yesterday, just to remove poop before adding the new fish. I have been a bit lax on the waterchanges recently (some things got in the way - shant go into those, this is not the place!) and my water is looking a bit tannin stained. Am keeping an eye on Ammonia (12hr test showed 0ppm ) but I think I will do some more regular water changes for a couple of weeks, just to make sure no mini cycle occurs. I wouldn't bother with fewer fish but I have more than doubled my stocking! Anyway, to the point. I will do some small changes alongside some of these w/cs, but I will be leaving the larger scaping changes until the new fish have settled in a bit more.

 

[coldcazzie]

Well, yesterday I changed the background to black bin liners, but can't put pictures up as photobucket is broken.

I think I like it, but I don't like the wrinkly bin liner effect, so I might buy a proper background or paint the back wall with black paint. Just for the record, the kids hate it!

And the numbers are 11 cardinals and 6 harlequins. Receiving some RCS from AC tomorrow, and some MTS from Kitty Kat either tomorrow or Thursday so looking forward to the tank having a bit more life in it! It's been so empty for so long I forgot what it was like to have lots of fish and I've missed it!

 

[coldcazzie]

Finally pb is working so here's the pictures:

no background:

with bin liner background on: (during the day so not great pic)

later on in the evening so better pic, full tank shot:

and I was trying to get a pic of the cardinals, wbecause they're very skittish:

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Nice, that Star Grass looks awesome.

 

[c-dub]

Looks so much better now well done!

Juwel Rio 240? Looks bigger than that nice!