Llj's 8g Nano Journal

[Themuleous]

Love it, love it my only comment would be the glosso, I think its to tall, pushes the perspective of the tank out, well to me anyway, you may not agree!

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Love it, love it my only comment would be the glosso, I think its to tall, pushes the perspective of the tank out, well to me anyway, you may not agree!

Sam

What's odd about the glosso is that it's both tallish and carpeting, if that's possible? I think I just need to trim it down, that's all. The leaves are huge for glosso. Growing very well other-wise. It was a great batch, still can't believe it's from PetSupermarket!

The rotala Simon, is just regular Rotala rotundifolia. Mature plants for me always blush that darker salmon color. Really lovely, I like it. The plant's a washed-out pink when I get it from Aquariumplants.com then the bottom leaves turn green and the top third that salmon color.

Here's a break down of the plant species.

Heteranthera zosterfolia (plant on right), Myriophyllum aquaticum, Rotala rotundifolia, Barclaya longifolia, Glossostigma elatinoides, Anubia barteri var. nana, Anubia gracilis, Bolbitis heudelotii, Christmas moss. Fish: 1 Trichopsis pumilus, 3 Barbus (Puntius) titteya.

 

[lljdma06]

Hehe, added a few more cherry barbs, and now the first ones are coming out into the open. They were hiding a bit too much before. Now, it's much better. Probably over-stocked, but cherry barbs produce such minimal waste, I change 50% of the water each week, and I only feed every other day or so. The salmon of the cherry barbs plays with the salmon of the rotala, a nice touch, I think. The plant species create such a delicate look that I didn't want to have too gaudy a fish. That ruled guppies out. The tank is also quite a bit cooler, around 74 degrees, nice for some of the barb species and the mosses.

Just thought I'd give a teeny-weeny update. I'll post a few photos in the members section perhaps. It would be fun.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Wowww...so lush! And it's not even a week old! !!!
That's really lovely, lookin' forward for your bolbitis to fill out some more. They're lovely plants, but is unfortunately too big for my 4 gallon lol

Thanks FKNM! That's appreciated!

Unfortunately bad batch of cherry barbs. Tested for ammonia, zip, nitrites zip, plants are doing their job. No signs of disease, nothing. They just died on me. Stupid cherry barbs. No chemicals are used in my room. Thinking it's just a bad group. Started a round of antibiotics just to be safe, but I lost all but two and those were from a different store. The others were all from the same store, bad batch. May try again, may move the last two to the 20g and opt for a small tetra, like glow-lights when the round of antibiotics is over.

Had green water and normal "new tank" green algae stuff. Blackout took care of the problem. Nothing really nasty yet. Keeping my fingers crossed and will try to post pictures a bit later. Glosso survived the black out without a problem.

Just a quickie update for you.

 

[Themuleous]

Looking forward to the pics

 

[Alps]

Did you ever notice how waste cherries generate? Maybe it's just mine, but they are big time pigs and poo like there's no tomorrow.

 

[lljdma06]

Did you ever notice how waste cherries generate? Maybe it's just mine, but they are big time pigs and poo like there's no tomorrow.

Now that you mention it, I never saw them poo and that may have been the problem. Damaged batch. They are relatives of the goldfish, you know, big poopers! I'll leave the pair alone and perhaps get a small school of harlequins to round out the tank. Love harlequins. I wish they had the dwarf rasboras, but no one carries them here.

Greenwater is almost gone on this one too. Tank is actually clear again, which is nice. I hate it cloudy. I hacked up the scape a little bit, but it'll grow back. The zosterfolia and rotala needed to be replanted after the blackout. Glosso needs to be trimmed, but I'd rather let it grow a bit before I trim. It survived the blackout without a problem. The anubias, moss, and African fern are growing quite fast! This tank is tricky. it has 3WPG and is a challenge to keep stable. It allows none of the flexibility of lighting that the 20g allows. EI is a definite yes for this tank, but until I get the fish-stocking I want, I don't want to mess with it. The nutrient needs of the plants may be filled with the fish load, laterite, and CO2 injection, and only trace may need to be dosed. I say it again, nanos are HARD! Don't let them be your first tank. I'm being stubborn with this one and will stick to my guns and not strip it down.

