My 1St Planted Tank In A Rio 180 ... Going Low-Tech

[thefubar]

Noob here and i wanted to share my experience so far with moving from a 2 foot Clearseal tank into my new (well 2nd-hand) Jewel Rio 180.
I love threads with loads of pics too, so i'm going to keep this one fairly stacked with pics too

Old Tank:
2' Clearseal with TetraTec Ex700, Rena SmartHeater, One Old T8 light tube, Black/White Gravel, Moss Ball and attempt at java fern on wood and java moss on wood plus some Vallis which has been chomped on by:
2x Clown Loach
1 Giant Danio
1 Lonely Neon Tetra
2 Penguin Tetra
3 Black Neon Tetra

Shiny New exciting Jewel Rio 180 fish tank:
39" 40 Gal with tetraTec Ex700, Rena Smartheater, 2x24W Arcadia Over-tank luminere, Pool Filter sand substrate, Moss ball split in two, delivery of THESE PLANTS due 21/05 and replanted Vallis, accompanied by:
1 Giant Danio
1 Still lonely Neon Tetra
2 Penguin Tetra
3 Black Neon Tetra

So this is the tank in place with some sand stacked up

I spread out the sand and added about 25% water and put my spare heater in to start heating it up

A switched over my mature TetraTec Ex700 to the new tank and ran that for a few days and ran tests. Ammonia and Nitrite were 0 and Nitrate was 15 (Thames water comes out at 15) and added my smallest fish and planted the Vallis.

So far that is as far as i have got. I have sold my Clown Loach to a local fish keeper who has a much larger tank and other clowns so i am really happy about that.
After my plants have had a chance to settle in and i have done a water change and tests i am going to add some shrimp to the tank. Not sure which ones or how many yet anyone got some suggestions??

Thanks for looking

 

[aaronnorth]

shrimp specie: http/www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html

tank looks brand new!

 

[thefubar]

shrimp specie: <a href="http/www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html" target="_blank">http/www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html</a>

tank looks brand new!

Thanks for the site suggestion. They really have covered their shrimp! It looks as though because its my first time shrimper i'll go for the red cherry and pick some up from the people in the classified in this forum.

I bought 3 more pieces of bog wood today to complement the planted setup so i'm going to be soaking them until the plants arrive. I've had the tea-stained water in the past and it was a pain in the "all-day-pass"

I'll take some pictures later and post them up.

I've also got an extra piece of sponge filter to go over the Rena heater intake to stop the shrimp getting sucked into the external filter.

 

[bagu]

awww the clown loaches

 

[youngfisher]

Looking forward to following this thread .

 

[thefubar]

awww the clown loaches

My boys get collected tomorrow night and its going to be horrible to see them go. Hopefully the impending arrival of plants and shrimp will soften the blow and force my attention elsewhere.

Looking forward to following this thread .

Great to have you on board guv.


I have been giving some thought to a long term "Fish-List" and have put this together:
180l/47 Gal tank

15 Cherry Shrimp (more if they breed well!)
10 Cardinal Tetra
Either 10 Black Neon or 10 Blue Emporer Tetra
4/6 Sterbai Crydoras
4/6 Otos but haven't looked at which ones.

I would ideally carry on increasing the Cardinals where possible too. I was hoping for these numbers over a period of 6/9 months, not 6/9 weeks! made that boo-boo in the past too.

Would that be my limit? would you suggest anything different? any obvious clashes or problems in there? Thanks as ever

 

[thefubar]

Another step forward with the tank progress...

Plants arrived today from Java. I am really impressed with how much is there for the money. Just want to see how they establish and grow.
I have started adding ferts and easy-carbo now so the water should be prime for them. Here is how it looks planted up.

I am picking up some cherry shrimp tomorrow to add to the tank (about a dozen) from one of the members from the forum, i'm really excited it'll be my first ever shrimp. I will either do a 25% water change sunday or monday and do some tests to make sure the chemistry is all stable.
Won't be long before a few extra inmates will be joining the fun!

 

[bagu]

looks fantastic!

 

[thefubar]

looks fantastic!

Thanks, i am really happy with it at the moment. I did my water tests and Nitrite and Ammonia were both 0 and Nitrates were 20. I will be adding some cardinals first, may even be tomorrow if i get all my jobs done!

Bit worried that one of my Penguin Tetra has started to dominate the "open water" in the front of the tank and has become very territorial. He keeps nipping the other fish that come anywhere near that space.

Which i find strange because when there were no plants/bogwood they all shoaled together round the tank. Penguins, Black Neons and Neon.

 

[RadaR]

Well done. You've created a great tank. A pair of Bolivian Rams would look great in there.

 

[azzaknight]

it lloks very lovely and green atm. you should add some more plants to make a " jungle " look. land your final stocking list looks fine too me. you could add a pair of apistosgramma or a pair or rams.

 

[thefubar]

Well done. You've created a great tank. A pair of Bolivian Rams would look great in there.

it lloks very lovely and green atm. you should add some more plants to make a " jungle " look. land your final stocking list looks fine too me. you could add a pair of apistosgramma or a pair or rams.

Just had a look at some pics and they do look great. I'll have a look at LFS next time i'm there (which will probably be tomorrow for some cardinals). I found one picture of an apisto and it looked outrageously flamboyant!

Thanks very much for the comments. The plants have only just gone in so i'll wait and see what survives in the chemistry and what doesn't and then have a look round for suitable alternatives. I want to keep that central "open water", so my main idea is to find a good foreground ground cover.

I'm a bit concerned there seems to be a build up in algae already. But i'm changing water tomorrow and hopefully the shrimp will begin to get brave and help out.

 

[thefubar]

I'm a bit concerned there seems to be a build up in algae already. But i'm changing water tomorrow and hopefully the shrimp will begin to get brave and help out.

First things first...let me introduce my new cherry shrimp. Water changed = braver shrimp.

I have made a couple of changes to the tank. I now have 12 hours with lights on and i am looking into either increasing my profito fert dosing or combining with another fert to help the plants, as most have started to wilt/droop already.

I'll have a search around to see whether anyone has some good ideas, all suggestions are always appreciated.

 

[thefubar]

Latest picture of the aquarium setup.

I had a chat with some people at Planted Tank and they said striaght away to decrease my lights and increase my carbo. So i am now on a 7 hour photoperiod and i've increased from 3.6ml of Easy Carbo per day to 5.4ml per day. I am hoping to see an improvement in the overall quality of the plants in the next 7/10 days, else i will increase again and look to use some of the other suggestions.

 

[azzaknight]

looks good, whats with the pins in the wood on the righthand side??