Side angle from right before the greenwater took hold, about 2 weeks ago, something like that.

Side view, like this picture, surviving male cherry barb featured. The male in the back died.

Surviving female cherry barb. I think glosso is pearling.

Front view. Pruned quite a bit and will trim glosso next week. This is the current picture after the blackout.

Thanks for looking,

llj

 

[Themuleous]

This is definitely my favorite of the two tanks, and can honestly say it looks totally stunning how you've made it look in the first photo. The shape is very, very ADA/CAU, most cool Llj, most cool

 

[lljdma06]

This is definitely my favorite of the two tanks, and can honestly say it looks totally stunning how you've made it look in the first photo. The shape is very, very ADA/CAU, most cool Llj, most cool

That is really sweet, Sam. Thanks for the extreme complement.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

How the heck did I miss this one?

That's really lovely, LLJ! The pink ones (rotala?) look great, their tips almost look like flowers I like the second photo too...kinda an artsy shot

That's totally ok. It only means that you have a life and I don't.

I like this layout a lot, the zosterfolia is filling in the back towards the bubble ladder and I extended the myriophylum more to the left to replace the barclaya I took out. Moved the barclaya over to the 20g. Its leaves were too big. The rotala do look like flowers, that's the idea.

A cherry barb jumped shipy Yesterday. One of my females, which stinks. Just lost another black neon, the last from the batch from the stock day purchase, see below. I'm not having much luck with cherry barbs or black neons. I don't know when stock comes in at FL stores yet, so when I purchased my first batch of black neons, I made the mistake of going and buying fish on their stock day. I didn't know that was the day! Who stocks on a Tuesday? They died like right after or a few days later and nothing is wrong with my water. At least I got my money back, except for the one that just died. I still have two of the original batch of black neons from that store, but they were in a separate tank at the store and had been there for a week or more. My serpaes and corydoras are great, spawning even. Found eggs a few days ago. So now I have to ask the LFS when they get stock and then come the day before, when I know that the fish there have been thre at least a week or so. It's a bit of a crap shoot as to what fish are available but I'd much rather deal with fish that have survived a week at the store and the rigors of shipping. I'll take my chances on two more black neons(from a different store) and one more cherry barb, and then I'm done with those fish. Now, for plants, you have to come the day the stock arrives, so it's confusing. This paragraph is confusing.

Sorry for the ramble. This has been a bit of an adjustment. I'll see how the tank looks this week and maybe I'll post a few shots.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Stay tuned for a jungle overhaul. Expect many dense plants, ugly weeds, algae busters. I will try and make the tank look presentable, but that is not the goal at this time. Tank health is.

 

[lljdma06]

The overhaul was about two weeks ago. The ICH from the 20g didn't effect this tank, though I still dosed for a few days. I'm down to a pair of cherry barbs and 1 oto for this tank, the rest didn't do well with the Rid-ICH+. I reduced the photo period to about 9 hours with no break. The CO2 setup is the same as in the 20g, and I also added an extra filter to this tank. Today, I woke up and the water wasn't hazy and greenish, but I did a water change just to be safe, though not as large of one. Once I return from my cruise, I may get a male trio of guppies or just a single specimen to add some color and activity to the tank, but it's not pressing.

Some pictures for you.





Thanks for looking. Comments are always appreciated.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Another healthy looking tank you got there Llj what are your plans now you've got it up and running ok?

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Another healthy looking tank you got there Llj what are your plans now you've got it up and running ok?

Sam

Thanks Sam. Woke up again this morning and the tank is clear, so I think it's going to be ok. As to my plans for it, well it seems that one of my otos in my 20g is a big, fat, egg-laden female! You can actually see the eggs in her. My other two otos are male. The temptation is to move the female oto to this tank and move the cherry barbs to the 20g, and have a go at some oto love. I hear they are hard to breed. But I doubt I'd try anything until after my vacation in September. Or leave the cherry barbs and breed them. The 8g seems a nice tank for breeding some of the smaller species of fish, and the jungle look seems to put them at ease. Of course, I could change my mind tomorrow.

 

[Themuleous]

I read a thread from someone not so long ago who had managed to breed them, think you're right its not common in the aquarium. But if you can that would be great

Of course, I could change my mind tomorrow.

Sounds about right